Tag: authority

2 SAMUEL #26: THE LAST WORDS OF A GREAT KING

On By Pastor TomIn 2 Samuel, Bible, Bible Teaching, Old Testament, Podcast, Religion, Sermon, UncategorizedLeave a comment

David’s last words speak of the goodness of authority when it is used well; especially when it is exercised with a recognition that all authority comes from God, and we are all accountable to him.  The heart of David’s words reveal that he was resting fully on the promises that the Lord had made to him. May we, too, rest completely on God’s promises to us, and upon the covenant that he established with us through the messiah, Jesus Christ.

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To download, right click on the link (or do whatever you do on a Mac) and save it to your computer: Download 2 Samuel Part 26

2 SAMUEL #26. The Last Words of David. 2 Samuel 23:1-7

1 Now these are the last words of David:
The oracle of David, the son of Jesse,
the oracle of the man who was raised on high,
the anointed of the God of Jacob,
the sweet psalmist of Israel:
2 “The Spirit of the LORD speaks by me;
his word is on my tongue.
3 The God of Israel has spoken;
the Rock of Israel has said to me:
When one rules justly over men,
ruling in the fear of God,
4 he dawns on them like the morning light,
like the sun shining forth on a cloudless morning,
like rain that makes grass to sprout from the earth.
5 “For does not my house stand so with God?
For he has made with me an everlasting covenant,
ordered in all things and secure.
For will he not cause to prosper
all my help and my desire?
6 But worthless men are all like thorns that are thrown away,
for they cannot be taken with the hand;
7 but the man who touches them
arms himself with iron and the shaft of a spear,
and they are utterly consumed with fire.” (2 Samuel 23:1-7, ESV)

Chapter 23:1-7 contains “the last words of David.” This is not meant to be literal, but it is a picturesque way of saying “these are the thoughts David was having at the end of his life, this was something he wrote near the end.” All of these verses (1-7) are in the form of Hebrew poetry. Hebrew poetry does not usually rhyme. It is about “parallel thoughts.” You can see the parallelism if you just read it carefully. My Bible separates the parallel thoughts by starting new lines. I’ll do it here with two slashes, like this: “//.” So we have: “The last words of David//the declaration of the son of Jesse//the declaration of the man raised on high//the one anointed by the God of Jacob//the favorite singer of Israel” You can see that each phrase gives us a parallel description of David. First he is named, then he is the son of Jesse, and so on. They are parallel thoughts about who David was.

Next come David’s own words. Verses two and three express poetically that David is sharing insights that he received from the Lord.

The first insight is that when someone rules a group of people in justice, and in the fear of the Lord, it is a wonderful, positive thing. I think sometimes, even yet today, it is hard for us to grasp what life was like for people in the ancient middle east. Existence was difficult, brutal and short. When someone had wealth and power, they used that power to benefit themselves, and their family and friends. If you did not have wealth or power, and were not related to someone who did, you were out of luck. Of course, that meant that, by far, most people were out of luck. The powerful would do to you whatever they could get away with, if they thought it would benefit them, and often, that was a lot. They might simply take your things, including your home. If you were a man, they might take your wife or daughter, if they found them attractive. If you were a woman, you had no rights even to your own person. So David’s words here are revolutionary:

“The one who rules the people with justice,
who rules in the fear of God,
4 is like the morning light when the sun rises
on a cloudless morning,
the glisten of rain on sprouting grass.”

David is saying that a ruler does not get to do whatever he wants. Even kings themselves are under a greater authority—God. The only responsible way to exercise authority is by being under authority yourself. In other words, no matter how much authority or influence we might have, we must use it with a recognition that we are accountable before God for the way we use it. When we do that, it is a wonderful blessing.

Do a thought experiment with me. Picture a policeman. He has the authority to compel you to obey the law. If you refuse to obey him when he gives you a lawful order, he has the authority to use force to compel you to obey, or to enact consequences on you if you don’t obey. But the key here is that what he is telling you to do is a lawful order. If he stops you while you are driving and demands to see your driver’s license, that is a lawful order. The policeman is himself acting appropriately under authority – the authority of the laws and regulations that say the police can stop you and ask for your license. However, if he stops you and demands that you give him all your money, the policeman is no longer acting “under authority.” No law gives him the authority to take your money. Therefore, when he is not himself under authority, he has no real authority to exercise.

Or imagine a boss. Suppose you work at a place of business that has a dress code, or uniforms, for employees. In that situation, your boss, under the authority of the rules of employment, has the right (the authority) to tell you how to dress. If you show up to work dressed inappropriately, she has the authority to enact consequences on you for that. But if the boss sees you when you are not working, she does not have the authority to tell you what to wear. In that situation she is not under authority as your supervisor, therefore she has no authority over what you wear.

We take all this as a matter of course. But these things were not always obvious, especially not during David’s lifetime. The idea that the king himself must be under God’s authority in order to exercise authority was revolutionary. The only reason we think it’s normal is because we live in a civilization that was profoundly shaped by the bible, including David’s words right here. When David said these things, it was an amazing thought: even the king has no appropriate authority unless he himself remains under the authority of God.

By the way, I think this is one reason that the Lord inspired Nathan the prophet to tell the story he did when he confronted David about Bathsheba and Uriah. David himself was passionate about people not abusing their authority. When he saw that he himself had been abusing his authority, it broke him. So, now, at the end of his life, David wants people to remember that even he himself had to remain under God’s authority.

Jonathan Leeman, in his book Authority, describes two different kinds of authority. The first is an authority to command. This is the authority to compel others to obey by causing serious consequences for those who disobey. A policewoman has that kind of authority. Bosses and owners have that sort of authority as well, at least in the workplace. Parents have that sort of authority over young children.

The second kind of authority is an authority of counsel. This is an authority that can strongly recommend a course of action, however, if someone wants to disregard it, the person with counsel authority cannot make someone else listen to them or compel them to obey them, or enact serious consequences upon them.

Most adult humans in the western world do have certain areas where they exercise appropriate authority. If you are a business owner, you have authority over your employees. If you are a boss, or supervisor, or team-lead, you have authority over others at your workplace. Even if you are a server at a restaurant, you have a kind of authority over the restaurant patrons. You can tell them not to go into the kitchen, or not to be disruptive. They must wait on your service before they can order or eat. Parents, of course, exercise significant authority over their children. Many children have authority over their pets. Even parents of adult children have a kind of authority over their grown children, in that their words feel “weighty,” to their kids. We can easily brush off something said by a random stranger, but it’s harder to ignore the words of a parent, even when we are grown.

Authority can be abused—I would guess we all know that. But do we know that when authority exists and is used properly, under the authority of God, it is, in fact, a blessing? Without God-blessed parental authority many children would die, or be treated cruelly. Without lawful authority the strong and wealthy would take whatever they wanted, and the rest of us would not be able to stop them. Authority that recognizes that God is over everything is a force for good. It allows families and societies to flourish in safety.

In verse five, David moves on. I spent a lot of time and labor trying to get at the Hebrew of this verse, because there is something that is not evident in the English translations. The closest is the ESV, which typically is the most literal. But let me give it to you in a “literal-ish” translation so you can see something going on in Hebrew:

Indeed, is it not right, my house, with God?

Indeed, an everlasting covenant he made with me, being arranged in the whole and being secured

Indeed, all of my salvation and every desire

Indeed, will he not bring to fruition?

There are four phrases, each one beginning with the Hebrew word that I have translated here “indeed.” The word is a conjunction that can be used as “for,” “and,” “but” and several other possibilities depending on context, but the point is, in Hebrew these four phrases each begin with the same word.  This sets apart this verse from the others, and also makes us pay attention to each of the phrases.

In the first place, David has confidence that his house is indeed right with God. Now, he is not claiming to be innocent before God. But he is confident that the Lord has made things right with his entire family line. Indeed, it is about the covenant that the Lord made with David in 2 Samuel 7:8-17, the covenant of a messiah, a descendant of David, who will reign forever. David does not feel confident because of anything within himself. No, he is confident because the Lord made a covenant—a solemn agreement—with David, and the Lord arranged it, and the Lord secured it. The promise is not contingent upon David: it is the Lord’s doing from first to last. In case we missed it, David is talking, indeed, about all of his salvation, all of his desire, which, indeed, the Lord himself will bring to fulness.

This is the core of David’s last word and testimony, and it is that all his hope is in the coming of the promised Messiah, a descendant of David, and David dares to trust this hope because it is the Lord who made the covenant, the promise, and he who will make it happen.

Once again we see that the writer of Samuel is pointing us to something beyond just David. David’s own hope was not in himself, but in the Lord, and the Lord’s promises, especially in the promised messiah. We too, should not hope in a worldly leader, government, or system, nor even in our own talent or hard work, but in the promises of God, and in salvation through his promised Messiah, Jesus Christ. All our hopes and desires should be, like David, fixed on the promises of God, and upon the messiah, Jesus Christ. When that is the case, we can find rest and peace in our hearts, even as David himself did.

This last saying of David is put forward in a kind of shortened chiastic structure. The first part talks about the goodness of God when people live under his authority. The middle part, the “main point,” is the one we’ve just looked at, which is that our hope should be firmly rooted in the eternal promises of God, our desire should be for his chosen Messiah. Next, the ending part is a kind of reverse mirror of the first part: the fate of people who do not live under the Lord’s authority, and who do not hope in the promises of his covenant. Such people are like thorns. You can’t even touch them, lest you hurt yourself. Instead, thorns are killed by cold iron and then destroyed by hot fire. In the same way, for those who reject the authority of the Lord, the end is one to consider soberly.

All right, so where does this leave you? Perhaps you need to give some thought to the areas in your life where you have some authority. Maybe you need to remember that we can only properly be in authority if we are under authority, especially, under the authority of the Lord.

The writer of the book of Samuel probably lived two generations after David. The kingdom of Israel that David had worked so hard to create and secure was now split in half. The kings of both new kingdoms were not remotely like David. I suspect that people during that time were inclined to look at the past, especially to the time of David, and wish that they could have another king like him. But the author of this book is saying: “Don’t waste time wanting another David to come along. Instead, want what David himself wanted.” The heart of David’s last words are his trust in the promises of God. All his desire is wrapped up in what God promised. His heart is at peace because he believes what God has said.

I’m at an age where it’s easy to look back at earlier parts of my life and wish things were like that again. I’m tempted to want to somehow regain things that are lost in the past. But the message here is this: what’s past is past, and even back then it wasn’t everything you needed. Instead, like David, let’s learn to desire the Lord and the fulfillment of his promises above everything else.

One of my prayers for myself is that I desire what God has promised more than I desire anything else. When what we desire most is the Lord himself, our innermost being is fully satisfied. Often, I find that I have all sorts of other desires competing with my desire for the Lord. Sometimes, I have to pray kind of like this: “Lord, I want to want you more than anything. Please work in me so that I desire most what you want me to desire most.” That is a prayer that he loves to answer. All he requires is our willingness for him to make it so.

May we, too, trust God and be at rest in our souls.

1 PETER #17: REMEMBER YOUR TRUE AUTHORITY

On By Pastor TomIn 1 Peter, Bible, Bible Teaching, Podcast, Religion, Sermon, UncategorizedLeave a comment

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Many of Peter’s first readers were living in a time when they didn’t have much control over their own lives. They had almost zero influence on what the Roman government did, and almost as little over their own local governments. Peter says, “Don’t worry about that. Obey the government, and entrust yourself to God.”

Now, he is writing to those who have even less control over their lives – slaves. He gives the same advice. We need to remember that there is something much more important here than the twisted natures of those who are in charge. This is a chance to show people what Jesus is like. This is a chance for Jesus to manifest his life through you.

To listen to the sermon, click the play button: For some people, the player above may not work. If that happens to you, use the link below to either download, or open a player in a new page to listen. To download, right click on the link (or do whatever you do on a Mac) and save it to your computer: Download 1 Peter Part 17

1 PETER #17: 1 PETER 2:18-25

Peter is flowing through a series of thoughts, each one connected to the one before. So, after talking about how God has made us his people, he then encouraged us to act like the people of God, citizens of heaven. Next, he explained that, as citizens of heaven, we should live peacefully and respectfully with regard to governments here on earth, submitting to them not because of any inherent goodness found in any particular government, or any kind of government, but rather, submitting for the sake of the Lord.

Peter now expands on the theme of submitting for the sake of the Lord, and he takes us to the case of slaves. I want to remind us a little bit about slavery in that time and place. There were two kinds of slavery in the ancient Roman empire. One kind involved slaves who served on Roman warships and in Roman mines, and a few other places. These were generally prisoners of war, or condemned criminals, and they served lives of hard labor and incredible suffering until they died. It would have been more or less impossible for this type of slave to be part of a Christian house church, because they generally lived their entire lives chained up like animals either on the ships, or in the place where they were used for hard labor. It’s just an unfortunate historical reality that we don’t have much information about whether or not the gospel spread to these types of slaves.

The second type of slavery was much more common in populated areas of the Empire, and it was very different from the slavery that existed in the American south until the mid nineteenth century, or anywhere else in the world, for that matter. Slaves could be of any ethnicity – that is, slavery wasn’t race based. Most slaves in the Roman empire were not slaves for life. Some of them sold themselves into slavery in order to pay their debts, or to avoid starvation. Even while they were slaves, they were paid wages, in addition to being given food and housing. Slaves could conduct business in their own names, and own property – though many did not have much free time for such activities. In fact, some well-off slaves even owned other slaves themselves! Slave owners could not break up, or sell off, the family members of slaves. Most slaves in the Roman empire eventually became free again, either by gift from their master,  or by contract, or by saving up their wages and buying back their freedom. The average length of time most slaves spent in slavery was about twenty years. Some had the chance to be free, but instead made a deliberate choice to serve beloved masters for life.

Peter uses a specific term in Greek to show he is talking to the second type of slave, not the slave-laborers who were effectively prisoners with no rights. Though the typical Roman slave was better off than most slaves elsewhere in the world for most of history, we should remember that Roman slaves did not have the same freedoms as totally free people. Though they were paid, they worked for their masters, not themselves. Their time was not their own, unless they were given free time by their masters. They had to do what they were told to do, even if it was unpleasant or dangerous, and masters had wide latitude to punish slaves who displeased them.

Maybe the closest thing we have today to New Testament-times slavery is military service. When you join the military you receive some clothing, housing and an income, and even food. In return, you place yourself at the service of the military branch that you joined, for example, the Army. You can’t leave your Army post without permission. You can’t live just anywhere you want to, and you must do what the Army tells you to do, and you can be punished, even imprisoned, if you refuse to obey. Until your term of service is over, you are not entirely “your own person,” so to speak. Yet, there are limits to what the Army can make you do. That’s a pretty similar picture to slavery in the world of the New Testament. Let’s remember, however, though it was far better than what we might normally think of when we hear the word “slavery,” it was not usually a cushy, sought-after position. Maybe it would be useful to adopt the ESV’s translation of “servants,” rather than slaves. With that understanding, let’s get into Peter’s words.

18 Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust. 19 For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. 20 For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. 21 For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. 22 He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. 23 When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. 24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. 25 For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

(1 Peter 2:18-25, ESV)

Peter is telling us that because we are the people of God, we see all human relationships through the lens of our position in God’s kingdom. So, in the normal course of the world, you respect people who earn your respect, and grumble about people who mistreat you. Peter says, however, that Christians are different: “slaves, be submissive to your masters with all respect, not only to the good, but also to those who are unjust.” Actually, the literal translation of “unjust” in this verse would be “twisted.” Peter is saying, “Your master might be a severely twisted individual, but you submit to him, and serve him, not because of him, but because of the Lord.”

Now, if we talk of submitting to someone who is twisted, how far should we take that? Last time we considered the exceptions when it comes to submitting to government. We don’t submit when the government tells us to sin. We don’t agree to sin either by doing something wrong, or by not doing something we are supposed to do. The same principles hold when we are talking about submission to any authority less than God. However, when there is no conflict between following Jesus and submitting to proper authorities, we submit, and we do so, not because the one we submit to is worthy in some way, but rather, for the sake of the Lord Himself.

Also, of course, this applies to proper authorities. So for example, I don’t have to obey the instructions of an Army officer, because I am not in the Army. But I do have to obey the lawful instructions of a police officer who is within jurisdiction. I don’t have to pay property tax in California, but I do have to pay taxes in Tennessee, and so on.

There is another important point to be made, which Peter himself makes. He is not talking about cases where a servant is being punished for doing wrong. He comments: “How is there any credit to either you or God if you endure punishment for doing wrong? The situation here is when a master is twisted. The master is likely going to be unfair to the servant, no matter what the servant does. So, the servant might be tempted to think: “Why should I bother doing the right thing if I’m going to be punished anyway? Why not serve badly? If he treats me badly, I will return that injustice with bad service.” This kind of thing, says Peter, gives the servant no credit, and brings no glory to God. Anyone in the world, whether Christian or not, can take that attitude. No, says Peter, Jesus so transforms everything about us that we can patiently endure injustice without doing wrong in return. In fact, he says, twice, that to endure suffering for the sake of God, with the grief that often entails, is a gracious thing to God.

All of this lays the groundwork for some important principles of Christian suffering. First, our suffering for Christ need not be the direct result of persecution. Peter is not suggesting that the master might be mistreating the servant because the servant is a Christian. Instead, the problem is the master is twisted – he’s generally just a nasty sort of person. Because it is not about persecution, this means that whatever suffering we endure can be redeemed as suffering for and with Christ – which, difficult as it might be, becomes a thing of grace.

So, for instance, you might think that having a nasty boss could not be considered “suffering for the sake of Christ.” But Peter says: “It can be.” If we endure while still working as if we are working for Christ, (even though in reality we are working for a twisted jerk) our trials bring glory to God. If we can get free from such a situation, there is nothing wrong with doing so. In writing to slaves, however, Peter is talking to people who are stuck, at least for a couple of decades.

If we encounter any kind of undeserved hardship, and endure it as we look to God, bearing up under it the way Jesus did, it becomes a thing of glory to God and grace to us. Peter says we have been called to this, because we are followers of Christ who suffered when he did not deserve it.

That brings us to an uncomfortable thought. We follow Jesus. What was the earthly life of Jesus like? He lived on this sin-corrupted earth as if he was a citizen of heaven, which, of course, he was. That meant he did not live for temporary pleasure, temporary riches or temporary glory. He lived in the light of eternity, which meant he was willing to endure suffering here and now.

Our lives will not exactly look like that of Jesus. Most of us will not be itinerant rabbis in the country of Israel. But the qualities of Jesus should be manifest in us. The way we handle various situations will remind other people about Jesus. They might think: “I don’t know why, but something about the way she responded makes me think of Jesus.” Some people might not even recognize it as a  quality of Jesus, but merely something that impresses them and appeals to them somehow.

In any case, one of the characteristics of Jesus was that he endured suffering patiently, entrusting himself to God. We Christians ought to approach suffering in the same way. When we endure suffering while also holding God in mind, and our citizenship in heaven, there is grace.

Many of Peter’s first readers were living in a time when they didn’t have much control over their own lives. They had almost zero influence on what the Roman government did, and almost as little over their own local governments. Peter says, “Don’t worry about that. Obey the government, and entrust yourself to God.”

Now, he is writing to those who have even less control over their lives – slaves. He gives the same advice. We need to remember that there is something much more important here than the twisted natures of those who are in charge. This is a chance to show people what Jesus is like. This is a chance for Jesus to manifest his life through you.

I believe this extends to any situation where we might be suffering, and where we have little control. In fact, I think it even extends to situations where you might have some control. After all, Jesus certainly could have destroyed his evil enemies with a mere wink. And yet, aware of God’s will, he chose to suffer in order to bring glory to God.

All of this would be incredibly difficult, except for two things. First, we need to remember, and remain aware of, something Peter has already explained:

Now we live with great expectation, and we have a priceless inheritance—an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay. And through your faith, God is protecting you by his power until you receive this salvation, which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see.

So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while. These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.

(1 Peter 1:3b-7, NLT).

Second, we need to remember that it is not up to us to endure suffering graciously through our own difficult effort. Instead, we rely on the Holy Spirit to manifest the nature of Jesus in us and through us. Practically, what that means might include praying something like this: “Lord, I cannot face this situation with grace or patience. But I know that you can. Would you please live through me right now, so that your grace and your patience are evident to everyone around me? Would you please sustain me through this? I have no other hope but you.”

Some of the trials might include the necessity of dealing with someone in your life who is twisted. The trials will often be things over which we have little or no control. What we can control, is how we respond to them, and we can respond to them with the nature of Jesus, who lives within us. Again, we do that by asking, and trusting, the Holy Spirit to make it so. We have so much more waiting for us than anything that can be found in this life. Think of the very best life you could imagine having on earth, then multiply the goodness and joy of that by a thousand, and you still haven’t even begun to touch what it will be like when we come into our eternal inheritance.

Let the Holy Spirit speak to you right now.

DOES JESUS HAVE AUTHORITY IN YOUR LIFE?

On By Pastor TomIn Bible, Bible Teaching, Faith, Jesus, Matthew, Podcast, Religion, SermonLeave a comment

jesus teaching in temple

We need to understand that Jesus didn’t welcome sinners simply because they were sinners – he welcomed them because they humbly recognized that they needed forgiveness, repented, and put all their hope in Him. They let him change their lives. They submitted to his authority.

To listen to the sermon, click the play button:

To download, right click on the link (or do whatever you do on a Mac) and save it to your computer:
Download Matthew Part 75

 

Matthew #75. Matthew 21:23-27

I trust that you have noticed as we’ve gone through Matthew 21, that there are certain themes running throughout the chapter. One, is that Jesus is becoming very deliberately confrontational towards the religious leadership in Jerusalem. He is doing so in order to force them to make a choice about him, a choice which he knows will end in his own crucifixion. A second theme is that even though Jesus is doing this in order to fulfill his mission to die for the sins of the world, everything he says and does is righteous. In other words, he is not wrong to confront the religious leaders in the way that he does. I think it is appropriate to take this even a step further, and say that not only is it not wrong, it is good and righteous. The things that he says to them need to be said. They are part of his mission, not only in the sense of forcing the religious leaders to make a choice, but also in that his words are truth that needed to be spoken, and later written down by his apostles. What I mean is, if we did not need to hear the same words today, the Holy Spirit would not have inspired Matthew and the other apostles to remember them.

During this second day of Jesus’ ministry, Jesus was found teaching in the temple. It is as he is teaching that the chief priests and elders – that is, the religious leaders – confront him and ask the question of the day: “By what authority are you doing these things? Who gave you this authority?”

These are the people who feel a certain amount of ownership of their own religion, and religious observance. Jesus entered the temple, and let little children sing praises to him. He caused a riot, driving out the money changers and livestock merchants. The feeling of the religious leaders is that he has come into their place, and is acting as if he owns it. Why does he get to decide that the moneychangers shouldn’t be there? Where does he get off, teaching that the people of Israel were not fulfilling the purpose for which God created them?

One thing we should know is that already by this point in history the Jewish people had begun to develop the habit of teaching by quoting “authority.” Suppose, for instance a rabbi (which simply means “teacher) was discussing the Sabbath. The rabbi might say: “The great Rabbi Hillel used to say about the Sabbath that the chief purpose of it is rest for the soul.” The rabbi would then go on discussing Hillel’s ideas, and perhaps offering quotes from other rabbis with different ideas, and maybe finally adding his own thoughts. Rabbis most definitely did not say things like: “This is what I think about the Sabbath.” They always quoted others; that is, they taught in reference to other “authorities.”

This was not how Jesus taught at all. Earlier in Matthew, we have a great deal of Jesus’ teaching, and we see that sometimes Jesus would even go out of his way to show that he was not quoting authorities. For instance, in the sermon on the Mount, several times, he said “You have heard it said…, But I say to you…”

So the religious leaders in Jerusalem are offended by Jesus’ style of teaching, in which he seems to regard himself as the authority, and also by the way he seemed to treat the temple as if it was his own house. By confronting him while he is teaching, the religious leaders are trying to expose him in front of those he is teaching. They’re trying to remind the listeners that he is not quoting authorities.

Jesus turns the question back on them. He asks, “Where did John’s baptism come from? From heaven or from men?”

I think it is likely that many people knew that John the Baptist, before his death, had endorsed Jesus. It is unclear how many people knew that they were relatives, but many of Jesus’ disciples had started out by following John the Baptist. In a way, this is a big endorsement of the ministry of John the Baptist. Jesus is saying that John’s ministry came from the same source as his own.

This caused a big problem for the religious leaders. Many people have forgotten it now, but John the Baptist sparked a movement that lasted for more than a generation. At this point in time, John, and his ministry, were still a very big deal. John the Baptist represented a significant religious and cultural movement within Judaism.

So, the elitist leaders are afraid to say “John the Baptist was not legitimately sent by God,” because they know that will make a lot of people very angry, and they might lose their power over the people. But if they say, “John was from God,” then they would have to explain why they didn’t listen to what John said about repentance, and even more importantly, what John said about Jesus.

Like the politicians they really are, the religious leaders give an evasive answer: “We don’t know.” So Jesus responds in kind: “If you won’t answer about John’s teaching, then I won’t answer about mine.”

Has it ever occurred to you to wonder why Jesus didn’t just answer them directly? Why wouldn’t he just say: “My authority comes from God”? Before this, he was trying to lay low and finish training the disciples, and so sometimes he was evasive or enigmatic. But at this point, he knows he has less than a week to live. Why not just come out and say it? I can imagine that perhaps Jesus wanted to make sure he wasn’t arrested until after he had eaten the Passover with his disciples. Even so, directly saying “My authority comes from God” would probably not have made them arrest him much faster than they did. As it turned out, they arrested him in secret, since they were afraid of the support he had from the ordinary people. I doubt it would have happened any differently if he had answered them directly at this point. So why did he take this approach with them?

I can think of one possible reasons. First, he may have done this in order to expose their own internal dishonesty. Rather than just answering the question, he made them think. His question forced them to become aware of the choice they were making about him, and what was going on in their hearts. They couldn’t pretend they were defending the sacredness of their own religion, or the temple. They had to decide: “Are we going to accept Jesus as sent from God, or not? Does God’s authority even matter to us in this case?”

They understood that if they accepted his authority as from God, they would have to listen to him and obey him. His question made them face that, and decide.

In all of this section of Matthew – almost a quarter of the book – Jesus often sounds harsh and confrontational. As I have said, there is a practical purpose to this, in that it led to his crucifixion. But we need to realize that these words are still relevant today. When people were humble, repentant and desperate, we see Jesus being gracious, loving and compassionate. But when he encountered people who wanted to live their own lives, who rejected his authority, he made them face their true attitudes, often by speaking in ways that seem harsh to us. Jesus still presents people with a choice today: Will you accept his authority in your life, or will you hedge your bets, stall, or evade the question?

These days, we still have religious hypocrites who reject the real work of Jesus in their lives. What I see here in the Southeastern USA, is that a large number of people attend church and claim to be Christians, but in reality, they live their lives however they please. They often don’t wield religious power, but they claim, to one degree or another, that they are people of faith in Jesus. However, when they are confronted with something that Jesus says through the scripture, like: “Don’t get drunk,” or “Don’t gossip and slander,” or “Don’t have sex outside of marriage,” or “Don’t pursue money or wealth,” they are like the religious leaders Jesus confronts. Their internal attitudes are: “Nobody has the authority to tell me how to live my life,” or, “Is that part of the Bible really even relevant anymore?”

When I read these verses in Matthew, I am reminded of a similar attitude toward the authority of God and his word to his people.

1Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree in the garden’? ”

2The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit from the trees in the garden. 3But about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God said, ‘You must not eat it or touch it, or you will die.’ ”

4“No! You will not die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5“In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Gen 3:1-5, HCSB)

From the beginning, Satan has been casting doubt on the authority and reliability of what God said. Like with Adam and Eve, like the religious leaders in Jesus’ day, he tempts us to listen and agree when the serpent whispers: “Did God really say that? Do you really have to pay attention to it? Actually, God is just trying to hold you back. You’ll be better off if you don’t pay attention.”

Some people read these parts of the gospels and think, “Jesus is taking down religious people. Go Jesus!” But the problem with these leaders is not that they are religious, but that they have rejected the authority of Jesus in their life. There are plenty of people in the workplace, in bars, at the gym, in our families, who are not religious, but who reject the authority of Jesus in their lives. They are just as proud and stubborn as the religious leaders during Jesus’ time.

We need to understand that Jesus didn’t welcome sinners simply because they were sinners – he welcomed them because they humbly recognized that they needed forgiveness, repented, and put all their hope in Him. They let him change their lives. They submitted to his authority. Unlike the religious leaders, they did not say: “Where do you get the authority to tell me how to live?” Instead, they said: “I need you, your love and forgiveness. Take my life and do whatever you want with it.”

Obviously, no one is perfect. Even those of us who generally are sincere about our faith often fail to live as Jesus wants us to. They key is what happens when Jesus confronts us about it through the scripture, or other believers who are sharing scriptures. Do we hedge, and say, “Do I really have to accept the authority of Jesus [through the Bible] in this matter?” Do we listen to the serpent? Or do we say, “I’m sorry Lord! Forgive me. You have the right to every part of my life.”

I don’t think we need to be afraid every minute that we might be rejecting the authority of Jesus. The religious leaders probably were not thinking consciously about what they were doing, but Jesus, by his question, drew their attention to it. He made sure that they understood the choice they were making. He will do the same for us – if we have a problem, He will make it clear.

Perhaps he is using this scripture passage, and this sermon, to make something clear to you right now. Is there some area of your life where you are tempted to reject the authority of Jesus? Is there some way in which you are saying, “Do I really have to pay attention to that part of the Bible?”

Before we close I want to remind us again that He is merciful and gracious, and loves to show compassion to those who humbly repent and receive him. With that in mind, let him speak to you about these things right now.