By What Authority

12. March 2009 by Bernice Davis.

Hello:

Our text for today is:

Matthew 21:²³And when he was come into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came unto him as he was teaching, and said, By what authority doest thou these things? and who gave thee this authority?

 ²⁴And Jesus answered and said unto them, I also will ask you one thing, which if ye tell me, I in like wise will tell you by what authority I do these things.

 ²⁵The baptism of John, whence was it? from heaven, or of men? And they reasoned with themselves, saying, If we shall say, From heaven; he will say unto us, Why did ye not then believe him?

 ²⁶But if we shall say, Of men; we fear the people; for all hold John as a prophet.

 ²⁷And they answered Jesus, and said, We cannot tell. And he said unto them, Neither tell I you by what authority I do these things.

If you have been following me daily then you know that our text comes out of the context of Jesus’ triumphant entry into

So we can see that Jesus teachings were viewed by the people or hearers always as authoritative and different.   The scribes were the caretakers of the law and the “official” interpreters of the scriptures.  You must remember during the biblical days that people did not have access to the word of God as we have in our modern day bibles.  The interpretation and reading of the law was limited to the religious leaders and the people had to rely solely on their religious leaders for the correct interpretation.    If you read the scriptures carefully you will notice that Jesus often rebuked the “religious leaders” for their false teachings and erroneous interpretations of scriptures.  Jesus’ teachings were so powerful and since he was not a part of the religious community of that day they struggled trying to figure out who authorized him to say and do the things that he did never attributing it to God.    We do have incidences in scriptures where they actually accused his teachings and actions to be of the devil.

 So in our scenario today, the religious leaders again are trying to trap Jesus and also get an answer from him whereby he could be accused of blasphemy.      I love how Jesus always answered them with such brilliance and wisdom.   Yes, of course he is God but I still just love the wisdom that HE uses to deal with his enemies.

As Jesus is teaching, they asked him by what authority does he do these things and Jesus says, I will answer it if you can answer the following.    Jesus says; “the baptism of John, where did it come from?  The religious leaders struggled with the answer and they rationalized within themselves before they answered. 

 Their thoughts were that if they say it was from heaven then Jesus’ answer would be why did they not believe him and if they say if was from men then they feared the people because the people reverence John as a prophet.   So they said, we don’t know.   BRILLANT……..   Jesus then responds since you could not answer me then I will not answer you as to what authority I do these things. 

I don’t know about you but I get so emotional during this time of year (the Easter season).   Every year when I revisit these studies, I see things that I have never seen before and it touches my heart in ways that it has never touched them before.   His sacrifice for us………Oh!!!!!!!!!!     It just makes me want to be better and do better.   For all that Jesus has done and still continues to do in our lives then the least I can do is live holy and honor him in this world.   Oh!!!!!!!!  I love him like that yall………..  I really do.  I didn’t always but I never imagined that I could feel this type of love………………..  How wonderful is our God.    Okay until tomorrow…

Stay encouraged!!!!!!!!

 Don’t forget to pray and read God’s word daily. 

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