Questioning Jesus

Mark 11:27-33
Gregory Broderick | Sunday, March 07, 2021
Copyright © 2021, Gregory Broderick

The title this morning is “Questioning Jesus.”  In our text we read that, as Jesus entered the temple in Passover week for the second time, He was interrupted by a collection of religious authorities.  Really, He was accosted by these religious authorities.  The chief priests, the teachers of the law, and the elders all come and confront Him.  And they ask Him two key questions: “By what authority are You doing these things?” And “Who gave You the authority to do this?”

These are good questions.  They are the right questions to ask.  In fact, every person will ask and will answer these questions eventually.  Indeed, the most important questions we will ever decide in this life are “Who is this Jesus?” And “Will I trust in Him alone for my salvation?”

Unfortunately for this collection of Jerusalem’s ruling caste, they are not truly asking these questions.  No, they are false questions from this group—false questions, which Jesus will demonstrate by His response.  They have already decided that Jesus is a fraud; that He is not the Messiah, as He claims; and that He is not Lord and Savior.

They are not really asking questions.  Instead, they are making a statement.  The tone of their questions and the manner of their confrontation in public as He walks by says it all.  It is not, “Hey, by what authority are You doing these things?  We are really asking.”  No, it is, “Who are You to operate without our authority, without our permission?  How dare You do these things?”  It is, “Who do You think You are?”  The tone of their questions is not that of the earnest Nicodemus or the faithful disciples in search of the truth or in search of understanding.  No, it is more akin to Pharaoh, who asked, “Who is the Lord that I should obey Him?” (Exod. 5:2).  “Who is this Jesus that I should believe Him?”

We will examine three points this morning: first, the false question; second, Jesus’ response; and, third, Jesus’ rejection.

1. The False Question

As we just said, the chief priests, the elders, and the teachers of the law did not approach Jesus as earnest inquirers.  They did not approach Him as those wrestling with true questions of faith.  No, they were already firmly decided that Jesus was a fraud and that He must go.

You can see it from the manner of their confrontation.  They do not invite Jesus to come and speak to them.  They do not even summon Him to the Sanhedrin to be questioned, or summon Him to the chief priests to be examined.  They do not humbly go out to Him to hear His teaching or to see who He was or what He was doing.  No, they confront Jesus in their pride.  They confront Him as an inferior.

Jesus is walking along in the temple courts, perhaps on His way to teach the faithful gathered there for Passover, or perhaps teaching even as He walked along.  In the middle of this, they storm up to Him and they blurt out their questions: “Who are You to do these things?  Who authorized You?”

Not only did they confront Him as a commoner, as an inferior, but the implied assumption in their question is that Jesus has no authority—that Jesus Himself has no authority, and that He doesn’t even have the authority of a delegate, of someone properly sent.  At a minimum, they assert that He has no inherent authority, no authority in Himself.  But their question is a statement: “He cannot speak for anyone.” They are saying, “You are a nobody.”  The question answers itself.  It is a rhetorical question.  Think of this way.  When a policeman pulls you over in your car, you do not say to him, “By what authority do you do these things?”  or, “Who gave you authority to do this?”  That will not go very well for you.  It is understood that the policeman at least has delegated authority as an agent of the state.  And so you comply with his commands, at least within his legitimate sphere.

But the assertion here is that Jesus has no authority from God and no authority from man.  They have already decided.  A few verses earlier in this chapter, we see that these same people are already plotting to kill Jesus.  Mark 11:18 says, “The chief priests and the teachers of the law”—that is the same group here.  “The chief priests and the teachers of the law began looking for a way to kill him, for they feared him, because the whole crowd was amazed at His teaching.”  So obviously they are firmly decided that Jesus is a dangerous fraud who must die.

This is not their first interaction with Jesus.  They have been studying Him for a long time.  In chapter 10, some Pharisees come and question Jesus about divorce.   In chapter 9, Jesus healed a seriously demonized boy, and it says the teachers of the law were there arguing with the disciples.  They had already seen who He was and what His authority was.  He had the authority to cast out demons.  They saw it.

The Pharisees were there in chapter 8, asking for a miraculous sign from heaven, right after Jesus fed the four thousand with only a few loaves and a few fish.  They argued with Jesus in chapter 7 about “clean” and “unclean,” and Jesus rebuked them from the Scriptures for their hypocrisy.  So also in chapter 2, His disciples picked a few heads of grain as they walked along on the Sabbath day.  And in chapter 3, when Jesus healed the man with the shriveled hand in the synagogue, it says that the Pharisees and Herodians plotted to kill Jesus even then (Mark 3:6).

This is ten or twelve chapters in a row where these confrontations are happening with Jesus.  We do not know the exact time, but it is months and maybe years that they have been studying Jesus and seeing what He is doing.  They criticized Him for eating with tax collectors and “sinners” in chapter 2, and when He forgave the sins of the paralytic lowered through the roof.  In fact, it says that the teachers of the law were right there in the house when He healed that paralytic.  And it says that when Jesus healed the man, he walked out in full view of them all (Mark 2:11–12).  So they have heard Him and they have seen Him.

And before that even, John the Baptist told them that Jesus the Messiah was coming (Matthew 3), and Jesus sent the man cured of leprosy to the priests to offer sacrifices and to tell them about Jesus.  He said, “Go and offer these sacrifices as a testimony to them” (Mark 1).  Matthew 21 says that Jesus was healing the blind and the lame right there in the temple, and that the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw all of this.  And did they see all of this and believe?  No, it says they saw all of this and they were indignant.

They had no question who He was.  They had decided.  They had studied Him for years, they had seen His miracles, and they had decided.  Did they believe those miracles?  Did they confess Him?  No, they refused to believe.  Matthew 9:34 says, “It is by the prince of demons that he drives out demons.”  That was their conclusion.  And Matthew 12:24 says, “It is only by Beelzebub [the devil] that this fellow does miracles.”  Even the terminology “this fellow”—“some guy,” “some nobody”—that was their conclusion about Jesus.

And what irony in that conclusion! They dared to question the authority of Jesus, who created them, and by whom they continued to exist.  I probably would have blinked them out of existence.  You question my authority?  I blink you out of existence.  There is my authority.  Does anybody else have any more questions?  No, no more questions, right?  But Jesus is merciful, praise the Lord.  He does not do that.  But think about it.  Their very breath, their very next breath depends upon Jesus’ sustaining grace.  And yet they use that breath to question the authority of the One who gives it.  Oh, the depth of depravity and wickedness of man!

And before you smugly look down on those religious big shots daring to question the authority of Jesus, remember that you did it too.  Every unbeliever says to Jesus, “By what authority?  Who are You to tell me what to do?”  Everyone who has rejected Jesus Christ, politely or not, is saying that.  After all, Jesus’ claims are clear, they are exclusive, and they are universal.  In John 14:6 He says, “I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except by me.”  With such a universal and exclusive claim, there is no room for compromise, no room for middle ground, no room for dithering.  There is no third way.  It is right or it is wrong.  It is true or it is false.  There is no in-between.

We know that we have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and that we each deserve eternal hell as the wages of our sin.  Romans 3:23 and 6:23 clearly teach that.  So we all did it.  We all begin this life as sinners, destined for hell.  We all start out as objects of wrath by our very nature (Eph. 2:3).  Eternal hell is our natural state, and hell is our natural end, and most people stay in that condition.  The way to salvation by faith in Christ is the narrow way, and few find it.  Praise God, a few find it, but only a few find it.  Jesus said so, so we must either believe Him or reject Him and call Him a liar.

If you are a professing believer today, be very thankful, but do not be proud.  You too said with heart or with mouth, “By what authority does Jesus command me?  Who put Him in charge?”  We who confess Christ as Lord must realize that we only confess Him by grace because He loved us, because He called us in time, because He gave us a new heart and a new spirit—regeneration.  Knowing what He has done for us should cause us to be very humble and very chagrined at the arrogant declarations of our former life: “By what authority are You doing or saying these things?”

And if you are still an unbeliever, you are saying it today: “By what authority does Jesus tell me what to do?  Who is He to confront me?”  And let me tell you, you are not fooling anyone with your questions.  You know by what authority.  You know that He is Lord.  You know that He is exactly who He says He is: the God-man, and the only way to be saved.

Nor are you fooling Him.  He is omniscient.  He knows everything He knows your thoughts, it says in Psalm 94, Psalm 139, and Matthew 9.  He knows your heart (Jer. 17:10).  He knows you better than you know yourself (Ps. 139:23–24).  He knows that you know who He is deep in your heart.  So why the pretense?  Why resist?  Why refuse?  Instead, confess the truth.  Confess Him as Lord, trust in Him, and be saved.

You are not fooling Him, and you are also not fooling us either.  We may lack God’s omniscience, but we have his infallible word.  And that word tells us that you, unbeliever, know the truth too.  You see it in creation all around you.  Psalm 19:1 says creation is testifying all the time.  God made it plain and obvious to you (Rom. 1:19).  And if that is not enough, I am telling you right now.  You are without excuse (Rom. 1:20).  God’s infallible word tells us that you know God (Rom. 1:21).  You know Him, but you do not like it.  You know Him, but not savingly.  And so you suppress the truth by wickedness (Rom. 1:18).  You know, and we know that you know.  God told us so.

I will go farther.  You are not even fooling yourself—not really.  You know the truth.  You know that there is truth.  You know that there is a God, and He made you in His image and likeness.  You have a conscience.  That is part of the image and likeness of God.  You know right from wrong.

So don’t be like these arrogant religious leaders who confronted Jesus, daring to question the authority of the God who made them, daring to question the authority of Jesus, to whom all authority in heaven and on earth have been given.  Do not question the authority of Him who was with God in the beginning and was God.  By what authority?  He is the authority.  Why be destroyed by what you know is a lie?  Instead, confess the truth, trust in Christ, and be saved.

2. Jesus Questions Them

Notice that Jesus responds to their question with His own question in verse 30: “John’s baptism—was it from heaven, or was it from men?  Tell me!” As I said earlier, Jesus was not confused about their true intent.  He is omniscient.  Nor was He confused about John’s baptism.  He knew all about their thoughts, just as He did in Luke 20:23.  He saw through their duplicity.  He knew all about John’s baptism.  He was there (Mark 1).  So He was not confused about that, nor was He saying that He got His authority from John or John’s baptism.  In fact, John says so.  John expressly rejects that idea in Mark 1:7.  He says, “After me will come One more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.”  And John said to Jesus, “In fact, I need to be baptized by You.  Why am I, John, baptizing You, Jesus, the superior authority?  I need to be baptized by You.”  So He was not confused about John or about these Pharisees or religious leaders He was not pointing to John as His source of authority.

So why did Jesus ask them about John’s baptism?  He did it to reveal their duplicity to everyone else, their disingenuity.  The religious leaders recognized their problem as soon as Jesus asks this question.  They cannot say, “From men.”  That would cause them a political problem, because all the people recognized that John was really a prophet, which he certainly was.  John’s preaching and behavior—his doctrine and life—were above reproach and verified his special calling as the new Elijah, preaching about the coming Messiah,

So they cannot say, “From men.”  Nor can they say, “From God.”  In that case, they would look even dumber because they did not believe what John said (v. 32).  So they recognized this trap.  John spoke all about Jesus.  He preached that the coming of the Messiah was imminent.  And John publicly declared that Jesus was the Messiah: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world! . . . This is the one I meant” (John 1:29, 35).  John testified that he saw the Holy Spirit come down in bodily form on Jesus at baptism (John 1:32).  So John spoke all about Jesus.

The omniscient Lord Jesus Christ knows the hypocrisy of these people who came to confront him.  He knows their duplicity.  He knows their disingenuousness.  And He knows how to expose it.  So, trapped, these great religious leaders attempt to punt.  “We don’t know.”  Look at the hypocrisy here.  They come to Jesus—the Creator and Sustainer of all, the Lord of all, the one in whom all authority rests—they come to Him and assert, “You have no authority.”  But when he asks about John, an inferior to Jesus, a relatively small player compared to Jesus, they don’t know.  They try to punt.

Everyone there, from the disciples to the gathering crowd, must have seen this dodge for what it was: a total admission that these chief priests and elders and teachers of the law were not interested in truth.  They were not dealing in truth.  They were not earnestly inquiring.  They were just pushing their own agenda.  They are such fakes.  They do not even engage with the truth in deciding how to respond to the question.  They go straight to “What are the consequences of our answer?”

This is a stern warning.  Do not attempt to argue with God.  Do not attempt to debate Him.  You lose.  You will be exposed.  First, He knows your thoughts.  It is a bad idea to argue with someone who knows your thoughts.  But, second, He knows the real issue, the heart of it all.  Just as He exposed those who tried to question Him about divorce, or in the seven-brothers hypothetical, or those who tried to trap Him in his words over taxes.  He knows, and you lose.

That is how it will be on Judgment Day, on the final day.  You will not be able to argue your way out of it.  You will not be able to say, “I don’t know.”  He will say, “The heavens and the earth declare God.”  He will say, “You heard the gospel at least on March 7, 2021.”  He will say, “You knew the truth, but you suppressed it by your wickedness” (Rom. 1:18).  And you yourself will agree with Him.  You will admit it.  You yourself—your knee—personally, your knee will bow and your tongue will confess at that time that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father (Phil. 2:10).

But at that time, it will be too late to be saved.  Your confession at that time, “Jesus Lord,” will not save you.  You will depart, and you will go to hell.  Don’t do it.  Don’t play the losing game of disputing with God, of word-play with God.  Don’t approach God in arrogance, asking, “Who are You?”  Instead, confess now that truth, that Jesus is Lord, and he is my Lord.

That confession will not save you on the great day of judgment, but it will save you today.  At some point, your knee will bow and your tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.  You can do it now or you can do it later.  It is just a matter of time.  But that timing makes all the difference in the world.  Do it today, and be saved and rejoice.  Don’t wait until Judgment Day and be damned, and be filled with regret forever.

Faith in Christ is the only way.  It is exclusive.  It is.  But it is a sure way.  It is a certain way.  Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved (Rom. 10:13).  He never turns away anyone who cries out to Him in faith (Acts 2:21).  He rejects hypocrites.  He rejects arrogant Pharisees.  (GTB)  But the humble publican who cries out, “Have mercy on me, a sinner!”—that man is saved, that man is justified, that man is glorified.  That dying thief who says, “Remember me when you come into your kingdom”—that man goes with Him to paradise.  The poor widow, the weary sinner, the rich and powerful Pharisee laid low on the road to Damascus—all who cry out to Him for mercy are saved.  All who trust in Jesus alone for salvation.  He saves them all, each and every one.

No matter where you come from, no matter what you have done, He says to each, “Come, share in your Master’s happiness.  Join Me in heaven, in glory.”  Saved forever.  Praise the Lord.

3. Jesus Rejects Your Pretended Neutrality

Back to our inquisitors.  They tried to dodge Jesus’ simple question with “We don’t know.”  But Jesus knows that this is a lie.  You cannot fool Jesus.  Notice His response: “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.”  In other words, “You don’t want to answer my question; I am not going to answer yours.”  Jesus rejects those who reject Him.  And make no mistake:  “I don’t know” is a rejection.  Perhaps it is a polite rejection, more genteel than “You are a fraud and a liar.”  But it is a rejection all the same.

Jesus makes a clear claim that He is God, that He is the Messiah, that He is the only way to be saved.  Everyone understood this at the time.  In fact, that is why they wanted to kill Him.  In John 8:58 He said, “Before Abraham was, I am,” not only invoking God’s “I Am” name, but also claiming to be alive hundreds or thousands of years before.  This is a claim of deity.

In John 4, He said, “I who speak to you am the Messiah.”  In John 5:18, it says the people wanted to kill Him because He made Himself equal with God.  So also in John 10:30–33.  In Mark 2, He claims to forgive sin, a task only God can do.  In Mark 14, He tells the Sanhedrin plainly, “I am the Christ.”  It does not get any plainer than that.  And I already showed how John the Baptist announced Him as the coming Messiah, very God and very man.  So, again, these claims are either true or false.  They are either right or they are wrong.  There is no middle ground.  There is no in-between.

He asked these teachers of the law, these chief priests, these elders, one simple question that demands a “Yes” or “No” answer.  And now He asks you a simple question too.  And that also demands a “Yes” or “No” answer.  Look at John 11:26: “I am the resurrection and the life.  He who believes in Me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.  Do you believe this?”  That is a “Yes” or “No” question.  There are only two answers.  You can say, “Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ,” and be saved.  Or you can say, “No.”  But you cannot go in-between.

“No” is a “No.”  “Maybe” is a “No.”  “You are one of many gods” is a “No.”  “I don’t know” is a “No.”  “You are a great philosopher, a moral teacher, but not God” is a “No.”  There are lots of ways to say “No,” but they are all just “No.”  Anything other than an unqualified “Yes” spoken in faith is a “No.”

I will give you an analogy.  Just about seventeen years ago, I asked an extraordinary young woman a question: “Will you marry me?”  And to my very great fortune, she said, “Yes.”  But what if she had said, “Maybe.”  What if she had said, “It depends.”  What if she had said, “I don’t know,” or, “Not right now but maybe in a year ors two,” or, “Let me check with my roommates first.”  Those are all just “No.”  It is a clear and important question—marriage.  To such a question, there is only a “Yes,” and a “Not-Yes.”  There is no middle ground.  It is the same with Jesus.  He is not fooled by your attempt to pretend to be neutral or to politely reject Him.  He knows that your answer—anything other than “Yes, Lord, I believe” is a “No.”  And He refuses to engage and play along with pretense.  He says, “Neither will I tell you.”

Let us be clear:  This Jesus knows how to tell who He is.  He does it all the time.  In fact, He is very eager to do so.  He wants people to know.  He showed it at His baptism, when the Holy Spirit came down on Him in bodily form.  He showed it by His many, many public miracles.  In Mark 2:10, when He heals the paralytic lowered through the roof, He says He is doing it so that the people may know that He is the Christ and has authority to forgive sins.  He says that is the purpose of that miracle is to let people know that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins, that He is God.  He told His disciples privately, and He taught them about all He must do and all that must happen to Him (Mark 8:27–38).  So He knows how to tell, and He tells on certain occasions.  He is, in fact, eager for you to hear.  In John 4, He walks all the way to Samaria, a long walk, and waits around a well just to tell one elect sinful woman, “I who speak to you am He.”  He knows how to tell.  In Matthew 28, He tells His disciples to go into all the world and to tell everyone the gospel, to make them disciples, He says, “and to teach them to obey everything I command.”  He knows how to tell.  He wants everyone to tell.  He wants everyone to know.

I am telling you right now.  Think about that:  He sent me to tell you personally that He is the Christ, that He is God, that He is the Savior of the world, that He can save you if you trust in Him.  Anyone who earnestly seeks Him, He tells.  He is not hiding the ball.  He is not far away.  He is near to each of us.  He regenerates by His Spirit as He speaks to you through other people, as His gospel is preached to you.

So why refuse?  If He wants everyone to know, why refuse to tell these elders, these teachers of the law, these chief priests?  First and foremost, He did tell them.  He taught it and He proved it by His miracles many, many times.  It is not His lack of telling.  It is not even their lack of hearing.  It is not even their lack of understanding.  It is their stubborn refusal to believe.  He will always reject the arrogant and the hard of heart.  “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”  Anyone who arrogantly comes to Him and says, “Prove it”; anyone who arrogantly comes to Him and says, “Who do You think You are?”—any such hardhearted person He will reject.  He will not cast the pearls of His grace before such swine.

By what authority?  He is the King of kings and Lord of lords.  He is the Christ, the Son of the living God.  He is the one with all authority in heaven and on earth.  And so we must come to Him, not arrogantly, like these people, but we must come to Him humbly, saying, “Have mercy on me, a sinner! I believe; help Thou my unbelief.”  And He will do it.  He will answer that prayer—the prayer of the humble sinner who bows the knee and who cries out for mercy, who trusts in Him.

So let us all make sure that we have done so truly—not some mechanical prayer or magical incantation.  Not relying on some inherited faith or the fact that we were raised in the church.  Not empty words but the same old life of sin.  No, let us all make sure that we have truly confessed Him as Lord and Savior.

And you yourself must do it.  No one can do it for you.  I would if I could, but I can’t.  You must say, “Jesus is Lord, and I am His obedient slave.”  You yourself must say, “Not my will but Thine be done.”  You yourself must say, “He has all authority.  I will not question the Christ who made me and who offers me salvation for free by faith.”  You yourself must say, “I will gladly obey Him.  I delight to do Thy will, O Lord.  I will run in the path of Your commands, for You have set my heart free.”  For He is the source of eternal salvation for all who obey Him (Heb. 5:8).  You yourself must say, “I believe, Lord.”  You yourself must follow Him—follow Him through whatever is to come.  There will be peaks and there will be valleys.  There will be rain and there will be sunshine.  There will be clear skies and there will be dark and foreboding clouds.  But we still follow Him.  “Though none go with me, still I will follow.”

Follow Him where?  Follow Him to glory.  Follow Him to eternal heaven, to worship of God, face to face, forever.  He has authority, all authority—authority to tell us what to do, authority to overturn tables in the temple and to wither fig trees, and authority over anyone else, authority even to raise the dead.  He has authority.  But He also has authority to say, “Your sins are forgiven,” and to make it count.  To say, “Today you will be with Me in paradise.”  Praise God, He has all authority—authority to lay down His own life and take it up again for us, for our eternal salvation.

Let us not question His authority.  Let us not avoid His authority.  Let us not scorn His authority.  His authority saved us.  Let us rejoice in that authority.  Let us submit to that authority.  Let us embrace His authority.  Let us obey His authority and be blessed now and eternally.  Amen.