Culver Community Church

Pastor Chris Sweeney

Sermon Notes

October 28, 2018

Matthew 21:23 – 22:14 Christ’s Authority (Part 1)

{vs. 23} This day (one long day filled with confrontation and testing) begins right in the middle of Passion Week.  Let me remind you of the context or background that leads to the showdown between Jesus and the religious leaders.  The frustrated, jealous and angry religious leaders are trying to ‘handle this Jesus problem’ and they are running out of options.  They have tried to poke holes in His teachings, the way He lives His life and have even criticized His disciples and followers but nothing has worked.  They have also tried to tell the people that He works by the Devil’s power (Literally, “He’s in league with the Devil”).  They have threatened the people with excommunication.  They have tried to get the people to inform on Jesus’ whereabouts (rat Him out – which spoiler alert, Judas will end up doing!)  Nothing is working (you just can’t fight against God - - - and win!) and now they have resolved to ‘get rid of Him’ even adding poor Lazarus to their hit list because the story of him being raised from the dead was so compelling!  At this point, they want Him out of the picture but as Matthew 26 tells us, they were afraid of the people – so they try to get through this season, these festivals and then they can act!  But this is getting harder and harder – Jesus keeps pushing them: doing what is right, gaining supporters and making them look bad (showing them for who they really are).

Now, these paragons of virtue, the gatekeepers of the temple and the Jewish faith come to Jesus, their God and Messiah (the One they have made their adversary) and bring two questions to Him.  They don’t try to find fault in what He has done – everyone knew that the temple system had been corrupted and that rather than representing God, it was fleecing His people.  So, in a way they are both confronting Him and acknowledging what He had done was right (or at least they could not say/prove it was wrong!)  The questions that they settle on are about authority – by what authority do you do this and who gave it to you?  In today’s language - “Just who do You think You are?” or “What gives You the right?”  Little did they know that they were confronting the very One who was given “All authority . . . in Heaven and Earth” (Matthew 28:18).  What they wanted to know about, and felt sure that Jesus would not be able to give to them was some sort of credential, certificate or badge of authority.  This was important to them because they thought that they were the authorities!  Jesus, and later the disciples were looked down upon because they didn’t go through the rabbi’s schools and had not been mentored and later approved by a respected rabbi (teacher). 

These men believed that they could trace their own authority through the God given prophets and Moses – handed down from generation to generation (Much like the Papacy in the Roman Catholic Church).  However, these men as Jesus often taught, followed in the ways or traditions of the very ones who killed the prophets!  In chapter 23, Jesus will warn the people about them - - - while recognizing that they sit in Moses ‘seat’ (His position of authority).  The authority they had was given by men and that is what they wanted Jesus to produce but if they were paying attention, they would have seen all the signs (and wonders) pointing to a greater authority, Jesus’ God-given authority!

Jesus demonstrated this authority in His ministry – in everything that He did.  And the people saw glimpses of it.  For example, after the Sermon on the Mount we have Matthew’s assessment in chapter 7 verses 28 and 29.  Jesus taught like He was the source of the teaching, not quoting other men like all the other rabbis would.  In chapter 9 of Matthew, He healed a paralyzed man and forgave His sin (something only God could do!)  and the multitudes saw it and marveled and glorified God who had given such authority unto man (not all man or some men but one Man).  Jesus commanded demonic spirits and even forces of nature - - - there seemed to be no limit to His authority!  And yet, the chief priests and elders came to ask Him “What gives you the right, the power to do these things?” - - - to teach us, to correct us - - - to rule over us!

{vs. 24} Now I hope you know by now that Jesus (God) never turns away anyone who is seeking Him in sincerity!  That is not what is happening here!  If Jesus were to tell them that His Father (God) had given Him (the Messiah) all authority, they would have immediately taken up stones to kill Him for blasphemy.  So Jesus challenges them as they have Him – answer Me one thing and I will answer you!  No doubt, they were poised and expectant – these were the experts in all things relating to scripture and God (so they thought).

{vs. 25-27} Jesus gets straight to the point, no long setup or story just a question which boils down to “Where did John the Baptist’s authority come from?”  There could be only three answers (Jesus gives two) – God (he was a prophet); human origin (he was just a man, thinking he was a prophet but either deceived or a deceiver); or the Devil (it was evil and demonically inspired).  So the experts (all the smart people in the room) huddled to consider their response:

What these experts discover is that Jesus is smarter than they are!  Have you come to this conclusion?  Many of us admit this, but then we live by our own rules/ideas, not God’s - proving that we don’t believe it (at least in our hearts).  This should have been just one more reason, out of the many for them to put their trust in Jesus.  They believed that it was human origin – they sent their men to check him out, just as they did with Jesus.  In the end, they refused to endorse John, to hear his message (certainly not heed it!) and ignored him until Herod resolved the problem for them (by imprisonment and then by beheading). 

If they answered Jesus honestly and told Jesus that they thought John was just some dotty old guy running around the desert - - - the people would have revolted! (And that revolt would have been against them, not Jesus!)  It is amazing how the people, who largely thought of John the Baptist as a novelty or show could see clearly that he was a prophet of God after his death (hindsight is so much clearer).  They thought he was a prophet to go out and see, maybe to be baptized by, but not prophet enough to actually change the way they lived their lives because of his message.   We do this too, God’s Word clearly tells us how to live and we can’t understand or see it . . . until after the choices (the wrong choices) have been made!  No, they certainly couldn’t (wouldn’t) say that it was only human!

They just as surely couldn’t (wouldn’t) say that John was from God because John had been harsh and condemning toward them.  This would be admitting that they were bad priests, poor representatives of God and as John said a “brood of vipers” (Jesus also called them this).  John had given testimony from the start that Jesus is the “Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world”!  To give him credit as being a prophet would be equal to answering their own question – declaring for everyone that Jesus is sent of God.  Follow the logic, if John was a prophet, then he spoke for God (truthfully) . . . so, what he said about Jesus would be true . . . so, Jesus would also have to be from God.  This was unacceptable in their eyes (even though they should have and I believe did – know the truth at some level deep down)!  They started with a preconceived position and then came up with their answers to fit that position.  Some poor scientists today do this, believing in evolution or man-made climate change they collect and interpret all the evidence to fit their pre-conclusion!

The only other answer – John was demonic, was not even considered.  How, why or when would Satan ever inspire the preaching of repentance and turning back toward God.  This would have put them in the same position as if they answered of human origin (like any answer except God!)

So they have no good answer!  What can they do?  They really want Jesus to answer (probably to arrest Him for blasphemy), but they cannot meet His one, simple condition to get that answer.  If they could have answered honestly, then I guarantee that Jesus would have given them an honest answer.  If they could have accepted the truth about John however, they would not have needed to ask their question – they would have already known exactly who Jesus is!  “So they answered Jesus, "We don't know.”  In one way this is a lie, they thought that they knew the answer (even though they were in denial) but ironically, it is also the truth because they didn’t know where either Jesus or John came from!  When they admitted their ignorance or unwillingness or inability to answer . . .  Jesus calmly replied “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.”  Any attempts to convince them of the truth would be futile!  It has well been said of the human condition, “There are none so blind as those who will not see.”  Let us, see and believe!