Dishman Baptist Church
untitled 9/27/2020 Service
  • Be Thou My Vision

      • Mark 15:21–32CSB

      • 2 Corinthians 5:21CSB

  • The Power Of The Cross
  • My Worth Is Not In What I Own (At The Cross)

      • Ephesians 2.1-2CSB

      • Ephesians 2.3-4CSB

      • Ephesians 2.5-7CSB

      • Ephesians 2.8-10CSB

  • Introduction

    Good morning and welcome to Dishman Baptist Church. Please turn in your Bibles with me to Mark 11, Mark 11. It is such a joy to have all of you with us today - after such a tumultuous spring and summer to see faces returning is a joy. We may never return back to the normal we all once knew but the more face, the more old friends return, the more normal everything seems. We also appreciate those of you who still choose to join us online and please know that we are grateful for you as well. If this is your first time joining us, in person or online, please take a moment to fill out our contact card so that we can get to know you and, if you desire, we can share with you a little more about our church.
    In the waning hours of November 8, 2016 and the early hours of November 9 something interesting began to happen on social media. For those of you who may not remember November 8, 2016 was election day and a new president had been elected. Now before I go any further with this illustration let me say that this is not political in nature - we examine things here at Dishman from a spiritual perspective not a purely political one because our only true hope is in the power of the Gospel and the spiritual changes effected by the Gospel in someone’s life not in human political machinations. With that disclaimer out of the way, a new hashtag protest began to surface - some of you may remember - it was #notmypresident. It was the way of some who didn’t agree with the election of Donald Trump as the president of the United States to voice their displeasure. What does that have to do with us this morning and where we are in the book of Mark - well if the Sanhedrin of Israel could have had Twitter or Facebook or Instagram in the first century - after the incident that we studied last week, and if not in total all of Christ’s ministry, they would be taking to those platforms with the hashtag #notmymessiah. In fact they had already begun in plotting His demise
    Mark 11:18 CSB
    The chief priests and the scribes heard it and started looking for a way to kill him. For they were afraid of him, because the whole crowd was astonished by his teaching.
    Now we come to this morning’s passage and see the tension, if it were at all possible, begins to grow even more between Jesus and the religious establishment of Israel. Read with me Mark 11:27-33. Incidentally, some of you may have noticed that I’ve skipped over verse 26. Some translations have Mark 11:26 saying “But if you don’t forgive, neither will your Father in Heaven forgive your wrongdoing.” The reason is that the most trustworthy and accurate Greek manuscripts - that were used for the word for word translations of the NASB, the ESV and the CSB - do not contain this verse. It is believed to be an early copyist’s addition in imitation of Matthew 6:14-15. The Greek manuscripts used to translate the Geneva Bible and the King James Version did include this addition and that’s why there is the variation. The important note to take away from this though is that the omission of the verse does nothing to change the tenor or meaning of the passage and so does not in any way cast disparagement or doubt on the veracity of the Bible. Hopefully that clears things up a bit - if you’d like to talk more about this contact me and we can set up a meeting. For now thought let us move into this morning’s text Mark 11:27-33.
    Mark 11:27–33 CSB
    They came again to Jerusalem. As he was walking in the temple, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders came and asked him, “By what authority are you doing these things? Who gave you this authority to do these things?” Jesus said to them, “I will ask you one question; then answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. Was John’s baptism from heaven or of human origin? Answer me.” They discussed it among themselves: “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Then why didn’t you believe him?’ But if we say, ‘Of human origin’ ”—they were afraid of the crowd, because everyone thought that John was truly a prophet. So they answered Jesus, “We don’t know.” And Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”
    In almost any institution, and sometimes even in any situation, understanding who has authority to act or to make decisions is vital to institutional success. This is a question as old as time - who has ultimate authority? It was the lure of authority and the pride of wielding it that influenced Satan to attempt to supplant God on the throne of Heaven and it has been the desire to have self-autonomous authority that has been the impetus for all of mankind’s sin ever since. The entirety of this chapter, chapter 11 comes down to one succinct question - when it came to spiritual matters in Israel who would carry the authority, who gave authority and who had it? When we look at our lives today the same question can be asked - who has spiritual authority in our lives?
    As we examine this passage today be willing to examine your life, be willing to ask the hard question - by what authority are you doing these things?

    The Sanhedrin’s Question

    It was early on Wednesday morning that Jesus and His disciples returned to the Temple. Mark gives us the simple statement that they came again to Jerusalem. You wonder what the scene might have looked like within the Temple - surely more subdued than yesterday, people walked a little quieter with their heads down, the din of animals that had existed the day before was not to be heard, at least not on this day. There may have still been the remains of the tables that had been overturned as Jesus, in His righteous zeal had chased out the money changers. And here comes Jesus, walking calmly with His disciples teaching them and anyone else who would have been willing to listen. His message would have been the same as it had always been - for the last three years He had had one consistent message - repent and have faith for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. And the people would have been hanging on every word - not because of what had happened yesterday, at least not solely because of that - but because He spoke with a quiet, self-assured authority that they had never experienced before.
    But a voice raised disturbs the moment. “You!” A group of men moving through the crowd to accost Jesus. The crowd would open to give them room as they passed through, then would close in behind them eager to see the impending confrontation. Jesus actions of the previous two days had touched already raw nerves at the highest seats of Jewish leadership. The Sanhedrin - made up of the current and former chief priests, the scribes - the legal experts in Judaism and the elders are striding across the Temple courts to confront Jesus. These groups seldom agreed on much - the elders were most likely the group known as the Sadducees who were only concerned with political power where the scribes - the Pharisees - were concerned with the keeping of the Law - but they agreed on one thing. The upstart rabbi from Galilee had made enough trouble.
    This is not the first time in Mark that we have seen these three groups linked. In Mark 8 as Jesus makes His first prediction of His death He says this
    Mark 8:31 CSB
    Then he began to teach them that it was necessary for the Son of Man to suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, be killed, and rise after three days.
    Now they finally have Him in front of them and they ask Him just exactly who does He think He is. Even in their question they reveal the deficiency in their worldview. “By what authority are you doing these things? Who gave you this authority?” They were under the mistaken impression that they were the authority and authorizing power in the administration and orderly conduct of Temple life. Notice their concern is not “Why did you cause such a commotion yesterday that impeded the orderly worship of God.” They wanted to know who had authorized Jesus to chase out the animal dealers and the money changers. They wanted to know who had given Him authority to ride into Jerusalem as He had to loud acclaims of “Hosanna” and “Blessed be Him who comes in the name of the Lord!” They wanted to know who had given Him authority to heal the sick and to forgive sins. They wanted to know who had given Him authority to upset the carefully balanced system of works righteousness that they had so assiduously imposed on the people.
    But it is really a useless question - because they already knew the answer. They had been challenging Him for three years and His answer had never changed or wavered. Early in His ministry one of their number had come to Him by night with the admission
    John 3:1–2 CSB
    There was a man from the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to him at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one could perform these signs you do unless God were with him.”
    We know that you are a teacher who has come from God. Throughout John’s Gospel in particular Jesus has been telling the Jewish leaders on who’s authority He has been acting. IN John 5 in response to persecution from the Jews arising as a result of a healing on the Sabbath day
    John 5:19 CSB
    Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, the Son is not able to do anything on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, the Son likewise does these things.
    Jesus will go on to say that the Father has granted to the Son power over all of life and the right to pass judgement under the Father’s delegated authority
    John 5:30 CSB
    “I can do nothing on my own. I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, because I do not seek my own will, but the will of him who sent me.
    Following the feeding of the 5000 when the crowds sought out Jesus for the temporal benefits that He could give them Jesus again demonstrates His desire is to serve the One who sent Him and that He operates on God’s authority
    John 6:38 CSB
    For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.
    Even as a herald of the Gospel Jesus demonstrates that His authority is derived from the godhead and the Father - unlike the scribes who spoke and based their authority on other human musings
    John 12:49 CSB
    For I have not spoken on my own, but the Father himself who sent me has given me a command to say everything I have said.
    His source of authority has never been in question. The Sanhedrin knew this. No matter how many times they sought to discredit Him - even claiming that His authority over the spiritual realm came from the power of demons - they were unable to do so. The Sanhedrin’s challenge here is not a legitimate query as to the source of Jesus authority - they are trying to trap Him. If He were to claim divine authority then they would charge Him with blasphemy. If He claimed any other authority then He would be placing Himself in direct confrontation with the Roman authorities and would be put to death by them. The Sanhedrin is attempting to put Jesus in a quandary which would guarantee His arrest and execution. But Jesus does not step into their trap.

    The Savior’s Response

    Instead He turns it back on them as He so often does - He counters their question with a question of His own. It is important for us to understand that this is not the rabbinic form of teaching in which a question would be posed and then responded to with another question so that the two parties could find some common ground of agreement from which to start a discussion. This is Jesus confronting the Jewish religious leaders who sought to do Him harm and to place Him squarely in the throes of a dilemma. His question does however delve to the depths of the answer they were seeking but in so doing it puts the onus back on the Sanhedrin for their reactions.
    Jesus question is singular in nature - if they would answer Him, He would answer them. Was the baptism of John from Heaven? This is an interesting place for Christ to begin. Rather than referring back to any of His own mighty works, He points them to a ministry outside of His own as a validation of His authority. John the baptist had come preaching repentance and baptizing all those who were willing to come to him contrary to the accepted practice that repentance took place through sacrifices in the temple. The people had flocked to John to hear him and to be baptized by him. Even the Pharisees and Sadducees had gone out to see John and had received a rebuke for their visit.
    Matthew 3:7–10 CSB
    When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Therefore produce fruit consistent with repentance. And don’t presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that God is able to raise up children for Abraham from these stones. The ax is already at the root of the trees. Therefore, every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.
    John was also the forerunner who would announce and herald the coming of the Messiah that had been promised by Malachi and Isaiah
    Mark 1:2–3 CSB
    As it is written in Isaiah the prophet: See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you; he will prepare your way. A voice of one crying out in the wilderness: Prepare the way for the Lord; make his paths straight!
    By asking them about the authority or source for John’s baptism - and by his baptism Christ is speaking about his entire ministry - Jesus is forcing his interlocutors into a position in which they would answer their own question regarding His own source of authority. If John was truly the forerunner and his ministry heralded the coming of the Messiah - and he had declared Christ as the Messiah
    John 1:29–31 CSB
    The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is the one I told you about: ‘After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me, because he existed before me.’ I didn’t know him, but I came baptizing with water so that he might be revealed to Israel.”
    then the authority behind both ministries would have been the same. If John’s baptism and ministry were from Heaven then so would Christ’s be. If his baptism were of human origin then anything that resulted from his ministry would also be of human origin as well and incapable of providing any hope to the many people who had followed John and those who had subsequently followed Christ. But Christ knew the answer and so did the Sanhedrin.
    And then just like a prize fighter who has stunned his opponent Christ hits them with a jab - Answer Me.

    The Horns of a Dilemma

    Have you ever had one of those days - where at the outset everything looked to be in your favor and then by the end of the day nothing that you had designed, nothing that you had planned went anywhere close to how you thought it would. Upon hearing Jesus response to their question the Sanhedrin must’ve felt a bit like that. They knew that the trap they had neatly laid had not only been sprung but it was turned around on them and it was their foot that was poised to be clamped. They must have withdrawn a bit, begging for a few moments to confer before delivering their answer. Either way they knew they didn’t have an answer suitable for Christ.
    Mark takes on the role of omniscient narrator here as he delivers insight into the deliberations. If we say from Heaven, He will say “then why didn’t you believe him?” This is a legitimate response and most likely is the one they know they should give. But to do so would admit to the crowds in Jerusalem - because word would travel quickly even amongst the nearly 2 million visitors - that their religious elite, the leaders they trusted had known that John was a true prophet and had still stubbornly refused to follow him. Their credibility would have disappeared instantly. They would have to admit that John was right in all that he said and did - even when he accosted them - and this they were unwilling and ill prepared to do. Their power and status were far too important for an admission like that.
    That was one side of the argument and one that would have been quickly dismissed. There was no way they could make that admission. But if we say “of human origin.” Even if this answer were preferable in their eyes it was also one they could not give. The people had followed John for several reasons. The first was that he was a spectacle - in his camel hair garments with wild hair and his charismatic personality. The second, and more important, was that his message burned their consciences and they were willing to submit to his baptism and his teaching as a way of hedging their bets for eternal life. His preaching was different from what they had heard their whole lives and different than what they had practiced in that very temple their whole lives but on the off chance that he was right they were willing to submit to his teaching. And he was a popular figure among the common citizens of Israel for all of these reasons. This was why the Sanhedrin could not simply dismiss his ministry as being human in origin because of the people.
    They would lose credibility with the people if they said that his ministry was from Heaven because they failed to submit to him. They would also lose credibility with the people if they said his ministry was of human origin because the people had seen John for what he really was a prophet. Luke’s Gospel illumines this point of view even more
    Luke 20:6 CSB
    But if we say, ‘Of human origin,’ all the people will stone us, because they are convinced that John was a prophet.”
    Stuck between two unappetizing answers the Sanhedrin looked at Christ and said “We don’t know.”
    And with that answer they sealed their condemnation - not only in this life but in the one to come. But Christ only responds to them “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.” He doesn’t condemn them or call for a different answer. He doesn’t shout to the crowd or call attention to His victory. I can only imagine that there was a bit of sadness in His reply. Even though the next few weeks are going to highlight the ongoing conflict that took place Christ never takes pleasure in seeing another person fall or turn their back on His grace. It was situations such as these that had drawn tears from His eyes as He rode towards Jerusalem as Luke chronicles for us
    Luke 19:41–44 CSB
    As he approached and saw the city, he wept for it, saying, “If you knew this day what would bring peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. For the days will come on you when your enemies will build a barricade around you, surround you, and hem you in on every side. They will crush you and your children among you to the ground, and they will not leave one stone on another in your midst, because you did not recognize the time when God visited you.”

    Are We All That Different

    Now we must ask ourselves why this story is included - why does Mark bring this specific event to the attention of the recipients of his Gospel and to our attention today? For two reasons. The first is that we need to have a rock solid understanding of who is actually in charge and has the authority when it comes to matters of spiritual truth. That is not to say that God doesn’t have complete and inviolable authority over every aspect and happening in the universe - but if there is any arena in which His authority is certain it is within the spiritual realm.
    Remember that Mark is writing this Gospel to Christians most likely in Rome in the early 60’s A.D. Meaning right before the massive wave of persecution under Nero would begin. But there are inklings that persecution is coming. The church is beset on all sides by false doctrines and false teachers. The government of Rome is beginning to turn against them. They would need to be secure in their understanding that Jesus was who He said He was and His authority came from Heaven as they faced the mounting storm that would be coming against them.
    Are we really all that different today? As false teachings like critical race theory and gender issues creep into the church, as a man-centered mode of worship rules the day, as our governments increasingly seem hostile to the teaching and preaching of the Gospel and seek to keep churches close even as more sordid elements of society open back up are we tempted to wonder if maybe we should submit to the authority of man instead of the authority of God? It wouldn’t be too many months after this incident - a year at most - before the disciples would be pulled in front of this very same group of men and told that they could not preach or teach the name of Jesus. I can’t help but wonder if this incident didn’t go through their minds as they answered them
    Acts 4:18–20 CSB
    So they called for them and ordered them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. Peter and John answered them, “Whether it’s right in the sight of God for us to listen to you rather than to God, you decide; for we are unable to stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.”
    We are in a time where our liberties to gather and to teach are in a precarious position. What authority will we obey?
    The second reason is much more personal. It returns to the question that I posed in the introduction - by what authority are you doing these things? How often do we in the way we live our lives ask God the exact same question?
    When we follow the world in compromising on the existence of only two genders and there is no transition possible from one to the other - we ask by what authority are you doing these things?
    If we waver on the sanctity and value of life - whether at the beginning in the womb or at the end as the spark of life fades out or anywhere in between irregardless of skin color, social status or any other man made standard - we ask by what authority are you doing these things?
    When we seek to remove God ordained and God appointed roles in His church we as - by what authority are you doing these things?
    When we seek to make our churches a place that elevates man and lowers God to our level we ask - by what authority do you do these things.
    When we take the clear teachings of this book with regards to the roles and responsibilities in the home we ask - by what authority are you doing these things?
    When we find our hope in politics or politicians or any other system other than what is taught in this book we ask - by what authority are you doing these things?
    We often times unwittingly fall into the unhappy place of compromise as we waver on the truth that God is in charge. That this is His world. He gets to set the standards. He gets to determine the way life operates because He is the One who has the ultimate authority. And if Christ stood before us today we would not have the same excuse or opportunity as the Sanhedrin because it has all been laid out for us. We don’t have the luxury of an answer like “We don’t know”. His death on the cross and resurrection from the grave removed all doubt, it removed all equivocation regarding His authority.
    We need to have a clear understanding of Christ and His authority in all areas of life and practice. He is God. We are not. His authority is derived from the fact of who He is and what He has accomplished. In the words of Revelation 5 He not only has the authority but He is worthy
    Revelation 5:2–5 CSB
    I also saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?” But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or even to look in it. I wept and wept because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or even to look in it. Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep. Look, the Lion from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered so that he is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.”
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      • Mark 11:18CSB

      • Mark 11:27–33CSB

      • Mark 8:31CSB

      • John 3:1–2CSB

      • John 5:19CSB

      • John 5:30CSB

      • John 6:38CSB

      • John 12:49CSB

      • Matthew 3:7–10CSB

      • Mark 1:2–3CSB

      • John 1:29–31CSB

      • Luke 20:6CSB

      • Luke 19:41–44CSB

      • Acts 4:18–20CSB

      • Revelation 5:2–5CSB

  • How Deep The Father's Love
Dishman Baptist Church
kharrison@dishmanbaptist.org
509-926-0575
http://www.dishmanbaptist.org
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