Who gave You this authority to do these things?

Mark 11:27-12:17                                  From the One Year Bible daily reading

Jesus’ Authority Questioned

²⁷ They *came again to Jerusalem. And as He was walking in the temple, the chief priests and the scribes and the elders *came to Him, ²⁸ and began saying to Him, “By what authority are You doing these things, or who gave You this authority to do these things?” ²⁹ And Jesus said to them, “I will ask you one question, and you answer Me, and then I will tell you by what authority I do these things. ³⁰ Was the baptism of John from heaven, or from men? Answer Me.” ³¹ They began reasoning among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say, ‘Then why did you not believe him?’ ³² But shall we say, ‘From men’?”—they were afraid of the people, for everyone considered John to have been a real prophet. ³³ Answering Jesus, they *said, “We do not know.” And Jesus *said to them, “Nor will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”

Parable of the Vine-growers

12 And He began to speak to them in parables: “A man planted a vineyard and put a wall around it, and dug a vat under the wine press and built a tower, and rented it out to vine-growers and went on a journey. ² At the harvest time he sent a slave to the vine-growers, in order to receive some of the produce of the vineyard from the vine-growers. ³ They took him, and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. ⁴ Again he sent them another slave, and they wounded him in the head, and treated him shamefully. ⁵ And he sent another, and that one they killed; and so with many others, beating some and killing others. ⁶ He had one more to send, a beloved son; he sent him last of all to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ ⁷ But those vine-growers said to one another, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours!’ ⁸ They took him, and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard. ⁹ What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the vine-growers, and will give the vineyard to others. ¹⁰ Have you not even read this Scripture:

¹² And they were seeking to seize Him, and yet they feared the people, for they understood that He spoke the parable against them. And so they left Him and went away.

Jesus Answers the Pharisees, Sadducees and Scribes

¹³ Then they *sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to Him in order to trap Him in a statement. ¹⁴ They *came and *said to Him, “Teacher, we know that You are truthful and defer to no one; for You are not partial to any, but teach the way of God in truth. Is it lawful to pay a poll-tax to Caesar, or not? ¹⁵ Shall we pay or shall we not pay?” But He, knowing their hypocrisy, said to them, “Why are you testing Me? Bring Me a denarius to look at.” ¹⁶ They brought one. And He *said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” And they said to Him, “Caesar’s.” ¹⁷ And Jesus said to them, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” And they were amazed at Him.

All of these accounts in some way show how the kingdom of heaven is different than this earthly realm, how what is true in the kingdom of heaven is often contrary to what is normal here on earth. The kingdom of heaven is so different in it's values and priorities it has been referred to as the upside down kingdom. Principles like the first shall be last, the greatest shall be servant of all and dying to live are some examples of how the kingdom of heaven is contrary to what seems normal or logical.

Today's text begins with the established religeous authority questioning Jesus authority. Keep in mind that Jesus was not doing anything to hurt anyone. He was not a robber or thief. It was not the political authorities who questioned Jesus, it was the religeous authorities. They questioned His authortiy for doing good, for performing miracles, healings, deliverence and provision. Why would the religeous authorities question the source or authority of one who was doing such great things in the name of the God they followed? They questioned Jesus authority because they no longer operated under God's authority. They had created an earthly authority based on tradition and position. They knew their authority was no match for the authority Jesus operated by, so they tried to discredit Jesus.

Jesus cetainly was not afraid to speak the truth, He is after all,   the way, and the truth, and the life(John 14:6) Jesus certainly could have debated and proved His authority and  who He was from the word, He fulfilled all the Messianic prophecies in scripture. There were many people present when Jesus was baptised and God Himself spoke from heaven.   Matthew 3:16-17       After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on Him, and behold, a voice out of the heavens said, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased."  That's a pretty strong endorsement of Jesus authority.

Jesus could have defended Himself and answered their question with truth but He knew it was not truth they were after. So instead, He answers their question with a question. One  He knew they were unable or afraid to answer.   The authority of John and the authority of Jesus were heavenly authorities that were contrary to the man made authority these religeous leaders held.

In the parable of the vine growers, Jesus speaks to how the religeous leaders had treated the prophets of God throughout history. Any time that a prophet was raised up to speak against the established man made authority, they were rejected. Even though the leadership structure was God established and the leaders were God ordained, when they operated under earthly principles they became corupt and worldly. The prophetic word is intended to speak God's truth. In the church today there still exists this gifting from God. 1 Corinthians 12:28  says:    God has appointed in the church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, various kinds of tongues.

Ephesians 4:11-12  says:    He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, ¹² for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ  

God's plan and design for the church is for all of the gifts He has provided to work together. Pastors and teachers should not fear or reject the prophets. The prophets likewise should not seek to usurp the authority of the apostle, pastor, teacher or evengelist, but rather to simply speak the truth of God's word. All of the gifts are to work together for the purpose of building up the body of Christ. None of these groups can be self centered and concerned only with their own agenda and purpose. They must rather be Christ centered and concerned with His purpose. To the extent that they become self centered is the extent to which they reject Christ. He is the cornerstone.  The gifts are for the purpose of building up the body. They  must  all work together to  build on the cornerstone of Christ.

The final question they ask Jesus to try to decieve  Him to defy the worldly political and legal authority is whether or not it is right for God's people to pay taxes to a corrupt political authority. There are many who ask this question today. There is no question that our current government authority is no longer a God centered authority. There is no question that while it may not be nearly as oppressive as the Roman government, it is corrupt and oppressive. So let's pay close attention to Jesus answer about the rightness of paying taxes to the government.  Jesus said to them, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

There are several things we need to understand about this. The first thing is this. God does not need our money. He already owns all the resources of the universe. He doesn't need our money to accomplish His work and His will. So our argument that our money should go to God rather than the government holds absolutely no weight. Second, we are called to seek first the kingdom of God, not concerning ourselves with the material things or even the daily provision we need.      Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ ³² For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. ³³ But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. ³⁴ “So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.(Matthew 6:31-34)

If we will truly seek after the kingdom of God, focussing first and foremost on spiritual things God will take care of the natural things. This doesn't mean that we should not be aware of or even involved in the political processes in our community and our country. We just need to remember to keep first things first. Our first thing is to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul and mind. Our first and only true authority is just as Jesus authority, established in and by God not men.

If we focus on earthly authority we can at best gain worldly results and at worst become like the ones the owner of the vineyard sent, we can be rejected, beaten and even killed. If we focus on heavenly authority, the authority, we have in and through Christ, then we can expect heavenly results. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds(2 Corinthians 10:4)     No weapon formed against you shall prosper, And every tongue which rises against you in judgment You shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, And their righteousness is from Me,” Says the Lord(Isaiah 54:17)

We do live in two very different kingdoms simultaneously. We need to decide which one will be our default, which one will be our primary source and so hold and control the results we experience.  

Jesus says: “I will ask you one question", your authority, is "it from heaven, or from men? Answer Me.”