Mark 11:27-33 Jesus Had Authority In His Father

Mark 11:27-33 They arrived again in Jerusalem, and while Jesus was walking in the temple courts, the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders came to him.  “By what authority are you doing these things?” they asked. “And who gave you authority to do this?”  Jesus replied, “I will ask you one question. Answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things.  John’s baptism — was it from heaven, or from men? Tell me!”  They discussed it among themselves and said, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will ask, ‘Then why didn’t you believe him?’  But if we say, ‘From men’. . . .” (They feared the people, for everyone held that John really was a prophet.)  So they answered Jesus, “We don’t know.”  Jesus said, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.”

In a short period of time, the people have seen Jesus in a number of powerful situations.  He entered the city riding on a donkey with the crowd shouting, “Hosanna in the highest!”  Then He cursed a fig tree because it had nothing but leaves and was not bearing fruit out of season.  The next day they discovered it had withered from the roots.  After cursing the tree, He drives out those who were buying and selling in the temple area, declaring, they had made God's house a den of robbers.  Is it any wonder the chief priests and teachers of the law looked for a way to kill him and wanted to trick him with their questions.  They wanted to prove that Jesus received his power from Satan.  Earlier when He cast out demons, they said, “He is possessed by Beelzebub!  By the prince of demons he is driving out demons.”  Jesus had rightly answered, “How can Satan drive out Satan?"  (Mark 3:22-23)  Again, we see these wicked men questioning the authenticity of the Son of God, asking him by whose authority He performs his deeds.  Jesus responds with his own question: Before I tell you, I want you to tell us whether John received his authority from heaven or from men.  This caused them great consternation because either answer would create problems for them.  If John was authorized from Heaven, then they should have believed in his baptism.  If he rose up from the people, then surely he was a prophet sent to lead the people, and they should have followed him.  They had one answer for Jesus: We don't know.  This nebulous response gave Jesus permission to reply, Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.  

We might wonder why our Lord did not welcome this opportunity to declare his authority from his Father God as He did on so many other occasions: Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me?  The words I say to you are not just my own.  Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.  Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves.  (John 14:10-11)  However, Jesus knew these false teachers did not want to believe in the Son of Man as a gift from the God who loved his creation enough to send his only begotten Son.  He knew these men were there to destroy God's works and to sow disbelief and unrest.  He was not going to play their game, according to their rules.  He let his life stand as an open book for all to read.  They had all seen the miracles and heard the stories of the healings, the changed lives, the shouts of joy.  Jesus was saying to those around him that He did not have to declare God's authority because that authority was with him every day.  The Spirit of God breathed life into all that He said and did, and He did nothing to please himself but all to please the Father.  Jesus said, I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.  By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.  If I testify about myself, my testimony is not valid.  There is another who testifies in my favor, and I know that his testimony about me is valid.  (John 5:30-32)  Jesus did not need to defend his authority to the religious leaders that day.  If they had been in the Spirit, listening to God's voice, they would have praised Jesus and listened to his words of life.  They would have humbled themselves before him and called the people to repentance and a life of freedom and joy in the Lord.

This scene makes us think of how we react to the Lord.  Do we accept him for who He is, the creator of the universe who came to Earth to live and die to pay the price for our salvation?  Or do we question his credentials, wondering if He is truly the Savior of the world, a personal Redeemer who could love us as individuals, save us from our many sins?  The Bible says, Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.  (Hebrews 11:1)  We cannot see, touch, or smell faith; yet we know what it is to experience faith when we have faith in God.  When our sins are washed away, and we are made whiter than snow, we understand faith.  Job said, I know that my Redeemer lives.  (Job 19:25)  We know by faith that God can move mountains; tear down prison walls; heal sick bodies; set captives free; restore broken relationships; and undo, redo, or outdo anything the enemy has tried to do in our lives.  Our God is an awesome God, and He does not have to prove himself to the devil.  When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, and Satan took his best shots to try to defeat the Lord, Jesus overcame by using the Word of God.  He set an example for us by saying: Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.  Then following Satan's next enticement, Jesus said, It is also written: "Do not put the Lord your God to the test."  Finally, the Lord said, Away from me, Satan!  For it is written: "Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only."  (See Matthew 4)  Every word Jesus spoke lifted up his Father God.  God was his authority, his protector, his shield, and his defender.  He did not come in his own power or his own ability, not even with his own ideas.  When Jesus prayed at the cross, He prayed the same words He uttered in the Lord's prayer, not my will, but thine, be done.  (Luke 22:42)  Every day we have opportunities to do the Father's will.  We have his Spirit, his power, his authority.  He is in us to do his will.  May we yield wholeheartedly to him today.  

Missed you last week.  We enjoyed attending family camp at Cannon Beach Conference Center.

 

Mark 11:20-25 Live In Freedom In Christ!

Mark 11:20-25  In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots.  Peter remembered and said to Jesus, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!”  “Have faith in God,” Jesus answered.  “I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him.  Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.  And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.” 

The above passage is an interesting one, for it has been interpreted in many ways.  Some believe that it refers to moving mountains that everyone has access to such as the mountain we look at every morning: Mt Rainier in Washington State.  How confusing life would be if people of faith wanted to remove that mountain to anyplace they chose.  Maybe one Washingtonian would move it to Russia, another to Mexico where he vacations in the winter, or maybe a more sinister person would move Mt Rainier to Washington D.C on top of the existing federal buildings to squash the federal government's control over us.  No, if we interpret this passage in that way, according to our own whims about something, even a geographical site, great chaos would be brought on the Earth by the conflicting and confusing desires from people of strong faith.  Sadly, people have attempted to implement this promise in exactly those ways, even playing God by not burying their dead after several days, supposedly waiting with faith for God to do their will by raising their loved one up again into life.  In many ways such prayers of that kind are an attempt to place our will above God's will.  Otherwise, our faith becomes the determining factor in our lives, our will, not necessarily God's will that implements his perfect plans.  How can we look at this scripture if we are not in the business of moving geographical sites or cursing biological life?  For one, we can remember scripture interprets scripture:  You do not have, because you do not ask God.  When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.  James goes on to remind us that God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.  (James 4:3 & 6)  So often our prayers are for our prideful pleasures or selfish desires. 

To find the key to today's passage we must determine what is happening with the tree and with the mountain.  In both cases they are being removed from their normal state of existence.  The tree is drying up and the mountain is disappearing in the sea.  As the tree dies and the mountains disappears, they will no longer exist in our presence.  Looking at the last sentence in this passage, we see the central point of Jesus' words: And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.  If we want our sins to disappear as surely as the tree and mountain will disappear from where they now appear, we must forgive people anything we have against them.  We must clean our slate first by making things right with those we are angry at before God will answer our prayers of faith.  Otherwise, he will not hear us because our prayers are not true or holy.  We are coming against his will that demands for us to be perfect in love as He is perfect in love.  Jesus said, He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.  (Matthew 5:45)  He holds no favoritism in blessing people, friends and enemies, with his goodness.  Jesus told us to be perfect, complete in our faith, without doubting or resentment.  We cannot have true faith if we are not like God.  For disbelief's origins are rooted where all sin is, in self-will, not God's will.  The sinful nature will not forgive others if it feels it is in the right or deserves to have a blessing.  We need the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, for we so easily go astray.  Jesus sent the Spirit to lead us into truth, to act as a guide, and to counsel us.  When we listen to that still small voice, we pray according to the Holy Spirit's leading with the wisdom of God and with the truth of the Spirit.  

What about when our prayers conflict with someone else's prayers?  We might want Aunt Joan to sell us her house cheaply, but brother Bill across the street might be praying for Aunt Joan to sell her house to him cheaply.  Both pray with faith, both believe they are praying the right way and that their prayers surely will be answered.  And, as far as the above scripture is concerned, if neither one doubts, this is going to happen.  But God will have to split Joan's house in two, giving a half to each one, to answer these prayers.  Of course, we have a silly analogy, but a true one in the sense that if we accept the above premise in all situations, God cannot accommodate the conflicting prayers of his people.  Think of all the prayers going up on game days.  No, we can best ascertain that this passage refers to what the last sentence refers to, something within us: a mountain or burden within us.  Maybe we have something within us that needs to shrivel up and disappear.  Maybe because of this dysfunction within us, we are not bearing fruit in season and out of season.  This is not God's plan.  From the beginning, we were made to bear fruit, for we were created in the image of our Creator.  And now we are new creatures with God's Spirit resident in us.  John said, How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!  (1 John 3:1)  Therefore, what hinders us from standing firm as what God desires us to be?  If we discern the hindrance, we should pray with unadulterated faith for our weaknesses to be removed.  Faith is the answer for these mountains and fruitless trees to be removed.  If we will believe, his merciful scalpel will do the work necessary.  His hands will adroitly and successfully remove the cancers of sin and unbelief.  There is no chaos in his operating room: all things are done in harmony there, and the eternal result is peace in the presence of the Lord.  We recover by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit.  Come to Jesus little children.  Come to him and live in freedom!   

Mark 11:15-18 Jesus Cleanses the Temple

Mark 11:15-18  On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple area and began driving out those who were buying and selling there.  He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts.  And as he taught them, he said, “Is it not written: “‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’?  But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’”  The chief priests and the teachers of the law heard this and began looking for a way to kill him, for they feared him, because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching.

We see in the above passage that Jesus is zealous about what happens in the temple of God.  In righteous indignation, He is physically cleaning the temple of money changers, merchandizers, and any other commercial activities.   God's temple was to be a house of prayer for all nations, a holy place where people meet God, not a place of mundane activities of the flesh.  The temple was established so humans could touch the hand of God, to know He is real, and to serve him with all their hearts and might.  His temple was a place of restoration, a place to find God's mercy and grace.  Instead, the sinful and self-serving nature of man made the environment of the temple a place of gain, a place to win status and wealth, a place just like every other place on the face of the earth.  Jesus' consternation toward such a situation, drove him to manifest an anger that we don't see elsewhere in the New Testament.  His zealousness over what happens in the temple is still a prominent focus in the lives of Christians, for we are individually and collectively the temple of the living God:  Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?  If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple. (1 Corinthians 3:16-17)  Because we are that temple, we must live as God's home, as his abiding place, separate from the world.  As Paul told the church, What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols?  For we are the temple of the living God.  As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.”  (2 Corinthians 6:16)

 

Yes, we are the living temple of God: we are where the Spirit of God dwells.  Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.  In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord.  And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.  (Ephesians 2:19-22)  Just as Jesus cleansed the temple building, God cleansed our temples with the precious blood of Jesus.  Now, we are a place of holiness, a place where God's Spirit can abide.  Jesus made us acceptable to God; He made us holy.  The blood alone makes us a place of perfection where the Spirit abides.  Jesus said, Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.  (Matthew 5:48)  We are perfect in the eyes of God because of the works of the Son.  He paid in full the price for sin.  And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.  (Romans 8:3-4)   Because He paid that price and fulfilled the law, we can forever dwell with the Lord God as his children, living for him, confident we will never be abandoned by God, for his Spirit dwells within us.  Even at death, we will be resurrected by the power of the Spirt that dwells within us, for the Spirit will go to the Father, and He will take us with him.  

How should we live if the Spirit dwells within us?  So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.  For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature.  They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want.  But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.  (Galatians 5:16-18)  We are to live in Christ, allowing the active voice of the Spirit to lead us into a life of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  (Galatians 5:22-23)  The temple of God is where these attributes dwell because the Spirit is there, and we are that temple.  If our lives are not controlled by the Spirit, if we are not immersed in the Spirit, we will display the attributes of the flesh in some way: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies.  (Galatians 5:19-21)  These acts will receive the judgment of God for they lead to death.  Jesus drove such acts out of the temple.  He cleansed the holy temple of God!  The Bible says we are not bastards, but are children of God.  If we act as if we are not children, we will come under judgment, for He disciplines his children to correct them, not to kill them.  Today, hear the voice of the Lord while it is yet day.  If your life has gone astray, call upon the Lord and repent.  Ask God to cleanse your temple again with the blood of Jesus, and then follow him with your whole heart as you are led by the Spirit of God.  He loves you with an everlasting love, and He will receive you to himself!    

Mark 11:12-14 Bear Fruit For Jesus!

Mark 11:12-14 The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry.  Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit.  When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs.  Then he said to the tree, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.”  And his disciples heard him say it. 

The above passage has been interpreted in various ways.  Why would Jesus curse a tree and cause it to shrivel up when the fig tree was not in season to produce fruit?  Isn't Jesus being unreasonable?  There are various interpretations of what this cursing of the fig tree means; most are speculation.  But one thing we do know about this passage is that Jesus reveals He has power to curse a living, biological entity.  We have seen Jesus doing many wonderful miracles for people.  He healed them, brought them back to life, restored their lives for the better.  We have seen Jesus perform amazing restorative miracles, but we have not seen Jesus destroy or harm humans or any biological life.  We have watched Jesus control nature as He calmed the seas and the wind in a storm.  By his words alone, nature reacted to his commands.  All of these accounts reveal a loving and powerful Jesus, but never before do we see a troubled Jesus speak judgment to life itself, in this case an unfortunate tree that happened to be growing along the path near Bethany.  Jesus in this passage is illustrating very clearly He has the right to ask anything He desires from his own creation.  He is not only Lord and King, He is the Creator of all things.  John writes, Through him (Jesus) all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.  (John 1:3)  Jesus created that particular tree, and He had power over its destiny that day.  Perhaps most importantly, Jesus was not so much judging the tree for not bearing fruit, for the tree had no ability of its own to change its normal cycle of production, but He was as usual teaching his disciples a lesson that they should always be ready with spiritual fruit in their lives.  

Some might interpret this passage metaphorically, others as an eschatological message pertaining to the judgment of Israel, while the passage might be seen as an illustration of what complete faith in God can do to a situation.  Even if the request is an illogical one, asking a fig tree to bear figs out of season, Jesus had a right to expect figs because of who He was.  Setting all this aside, we are going to simply accept that the Holy Spirit considers this passage very important since it is part of our Holy Writ, and we will go with the idea that Jesus was telling his disciples to be ready for his coming at all times--to have fruit for their Master.  As Paul wrote to Timothy, In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage — with great patience and careful instruction.  (2 Timothy 4:1-2)  In every situation, when it is convenient and when trials overcome us, when we prosper and when we are sick and think we will perish, we are to bear fruit for the kingdom of God.  We belong to the One who saved us.  We are his and He is ours.  We read in the Word: ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’  As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’  (Acts 17:28)  Because our allegiance is totally toward Jesus Christ our Lord, we labor in his field for his glory.  We give our all to him because He gave his all for us.  When Jesus was going about doing the work of his Father, He said, I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.  (John 9:4)  Jesus knew He came to do his Father's perfect will, and He was fully committed to that cause by faith.  He trusted in the Father's love for him and the power of the Holy Spirit within him to see him through to the end and to raise him up from the dead and back to his heavenly home.

This is the hope of every believer.  We are working for the Lord today.  We are laboring for him in the harvest fields, praying for the lost, believing for miracles by faith in our Lord.  But we are looking to our eternal home with Jesus.  Paul wrote this wonderful passage to Titus that sums up our situation so well: For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men.  It teaches us to say, “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope — the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.  (Titus 2:11-14)  Saved by grace, we can reject this world and live for the Lord, doing the work He has given us to do, while looking toward the day He will either return or at our death take us to be with him in our wonderful heavenly home.  We believe Jesus wanted to stir the hearts of his disciples when he cursed the fig tree that day.  He was saying, be ready at all times for my appearing and have something to show for your work.  Let there be fruit growing from your lives, fruit that lasts for eternity.  These thoughts help us today to take a look inward, to ask ourselves whether we are growing fruit for the Master, whether we have something to offer to him.  He is patient but we must remember the Bible says, But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord.  Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.  (1Peter 3:15)  What is your answer today?  He has empowered us with spiritual gifts and given us the blessed Holy Spirit.  Let us go forth in the power of his might, believing He will use us to grow much fruit.  God bless you all!