The Wisdom & Authority of Christ | Mark 11:27-33 | Pastor Daniel Batarseh (Gospel of Mark Bible Study Series)

Before we begin and Mark, I want to turn your attention to

something and just share a few truths here in preparation for

the main message. And so don't turn to Mark just

yet, but meet me in Romans chapter one very quickly.

And these thoughts that I am going to share with you blessed

me tremendously and prayerfully. I hope they will bless you

equally, if not more. I want you to see what Paul says

to these believers that he's never met before.

It's here in verse eight, he says First, I thank my God

through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is

proclaimed in all the world. That's powerful.

Paul traveled to many ancient cities, Rome being obviously the

capital of the world, really at that time.

And wherever Paul went among the believers, they were talking

about these Roman Christians. Their faith was shared, their

faith was recognized, their faith was celebrated even by

other believers. It inspired them.

And how could it not? You're talking about a

collection of Christ followers in the heathen city of Rome,

where church history would tell us just in a few years after

this would be great persecution against believers in Jesus

Christ. And despite all of that, these

Roman Christians and their piety was providing strength to other

believers. And Paul here commends that he

celebrates that. You know it's good from time to

time to encourage other believers about their influence

on other believers, even if that's you.

Paul didn't neglect that concept of encouragement of actually

telling another believer. You inspire me.

You inspire others. I hear from others about your

walk with the Lord, your devotion to the Lord, your

service to the church. It's a blessing.

Paul's doing that here, right the outset of his letter.

But interestingly, in commending their faith, he repeats it in a

similar way at the end of this very same epistle.

So go to Romans 16 and notice something with me in verse 19 of

Romans 16. Isn't that an awesome sound that

you're hearing right now? Do you hear that?

You know, somebody called us because we get calls from time

to time who watch us online. And one of the things that they

observed in watching our live services is that they hear the

Bible pages flipping. And they said he hasn't heard

that in such a long time. So I just have to share that.

There we go. I'm, I'm doing what Paul's

doing. Be encouraged.

But look at Romans 1619 now, for your obedience is known to all,

so that I rejoice over you. But I want you to be wise as to

what is good and innocent, as to what is evil.

So he almost echoes what he says in Romans 18.

But he says something different now.

He says for your, not your faith, your obedience, your

obedience is known to all. Is he speaking about something

different here? I think indirectly Paul is

teaching us about what true faith looks like.

Obedience is inseparable from true saving faith.

If you have true saving faith, you're going to walk in

obedience. So the faith that was praised by

these neighboring churches was not a praise about their mere

confession or their profession, but their practice.

How they lived as a result of their faith is what inspired the

other believers. And here's the thing that's

important to keep in mind. True saving faith not only leads

to and produces a life of obedience, but it's a life of

obedience that should be recognized by others, he says.

Your faith is known across the world.

Your obedience is known to all. True saving faith will produce

obedience, and that obedience will be so evident and obvious.

Maybe not to the whole world, but to your world.

This is a true believer in Jesus Christ.

Now that's not even my main point.

I bring that to your attention because think about what kind of

lives these believers lived for it to bless other assemblies and

congregations. What kind of steadfastness, What

kind of boldness and courage, What kind of purity was there

for it to shine so bright in this ancient world?

For the Christian world to be able to say those Roman

believers are something. With all of that being said, go

back to Romans one. Now you notice what Paul says

after he tells these people that their faith is made known to

all. Look at verse 9.

For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the

gospel of his Son. That without ceasing I mention

you always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God's will I may

now at last succeed in coming to you.

So Paul, Paul saying I pray for you all the time, but he doesn't

just say that. Look at verse 11 for I long to

see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to

strengthen you. So not only am I praying for you

unceasingly, but I long my prayers that I would come to you

in person, that I may impart into you something else, that

you may be further strengthened. You know what that tells me?

This is what I want to drive into your heart because it was

driven into mind that though these believers had a world

renowned class of faith, they still needed to be prayed for

and there was still more for them to experience in God

despite their influence, despite the lives that they have

touched, Paul believed there's still more for God through my

ministry to impart into you. And I opened this message in

this way to inspire you and to encourage you.

There should never be a moment in your life, no matter how much

you graduate in your sanctification, where you feel

like there isn't more, There is always more.

There is always more for you to know.

There is more for you to grow. And what's so fascinating about

these inspiring believers? It's not just that they needed

to be prayed for. It's not that they had more to

experience by Paul's imparting gifts.

Look at verse 15. So I am eager to preach the

gospel to you also who are in Rome, these believers who are

inspiring other believers to live with greater intensity and

devotion of the gospel. Paul says, I can't wait to

preach to you about the gospel. You can never outgrow your need

to hear about the gospel. You need it.

I need it. Not to say that we just stay

there in those elementary doctrines, no, but we never

failed to revisit it and discover greater depths of it,

and seeing how the scriptures and places that we might have

missed points to it. And so even if you are a

believer here who has vast influence online in your

circles, you need to be prayed for and you need to believe that

there is more that God wants to impart into your life and you

can never outgrow your need to know and grow and be reminded of

the grace of God. Lord, we open this message with

these truths so that we can be humble before you as we explore

this text that you have prepared for us to discover.

Together we are eager, Lord, and though we may stand, we we take

heed lest we fall. Help us remain hungry and

humble, that we may know all that you have for us, not just

today, but until we meet you face to face.

Be with us now as we look at your Son Jesus Christ and a new

light in Jesus name. Amen.

With that being said, Mark 11 with me, please in verse 27.

I want to speak to you today about the wisdom and authority

of Jesus Christ. Let's read together, beginning

in verse 27, down to verse 33. 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. I love Jesus.

Here we find our Lord in the temple yet again.

Earlier that day, Jesus was standing with his disciples by a

withered, dry, lifeless fig tree while sharing these life giving

truths about mountain moving prayer.

And from there, now marked by the Spirit, transports us to

Jesus in the temple in Jerusalem once more.

And this is during Passover weeks, so you can imagine just

how packed the plazas were. And we find here Christ in verse

27 walking in the temple. But he wouldn't be able to walk

too long before he would be ambushed and he was attacked by

three groups of people. According to verse 27, the chief

priest, the scribes and the elders, they came to him.

Now these three groups are the three main components of the

main religious Jewish body of the time, known as the

Sanhedrin. These are top figures.

These are the authority heads of the spiritual and religious life

and regulations for the Jewish people at this time.

And as we would suspect, here are these men who come pouncing

on the opportunity that Jesus is in close proximity to them, and

they are armed with a new scheme, a set of questions that

they believe will cause Christ to stumble and to expose his

foolishness and his inconsistency and perhaps even

some sin in his life. So with aggression they asked

these two questions by what authority do you do these

things? Or who gave you this authority

to do it? Now, before we even look into

those questions, we have to 1st establish that these requests

were not prompted by sincere curiosity.

It was motivated by murderous animosity.

Let me remind you, the last that we heard of these groups of

people go to Mark 11, verse 18, we're told here in verse 18.

Mark 11:18

And the chief priests and the scribes heard it and were

seeking a way to destroy him, for they feared him because all

the crowd was astonished at his teaching.

So with this in mind, we have every reason to believe that the

motive behind this question and these questions is to find a

reason to find some kind of evidence to condemn the Lord

Jesus to death. And for these twisted men, it

would be this type of interrogation that would be the

way to gather the necessary proof to justify their evil

ploy. Who gave you this authority?

Now, why would this put Jesus in the dilemma?

Why would this specific type of approach place him in a

dangerous place? It's very easy because if Jesus

said that it was with his own authority that he did these

things, then he could be easily dismissed as a self appointing

prophet. He could be discredited in the

public eye. But if he did claim what he said

over and over and over before this moment, that he was in fact

sent by God, that he did even come from heaven, then that

would be fresh grounds for them to accuse him of blasphemy.

And so they think that they have them in a corner here.

So they say, what authority do you have to do these things?

What are these things that they are talking about?

Surely it is what we learned not too long ago when Jesus went

into the temple and cleanse it and drove out the money

changers. We learned that in verse 18

there, right, they heard about this.

They learned, though they weren't there, that Jesus came

in and bulldoze all the corruption out of the House of

God. But there's something else that

Jesus was doing at this moment that also caused them to ask

this question. You won't find it in Mark or

you're going to find it in Luke and Luke 20 verse one.

Mark tells us that Jesus was in the temple walking.

Luke says something else and Luke 20 verse one one day.

This is the same account One day as Jesus was teaching the people

in the temple and preaching the gospel, the chief priests and

the scribes with the elders came up and said to him, tell us by

what authority you do these things or who is it that gave

you this authority? So wasn't just about the news of

how he came in, as we learned, fulfilling his role as a priest

to purge out all the corruption. It was also the fact that he,

with authority, was teaching within the temple, and not just

teaching, he was preaching the gospel to them.

You know where my mind went when I read this the other day about

how Mark began in his gospel account?

You remember Mark 114 to 15, where we're told that Jesus

preached the gospel of God. And then now we come to the end

of the book, near the end of the book, at least, obviously, near

the end of his ministry on earth.

And what do you find Jesus doing preaching the gospel?

You know, this is the beauty of studying a book in its entirety,

going from chapter to chapter, verse by verse.

Because what we see here is a tracing of Jesus and his duty,

being unwavering in his determination, laser focused,

unmoved, unfazed, completely committed to his father as a

servant. And he is our model to serve the

Father with the same steadfast resolve.

When we're introduced to Jesus, we find him preaching the

gospel. When we're coming to the close

of Jesus life on earth, He's preaching the gospel and he is

our model. He's our example for today, and

I can't help but be moved. Seeing the Lord pouring out his

heart serving in this way. He told us that he was sent to

preach. Yes, to die, but to also preach

leading up to his death and a few days before he is ready to

be nailed on a cross he's still serving and what he was called

to do. I think of the words of the

apostle Paul who imitated the zeal and the devotion of his

master. You know, you're asked

sometimes, what's your life verse?

It's hard to say what my life verse is.

I can tell you like the top ten, I guess.

But whenever people do ask me that question, it's always been

this, at least one of them in terms of my walk with the Lord.

Not necessarily what Christ has done for me, but what I can do

for Christ for years. This is this has been the one

for years, and I think he'll stay that way for years.

In Acts 2024, you have to see it turn, turn, turn.

Let's hear that sound again of the Bibles flipping.

You got to see it with your eyes.

Acts 2024. And I know I said that's my life

first. It can be yours too, if you want

it to be. Acts 2024.

Memorize it, Write it on your doorpost.

But I do not account my life of any value, nor as precious to

myself. If only I may finish my course

and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus to testify

to the gospel of the grace of God.

That's a good life. Verse.

There is no value to my life. It's not in my job.

It's not in my bank account. It's not in my family.

As wonderful as my family is. It's not about my gifting.

It's not about world records that I've broken.

My life has zero value to it. Apart from me serving the master

in regards to the specific tailor made calling that he has

given to me. Can you say that?

Can you actually say that my life has no value?

Like I'm ready to go home if I can no longer serve Jesus in the

way that he's called me to serve Jesus?

This is radical Christianity. No, it's Christianity.

It's not radical Christianity. Well, that's Paul.

Well, Paul says imitate me. So now you're in trouble.

I do not account my life of any value.

It's not even precious to me. Meaning, life is identified.

Life is in correspondence to my service to the master.

That's what life is. You remove serving the master,

You remove serving his purposes, advancing his gospel.

I don't live that can be possible for you.

Ask God to do it in you. But notice what he says about

ministry. If only I may finish my course.

A lot of people start out serving God, he says.

I want to finish finish my course and the ministry that I

received from the Lord Jesus. Do you hear his language?

Not the ministry that I put myself in.

Not the ministry that I invented for myself, that I received,

that I received from God gives you ministry.

God opens doors for you to serve in ministry.

God fashions you and furnishes you for ministry.

You know why that's important to know?

For many reasons. It helps you see the mundane as

majestic, because if you're serving the Lord in any

capacity, if you see it as it being something given by the

Lord, then you're going to appreciate it much more.

I've received this from the Lord, and in his wisdom he gave

me this kind of ministry. So I'm going to serve him in

this way because this is what Providence has brought to my

plate, and so I will enjoy it and faithfully observe it.

I received it, But then notice the end of this verse.

The message that he wants to leave with the world.

The one thing that he wants to leave behind with the world when

he departs from the world to testify to the gospel of the

grace of God. You know what Paul wanted to

leave with the world. Out of all the attributes, out

of all the truths. I want people to know about

grace. I want people to know about

grace. I want my life, my ministry to

leave in people's mouths the taste of his mercy.

What a man this was. Surely he walked in the paths

and the steps of his master and we're invited to do the same.

Jesus starts out serving and preaching the gospel.

We find him here a few days before he would be crucified

preaching the gospel. And if you're going to live to

serve Christ in this way, where you can say with Paul, my life

has no value. Yeah, I know I need to work and

I need to provide for my family. That's important.

I'm not neglecting that, but the desires of my heart.

But my ambitions are 100% dedicated to serving the Lord.

If you're going to live that way, you can expect what Jesus

experienced in the temple on this day.

Here he is preaching the gospel, and that would not happen while

the enemies of the gospel sat by idly.

Here are these agents of Satan, ready to interrupt what Christ

is doing. You can expect warfare in your

life when you live with this kind of ambition, but there's

nothing to be feared. Because as we're about to

discover whatever ploy, whatever plot these men have, the tables

are going to be turned very quickly.

So let's come back, verse 29 of Mark 11.

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 over man? Answer me.

You can tell the tone here is is strong, and for good reason,

because Jesus can see right through their insincere phony

interest. These are not men who are

authentically inquiring about His authority, they are

challenging it. Here's how you can translate

what the Pharisees are saying. Who do you think you are?

That's what they're saying. Who do you think you are doing

this? Who do you think you are to

teach here? Who do you think you are to come

in here, Move things around? Who do you think you are?

And this is a good place to remember that ever since

Christ's first Advent, from every age since then, and it

will always be until he comes back again.

Men have resisted the authority of Jesus Christ.

Men have fought, Men have rebelled, Men have raised their

fists against the authority of Jesus Christ.

And that was prophesied in the Bible.

It was prophesied in the book of Psalms, and one of the most

quoted Psalms in the New Testament, Psalm chapter 2.

Psalms 2 · chapter mention

And in Psalm chapter two we read here of Jesus.

In fact, in Acts 425 to 27 the apostles point to this Psalm as

a fulfillment of it, connecting to Christ through the rejection

of Pontius, Pilate and Herod when they crucified Christ.

But let me remind you that what's happening here and some

small measure was foretold, and you can expect it to until he

comes and sets up his rule and reign, whether people like it or

not. And Psalm 2, we read Why Do the

Nation's Rage? Verse one and the people's plot

in vain. That's how he opens a Psalm.

Why do the Nation's rage and the people's plot in vain?

David writes here in absolute astonishment and perplexity.

Here's how he's really getting, what he's really getting at.

I don't get it. Why are people so angry at God?

Why are so? Why are people so hostile

towards their Creator, who has dispensed common grace in so

many ways, and He ultimately manifested His grace in the

greatest demonstration of love possible and sending his Son?

Why would rulers and leaders rebel against their maker?

Why? And you probably can echo that

sentiment as you look to the world today, as you even look to

some loved ones. I just don't get it.

Why would you reject such good news?

Why would you reject forgiveness?

Why would you reject freedom? Let me ask you that.

Why would you what, like tell me what it is about following Jesus

surrounding to Jesus that's so off putting and so offensive to

you? This is what David is saying.

But this universal hatred is not a random theoretical tension

that people feel about the concept of God.

It's about someone specifically. And that's in verse 2.

The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take

counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed.

That's Jesus the Christ against his anointed saying let us burst

their bonds apart and castaway their cords from us.

You know, there are a lot of people who claim that they love

God, even a lot of religions that claim that they love God.

But in First John 223, John says he who denies the Son denies the

Father. If you don't receive Jesus as he

is revealed, you don't have God. You don't have God.

And I've had this discussion with many confused people who

think that just some who hold to some of the texts that we have

in this book, they might be in the right place with God.

No, it's what you do with Jesus that determines where you stand

with God. And so these individuals here,

these leaders of the world, they're against the Lord and

against his anointed. And they say something.

Now the Spirit records how they think and how they express

themselves in verse three. Let us burst their bonds apart

and castaway their cords from us.

What are they saying here? What are these chords?

What are these bonds Speaking of?

It speaks of authority. It speaks of moral restraints

and His commands that are yoked to our wills, these chords and

these bonds. These men wanted to break free

from such a thing. We will not be held captive by

this anointed one. We will not allow Him to drive

us. We will not allow Him to

determine anything for us. We will shake ourselves free

from this. And we see here that they want

their independence and are willing to go to war with God

instead of submitting to His Lordship.

And on a larger scale, they don't want the Lord and His

anointed to rule the world. They want to govern the world.

And even in the Psalm that we read right after that, the Lord

laughs at their scheming and their thinking.

He makes a plea with His very same people.

Even in this you see the mercy of God.

Look at verse 10. Now therefore, O kings, be wise,

be warned, O rulers of the earth, Serve the Lord with fear

and rejoice with trembling. And here's the invitation.

Kiss the sun. Where is the Son of God?

Where is the second person of the Trinity in the Old

Testament? Here's a good place.

Kiss the sun. Kiss the sun lest he be angry

and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled.

Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

Kiss the Son. A kiss in this context is a

physical expression of adoration and allegiance to a monarch, but

not just to a physical human king.

We even see instances where kissing something or someone was

to pay homage to deity. And so we remember the words of

Elijah when he was depressed and God spoke to him about there

being a remnant who have not kissed Bale.

And so how we understand this here is figuratively speaking,

to kiss the the sun is to express your desire to be

reconciled and friends with the sun.

In essence, when you put your faith in Christ, you kiss the

sun and that was your token of partnership and allegiance and

surrender to Him. And this is what the Psalm is

saying. You do that kiss the sun because

unlike the heathen, we do not want him to burst his bonds or

his cords over us. We invite them.

Why? Because he said my yoke is easy

and my burden is light. The only thing that we should

expect in terms of bonds and cords being broken is him

breaking sin off of your life when He becomes Lord.

And so you have to make a choice.

Either you deny His Lordship and His authority and you get to

keep your bondage and sin, or you receive His Lordship and

authority and he sets you free. This is the invitation.

Kiss the sun and no true freedom and watch the shackles fall and

watch you being able to now know this empowerment from above,

where you're able to resist not his authority, but that which

had authority over you. You see, you're really one of

two things in this life. You're either a slave to sin or

you're a slave to righteousness. There's nothing in between.

You're either a master to yourself, which ultimately your

flesh is a master over you, or Jesus becomes your master.

So make your choice. Some people think that they can

just be in this limbo. There's no such thing.

The Bible at least tells us that that is not the case.

And so the Psalms told us about this.

Jesus here is demonstrating how it was true in his day, and it

will be true with the people you know that don't believe.

And it will only become more aggressive, more obvious, more

blatant as we approach the second coming of Christ.

But guess what? He's going to rule and reign

regardless. So he sees through it, and then

he asks him this question. He gives him a counter question,

the Lord. And this is not an evasion.

This is not him trying to escape their little plot.

This is a brilliant response to expose the dishonesty of this

panel. But why this question?

What is the baptism of John in verse 30 have to do with Jesus

authority? Why does answering this on their

part bring clarity to what they're asking about originally?

It's very easy. Whatever conclusion that these

religious leaders would make about John would determine their

conclusion about the nature of Christ.

Whatever they would determine about who John is will

ultimately determine who Christ is.

Because John in his ministry pointed to Jesus Christ.

John's baptism wasn't the only thing that he did, it was his

message. And he pointed at Jesus as,

behold the name of God who has and who will take away the sin

of the world. So whatever you determine about

this man, this prophet will ultimately lead you to a

conclusion about the essence and the nature and the authority of

Jesus Christ. And guess what?

They understood this. They understood that to accept

John's baptism being from heaven, his ministry coming from

above automatically means that they accept Jesus also coming

from heaven. And So what do they do?

They have their own little huddle.

So they peel back a little bit and they get in a little circle.

And thankfully the Holy Spirit allows us to sneak in and peer

into their little conversation. And they are freaking out

because verse 31 tells us what they're discussing and they

discussed it with one another saying if we say from heaven, he

will say Why then did you not believe him?

Brilliant. So if you do agree that John was

a real prophet, then why didn't you believe him about what he

said about me? Who's in the hot seat now?

If you do believe that John was legitimate, then you also have

to accept me as being legitimate.

And they were not willing to do that.

And so they think about the alternative.

Verse 32. But shall we say from man?

And then they paused, and I wonder if some of them looked

over their shoulder and saw the crowds waiting for their answer.

For they all held that John was a prophet.

He really was a prophet. When you go to Luke's account,

which you don't have to in Luke 20 verse six, you read that they

believe that they would be stoned on the spot if they made

the claim that John was not a real prophet.

That's how much he was highly steamed by the public.

And so stroking their beards, one of the Pharisees speaks up

and he says, why don't we just appeal to ignorance?

Oh yeah, that's probably the best option.

Let's appeal to ignorance. And it seems like this is the

best way. It seems like, yeah, if I was

one of them, that probably the way I would go too.

That's the best way to be unscathed in the situation.

But think about it. How humiliating is this for

these guys who boasted about their superior knowledge and

their spirituality and their insight?

These are the guys who determine and enforce these traditions

that came from oral tradition and their freedom to add things

to that. These are guys that were looked

up to for instruction and guidance, and here they are.

This isn't a private meeting with the Lord Jesus.

This is at the most public place you can be, and they are ready

now to confess in front of everybody.

Oh, you don't know. And so no matter where you go,

these men are going to pay a price for approaching Jesus in

this way. There are two things I want to

bring to your attention from this verse.

There are two lessons that you can draw from this.

Number one, the Lord is always able and He always will humble

the proud. Always.

These men are proud, proud of their false empty piety, proud

of their knowledge, proud of their self righteousness in

comparison to other sinners. And we see that by way of

example here that Jesus will find a way to bring low those

who place themselves high. And he will do so in this life

in many ways and he will finally do it on that day according to

Isaiah 211, where he alone will be exalted.

You know, there's an interesting way that the Bible describes

God's attitude towards sin. And not just sin in general

because he feels a certain way about sin, but specifically with

the sin of pride. There's something unique about

how the Lord feels about arrogance, and it's told in two

places. But let me quote you one in

James 4/6. And you don't have to turn

there. We're told that God opposes the

proud. He opposes the proud.

That's very unique into how he feels about sin when it comes to

this. He opposes the Greek word is to

range battle against. In other words, in the original,

when you read, if you read that in the Greek, you would read a

military term. Here's how you translate it.

God goes to war with the proud. He goes to war with those who

are arrogant. Arrogant about what?

Anything. He can't stand it.

And here's the thing. When God chooses to set up his

ranks and to fight against the proud, he always wins.

Always. He will find a way to humble

them. And so for God to oppose the

proud says something about how he feels about it.

So I'm meditating on this last time thinking, OK, Lord, if

that's how you feel about pride, what?

Just about spiritual things? No.

Proud about how you look. Proud about how you know so

much. Proud about your, yes, your

performance in any area of life. Anything that you think you've

achieved in your own strength, anything that you think makes

you feel better and more significant than someone else,

is what the God of Heaven looks down on.

It says I'm going to go to war with that person.

I'm going to go to war. So here I am thinking I already

go to war with this flesh. I'm already at war with Satan

and the Kingdom of darkness. This world is at war with me.

I don't want to go to war with God because I can go to war with

everything else. All the demons, all the people,

all the evil politicians, all whatever.

I can go to war. As long as God is with me, I'm

going to be victorious. But if even I have all of those

guys with me and I'm at war with God not going to win, what is

the secret to humility? There are many places to go.

Let me give you one. From what we're talking about

him. So why not John Baptist, John

the Baptist, the First Baptist, John the Baptist.

When he was told that Jesus now and his ministry are baptizing

more people and people are going to him to get baptized, you know

what his response was? It's brilliant.

It's amazing. This fire breathing prophet who

brought the nation of Israel to its knees is now seeing a shift

in popularity. What do you do when now a new

church comes on the scene and people want to go to that

church? What do you do when you have a

conference and people are now going to a different conference

and not your conference? People are no longer going to

your Bible study because there's another Bible study.

What do you do? This is essentially what John is

being told. People are not coming to your

meetings as much as John. They're going to Jesus.

And here's what John says. In John 327, John answered a

person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him

from heaven. I'm bothered by that.

You know why? Because John had a revelation.

Anything I have, my preaching ability, the size of my

ministry, the reach of my influence, Not one thing that I

have has not been given. It came from heaven.

It came from heaven. Meaning I'm not in charge of

this. Ultimately, the essence of

humility is recognizing everything that you have,

everything that you own, everything that you do, has been

authorized by God. That's the essence of humility.

And as long as you train yourself to believe that and to

see everything through that lens, you will know perpetual

humility. And even when it comes to

something like this, that challenges your life, that

challenges probably your sense of purpose and the exciting

things that you enjoy, even if you do it for God, you can

actually, like John in the same context, rejoice, especially

when Jesus is glorified in it God and we see here with Jesus.

We'll always find a way to humble the proud.

You know what he did with Nebuchadnezzar?

He turned his brain to mush. And overnight you had

Nebuchadnezzar, this high and lofty king who believed that he

was the one who established his Kingdom on the earth, became

like a beast now, eating grass with his mouth on his fore legs.

But here's the second thing from Jesus in dealing with these

Pharisees that we can draw a lesson from notice here in verse

32. But shall we say from man, they

were afraid of the people, for they all held that John really

was a prophet. The fear of man is a deadly

snare. They were afraid.

You know what's so strange? When you go to a text like John

12, you read about some of the authorities who believed on

Jesus but were afraid to confess it because of the Pharisees and

they didn't want to be kicked out of the synagogues.

Like, how weird is this? You have these religious leaders

that are afraid of the opinions of the people, and you have the

people who are afraid of the opinions of the religious

leaders. Everybody's scared of each

other. And no matter what side you're

looking at it from, the consequence of the fear man is

the same. It paralyzes you, it cripples

you. And the worst outcome of the

fear of man is when it calls you to not obey the Lord Jesus

because you want the approval of someone else to live.

For the approval of man guarantees A defeated life.

And based on what we just learned here, this illegitimate,

ungodly fear where you're constantly wondering every step

of the way, what so and so will think, what so and so will do.

Now let me pause and say that there's a legitimate concern

that you should have for people and what you do, but always with

the motivation of will this glorify Christ.

Is this going to put a, is this going to put a bad testimony on

my name? Ultimately to the name of

Christ? You should think that way.

But that's not what we're talking about here.

We're talking about fear of those who would stand in the way

of you living the way you're supposed to live for the glory

of God. This illegitimate fear knows no

discrimination. It could infect anybody here.

We see it affecting leadership. So you have leadership here who

are scared by the opinions of the people that they lead, and

then you have the people who are being LED afraid of the verdict

of their leaders. It's a scary thing to live this

way and nobody's out of reach of its clutches.

You have Peter, Peter listen post and filling of the Holy

Spirit, Peter being forgiven by Jesus Christ.

This is Peter in Galatians 2 who, when he was in a meeting

with Gentiles, learned that the circumcision party was coming

over for fellowship and he refused to be with the Gentiles

because he feared the circumcision party.

So even an apostle, a man of God who's seen miracles, who's been

restored by Christ, who knew the empowering work of the Holy

Spirit, fell into this trap of being fearful what man would say

if he obeyed the Lord. That's why the Bible says in

Proverbs 29 verse 25, the fear of man lays A snare.

Proverbs 29:25

But just like the idea of pride, how do I assure that I can avoid

these booby traps? How can I dodge every mind on

the path of obedience that would try to keep me away from knowing

the fullness of pleasing my master?

It's in the same verse, the fear of man lays A snare.

But whoever trust in the Lord is safe.

The way you overcome what you might be afraid man will say or

do to you is to trust that as you obey God, he'll take care of

everything. He'll take care of your

reputation. He'll take care of your

resources. He'll take care of absolutely

everything. I trust you, Lord.

I know this is the right thing to say.

I know this is the right thing to do.

I know that this is the right thing I must commit in order to

keep your heart pleased with me. And I trust that you're going to

take care of me when I do it. That's a man.

That's a woman who is free from the snare of the fear of man.

Here are these men afraid of the people you have the people

afraid of them. And Jesus stands out.

And verse 33 as we close, 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.

Notice it's not that Jesus didn't know.

He made a choice to not let them know.

I'm not going to tell you. You're not going to tell me.

I'm not going to tell you. It's fair game, right?

Let me give you a practical point and a theological point in

closing. Jesus and Mark tell me what's

Mark trying to portray Jesus as? As the perfect.

What servant? Good.

The perfect servant of God. I see something here that I can

learn from Jesus about dealing with people who have questions

about the truth. You've met those people.

There are some people that no matter how much you walk them

through, no matter how many arguments you give them, no no

matter how many apologetic things that you do in their

presence and send them resources, this or that, they

will not accept the truth. Not because they don't

understand, but because they don't want to understand.

And what I see the Lord doing here is something exemplary for

you and I. There's some situations in some

individuals where you have to say enough's enough.

I've done my part. I've said all that I could say.

I've argued all that I can argue.

I've attended enough debates with you.

But I've discern now that no matter what light you have, you

will not accept the truth. That's what the Lord's doing

here. He's walking away from the

situation. May God give you and I the

discretion and wisdom to know how to do the same.

Because there are so many people who are more willing and more

open. And the wisdom behind this is

that if you keep fighting, and if you keep resisting their

resistance and trying to make a way to crawl open their hearts,

you might be wasting time and energy and you're casting your

pearls before swine. Jesus.

All right, I tried here. I said all that I can say, but I

see another thing too here. Jesus can only go so far as long

as you are honest. You know, in discipleship,

people ask about counsel. People ask about discipleship.

Personally, this is what I've experienced and this is

something that has kept me in many ways.

I can't disciple anybody, nor can I counsel you, my friend.

As long as you are dishonest, you need to be truthful about

this situation. You need to be.

You need to be open. If I see the Son of God not

willing to go far with those who are willing to not be honest,

then who am I to think that I can be successful with the same?

So as long as you're untruthful, this isn't going to go anywhere.

We can have 10,000 counselling meetings.

What's going to what's going to ensure that this is going to

actually have some kind of fruit Is is if you're willing to say

I'm honest, I'm honest about myself, I'm honest about the

situation, I'm honest about my past.

You don't want to be honest. Pharisees.

Chief priests. Elders.

OK, you have. I have nothing to offer you.

May we learn from the master. Here's a theological point.

The grace of God, the patience of Jesus has limits.

Here are these Pharisees over and overcoming to Jesus coming

to Jesus. And Jesus is willing to engage

in conversation. But you can see now that his

patience is wearing thin, even the way he originally counter

asked the question. Right, He says I'll ask you in

verse 29. I'll ask you a question.

Answer me and I'll tell you by what authority I do these

things. Was the baptism of John from

heaven or from man? Answer me.

That's not the tone that you see regularly with Jesus when he

deals with sinners. He's very patient with sinners.

You read in John chapter 4 how he leads that woman at the well

John 4 · chapter mention

patiently as her revelation of the Messiah grows.

You see it in John chapter nine with a man who was born blind,

Jesus being patient with him as he also is growing in the same

awareness of who's standing before him and who healed them.

But when it comes to these guys at this point in Jesus ministry,

it's like just let's just get straight to the point.

Answer me, come on, let's get to it.

And then when they wouldn't admit it and they wouldn't be

honest, he says it's done. You want to be willfully

ignorant, You don't want to be honest.

Then stay in your darkness. And the truth that about this

university in the scriptures is that the Lord at some point can

retreat and pull away and no longer persuade you of the thing

that you've heard so many times already.

When that happens, every case is different.

But that's why the Scripture says today is the day of

salvation. If you hear His voice, do not

harden your heart, because you never know at one point you so

hard in your heart that it will be never feeling again.

And that's not God's fault. That would be ours.

So he begs you, don't harden your heart.

Maybe there's even maybe there's even one person here today who

is not yet fully surrendered to Jesus Christ.

I want to tell you something. He has all authority, and

whatever authority you have in your autonomy, whatever you

think you have in terms of control of your life and your

future will prove to be false, especially when you stand before

him. And the appeal of the Master is

not a power struggle with you. The appeals that he longs to

befriend you and forgive you and restore you, and know his gentle

leadership that would give you life and give him glory.

And so can I ask you today, have you given yourself to the full

authority of Jesus Christ? Is he really your Lord?

Is he? And I invite you today to bend

your knee and to confess with your mouth Jesus Christ.

You are Lord of my life. I choose to kiss the sun today.

Why would you kiss the sun? Because He embraced you at the

cross, and He came into this world, and He shed His blood and

He extended His arms. Yes, to be crucified, but also

to invite you into His heart and to receive you and to restore

you and to give you eternal life.

But that can't happen unless you get off the throne of your will,

and you give him that seat He say belongs to you.

Lord, you're my savior, yes, but be my Lord as well.

And know this whether you choose to do so or not.

He will be Lord, and every knee will bow, and every tongue will

confess that he is such. Let's pray together.

Thank you, Lord, for establishing and for many of us

reinforcing the truth of your authority.

We believe that you are who you say you are.

And Lord, we ask that at this time we would rejoice to know

that you have all authority in heaven and on earth, and that

you will never leave us nor forsake us, and that with that

authority you also Commission us to go into the world and make

disciples of all nations. Help us be wise in seeking to

make disciples. Help us be fearless and not

concerned with the fear of man. Help us be courageous and

knowing that you will reward our obedience and help us do what

Paul said he did. Help us do what you and your son

exemplified. Finishing well that wherever we

started we bring it to a close in faithfulness.

So, Lord, strengthen us strengthen even those whose

faith is so inspirational. Already, as the Romans needed,

we recognize our need for a fresh impartation of joy, of

wisdom, of mercy. Well, we just open our hearts at

the close of the service, asking that you do what you will with

our hearts and Lord. Lastly, for the person here

who's sitting visiting and who's heard maybe for the 1st or the

10th or the 100th time, about what Christ has done, may the

decision be made today. May your Holy Spirit and His

perfect power and grace grip the hearts of those who are still in

tension wanting to keep their own authority.

Being the Lords of their own lives.

May may that be no more. And may you win them to

repentance. We now sing to you, Lord,

thanking you for this meal that you've given us for our souls.

And with this fresh strength we give you a fresh song.

In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Amen. Amen.

Why don't we stand that praise team will come up and they'll

help us in these last songs?