Qq & Aa Series

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?”