Christ’s Final Week: Days of Controversy
Matthew 21:18-27
Introduction: The days intervening between Christ’s triumphal entry and his crucifixion were days filled with controversy. The enemies of Christ were bound and determined to find some way of bringing charges against Him that would rid them of Him forever. Matthew 21 and 22 provide us with four challenges the scribes and Pharisees leveled at Christ.
I. Christ’s Source of Authority Challenged - 21:23-27
A. Christ had cleansed the temple driving out the moneychangers and merchants who had change the temple from its intended use infuriating the chief priests and the elders.
B. The chief priests refused to acknowledge the authority of Christ. They questioned His right to do what He did and especially questioned the source of that authority.
C. They refused to see Him as the Messiah. They wanted to dismiss his power as simply self-induced, because to admit that he had been sent by God would mean that they would need to follow and obey. They would not accept Him as Lord.
D. How many question Christ’s authority over their lives? They ask, “Who does He think He is? What right does He have to expect to control every aspect of my life?”
E. Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade for Life tells the story of talking to a young man who was somewhat of a prodigal. He said to him, "Do you believe in Jesus?" “Yes." "Do you believe He died for your sins?" "Yes." The young man had grown up in the church and even gone to Christian schools, but he had turned his back on the Lord. Bill asked, "What is going to happen to you when you die?" He said, "I’ll go to heaven." I said, "Are you sure?" "Absolutely sure." And I said, "Are you willing to do God’s will and surrender your own will to His will?" Quite bluntly, he answered, "No." Bill Bright had to be totally honest with him, and replied, "Then you are not a Christian." To which the young man said, "That’s your opinion against mine."
F. Romans 10:9 - 10 9that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
G. Christ is not as concerned with profession as obedience. It does not matter if we call ourselves Christians - He wants to see us show it in our lives. The Pharisees were condemned for they had an appearance of godliness, but denied true godliness by disobedience and rejecting Christ’s authority.
H. There is not an inch of any sphere of life of which Jesus Christ the Lord does not say, “Mine.” - Abraham Kuyper, quoted in The Devil’s Gauntlet,
I. If Christ is not Lord of your life and my life, then we cannot hope that He will be the Lord of this church.
J. There is coming a day in which everyone will acknowledge Christ’s authority.
K. Philippians 2:9 - 11 Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
II. Christ’s submission to authority challenged – 22:15-21
A. The question asked was designed to entrap Christ. - Matthew 22:15 Then the Pharisees went and plotted how they might entangle Him in His talk.
B. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not? If He said yes, the Jewish Zealots would be upset with Him. If He said no He would be considered a political rebel and threat to the Roman occupation of Israel.
C. His reply - “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s” (v. 21).
D. Good Christians should make good citizens.
E. Romans 13:1 Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God.
F. The real question is a question of priorities.
G. Acts 5:27 – 29 And when they had brought them, they set them before the council. And the high priest asked them, saying, “Did we not strictly command you not to teach in this name? And look, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this Man’s blood on us!” But Peter and the other apostles answered and said: “We ought to obey God rather than men.
H. In recent years a head coach divorced his wife of 26 years when he left coaching a college team to become head coach in the National Football League. He said he needed a wife while coaching on the college level for social functions and to show families that he would be looking out for their sons. In pro football, however, she was an unnecessary accouterment and a distraction to winning. He said winning football was his number one priority and his two sons second. How tragic! In contrast to this, Tom Landry, former coach of the Dallas cowboys said, "The thrill of knowing Jesus is the greatest thing that ever happened to me ... I think God has put me in a very special place, and He expects me to use it to His glory in everything I do ... whether coaching football or talking to the press, I’m always a Christian ... Christ is first, family second and football third." - Source Unknown.
III. Christ questioned on His Doctrine – 22:23-33
A. The Sadducees were wealthy, powerful, and controlled the Sanhedrin. They were arrogant, pushy and rude. They denied the afterlife, denied the existence of angels, downplayed the miracles of God, and denied the resurrection of the dead. They were rationalists and dismissed anything that they could not understand by their logic. They considered themselves to be experts in the interpretation of Scripture and accepted only the Torah as Scripture.
B. They ask a question based on Deuteronomy 25:5 - 6 “If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies and has no son, the widow of the dead man shall not be married to a stranger outside the family; her husband’s brother shall go in to her, take her as his wife, and perform the duty of a husband’s brother to her. And it shall be that the firstborn son which she bears will succeed to the name of his dead brother, that his name may not be blotted out of Israel.
C. They lay out a most absurd scenario. There question is meant to ridicule Christ for His teachings.
D. Christ answers them you do not know the Scriptures” - You have misinterpreted of God’s Word. And furthermore you don’t know the power of God.
E. Christ uses the Torah in his rebuttal – (Matthew 22:31 – 32) But concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” (Exodus 3:17)
F. Note that Christ viewed the Old Testament to be the words of God.
G. 1 Corinthians 1:20 - 24 asks the question, “Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?” For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God; it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom;but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.”
H. An old writer said that Faith and Reason may be compared to two travelers. Faith is like a man in full health, who can walk his twenty or thirty miles at a time without suffering. Reason is like a little child, who can only, with difficulty, accomplish three or four miles. "Well," says the old writer, "on a given day Reason says to Faith, ’O good Faith, let me walk with you.’ Faith replies, ’O Reason, you could never walk with me!’ However, to try their paces, they set out together, but they soon find it hard to stay together. When they come to a deep river, Reason says, ’I can never ford this,’ but Faith wades through it singing. When they reach a lofty mountain, there is the same exclamation of despair; and in such cases, Faith, in order not to leave Reason behind, is obliged to carry him on his back. Oh, what luggage is Reason to Faith!" - Spurgeon
IV. Christ questioned on the law – 22:34-40
A. Matthew 22:35 - 36 Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”
B. He puts a difficult and tricky question to him, attempting to make a trial of Christ’s knowledge and understanding of the law.
C. If Christ quotes a particular commandment the retort would be that He was diminishing or belittling another area of the law. Psalms 119:151 states You are near, O Lord, and all Your commandments are truth.
D. Christ’s answer was to refer to Deuteronomy 6:4 – 5 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.” He then sums up the rest of the commandments in “loving one’s neighbor as one’s self”. (Leviticus 19:18)
E. All the law hangs on these two injunctions. It is also a clear statement of right priorities.
F. A man’s spiritual health is exactly proportional to his love for God. – C. S. Lewis
G. The man who does not love God is really in love with himself, his position, his success, his pleasure. He may be lucky or unlucky, but by no conceivable effort can he accept all that life may bring and turn it to good account. For it may bring him failure and disappointment, ill-health and loss, and "what will the robin do then, poor thing?" The man who loves God is in an unassailable position. He has surrendered his own plans to the greater permanent plan of God, the responsibility for which is God’s. He asks no favors of God but he does ask for the guiding and the strength of God that, through him, God’s will may be achieved. There is nothing now that can happen which cannot be turned into good for him. – J. B. Phillips (1906-1982)
H. We must realize the importance of the second part of Christ’s injunction. My relationship with God is part of my relationship with men. Failure in one will cause failure with the other. – Andrew Murray in With Christ in the School of Prayer. Christianity Today, Vol. 35, no. 5.
I. John 13:35 By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Conclusion: Having considered the questions posed to Christ and His response, let me ask you: Have you submitted to His authority? Is He Absolute Lord of your life? Do you have your priorities in the right order? Are you walking by faith? Is your faith growing daily? Do you love God more than anything or anyone else? Are you demonstrating that love by loving others the way Christ wants?
