Welcome to God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in Morning Sun, Iowa. Check us out online at www.sharonrpc.org. We pray that this message will be a blessing to you and that the Lord will use it to transform your faith and your life. Well, this morning we will be looking at Mark chapter 11, verses 27 through 33. Mark chapter 11, verses 27 through 33. If you're using your Pew Bibles, the New King James Bibles in front of you, you'll find that on page 895. Mark chapter 11, beginning at verse 27. Remember what's happened preceding, right? This is one big story. Jesus has healed blind Bartimaeus. He's gone up the windy road from Jericho over the Mount of Olives. He's entered into Jerusalem as the triumphant king. He's withered the fig tree. He's overthrown the money changers' tables. He's driven out those who are selling the animals. And now He comes back. into the temple, into Jerusalem. Mark chapter 11, beginning at verse 27. This is God's Word. Then he came again to Jerusalem. And as he was walking in the temple, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders came to him. And they said to him, by what authority are you doing these things? And who gave you this authority to do these things? But Jesus answered and said to them, I also will ask you one question, then answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John, was it from heaven or of men? You tell me." And they responded amongst themselves, saying, if we say from heaven, he will say, why then do you not believe him? But if we say from men, they feared the people. For all counted John to have been a prophet indeed. So they answered and said to Jesus, we do not know. And Jesus had answered and said to them, neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things. Brothers and sisters, the grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever. Let's pray. Father, we thank You for Your Word. And we plead with You this morning that Your Holy Spirit would instruct us, that You would help us not to just read a cute story, but that Your Holy Spirit would apply the truth of it to our hearts. That You would change our eternities. That we would love You more. In Jesus' name, Amen. I have a fear as I look at our American culture that authoritarianism is on the rise. People want authority. People want power. People want control. Whether that's big institutions like the government, or different guilds of workers and unions, Or whether that's strong men who want to rise up and rule other people's lives. Or whether it's the type of insidious or insipious individualism that declares to the whole world, I don't care what you say, I'm my own authority and I'm going to do what I want to do. And you have no right over me. There's a type of authoritarianism in our country that's really full of pride. And it was the same thing in Jesus' day. People vying for power. People wanting control. People wanting their own kingdoms. And this is where we find ourselves here in verse 27. When Jesus comes back into Jerusalem, quite a bold thing to do. Right? Jesus has just created a whip, driven out the people selling stuff. He's just overchanged the money changers' tables, and you can imagine people are waiting for Him. And Jesus knows this. He walks into the temple, and He's immediately faced head-on with three different types of people. You have the chief priests. They're in charge of this whole shindig going on. They were the ones who authorized the money changers to be there. You have the scribes. The people who are the experts in the Law, who knew all the different ins and outs of the Torah and the Prophets. The essentially religious authorities by the Law. And then you have the leading men, the elders. Guys who are renowned and lifted up to this high place in Jerusalem, connected to the Temple, is the Sanhedrin. It's literally a place that for hundreds of years had been used by the Jewish people, where 71 elders would get together and they would decide different cases. And by decide different cases, I mean sometimes it was life and death. This person committed this crime and they deserve the death penalty. And at different times in the history of Israel, the Sanhedrin's power would go up and go down, depending on who was in power. During the time of Ezra, they were in a lot of power. But then as you go on, you find during the Maccabees, well, it's more like a kingdom, and so the king has more power and he tries to put down this council of leaders. But then when he's out of the way and the Greeks come, they have more power again, because the Greeks give it the leadership of the nation to the priests. the elders, and the scribes again. And this goes this way back and forth, up and down, up and down, up and down in power, until you come to the point where they're really in power by the time you have about 30 something AD, or BC, sorry, you have Herod the Great, and the Romans have really just kind of said Jerusalem is going to be run by the Sanhedrin. The Jewish people, when they have disputes, we don't want to really get too much involved in it. It's going to be the Sanhedrin. And so, that's what they do. They run the roost. They do the thing. But up comes this young general named Herod. And Herod is a power-hungry man. You don't have to see much further than Matthew chapter 1 and 2, where he's killing the innocent children because he wants to keep hold of his power. And it's Herod the Great, when he puts someone to death, that the Sanhedrin likes, they call him to court. The Sanhedrin says, no, you need to come here. Because you've put an innocent man to death. Guess how well that goes over with Herod. 45 members of the Sanhedrin are murdered by Herod the Great. And so, Herod is really suspicious of anybody else who has any other power and tries to push this leadership down. And finally, in about 6 AD, when Jesus is still just a very young boy, Herod dies and the Roman governance changes. It comes under governors, or we'll just call them governors. This is what Pontius Pilate was. And under this system, it was more like a split power. The Romans would decide some things, but they left a lot of other things to this rule of the elders, the scribes, and the high priests, especially the temple. What happened in the temple, now they chose who ran the temple, but what happened in the temple was the scribes, the high priests especially, and the elders prerogative. And so these leaders who have been fighting, gnawing, trying to get power back, I mean, this is like hundreds and hundreds of years they've been trying to make sure they stay in power. Now Jesus walks onto the scene in Jerusalem, and what does He do? He puts a death blow to their power. Their system, their influence, their teaching is in jeopardy. If Jesus comes in and he's able to overthrow all their teaching, what they've said is supposed to happen, what does that mean for their rule in the temple? That's right. It's going to end. And so they have a question. By what authority are you doing these things? And who gave you this authority to do these things? Let me just say, if your mom walks in the room and she says, what makes you think you're allowed to do this? This is not a happy question. This is a, we got some fighting words for you, buddy. Explain yourself right now. There's this dispute. It's a long history. They want power. What are you doing? Who in the world do you think you are? Who gave you right to do this? They're proud and they want control. They're missing what this is about. It's not that they didn't have legitimacy. It's not that the people shouldn't have had elders. It's not that there weren't supposed to be high priests. It wasn't that being a scribe was an evil thing. But they turned their positions that were meant to glorify God and serve the people into serving themselves. And having control. And wanting their own authority. They're too blinded by what they have to see who's right in front of them. The Messiah. Jesus says, okay, I'll play your game. You want to ask questions? I got one question for you. Got one question for you. What about John the Baptist? By whose authority was John baptizing people out in the desert? Was it just him? No. Or was it of heaven? Waiting for it. Yes. Yes, it's of heaven, right? Jesus asked this question. Is it of men or is it of heaven? Was John the Baptist just out there doing a cute thing out by the Jordan that they were just okay with? Just ignored? Or had God authorized a prophet to call his people to repentance? Countless people, countless people went out, and they believed that he was a prophet. They believed that he had been sent by God to call people back to repentance, but there's no miracles that attest to this. Other than John's father being put mute, and him being born from a mom who was old, John himself didn't do any miracles. So all the people had was going off of what He said, the life He lived, and the sign He had. And they believed Him. People believed His words. But see, the leaders are put into a dilemma. And then they gotta deliberate with themselves, and eventually they're just gonna defer it off. I really, one of my favorite things, this doesn't really happen in good baseball, unless maybe you're watching the Cardinals and maybe it will happen, but a pickle. I love when people get put in a pickle. Do you know what a pickle is? When somebody's caught between second base and third base, or between first base and second base, between one of two bases, and the runner tries to run, and he's not going to outrun the throw, and so he's caught. Do I run back or do I run forward? This is what they're caught between. Right? Was it from God or was it from heaven? And they start to discuss, whisper amongst themselves, man, if we run back to second base, if we say it was from heaven, then he's going to ask us why we didn't believe. But if we run to third base, then we're also going to be out, because what's going to happen? Then he's going to say, well, then why didn't you believe him? But the people are going to be mad, and then they're going to say... And so what do they do? Imagine you're caught in a pickle in a baseball game, and you stand between second and third, and you go, I don't know. What's going to happen? Do you win? No, you're still out. You're going to get tagged out and that's what Jesus does. He shows them the ludicrousness of what they're doing. They don't actually want to go for truth. They're disingenuous in their own question to begin with. They don't actually want to hear from Jesus. They just want to trap Him and Jesus shows them what's actually going on. John Calvin wrote on this, and I don't normally quote a lot, but I thought this was really good. He says on this passage, that the leaders do not inquire what is true, nor do they put the question to their own consciences, as they are so base as to choose, rather to shuffle than to acknowledge what they know to be true, that their tyranny may not that their tyranny may not be impaired. In this manner, all wicked men, though they pretend to be desirous of learning, shut the gates of truth if they feel it to be opposed to their wicked desires." They don't actually want the truth. They would rather shuffle around to try to get out of trouble with either the crowd or with their own consciences than to actually deal with the honest question. But see, this is exactly where Mark had actually started this gospel. Jesus isn't just like a raccoon jumping into a creek to get the scent off of the bloodhounds behind him, right? This isn't a diversion tactic. What Mark is doing here is specifically tying us back to chapter 1. See, because there was one time In which God Himself was the one who tells us by His Spirit that it was John who was sent before Jesus to prepare the way for Him. And there was one miracle. There was one baptism that was different than all the other baptisms. John was commissioned by God to prepare the way for Jesus. And in Mark chapter 1, we find when Jesus is baptized, something different happens. The Holy Spirit descends upon Him as like a dove, and a voice from heaven calls out, this is my beloved Son. With you, I am well pleased. Who is Jesus' authority from? Did He just make it up? Is He just there on His own authority in Jerusalem, or did He come with the authority from heaven? Did He come with the authority of God Himself? This has already been answered again in Mark chapter 9 verse 7, right? We're jumping into a late part of the story, but the disciples have already seen Jesus with their own eyes, transfigured like blinding light. And even there, the Father spoke from heaven, this is my beloved Son, listen to Him. Jesus has authority from heaven. Jesus has the authority to judge the temple because He is the Lord of the temple. Jesus has authority that they actually don't have. Jesus doesn't play games. And the rulers could have answered honestly. Think about it. The chief priests, the elders, the scribes, could have played the man. They could have said, we don't believe he was from heaven, and dealt with the crowds. But at least they would have been honest. Maybe some of them were thinking, I don't know, maybe he was. from heaven. Maybe his authority and his baptism did come from heaven and they could have honestly dealt with the criticism of their friends around them. But instead they've chose the way of a coward. But right here, at this point in the text, this was written for people in Rome when Peter was preaching to deal with this themselves. And it's given to us today to ask ourselves, who do you think Jesus is? Is this all just make-believe fable? Does this tell us an accurate truth of historical events? Was Jesus actually baptized? Did they actually hear God's voice? Were the disciples on some type of psychopathic trance that just made them imagine Jesus glowing up like a glow doll somewhere? Or did these things actually happen? And I'm calling you today to work in your heart to actually ask yourself, do you believe that this is who Jesus really is? That He has that authority from God the Father? That He is your Lord? I gotta tell you, there's something refreshing when I meet somebody who's honest with me. I love it. When I get on a plane, or when I'm talking to someone at some random place, and they just tell me, no, I'm not a Christian, and I don't believe any of the junk that you try to shove down people's throat. And I think, wow, here's an American and there's no guile. Let's talk. How do you come to that position? What's your reasoning? What do you think? How do you deal with these things? I would much rather talk to someone who's honest than with somebody who will just say, I don't know if Jesus is actually true or not. You've got to make up your mind. Either this is a fraud, and it's a lie, and all of us are just idiots wasting our time, or it's true. The question is, what do you believe? The question is, is Jesus of men? Or is he of God? I pray you'll wrestle with that in your own hearts. And I pray the Holy Spirit, for those of you who are His children, that His Spirit will press this confidence in your heart that you will rest and receive Him. And that you will have a hope that you could give to anyone that, no, I actually believe this is true. Let's pray. Father, we can't drum up faith. It's a gift from Your Holy Spirit. But when you give that gift, you truly do unite us to your Son, Jesus Christ. Father, we pray that your Holy Spirit might work your word into our hearts that we would believe that you truly have sent your Son, our King, with all the authority of heaven, even the authority to forgive us of our sins, and to give us life everlasting. In Jesus' name. Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith in your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue, Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.