We're going to Mark chapter 11
and we're going to read from verse 27. It would have been helpful if I
had turned to it first. Mark chapter 11 and verse 27. And we're speaking about the
Lord Jesus Christ and his disciples And they come again to Jerusalem. And as he was walking in the
temple, there come to him the chief priests and the scribes
and the elders. And say unto him, by what authority
dost thou these things? And who gave thee this authority
to do these things? Jesus answered and said unto
them, I will also ask of you one question, and answer me,
and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism
of John, was it from heaven or of men? Answer me.' And they
reasoned with themselves, saying, If we shall say from heaven,
he will say, Why then did ye not believe him? But if we shall
say of men, they feared the people, for all men counted John, that
he was a prophet indeed. And they answered and said unto
Jesus, we cannot tell. Jesus answering, saith unto them,
neither do I tell you by what authority I do these things. Amen. May the Lord Bless to us
this reading from his word. There's a little phrase in there
where it says, for all men counted John. All men counted John. We probably don't use that phrase
very much today and I was just thinking how I could explain
it. What does it mean, all men counted John? Well, what it means
is that John counted. And sometimes when we are talking
about, we would say, well, does that count? Or does this count? Well, that's what it means. John
counted. John was one who was highly esteemed
by the followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so that's what
it means that John counted. They counted John. I wonder,
As we come to this passage and think about it, if you ever find
yourself marvelling at the restraint of the Lord Jesus Christ, I do. I wonder how the Lord Jesus maintained
his civility and withheld his anger. and kept patience in the
face of the blatant hypocrisy and the devious scheming of these
Jewish leaders. We have one such occasion here
in the meeting of the Jewish Sanhedrin with the Lord in the
temple during this final week of the Lord's life. They came
to the saviour in the temple, in the middle of him teaching,
and they came with a design to trap him in his own words. They came asking him to justify
his right to speak as he did. They demanded to know by what
authority the Lord helped the sick, honoured scripture, preached
the gospel. The very people that might have
been eagerly anticipating the Messiah Christ denied his divinity,
mocked his miracles and disregarded his doctrine. And here as the
Lord entered the final few days before his crucifixion, the Jewish
religious leaders continued to obstruct his ministry, to plan
his destruction, doing all that they could to turn the people
of Jerusalem against him. to shore up their own weary system
of religion and their crumbling self-righteousness. And having tried and having failed
to argue against the Lord's doctrine and to dismiss His miracles,
they decided that they would attack the Saviour's authority
to act as He did. Who was it who gave him the right
to cleanse the temple of money changers? That's what they wanted
to know. Who gave him the right to cleanse
the temple of money changers? You can almost hear them saying
that question, asking him that question. As if to say, we know
that what you did was scripturally justified. In fact, we were getting
ready to do it ourselves. But who gave you the authority
to do it? By what authority did he heal
the sick, proclaim the gospel, and then gather a band of followers
behind himself? What right had Jesus to create
a movement outside of their religious rules and rituals? By what authority
They say, dost thou these things, and who gave thee this authority
to do these things? They couldn't fault what the
Saviour said and did, so they attacked his authority, his right
to say and to do it. We thought a little bit about
that in our introduction yesterday, about the wise response of the
Saviour in seeking an answer to his own question before he
answered theirs, and thereby he exposed the hypocrisy of the
Jews with regard to John the Baptist and his ministry. as
Christ's fourth runner. So we're not going to go over
these things again. I hope you did take the time
to just read that introduction and set ourselves prepared for
our thoughts today. But these men were liars. These
men lied by denying what was patently true regarding Christ
himself. And I want to show you just briefly
how that was. Nicodemus was a Pharisee and
he came at the beginning of the Lord's ministry and he told him,
Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God. For
no man can do these miracles that thou doest except God be
with him. So you see that even one from
their own midst, as it were, exposed the depravity and the
deceit of these people, and indeed exposes the depravity and deceit
of the human heart in general. There is such an antagonism towards
God, such an opposition to the Lord Jesus Christ, that men will
lie to the face of God in order to justify themselves. And that's
what these men were doing. They were not ignorant inquirers
after truth, but they were active hinderers of the truth. They were unspiritual men, religious
as they were. They were legalistic upholders
of a system that damned men's souls. but allowed them personally
to enjoy the benefits of their religion and the earthly honour
that it bestowed. It was in their interest to maintain
the status quo regardless of the cost to truth and life and
justice. Now as far as the Sanhedrin were
concerned, as far as the priests and the scribes and the Pharisees
were concerned, that was the religion of Judaism. But it could
be any number of systems of religion. It's freewillism. It's Arminianism. It's legalism. It's Fullerism.
It's even Calvinism. It is every system that talks
up human agency and salvation, but hides the truth of free and
sovereign grace from the eyes and from the ears of needy sinners. It is the religion of the world. It is the widespread religion
of our day. And if you surround yourself
with like-minded people and you design a system of religious
rites and rituals and language and privileges and punishments,
you've got to have your form of discipline. That's what makes
self-righteousness all the more powerful. You can convince men
and women that they are secure in their faith and practice,
whatever that faith and practice might be. We see it replicated so many
times in the religious efforts of men and women in this world.
But the question is not whether your minister tells you that
you're saved or whether your friends think that you're saved. It's not your religious affiliation
or your church membership from the cradle to the grave that
sets you apart. The question is this. Do you
have spiritual life in Jesus Christ or not? and religion is
a great way to hide that you have not. These Jews came asking
Christ the Lord, the creator and saviour of this world, to
justify himself before them, to explain who he thinks he is,
to clarify what he thinks he is doing, How dare they? They are interrogating the Lord
Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, the one upon whose shoulders
rested, the sole authority as the divine creator of all things. The sole authority as the kinsman
redeemer, the saviour of his church. The sole authority as
Christ the King, sovereign in his kingdom. The sole authority
as mediator to intercede for his people in heaven. The sole
authority as the lamb standing in the midst of the throne. So what we're going to do today
for a few minutes is we are going to reflect upon this authority. of the Lord Jesus Christ. These
men asked, by what authority? Well, let us explain it to them. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the
creator of all things. Moses tells us, Genesis chapter
one, in the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth, and
the earth was without form and void, And darkness was upon the
face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon
the face of the waters. And God said, let there be light. That's important, that little
bit in there, and God said, because this is the Word that is speaking. And God said, let there be light,
and there was light, and God saw the light, that it was good,
and God divided the light from the darkness. A little later
in the revelation of the scriptures, the Apostle John tells us, in
the beginning was the Word, And the Word was with God and the
Word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. All things were made by Him and
without Him was not anything made that was made. So that everything
that was created was made by the Word of God. of the Lord
Jesus Christ. So here in the Old Testament
and in the New Testament, these writers testify to the divinity
of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the power and the glory. And
John continues in John 1, verse 14, where he says, and the word,
that word that was the creator, was made flesh. and dwelt amongst
us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth. It was the eternal Word made
flesh that stood before the Sanhedrin that day in the temple. It was
the creator of all things, the creator of them themselves. How he patiently endured such
contradiction of sinners against himself. How he humbled himself. When they asked, by what authority
doest thou these things? The devils trembled and the angels
bowed their heads. These sinful creatures, these
clay pots, these children of fools and base men, as Job tells
us, who were viler than the earth, they missed the divine wisdom
of Christ's ministry. They missed the divine power
of His miracles. They missed the frequent testimony
of His own lips and the acclaims of the healed and the made whole,
the saved and the forgiven. They missed the witness of Moses
and the prophets and David. And they presumed to question
the Son of God Almighty. One wonders that the very ground
resisted opening up and swallowing them all to hell in that very
moment. And furthermore, Christ carried
the sole authority as kinsman redeemer, saviour of his church. So this is the second heading,
as it were. I've got five, so just so you know, this is the
second one. We're moving through them quickly. Christ carried
the sole authority as kinsman-redeemer. Why have I mentioned kinsman-redeemer? Well, I've been reading the book
of Ruth recently, and I've been noting the role of Boaz as kinsman-redeemer
for Ruth. And the picture is very suitable
because it applies to the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord's authority
within his church flows from his unique suitability to save
his people from their sins. Boaz delivered Ruth because he
had the right to do so. He had the power to do so and
he had the will to do so. He was willing to redeem her. And these three factors are found
only in the Lord Jesus Christ when we come to consider the
salvation of his people, the redemption of his people. It
was only Jesus Christ, the God-man, who had both the right, the power
and the will to save us from our sins. The Jews built their
faith on the promises that were given to Abraham. the laws that
were given to Moses and their hopes of a coming Messiah, the
son of David. But the Lord Jesus Christ joined
himself to us in our flesh. He became our close kinsman. He interposed himself between
us and the condemnation of the law. And he bore our punishment
in his own body on the tree. He redeemed our lives as our
husband and as our inheritance. The Lord's authority as our Redeemer
was His unique position. His right, His power and His
willingness to do so. To do what no one else could
do. Not Abraham, not Moses, not David. Our Lord Jesus Christ loved the
church and gave himself for it. Gave himself for us that he might
redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar
people zealous of good works. Ephesians chapter 5 and Titus
chapter 2. Here's the third ground of authority
upon which the Lord Jesus Christ acted. The Lord Jesus Christ
carried the sole authority as Christ the King, the sovereign
ruler in his kingdom. Our Lord came to establish his
kingdom and to populate it with the general assembly and church
of the firstborn, which are written in heaven. That is, the spirits
of just men made perfect. That was the reason why the Lord
Jesus Christ came, to establish his kingdom and populate it with
a spiritual people. The Lord would soon tell Pilate,
just a couple of days from now, my kingdom is not of this world.
If my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight
that I should not be delivered to the Jews. But now is my kingdom
not from hence. In God's kingdom, Christ is king. The Jews, they cried out, Away
with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them,
Shall I crucify your king? The chief priests answered, we
have no king but Caesar. I don't know whether you remember
but a few weeks ago we were reading in the book of Genesis towards
the end of Genesis and we read there about the scepter being
removed. And that Shiloh, when Shiloh
came and the scepter was removed, it was a prophecy concerning
the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know what these Jews
did? These Jews, when they stood before
Pilate and said, we have no king but Caesar, they verified, they
authenticated. the very fact that Shiloh, the
Messiah, had come because the scepter of the Davidic rule had
been voluntarily given up by them. We have no king but Caesar. But do you remember what the
thief on the cross said as he called out to the Lord Jesus
Christ there as they hung together? at Calvary. Lord, remember me
when thou comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily
I say unto thee, today shalt thou be with me in paradise. So the Lord Jesus Christ is sovereign
and king in his kingdom, but the Lord also possesses the authority
of mediator. And this is our fourth point.
Four of five. He intercedes for his people
in heaven with an authority. And that's what we've kind of
been alluding to throughout the reading of the psalm today and
even as we've been having our hymns and thinking about Mr.
Toplady's words. Let me personalize it a little
if I may. Often we feel unworthy, often
we feel that we are sinful and we're doubtful of our standing
before God. We become anxious for the well-being
of our souls. We hear people talking about
assurance of faith. We hear them talking about their
sure hope of eternal life and we might wish that we had such
confidence as they seem to have. Very often it's the free willers
that have this kind of positivity in their religious testimonies
and observations. whereas we feel neither fit nor
formed for heaven. But feelings are not the criteria
of faith. True faith looks away from ourselves,
looks away from our fitness and our feelings. True faith asks
not, am I fit for heaven? but rather is Christ fit to take
me to heaven? True faith fixes and rests upon
the answer, yes he is. True faith sees what Christ has
done in the covenant and hangs its hope upon the righteousness
of God to fulfil his covenant promises, God the Father to God
the Son to God the Holy Spirit. Therein dwells our faith. It's nothing to do with our confession. It's nothing to do with our decision. It's nothing to do with our will
and our desire for mercy or for heaven or for the goodness of
God. It is to do with that which Christ has accomplished and the
internal integrity of the righteousness and faithfulness of God in the
covenant of peace. The authority of the Lord Jesus
Christ as our mediator then, the mediator of his people, assures
us of everlasting life and heavenly glory. Nothing within us earns
or merits mercy, grace, love and forgiveness from God. And
yet God, for Christ's sake, receives all for whom Christ died and
all for whom He mediates. Our confidence is not in ourself,
our confidence is not in our faith, may it never be but in
Him. And the more unfit we feel in
ourselves, the fitter Christ appears to us. Let me show you, poetically,
Christ's authority as mediator. Here's what Top Lady wrote, and
we're gonna pick this up in our next hymn. For all that come
to God by him, salvation he demands, points to their names upon his
breast and spreads his wounded hands. Isn't that glorious? Do you see the boldness and the
confidence that we can have in the authority of Christ's mediatorship? Here's the last point. the authority of the Lamb who
stands in the midst of the throne. These antagonists of our Saviour
challenged him publicly to reveal to them his authority and explain
to them what right he had to heal and to save and to cleanse
and to forgive. Jairus did not challenge Christ's
authority. Zacchaeus did not challenge Christ's
authority. The Syrophoenician woman, or
the woman at the well, did not challenge Jesus' authority. Legion,
who dwelt amongst the tombs, did not challenge Jesus' authority. The thousands who ate bread and
fish at the hands of Christ, did not challenge his authority.
Bartimaeus, who had only received his sight a few days earlier
as Christ made his way through Jericho on his path to Jerusalem,
did not challenge Jesus' authority. Why might that be? Because Bartimaeus
saw what the Sanhedrin did not see. He saw Christ as the King
of kings and the Lord of lords. He saw him as the Lord our righteousness. He saw him as bringer of life,
giver of grace, healers of blind eyes. Our Lord Jesus Christ is
the Lamb of God. The Lamb standing in the midst
of the throne, surrounded with glory, and Bartimaeus had eyes
to see what these chief priests and scribes and elders could
not. He saw by faith that Jesus of
Nazareth was God with us. that when Christ died on the
cross for his people, when he rose from the dead, when he ascended
into heaven, promising to come again and receive us to himself,
Bartimaeus had faith to believe. He needed neither proof nor explanation
because he had faith. And may the Lord grant us today
such faith, that we may see Him who is the Lamb which is in the
midst of the throne, who shall feed us, who shall lead us unto
living fountains of waters, and God shall wipe away all tears
from our eyes. Amen. May the Lord bless these
thoughts to our hearts.