By What Authority

Matthew 21:1-27

INTRO:
Good evening. Our lesson for tonight comes from Matthew Chapter 21.
Let me tell you a brief story to get started. For centuries people believed that Aristotle was right when he said that the heavier an object, the faster it would fall to earth. Aristotle was regarded as the greatest thinker of all time, and surely he would not be wrong. Anyone, of course, could have taken two objects, one heavy and one light, and dropped them from a great height to see whether or not the heavier object landed first. But no one did until nearly 2,000 years after Aristotle's death. In 1589 Galileo summoned learned professors to the base of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Then he went to the top and pushed off a ten- pound and a one-pound weight. Both landed at the same instant. The power of belief was so strong, however, that the professors denied their eyesight. They continued to say Aristotle was right. I would ask you keep this in mind as we continue the lesson.

Authority is a very important principle, very important concept, in our relationship with God. I suggest it is near the top of the list, in terms of the important concepts that we need to grasp. My question for this evening is “Who has the authority in religion?” “Who is it that I am to listen to?” This is not a new problem by the way. It has been a consideration since religious authority began to be exercised among men who received the teachings of God. God’s authority has always been challenged not only by Satan but by common folks like you and me striving to do what's right. It's one of those things that we must come to an understanding of, if we're going to serve God correctly.

Matthew Chapter 21 provides an interesting scenario here in the life of Jesus in the last week of his life, the last few days of Jesus life. He enters the city of Jerusalem for the feast at the beginning of the week.

This was a big week in Jerusalem and Jesus was coming into the city. We see that entrance scenario as portrayed to us in the start of Matthew chapter 21. Jesus was the most watched person in the entire region and certainly in His coming to this feast everyone's eyes were on Jesus.

He was welcomed into the city with great pomp, great circumstance by those who put palm branches down in His path, and they cried saying “saying: "Hosanna to the Son of David! 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!' Hosanna in the highest!''”

The city was stirred by Jesus presence and there were those who took Old Testament passages that were clearly messianic, that pointed to the very nature of God coming in the flesh, and they shouted those sentiments and those scriptures over and over again at Jesus arrival. There was great wonder involved in the triumphal entry as it's described to us here. But it was also a time of great division.

I. Two groups: It was a city that for the most part was split into two groups. There were those who readily identified Jesus as the Messiah and were there to worship him and to follow him and to watch closely what he did and to be blessed by Him. There were others who were his enemies. These others denied that Jesus was the Messiah and wanted to do everything they could to try to stop His ministry. I find it interesting that in spite of this, there was a clear answer given to who Jesus was. It says all the city was moved saying “Who is this?” and the multitude said “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee.” This is God's man. This is the prophet. This is Jesus.

A. Jesus first public act in the city of Jerusalem on that particular week was not to stand before the people and address them in some public oration but rather to go to the temple. Starting in verse 12 we read; “Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the moneychangers and the seats of those who sold doves.” “And He said to them, "It is written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer,' but you have made it a 'den of thieves.' ''” “Then the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them.”

1. This is interesting to me that these two events or the two activities of Jesus are linked together there. In the confines of the temple Jesus in a very aggressive way, in a physical way, drives out those merchants from the Temple making a clear statement that the temple area is not being used for the proper purposes and that He is the one will make judgment upon these people. He will physically drive them out. Then connected with that were these poor helpless people who were sick and infirm who came to Jesus. In the very confines of where the money changers were driven out, He healed the sick.
2. Jesus was expressing authority. The authority to judge and drive out, the authority to heal and make well, in this single place and time. Now both of those events seem to be such incontrovertible evidence of Jesus identity as the Messiah that it should have been put to rest there. There were the “children crying out in the temple and saying, "Hosanna to the Son of David!''” again referencing Jesus as the Messiah himself the son of David. When the religious leaders, and the chief priests heard the children crying out they were angry and indignant. Again we are given evidence here that the city is divided.

B. Fast forward to Wednesday of the very same week after Jesus and the disciples have walked past the fig tree that Jesus cursed the day before. Now Jesus, in Chapter 21:23, came into the temple again, and it says “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?''”

1. Here the people who question and confront Jesus are described as the chief priests and the elders of the city. That gives us some insight into the type of opposition that existed against Jesus and those who would be so bold as to question the authority of Jesus. They were a conglomerate group. The Chief Priests were primarily Sadducees, the religious superintendents of the temple area. The elders of the people were the religious teachers of the day and they were largely made up of Pharisees.
2. So you had the chief priests, the Sadducees and you had the elders of the city the Pharisees, who on most occasions were unfriendly to one another, joining forces together to become a common enemy of Jesus. The question that they asked presents I believe, an overriding picture of the type of problem they had with Jesus from the very beginning. It had to do with His authority.
3. His authority in what He said and what He taught and what He did. They saw Jesus, in terms of exercising His authority, as a threat to their mutual system of religious authority. They were the folks who were on top. They were the folks who told people what they should and shouldn't do. They were ones who told the people in the temple how things were supposed to run. They were the ones who were in charge, and those who were in charge of the religion of the day you see, were threatened by Jesus authority.

C. I submit to you as we continue in this lesson that this has always been true. Those today who claim to be the religious authorities among men are threatened by the authority of Christ as contained in scripture. They constantly are trying to denigrate and demean the authority of Jesus in scripture so as to protect their own assumed authority. Any system of humanly devised religious authority is not of God and therefore must always stand in opposition to the authority that is of God.

II. By What Authority: The question they wanted to know is by what authority do you do these things? “These things” here may have included everything that Jesus did from the beginning of his ministry, but it probably refers more conclusively to the things he'd done since he arrived in the city. He drove out the money changers and He disrupted the tables and messed up all their merchandising. He also healed the sick and was hailed as the messiah.

A. Although when He ran out the money changers and when He healed the sick the Pharisees and scribes and the chief priests and Sadducees seem at that point to be rather speechless. Now they had come to the front, on the offensive, and in a public forum wanted to know by what authority do you do these things.
B. Understanding the position that they're in will help us to understand why the question was asked in the first place.

1. Rabbinical candidates, those who would be teachers of the law, those who would be Chief Priests or who would stand as elders in the city and would instruct others, were ordained to that position by a leading rabbi. They would be under the influence of and under servitude to others. They would serve as an apprentice of a rabbi. If a young man wanted to teach, he had to be appointed to a rabbi who would then instruct him personally on the law and all the teachings of the law and he would work his way up to where he had the authority to speak to others.
2. Because of widespread abuses among the Jews this aspect of rabbinical authority had been centralized and existed in the time of Jesus within the Sanhedrin council. Anyone who spoke publicly, anyone who was to speak in the position of interpreting scripture was to have been ordained by this particular council under this authority.
3. After his ordination the man was declared to be a rabbi or an elder or a judge. He was then given authority to teach at that point and to be recognized by people for who he was. He could render decisions, to give verdicts even in social matters if he had been given the credentials and the authority to do so.
4. This group of religious men was the most identifiable source of authority that existed in the Jewish religion and in the city of Jerusalem.

C. Jesus comes apart from any of that and speaks and teaches to the people so much so that the people say this man is a prophet. This man is a rabbi and they call Him rabbi. They call Him teacher and they want to hear more. Jesus in the view of the council was teaching—without authority. He had no such ordination. He had no recognition by any religious authority from the circles that they knew of. In their view He had no right to teach and no right to do what he did. He certainly had no right to run out their merchandising from the temple.
D. So the question that comes from that: By what authority then do you do these things? Now again, understanding this helps us to understand that there really is an issue here. We need to see the illegitimacy of the question. The question itself tells us something about the state of the hearts of those who would ask it. Is this the right question to ask in the face of what has just happened? Did Jesus just heal the sick? He has just made the lame to walk the blind to see. He has been proclaimed by the prophetic utterances of the Old Testament to be the messiah. Is there any rightful authority at this point to question?

III. The Questioners: Those who propose to ask such a question imply that they have the authority themselves to ask the question. You know if you’re going to ask questions about where somebody gets their authority you better have the authority to ask the question yourself.

A. I think that that's somewhat the position of these Pharisees and Sadducees as they turn to Jesus and say by what authority are you doing these things. Who is the real source of authority? Is it me or is it you? There's illegitimacy to the question itself because of who's asking it.
B. There's also this aspect here that in the context of establishing the authority, that Jesus has to say anything. They had overlooked the very confirmation of Jesus authority.

1. The Sadducees or Pharisees never questioned the miracles of Jesus. They never said; that guy wasn't really sick. You didn't really heal him. He not really walking. They never questioned or denied the authenticity of the miracles that Jesus had performed.
2. If Jesus could heal the sick, if he could do these miracles, certainly He had some authority from God to do these things. Don’t miracles presuppose the authority of the teacher?

i. In fact the very understanding of miracles of scripture is that when they occurred they occurred in connection with teaching and they confirmed the teaching and the teacher himself.
ii. The fact that Jesus has power, has ability to do something was absolutely incontestable in the first century. No one had ever healed the sick or cast out demons or raised people from the dead as Jesus had done.

3. When the Pharisees and Sadducees saw these things they should have been impressed to the point of recognizing a source of authority. When had the Sadducees or the Pharisees ever raised anybody from the dead? When had they ever healed the sick? What put them in a position where they believed they could question Jesus? All that having been said, if to look down at the Pharisees and Sadducees for asking the question, we realize that very same principle applies to each of us if we begin to question any authority contained in the scriptures or the words of Jesus. We simply do not have a right to ask questions about Jesus authority. He's already proven His ability and His power in that regard.

C. Consider God’s statement to Job in the book of Job. Do you remember Job, a man who suffered so much at the hands of Satan to test his faith? Job suffered without knowing why. He did not fault God through much of this. But there was a time in the context of that suffering when Job complained bitterly that the things happening to him were undeserved and unjust. In doing so Job was pleading his worthiness before God and that was his error.

1. In Job the 38th chapter God answers Job. You can read chapters 38, 39, and 40 you’ll get the whole conversation with God there. We’ won’t read the whole thing now. But let’s look a little. “1. Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said: 2. "Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge? 3. Now prepare yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer Me. 4. "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding. 5. Who determined its measurements? Surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? 6. To what were its foundations fastened? Or who laid its cornerstone,” Job 38:1-6
2. Were you there when I made the earth? Do you know how I did it? Tell me if you know. He goes on to ask questions that clearly relate to the difference between Job and God. Job, can you feed the lion when he’s hungry? Can you tell the Raven where to go for food? Can you measure the waters on the earth? Can you make it rain?
3. Job could do none of those things. For Job or anyone in anyway to question God's sovereignty or authority over his own life by claiming his worthiness was simply illegitimate. God was by the very things He had already done His own credentials and always stood His own credentials before man.

IV. The Authority: Turn to Matthew chapter 9. Let’s look at the first few verses of that chapter. Matthew 9:1-8 – “1. So He (Jesus) got into a boat, crossed over, and came to His own city. 2. And behold, they brought to Him a paralytic lying on a bed. And Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the paralytic, "Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you.'' 3. And at once some of the scribes said within themselves, "This Man blasphemes!'' 4. But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, "Why do you think evil in your hearts? 5. "For which is easier, to say, 'Your sins are forgiven you,' or to say, 'Arise and walk'? 6. "But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins'' then He said to the paralytic, "Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.'' 7. And he arose and departed to his house. 8. Now when the multitudes saw it, they marveled and glorified God who had given such power to men.”

A. Who has the right to forgive sins? You spoke and you think that because of what you said this man sins are forgiven? Who are you to forgive sins? That was the question. Where do you get this authority? Jesus calmly says Ok, which is easier, to say your sins be forgiven with no empirical evidence of what has happened, or say to the same man laying here, get up and walk? Do I have to have empirical evidence that I have the power to do this? The question is rhetorical.
B. He says “get up and walk” and the man gets up and walks and Jesus says there you go. Now you know if I can do that, I can forgive sin. If there's power to do one then there’s power to do the other. The aspect here is that they marvel that God had given power.
C. The word “power” or “authority” is translated from the word exousia—power of authority to men. Jesus was his own credentials. They glorified God because of the authority of Jesus expressed in the power.

1. The word exousia (ex-ou-see-ah) as found in Matthew chapter nine is found several times in the scriptures. Many times it is translated by the word authority rather than the English word power. What the word literally means here is the aspect of the right to command, exousia means you have the right, the privilege, to command someone.
2. The crowd of common people who witnessed what he had done physically made the only sensible conclusion that could be made. That is that if He had the ability to heal the sick, He had the authority to forgive sins.
3. The Scribes refuse to accept the obvious. No amount of evidence could penetrate that confirmed unbelief and so it exists today among men. There is a confirmed unbelief that no amount of evidence could ever penetrate.
4. Jesus finally said no more signs. I'm not giving you more evidence because you will not accept what is right here before your eyes.

D. What we see here is that the question is on its own sense illegitimate. Jesus knew their hearts. Jesus not only had great power, authority, but He had the right because His power and authority were from God, from His heavenly father.

1. In Luke 4:31-36 - “31. Then He went down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and was teaching them on the Sabbaths. 32. And they were astonished at His teaching, for His word was with authority. 33. Now in the synagogue there was a man who had a spirit of an unclean demon. And he cried out with a loud voice, 34. saying, "Let us alone! What have we to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth? Did You come to destroy us? I know You, who You are, the Holy One of God!” Interestingly the demon himself who is on the other side of the spiritual scale recognized who Jesus is. There’s no question about His identity. You're the Holy One of God.
2. “35. But Jesus rebuked him, saying, "Be quiet, and come out of him!''” Even though he made a good confession there, Jesus rebukes him because he's a demon and he's going to cast him out. When the demon has thrown him in their midst the demon does not hurt him. “36. They were all amazed and spoke among themselves, saying, "What a word this is! For with authority (there’s exousia, (ex-ou-see-ah)) and power (that’s the word dynamis (dune-na-mus) the ability to act,) He commands the unclean spirits, and they come out.” They were amazed. “37. And the report about Him went out into every place in the surrounding region.”

E. Jesus had the authority; He had the power to tell people what they could and couldn’t do. He had the authority to speak. There was authority in His word because He was the one who had the ability to act.

1. That's at the very heart of all of this. We see the difference between the two Greek words exousia, (ex-ou-see-ah) and dynamis (dune-na-mus). God has the right to tell you what to do because He's your creator. He's already exhibiting His power, His ability and that power, that ability, gives Him the right, the privilege to speak!—and to command. He has the right as our creator because He has the might as our judge. He demonstrated both as He came up out of the grave.

V. Who has the Authority: Now the real issue here is the authority of Jesus vs. the authority of men. The question of Matthew chapter 21 is; “Do we have the authority to question the authority of God?” That's the illegitimate aspect of it.

A. What about the authority of Jesus? In what way does His authority differ from other authority in religion in terms of our service?

1. At the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount people were astonished. It says in Matthew 7:28 - “28. And so it was, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people were astonished at His teaching, 29. for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.” There's that word again. He taught as one who has the right to say what He was saying. Jesus taught authoritatively because he taught with clarity and definitiveness.
2. You know you ask some people what’s right or wrong and they don't really know. Even if they have a thought in their mind they are not going to express it that way. “Well, you know, who can say?” “Maybe it’s this way, maybe it's that way, we just don’t really know.”
3. For the most part that’s the way the scribes had spoken about the law for years. Their interpretations were not pronouncements with absolute authority. They were simply declarations of un-clarity and a key qualification you see in religious circles today is exactly that. If you want to get ahead in religion today you have to avoid at all costs any dogmatism. Certainly don't say; this is the only way there is to believe this, or that’s the only way to see this, or you'll be ejected immediately from any position of religious authority.
4. That's why I believe there are some generally honest, religious teachers who have rejected clear statements of scripture because if they didn't, if they spoke on them definitively, they'd lose their positions. Because that's the way it is, and that's the way it was in Jesus’ day. Among the Jews, human wisdom had long since replaced divine revelation to the point that when the scripture conflicted with tradition, tradition prevailed and what trumped everything was what men had taught. There was no exclusive authority.

B. Then when Jesus came and taught them with authority they were amazed! Jesus’ ministry always had this aspect of authority—authority of God himself.

1. In John 1:12 it says: “...He gave the right to become children of God,...” [NKJV] “...to them gave he power to become the sons of God...”[KJV] Jesus came and gave them the right, the power, and here is the word exousia, (ex-ou-see-ah) again.
2. His heavenly father gave “Him authority to execute judgment” in John Chapter 5 and Verse 27. He had authority over His own life in John 10:17-18 – “17. "Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. 18. "No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father.''”. There's the word exousia, (ex-ou-see-ah), power, authority.

C. John chapter 17 speaks about Jesus’ authority over all mankind to give eternal life to those who the Father has given unto Him. “1. Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: "Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, 2. "as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him.”
D. In all the things He said and did, Jesus never sought the approval, He never sought the counsel, or the support of any recognized religious authority. He didn't go to any group of men and say: What do you think about this, or let's vote on this. He never sided with any religious authority. He completely ignored their system for ordaining rabbis and approving doctrines. He recognized only what God had already written in scripture, not only in His personal life but in His personal ministry to others. People sometimes say “what would Jesus do”, that is what He did. We should do likewise. It is only what God had already said and was saying to Him that made any sense at all for the establishment of authority.

VI. Jesus Authority: Now that is what makes Jesus’ authority unique. It’s what makes it unique in His day and makes unique in our day. Jesus authority was a single focus from the standpoint that it rested in the revealed word of the Father alone. So much so that he said; “I'm not doing my own will I'm doing the will of the Father.” Clearly Jesus was doing His own will in the sense that Jesus was doing what He willed to do. But the source of the authority of Jesus own ministry was not anything outside of what God had established and ordained in scripture and never will be.

A. So the question we go back to about authority is: Where is it from? Jesus doesn't directly answer their question. There are a couple times that Jesus doesn't directly answer a question. Jesus is not being evasive, He is not being political. It is not because he can't give them a direct answer. He's given them a direct answer to this question many times in direct fashion as we have just witnessed. They ignored it.
B. He knew their hearts, He knew their intentions, and He would not play into their hands. There's a lesson for us in that as well. There's a valid point to be made from this confrontation that was initiated by the religious rulers. That point needed to be made to those who were listening and you and I and that is; “whose authority are we listening to?”
C. Let’s go on in Matthew 21:24-26 – “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.” His question was simple, from heaven or from men. We recognize that Jesus’ question is either one or the other. The reason Jesus doesn't give them a third choice is because there is no third choice.

1. Religious authority is either from God or it’s from man. If it's not from God, it is from man. Jesus was presenting back to them the simplicity of the nature of their question. It's either one of two sources, and so it is for us today. The authority to do something in religion either comes from God, it's in the Bible, it's in scripture, it comes from the Holy Spirit—or from men, it comes from the thinking of men and it's been derived from there.
2. How do we know? Well if it's from heaven it will possess the appropriate credentials. That's the basis on which Jesus did not directly answer their question about His authority, because His authority had already been established by the proper credentials of the miracles that had been provided. If they would ignore the clear approval that God has given of Jesus before they wouldn't accept it now.

D. If there is anything that you and I would ponder about whether something is right or wrong, we have to recognize that principle is still intact. If it's from God it will have the stamp of approval from the source of divine revelation. It will come through the revealing of the Holy Spirit in the way that God designed. Jesus told the apostles that the Holy Spirit would guide them into all truth [para]. John 16:13. That traces the delegation of the religious authority from Jesus to the apostles’ scriptures and that leads me to the conclusion that if I'm going to authorize something in religion I need to have something out of the Bible that will substantiate it. It needs to have that credential.

1. This is precisely what Peter was saying in Second Peter Chapter 1 Verse 19 he says. “19. We also have the prophetic word made more sure, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts; 20. knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation,” That means is not up to the prophet to decide wat it means but to deliver it as given to him. “for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.” Peter says here in the context; we already have the word confirmed.
2. The credentials have already been established, holy men spoke as God moved them and carried them along with His Spirit to teach the things that God wanted them to learn.
3. In Acts chapter two and verse 42 it tells us that the church began through the direction of the Apostles and the presence of the Holy Spirit, and that the disciples continued steadfastly in the Apostles doctrine. Why? Because that’s where the credentials were.
4. The apostles were working miracles in the first six chapters of The Book of Acts. They provided the clear evidence of the ability that they had to show the power of God and therefore they had the right to speak. The authority. When the people listened to the apostles and what they were saying, they obeyed. Then they continued steadfastly in the Apostles doctrine.

E. The church was based upon the apostolic doctrine, based upon the credentials the Holy Spirit gave to the apostles. Jesus’ question that He reverts back to them was not irrelevant to their own. If John's message was from God then there were some credentials that backed it up. If it was from men then they didn't have to listen to John. But John's message was from God and had already been confirmed by the credentials of Jesus himself as well as John the Baptist. If John's message was from God then Jesus’ authority was from God as well because John testified of Him. Jesus takes them to a place in the aspect of this dilemma, where they cannot escape.
F. The chief priests pondered that, the elders pondered that and it didn't take long to recognize that Jesus had put them on the horns of their own dilemma. If they say from heaven then Jesus would ask them why you didn’t do it. They didn’t have an answer for that. If they say from men then they would risk a backlash from the people who recognized who John was.

VII. The Response: In Matthew 21:27 – “They answered Jesus and said, "We do not know.” Jesus says well I'm not going to tell you. Their only recourse was to confess, with embarrassment no doubt, that they did not know. Why did they not know? They should have known. More to the point of the question, I suspect, is their agnosticism didn't answer the dilemma they were in. If they proposed they were the ones qualified to judge Jesus’ authority, they had to know!

A. If we would question the authority of scriptures, if we would any way balk against what God would say, or simply dismiss what's in the Bible, then we need to have the authority to know what's really true.
B. The agnostic has nowhere to go with this except to say well we really don't know what's true. Ok, if you don't know what's true, how do you know this is not true? By what authority would you judge the rightfulness of what God says in the Bible or what the scriptures say if you already confess that you don’t know?

1. The Pharisees and Scribes say we don’t know. Ok that ends the discussion then. You have no right to ask me whether or not I have the authority because you don't know. Jesus I think worked this in to show us that this principle cannot be overlooked.
2. Matthew Henry wrote; “Those that imprison the truths that they know in unrighteousness are justly denied the further truths they inquire after.” Take away the talents of him that buried it; those that shall not see shall not see. You give up on what God says over here or you deny it or you just ignore the evidence, and guess what, you don't get anymore.
3. Those who imprisoned the truths that they know in unrighteousness, those of us who will not put into practice in our life those truths in the Bible, are denied the further truths that can make us what God wants us to be. That's one of the tragedies of those who have denied the authority of Scripture, the authority of Jesus in their own lives.

C. The Pharisees faced the ramifications of their own question. They could have been saved but they rejected that truth and they rejected it at all costs. From them the truth then continued to be hidden.

1. Later on in Matthew Chapter 23 Jesus looking back over the city of Jerusalem laments; “37. "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! 38. "See! Your house is left to you desolate; 39. "for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!' ''”
2. He was referencing the destruction the total destruction of that city as was told about Matthew Chapter 24 when God’s judgment came up on Jerusalem and destroyed it and left it desolate.

CONCLUSION:
Who is it that will reject the authority of Jesus? Following his resurrection Jesus said He has all authority on heaven and on Earth. He commissioned the apostles to preach the gospel in His name alone. What did they preach? If you look at religious authority today and how it answers the question of what a person must do to be saved, you will get a lot of different answers. What does a person have to do to become a Christian? What's involved in coming to God? What will save us? What does save us?

Those are questions that have perplexed religious authorities for years and years and there has been dissension among them as to how to answer the questions. In all of those answers that are derived from human wisdom there is absolutely not one ounce, not one little bit, of authority. Because all of it belongs to Jesus Christ.

We can all get together and decide what it takes to become a Christian and it means nothing, absolutely nothing. The only answer to that question that has authority, is the one from the authority of Jesus Christ. What did those who preached in the name of Jesus Christ preach? “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved”. Mark 16:16 That statement is authoritative, not because you and I accept it, not because you and I have done it, not because of some church ordinance, not because we agree with it,... but because Jesus said it!

That's why it's important that we believe it. Is this from heaven? Or is it from man?
That question is important to your life and to mine as we view anything that we would practice in religion, anything that we would do in the name of Jesus Christ. Is this from Heaven or is it from man?

If there is anyone here evening who needs to respond to the gospel, or if you need are in need of prayer or need to come before the church for one reason or another we encourage you to do so as we stand and sing this song of invitation.

Invitation song: ???

Reference sermon: David Schmidt