That Galilean from Nazareth! (Part A)

Why is he even subjecting himself to this inquisition, seeing that he is the creator of the universe?

Well, it's always, it's us, it's love. Those who will love him, that's who makes up the us. John's Gospel Chapter 3, we know he reads through John 3 16, God shall love the world. But then the next verse is very important, for God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. This is Cross Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Mark.

Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. But for now, let's join Pastor Rick in the book of Mark Chapter 11 as he begins his message, That Galilean from Nazareth. Beginning in verse 27, Mark's Gospel Chapter 11. Then they came again to Jerusalem, and as he was walking in the temple, the chief priest, the scribes, and the elders came to him, and they said to him, At what authority are you doing these things?

And who gave you this authority to do these things? But Jesus answered and said to them, I also will ask you one question, then answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John, was it from heaven or from men?

Answer me. They responded among themselves saying, if we say from heaven, he will say, why then did you not believe him? But if we say from men, they feared the people for all count of John to have been a prophet indeed. They answered and said to Jesus, we do not know. And Jesus answered and said to them, neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things. Title for this morning's message is, That Galilean from Nazareth. To us, it's very special that he was that Galilean from Nazareth. But to them, they had such disdain for the Galileans, people in the northern part of Israel. There were so many Gentiles up in that area by this time in Israel's history. And Nazareth, what good could come out of Nazareth, said Philip, echoing the sentiment of the day. And so, of course, they felt because he was from that neighborhood that therefore he had nothing to offer anyone and needed to shut his mouth and do what he was told by them.

Didn't work out that way. It is now Tuesday of what we call Passion Week as he is, he won't finish the week alive as we count life. This Tuesday event happening at the temple will last all the way through Mark 12 and not till we get to Mark 13 does he finally depart the temple and looks like he stays up in Bethany until he has the Last Supper. This day is going to be an intense day of teaching those who want to hear what he has to say, of warning to those who do not want to have to say and what that warning will come rebukes.

He's not going to take any lip from these guys. This was his last working day in public. His mission to Israel was now ending.

This is his last known day at the temple. The last teaching and confrontation with these religious political leaders. They came to pick a fight that they already lost. They didn't know it yet. Theirs was a spiritual that, you know, that religious ugliness.

It doesn't belong in one's faith, but there it is in their religion. There was nothing attractive about it. There was nothing to draw anyone to it.

There was nothing to inspire or bless or benefit anyone. And that's why he made that connection between the cursed fig tree that was barren, it was cursed because it was barren, by him he cursed it, and he made that connection. These folks had allowed their religion to eclipse God, to overrule God, to block him out, to lock him out, as in the Gentiles would do the same thing. We get to the church at Laodicea, he's knocking on the door trying to get into the church.

They don't even know he's absent. Jesus was to them that Galilean from Nazareth, of all places, he wasn't a Jerusalem Jew. Who was he to ignore their authority, to expose and to denounce and to correct them?

And this is what's in back of this confrontation that we're going to consider this morning. In the most blunt possible language, he infuriated them by simply telling it as it was. We'll get to some of those words of his directed directly toward them. And after he stumps them in this chapter, he unloads on them in chapter 12, Matthew 23. He just lays it out so effectively that they despised him. Not only did they have him in contempt, but they wanted to kill him.

And they pulled it off, they thought. He called them, or I should say he identified them, as liars, devourers of widows, fools. He called them straight out, you fools. Long-winded, doomed pretenders. This is coming from Matthew 23 and some of it from Mark 12. Blind guides who go out of their way to convert people to their brand of hell.

Scathing language. Nothing funny on the look of their faces when they finally died and left this life and were face to face with him, discovering that Jesus Christ, this same Jesus who was the Galilean of Nazareth, was also Yahweh of the Old Testament. Jesus Christ is, of course, Lord.

That is a comprehensive statement. He rules over the universe and no one can change it. The righteous love it that it's so.

We just sing songs to shout out our testimony and our admiration, our adoration for him. Now we look at verse 27. Then they came to Jerusalem again. He had been staying lightly up in Bethany and he makes a daily trip into the city and then he leaves.

And then he came again to Jerusalem and as he was walking in the temple, the chief priests and scribes and the elders came to him. That Jerusalem that is still there to this day. This especially religious and deadly city where Satan keeps himself busy. You go to the Temple Mount, you go to Jerusalem today, you see men walking around with semi-automatic rifles in groups because of the violence that can ignite there seemingly at the snap of a finger. Wherever Christ is at work, Satan looks to hang out.

This is a fundamental principle of life in this cursed world. Mark chapter 4, Jesus said, And it happened as he sowed, as the Lord planted the word of God. And some seed fell by the wayside, and the birds of the air came and devoured it. Not at every single time, but in context, most of the time in the New Testament, birds symbolize satanic activity.

And there is one example. The word of God is planted. Satan who likes to hang out where the word of God is planted, if he can, if he's not barred, will come and devour whatever he is able to. It says here in verse 27, And as he was walking in the temple, now this is significant, it seems he passed over it. He's walking and he's teaching at the same time in the porches that were around the temple, or the square, the courtyard. Matthew tells us, Matthew 21 verse 23 in the parallel account, Now when he came into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people confronted him as he was teaching.

So he's walking and he's teaching and they interrupt the lesson. They're so eager to get at him, to shut him down. And they're rude about it. But they think, you know, their arrogance tells them they can do this because they felt they were the custodians of the law. Well, they should have been. The problem is they dismissed the law that they were supposed to be the custodians to guard over the law as priests and Levites. And those deputies known as Pharisees and Sadducees, these boys were still smarting from the table turning incident.

The Lord was flipping over tables and driving people out and standing guard. They were hurting about that. But because they approach him while he's teaching and walking, they create a condition by which he's got witnesses to this very exchange.

He is going to refute and humiliate them in front of everybody. They didn't factor that in. Their rage was blind to that, I'm sure. It says the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders came to him.

These are as big as it gets in Israel. They wielded a lot of authority. They could have had him killed right there on the spot. They would not have. That would have backfired, and they knew that.

But that's how much authority that they did have. And they're going to pull it off in their own special little way, as we know, and he will cancel out his murder by just getting up. Okay, served my purpose.

I'm out of here. Well, anyway, there he is, they said, as he entered the Temple Mount. There he is, that Galilean from Nazareth.

This is an official inquiry conducted by these representatives of the Sanhedrin, those 70 men that oversee Israel under Roman authority at this time. This is Jewish aristocracy, the rich and the wealthy and the powerful. There's nothing wrong with being rich, wealthy, and powerful if you are subject to the Lord Jesus Christ. Abraham was rich, wealthy, and powerful. Solomon, well, that's another story.

He was too, but he made some tactical errors, to put it mildly. Anyway, the context of their coming to him was not for salvation but for confrontation. And it says, they came to Jesus. Well, we say that, we mean it. They gave, so and so came to Christ. We think of salvation, but this is not that.

This is a fight. They despised him for not esteeming them. How dare you not recognize how sweet we are? And that caused the problem. It still happens to this day. If you get around folks that have that attitude and they have authority and power, they're going to try to do what they can and most of the time succeed in neutralizing you. They supposed that they could dismiss his miracles and his teachings and his spotless life without consequence. They were that dumb, spiritually speaking. Otherwise, they were very intelligent people. I mean, they were not, you know, fools when it came to other things. But when it came to Christ, we see this today. So they refused to accept that he was the Son of God in the face of overwhelming evidence. Again, it wasn't that he just came on the scene and said, Hey, I'm the Messiah.

How about accepting me? Others had done that. And they brought their armies with them.

Their armies were all defeated by the Romans at some point. But they would discover, when it was too late, that they were accountable to him. And this, again, is something people still do. They refuse to accept him in the face of overwhelming evidence and they go out of their way.

They become spiritual contortionists. To bend over backwards, we would say, to escape facts, verse 28. And they said to him, By what authority are you doing these things? Who gave you this authority to do these things? Let's see your permit. Where's your permit?

Do you have a license to do this? Well, he's going to counter, of course. And he's going to make them earn this question. His triumphal entry into the city announced his Davidic right to the throne. They would have known that he is a Judean of the line of David, if they had any interest in finding out. No one else could do that, incidentally. No one else could march into Jerusalem riding on a donkey and be heralded as the king that comes to save.

All the others came with horses and swords, as I mentioned, and they failed. He comes in humility, riding on a donkey, lowly, in fulfillment of their own prophets. Only he could pull that off. And then go on to suffer in fulfillment of Isaiah 53 and Psalm 22, just two lengthy passages of prophetic scripture describing what he would experience, which he did to utter fulfillment, and nobody else could. I mean, just, you know, Micah saying he's going to be born in Bethlehem.

You can't self-fulfill that. You cannot decide where you're going to be born unless you're him. Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

And so these men, not used to being defied, not used to people at least not faking respect for them. John, the baptizer. He went out into the wilderness to distance himself from these people. John was a priest. He was supposed to minister there in Jerusalem. Well, he could have. But he wanted no parts of the corruption that was there. And so he began a ministry of baptizing, immersing people in water for the repentance, recognition of their sin. John did rebuke them also, but he didn't do it on their home turf.

At least we have no record of that. Christ does it right in their face where the seat of their power is at the temple. Sort of like going to a Senate hearing and flipping over tables and straightening them out and shutting them up. That's going to happen. We just got to wait. But it's not going to happen exactly like that. But ultimately, all power, every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess. And there will be no, nobody will have, well, I've got to pass.

There will be none issue. Matthew chapter 3, this is John the Baptist. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, because they had to check him out, he said to them, brutal vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

And he continued, God's going to separate the false from the true. So John did rebuke them also. But the difference is, John did not rebuke them there in Jerusalem. Now that's no slight on John. It just elevates what's going on between Christ and them. How intolerant, they could have, all right, fine. John is out there giving us some grief. You know, the little people do things like that from time to time.

They could dismiss that one. Christ had been dealing with them and he called them, you know, Satan's children. We'll get to that verse from John 8 in a little bit. But again, to do it out in the open at the temple, oh man. Had they been true to the laws of Moses, then this inquiry, by what authority, wouldn't have been necessary? They would have known. He's matching the scripture.

I mean, everything he says is right spot on with Moses and the prophets. But because of their corruption, they forfeited their own authority. And they thought because no one wrenched them from their position, that therefore they were getting away with it. You know, you can fall out of an airplane, one that's flying, you know, and it can be so far so good, till impact. And that's how it is with people. You can go through this life so far so good. I managed to survive no matter where I am.

Well, you won't in hell, or actually the problem will be, you will survive to experience hell, not to overcome it. These things, they said. Who gives you the authority to do these things? What things?

Well, the teaching, yes that. Rebuking them in public, yes that. But really, flipping over those tables was over the top in their eyes. Including this, well they're going to add to this list, his lambasting them in front of everybody in just a little bit. Matthew chapter 16, here's an example of him already taking them to task. Jesus said to them, take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. That word spread, because nobody said these things about them with such authority. But he did, he said it to his disciples, he said it to the Pharisees and Sadducees faces. And for the moment, there's nothing they could do.

They wanted to kill him right there, but they could not. And we're going to see as we move through, they're going to say, well let's not do it doing the feast, and that's exactly when it's going to happen, because they were never in control. John's Gospel chapter 3 verse 17. Before I read the verse, the question is, why is he even subjecting himself to this inquisition, seeing that he is the creator of the universe?

Well it's always, it's us, it's love. Those who will love him, that's who makes up the us. John's Gospel chapter 3, we know we read through John 3 16, God shall love the world. But then the next verse is very important, for God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. Through him, there's nobody else.

We understand. Now you can listen to that and say, I think that's obnoxious of God to claim the exclusive rights to salvation, or you can say, okay Lord, I surrender all, I come to you. And that's what makes up, that separates the saints from the aint's. Verse 29, and Jesus answered and said to them, I also will ask you one question, then answer me.

And I will tell you by what authority I do these things. Again, at the seat of their power, he puts them where? On defense. They started the fight. They went right to offense, they attacked him, and he puts them right on defense. Now he's in control.

He's going to decide where they're going to be. And again, could you imagine him at a Senate hearing putting them on defense? We have seen men go to the Senate and refute them soundly, and yet they were so disinterested in truth that it really didn't matter.

And that's some of what is happening here. Until again, they die. Then they find out how much it didn't matter. Well, to avoid this, all they had to do was love God's word. They would never be in this situation if Jesus loved what Moses had to say, if they loved the work of the prophets, if they pursued the fulfillment of the commandments. But nope, they preferred to do it their way, and they expected God to approve and line up with them.

And it's a common mistake amongst people who are impenitent. Going back to this question that they asked him, by what authority? Incidentally, he had already answered this question time and time again, from where he came from.

That's what it's about. You want to know by what authority? Where do I get this authority?

I get it from where I came from. Matthew chapter 11 verse 27, he said, All things have been delivered to me by my Father. John 3 verse 35, The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hands. That all things does not leave room for anything to be missing. For example, what do you leave behind when you die? Everything.

And it's not, well, he took his favorite ink pen. Nothing gets by. It's all left behind.

Well, the reverse is true also. The Father has given to him all things. What part of all things is not absolutely all?

Well, we understand. John's Gospel chapter 17, when the Lord is praying, he says, You have given him, speaking of himself, authority over all flesh. That's to the church. So we can go back and read that and say, All authority has been given to Christ.

There's no one else like this. Michael, the angel, the archangel, he could not claim these things, only Christ. So when you have the cults come along and say, Well, you know, Jesus was equal with some created being, you know, they're out of their spiritual mind. That's not what the Bible says. And you could say to them, fine, if you believe that, just understand. If you're trying to use the Bible to do it, you're wrong and a liar. And if you want to go to stand before Christ that way, lying about him, then you have at it, I'll have no part of that. But say it in a loving way, with a smile.

Maybe they'll, they will, I mean, I was witnessing to people, I have been successful as a good cop, bad cop kind of philosophy. Some people are knuckleheads, you got to be tough with them. You have to say things like the stupidest thing I ever heard concerning Jesus Christ.

Where did you pick that up? To get them to humble down a notch. And in others, you can never say, you don't ever want to say, you want to be very gentle with them.

Say, I understand, you know, there's so much junk out there to scoop up. Here's why I don't believe that. You have, that's called, you have the knowing to this being led by the Spirit, not a cookie cut testimony. I wish I could be more teddy bear like in the pulpit. But the Bible does not allow it.

There's too much stuff that goes right between the eyes. Less of a teddy bear and more of a real tiger. When it comes to truth and dealing with human behavior. A behavior that is reluctant to submit to the truth. What makes a Christian a Christian is that we submit. Verse 30, Jesus continues, this is his question to them.

Here's where he puts them on defense. The baptism of John. Soon as they heard that, they said, oh, this is not going good. I thought he's going to ask something else. Was it from heaven or from men? Then he says to their faces in front of everyone, answer me.

Oh man, nobody's done this to these guys before. They didn't know what to do. Excuse me, I'm getting a phone call.

I'll be right back. There was no way out. So he does not give them the satisfaction of a direct answer. Instead of saying it was, you know, when they asked what authority?

My father. That would have been a direct response. But that's not the only response. That's not the only valid response. They forfeited that too. It is sad when humans enjoy living in such a way in front of Jesus that Jesus doesn't like them.

Are you shocked at that? You think people can do anything and he's going to say, I still like you. I mean, the atrocities that people do.

I mean, come on. I mean, it could still love in a sense that he wants to see them saved from an eternal hell. Thanks for tuning in to Cross Reference Radio for this study in the Book of Mark. Cross Reference Radio is the teaching ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia. To learn more information about this ministry, visit our website, crossreferenceradio.com. Once you're there, you'll find additional teachings from Pastor Rick. We encourage you to subscribe to our podcast. When you subscribe, you'll be notified of each new edition of Cross Reference Radio. You can search for Cross Reference Radio on your favorite podcast app. That's all we have time for today, but we hope you'll join us next time as Pastor Rick continues to teach through the Book of Mark, right here on Cross Reference Radio.