The Authority of Jesus

That's Mark chapter 11. We're going to read from verse 11 to the end of the chapter.

Mark 11 · chapter mention

Let's hear God's word together.

Jesus entered Jerusalem and went to the temple.

He looked around at everything, but since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.

The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry.

Seeing in the distance a fig tree and leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit.

When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs.

Then he said to the tree, may no one ever eat fruit from you again.

And his disciples heard him say it.

On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple area and began driving out those who were buying and selling there.

He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves.

I would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts.

And as he taught them, he said, is it not written, my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations, but you have made it a den of robbers.

The chief priests and the teachers of the law heard this and began looking for a way to kill him, for they feared him, because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching.

When evening came, they went out of the city.

In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots.

Peter remembered and said to Jesus, Rabbi, look, the fig tree you cursed has withered.

Have faith in God, Jesus answered.

I tell you the truth.

They arrived again in Jerusalem.

And while Jesus was walking in the temple courts, the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders came to him.

By what authority are you doing these things, they asked.

And who gave you authority to do this?

Jesus replied, I will ask you one question.

Answer me and I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things.

John's baptism.

Was it from heaven or from men?

Tell me.

They discussed it among themselves and said, if we say from heaven, he will ask, then why didn't you believe him?

But if we say from men?

They feared the people.

For everyone held that John really was a prophet.

So they answered Jesus, we don't know.

Jesus said, neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.

We are continuing to follow Jesus' journey to the cross.

Here is Jesus, the king.

The king who comes with authority.

And we're going to see that he uses his authority both to confront some and to comfort others.

Just as we begin, we probably recognize that questions of identity and authority sometimes go together.

Maybe you remember using words like these, who are you, to tell me what to do.

Perhaps you've heard them spoken to you by somebody else.

Well, back in 2017, those very same words were uttered in a court down in England in Canterbury.

An angry defendant was in the court and he was scuffling with some security guards.

And he was in the middle of an angry tirade.

And the judge asked him to be quiet and show order in court.

And the man responded, who are you to tell me what to do?

The judge's response was this, I'm the judge and I am tasked with maintaining the dignity in court.

And he ended up in jail for two weeks.

Recognizing the authority of a person can be very important.

What we see in the Pharisees and the religious leaders is that they often use this kind of, who are you, language.

Who do you think you are, Jesus?

Jesus, verse 28, by what authority are you doing these things?

One of the reasons Mark writes his gospel, one of the themes that keeps coming through in the words of Jesus,

is that he is the one who is from heaven.

Mark begins, this is the gospel about the Son of God.

And therefore, he has absolute authority.

And so we're going to see how Jesus uses this authority, first of all, in confronting the false worship in the temple.

And then to bring some words of comfort.

So first thing, Jesus can use his authority to confront us.

Look at verse 11.

Here we see Jesus entering Jerusalem and journeying to the temple.

Now, lots of people at this time of the year were journeying as pilgrims.

It was time for the Passover feast.

Jesus isn't like all the other pilgrims.

He's coming as the Lord of the temple, coming to inspect it.

And what Jesus is going to do is he is going to use his authority to confront those in charge in the temple for robbing God.

And we're going to hear him confront us about robbing God.

So he arrives in the temple.

It's late.

He goes back out to Beth.

And then he comes back in the next day.

And as he's on his way, verses 12 to 14, we see Jesus and this encounter with the fig tree.

And we get a parable of the fig tree.

What's going on here?

As Jesus sees this fig tree with leaves, but there's no fruit, and he curses it.

He's trying to make a point about the temple in Jerusalem.

Here is a fig tree that flatters to deceive.

Here is a fig tree that looks good, but fails to deliver.

And so Jesus curses it.

Verse 14, may no one never eat fruit from you again,

in order to make a powerful point about the temple that he's about to revisit.

Some things look good, but they flattered to deceive.

This week in the news, there was the story of the new Samsung folding phone.

I don't know if you saw the reports.

This really expensive, £1,800 for a phone that has a folding screen.

Well, a number of reviewers were given it, and a number of those reviewers smashed said folding phone.

So poor Samsung are left with something that looks great,

but is fundamentally flawed.

And they're back to the drawing board.

Well, something much more serious is happening here as Jesus enters the temple.

Jesus entered the temple, verse 15, and began driving out those who were buying and selling.

He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves.

This temple that looked glorious on the outside, on the inside,

had become little more than a marketplace.

Trading in items for sacrifice.

Here is a people who are going through the motions of worship,

but their hearts were far from God.

An accusation that Jesus had leveled against them previously.

Jesus, in verse 16, actually describes the people that he meets

as those who have turned the temple, verse 17, into a den of robbers.

And he borrows that language from Jeremiah chapter 7.

Jeremiah 7 · chapter mention

In Jeremiah's day, there were people in Israel who were murdering,

who were oppressing the poor, who were worshipping false idols.

But they'd still turn up at the temple on the Sabbath day,

and they'd still bring their offerings, and they'd presume that they were right with God.

And God sent Jeremiah to expose the folly of their hearts then,

and Jesus is exposing the folly of religiosity now.

Like the fig tree, there was no fruit of righteousness.

In the temple, the worship was dead.

Inside, though outside, the building looked great.

So bad is it that they're even preventing other nations from worshipping.

For the sake of money and profit,

they've turned the part of the temple that was,

so that non-Jewish people could come and worship God.

That had now become the prime marketplace,

denying people access to the worship of God.

So how does Jesus respond?

Well, Jesus confronted this abuse of the temple.

Jesus comes as the Lord of the temple to clear it out,

to drive out those who are robbing God of his glory.

To deliver the same curse that came on the fig tree.

If you don't change, if there's no repentance,

then the same will happen to this temple

as happened to the fig tree,

which happened just 30 or so years later.

The people were robbing God of honour,

and Jesus comes as one who has great zeal

for the honour of God.

And so he uses his authority as God's king

to confront this abuse.

This isn't just a historic issue.

Jesus' authority, Jesus' words, confront us too.

Some of the guys in this church

are doing a thing called the spiritual decathlon,

which doesn't involve any physical exercise.

It's about spiritual exercises.

And one of the things that that's trying to hammer home

in the early days is that spiritually,

it's so very easy for us to be short-sighted.

It's so very easy for us to find our joy in lesser things,

to be satisfied when we have a career that we enjoy,

a family that we enjoy,

sufficient wealth or education to make life comfortable.

We can easily lose sight and be blinded

to the greater glory of Jesus,

that our hearts can be content,

so long as we have money in our wallet

and a smartphone in our pocket

and a few friends to spend time with.

We can be guilty of robbing God of his honor

and his glory when our hearts run to other things

rather than to the living God.

How do we fix that kind of blaming?

I think it's as we look, meditate on

what God has done for us in Jesus.

Remember, this is Jesus on his journey to the cross.

It's as we remember the love and the sacrifice of Jesus,

that's what melts our hearts,

that's what causes us to have true joy

when we understand that God has done all this for us

so that we might know him

and have eternal life with him.

So just as it was for the people then,

we need to be careful that we are not robbing God.

There's another way that Jesus uses his authority

to confront the people then and to confront us.

That's in verse 27 to 33.

There's the danger about rejecting Jesus himself.

So Jesus has just cleared out the temple.

He just cleansed the temple out of concern for God's glory.

But the chief priests and the teachers of the law

came to him.

Verse 28,

By what authority are you doing these things?

Who gave you the authority to do them?

So to clear the temple required God's authority.

This was a well-established pattern

that came from the religious leaders

that you could buy and sell

and you could trade in the temple courts.

And they're wondering,

well, who are you, Jesus?

To break up what's been a long-established pattern.

Ultimately, the religious leaders

don't see Jesus as the Son of God.

They don't see Jesus as God's Christ.

And so they don't recognize

that his word should have any weight over theirs.

And that way, they're very like a man

ignoring the honor and position

of a judge in his own court.

It's the height of pride and folly

that we see from these men.

So they challenged Jesus' authority

and Jesus uses a question of his own

to challenge them.

In verse 29,

I will ask you one question.

The question, John's baptism,

was it from heaven or was it from men?

What's Jesus doing here?

Jesus is tying his own authority

and his own mission to that of John the Baptist.

What did John the Baptist come to do?

John came to announce,

here is the time to repent.

Here is the time to get ready

for God's promised king.

He is coming.

The kingdom of God is near.

And then as Jesus arrived on the scene,

John the Baptist announced him

as the Lamb of God

who takes away the sin of the world.

John who said,

I must become less

so that he must become great.

The religious leaders are left

in a difficult position.

They don't want to deny

that John came from heaven

because the people won't put up with it.

They don't want to say from men.

The people will get really upset

if he's from heaven.

Why didn't the people listen

to John the Baptist?

So they're left in a quandary

and they're unable to do anything.

They value their position over truth.

So they won't answer.

They don't answer.

But the result for them

is that they are unwilling to accept John

and they were unwilling to accept Jesus.

And so like that fig tree,

they stand under the curse of God

unless they are willing to repent.

Jesus is too important a figure

to ignore.

There is this tension in Jesus' journey

to Jerusalem and the cross

about his identity.

Who is Jesus?

Will the people trust in him?

Will they see that he is the one

who is sent from heaven

in order to save them?

How does Jesus' authority

confront us on that issue?

Well, it's the same, isn't it?

We still all have to reckon

with the identity of Jesus.

Who do we say Jesus is?

We need to make a decision

on his identity

because when we read the Gospels

for any length of time,

we discover that he is just too important.

His claims are too big

that we can simply put him to one side

as someone of marginal importance.

Either he's telling the truth,

in which case we need to listen

as he talks about being the son of God

and the only savior,

the only way to know God,

or we can call him a liar,

but we cannot remain apathetic.

Last week was Easter Sunday.

Easter Sunday, we were remembering

that Jesus is the one

who claimed that he would die

and then claimed that he would be raised to life.

And then we thought about the empty tomb.

We thought about the fact

that there was no dead body.

The fact that there were numerous eyewitnesses

to the risen Lord Jesus.

We saw the transformed life of his followers,

all pointing to Jesus' ultimate authority.

So if we have questions today

about the identity of Jesus,

you're not sure who this man is,

please read the Gospels.

Discover for yourself his compassion,

his mercy, and his love.

Hear his words of truth

that are unlike any other.

See his sacrifice

and hear the promise of forgiveness

forgiveness and eternal life

that comes from him.

Because what we see in the story

of the religious leaders

is that to reject Jesus

is to be on the outside of the kingdom.

It doesn't matter how religious they were

because they wanted nothing to do with Jesus.

They were outside of God's kingdom.

And so we don't want to be in that place.

Rather, we want to lovingly hear,

hear this loving invitation of Jesus,

who welcomes us in to God's kingdom,

to God's family,

through trusting in him.

So Jesus used his authority to confront,

but he also uses his authority

to comfort us.

The first way he does this

is in verse 17,

where he gives us this reminder

that he provides our way

to know and enjoy God.

As Jesus is clearing the temple,

driving out the money changers,

he says,

is it not written,

my house will be called

a house of prayer for all nations.

What's happened in the temple

is it's now a million miles away

from God's original intention,

from the temple,

and for the people of Israel.

From the very beginning,

as God decided to establish

a people for his own glory,

and he called Abraham,

he told Abraham that

one of your seed will be a blessing

to the nations.

Abraham's family was to be a blessing

to the nations.

The nation of Israel

in the Old Testament

was to function as a light

to the nations.

Light as opposed to darkness,

revealing the truth about God,

again, to be a blessing

to the surrounding nations.

That Isaiah 56

that Jesus is quoting from here

of verse 17.

It is a gospel message of hope

for those who would be considered

outsiders to God's kingdom,

including foreign nations.

So Jesus is reminding the people

that God's original intention

for his redeeming purposes

is that he would use Israel

to draw people in.

Jesus comes as the true Israel

to draw all nations

to himself.

So as Jesus is confronting some

about abuse in the temple,

he's also comforting others.

How?

Because the goal of temple clearing

is so that the Gentiles

will be able to worship God

at Passover.

Previously, there's no access

because there's no room

because there's all these animals

and things getting sold.

But now there's space,

so now non-Jewish people

can come and can worship God.

Jesus creates the way

for us to know God.

And remember,

this is all happening

at the time of Passover.

Passover,

when the people had been slaves

in Egypt

and God had announced

that he was going to deliver them

and give them freedom

so that they might become

his people.

And God's people, Israel,

were told,

in order to escape

the judgment of God

that would fall on Egypt,

they had to sacrifice

the Passover lamb.

God's judgment

passed over their houses

and their families.

And what does Jesus come to do?

Jesus comes to die

at Passover,

to be the true Passover lamb,

the one who dies

in our place

so that the judgment

of God against our sin

might pass over us

and fall on him.

And now this is open,

not just to Jewish people,

now this is open

to all of the nations

because of Jesus.

Jesus who comes

into the world

not just to be

the true Passover lamb,

also to be the true temple.

What was the temple?

The temple was the place

where people could come

to meet with God,

to worship God.

And Jesus announces

that he is

now the way

to know

and to meet

with God.

God.

I was out

at the start of the week

having a walk

with a friend

and he was asking me,

why doesn't your church

do confession

like the Catholic church does?

And it gave me a chance

to talk about the fact

that Jesus

gives us something special.

Jesus gives us

direct access

to God.

The fact that we don't

need a priest

because Jesus has come

to be the great high priest.

We don't need

intermediaries

because now

we have access

to God

in heaven.

So Jesus has opened

up this way

for anybody

to know

and enjoy

God.

So how can we respond

to this truth?

Well, since Jesus

has come

as the true temple,

announcing judgment

on a corrupted temple,

let's seek

to lay aside

our idols,

those things

that keep us

from worshiping

and valuing God

above all else.

Let's repent

of that

and seek

to give our hearts

and our worship

over to him.

And let's enjoy

the access

that we have

to the one true God.

Sometimes we take

that for granted

or we forget

the privilege

that we have.

We've got an incredible

right of access

through Jesus.

And since Jesus

is our sacrifice,

since he has dealt

once for all

with our sins

of our faith

is in him,

then we can be honest

with him

about the fact

that we are

unclean

and impure,

that we do sin,

that we do fail,

and we trust

that Jesus

gives cleansing

and so we accept

that washing.

And there's also

a responsibility,

I think,

for us as a church

in light of this

to be open

and welcoming,

to recognize

that just as God's desire

is that the nations

would be brought in

to worship,

so as a church,

as a community

of God's people,

we ought to be open

and welcoming

to those

who want to hear

the truth for themselves,

to be careful

not to put barriers

in the way,

that we want to both

invite people in

but we also want

to go out

with the good news

of Jesus,

to be sending

and supporting people

both in local mission

and in global mission.

There's a second way

that Jesus uses

his authority

to comfort us,

not just in giving us

access,

wonderful access

to know and enjoy God,

but also he gives us

the gift of prayer,

verse 22 to 25,

and not just any prayer.

By faith,

we have this gift

of mountain-moving prayer.

Have faith in God,

Jesus answered.

I tell you the truth.

If anyone says

to this mountain,

go throw yourself

into the sea

and does not doubt

in his heart

but believes

that what he says

will happen,

it will be done for him.

Jesus is calling us

to confidence

confident,

faith-filled prayer,

confident in the

faithfulness of God,

confident in the

goodness of God,

confident in the

power of God.

Now we see some

examples of this

all the way

through the Bible.

We can maybe think

of when Peter

was in prison

in the book of Acts

and the church

gathered to pray

earnestly to God

for Peter's release.

What happened?

At midnight,

an angel came,

the chains were loosed,

the door was opened

and Peter walked free.

Or we can think

about Jairus

asking Jesus

to come and heal

and save his daughter

so she might live.

It was a prayer

of faith,

no other hope

other than hoping

in Jesus.

Over Easter weekend,

we were thinking

about the thief

on the cross.

His was a prayer,

a cry of faith.

Lord, remember me

when you come

into your kingdom

and Jesus promised

today you'll be

with me in paradise.

Maybe you like to read

Christian biographies,

the likes of George Mueller

who set up

Barnardo's,

the orphanages,

and how so often

in the story

of that movement

he had to pray

for food for the next day

or funds were empty,

people needed to be paid,

buildings needed

to be looked at,

and they would pray

for funds

and God always provided.

There are lots of examples

of faith-fueled prayer.

And we have a promise

from Jesus

that this kind of prayer

and this kind of access

to God's power

is ours.

One of the reasons

why the Lord's prayer

begins with a focus on God,

you know,

begins,

our Father in heaven,

your kingdom come,

your will be done,

is it reminds us

who we are speaking to.

And as we remember

who we are speaking with,

the Lord of the universe,

the creator and sustainer

of all things,

and that increases

our faith

in the one

we are making

our appeal to,

it strengthens

our asking.

And so we're called

to have faith,

Jesus said,

have faith in God,

get to know God

and his character,

and that will strengthen

our resolve

to pray.

So Jesus gives us

this gift of prayer

that we have access

to God as Father,

and he says there are

two things that this

effective prayer needs.

It needs, first of all,

faith,

but also in verse 25,

it needs forgiveness.

When you stand praying,

if you hold anything

against anyone,

forgive him

so that your Father

in heaven may forgive you

your sins.

We need faith,

but we also need to be

willing to forgive

others.

Why is that important?

Last week,

I was watering the garden,

lovely sunny week,

last week.

So I was watering the garden,

but we haven't used

the hose for a while.

You may have discovered

this,

that sometimes there's

kinks that you find

in your hose,

or perhaps there's knots

if people have been

playing with it

a little bit too much.

What happens when

there's kinks

or there's knots

in your hose?

There's no water supply.

You turn the tap on

all you want,

but there's a blockage.

And Jesus is reminding us

that bitterness,

a lack of forgiveness,

an unwillingness

to be reconciled

to someone,

it is like that knot.

It's like that kink.

It's a barrier

to effective prayer.

And so Jesus is saying

we need to act fast

to untangle

those knots.

We need to seek

to be reconciled

so that our praying

might be effective.

Now,

how might this teaching

on prayer

change our lives?

Well,

doesn't it give us

a really positive incentive

to pray

when we remember

the access to God

that we have

and the power

that God has

and his willingness

to answer?

It helps us

to recognize

prayer isn't just

a duty,

it's also the great

blessing that we have

as God's people.

It was Martin Luther,

the great reformer,

who used to get up

super early to pray

and he said,

I'm too busy

not to pray.

It reminds us

to be dependent

on God,

it reminds us

to have faith

in God's provision,

in God's purposes.

Jesus' teaching

reminds us

to invite God in,

into our situation,

the big things

and the little things,

to invite God in,

not to be self-reliant,

but to remember

the gift of prayer,

to take opportunities

to pray

as a church,

in your home,

all through your day,

as families,

as friends.

A few weeks ago,

we looked at

the prayer of the man

whose boy

was possessed

by an evil spirit

and he prayed,

I do believe,

Jesus,

that you can help,

help my unbelief.

It's a prayer

that can be really

important for us

as we seek to have

the kind of effective

prayer life

that enjoys

relationship with God

and sees prayers answered

like Jesus is talking

about here.

So here is Jesus

on his journey

to the cross

and we're reminded

once again

that he is the king

with absolute authority.

How did he use

that authority?

Not like so many

other leaders.

He didn't use

that authority

to get rich.

He didn't use it

to exploit the weak.

He didn't use it

to make sure

that he could show

up power for himself.

Rather,

we find him again

deliberately going

on his journey

to the cross

so that people like us,

people who rob

God of his glory,

people who worship

the wrong thing,

people who have said

to him,

who are you

to tell me

what to do,

might be welcomed,

might be honoured,

might be forgiven

by God

when we place

our trust

in Jesus,

God's true king.