A Simple Question

OK, turn with me to Luke, Luke chapter 20. So the things that we're going to be looking at here in this passage take place very shortly before the Jews would take our Lord to be crucified, before they would turn him over to the Gentiles to be crucified. So this is happening right before that.

And so what happens is there's these self-righteous Jews who are the leaders of the religious sect, and they come with the elders who would be the judges and leaders of the civil law. So these were the judges of the religious and the civil law. And they want to come and arrest our Lord. They want to do it in a manner that would justify them before the people, so that the people would be on board with them taking away this Jesus of Nazareth.

And they would say, yep, it was just, it was good, it was right, he was crucified for for being a fraud. That's what they were trying to accuse him of being, basically. They were going to accuse him of being a fraud. They were going to embarrass him before everyone, try and shame him, and justify their hatred and murder of the Lord.

And what this ends up doing is, well, our Lord's going to repel them. They're going to be put in their place. They're the ones that are going to be silenced. And what this is going to do is further send them down the path that reveals the wickedness of their own heart.

Because what they do in putting our Lord to death, it was not just He didn't do any crimes worthy of death, and this is evident here in this passage. What we realize is that he is just, he is appointed of God, he was sent of the Father for this purpose, and they took him and crucified him with wicked hands, according to the will and purpose of our wise, all-knowing, almighty God.

The reality is they knew who he was. They saw the proofs that everyone else saw. They heard the things that he had done. Some of them saw those things. They knew that he was authorized by God to be here, to do these things, to cast them out of the temple the way he did, and to be their teaching in the temple.

And this is brought out several times in the scriptures. after our Lord's resurrection and the pouring out of the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost, when Peter's out there preaching the gospel to the people, he said to them in Acts 2, verse 22, ye men of Israel, hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know. And we know there was over 2,000 people there that all agreed. You're right, Peter. You are right. He did these things. We know what you're saying.

Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain. Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death because it was not possible that he should be holding of it. These things are declared to us in the preaching of the gospel because you're leaning wholly upon the testimony and the word of God. You're trusting that this Jesus of Nazareth is the promised seed.

He is the Christ. And if he's the Christ, Son of God, we are to hear him, to believe on him. And if you don't believe, cry out to him, Lord, help my unbelief. Help me, Lord. have mercy on me. It's to drive us to him who is alone the salvation of all God's people. And the Lord knows we are but dust. Confess your sin, confess your weakness, confess your unbelief, and ask him for grace and mercy to reveal himself to you.

He's a merciful God. He delights to show mercy to the sinner who begs him for mercy. He delights in that. He delights. So our God is bringing us to this point. He's showing us these things and it's for our good. It's for our salvation. So our Lord has come to Jerusalem just before Passover.

And it says there in the beginning of verse one, Luke 20, verse one, and it came to pass that on one of those days, while he's there, as he taught the people in the temple and preached the gospel, all right, so let's stop right there. He preached the gospel. First, we are shown that in our Lord's final days, what did he do?

He preached the gospel. He taught the people. He loved his people unto the end, laboring with them to declare the gospel, the good news of God. Not only did Jesus Christ purchase the redemption of His people with His own precious blood, but He published it. He taught it. He proclaimed it. He preached it. He declared the good news to the people of God.

And so what stands out here to us in this is the importance of preaching the gospel. This is the ministry of the church. This is what we are called to do, to proclaim what God has done to save his people. This is the word of faith which we preach, declaring unto you who He is. This is the Son of God sent of the Father.

Why did He come? He came to put away, to satisfy, to atone for, and to remove from us the sins of His people. Well, did he accomplish it? What did he accomplish when he came? He died for the sins of his people, to obtain for us eternal redemption, to give us an expected end, a hopeful end, in the inheritance of God, eternal life, and the forgiveness of sins. We may dwell and know our God forever.

Turn over to 2 Peter 3, because I want you to see this word. of God to us and to see the suddenness of his return. So 2 Peter 3, verse 9. I'm going to read down to the first half of verse 15. So verse 9, the Lord is not slack. He's not taking time off. He's not sleeping. He's not on vacation.

The Lord's not slack concerning his promise as some men count slackness, but as long suffering to us word to his lost sheep who are yet in darkness, yet unknowing of these things. He's not willing that any, and you can put that word us, that any of us, his lost sheep should perish, but that all of us should come to repentance.

It is our God's good pleasure to reveal to you the Lord Jesus Christ and what he has accomplished for you. If you are his, he makes it known, he wants to make it known, and he does make it known to his people what his son has accomplished for you. It's good news. Put that joy and rejoicing in your heart. He's gonna remove the veil and show you in your heart of hearts what he has done. He's gonna bring it home to you.

But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, a suddenness, in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. The earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. So all that we're laboring for the kingdom that we're trying to build and and everything we're trying to do and tinkering with and messing with and trying to accomplish for ourselves and our families, all that's gonna be burned up. It's all gonna go to waste anyway.

And he's saying it's just it's gonna come to an end. And he does. He tells us this so that we would hear him, that we would set our face on him toward him. Lord, have mercy. Lord, save me. Because again, we are but dust. These are the things we do. This is what we look at. This is what we value in the flesh. And it's only by his grace that we see that there is something much better, lasting and eternal.

And it's in him. And he'll never leave you. He'll bless you. He'll provide for you. He knows the things that we have need of. He's able and willing to bless his people and to provide for us. He's not going to let us suffer needlessly. If we suffer anything, it's for our good. It's going to bring us nearer to Christ. It's going to draw us to him, and we'll find him much more precious in it.

Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness? looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God. How do we look for and hasten the coming of God, who said, I'm coming again. I'm going to return and take you to myself. What are we to be doing?

He's saying, hear the word. hear the word, count it precious, value it, hear that word feed upon the Lord Jesus Christ, believe on him. And as you're sitting here, whether you're here or throughout the week, breathing and sighing as living souls do, Lord help me, Lord have mercy on me, Lord keep me, Lord don't let me fall away, Lord Stay my wandering heart. Keep me ever upon you, Lord. Please, I need your grace and mercy. I need your help, because you know." Right?

We're just confessing our sins to him. We're breathing, sighing and groaning, as living souls do, as born-again believers who have no confidence in this flesh, who see the weakness and the strippings of this flesh because it's fallen, it's infirmed, it's sick, it's dead, and it adds nothing. nothing to our salvation. If it could, it would sink us to hell.

But it's only by God's grace that he just pushes that aside. He's provided for, I shouldn't even say push, he's made the provision in his darling son, Jesus Christ, to provide all that you and I need faithfully, justly before God, before the law of God, to satisfy God, that we are free from that. Wherein, he says, the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat.

Nevertheless, we, according to his promise, look. That's what he puts in his people. We look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, that these old fallen, wicked bodies, these corrupt, sinful tent of flesh will fall off that we might be clothed upon with that heavenly body which he has promised us in Christ. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace without spot and blameless and account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation. And he's providing for you in Christ. That's who we're looking to. That's what we're doing.

Not trying to do the law, not trying to improve ourselves by our works, ever looking to Christ and serving him and rejoicing in him with one another. So therefore, because of these things, our Lord loves his disciples unto the end, preaching the gospel to them. Now, while he's there in the temple, walking about and preaching to the people, teaching the people who are gathering to him, being drawn to him, that want to hear him speak. He loves him to the end by preaching the gospel. And this is when there's an interruption. They break in. Those that hate him and hate the truth, they break in to interrupt him, to catch him off guard. Verse 1 and 2, Luke 20, verse 1 and 2.

And it came to pass that on one of those days, as he taught the people in the temple and preached the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes came upon him with the elders." So you've got the religious scribes and Pharisees along with the elders who are the civil magistrates. They come together. upon him and spake unto him, saying, Tell us, by what authority doest thou these things? And who is thee that gave thee this authority?

And so this word there, came upon him, is to give you that sense, suddenly, they jumped out, they came upon him, trying to catch him off guard. He thought they're thinking that, oh, he thinks he got us out. This is his place now. He can just walk around here owning the place and doing whatever he wants. Let's go down there and we'll confront him together. And we'll catch him in his words here. This word came upon them is used in 1 Thessalonians 5, 2, and 3, for example.

When Paul writes, for yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them. They're not expecting it. They're thinking everything's the same. It's going to be today as it was yesterday and the day before that. And then suddenly, it changes. As travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape.

If you've ever been pregnant before, and you're going about, and each day your belly's getting a little bigger, and the baby's getting heavier and heavier, and the days are getting hotter and hotter, carrying this child around, and people are coming up to you and saying, oh, you're still pregnant?

Oh, it hasn't come yet? And you're getting tired of hearing it, because they just keep saying it. And you know, yeah, I'm ready to go. I'm waiting for it. And you think it's never going to come, and then one day, boom. The pain start, the travail comes, and you start feeling, uh-oh, it's time. It's time to go. It just happens suddenly, and it comes upon you. So shall the coming of the Lord be. It'll be suddenly, and a day that we do not expect it. And so these men thought they were going to surprise the Lord of glory, and so they came upon him with the elders. to catch him.

They wanted to catch him speechless. They wanted to catch him off guard, because if he can't answer the question, then they are justified to arrest him right there on the spot before all the people, and they would know, well, he couldn't answer. He didn't have the authority. He's a fraud, just like they said he was.

And they would have to go along with it. And so that's what they were trying to do. They were trying to do it openly, in the light of day, to embarrass and shame him, and to justify their hatred and unbelief. That's exactly what they are trying to do. So they said, tell us, by what authority doest thou these things? Or who is he that gave thee this authority? And they're doing this because why?

He just upset everything. He turned over their tables, drove out the money changers, drove out those that were selling beasts and doves in the temple, telling them that this house is a house of prayer, and you've made it a den of thieves. He embarrassed them, and he shamed them, and put them in their place.

And the fact is, they knew he was right. They knew he was right, just like we read at the beginning of the message that he is a man approved of God. And you know this because he did miracles among you, signs of miracles among you, showing and testifying that God was with him. Even Nicodemus, he's a Pharisee, a ruler of the Jews, came to our Lord by night in the beginning of his ministry and said, Master, we know that thou art sent of God because no man could do the things that you're doing except God was with him.

So we know. We know they knew, they knew the truth, and they were burying and hiding the truth that was revealed to them. The light that they had, as little as it was, they were burying it. They were hiding it. They were pretending like they couldn't hear it.

They were pretending that they didn't understand, and they were just pushing it down, pushing it down. to justify themselves, to refuse Christ, to refuse to hear, to refuse the testimony of God. They were saying to God, anybody but him, we will not have this man reign over us. Send someone else, because we ain't listening to him. We don't want to hear him.

And so they stiffened their necks, and they remained in their hard hearts, and they refused the Holy Ghost, which made it apparent. This Jesus of Nazareth is the son of God. He is the promised seed. Hear him. And they would not hear it. And so they thought, he's going to freeze up. We're going to catch him. We're going to catch him off guard. And he won't know how to respond to us.

And we'll be just in hauling him off for coming in here, riding in triumphantly into Jerusalem. stirring up the people, and they're shouting Hosanna to him, and he's not telling them not to do it. That's blasphemy. And then he comes into the temple, and he throws everyone out that we gave them license to be there. We said you can be there doing these things. We approved it, and we have the authority. We approved it, and he just turned that upside down. And now he's walking around the temple teaching some new doctrine that we don't approve of. Now, who is he? So we're going to show him. Tell us, by what authority doest thou these things? Or who is he that giveth this authority?

Thinking to ensnare him in his silence. But the problem is the Lord wasn't silent. He wasn't silent. He wasn't afraid of their aggression. He wasn't caught off guard by what was in their heart and the violence that they had in their heart. He answered verse 3 and said unto them, I will also ask you one thing, and answer me. And they weren't expecting that. He turned it around completely on them.

You know, oftentimes, things happen, things come up and I'm in this situation and someone says something to me and I don't find the words that I would like to have. I don't find the right thing to say and I'll say something sometimes or say nothing and later on I'll reflect on it and think, I could have said this, I should have said that, and I'm very disappointed in myself because I don't have the words that I think are necessary, that could have helped, maybe could have helped or been useful and poignant in that time. Thankfully, you know who always has the right word? You know who's going to ensure that that which must be done shall be done? That he will never lose one of his people? The Lord Jesus Christ. Because even if you and I have what we think is the right word or not, we see it's ineffectual. It doesn't hit the mark that we think it's going to hit. We're powerless. We're ineffectual. They won't hear us.

But when he speaks, they'll hear him in that day. If he's purposing to show a sinner mercy, he's going to break through. They are going to hear what they need to hear. He'll make it so, because he always has the words to say. And we depend upon that, because we see our own weakness and failure. And so when the accuser comes to accuse the brethren, when the spoiler comes to spoil, Christ will spoil the spoiler.

He'll defeat the destroyer. He'll silence the accuser of his people. He'll stand up for his people in that day to deliver us from death and ruin. He always does. He always does. You can depend upon him, not man, not yourselves, but upon Christ. We may depend wholly trusting him.

So he answered and said unto them, I will also ask you one thing, and answer me. The baptism of John, was it from heaven or of men? Well, that's a simple question. Any one of the common people can answer that question. They knew. All the normal common people, the people who didn't know anything, who hardly knew the scriptures, they knew one thing. John the Baptist is sent of God. He's a prophet of God. They knew they could answer that question.

But here's their supposed religious leaders, here's the civil magistrates, and they get asked this question. And it wasn't like they never thought of it, because the Sanhedrin had sent to John, when he was out there baptizing in the wilderness, they sent a posse of people out there, of Pharisees and rulers, to ask him who he was. In fact, it's in John 1, 19 and 20. This is the record of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem, which is where he is now. So this contingency comes from Jerusalem to ask him, who art thou?

And he confessed and denied not, but confessed, I'm not the Christ. I'm not the Christ. Verse 23 of that chapter, he said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness. Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Isaiah, which is from Isaiah chapter 40. He's the voice. And everyone knows that after the voice, crying in the wilderness, comes the Messiah. He's right behind him. He's right behind him.

And John testified of Jesus of Nazareth. Saying in verse 29, the next day, John seeth Jesus coming unto him and saith, behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. And he said it out loud. This is he of whom I said, after me cometh a man which is preferred before me, for he was before me.

You would think they would have left somebody behind to keep listening. If he's the voice, He's going to reveal who the Messiah is. Let's make sure we're here to hear it. That's what is being said there. And John testified of the baptism of Christ, that he bear record that this Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God, the one who sent John, which we know is the Father. The one who sent John was told, upon him whom you see the Spirit descending, and lighting upon him, staying upon him, that's the Messiah. That's the one. Testify of him. That's who he is. There's the Messiah that you're waiting for.

And so he testified of that. And so that one who sent John sent our Lord also. In verse four, the baptism of John, was it from heaven or of men? And they reasoned with themselves, saying, if we shall say from heaven, he will say, why then believe ye him not?

All right, that's fair. But they can't answer that. They can't say that. Because then they're unbelievers. They're refusing God. They're denying the true and living God and his testimony. But if we say of men, all the people will stone us. They knew what the people knew and believed. For they be persuaded that John was a prophet.

And so they can't say that either. So right now everything's blowing up in their face. It's all backfiring on them. And they answered that they could not tell whence it was. And Jesus said unto them, neither tell I you by what authority I do these things.

So in looking at this, who was baffled? Who was silenced? Who was shamed before all the people? It wasn't the Lord Jesus Christ. It was these men who claimed to have the authority and to accuse him of not having the authority, but they were silenced. They were left dumbfounded. And they had nothing to say. And so they were dishonored and shamed before all the people.

And our Lord, by His wisdom, forced them to retreat back into the darkness. They wanted to do this in the light, Now they had to go back under the shade of darkness to do their dirty deeds because when they tried in the light, they were found out to be the frauds. They were found out to be the ones without authority and the power to take him down. So that when they did take him, it was going to be at night. under darkness, because they're the criminals. They're the sinners. They're the ones that are doing wickedly, not our Lord, not him.

He answered them in the light. He testified. He was willing to speak the truth any time. And so when they did take him and crucify him, it would be unjust. Now you see and know it's unjust. They had no business taking him and putting him to death. They had no just reason to do that. They should never have done that so that they're guilty, they are guilty, and all the leaders and the people who approved it, as well as the Gentiles, the Roman government, and all the Gentiles. Everybody in the world is guilty of putting Christ to death.

And yet he's the just one. and were the sinners. And so even Pilate knew that they, for envy, turned him over to them, that they delivered him for envy. And yet he still put him to death. He still crucified him. So whatever talent, that is, whatever understanding, whatever light these men had, they buried it, like the ten talents, right? They're the ones who took that talent and buried it in the ground, pretended not to hear, pretended not to know, refused to hear it, and it just showed that they're guilty and they're sinners, ruined in trespasses and sins.

And so it is with every soul It shows us all how desperate we are for the grace and mercy of God. We need him to be gracious and merciful to us. Otherwise, we'll go on in ignorance. We'll go on pretending like we don't know the truth. And we need his grace.

We need him to break through, to remove that veil, to turn our hearts unto the Lord, to confess to the Lord that we are sinners, that he is God, and that we need his grace. This is what he's showing us, our need to bow before Christ, and we need him to give it to us. Lord, help me, have mercy, Lord. And if that sinner believes, if you believe, then all glory to God, all praise be to his name, all honor to him because he gave it. We see it. The best of the best of men, in terms of fleshly things, were found out to be frauds and criminals and sinners and perverted in their justice. They were just wrong and wicked. That's us by nature. And so if we believe, it's because God gave us that faith. And we praise him and thank him and glory in his grace and mercy.

And so I pray the Lord bless this word to our hearts, that we would see Christ and rejoice in him and find all our hope and confidence in him being washed in his blood, being filled with his spirit, being given his grace and the fruits of the spirit to rejoice and worship in our God. I pray he do that for us this day. Amen. Our gracious Lord, we do thank you for your testimony. We do thank you, Lord, even in these words, how you reveal to us the hypocrisy, the deadness of our flesh, and the ruin of our nature in Adam, and how you provided brilliantly, gloriously, wondrously, graciously, in and by the Lord Jesus Christ, to save your people to the uttermost. Lord, please, Drive your word of grace and mercy home to our hearts, that we may hear it and believe and confess the Lord Jesus Christ by your grace and power to the saving of our souls, that we would come out of darkness and we would come out of ignorance, that we would come out of denial and worship and rejoice in your darling son, Jesus Christ. It's in his name we pray and give thanks. Amen.

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