Mat 12; 23-27 23 Now when He came into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people confronted Him as He was teaching, and said, “By what authority are You doing these things? And who gave You this authority?” 24 But Jesus answered and said to them, “I also will ask you one thing, which if you tell Me, I likewise will tell you by what authority I do these things: 25 The baptism of John—where was it from? From heaven or from men?” And they reasoned among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say to us, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ 26 But if we say, ‘From men,’ we fear the multitude, for all count John as a prophet.” 27 So they answered Jesus and said, “We do not know.” And He said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.
The key word in the passage that I read is “authority.” It is a strong word; there’s a certain force, a sense of respect and fear in that word. People who are in authority are on the top. Authority means they not only have the right to do certain things, but even have the power to do that. Parents have authority over their children, principals exercise authority over their schools, a boss has authority in the company, elected government officials exercise authority over their constituencies, a C.M. over a state, a P.M. over a country. But all these authorities have a limit. Beyond all this, there is someone who has the supreme, ultimate, and complete authority over everything and everyone. That is Lord Jesus Christ.
All these men can have authority over only our body and temporal things, but Jesus Christ has authority not only over the body, but our eternal soul, not only temporal, but even eternal things. All men’s authority has a limit; they can only rule or kill the body, but He alone can rule or kill the soul. They can only preach to our minds, but He alone can preach to our heart and soul. Men can give only knowledge; He alone can give grace. They can only baptize us with water, but He alone can baptize with the Holy Spirit and really save our soul and sanctify our soul. His authority is supreme.
One of the primary purposes of the Gospel of Matthew is to make us see Jesus as king and recognize His supreme, infinite authority. Every stage Matthew highlights that, e.g., after His preaching the Sermon on the Mount, Chapter 7, verse 28, “The people were astonished at His doctrine, for He taught them as one having authority.” Not only preaching, but His miracles showed He had authority over all diseases, all demons, even nature by stilling a storm, creating food, even death by raising people from the dead. And by raising the paralyzed man He said He has authority on earth even to forgive sins. He alone has authority to regenerate a dead soul, sanctify a soul, and eternally save a soul. He has authority to decide the destiny of every man. He is going to judge every man on this world. All judgement is given to Him. That is why the Gospel of Matthew ends with the declaration in Chapter 28, verse 18: Jesus said this, “All authority in heaven and in earth is given unto Me.” That is an amazing claim.
How many recognize this authority? Men naturally rebel against His authority, even questioning His right to rule over us. The call of the gospel is to repent and recognize His authority and believe in His authority. If you don’t recognize His authority, you will perish with dire temporal and eternal consequences. That is what our passage teaches us today.
Let us unfold this with 2 headings:
Question on Jesus’ Authority Answer on Jesus’ Authority
Those who don’t recognize that authority immediately and repent will face dire temporal and eternal consequences and perish – we will see that next week.
Question on Jesus’ Authority
Verse 23: “Now when He came into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people confronted Him as He was teaching, and said, ‘By what authority are You doing these things? And who gave You this authority?’”
So the question is about Jesus’ authority. Firstly look at the circumstance of the question raised. Jesus came into the temple and was teaching. Maybe in the outer court, which is a vast place, surrounding it were these high walls and pillars. Remember this is the place He cleansed yesterday, Tuesday, and today, Wednesday, He comes again and starts teaching. The temple outer court, now being cleansed, should not again be filled with bazaars. He makes it a place of teaching of God’s truth. After cleaning the temple, He cleans their mind by teaching truth. A vast multitude collected round Him. Mark says He also walked around, maybe inspected the outer court to make certain the money changers don’t come back. Luke says He preached the gospel and people were very attentive listening to Him. Today, being Reformation anniversary, we see our Lord being the first reformer, ridding all man-made things from the temple of God and bringing the authority of God’s word alone in the temple.
Now we obviously know some people will have a problem with that, because they cannot do their priestcraft, control people, and make money if God’s authority is restored in the temple. Maybe all the business people already suffered a big loss during Passover time yesterday. Maybe they thought next day we can open shops, but He is there again, guarding the temple and teaching. This will impact not only their finances but the priests’ commission, and even the High Priest, head of the Sanhedrin. So probably it was informed to the leaders. Leaders we know are already so angry with Jesus, they have decided to kill Him, but are waiting for an opportunity.
If you read John and other passages, they are very upset with Jesus. They were fearful they are losing people. When these leaders heard about Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead, this group said the whole crowd has gone after Him. They were tremendously threatened. Jesus has started a revolution. They are panicking. They want to stop Him fast and come and attack Him here. So they come and question His authority.
The group who raised the question of authority. See who comes, verse 23: “the chief priests and the elders of the people confronted Him as He was teaching.” They stop Him. Chief priests and elders, and Mark adds scribes and the elders—this combination of terms refers to the Sanhedrin, the supreme judicial and religious authority in Israel. It is a big large group. Caiaphas was the High Priest, and Annas his father-in-law was behind him. Chief priests would include all the priests. There would be under-priests, different groups of priests and Levites, treasurers, people who took care of temple collection, music, breads, wood, bird offering, animal offering, incense. It is a large group. Scribes are the highest authority of law, interpreting the law of God and passing on the tradition of teachers.
Elders were tribal leaders. Chief priests, scribes, and elders composed the Sanhedrin, the highest ruling body of Israel. They had a big temple police force with them, to arrest people who did violate the temple rules, as we find in Acts 5, when they arrested the apostles. Israel was under Roman rule, but Roman governors recognized the authority of the Sanhedrin, not only in Jerusalem, but even in all Israel. Roman leaders even feared this body. They will always try to work cooperating with them.
Notice the question. “By what authority are You doing these things? And who gave You this authority?”
Two times the word authority is used, meaning the right to act and the power that attends that act. When we go in a car and there is a man in white uniform, he waves his hand and we have to stop. We recognize he has authority. He can check our registration and Driver’s License. Not only the right to act but the power that attends to act.
“By what authority are you doing these things?” Which things? All things He was doing. His whole ministry of teaching and miracles, and now what right do you have to come into the temple on a donkey like a king, receive praises, “Hosanna, Son of David.” You come into the temple and cleanse the whole temple, now continue teaching.
“We are guardians of the temple. We are the supreme authority over Israel. You are coming in our territory, and doing these things.” If this temple is under us, what right has this one man, under their noses, to come and take the whole show? Under them the bazaars and commercial work developed and grew and they got commissions from it. Now you comes and stops all that. What right do you have for these things and to totally overthrow everything?
“Show us Your ordination papers. Show us Your credentials. Where is Your Sanhedrin approval? We are the chief authority of Israel and experts in scripture and recognize no such authority in you.” There was no higher religious authority in Israel outside the Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin was the one that gave authority to any Rabbi to teach, but we didn’t give you. We decided and finally announced you got your authority from the devil to do miracles.
See carefully: they first ask, “By what authority?” What kind of, what sort of authority are you exercising in these deeds? Are these rabbinic authority, prophetic authority? Next, “Who gave you this authority?” If you claim to have official rabbinic or prophetic authority, who gave you? We didn’t. Or if you claim messianic authority, who gave that?
They are obviously shocked by His authority. In His preaching and even the authority that allows you to be worshipped by people and act as God and heal like God in the temple. See, this is not a sincere question wanting to know the answer, but a very subtle question. All their attempt is to destroy Him. Obviously, the straight answer is what? He would say, “I am doing this by Messianic authority, this is divine authority.” And who gave? He would say, “My Father, and I do things my Father does and accept worship like my Father because I and my father are one.” That’s the answer they wanted, and this is what He answered last time. You know what they did, so that they could accuse Him of blasphemy and took stones to stone Him. That is what they are trying now: to discredit Him before the crowd, as an unauthorized blasphemer. That is the plan. So We have seen the question on Jesus’ authority, next is the answer of Jesus.
Answer on Jesus’ Authority
Verse 24: “But Jesus answered and said to them, ‘I also will ask you one thing, which if you tell Me, I likewise will tell you by what authority I do these things:’”
Literally, “I will ask of you one word (thing), and answer me, and then I will answer your question.” The response looks strange to us because in our times we don’t answer a question with a question. In fact, people get upset if you answer a question with question. But those days in public debate, it was a rabbinically accepted style. He says, “I’ll answer your question if you answer My question.”
Whenever Jesus tells you something like that, you’d better brace yourself! You’re about to be exposed! It wasn’t that Jesus was seeking to detract or evade them from their questions. Rather, it was to force them to answer the question themselves, because in the answer to His question, they would have the answers to their own.
See His question, verse 25: “The baptism of John—where was it from? From heaven or from men?”
The Baptism of John: “where was it from, heaven or men?” The phrase “baptism of John” didn’t mean John’s act of putting people under water and taking them out. It was a figure of speech, a part for the whole. Baptism of John means the entire ministry of John the Baptist which resulted in people getting baptized by him. John’s office function and message in which baptism was a prominent distinctive. He’s saying, “You tell Me, then, was the ministry of John the Baptist from God or of men?” You find that phrase used in Acts 1:22 for selecting a replacement for Judas as an apostle. “Find one who were with us from the baptism of John.” From the time John appeared as a messenger of God and did ministry.
So Jesus was using a figure of speech which they well understood. He was asking them this very simple question.
Now imagine the air begins to be electric, shocking. The disciples are gathered around, a large multitude gathered. This august group of Sanhedrin come. People wonder what they will say, and they ask the Lord the most intelligent question to trap Him. Jesus responds with a question.
All these people knew John and sat under his ministry and had great respect to him. Many of them were actually baptized expecting the Messiah. They knew John was a great prophet who appeared after 400 years of silence. He was filled in the womb by the Holy Spirit. “Among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist.” He was the fulfillment of the promise that God made in the last book of the Old Testament: “Behold, I send My messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me” (Malachi 3:1; see also Matthew 10:11). He was the one that the Lord promised in the Book of Isaiah: “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the LORD…’” (Isaiah 40:3; see also Matthew 3:3).
When he started preaching, “All Judea and the surrounding regions were coming to John in the wilderness of the Jordan and were being baptized.” His ministry was about as ‘public’ a ministry as possible. Everyone knew about him, and everyone trembled at what he had to say. In fact, his message and his manner were so bold and earthshaking that the talk went around that he might even be the Messiah (John 1:19-20).
What did he say? He made it clear that he himself was not the Messiah, that his ministry was to identify and show who is the Messiah to Israel. Did he identify and show? In Matthew 3:11 he said, “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”
And just consider how this man John testified of Jesus! The next day, after baptizing Jesus, John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! This is He of whom I said, ‘After me comes a Man who is preferred before me, for He was before me.’ I did not know Him; but that He should be revealed to Israel, therefore I came baptizing with water.” And John bore witness, saying, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Him. I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God” (John 1:29-34).
John’s testimony of Jesus was outstandingly clear. What is the significance of John as the last great prophet, the forerunner? John’s message and ministry was nothing if removed from Jesus. He was the forerunner to Jesus. When they asked him, “Are you the Messiah?” He said, “No, I am just a voice in the wilderness. I am preparing you for the Messiah and will identify the Messiah to you, that you should believe the one who is coming. The one coming is greater than I. I am unworthy to unloose his sandals.” He attested He is the Son of God, the Lamb of God.
John’s ministry was nothing if removed from the person and identity of Jesus. “I have no significance within me. I bear witness to Him. He must increase, I must decrease.” He had been saying, “The Messiah is near; the Messiah is near; the Messiah is coming; we must be ready, repent, confess your sins, be baptized, so you can enter His kingdom.” He was preparing people. Then when He came, he pointed people to Jesus. Even his own disciples, John and James, followed Christ because of John’s witness. In John 5, Jesus Himself said He had the witness of John that He was the Messiah.
See the wisdom of the Lord. He is not evading the question. He’s giving them an opportunity to honestly answer the question. And if they answer the question, their own question will be answered.
Now the official ruling religious group of the nation must now pronounce whether John’s ministry was from God or merely man, initiated by John for selfish human ends, or whether it came from heaven, for divine purposes and divine ends. If John’s ministry is from heaven, the question of my authority is already established by John, because he announced me as the Messiah, Son of God, and Lamb of God. Then you have to accept I am the Messiah.
If John’s ministry is merely of men, his own initiatives, promoted by human techniques, everything that he said about me is false. There is a wonderful summary of John’s ministry that explains what I said so far: Acts 19:4: “Then Paul said, ‘John indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on Him who would come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.’”
John ministry had no significance apart from the constant authorization of Jesus of Nazareth as the long-promised Messiah. John’s whole focus was upon Christ as the Messiah. So He asks this question: “Was John’s baptism from heaven or men?”
What a question! What a bind He put them in! They were hoping to embroil Him in controversy before all the people—forcing Him to claim divine authority and trap Him in an accusation of blasphemy! But now, in front of all those same people, He put them in a knot that they couldn’t even begin to untie themselves from without exposing the hardness of their own unbelieving hearts!
I suspect that they were dumbstruck. They hadn’t seen this coming. And after standing with blank looks on their faces, I suspect that one of them stuck a finger up in the air and said, “Excuse us for just one minute”; and then they scurried away to form a huddle.
They reasoned with themselves. Verse 25B: “And they reasoned among themselves, saying, ‘If we say, “From heaven,” He will say to us, “Why then did you not believe him?” But if we say, “From men,” we fear the multitude, for all count John as a prophet.’”
“They reasoned with themselves”—they dialogued, in perfect tense, continuous action. They got in a continuous discussion. “What are we going to say? Boy, if we say this, we say that [mumbles],” and they’re all in this little huddle. See? This must have went on for a few minutes.
“If we say from heaven, He is going to ask us why didn’t we believe.” He pointed to me as the Messiah. They knew John’s message. We will be caught. “We asked what is the nature and source of His authority, but John has already answered that it came from God.” He will ask, “Why you didn’t believe Him?” That is the central message of John’s ministry. Oh no! That exposes our question as mere nonsense. He established that Jesus is from heaven and here we are 3 years later looking like utter fools, still unable to understand after all the miracles and teaching of His identity. Still we are not clear. We will be seen as most foolish blind leaders. Oh, we don’t want to do that. We better not answer.
What is the other alternative? He gave only 2 options. If we say, “From men,” then there is fear of the people. What is the logical result? They feared the people, for all regarded John to be a prophet indeed. Ah, we are stuck here. Do you see the dilemma He put them in? Only 2 alternatives. “Out of heaven.” If we say that, we are struck. We have no authority question; the issue is settled. If we say, “From men,” people are flocking to Jesus as the Messiah. Many of them followed favorably the message of John. They will completely lose people’s trust and they may even be stoned. Luke 20:6: “If we shall say from men, all the people will stone us, they all believe John was a prophet.” They were scared for their lives. Here in the midst of the temple where religious pronouncements spread like wildfire, if this spreads that we as leaders had the boldness to say the ministry of John the Baptist was merely a human device and had no divine authorization, not only will these people know we are blasphemers and stone us, but the whole Sanhedrin will lose credibility for supporting Herod’s cutting of John’s head, which people were very angry about. They will lynch us. John says they were scared of their very lives.
Now the air is crackling, like a “tan tan tan” serial scene. Show the face of Jesus, a smirk, a smile, waiting for their answer, crowd eyes coming out, watching the leaders. They are all discussing, oh oh, sweating. “What is this? We came to trap Him, but He trapped us before the crowd!” You can almost see sparks as everyone is waiting with bated breath.
After some time, They stop their discussion. “We cannot continue discussing, let us go.” They come back, this great, wise, highest authority of the nation, top spiritual religious leaders, experts in law come with the best answer to our Lord. Verse 27: “So they answered Jesus and said, ‘We do not know.’”
How can they shamefully say this? It was their duty to be the acute observers of religious matters. It was their duty to know. Instead of admitting Jesus as the Messiah, they are willing to say, “We are ignorant, we don’t know.” You see the sickening hypocrisy. Oh, the hardness of their hearts. They didn’t even have the moral courage to say, “Your question has set before us 2 sharp horns. We don’t want to be hung on either, so we don’t tell you what we really believe, but we don’t know.” Shame on you. They tried to appear neutral. Agnostic. “One who do not know. We are agnostics.”
“If we say it is from heaven, the question we pose to you is already answered, and you turn upon us and chide us for our miserable unbelief. We have to admit You are the Messiah. We will be publicly exposed. You have done enough damage to our credibility already—cleaned the temple, and in our temple you are teaching in front of us. Now we cannot be shamed before all as fools. If we say John is merely a man with man’s authority, they will charge us with blasphemy and stone us, lynch us. We don’t want to die here. So simple, we say we don’t know.”
How could you possibly not conclude that? You’re supposed to be the people who figure out all these things. You’re supposed to be the observers of religious happenings. Shamelessly they say, “We don’t know.” What they really meant was that they refused to admit the plain truth before their eyes!
Verse 27B: “And He said to them, ‘Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.’”
The Lord’s final response: “Neither do I tell you by what authority I do these things.” He refuses to make a formal public statement concerning His authority. Why? Because He promised an explicit answer based on their response to His question. It was a conditional promise: “I will ask one word. If you answer me, I will tell you.” In the common expression of rabbinic debate, Jesus had every right to do this.
When they didn’t answer, “I am under no obligation to fulfil my promise. You have evaded and refused to answer me. I refuse to answer you.” They rejected the light, so He turned it off. “I have nothing more to say to you. Nothing more.” And He didn’t. He really didn’t.
Inwardly they were already enraged when they came to Him. One can only imagine how much oil or gasoline was poured on their infuriated spirits by His publicly shaming them. If this is not enough, then immediately following this incident, He tells 3 parables to these Sanhedrin representatives, which thoroughly expose them and show them God has rejected and is going to send terrible judgement on them. Verse 45: “Now when the chief priests and Pharisees heard His parables, they perceived that He was speaking of them. But when they sought to lay hands on Him, they feared the multitudes, because they took Him for a prophet.” They were all the more enraged and settled in their determination that they will put the Son of God to death.
I hope we have seen the intimate connection of the ministry of Jesus and John, how they fall and stand together. That is a vital principle in many aspects of biblical truth. So we see the question and answer about the authority of Jesus.
We will see in the next parables that those who don’t recognize that authority should immediately repent. They will face terrible temporary and eternal spiritual consequences. We will look at that next week. Let me conclude with a few applications.
What are the Lessons?
1. What is the application from this passage to GRBC church as we meet today on October 31st, 2021? Today is the 504th Reformation Anniversary Day. All reformed churches specially remember this day when 504 years ago, a great movement of God started in history, when our forefathers in faith shouted abroad to the world. What was their shout? It was again a shout of authority! It was the supreme authority of Jesus that comes from scripture today. The great shout of the Reformation was sola Scriptura. From where does authority come? They shouted “Scripture alone has divine authority over the life of the church and life of a believer. No one else.” God’s word is above everything, above men’s traditions, and institutions.
I want to bring 3 applications: A Historical Lesson for our church in this anniversary, a Personal Lesson, and a Solemn Warning.
In our passage today, enemies of Christ attack Him with a question: “By what authority do you do this?” Let us understand this is the weapon enemies of the gospel always attacked the true church with. This same weapon came against the Reformers, the Puritans, men like Martin Luther, Bunyan, Tyndale, William Wycliffe; all faced this attack. Ironically, even today other traditional churches attack true church like this. Not only religious groups, but even our government recently wants to do a survey to find out on authorized and unauthorized churches. Basically, the same weapon: “Who gave you the authority?” This weapon came against our Lord and will come against us.
As we face the 504th Reformation year, may we never forget the great work of God in history, because this is the same struggle that went on during the Reformation. When the reformers saw in the what was called the temple, which was filled with tradition, superstition, men’s teaching, false teaching, money exchanges, forgiveness indulgences exchanged for money, it had completely hid the word of God, and the church had become a den of thieves with superstition, and tradition. The atrocities of the Popes. They also realized from the Catholic councils trying to reform the mother church—the First council in Pisa, the second council in Constance, the third council in Basel—proved to all history: we can never change a traditional church by being in that church. There has to be a reformation. There has to be cleansing like our Lord cleansed the temple and exposing its sins.
On October 31, 1517, God raised Martin Luther to expose the sins of the Roman Catholic church by nailing 95 theses on the castle church door in Wittenberg, which was like a spark, and the reformation fire spread the reformation. Before Luther’s life was over, Christianity was split into 2. The Reformation continued, not just by Luther in Germany, Calvin in Switzerland and Geneva, Zwingli in Zurich, John Knox in Scotland, Tyndale, and the Puritans in England. It was a reformation that spread through Europe and other parts of the world and is still spreading.
What is the summary of all Reformation theology? The cry of the reformers was the 5 solas of the Reformation. These were five statements about the content of the Protestant gospel: Sola Scriptura—Scripture alone. Sola Gratia—Grace alone. Sola Fide—Faith alone. Solus Christus—Christ alone. Soli Deo Gloria—God’s glory alone.
What was the problem those reformers and men like Luther faced? “On what authority are you teaching these things against the tradition of the great grandmother church?” This question again and again came back to Luther in his debate in Leipzig with Eck. The topic that was given to him was the authority of the Pope or the scripture. Dangerous topic.
Man boldly argued that the Pope**’s** authority is last and fallible, just 400 years, but scriptural authority is 1,000s years before that, going back to the Council of Nicaea (325), the first council of the Christian church. Great debates that happened between Luther, Eck, and Karlstadt. This is the truth he realized: you cannot trust any church, any Father, any man, any tradition, but scripture alone has all divine authority.
This is the argument that came to him and comes to us: “What makes you think you can correctly understand the Bible? What makes you understand the scriptures better than 1,000s of priests, bishops, theologians, and Popes through the history of the church?” He realized scripture is inerrant, infallible, authoritative, clear, sufficient, and final. This is what the Reformation established. Scripture is clear, even so, even as an ordinary Christian in his own language when he reads that and finds either any great Father, pastors, or any big churches don’t follow that, we can reject their authority as false and against scripture. However big their church or tradition can be, scripture alone should exercise supreme authority over the consciences of men, and no tradition, no men, no big church.
In that great debate in 1521 when he was summoned to appear before the Emperor and a big august assembly of representatives from many countries and churches on trial—the famous Diet of Worms. One of the questions they asked him when they piled all his books from 1517 to 1521, he wrote a lot: “On what authority you have written against the church? Do you recant?” His timeless words:
“Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures or by clear reason (for I do not trust either in the pope or in councils alone, since it is well known that they have often erred and contradicted themselves), I am bound by the Scriptures and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience.” And then looking at all, “Here I stand, May God help me. Amen.”
A fearless son of truth. He didn’t care even if they cut him to pieces. Oh, we all spineless generation, should be ashamed of our fear of men. From that great movement established the authority of scripture. The first cry of the reformation was sola scriptura. We are not claiming any special wisdom and know more than any big churches, we declare the authority of scripture over everything. The authority of Jesus’ supreme authority today comes only through His scripture.
A very important foundational truth. Every church that goes astray goes astray at this point. As long as we are anchored upon sola scriptura, nothing can shake us. It is non-negotiable. We’re not just dogmatic about this, we’ll be bulldog-matic about this. (Applause). The Word of God is not up for debate. We can adjust on so many things, not this. I’m telling you, you take one step off of sola scriptura, you take one step off of sola scriptura and you have put your foot on a theological banana peel. You are on a slippery slope. It is inevitable you are headed down, down, down until you crash at the bottom. As a church, may God teach us from this passage that the authority of Jesus that comes from scripture is supreme today. We submit to that above everything.
Personal Lesson
See the power of a conscience-waking question. The question of Jesus: how the slumbering conscience of the leaders became awake. You are wondering why we ask questions. This is why. We ask questions. Facing such soul-piercing questions can bring great spiritual deliverance.
You would have come here with so may personal and family struggles. Just like Jesus, let me ask one important question. Let me ask you one question. Answer me? Where does the authority of the scriptures come from? Did it come from men who wrote it or from God? Did the scripture was written by men or God?
Think deeply like the leaders. If you say God, then why don’t you personally believe and live under its full authority? Do you really believe or you just believe so people don’t misunderstand you, don’t give membership or remove you from church? Think deeply.
Scriptures which God authenticated its message with all kinds of signs and wonders, the witness of John the Baptist, and Christ’s words and works? Do you really believe its authority comes from God’s word?
If you say you believe, do you submit to the authority of scripture in every aspect of your life? In your life in every situation, what controls you? Is your main question: “What does God’s word say?” Is that your primary concern, or do your circumstances, fear of men, or convenience become the rule of your life?
Isn’t this the cause of all the problems in our life? Isn’t this the cause of the fall? How did Satan spoil our race? “Did God really say?” “Should we really do as per God said? No, no, we should go as per circumstance.” Satan keeps whispering to each of us, against this principle. “Did God really speak through the Bible?”
The problems we face personally is that We personally don’t have this strong conviction of sola scriptura. That is why we will be deceived. What is the blessed man’s path in Psalm 1? Only when a man doesn’t walk in the counsel of the wicked, stand with the sinners, sit with the scoffers. Not what friends, relatives say, family members say, the newspaper says, TV, circumstances say, but walk our life according to God’s word.
See, our thoughts are very powerful. What kind of thoughts, convictions we have is reflected in our life. Our decisions and life will all be based on them. If we think something is important more than God’s word, our life will go in that direction. If our mind is anchored with the conviction on sola scriptura, our life will be a rooted and stable tree, always fruitful. Otherwise we are chaff that even a small blow will chase away. An unstable, fluctuating life is because we lack the conviction of sola scriptura.
Only we have strong conviction sola scripture personally, but as a family. What is the cause of family problems? Instead of ordaining family life according to scripture, we listen to all our relatives and the world’s suggestions. Husband will do their Bible responsibilities, wife the same, children the same. Then only then is the family based on this principle.
If we believe the authority of the Bible, we should also believe the Bible is inerrant, infallible, clear, sufficient, and final. It is very dangerous to just claim we believe the Bible authority and then live as per what the world calls wisdom. As a reformed church, the basic principle is “what does the Bible say?” We submit to that.
Solemn Warning
If you don’t submit to the authority of Christ, you have to examine your conversion. You don’t want to submit because you want to be Lord of your life and live as you wish. Rebelling against Christ’s divine authority is often rooted in self-righteousness that had the appearance of reverence but at heart had a low view of God due to an exalted view of self. You elevate your views and desires above the evidence of divine truth, so you don’t submit divine authority. That is the heart of an unconverted person.
Conversion itself is the moment a man dies to his rights, ambitions, selfishness, and pride as they repent of sins and trust in Jesus Christ. Why should they forsake other gods, other religions, principles, and the self-rule of their own hearts for the Lordship of Jesus Christ? You recognize the authority of Jesus above everything else, and reject, repent, and follow Him. Those who believe have recognized the evidence of Jesus Christ as the Son of God and the Redeemer of sinners through His death and resurrection, and trust Him as Lord. Conversion is nothing but an acknowledgement that His authority as Lord exceeds all others.
If you don’t believe the authority of Jesus coming from scripture, still arguing, “We cannot do everything in the Bible, we should listen to Satan, the world, and circumstances, we cannot live in the world like this.” If you have this thought and lifestyle, this passage warns you have to immediately repent and submit to Jesus’ authority, or there is terrible temporal and eternal judgement.
The bigger the authority, when we reject that big authority, the more terrible are the consequences. You are rebelling against the demonstrated divine, supreme authority of Christ. The authority of Christ which He has over all disease, demons, nature, Satan, sin, even death. He declared all authority is given to Him on heaven and earth. You can sit here and listen to the preacher preach. You can say, “I don’t believe in Christ’s authority coming from scripture, or John’s witness.” You don’t submit to the Lordship of Christ. You are today doing the same sin that those leaders did. The folly is of eternal proportions; there are dire consequences.
If you refuse to reject the authority of Christ, terrible temporal and physical consequences result.
See what terrible consequences for these leaders. Their terrible crowning sin was unbelief, hypocrisy, and blindness. Hypocrisy: they said they believe the scriptures, but didn’t. They refused to see the evidence. They refused to see the light and willfully wanted to be blind. They had the witness of John and the testimony of all Jesus’ works and miracles—they had seen with their own eyes, and prophecies all pointed, but they wanted to be blind because of their love for sin and pride of heart. Even the blind could see. John 3:19: “And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.”
They wanted to be willfully blind, so they don’t have to submit to Jesus’ authority. You know what God did. God cursed them with judicial blindness.
John 12:37-41: “But although He had done so many signs before them, they did not believe in Him, that the word of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spoke: ‘Lord, who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?’ Therefore they could not believe, because Isaiah said again: ‘He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, Lest they should see with their eyes, Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, So that I should heal them.’ These things Isaiah said when he saw His glory and spoke of Him.”
See the terrible judicial blindness. It says God blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts for fearing they should see with their eyes, and feel and realize in their hearts and turn and repent. The next parables tell the terrible judgement coming on them.
Oh, terrible. If you are here, in spite of all witnesses, if you don’t submit, repent, and submit to the authority of scripture, you are sinning against and rebelling against the authority of the great God whom Isaiah saw in infinite majesty and glory and cried out, “woe is me.”
If you try to play around with His authority, don’t submit to His authority coming from scripture, the temporary immediate consequence is that God blinds you and hardens you so you will never be able to see the light. Oh, terrible.
You know what God does with those who will not refuse to see Jesus’ authority and submit to it. He puts them in a posture where they cannot see. Worst blindness, judicial blindness.
May God give us such a sight of this sickening sin, unbelief, and hypocrisy, that we may flee from it if we are any posture that it is true of us.
Religious hypocrisy He rebukes in the next parable of the 2 sons: “You say you believe and obey, but you don’t do it. You say you believe in the authority of scripture, but don’t submit to it.” Plead with Christ, ask Him to open our eyes. See at the same time, the religious blindness. Day after day seeing the light, sermon upon sermon, truth upon truth, but still don’t see the light because of love of sin and the world, “but I don’t see light.” Those who will be blind in the face of light, God gives them what they want. He judicially blinds them. They can never see the light.
Oh may God have mercy on us. Never blind any of us like this. Though God has done many things before your eyes, shown again and again the truth of who Jesus is from the scriptures, surrounding you with witnesses, because of your love for the world and sin, you are willfully continuing to be blind. “But I don’t see anything in the church. I don’t see any light.” You hear a sermon, you cannot see any light.
God says, “Okay, you want to be blind, I will make you blind.” So terrible judicial blindness. God blinds you so you cannot see, and you go on abusing your privileges. Just go on, on, on, filling the measure of your sin. Then you can hear millions of sermons, deeper sermons, more powerful sermons, even Jesus Himself preach. Never will you see the light. Because you are judged many years before you die, you are permanently blinded and destined for hell on this earth itself. Does that frighten you?
My friend, I want to beg you. I am a man with 1,000s of weakness. I am just an instrument. Don’t see the instrument and judge the authority of the truth. You are not dealing with me. I have no unique authority. The authority for my preaching comes from this book. As long as I truly preach this truth, you have to listen and obey as it is God’s word. If you have a problem with the message, don’t excuse yourself blaming my mistake. You are dealing with infallible authoritative word of God. You see the light and submit to it or it will blind you. Terrible warning.
If you refuse to reject the authority of Christ, terrible temporal and physical consequences result. John says God has given all judgement to Christ. He judges men with judicial blindness now and then eternally to outer darkness those who don’t submit to the authority of His word. We will see that in the parables.
If you reject His authority coming from the scriptures, you may be judicially blinded.
Grace Reformed Baptist Church, Bangalore 