The Authority of Jesus

RIVERSIDE INDONESIAN FELLOWSHIP
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The Authority of Jesus

Riverside Indonesian Fellowship
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2014 · 7 September 2014
Matthew 21:23-32

Let's open our Bibles this evening to Matthew 21:23-32. The word "authority" is a strong word filled with meaning. We talk about the authorities and we rightfully have a sense of respect, a sense of awe and a sense of fear. They are able to determine things, to decide things, to render judgments and to wield certain rights and privileges. These are the people who have the power to set the rules, to determine the judgments and the verdicts.

But there is one who has authority that surpasses all other authorities. In Matthew 28:18, Jesus said this, "All authority is given unto Me in heaven and in earth." That is an amazing claim to power. And Jesus demonstrated that, for example when He had concluded the Sermon on the Mount, it says in Matthew 7:28-29, "The people were astonished at His doctrine for He taught them as one having authority." In their culture that meant He quoted nobody, He didn't say He had gotten this truth from some eminent rabbi. He just spoke with authority.

He had so much authority that He was a problem to the Jewish system because they believed that they were the only authorities. But He never asked their permission for anything. He totally ignored them. And when we say Jesus had authority, we mean not just that He had power but that He had the right to do it. It was given to Him by God and He said that again and again. He said in John 5 to 8, "Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner."

And because of that, you have to understand, that He placed Himself against the authority system that existed in a very dramatic way and ultimately it led to His death. You see, the Jews were distressed and appalled that He acted without any approval, without any authorization. He never consulted the Sanhedrin. He never quoted an eminent rabbi. He did what He wanted, He said what He wanted and He acted as He wanted. Such behavior was absolutely unacceptable to them.

And this sets up conflict. All through His ministry, He opposes the false teachings of the existing Jewish authorities. And it comes to a severe conflict as we read in Matthew 21. Now let me remind you of the setting. Jesus now is in the midst of a procession that goes from Jericho up the hill to Jerusalem for Passover. Having arrived in the vicinity of Jerusalem, He stays in the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus that Saturday night.

On Sunday, He awakened in Bethany to a great crowd and spent that day with the multitude of people who had come there. On Monday, He sent His disciples to find the foal of a donkey to bring to Him fulfilling the prophecy of Zechariah. He rode triumphantly into the city of Jerusalem while they threw palm branches and clothing in His path and hailed Him "Hosanna, blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord, the Son of David." They hailed Him as Messiah. And that procession ended at the temple.

Tuesday morning He went again back into the city, this time He went directly to the temple. And when He saw the devastation by the selfish money-changers and animal sellers and all of that, He proceeded to clean out the temple. And when He was just finished clearing out the temple, little boys began to shout "hosannas" and to sing in praise Him and this infuriated the leaders even more. And they are threatened more severely than ever and in fear they work all the more feverishly to plot His murder.

On Wednesday morning, He goes back to the temple and again passed the fig tree which has been cursed to teach His disciples some profound lessons about false pretense without fruit. And it is on Wednesday morning in the temple that we find Him in verse 23. He has cleansed the temple the day before and He now confronts the leaders and the people who are gathered there. It seems that He had to clean the place up before He could go minister.

Now He begins a confrontation in Matthew 21:23 that it doesn't end until the end of Matthew 23. Let's see how this begins in verse 23, "Now when He came into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people confronted Him as He was teaching, and said, “By what authority are You doing these things? And who gave You this authority?” Now you know the issue is authority. Jesus was the Savior and He came and confronted the heart of the nation where it needed to be confronted and that was at the point of its religion.

So He came to the temple. That's always the place where God has to begin His work. That's why the New Testament says judgment has to begin at the house of God. And it says in verse 23 that He was teaching of things pertaining to the Kingdom of God to a vast multitude. And the people really listened, it says in Luke 19:48, "All the people were very attentive to hear Him." But the leaders confront Him and ask Him, "By what authority do You these things? Who gave You that authority?"

Now, let us find out who this big group of leaders is. First, Matthew says the chief priests and the elders. The chief priests would include all the priests; the high priests, the captain of the temple who was second in command, he was in charge of all the worship, and under him came the weekly priests who offered sacrifice and carried out ceremony, the priests of the daily course and there were 156 of those. And then there were overseer priests who had charge of the keys and the doors and the gates and little areas of administrative responsibility.

And then you had the non-priests, the rabbis and the scribes. Here you have the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Herodians, and the Zealots and the Essenes, none of whom could agree with each other. They all had divergent rabbinical viewpoints and everybody had their own rabbi with their own view. Even though they can't get together on anything, they can sure get together against Christ because theirs is the religion of human achievement, it is a religion of human works.

And this is the way it is today. All the religions of the world, though they all disagree with each other, they commonly stand together against the truth of Jesus Christ, right? So all these guys have been having a meeting to plot how to kill Jesus. They can't take what is going on. He counters everything that they affirm. And so they say, "By what authority do You do these things? Show us Your credentials. Where is Your Sanhedrin approval?"

According to Edersheim, the Jewish historian, the Sanhedrin was the only one that gave authorized ordination papers. And a person who wanted to be ordained as a rabbi was ordained as Rabbi Elder Judge, because he was given the right to teach, to show wisdom and to make decisions, to render verdicts. And once he had his rabbinical authorization he was recognized as a credentialed teacher. Jesus had no such credentials, no such authorization.

Look at the counter-question in verse 24-25, "But Jesus answered and said to them, “I also will ask you one thing, which if you tell Me, I likewise will tell you by what authority I do these things: 25 The baptism of John—where was it from? From heaven or from men?” Jesus says I'll answer your question if you answer My question. He's giving them an opportunity to honestly answer the question. And if they answer the question, their own question will be answered.

Now Jesus is talking about John the Baptist, "The baptism of John, was it from heaven or of men?" Everybody knew about him, the voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the LORD; Make His paths straight.” The last prophet of the Old Testament age, a great man, he had been out there in the desert, all Israel had been going to him. And he had been saying the Messiah is near, the Messiah is coming.

John was preaching a message of repentance. John was preaching a message of get your heart right with God. Now when Jesus says "the baptism of John," He means the whole ministry of John which was symbolized by his baptizing work. So He's saying you tell Me then, was the ministry of John the Baptist from God or of men?

Here's their situation. If they say it was from heaven, they have to admit that Jesus is the Messiah, because that is what John said. If they say no this is of men, they will lose their credibility instantly because the whole nation believed he was from God. People are going to say you are supposed to be the observers of religious happenings and you conclude he is not a prophet? So this is a difficult question for them.

So verse 25 continues, "And they reasoned among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say to us, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’” So they got in a continuous discussion. When John said the Messiah was coming, and now the Messiah is here, if we say he's from God, why don't you believe him?” That's what He'll say to us. Verse 26, "But if we say, ‘From men,’ we fear the multitude, for all count John as a prophet.” These guys were trained at ignoring facts. It didn't matter what the evidence was.

They did not care what Jesus said, they did not care what He did, they did not care how powerful His miracles were, how inexplicable they were on a human basis, they still refused to believe. You remember in John 5, Jesus heals the paralyzed man at the pool of Bethsaida and He's all finished healing the guy and it says, "Therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus and sought to slay Him." They wanted Him dead instead of saying He has the power of God, He can heal, He must be the Messiah John spoke of.

Typical of people who come to hear the gospel message and look at the virtue of Jesus Christ already having convinced themselves that their way is right and the way of God is wrong and no matter how much evidence you give them, they'll still reject because that's their predisposition. So, here is the answer of the religious leaders of Israel. Verse 27, "So they answered Jesus and said, “We do not know.” And He said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”

They rejected the light so He turned it off, I have nothing more to say to you. And He really didn't answer them anymore. He judged them in Matthew 23:33, "You serpents, you generation of snakes, how can you escape the damnation of hell?" But when He was confronted before the High Priest in Matthew 26:63 it says, "And Jesus held His peace." And when He was accused by the chief priests and elders in Matthew 27:12, "He answered nothing."

So, we see the confrontation and the counter-question, but He is not through with them though. He does have something more to say to them of judgment. And so, in verse 28-30 we see the parable, “But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, ‘Son, go, work today in my vineyard.’ 29 He answered and said, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he regretted it and went. 30 Then he came to the second and said likewise. And he answered and said, ‘I go, sir,’ but he did not go.”

It's a simple parable. A father has two sons. The reason you have a father and two sons here is because built into that relationship you have a responsibility for obedience. The father goes to his sons, he runs a vineyard, he says go to the vineyard and go to work. Son number one says, "I will not." But afterwards he repents and goes. Son number two says, "I will." And never does. You just have two bad sons, it's a characterization of humanity, see.

And Jesus says in verse 31, "Which of the two did the will of his father? They said to Him, the first." They mean the guy who did it was the guy who said he wouldn't but repented and did. Well, they were right. That was the characterization, the parable. How does He connect that with them? When they answered the first, they put themselves in a dire situation for a great rebuke.

Verse 31 continues, "Jesus said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you that tax collectors and harlots enter the kingdom of God before you.” They are living under the illusion that God is thrilled with them because of their purity. And tax collectors and harlots is a euphemism for the scum of society. Tax collectors were traitors who sold themselves to Rome to exact unfair taxes from the people. And harlots were those who symbolized all of the God-defying immorality. So Jesus says, you are like that second son who says you will but you never do.

The point here is you have people who claim obedience but don't obey, and also people who deny obedience but ultimately do and that's the difference. Tax collectors and harlots go into the Kingdom of God before you, which is a strong statement. The idea is they are going to go in and you are not. Religion doesn't get in you in the Kingdom. And sin repented of and forgiven doesn't keep you out of the Kingdom. In other words, Jesus gave them a whole judgment message.

Then verse 32, "For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him; but tax collectors and harlots believed him; and when you saw it, you did not afterward relent and believe him.” Here Jesus answers His question, was John's ministry from heaven or earth? "He came in the way of righteousness." Not just with a message of righteousness, no, in the way of righteousness. He was a holy man. And he had a righteous message as well as a righteous life and you still believed him not.

Then Jesus gives them another indictment, "But the tax collectors and the harlots, prostitutes, believed him." They heard John and they accepted his message. They repented. And then Jesus says you saw tax collectors and harlots repent and have their lives transformed, you did not even believe after seeing that. In other words, you rejected the message and you rejected the power that you saw in people by the prophet of God.

Like today, you can sit and listen to the preacher preach. You can listen to the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can listen to the saving message of Jesus Christ and you can walk away and say, "I will not believe that message preached by John, that word preached by Jesus, that word preached by the preacher today, I will not believe it." And that's your first indictment.

And then comes your second indictment because you too have seen that power in that gospel transform lives and you have seen people's lives changed and their lives transformed. And even after having seen that, you still don't believe. That's the second indictment. And the word that we see in this to those men is a word of final judgment, a word of doom, a word of hell, hopelessness.

For those who had been exposed to the full light of the Son of God, the full light of the prophet of God, John the Baptist, they had seen it all, they had heard it all and they would not believe the message and they would not even believe the transforming power. And so Jesus turns out the light. End of discussion.

So, have you looked at your own heart? And what did you see? Do you believe the message? How about the transforming power? Can you deny that? Genesis 6:3, "My Spirit will not always strive with man." The Lord didn't always strive even with His own rebellious hard- hearted willfully blind people and He will not with men today either. And no man should should fall under the wrath of God to condemnation that comes to unbelievers. Let's bow in prayer.



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