Background to passage, Matthew 21:23-27: Last week of Jesus’s life. Follows Sunday’s prophetical and demonstrative entrance into Jerusalem, Monday/Tuesday’s indictment of the temple practices, the living parable of the cursing of the fig tree, and now he is teaching in the temple on Tuesday afternoon.
Opening illustration: The editorial board of the New York Times has come out foursquare against President Trump and his policies, the headline in the editorial, “Trump’s shameful campaign against transgender Americans.” The editorial insight from Sunday’s edition of the New York Times comes with the identifying statement, the Editorial Board is identified as “A group of opinion journalists whose views are informed by expertise, research, debate, and certain long-standing values. It is separate from the newsroom.” So who determines which experts they look to? What research is used as a foundation and where is it published? What long-standing values are held up in this article and by this ground of writers? By what authority have they been made to be qualified to judge? Ultimately, in this context, it is opinion.
Today’s message will be one of choice, you will be given one too. What will your answer be, or will you refuse to give one.
1) Guardians of Orthodoxy? (v. 23)
Matthew 21:23 ESV
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?”
1) Guardians of Orthodoxy? (v. 23)
Explanation: We see reps from the religious establishment (Luke and Mark give us priests and scribes) and the people who are there as witnesses to this confrontation disguised as a religious/theological question. Had we not known that they had already made up their minds about Jesus and sought to destroy him, this group might have been at some level acting as protectors of Judaism. We don’t just let anyone teach here.
So based on the “things” he had done the last couple days (ignoring the rest of his ministry), they wanted to see his license and insurance, his seminary degrees, and who his rabbi was. We know that they really didn’t care. They knew he didn’t have the credentials they demanded. This was only a trap. The foundation was that of unbelief.
Argumentation:
Illustration: One striking case is that of William Tyndale, the English scholar and translator of the Bible. In the early 1500s, Tyndale was passionate about making Scripture accessible to common people in their own language. At the time, the Roman Catholic Church maintained strict control over biblical interpretation, insisting that Scripture should remain in Latin and only be interpreted by clergy. Tyndale’s work was seen as a direct threat to the church’s authority.
Church officials, believing they were upholding the purity of Christian doctrine, hunted him down. Tyndale was eventually betrayed, arrested, and convicted of heresy. In 1536, he was strangled and then burned at the stake. His final words reportedly were: "Lord, open the King of England’s eyes!" Ironically, within a few years, English translations of the Bible were widely distributed, showing that Tyndale’s vision had prevailed despite the persecution he faced.
Application: So a couple of the scary parts for us are 1) we can have preconceived notions about Jesus, ethics, morality, religion, etc. that prevent us from seeing biblical or real Jesus or what he is doing in our lives/world. A common preconception in our increasingly secular culture is that “the God I believe in is a God of love and would never judge anyone sending them to eternal punishment.” Half that statement is partially true, most however is sentimental and very subjective to a God of their own design. Any assertion that begins with “the God I believe in...” is suspect and should be measured by the scripture to discover the God of the Bible. The Jesus that lives in everyone’s mind is not necessarily the Jesus of the Bible.
2) We must know from where standards of authority in our lives come. For instance, students, what authorities are in your life at various levels? Maybe a coach->athletic director->principal. In the workplace, you have a supervisor, they may have one, but ultimately there is a CEO, president. Military, law enforcement chains of command, you get the picture. We make decisions based on authority and other factors. Authority is derived, because God bestows it all. He is the authority in our lives.
2) A Prophet or an Fanatic? (v. 24-25a)
Matthew 21:24–25 ESV
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.
25 The baptism of John, from where did it come? From heaven or from man?”
2) A Prophet or a Fanatic? (v. 24-25a)
Explanation: This was a common rabbinical style of exchange when one question is answered by another question. So Jesus asked him about what they thought of John. John, like Jesus, didn’t fit the mold as a commissioned, credentialed teacher or rabbi. He called out the religious establishment along with tax collectors, Roman soldiers, and everyday Jews. Jesus put them on the spot by making them answer before the crowds their conclusion about this martyr.
Israel had not had a prophet in 400 years, and people recognized him as such on the whole, especially the religious people who would have traveled to Jerusalem for the feasts. Jesus knew that the religious elite didn’t like him, and were glad to see him die. They truly thought that he was some religious fanatic, albeit one who fit the mold of Elijah’s coming to set the path, then identify the messiah.
Matthew 11:7–15 ESV
7 As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds concerning John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind?
8 What then did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Behold, those who wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses.
9 What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet.
10 This is he of whom it is written, “ ‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you.’
11 Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
12 From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force.
13 For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John,
14 and if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come.
15 He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
Illustration: I looked up Billy Graham’s article in Wikipedia this week. I started reading it because I wanted to know if he had any bible college or seminary degrees. I read for a long time and when I thought I was getting near the end, it began talking about his involvement in different spheres of our life as Christians and our life as a nation. I hit print just for curiosity to see how long it was, and it would have taken 38 pages if I had printed it. Billy Graham wasn’t quite as peculiar a man as John the Baptist, but he said things that probably would have gotten him killed in a less civilized age.
If we had a crowd 10x and I asked what everyone thought of Billy Graham, 90% would have a very favorable opinion. Who doesn’t like Billy Graham. The guy is a legend. The other 10% who did have problems with stances he took or things that he said or events he was involved with, almost everyone would keep it to themselves.
Application: By way of application, I want to give one warning under this point. It is easy to see the correct answer to this question, even the reason it’s not given. You and I look at Jesus and we know he is the Messiah, the long-awaited King of the Jews. As the keepers and interpreters of the law, they should have known too. They shouldn’t have had to investigate. Jesus had already asked them, “have you not read...” As mentioned above, their agenda and preconceptions blinded them to theology and scriptural teaching.
However, often we don’t know our own faith. We are uneducated, unread, untrained, and easily swayed by common arguments and worldly positions.
Ephesians 4:14 ESV
14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.
Church history is foreign to most of us. “Those who do not know history...” (George Santayana). Doctrine is thought of as boring and unnecessary. Critical thinking is not practiced. We do not have the ability to defend our faith and be ready to give an answer about your commitment to Christ and knowledge of him. Our knowledge of God will directly affect our relationship with God and our behavior. If we are satisfied with little, we will be spiritually shallow.
I know many in liberal denominations that know more about their history (and ours) than we do. I go to churches and converse with Christians where preachers and ministries that are way out of orthodoxy are quoted and watched and read regularly. I have been given books as gifts that I hide in the bookshelf in my back hallway.
When things go wrong in our lives, we have no commitments that are unshakeable and we question God. We are challenged by others in our lives, we shrink back and develop a fear for evangelism, spiritual conversations, and a false understanding of salvation. When a family member has an unexpected pregnancy, suddenly abortion is not so bad. When two women want to marry each other, we say, “what’s the harm.”
In general we are not committed to do the hard work of study, or to even learn how to study. Sometimes the failure is on the church as we cannot or will not train you how to study the bible and grow in your faith well. The Refocus team aims to fix that by developing and executing a process to help you become a better disciple and make better disciples.
We often don’t read Christian books and discuss. We can’t have deep discussions with moral, social, theological precision. We have no heroes of the faith, if so, we don’t know really what they believed. Do you know what Billy Graham believed about the civil rights movement, Roman Catholic practice, apartheid, the sovereignty and providence of God? Do you know what you believe and why? And we’re OK with it.
3) Fear of God or Fear of Man? (v. 25b-27)
Matthew 21:25–27 ESV
25...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.”
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.
3) Fear of God or Fear of Man? (v. 25b-27)
Explanation: the answer to Jesus’s question is the same (John was a prophet who said Jesus was the messiah), but the answer of the religious leaders will indicate their ultimate fear. We see the discussion that went on in the huddle. They understood the choices and their implications. Funny, how it never says their personal answer. However, they let the crowds determine their answer. Luke says that they were afraid of being stoned. This was religious politics.
Argumentation:
Illustration: what if I named a sacred doctrine or practice that I differed from you? Or what if you held one? Could we discuss it with civility, honesty, and humility, coming away up-built in the the faith and encouraged.
Application: Could there have been someone who was adding up all the dots? If there was, they were too afraid to say “from heaven.” They had to tow the party line. We should take a warning from this text that we should be bold in our faith.
When we must have validation from others; when we second guess ourselves because of others; when we are jealous, others’ possessions control us; when you give way to “peer pressure;” when you can’t seem to say no when you are already over-committed, most lies are due to the fear of man.
The fear of man can be replaced by the fear of God when we understand our identity in Christ. We have value in Christ, loved in Christ, accepted in Christ, find our righteousness in Christ, follow the Lord under the obedience to the Holy Spirit as we walk in step with him.
Closing illustration: I started out this message talking about the NYT Editorial Board’s grounds for their evaluation of President Trump. They claimed that their opinions are dictated by “experts, research, and long-standing values.” The NT is made up over over 5,600 Greek manuscripts dating back to the first century, some of those complete copies. Even if we didn’t have the manuscripts, the writings of the early church fathers quoted every verse, and we could construct it in totality. The transmission and text of the NT is rock solid and unsurpassed in it’s accuracy.
The life of Jesus is prophesied by the OT over 300 times with precise details with our oldest extant copies being from 100+ years before Jesus. The OT, NT, and Jesus himself claim divinity. As God incarnate on the earth, he called his shot that he would go to Jerusalem, clash with the establishment, be arrested, tried, crucified, but in three days he would rise.
The religious leaders questioned Jesus about his authority; who gave you permission to teach, heal, and raise the dead? Jesus asked them what they thought about John; in their fear they opted for “we don’t know.” The question for you today is who is Jesus, and how do you respond to that truth? It’s not a question that will linger for 5 days until crucifixion, or linger for thousands of years on the pages of the NT, but one that is eternal for each of us.
