Experience TRUTH - #19

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This is the Truth Network. Have you ever answered a question with a question? Well, if you say yes to that, I'm not going to berate you or put you down, because guess who else did that? Jesus Christ. Over and over again he did it, and in Luke chapter 20, this week on Experience Truth, we're going back into that first passage, verses one through eight.

I'm with my sidekick, man of God, mentor, friend, who's asked me a lot of great questions over the years, the Christian car guy, Robbie Dilmore. Robbie, read this passage, and let's get right into this question of authority and how Jesus turns it. He's turned the tables in the temple already at the end of Luke 19, and now he's turning the tables on the elders, the chief priest, and the religious leaders.

Go ahead. So Luke 20, verses one through eight. Now it happened on one of those days as he taught the people in the temple and preached the gospel that the chief priests and the scribes, together with the elders, confronted him and spoke to him saying, tell us by what authority are you doing these things, or who is he who gave you this authority?

But he answered and said to them, I also will ask you one thing and answer me. The baptism of John, was it from heaven or from men? And they reasoned among themselves saying, if we say from heaven, he will say, well, why didn't you believe him? But if we say from men, all the people will stone us, for they're persuaded that John was a prophet.

So they answered that they didn't know where it was from. And Jesus said to them, neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things. Wow, so this is the ultimate mic drop. We're going to see this, by the way, Jesus has several confrontations in the first part of chapter 20. He's dealing with kind of all the religious leaders, but as we get deeper into this thing, he's going to deal with the Herodians, then he's going to deal with the Sadducees, and we're going to find out why they're so sad, you see. And then he's going to get into the the scribes, he's going to go after them and the lawyers. But this first part, they're all after him. He's just turned up the tail. He's just come in to God's place.

God's house, the Father's house, is in disarray. The merchandisers have taken over. They're making money on people. We talked about this a few weeks ago, how they were making money, sometimes 10, 20, 30 times, what you should be charging for a little offering, for a little turtledove for the poor, or maybe a lamb or a goat to sacrifice. These dear people came.

First they made a lot of money on the exchange rate. So I'm an Ethiopian, a Jewish Ethiopian. I've come in with my family. This is the Passover feast that I've spent so much of my life saving for, planning for. I've got my triptych.

I come in, I come 8,000 miles, whatever, and here we are. And to get the currency, to buy it, just for the privilege of purchasing the sacrifice for Passover, they're giving me an exchange rate five times. So I just need five dollars, right? I just need five dollars. Well, it cost me two hundred dollars to get five dollars in the current currency that's accepted at the temple.

So this was going on like crazy. Jesus turns it all up, and then, Robbie, jump in here with these questions now, because here Jesus, they throw a question at him, by what authority are you doing all these things? Who's your teacher?

What school are you from? Who's the scribe you sat under, Jesus? It's not really an unfair question to the Lord. Of course, diabolical motives were driving these religious leaders, as we've seen throughout Luke, but they're asking that question. Jesus turns around, asks them a question.

Go ahead. Why did the Lord employ these questions, especially in the face of unbelief? Yeah, so why did he ask the question about, instead of just saying, wham, bam, this is who I am, he says, let me ask you this question. The baptism of John, was it from heaven, or was it of men? Was it man-made? Was it fabricated?

Was it contrived? And so this really puts it right back on them, and it says that right there. In the passage, Robbie, the passage tells us, the passage answers all these questions for us, really, because they reason among themselves, saying, they did the calculus, these guys weren't dummies. By the way, these are the smartest minds in the land. You have the elders, you have the scribes, you have the chief priests. A lot of these guys were part of the Sanhedrin. They were smart. They were theologically astute. They had the whole Bible memorized. This wasn't their first cross-examination of a would-be Messiah that shows up in the temple. They went after all these guys, and they brought their best dudes. They were loaded to bear to take Jesus down. They were on the attack here. So they're asking, suddenly, now they're on the defense, they're on their heels, and they said, this is the calculus, look at verse 5, they reason among themselves, saying, would you like to have been a fly on this wall, by the way, listen to them reason?

If we say, from heaven, He will say, well, why then did you not believe Him? So think about the significance of that. I'm trying to think, did they say, time out, we're gonna go talk. We're gonna go over here, right.

Phone a friend, right? I gotta do something here. I gotta go back behind the curtain, and we gotta work this out. But think about this now. Jesus, because they're thinking this, they realize that the juxtaposition He's put them in. If we say, from heaven, well, He doesn't say what. Because the only thing John the Baptist did was simply introduce, amplify, make much of, He must increase, I must decrease. Behold the Lamb of God which takes away the sins of the world.

Follow me. I baptize with water. He comes to baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire. The one who's coming after me is greater than me. I'm not even worthy to be the lowest slave. The most menial slave, by the way, would attach the sandals and wash the feet.

That was the lowest of the lowest of the lowest. John the Baptist equates himself with that person. Jesus says, no greater man has been born a woman than John the Baptist.

Why? Because he's the only guy that introduced the guy, the God-man, the Son of God, and God the Son. So you think about everything John the Baptist lived for, stood for. Who are you, John? Are you Elijah?

Are you one of the great prophets? No, I'm a voice. What did that voice say? What came out of that voice?

A voice is simply a channel that amplifies sound, noise, and what does that amplify? What did he say? He said, go follow him. He said, behold the Lamb of God. He pointed to Jesus.

What happens? His disciples became Jesus' disciples. So if they say, this is from heaven, then they all of a sudden are receiving the one they hate, the one that, you know, and John once says he came to his own, his own did not receive him.

They rejected him. And so they were gonna, you know, they're really stuck if they say he's from heaven. But then, verse 6, if we say, from men, all the people will stone us. We're looking at dying because they were persuaded that John was a prophet.

People flocked from everywhere to go out in that desert. Something about John the Baptist burned so brightly and so truly for God. This man who ate locust for his diet and wild honey, this man who wore this camel skin much like the prophet Elijah, this man who was in the spirit of Elijah, called Israel to repentance. They flocked from everywhere to come out and hear him preach and see him burn and to be baptized in this baptism of repentance. And he became a martyr beheaded by Herod not too long prior to this. And so these people love John the Baptist.

You don't mess with someone that they love. You want to create a revolt that's worse than Jesus? You don't want to not only lose money like Jesus caused you to lose money just a little bit before this, but you want to lose all your reputation and create a civil war in the middle of Passover. Then you say John the Baptist was from men and not from God, and you are going to create all kinds of, you know, what's going to break loose. So if we say from men, the people will stone us, for they persuaded he was a prophet. The fascinating thing is that, clearly, inside of Jesus's question is actually a phenomenally great question, is what was the authority?

And are you responding to that authority? So rather than going to actually the authority, like God the Father, to see how to answer the question, they go back to their religious practices. They reason within themselves. They reason within themselves, and they missed the question. They missed a heck of an opportunity, because, let's face it, you know, who was standing in front of him?

The guy that could actually fix the thing. And they answered and said to him, this is a great answer, righty? They did not know. We don't like to answer that, right? Now, these are the smartest theologians in the history of Israel, right there, on the temple, in the Passover, in their element, in their home court, and they looked at Jesus, the God-man, who is all-knowing, and they said, we don't know. Now, the question was brilliant.

It was brilliant, and we got to ask ourselves, Lord, give us wisdom to ask questions like that that don't have any equivocation, that don't have any outs. You know, is this baptism from heaven or men? Bottom line, is Jesus from God or man?

Is he man-made or God-made? Ask questions like that. So, Lord, give us wisdom to ask questions like that. They were trapped in a trap, really, they created by themselves, and they weren't ready to bow to his authority. Which brings us to these final questions. We're out of time.

Wow. So, how did those who sought to ambush Jesus end up being trapped themselves? Exactly right. And take us home. Who is my authority, and when did the Lord Jesus become an ultimate authority? How does his authority compel me to share the Gospel ambitiously? Yeah, by the authority of Jesus.

What do you say? He said, all power is given me. And he says, now you go and be my witness. His last words when his feet were on this earth would go, be my witnesses, Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the other part of the earth. He's equipping us with questions just like this, and he's equipping us with a message, the resurrection power of the Holy Spirit in us.

And how are we asking people in the world to there? How does Jesus Christ solve this problem? If Jesus Christ doesn't solve every problem in my life, then he is not God, he is not real, and I'm following a lie. But the fact is, he came out of that grave, he conquered death, and the same power that raised him up fills the believer and will transform you and heal you if you'll simply surrender to his authority, which will be the hardest thing for any person to do, but it'll be the most gratifying thing. And the beautiful thing that Jesus is clearly doing here for us is setting an example of how to look into someone's life and try to discern what authority they under.

Are they afraid of men? Are they afraid of some other idol that they're dealing with? And trying to go after their understanding of authority in a loving manner, in a graceful manner, to give them a chance to see, wow, you know, they too can experience the ultimate authority and expend eternity in heaven. And he didn't ever stoop to their hardened hearts. He didn't get on their level. He kept the truth. He kept authority. He guarded it. He said, neither will I tell you. He didn't cast his pearls before swine.

But he did ask that pressing question. And the question is, how are we conveying, purveying, how infectious is my faith in Jesus as his witnesses? We're called witnesses, Robbie. We're not called prosecutors. We're not called judges. We're not called executioners, juries. We're not called defense attorneys.

We have nothing to apologize. We are called witnesses. So how is my life, my lips, my words, my tweets, my posts, how am I bearing witness of the living Jesus Christ, the bread of life, the living water, the only one that can save anyone, even a wretch like me? Amen?

So those are the questions. Luke 20, verses 1 through 8. This is experience truth. The Lord dropped the mic, he answered the question with a question, and next time we'll get into a quite profound parable of wicked tenants, which really is a picture of his entire ministry on this earth and how it's all framed as we get into experience truth. Next time in our journey through Luke, we'll pick up in verse 9 of chapter 20. Read this word to your family. Read it, share it, study it, memorize it, and live God's Word as you look and live and worship the living Word, the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible is the only book you can read where the author is always present. So read it and let the Word of Christ, Colossians 3, dwell in you richly.

I'm Stu Epperson. Follow me on Twitter, I'm on Instagram, I'm on Facebook. I do a Bible study on my Facebook page every Wednesday morning with all these guys with Wednesday in the Word. This is really experience truth as an outgrowth of that study. And encourage someone in the Word. Let the Word be a lamp unto your feet and a light unto your path.

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