The Authority That Shakes Heaven and Earth | matthew 21:23-27
The King is Coming: Jesus in the Temple • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 41:22
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Bible Passage: Matthew 21:23–27
Bible Passage: Matthew 21:23–27
Introduction
Introduction
Lord of the Rings is one of my very favorite stories outside of the Bible.
I love the books and I love the movies.
Tolkien’s works are so good because of the way in which they are informed by his Christianity.
One of my favorite characters in the story is the ranger Aragorn, who is the last descendant of a long lost royal line.
He has a major subplot of the story where we see him take steps toward the throne, and to restore the kingship that was lost.
This noble
The restoration of his kingdom is set against the kingdom of evil represented by the dark lord Sauron.
Now, that is as far as I dare go with this story this morning, because I won’t pretend that my love of this story is matched by many of you.
But perhaps you can relate to this common story structure. The story of the king taking possession of his kingdom.
King Arthur
King David
Tom Brady…
It’s a story that resides deep within humanity’s collective history.
With this in our mind, we will begin a new series today that will carry us all the way to Easter.
It’s the story of Jesus assuming his throne. We’re calling it The King is Coming.
Our focus will be on a singular event from the final week of Jesus’s earthly ministry; the confrontation with the Jewish leaders in the temple.
Context
Context
Especially this week, it will be important for us to understand the context of this passage because we are starting in the middle of a chapter in the last quarter of a long book.
First, this is Matthew’s gospel.
First, this is Matthew’s gospel.
Matthew is writing to the Greek-speaking Jewish community
It is constructed in the “Hebrew dialect”. This means that it is constructed in the form that would be most familiar to Hebrews.
He is bearing witness to the Jews that Jesus Christ is the Jewish Messiah, the Christ.
He is the prophet who is greater than Moses
He is the Great High Priest who atones for the sin of the nation.
He is the promised King from David’s line.
Matthew’s gospel can be summed up by three themes that are understood in the final statement of Jesus to His disciples in Matthew 28:18-20
18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
All authority
All nations
All allegiance
So, in the Temple, we see Jesus taking an important step towards His throne by demonstrating his authority.
The previous days’ events directly bear upon the events in the temple.
The previous days’ events directly bear upon the events in the temple.
First, The triumphal entry in Matthew 21:1–11
Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem fulfills important things about Jesus.
9 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 foal of a donkey.
This alludes the the kingly promises in Isaiah 62:11
11 Behold, the Lord has proclaimed to the end of the earth: Say to the daughter of Zion, “Behold, your salvation comes; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.”
Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem convinced many that Jesus was the promised king.
Second, was his clearing of the temple in Matthew 21:12-16 where Jesus acts as both a king and priest in making God’s temple a holy place of worship again.
The temple was supposed to be, according
7 these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.”
Yet it had become, according to the prophet Jeremiah
11 Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it, declares the Lord.
Jesus is demonstrating his authority as king by guarding the purity of Israel’s worship.
Third, though not witnessed by the crowds, Jesus curses a fig tree on His way to the temple.
In this way, Jesus is demonstrating his prophetic office by symbolically cursing Israel’s spiritual barrenness.
This act symbolizes God’s judgment as stated in Ezekiel 33:31-32
31 And they come to you as people come, and they sit before you as my people, and they hear what you say but they will not do it; for with lustful talk in their mouths they act; their heart is set on their gain.
32 And behold, you are to them like one who sings lustful songs with a beautiful voice and plays well on an instrument, for they hear what you say, but they will not do it.
So, with these matters in mind, we enter the story as Jesus is teaching in the temple.
Question of True Authority
Question of True Authority
23 And when he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came up to him as he was teaching, and said, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?”
24 Jesus answered them, “I also will ask you one question, and if you tell me the answer, then I also will tell you by what authority I do these things.
Who are the chief priests and the the elders of the people?
Simply put, they are Israel’s political leaders.
The chief priests were the heads of the priestly families.
The temple’s highest functionaries.
The elders of the people were the heads of important non-priestly families.
You might have heard them called the Sanhedrin.
They were the established judges of Israel.
Notice that Matthew does not identify them by their theological positions (Sadducees and Pharisees)
In this issue, knowing and pleasing God has very little to do with it, its about power and authority and who holds it.
They are quite unhappy with Jesus.
They believe his actions in the temple the previous day were inappropriate
Take note of their questions? What aren’t they asking?
They don’t ask, “Is he right?”
Rather, they ask, “By what right?”
Their two questions are an attempt to get at two answers.
What is the nature of Jesus’s authority?
Did he clear the temple because he was exercising some kind of kingly authority?
Did he do it under some sort of prophetic or religious authority?
They had heard him proclaimed both king and prophet in the previous day.
9 And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”
11 And the crowds said, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.”
15 But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant,
This question is essentially, who are you claiming to be?
2. What is the source of Jesus’s authority?
As we have said before, the Pharisees often appealed to the head of their rabbinical school as a way to root their teaching in someone else’s authority.
This is a mistake, a fallacy.
Authority is not assumed, it is demonstrated by truth and power.
Lacking authority in themselves, they strove for popularity as well…another fallacy.
A teaching isn’t true just because a lot of people agree with it.
The Sanhedrin believes that if they can identify Jesus’s teacher, they can discredit him.
Perhaps they were suspicious that Jesus was a student of some dissident rabbi like the Essenes, that they could dismiss.
This is yet another fallacy, the Genetic fallacy.
It says that if you can identify where the belief comes from, then you can dismiss it.
Jesus says the same things that the Essenes teach, and they are crazy hermits…so.
You're not going to wear a wedding ring, are you? Don't you know that the wedding ring originally symbolized ankle chains worn by women to prevent them from running away from their husbands? I would not have thought you would be a party to such a sexist practice.
They lay a trap for Jesus with their questions because their desire is to destroy Jesus and His movement.
If he says his authority comes from a human source, they may easily answer that they are the highest human authority, and try him under civil authority as a rebel.
If he says that his authority comes from God, they can accuse Him of blasphemy and try him according to religious laws.
What they do not understand; what they are unwilling to understand is that Jesus is the King. His authority is His.
It was always his, as Matthew demonstrates at various points.
When he spoke, the people were amazed
28 And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching,
29 for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.
When He did signs and wonders
6 But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he then said to the paralytic—“Rise, pick up your bed and go home.”
And finally, when he commissions in the Great Commission, it is on his own authority.
So Jesus is not going to let the leaders get away with setting this trap.
We should take note of Jesus’s willingness to engage those who claim authority and pressure others to submit to them.
We must exercise faith in our King and stand on His world with boldness before others. Even if it means that we stand against the whole world.
Remember, the first temptation was, “Did God really say?”
Expose of Hypocrisy
Expose of Hypocrisy
25 The baptism of John, from where did it come? From heaven or from man?” And they discussed it 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 man,’ we are afraid of the crowd, for they all hold that John was a prophet.”
Jesus understands what is behind their question and rejects the premise.
He knows that there is no answer that He could give which they would except, so he doesn’t try.
He turns the question around on them.
He agrees to answer their question if they will answer the same question about John the Baptist.
By doing so, He traps them in an impossible dilemma.
John’s ministry of baptism didn’t have biblical precedent, so on what authority did he perform it?
If they say that John’s teaching was from heaven, they condemn themselves.
After all, what was John’s teaching; what was his whole ministry?
That Jesus is the Christ
29 The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
11 “I baptize you with water for 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.
If they say that John’s ministry came from man, then they will lose standing with the people.
The very people that they claimed authority over.
John was widely believed to be a prophet of God.
Consider the words of the Jewish Roman historian Josephus, who was no friend of Christians.
“2. Now some of the Jews thought that the destruction of Herod’s army came from God, and that very justly, as a punishment of what he did against John, that was called the Baptist: for Herod slew him, who was a good man, and commanded the Jews to exercise virtue, both as to righteousness towards one another, and piety towards God, and so to come to baptism; for that the washing [with water] would be acceptable to him, if they made use of it, not in order to the putting away [or the remission] of some sins [only], but for the purification of the body; supposing still that the soul was thoroughly purified beforehand by righteousness. Now when [many] others came in crowds about him, for they were very greatly moved [or pleased] by hearing his words, Herod, who feared lest the great influence John had over the people might put it into his power and inclination to raise a rebellion, [for they seemed ready to do any thing he should advise,] thought it best, by putting him to death, to prevent any mischief he might cause, and not bring himself into difficulties, by sparing a man who might make him repent of it when it should be too late. Accordingly he was sent a prisoner, out of Herod’s suspicious temper, Macherus, the castle I before mentioned, and was there put to death. Now the Jews had an opinion that the destruction of this army was sent as a punishment upon Herod, and a mark of God’s displeasure against him.”
Flavius Josephus, Antiquities
They risk turning the entire nation against them, and this terrifies them.
They feared violent reprisals.
6 But if we say, ‘From man,’ all the people will stone us to death, for they are convinced that John was a prophet.”
Yet they despised John for his fiery rebuke.
7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
To accept the divine origin of John would be to condemn themselves.
So, being cowards to the core, they plead ignorance.
We must be careful to stand upon the authority of Jesus Christ.
This may mean that we find ourselves out of favor with the popular sentiment.
To take a step back out of fear of the mob means that we lack faith in the saving power of Jesus Christ, or the worthiness of following Him.
If Jesus is our King, we must stand strong as His ambassadors.
4 “I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do.
5 But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him!
Submission to Sovereignty
Submission to Sovereignty
27 So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And he said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.
This is an abject humiliation of the leaders.
They prided themselves upon being the ones who knew all the answers.
Now they plead ignorance out of a cynical desire to win a debate with Jesus.
Their rejection of Jesus emphasizes the divine judgment that He has demonstrated through the clearing of the temple and the cursing of the fig tree.
John’s ministry was the very fulfilment of Malachi 3:1-5.
However, this prophecy came with a warning.
5 “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.
6 And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”
Authority problems afflict us all, and they have since the very beginning.
We like to be in charge of our own lives…that was the origin of sin.
But, it goes further.
Sin doesn’t remain idle in us.
Our desire to rule will inevitably become a desire to rule over others.
We must resist this temptation, which the leaders of Israel succumbed to.
The source of real power is God.
Jesus demonstrated this in his cursing of the fig tree
21 And Jesus answered them, “Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen.
This mountain refers to the temple mount and the false religion that had been built upon it.
This power comes to us through faith and prayer.
Through dependence upon the authority of our King.
The greatest power is spiritual not physical.
This is evidenced by the events of 70 AD when Rome would brutally crush a Jewish revolt.
The Jews attempted to seize power and authority through armed rebellion.
On the other hand, Christians never tried to conquer Rome.
Instead, they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer.
They loved their enemies and prayed for them.
They proclaimed the good news of salvation.
The result, the gospel conquered Rome in a few centuries.
The gospel still conquers strongholds today.
Where the gospel is preached, the kingdom of God goes forth in power.
Not through means of force and violence, but through peace.
17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
We must deal rationally with Jesus’s claims…we can’t dismiss them as the leaders did.
We stand in the place of the Sanhedrin did.
And it is given to us to answer the question, who is our authority?
Jesus, is the Son of God and the King. His authority is undeniable and we owe Him allegiance.
What remains to us is whether we submit to it or reject it.
If from man, we place our trust in our own judgement.
If from heaven, then we acknowledge that Jesus Christ is our ultimate authority.
And thus, we owe him our allegiance.
32 So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven,
33 but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.
