The Gospel Of Mark | The King Has Come (October 21st, 2018) - Mike Armstrong

Grab your Bibles now, if you will, and you can get them turned over to Mark's Gospel.

Mark chapter 11 is uh is where we're gonna be uh today.

Mark 11 · chapter mention

So get yourselves over there.

Now, um, when I was a kid, I was thinking about that uh uh this week.

When I was a kid, I was about in grade, I don't know, seven or eight or something like that.

I remember uh I decided, I kind of had the plan.

I'm gonna save up all of my hard-earned money and you know, the money I might get at Christmas, the money I might get at my birthday, whatever it might be.

I am gonna save this up and buy a mountain bike.

And I was like so all about this as like a junior high kid.

I'd had BMX bikes, I think, my whole life and everything.

And I felt like it was time for me to, you know, to upgrade into the mountain bike category.

And I remember it took me about a year and a half to just save up.

And I mean, it was probably only a couple of, it was only a couple of hundred dollars at the time, but you know, you're just making a little bit from chores around the house and and different things like that.

But I remember I was like, I was all about it.

And and there was uh there was, I mean, I I was there's another buddy of mine actually that did the exact same thing at the same time as me.

And so we were, you know, we would talk about this, we kind of dream, we had magazines, we would go over it, we would think about how are we gonna like upgrade our bikes and add components to it as we go and uh and all of that.

Well, when the day finally came, okay, it finally came, and and and I, you know, my parents took me to the bike shop, and I kind of like spilled my cash out on the counter and and picked out the bike uh that I wanted.

I mean, you can just imagine for me as a kid, the kind of jubilation and the excitement uh that was going on within me.

I just remember the anticipation of that day leading up to that, and then just dreaming and thinking about all the fun uh that I was gonna have riding around uh all over town, going off jumps and crashing and you know, all of that stuff I was gonna have with it.

But I remember just feeling like I finally, finally have my bike.

It's kind of how you and I feel about having, you know, looking forward to the new iPhone, or you know, maybe it's a new car, you know, you've been saving up for something like that.

It's a vacation you've got circled on your calendar, and you know, the day is come, the day is here.

Well, listen, uh, you could sum up Mark's gospel, really any of the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, as a story of a highly anticipated event that had finally arrived.

Right?

It was it was finally here.

I mean, we you and I know we've talked about this, that for centuries, the the Jewish nation had been waiting for the Messiah.

Right?

And and the gospels again tell us about about this story, right, and how this uh unfolds.

It's about his arrival.

And in Mark chapter 11, specifically, okay, we see that for the first time, okay, the people, the the Jews, they hail Jesus as their king.

Mark 11 · chapter mention

Okay, finally, at last, he's here.

Now, we know this, that that their understanding of you know precisely who he was and and what he came to do and what their response should be to all of this, that was you know, that was a work in progress, right?

We we we know that, and and it was revealed gradually to them, but but they knew enough to know, you know, on some level that their king had come.

Right?

Their king was here.

And listen, he's our king too, right?

We know that.

Those of us who have given our lives over to him, who have trusted in Jesus Christ as our Savior, we've trusted in King Jesus.

He is He is our Lord, He is our King.

And so these are the kinds of things that we're gonna be looking into today.

We're gonna look at the implications for us as his followers and as his church.

And so before we jump into these verses here, why don't you join me as we pray?

God, we come before you today.

God, we we want to be reminded of just how majestic you are, Lord.

We want to be reminded of your grandeur.

We want to be reminded that of who we are in light of all of that.

God, I pray that as we grow as Christians, as we grow as a local church here in the town of Newmarket, Lord, I pray that uh we would grow as as people who understand that you are in fact a king.

You are our king.

You're the king of kings and the lord of lords.

And so, God, as you've been you revealed these things uh in time to uh the disciples, Lord, I pray that you would continue to reveal these things to us, press these truths deep into our hearts, Lord.

I pray that we would fully submit, fully, fully submit our hearts to you, Lord.

I pray for those who are holding back or they're holding back from being all in for you today.

Or they are one of your subjects, but uh they have gone rogue, Lord.

I pray that you would gently, Lord, I pray that you by grace, I pray uh that you uh would draw them back to you, Lord, back to where their knee bows before uh their great king.

And so, God, do that uh to us today.

We pray in Christ's name, amen.

Amen.

All right, well, here's the first thing uh you're following in your notes.

Here it is the the king has come.

Okay, the king has come.

But my response to his reign can be so anticlimactic.

Right?

Have you noticed this for yourself sometimes?

Here it is.

We see it in verse, uh starting in verse one.

I'll follow along here, Mark chapter 11.

Mark 11 · chapter mention

It says this.

Now, when they drew near to Jerusalem, to Bethpage in Bethany, at the Mount of Olives, this is Jesus and the disciples.

Jesus sent two of his disciples and he said to them, Go into the village in front of you.

And immediately as you enter it, you will find a colt tied on which no one has ever sat.

Untie it and bring it.

If anyone says to you, Why are you doing this?

say the Lord has need of it, and he will send it back here immediately.

Okay, so sure enough, the disciples they go and they do this, and they find this cult, and and and you know, someone asks them, like, What's what's going on here?

What are you doing?

And they tell him them exactly what Jesus uh told them to say.

And so they grab that.

Now, verse 7, take a look, skip down.

It says, And they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it, and he and he sat on it.

Now understand, this is fulfillment of Zechariah 9, verse 9.

Zechariah 9:9

If you're into jotting down these little uh cross references here, Zechariah 9, verse 9, here's what it says.

Zechariah 9:9

I'll read it for you.

It says, Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion.

Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem.

Behold, your king is coming to you.

Righteous and having salvation is he.

Humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the full of a donkey.

So this verse here, verse seven, is the fulfillment of prophecy.

Now keep going here, verse eight.

It says, And many of their cloaks, uh many spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that had they had cut from the fields.

And those who went before, and those who followed, were shouting, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

Blessed is the coming of our father David, Hosanna in the highest.

They're hailing Christ the king.

You know, finally people are cluing into this here.

Finally, they they get it.

As Hosanna, it means, it's like a shout of praise here.

It came to mean salvation has come.

And so you're thinking, all right, they see that that Jesus is the king.

He's, you know, their eyes have been opened and and and they understand Christ's true identity as God's Son and the Savior of sin.

Now, I want to just toss a big old time out here.

Okay, hang on uh just a sec, not so fast, because there are actually some clues that we can kind of gather here from some of these verses that they still don't quite have it right.

And some of this is a little bit off.

Now, first of all, can you notice that verse there?

It says, Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father, who?

Who does it say?

David.

A blessing is blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David.

Now, Jesus, he didn't talk about the the kingdom of David, he talked about the kingdom of God, which which shows us that they were still anticipating, you know, the military hero king uh like David was.

Now we know that Jesus came in the line of David, so they weren't like way, way, way off or anything like that, but but um they were thinking military heroes still.

We've talked about that plenty of times here.

Okay, salvation, as they're singing out, you know, Hosanna and all of that.

We're thinking, you know, we understand the whole picture.

We're looking at all of this in the rear view mirror.

We know the gospel, we know that he's going to the cross, we know that he's gonna rise again.

We know the story of the starting of the church in Acts and in the New Testament.

We see all of that.

There, they don't see all of that yet, quite yet.

So they're thinking of salvation uh being in the form of salvation from earthly enemies, right?

From foreign nations and potential uh slavery to them, right?

They're in their past, they had you know a couple hundred years of slavery to Egypt, and they're like, no more of that.

And this is what they think the the Messiah was coming to do.

They weren't they weren't thinking of salvation as you know, salvation from the wrath of God poured out against their sin.

That's not what they were thinking.

Well, that's the first clue here.

Not that they didn't quite get it.

Here's the second one.

Okay, verse 11, take a look.

It says, and he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple.

Okay, that's important.

He went into the temple, and when he looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.

Now, what I find kind of striking about that is that nothing happens.

Right?

You read that, I was reading that this week, and I'm like, why is that verse there?

What's going on with that?

Right?

I mean, think about it.

It's it's kind of this weird moment, don't you think?

Right?

Jesus had had just come in on the full, right, on the donkey, on the on the colt, and and everyone's going nuts and they're throwing palm branches and and they're shouting Hosanna, and they're like, the king has come, the king is here, salvation is here.

He's just been hailed king, all kinds of fanfare.

But in the very next moment here, in verse 11, he he finds himself where?

Well, he's in the temple.

Right?

And he's just he's kind of standing there all alone, like kind of just surveying the scene, and and then he just he kind of leaves with the 12, right?

This is the most anticlimactic scene ever.

But listen, verse 11 here, it's it's not just a it's not just a random throwaway verse.

It's not.

It's intentionally communicating something to us.

It's it's that Jesus didn't come to simply be some kind of hype train that everybody could jump on board of.

It's right, it's not a bandwagon, you know, it's not there to be to have bandwagon fans come on like bandwagon sports fans or something like that.

Right?

All the jubilation, the palm branches, the hosanna's, they were great and all.

But the fact that he went immediately to the temple is a clue that he had business to do there that was essential to his mission.

You know, we're gonna unpack a little bit more of that as we go.

But the reality that no one followed him, right?

And he's standing there by himself is another hint.

The people that were hailing as him as king, you know, still didn't really understand who he was or exactly what he came to do.

And so this section, it's kind of weird, right?

Like it leaves us sort of sort of hanging with this kind of awkward vibe, you know, that, yeah, the king has come and everything, but but this anticlimactic response from the crowd reveals that there's there's this massive disconnect for them.

That no one follows him.

Think about that.

They're excited about him, and then they're just like, oh, off he goes.

No, that no one follows him is like a huge, it's a swing and a miss.

We should really get you and I kind of think about our own response to the king, don't you think?

You know, are we following him all the way?

Are our lives marked by, you know, as ones of total submission or or growing in this?

I'm I'm working towards giving my heart fully to the Lord.

Look, there are a lot of people who claim to be Christ followers who have these dramatic conversion experiences, right?

Maybe this is maybe this is some of you.

And you've got these these wow stories of, you know, I was living life doing my own thing, and it was a mess, and everything was coming apart at the seams, and it was a disaster, and then the Lord, you know, reached in like a lightning bolt, and and it was just pouring out grace, and he rescued me, and he's transforming my heart, and you know, all of that.

Maybe your work your walk with him, it started so strong, and there's been such excitement and and and passion in that.

There's new life and joy, and all of that is is there, but it's it's just there at first.

You know, everything looked you know so promising going forward, but but then your walk, you know, if you're honest, it just kind of got to the point where just kind of grinded to us to a to a halt in this really anticlimactic kind of way.

You know, maybe for you it was excitement and passion, but it was it was the cares and the desires of the of the world that that ultimately just kind of squeezed out, pushed out your your passions for Christ.

And now you're like, I want I want to go after the world, I want the world's comforts, the things that they're going after, that's that's captured my my heart.

Maybe for you it's it's discouragement.

You know, that's a very real battle for all of us, but but for you, you know, you kind of realized what what the you know our our walks with life are all about.

It's not just about ups, right?

It's not just about the mountaintop experience, there's plenty of downs as well.

There's there's plenty of uh valleys.

And for you, maybe it was that initial zeal in prayer and evangelism and you know in worship.

I couldn't wait to be at church and obedience.

Yeah, you know, I want to give my life, I want to follow the Lord there too, even where it's hard.

That was what's occupying your attitudes and your and your schedule and your your calendar, all of it, but but that excitement it's all but faded.

Listen, if you're not, you know, if you're sensing that that's the case for you, right part of kind of the the move forward involves that we need to recognize who Jesus is not.

He's the king for sure, but he but we have to realize who he's not.

He didn't come to to be your your you know your personal genie, you know, who who just grants you all the wishes of your heart, right?

This you know, life isn't the movie Aladdin, right?

That's not the way it works.

He doesn't do that.

Now, does he answer prayer?

Yeah.

Does he want you to to cry out to him for for help and for comfort and and for those things for wisdom?

Absolutely.

But foundationally, you know, basically at the bedrock of it, he's not here to serve your agenda.

That's not what it's about.

He's also not here to merely help you and I, you know, escape hell.

Whereas, like, you know, we feel kind of scared.

I don't want to go to hell, so yeah, I guess I'll you know say some magic words to invite Jesus to be my savior, but then you know, he better, he better back off, man.

You better let me wear the crown, you better let me sit on the throne and and and I get to kind of rule and and be the king of my own life.

That's not what that's not what he's come to do.

He didn't even come to really just make us feel good or or or fix all of our problems.

He does some of that, but again, that's not his his main goal.

He came as king.

He came as king, and as his subjects, our our primary, you know, just foundational, you know, fundamental response and our reaction to that is is to be with him.

We should be with the king.

Right?

By pursuing a relationship with him and and going after intimacy, right?

Following him, his his rule, his his reign, going where he goes, going where he he leads us.

You and I, we serve at the pleasure of the king, right?

That's our response.

Not this anticlimactic, awkward, you know, missing the point type of reaction that so many Christians seem to have.

You know, where like kind of optically we we look like we're right there with God, where we're at church and you know, we have Christian friends and we don't commit all the big bad sins that are super obvious, but you know, the Lord is is building his kingdom, he's he's doing an amazing work.

Do we know that he's constantly doing that?

He doesn't he doesn't kick his feet up and disengage, he doesn't go on holidays, right?

He's he's constantly doing it, he's sanctifying people.

But so many times we're you know, we're kind of like over here, sort of doing our own thing, blissfully unaware, and we're sort of missing the point.

We're not right with him.

Realize that your king has come.

That should draw you and I to him and and what he's all about.

Let's keep going here.

Here's the second thing.

The king has come to eradicate my fruitless and corrupt spirituality.

Verse 12, take a look at this here.

It says, and seeing, this is Jesus, and seeing in the distance a fig tree and leaf, he went to see if he could find anything on it.

When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves.

For it was not the season for figs.

That is ripe figs.

It wasn't the season for ripe figs.

Though it was the season, because there were leaves there, that's the clue to us, it was the season for these unripe figs known as fig knobs, right?

The things you find when you study, right?

And they were not fully ripe and mature figs, but they were absolutely edible.

That's the kind of thing that he was looking for, but he he couldn't find.

This tree was not bearing fruit, and so keep going.

It says that he said to it, May no one ever eat fruit from you again.

And his disciples heard it.

Now, does this seem like a little bit like random to you at all?

Right?

Like we were just seeing like the you know, Jesus the donkey, right?

He's standing alone in the temple, and now he's like talking to a tree.

Right?

This scene's a little bit like how is this all connect?

Well, be bear with us here.

We're gonna come back to this.

We'll tie it all together.

Okay, now verse 15.

Verse 15, the the scene shifts again.

It says, And they came to Jerusalem, and and he entered the temple.

Okay, notice he's back in the temple, and he began to drive out those who sold and who bought in the temple, and he and he overturned the tables of the money changers and and the seats of those who sold pigeons.

And he would not allow anyone to carry anything, right?

And he was teaching them and saying to them, Is it not written, My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations?

Okay, he was quoting uh from Isaiah 56.

He says, But you have have made it a den of robbers, which comes from Jeremiah chapter 7.

Jeremiah 7 · chapter mention

And the chief priest, listen to this, and the chief priests and the scribes heard it.

It is for the chief priests and the scribes, they made up the religious group known as the Sadducees.

Okay, we're gonna be dealing with him here, the rest uh them the rest of the way here.

Okay, it says, and the chief priests and the scribes heard it, they heard what Jesus was doing, and and were seeking a way to destroy him.

All right, for they feared him because all the crowd was astonished at his teaching.

And when evening came, they went out of the city.

Okay, so understand, the temple had turned into this like mega operation of mass industry, okay, in which the Sadducees, okay, the scribes and the chief priests that we've talked about already, they were reaping significant financial gain from all of this.

Okay, whereas foreign Jewish worshipers would come into Jerusalem, okay, and they rightly needed to get their foreign currency exchanged, okay, so that they would have a a shekel for the uh the uh the temple tax and the offering.

Exodus tell tells us about that.

They would need to do that, or they'd be able, they'd need to exchange their money to be able to purchase animals for sacrifices.

Our text mentions like pigeons.

Okay, the the problem though was that all of this had come into the temple, right?

All of this had come into the outside or the or the outside section in of the inward temple, okay, where where Jews and Gentiles uh were uh were to be.

All right, and it had turned into this kind of, I don't know, like farmers market, right?

The town of Newmarket wishes that it had down at Riverwalk Commons on Saturdays, eight till what is it, one?

Free plug there for the farmers market, right?

They wished, right?

We wished that we had something like that, but this is what it had become.

So understand worship, worship had become corrupt to the point where to the point where the the the temple, which was Which was understood as the place of God's presence with God's people and a light to the Gentiles, a light to the unbelieving world.

But it became this an absolute and essentially literal circus.

Right?

This was an absolute gong show.

You know, keep going.

Interestingly enough, here comes the fig tree again, verse 20.

Take a look.

It says, and they passed by it, or as they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots.

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

Alright, let's put these pieces together here.

A bit of a puzzle, right?

Understand, listen.

The fruitless, withered to the roots fig tree here.

Okay, is a symbol of the fruitless and corrupt spirituality that temple worship had become.

Alright, this is a scathing indictment specifically on the Sadducees, right?

Jesus goes hardest after leaders, right?

He goes hardest after the religious leaders.

And so as Jesus desired, you know, figs, he desired something, you know, fruit to eat, he desires fruitful worshipers.

Okay, but that's of course not what he found.

He found that that worship and and and the brand of spirituality that was that was going on in Jerusalem and right where God's presence was known to be, it was it was fruitless.

Right?

It was withered, it was it was completely corrupt.

And so he calls them, he calls us now to it to a new way.

Verse 22, take a look.

And Jesus answered them, this is important, have faith, circle that, have faith in God.

We approach Jesus, we we worship him by by by simple yet powerful faith.

Right?

That's it.

Left to ourselves in our in our sin, our our worship and our spirituality, and all of our attempts to to get close to God and and all of that.

It's fruitless.

It's corrupt.

We're deeply broken people.

So realize here the king has come.

He's arrived here in Jerusalem to go to the cross and to rise again, to be the very means uh by which our our worship and our and our spirituality can be acceptable and and pure and truly fruitful in God's eyes.

This is what's going on here through everything that's taking place.

Which all of this happens as we approach the Lord by faith, right?

Our salvation is a gift.

It's not something that we can conjure up.

It's you know, again, our our our religious performance is is so corrupt and tainted and broken and fruitless.

It's it's by faith and in God's Son Jesus Christ.

Now keep going here, verse 23.

Verse 23, Jesus says that truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, be taken up and thrown into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart, but believes, right?

There's that faith, but believes that that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him.

Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, okay, prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

We have to understand that it's not just ask whatever, you know, any old thing that you might want, and you'll get it as long as you have strong enough faith within yourself.

That's not what he's saying.

We have to understand the context here.

You know, the overall, you know, what the scriptures tell us about prayer.

Jot down James 4, verse 3.

James 4:3

Dot down 1 John 5, 14.

We gotta pray within God's will, right?

We we we pray that those kinds of things.

Anyways, that aside, he says, you know, believe that you have received and it will be yours.

Keep going.

He says, and whenever you stand praying, forgive.

If you have anything against anyone, so that your father, who uh also who is in heaven, may forgive you your trespasses.

Okay, Jesus is showing here that he's come to completely eradicate, okay, this fruitless and and corrupt model of spirituality that becomes so entrenched into the very fabric of life for the Jewish nation.

And I would say this, and scads of uh of so-called Christians and churches today.

That's the way it goes.

Where you know so many of us are are drowning in legalism.

And we don't we don't really understand that Christ loves us so much.

It's not about what we do, it's not about how you behave.

You behaving really well most of the week isn't gonna get God to love you more.

You behaving really, really well throughout the week isn't gonna get God to love you more or less, or whatever, right?

You you can't you you can't, based on your behavior, make his love for you fluctuate.

But we still think that it's about my works, it's about my it's about my efforts.

So many of us are on these fruitless attempts to try and do this.

So many of us are drowning in legalism.

It's the prosperity gospel that so many pastors and churches are are spewing out and people are buying into, and you know, the presence of suffering in your life means that you just don't have enough faith.

You believe Jesus, you're gonna be rich, you're gonna be wealthy, and and and only good things are gonna happen to you.

It's prosperity gospel.

It's you know, in a lot of other churches, a lot of other, it's just it's it's gospel light, kind of wishy wash wash, you know, thin, spiritualistic kind of drivel that ultimately doesn't satisfy, it doesn't save us, it doesn't glorify God.

Listen, he came to wipe that garbage out, all of it, to give life through himself on the cross, received purely by faith, which produces what?

Even more faith, right?

Mountain-moving faith.

He explains that to us right there in verse 23.

What else does it produce?

It produces bold, courageous prayer.

He says in verse 24.

It's it's radical forgiveness.

Why?

Because Jesus has forgiven us of all of our sins.

We see that in verse 25 there.

So listen, you want to see these awesome fruits in your life, which which which that's the expectation, by the way.

It's not like a pie in the sky dream to I'd love to like grow and change and be more like Jesus.

No, that's that's what he's here to do.

That's that's what he expects of you to press into him on these things.

Well, listen, if you want to see those things, get on board with your king's mission.

Join him in the goal to eradicate all your areas of fruitless and corrupt spirituality.

Meaning largely that it's really time that you and I give those those those withered roots a hard look.

It's it's face what's broken inside of you.

It's embrace God's plan to sanctify and to transform you.

It's it's to realize that life is about your discipleship, it's about Christ's likeness and not being the same person now that you were before.

Not being the same person in the next months and years as you are right now.

It's embracing discipleship no matter the cost, no matter how difficult and uncomfortable that might be.

And listen, it is right.

Invite Christ into the mess.

Invite Christ into the circus that is your life, and give him free reign to be the king that he is, to be the to be the savior that he is over all of these areas.

Here's the last thing.

Okay, the king has come with authority that proves futile to challenge.

Okay, verse 27.

All right, now the Sadducees they come at him.

Says here, and they came again to Jerusalem, and as he was walking in the temple, the chief priests and the scribes and the elders of the Sadducees, they came with him, right?

And they said to him, they came to him and said to him, Um, by what authority?

Okay, by what authority uh are you doing these things?

Or who gave you this authority to do them?

You know, realize that this isn't just like some genuine question, you know, and you know, we have on we have we seek knowledge and we seek understanding here.

No, this is this is like a direct challenge.

Okay, well, Jesus said to them, I love this, I will ask you a question.

He says, answer me and and I will tell you by what authority I do these things.

And here's the question.

He says, Was the baptism or the ministry of of John?

He's talking about John the Baptist, was the was the baptism of John from heaven?

As in it, was it from God?

Or is it from man?

Answer me.

Right?

And they kind of convene together, they put their heads together.

You imagine the the huddle there, and they discussed it with one another, saying, Well, you know, if you know, if we say from heaven, he'll say, then why didn't you believe him?

Right?

But but shall we say from from man?

Right?

Because they were they were afraid of the people, it says.

For they all held that John really was a prophet.

Right?

So boom, like Jesus got him against the ropes, right?

He's got him here.

Right?

If John was truly a prophet, you know, uh from God, from heaven, then then why don't they believe in the Messiah that that John proclaimed?

Right?

Why don't they believe in him?

Now, if they say that that John wasn't a prophet, that he was just some random guy, he was, you know, he was you know proclaiming his own agenda, he's from man, then what are they gonna do?

Well, they were gonna incite a riot among the people that were all standing around there because the people believe that John was a true prophet.

Right?

And so they're like stuck, you know, caught between a rock and a hard place here.

And so they wuss out, basically, right?

What does it say?

Because if they answer Jesus, uh, we don't know.

Right?

And Jesus said, fine, neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.

Right?

You're in no position to be judging, you know, my ministry.

You're in no position to be judging my authority.

What authority do you have?

Right?

These guys came at him, right?

They tried to challenge him hard again, his authority.

And and why?

Well, because again, they didn't they didn't realize at all.

They didn't, they didn't they didn't recognize him as the king of the universe.

They didn't they didn't think or believe that he was that he was God and that he comes in in the full authoritative weight of the sovereign creator.

They tried to trick him, they tried to fool him, they they tried to challenge him, as we've seen them do already through Mark's gospel, you know, countless times it seems.

And they found out, well, this is this is futile to try and do this.

You can't go up against God in pride and arrogance and misguided sense of your own authority and and and somehow expect to come out on top, right?

But listen, oh do we try?

We try, don't we?

We can be so like the Sadducees in all of this.

We have pride and and we go against Christ, and even though we're you know we're Christ's followers and we're Christians, our flesh and and and the unredeemed part of us still, that's the work in progress, and it doesn't it doesn't like that, and and we're like these guys, and we want to challenge him, and we want our our authority above his and all of that.

I mean, well, how do we do this?

Well, here are four ways.

Four ways we try to challenge Jesus' authority.

You can jot these down.

Okay, the first one, these are very general.

Here's the first one.

We just rise against him.

You rise against him.

This is just you know flagrant, obvious, blatant rebellion.

This is those who are like, yeah, I I you know I've heard the gospel before.

I want nothing to do with it.

I want to live my own life, I want to do what I want.

I'm gonna pursue the things of the world.

It's gonna be a life of carnality, it's a life of trying to please and serve my own flesh and going after what I want to go after.

Maybe some of you here are are rising against him.

You're like, I don't know why I'm here, I don't want to be here.

And for you, it's like a wholesale embrace of the world and its values.

That's one way.

Here's the second way we do that.

We ignore him.

We ignore him.

That's where you and I, we we know God's commands, right?

We know what he would desire for us, but we kind of we kind of push him away.

Right?

We push him into those you know dark areas where we hope he won't you know bug us a little bit.

And so we hear you know his voice and and and the Holy Spirit is kind of you know knocking on us and and whispering to us.

But we're kind of like la la la la la la la.

Right?

I I don't want to hear it.

I I want to ignore it.

Hey, listen, be so, so careful.

And by being so careful, I mean do not do that.

Right?

Repent of that.

Because the more you do that, Jesus at some point's gonna be like okay, there you go.

Romans 1 talks about giving them over to the desires of their heart.

That ends horrifically every single time.

Don't quench the voice of the Holy Spirit, don't ignore him.

But we do that, that's a way that we challenge him.

How about this one?

Number three, we justify our actions.

We justify our actions, don't we?

Well, I mean, I'm doing this because, you know, so what yeah, so it's not exactly how Christ would say it, but I'm doing this over here, and we try to play the game of, yeah, but in this area of my life I'm doing pretty well.

I was like, yeah, I know, but I'm going after this area.

Yeah, but or we get to the point where we're like, oh, well, you know, we're justifying in our own minds and maybe even in conversations you've had with people, like, but does Jesus really mean it like that?

Does he does he really expect my whole heart?

Did Jesus really say, hey, who are we sounding like when we start to say those things?

Satan?

Right?

That's what he did with with Eve in the garden.

Did Jesus really say?

But we play that game as well.

And we justify it, and the way we challenge his authority in our lives.

How about this last one here, the fourth one?

We stall.

We just we we just straight up stall.

And and we can like act so humble in this state.

We can we can spiritualize this as well.

Again, this is where we we know.

We know that you know what God wants us to do.

We know how his authority is coming to bear on you know blank area in our lives.

And it's not that we're just trying to ignore it because we know that that's not right, but you know what?

I'm gonna, you know, we and we try to act all holy, like I'm just gonna take some time, I'm gonna really meditate on this.

I'm gonna like, I'm gonna pray about this more.

Right?

I've I've heard people talk about that when it comes to uh something like baptism, right?

We're having a baptism service here, and I and I've heard people say, like, well, I'm really gonna pray to see you know whether or not the Lord wants me to be baptized.

Guess what?

You don't need to pray that I gotta really like is this, you know, should I do?

Yes.

The answer is yes.

The scriptures tell us yes, it's an act of obedience.

Don't over-spiritually, don't stall.

Right?

It's it's it's delayed obedience.

You know what delayed obedience is?

Disobedience.

Right?

That's what stalling is.

It's it's an affront to the authority of your king.

It's you saying, uh-uh.

It's pushing him off the throne.

It's you sitting on it.

Like, I'm not really sitting on it, I'm just kind of sitting on like the armrest of the thing.

That's not good.

He's on the throne.

We're not.

I mean, you could even easily say here that our that our challenges to Christ's authority are even worse than the Sadducees here.

Why?

Because they didn't accept that Jesus was king, they didn't accept that he was Lord, that he was the Messiah.

We do.

So you and I, we should know better than anybody else that all attempts to go against his authority, no matter how subtle, no matter how hidden, it's ultimately futile.

What our king has come to do in our hearts, understand this.

He will accomplish it.

Those whom he justifies, he will sanctify, he will glorify.

Get on board with it or get steamrolled.

That's the way that's gonna go.

The sooner you get on board, the better that goes for you.

Better to bow the knee than to stand in defiance.

Now, here's the thing that you're gonna find, and I was thinking about that uh this this week.

And I was thinking back to some of the times where I've like, you know, the Lord, I sense he's really pushing me in some area of my life, some issue of obedience.

I can tell there's some area that needs to be sanctified and growing.

And you know, it's like it feels like the worst thing in the world, right?

And I and I don't want to do that.

You're kind of clinging to your comfort and you're like, I want to, and you're wrestling, you know, with the Lord on all of those things.

Have you ever been like that?

You've ever gone through this?

Like, if you're a Christian, the answer is yes, right?

This is the way it works, right?

You you go through that and and you're fighting with him, and and have you ever gotten to the point where you just kind of overwhelms you and you're like, fine, I I give, I relent.

And and you give in and you allow him to have your way.

What do you find happens in that moment?

You're like, oh, this is this is actually way better.

Right?

There's so much, there's so much peace, right?

There's so much, there's so much joy.

I can see now clearly with new eyes that that following him is the best way.

And then maybe you get real eager.

I love this too, and you're like, well, let's allow him to come into all these other areas of my life as well, because ultimately I'm not seeing things straight there either, and I need to invite him in there and have him have him have his way and rule in authority there.

If you're fighting him, understand it's it's pride and and and and maybe it's maybe it's fear.

I don't know where this is gonna go.

I I don't know if I trust him enough with this, with my heart, with my life.

Again, uh you know, as you as you work through that and and as you submit that the challenging, proud spirit that you've got, and and you give in to him, recognize that you'll you'll you'll experience the sweetness of that.

It's so good.

There's a wonderful peace and just this joyful satisfaction from the heart, deep restful joy as you give way to your king.

Because as he reigns in in power and and authority, he brings that that soul rest that so many of us are looking for.

He brings that that confidence that we try to look for in other things.

He brings that that satisfaction like straight up nothing else we can.