Authority Challenge

Amen. Hey, turn with me and your Bibles to Mark chapter 11. We are going to conclude chapter 11 this morning looking at verses 27 through 33. It's on page 1,078. If you're going to use one of the big blue Bibles that we have underneath the chair in front of you. Mark chapter 11 27 through 33. Here now God's holy and true Word. And they came again to Jerusalem and as he was walking in the temple, the chief priests and the scribes and the elders came to him and they said to him, by what authority are you doing these things or who gave you this authority to do them? Jesus said to them, I will ask you one question. Answer me and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. Was the baptism of John from heaven or from man? Answer me. And they discussed it with one another saying, if we say from heaven, he will say, why then did you not believe him? But shall we say from man? They were afraid of the people for they all held that John really was a prophet. So they answered Jesus, we do not know. And Jesus said to them, neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things. This is the Word of the Lord. Will you pray with me? Father, we do thank you for your Word and its power. And we thank you for the gospel. We thank you for the truth that what Christ has done, he did for sinners like us and for those of us who have received him by faith, we are righteous. We are forgiven. We are free. And so we praise your name. And we ask now that as we look at this confrontation between these religious leaders and Jesus that you would show us the majesty of our Lord Jesus, we pray that this would be a time where you equip us and excite us for taking the gospel to our neighbors and to the nations. For it is in Jesus name that we pray. Amen. About 12 or 13 years ago, somebody who was very close to me, a very good friend, shared something with me about me. No, it was not Hannah. And this person said, Matt, I'm pretty sure, yeah, pretty sure that you are the most conceded person I've ever met in my life. So there's that. And being so conceded, I was like, yeah, right, I'm awesome. I'm not conceded. And it was, it was a very interesting moment for me because this what it didn't come in anger. This person wasn't retaliating. They were just being honest and said that they as far as they knew that I was the most conceded person that they had ever met in their life. And I was like, well, how many people do you know? Because let's establish that. It's unbelievable how powerful it can be when somebody criticizes you and somebody tells you that there's something wrong with you or they point out something about you. That's not good. It's very hard. It's very heavy. And we every single one of us hates it. And it's interesting. In this situation today, we've got this confrontation between these religious leaders and Jesus. Jesus has not simply criticized them. He has flat out judged them in a very righteous and very hard core way. That's what we saw last week when we looked at him judging or cleansing the temple. And so the difference here is the religious leaders that were very judged by Jesus righteously. They were self-righteous religious people. They did not have faith in God. They had faith only in themselves. Their reaction is very interesting. And even though the vast majority of us have faith in Christ that we haven't put our faith in ourselves but our faith is in Christ. We can actually learn a lot. I think we can see ourselves in the way that they react. I know I can see myself. So that's what we're going to be looking at this morning. And ultimately what's so beautiful is this reality that the gospel sets us free from the crushing nature of criticism. The gospel liberates us from that crushing feeling that we often have when somebody points out our faults, points out things that we're doing wrong or things that are just plain wrong with us. Where we're headed this morning. And we're going to look at three things. We'll talk about defensiveness and a dearth of truth mainly because I've always wanted to use the word dearth in a sermon. And then depending on Jesus. Okay. So defensiveness, a lack of truth and depending on Jesus. Take a look at verse 27 and 28 to begin with this morning. And we're going to look at how the discrediting defensiveness of the religious leaders was really a byproduct of their self righteousness. Let me try that again. The religious leaders, discrediting defensiveness was a product of self righteousness. In other words, they were trusting in themselves, faith in themselves to be of value, to be of worth, to be acceptable to God. Take a look at 27. So they came to Jerusalem again and Jesus is walking in the temple and the chief priest and the scribes and the elders came to him. Now Mark says he's walking what we know is he's not just walking. He's walking and he's teaching. That's what teachers would do. They would walk in the courts of the temple and teach. So Jesus is in the temple, even though what he did the day before, which we'll talk about in a moment, he's just walking and he's teaching and they come up to him. These chief priests and these scribes and these elders and verse 28, they say, by what authority are you doing these things or who gave you this authority to do them? And the things that they're referring to may be a whole number of things across Jesus' whole ministry, but we know at the very least these things include what Jesus did in the previous passage, which we saw last week when Jesus burst into the temple and his flippant tables don't worry, I'm not going to do that again this week, but he was flippant tables and he was driving people out not letting people carry anything through the temple. And he said these very strong things, he said that this house, my house is supposed to be a prayer for all the nations and he says you've made it into a den of robbers, very, very strong judgment. And so that's what they're wondering, they're saying by what authority they're saying why are you doing this, what makes you think, what gives you the right to do this? They're actually exerting their own authority, by the way that they say this, basically what they're getting at is we are the ones in authority here, not you. So what in the world gives you the right to come in and judge us. And in asking him this, they're trying to discredit him, they're trying to show in their own minds at least that he doesn't have the authority to do such things. They're probably also hoping that he'll blaspheme, that they're probably hoping he'll say well my authority is from God and then they could have him arrested for blasphemy, but he's too smart for that. And so the reality is, these religious leaders are really looking to defend themselves, they're the ones who are really being judged because if he's judging what's happening in the temple, they're the ones who are in charge of what's happening in the temple. And so they are the ones who are being judged, now they're defending themselves and what's so interesting is that the method with which they seek to defend themselves is by trying to discredit Jesus' authority. Because if they can show or believe that he doesn't have the authority to do what he did, well then maybe they don't have to deal with the truth of what was going on in the temple. And it's so interesting if you think about it because we do this same thing. I was looking at this and I'm thinking oh man, I am so much like one of these chief priests or scribes or elders in the way that when somebody points out something that's wrong with me, I tend to try to discredit their authority and it usually sounds like this. Oh yeah, well you so on and so forth, right? Sound familiar? Right? We have this tendency to try to discredit what they've said by saying that you're a sinner too. You don't have the authority to say these things about me. It's so interesting that we do that. We feel like if we can discredit somebody's authority to speak truth, then we don't have to deal with that truth. So in reality we're actually not terribly all that different than these religious leaders in this situation. And then in the so interesting is the irony of it. The irony of defending righteousness. Defending our own righteousness because that's what we're doing when somebody criticizes us we usually don't realize that we're defending our own righteousness and the reality is God doesn't accept our righteousness because it's not good enough. We need righteousness from Christ, perfect righteousness, that we receive freely through faith. And so it's really ironic that we actually get defensive of our righteousness which God isn't looking at our righteousness to accept us. He's looking at Christ's. In fact Paul refers to his righteousness as garbage. If you want, you can turn to Philippians chapter 3 if you're quick with the sword drills. If you're not just listen. But in Philippians chapter 3, 2 through 11, Paul's talking about if anybody has reason to have confidence in the flesh or confidence in their own righteousness, it would be him because he was a very educated, very meticulous rulekeeper. His circumcised on the 8th day, a Hebrew of Hebrews, he's got this great resume of spiritual success. Yet he says whatever gain I had from those things from that righteousness, he says whatever gain I had I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. First indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, for His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law but that which comes through faith in Christ. So these religious leaders are challenging Jesus authority because he had challenged their righteousness, they're trying to defend their righteousness. Now they didn't have any because they didn't have faith but you and I have righteousness. And it's not from our activity, it's from Jesus we receive it through faith yet we try to defend ourselves and it's so ironic. Hannah and I when we go to visit her parents we drive by a landfill. And you always know when you're getting close to the landfill because your nose tells you and then your eyes tell you and see the birds circling. And you know based on what Paul is saying when we try to defend our own righteousness, it's literally like we're standing out in front of the landfill with a sword saying get back, I will die to protect this landfill and it's just ironic. But that's what we're doing. When we are trying to defend our own righteousness we're defending something that doesn't count with God. What only what counts is the righteousness, perfect righteousness that we receive through faith in Christ. Take a look at this. I think one of the big things that gets confusing is that we forget that justification is not sanctification. Justification is where we are declared righteous, we're forgiven of all of our sins and we're declared righteous that righteousness is imputed to us through faith. Faith doesn't save us Jesus does but we receive that salvation through faith. We receive justification forgiveness and righteousness sanctification is the process by which we become more like Christ. And the process by which we become more godly more holy and so here we have to make sure these are never intermingled because if they are it's not Christianity. And so you can think about it this way like when it comes to justification we're talking about our righteousness that through faith we are declared righteous. Sanification has to do with our holiness. In this case for the sake of argument here holiness and righteousness are not the same thing, righteousness is what God accepts. And we have no righteousness of our own that is actually acceptable to God. So we've got to receive it through faith. Holiness is the amount which we are like Jesus. Okay, different things. Righteousness is a yes or no. You are either righteous or not. It's like you are either alive or dead when you're in the hospital or when you're in the more rather the mortician is not saying well he's kind of in between you know no it's it's dead or alive right. And that's righteousness if you have faith you have righteousness if you don't you know. Holiness however is a more or less thing you are either more or less holy it's like being healthy or sick so as we are pursuing Christ and growing in our holiness by the power of the Holy Spirit we are becoming more healthy when we're ignoring holiness we're actually becoming more sick. And we receive justification through faith alone entirely on what Jesus has done and sanctification we grow in holiness through believing and through putting forth an effort. Okay, we don't drift into holiness that's why there's Jesus calls people to holiness all the scriptures call people to holiness but it's not for justification. It is for sanctification it is for becoming what God has designed us to be like him his image and we can't mix these together it is absolutely destructive and here's what's so interesting. A lot of times when somebody points out something about us that's not good a lot of times when somebody criticizes us what they're pointing out is a lack of holiness. But we tend to turn around and defend ourselves like they have just said we have a lack of righteousness which means we will not be accepted by God. That's what's so beautiful and powerful about the gospel if we have faith if we have repented of our sins and believed the gospel then we are declared righteous the answer is yes we are alive even when people acknowledge that we're not as holy as we could be or will be one day. This is absolutely critical if you're following Jesus that we see this clearly clearly clearly and so when we are resting in the righteousness of Christ and we know we have God's full acceptance no matter how holy or less holy we are that's when we're able to actually hear criticism and not be crushed. Because they're not talking about our acceptance with God they're talking about the fact that we're not yet perfect we're not yet exactly like Jesus even though we will be one day praise God. So this is a very important distinction and the reality is the reason that we tend to go to defcon for sometimes when people point out something that's wrong with us is because we feel like they're they're saying we are lacking righteousness but we're not. Now does that mean you should never defend yourself no no because what's really important what's really important when when something's recognized about us that isn't as good as it could be is what is the truth that's what's really important that's what really matters let's find out the truth and here's what's so interesting in this conversation these religious leaders have no interest in the truth. There is a dearth or a very strong lack of truth in this confrontation take a look at verse 29 through 33 I want you to see here that there's two dominant influences on the fallen nature okay two dominant influences pride and fear pride and fear and they shine in this passage in these self righteous religious leaders take a look 29 Jesus asked them he says I will ask you one question answer me and I will tell you by what authority I do these things was the best. What was the baptism of John from heaven in other words authorized by God or from man in other words just you know some guy in the wilderness who didn't know he was doing okay is it from God from heaven or was it from man answer me and now what we need to remember is that John the Baptist was a prophet he was baptizing people in the wilderness he baptized Jesus and it's most likely that when Jesus asks this question John's ministry not just the moment that he baptized Jesus he's probably referring to him as one of God's prophets which is what we see later in the passage okay and so remember that John the Baptist was was a prophet but he was also the one who said that Jesus was the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world John the Baptist was the one who said that there would come one mightier than him of whom he's not even worthy to stoop down and untie his sandal and he was talking about Jesus. John the Baptist is the one who said that while he was baptizing people with water Jesus would baptize people with the Holy Spirit in other words if they're going to affirm that John was a prophet they are going to by default affirm that Jesus has authority because he's even greater. So there in what we call a pickle take a look 31 they discuss it they discuss it with one another and saying if we say from heaven he will say why then did you not believe him okay in other words if they say yes John was really a prophet we know John spoke of you and so Jesus would be able to say that's where I get my authority to same place John gets it why are you guys not bowing down and submitting right to do that they would have to they would have fun. They would have to go against their pride they would have to admit that they're horrifically wrong so they can't do that so what's the other option so one other option from man can they say that take a look. It says verse 32 but shall we say from man says they were afraid of the people for they all held that John really was a prophet and in Luke's gospel he expands upon their fear and tells us about this situation that they were afraid of the crowd not only afraid of the crowd but afraid that the crowd actually stone them to death. So they are very worried that if they say that John was not a prophet then all these people most of whom were probably baptized by John in the Jordan might pick up stones and start throwing them at them. So Jesus they answered to Jesus then 33 they give this week week answer a non-answer 33 so they answered Jesus we do not know and Jesus said to them neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things. You want to know it's awesome here by the way this is so brilliant and amazing because they came with the intention of discrediting the authority of Jesus right. Okay and Jesus totally turns the tables again this time metaphorically at least and it is this amazing moment where because they are so bound up by their pride and by their fear they have to give this non-answer and in doing so these are this is the Sanhedrin the chief priest and the scribes of the elders if anybody in Israel is supposed to be able to say whether or not John the Baptist was a prophet it's them and they say we don't know. So while they were trying to discredit Jesus authority he totally blew their authority out of the water okay you do not mess with Jesus right amazing love it okay so but think about this what are the two dominant influences in their answer pride we can't admit we're wrong and fear we don't want to get hurt what is completely absent from their equations the truth. The truth they do not care about what is true they are not stopping to say you guys I know we don't want to look bad and I know we don't want to get hurt but let's let's look at what's true that is not happening right and so there you have it there being influenced by their pride and by their fear and these men again are totally self righteous they don't have faith but even you and I who have faith we are still influenced by our pride we hate to be wrong. And we're dominated by our fear as well and it prevents us from stepping back and saying what is true particularly when somebody is pointing out something wrong in us we have a hard time stepping back and saying what is true we don't realize how biased we are. If you watch cable news you may watch a lot of Fox news you may watch a lot of CNN and you might watch the Memphis NBC two but everybody knows I think everybody knows that Fox news is very conservative that's not a secret right we know that right okay and CNN is fairly liberal okay here's what's funny Fox news constantly says that they're fair and balanced right and they're totally fair and they're totally balanced if you're conservative right if you're liberal then that's it's very frustrating if frustrating same thing with CNN. CNN doesn't say that they're fair and balanced but they act as if you know that they're reporting and they don't recognize neither of them tend to recognize that they're biased one is conservative one is liberal and so sometimes that affects the way that they tell stories the way that they present things there is a bias and we can see it but the reality is you and I tend to have a bias as well we are always going to be biased towards self promotion because we struggle with pride and self protection because we don't like to be ostracized or get hurt and this devalues the truth and it prevents us from really growing and learning from a situation in which we are shown something that is not right about us or when there's somebody shows us a lack of our holiness and that's why it's so important that we let what Christ has done on the cross reign that we believe that if we have repented of our sin and we've received Christ as our savior then we truly are declared righteous we're forgiven of all of our sins and we truly are righteous and that banner of righteousness is always over us and that way we can stop and look at what is true when someone is pointing out something about us that needs to be better or can change. Here's something to think about. We have a fear of being called to holiness sometimes and it's because we forget that we're not being called to righteousness we receive that by faith and I think we tend to forget that we do want holiness and that there's the Holy Spirit empowers us for growing in holiness. Listen to this from JC Ryle he says finally let us never be ashamed of making much of sanctification and contending for a high standard of holiness while some are satisfied with a miserable, miserably low degree of attainment and others are not ashamed to live on without any holiness at all content with a mere round of church going and chapel going but never getting on like a horse in a mill. Let us stand fast in the old paths and follow after imminent holiness ourselves and recommend it boldly to others this is the only way to be really happy. Let us feel convinced that whatever others may say that holiness is happiness. You know a lot of the things that I get frustrated about a lot of things that make me sad in my life it's the same for you it really is a matter of a lack of holiness in my life and if I'm not able to look at the truth I'm not going to begin working towards growing in holiness in those areas and so when we understand that God wants holiness for us because he loves us and it's part of our joy in him that is very very helpful. You know it's even it's even in our in our membership vows realize this this morning in our membership vows number three is this do you resolve and promise in humble reliance upon the grace of the Holy Spirit that you will endeavor to live as becomes the followers of Christ that's basically after we've talked about the righteousness do you believe you are righteous in Christ those are the first couple questions and then the third question is will you pursue holiness and the purpose of it is God's glory and our enjoyment of him and we need to understand this distinction it has to be really rooted so that when I as your pastor or when a life group leader or when a ministry leader or one of the other pastors when we point out areas and when we're talking about areas where we can grow in holiness the response is not we're just a legalist if somebody is saying to you you need to be better and do more or you will not be righteous okay then you can say you are a legalist but if somebody calls us to holiness we've got to be a church where we're comfortable calling each other to holiness because that's where our happiness in God lives you see that

okay and that's why it's so incredibly important for us to understand that distinction between justification sanctification and to rest rest rest celebrate and sing that we are righteous in Christ and with that strength we can look at the areas that we're not as holy so what do we do when when criticism comes in when somebody points out something that's wrong with us the self-righteous religious leaders went all defensive and they got themselves in a bind we can do things very differently here are four things that I want to be trying to do as a church came across these kind of in a couple different sources but I think it's very helpful and I've heard some of these things before and when I try to apply these things things are different in my life and I think it'll be the same for you to so here it is number one as justified sinners when we are criticized when somebody points out a lack of holiness while we're resting in our righteousness and Christ okay when somebody criticizes us we can assume that at least some of the criticism has merit if you're like me when somebody criticizes me a lot of times I'm like not gonna hear it you know you just like you won't even listen to it right well we need to stop and look for the truth we need to stop and say okay there may actually be some real valid criticism I need to repent I need to strive to grow in holiness okay so assume that the criticism has at least some merit number two don't demand the benefit of the doubt this is so funny like we know we're all sinners yet sometimes when somebody says that we're a sinner we're like you think I'm a sinner you know in that funny like how ironic is that we want we demand the benefit of the doubt that people should assume that we aren't sinners okay but we are we are justified sinners but we're sinners okay number three don't demand send list self controlled delivery okay how many times have somebody come to you and said something you but they're mad when they said Why did you do that again? I can't believe you did that and you're like, well, you're mean, so I don't have to listen to you, right? It's like, again, you're discrediting their authorities. Like you're saying, because you didn't sinlessly deliver that information to me, it doesn't count, right? Not everybody can lovingly say, I think you're the most conceited person I've ever met in my entire life. Do you need a hug? Okay, it doesn't always come that way, but it doesn't make it any less valid, right? Number four, we can explore unmerited criticism. Sometimes people are going to say things about us that aren't true, we want to be after the truth, right? That's important. And the reality is, if it's not true, we want to get that established, and we want to explore why did that person think that I had this lack of holiness, you know, just at least for the sake of the relationship. Okay, so those are four things that we can do, and it's all about making sure that there's no dearth of truth in the way that we respond to people pointing out things that we've done wrong or things that we're doing wrong, because the truth sets people what? Free. John 8.32, Jesus says, you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. What's beautiful is the truth is a person and his name is Jesus Christ. So our pride and our fear do not have to dominate when we're criticized. We can actually look for the truth as we rest in the righteousness we have in Christ. It shows you the absolute importance of the cross, and this is what gets our eyes on the cross. So let's talk about depending on Jesus, finally here this morning, depending on Jesus, look at verse 27 again, and what we want to realize and remember is that Jesus never failed at anything. So we can truly depend on him, both for the free gift of righteousness and for the power for growing in holiness. He never failed at anything and he's dependable. We can totally depend on him. Look at verse 27. It says, and they came again to Jerusalem. I love that he points out that they came again. I'll tell you why in a second. Also, he mentions the chief priest and the scribes and the elders. Why is this so important? Because in the last few days, this is the third time that Jesus has entered Jerusalem. And it's his final time. Three times now, he's entered Jerusalem. The first was on Palm Sunday. We looked at that a few Sundays ago when Jesus rode in on the donkey as king. The second time, and then after that, they went back to Bethany and they slept that night. Then they went back in the next day and that's when Jesus cleansed or cursed the temple and then they went back to Bethany and slept out there that night. And then now they're coming in a third time. Why is it so beautiful and powerful that this is the third time they're entering Jerusalem because Jesus gave three predictions that he would suffer and die for you and me. One in chapter eight, one in chapter nine, one in chapter 10. Listen to the one from chapter eight. You'll recognize some characters. 831, he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed. And after three days, rise again. He said it was gonna happen. And now in this moment, his third trip into Jerusalem, reminding us that he predicted three times that he was gonna do this for us. He is dependable. He does not fail. He has not failed. We can always depend on that righteousness being there. Always. One of my favorite movies is about an asteroid that's headed towards the earth. And NASA decides that they need to send up some oil drillers to land on the back of the asteroid and drill a hole in it and put a bomb in there so that it blows up and doesn't hit the earth. It's just totally realistic. And they do this. They go up there and the main character of this guy named Harry, he's this long time oil driller with tons of experience just knows what he's doing. So what happens is they get up there and they land and they do drill the hole and they put the bomb down there. And everything seems to be going fine. But then they're trying to leave and they realize that the remote detonation system is broken. And what that means is that one of them is gonna have to stay behind and sacrifice his life so that everyone else on the space shuttle as well as on the planet can be saved. And so Harry decides that he's gonna be the person to do that. And so while they are all leaving in the space shuttle, Harry is on his way to go and press the button. Well, there was some turbulence on this asteroid. You know, asteroid turbulence. And he fell and he wasn't able to get to the button as fast as they had expected. So they're flying away and they're all looking back waiting for this thing to explode because if it doesn't explode in the right amount of time, it's still gonna hit the earth and kill everybody. So they're getting closer and closer and Harry hasn't pressed the button yet. And so the pilot starts to get really worried. He starts saying we've gotta go back. We've gotta do it ourselves. I'm turning this thing around and Harry's guys are saying, no, no, no, he's gonna do it. Just wait one more minute. And the guy behind the wheel of the shuttle kept saying, no, I'm gonna go back and then right as he's about to turn the shuttle back, AJ sitting there, totally calm, totally at peace. He says, Harry will do it. I know he will. He doesn't know how to fail. And in just a moment after that, boom. Harry gave his life to save the world. And the cross is the constant reminder that Jesus is the true and better Harry, who really gave his life to pay for our sin and to give us his righteousness. So that even when we struggle with holiness, we know that God fully accepts us nonstop all day, every day. And we can sit back and be calm in the face of criticism and in the face of realizing that we've got room to grow in holiness because we can say Jesus has done it. We know he has. He doesn't know how to fail. Amen? Let's pray. Father, our lack of holiness drives us from you

because we're scared. And Jesus ran to us because of our lack of righteousness and because of our lack of holiness. And so would you let our lack of holiness begin to be what drives us to you day after day and that we would sing about our righteousness as we strive for more holiness. And would you help us find that happiness that comes from being more like you, more like our king who died to set us free? And would you help us to be a church that makes so much of Christ, we can't help but to also make so much of holiness? We pray these things for your glory, for our good and for the gospel's advance to the nations in Jesus' name, amen.