A QUESTION FOR A QUESTION

Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on September 22, 2021 under AM Bible Study |

AM Bible Study Group: September 22, 2021 from Luke 20:1-8

Theme: Our Lord insists that the sacred things of His Father be treated holy.

(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).

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Jesus’ earthly ministry was often characterized by strong opposition—and more so, it seemed, near its end. No sooner had He made His triumphant entry into the city of Jerusalem than a whole long series of confrontations occurred. They came from the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders of the people, and the Pharisees and Sadducees—the religious leaders. And they were united in their desire to destroy Him.

The thing that seemed to kick-start that opposition in His last few days of ministry was the fact that he entered the temple and immediately began to throw out the money-changers and sellers of animals. He said,

“It is written, ‘My house is a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves’” (Luke 19:46).

In saying this—and in doing this—He was clearly declaring Himself as the long-awaited Messiah—the Son of God. We’re told that, for this reason, they sought to destroy Him—but that they were unable to do so because the people were very attentive to hear Him.

It’s in that context that Luke goes on to tell us—in Luke 20:1-8—the first of the stories of what we might call ‘the temple confrontations’. And right away, we’re shown how Jesus always faced those confrontations boldly—and always won!

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, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ But if we say, ‘From men,’ all the people will stone us, for they are persuaded that John was a prophet.” So they answered that they did not know where it was from. And Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things” (Luke 20:1-8).

Frankly, I think it’s rather enjoyable to read of how our Lord turned the tables on His confronters. They couldn’t outwit Him and they couldn’t trap Him—no matter how hard they tried. But there’s a far greater lesson to this story than just the fact that He was able to outsmart those who sought to trap Him. He had responded to their question by putting a question to them. And His question to them revealed their attitude toward God’s revealed will for them. Their refusal to answer our Lord’s question shows us that only those who are submissive to God’s will for their lives will be receptive toward Jesus’ authority.

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Now; first, let’s look carefully at the story of this conversation. Luke tells us in verse 1, “Now it happened on one of those days, as He taught the people in the temple and preached the gospel …” In Matthew’s Gospel, we’re told that

the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them (Matthew 21:14).

Needy people—perhaps the kind of people that the religious leaders would not have ordinarily allowed in—were gathering around Him. They were certainly receptive to His authority. They were benefiting from it in the way He used that authority to heal them! And do you notice what He was teaching them? Luke tells us that He preached “the gospel”—that is, the good news. The fact that He was”teaching” and “preaching” suggests that this was a very public event in the temple. Perhaps a large crowd was gathering to listen.

Now; He had the right to do this. He was the Son of the Father; and He had divine “Sonship” rights to the temple. He had the right to cleanse it of the money-changers and sellers of doves. He had the right to preach in it and teach in it. He had authority. But, as Luke goes on to tell us in verses 1-2, “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?’”

There may have been a sly motive to this question. If they could get Him to say something about Himself and His authority that they could declare to be blasphemous, they could perhaps use it to turn the people against Him. But notice what He does. He responds in a remarkable way. In verse 3, He answered their question with another question; and said to them, “I also will ask you one thing, and answer Me …” In the other Gospels, we’re told that He promised them that if they would answer His, He would answer theirs. So, He wasn’t being evasive. This was no ‘random’ question! It wasn’t intended to simply throw them off-topic. But it was a very careful and strategic question that was directly related to their question to Him. His question, in verse 4, was, “The baptism of John—was it from heaven or from men?”

Now; all of those religious leaders had been very aware of the ministry of John the Baptist. They heard the things that John had declared about Jesus. They would have known that he looked upon Jesus and publicly declared;

“Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! This is He of whom I said, ‘After me comes a Man who is preferred before me, for He was before me.’ I did not know Him; but that He should be revealed to Israel, therefore I came baptizing with water.” And John bore witness, saying, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Him. I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God” (John 1:29-34).

Just think of what John had boldly declared about Jesus in John 3. Just think of how it put people on the forks of a decision about Jesus when John publicly proclaimed these words:

“A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven. You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’ but, ‘I have been sent before Him.’ He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease. He who comes from above is above all; he who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all. And what He has seen and heard, that He testifies; and no one receives His testimony. He who has received His testimony has certified that God is true. For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God does not give the Spirit by measure. The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into His hand. He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him” (John 3:27-36).

So you see; this was really a remarkable question that Jesus had put before the religious leaders. They had to think back to the things that John the Baptist—who people recognized to be a prophet of God—had already declared publicly about Jesus. They would have remembered how the multitudes came to John in the wilderness to be baptized by him in recognition of the coming of the Messiah—who John then declared to be Jesus! They would have recognized that John had proven himself to be the fulfillment of the promise in Isaiah 40:3;

The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
“Prepare the way of the Lord;
Make straight in the desert
A highway for our God” (Isaiah 40:3).

These chief priests and Scribes and elders would have had to answer Jesus’ question to them—“The baptism of John—was it from heaven or from men?” And in the very act of answering Jesus’ question, they would have gotten the answer to their own question about what authority He had to do these things, and who it was that had given Him that authority. They had been trying to trap Jesus—and Jesus put the burden right back upon them … right in front of all the people who were present.

Look very closely at what they did in response to Jesus’ question. We’re told that they went off and discussed how they should answer. They had to answer; because everyone was watching and waiting. But they reasoned that if they admitted that John’s baptism was “from heaven”—that is, that John was a prophet sent from God to identify the Messiah, and that his work of baptizing had divine authority—then Jesus would say, “Why then did you not believe him?” But if they chose instead to say that John’s baptism was not “from heaven”—that he was not a prophet, and that he had preached and baptized on his own authority—then they would have to face the people who were looking at them and waiting for an answer. The people believed that John was the promised prophet from God who would declare the coming of the Messiah; and these religious leaders feared that the people would then stone them to death.

They knew that they were in a real jam. So; in verse 7, they did what people who are in a jam often do. They answered that they didn’t know where John’s ministry of baptism was from. That, of course, was a very lame response. They obviously knew. But they were refusing to acknowledge the truth about Jesus—and were thus not admitting that John’s ministry proved that Jesus’ authority was that of the Son of the Father.

It’s interesting that Jesus didn’t respond to the fact that they ‘didn’t know’ by telling them the correct answer. They weren’t interested in the correct answer. They didn’t want the truth; and so, Jesus simply told them in verse 8, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.” Such an unwillingness to submit to God’s will deserves nothing more than that.

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There’s a lot to learn from the way Jesus responded. He showed us that one way to effectively respond to the challenging questions of an opponent to the message of the gospel is with a strategic question directed back to them. And it’s particularly effective if the way that they answer that question ends up declaring the answer to their own question. Another thing that we learn is how our Lord was the master of every confrontation that He encountered. He always responded with astonishing wisdom; and He always revealed what the real issues were; and He always won the debate. We should learn to rely upon Him in times of conflict.

But the most important thing to learn from this passage has to do with a receptivity to Jesus’ divine authority. He is the Son of God and that He walked upon this earth in possession of divine authority. Even those who oppose the gospel must admit this. The reason that the religious leaders would not answer the question—and pretended that they didn’t know the answer—was because they actually knew the answer very well but wouldn’t submit to God’s will for them. They simply wouldn’t bow to the truth of it. We can see this very clearly in the story that Jesus then told to the people right in front of them:

Then He began to tell the people this parable: “A certain man planted a vineyard, leased it to vinedressers, and went into a far country for a long time. Now at vintage-time he sent a servant to the vinedressers, that they might give him some of the fruit of the vineyard. But the vinedressers beat him and sent him away empty-handed. Again he sent another servant; and they beat him also, treated him shamefully, and sent him away empty-handed. And again he sent a third; and they wounded him also and cast him out. Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my beloved son. Probably they will respect him when they see him.’ But when the vinedressers saw him, they reasoned among themselves, saying, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, that the inheritance may be ours.’ So they cast him out of the vineyard and killed him. Therefore what will the owner of the vineyard do to them? He will come and destroy those vinedressers and give the vineyard to others.” And when they heard it they said, “Certainly not!” Then He looked at them and said, “What then is this that is written:

‘The stone which the builders rejected
Has become the chief cornerstone’?

Whoever falls on that stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder.” And the chief priests and the scribes that very hour sought to lay hands on Him, but they feared the people—for they knew He had spoken this parable against them (vv. 9-17).

Jesus’ source of authority is plain to anyone who wants to obey God. In John 7:17; He said,

“If anyone wills to do His [that is, the Father's] will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak on My own authority” (John 7:17).

If someone is rightly submitted to the Father’s will, and sincerely wants to know His will in order to do it, then there will be no question in their hearts about the authority of the teaching of Jesus. But if someone has an inward attitude of rebellion against God’s will and commandments for them, then the arguments and oppositions will come pouring out and they will not welcome the teaching of Jesus as authoritative. The problem is never the intellectual information. It’s always the orientation of the heart.

May we always be receptive to the will of God—and thus always submissive to the authority of His Son!

EA