Mark 11:27-33

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.” 

“By what authority are you doing these things?” was the question of the Sanhedrin.  (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.)  The Sanhedrin was in control of what went on in the Temple.  Of course, being under the Roman rule, Caesar and his administrators were over this ruling body and the other Jewish institutions.  The Sanhedrin did not have the power to execute Jesus, but they did want him killed, for Jesus was undermining their authority with the people.  When they asked Jesus about where He got his authority to blatantly disrupt the activities of the temple, they really wanted to expose Jesus as a madman, a man possessed by errant and reckless zeal, one who could even eventually undermine the rule of the Romans.  However, Jesus knew their intentions; therefore, He would not answer them directly.  Instead He gave them a question that the Council could not answer openly or honestly.  Jesus knew they were attempting to build a case against him so they would have a justifiable reason for having the Romans execute him as a disruptive force within Palestine.

Jesus could have answered them by saying, my authority comes from my Father.  I always do his will.  But He knew they would castigate him for saying that.  However, that is where each of us receives our authority to live as we do.  Our lives should be intimately controlled by God.  Scholarship is good, we should know the Bible.  Good teaching and wise counseling are necessary.  We should listen to the authorities and elders in the church, but really our final authority rests with Jesus Christ as He is revealed in us through the workings of the Holy Spirit.  Everything else is outside of us.  Everything else has to be incorporated within our spirits and confirmed by the Word and the Spirit of God.  Therefore, to hear his voice inside us is important, to know his goodness is essential.  People are always looking to accuse Christians of being hypocrites.  They are trying to undermine our authority to speak into people's lives.  They want to say, "See, they're no better than the rest of us."  They don't want us killed, they just want us discredited.  Therefore, how should we live?  Primarily, we try to reflect God's goodness to all people.  Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and to show true humility toward all men.  (Titus 3:1-2)  Our lives should always be lived within the parameters of the New Testament.  We should be known by everyone as good, honest, forthright, and loving.  Our lives should display the fruit of Spirit.  “By what authority are you doing these things?”  We should be living and acting by the authority and the unction of the God within us, by the power and the leading of the Spirit who directs us, and by the example and the love that Jesus has set before us.