Chapter # 11 Paragraph # 2 Study # 6
March 26, 2024
Moss Bluff, Louisiana
(478)
1901 ASV
11:28 and they said unto him, By what authority doest thou these things? or who gave thee this authority to do these things?
11:29 And Jesus said unto them, I will ask of you one question, and answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things.
11:30 The baptism of John, was it from heaven, or from men? answer me.
11:31 And they reasoned with themselves, saying, If we shall say, From heaven; He will say, Why then did ye not believe him?
11:32 But should we say, From men--they feared the people: for all verily held John to be a prophet.
11:33 And they answered Jesus and say, We know not. And Jesus saith unto them, Neither tell I you by what authority I do these things.
- I. The Structure Of This Section.
- A. Following the chiasm of 9:1-11:11.
- B. The record of "rejection" begins with Jesus' curse upon the fig tree (11:12-26); a record that is structured in terms of "The Curse", "The Reason", and "The Necessity for Faith".
- C. The record of the "interruption" between the segments of Jesus' treatment of the fig tree.
- D. The challenge by the offended "leaders" of Jesus regarding His "authority" to act as He had the previous day.
- E. The "problem" the "authority question" posed for the "offended leaders".
- 1. Jesus had, the previous day, clearly declared His "authority" by challenging those whom He forced out of the Temple to address the issue of 1 Kings 8:41-45.
- a. This was a part of the prayer of Solomon at the dedication of the Temple.
- b. This prayer focused upon the centrality of the Temple as "the place" where the "prayer-answering God" dwelt so that either "in the Temple", or "facing the Temple" while outside -- even so far outside that those of the nations who wished for Israel's God to show them favor were to turn to face the general direction of the Temple even though they might be hundreds of miles away.
- c. Thus, Jesus' "authority" was rooted in "the Scriptures", which He declared meant that the Temple could not be twisted into a house of commerce in the name of Yahweh.
- 2. That the religious leaders even demanded His justification for what He had done was strong indication that they did not regard "the Scriptures" as the legitimate authority for living and doing.
- 3. Thus, Jesus determined to force this "authority" issue.
- a. His question regarding "the baptism of John" was rooted in John's legitimacy (i.e., his "authority").
- 1) The question was, was his "baptism" from heaven?
- a) "Heaven" was, according to the same Old Testament record of Solomon's words, the place of God's presence that, itself, was too small to contain God (1 Kings 8:27), but it was set against the backdrop of "will God indeed dwell on the earth?"
- b) There was no missing the fact that "the Scriptures" were to be the "authority" as the very words of God, Himself.
- c) Thus, was John's "baptism" also validated by "the Scriptures"?
- d) This is the reason Mark immediately began, in his opening words, to tie John's "baptism" to both Isaiah and Malachi as words of recognized spokesmen for God.
- 2) But, the question was seriously about John's "baptism" as a demonstration of the reception of his "message" regarding "HOW" one could be "forgiven" -- a part of our immediate context regarding the ability of a person to be fruitful (he/she had to be "forgiven" as an on-going requirement for all of our living, day in and day out: 11:25).
- a) It was this central thesis of John's "baptism" that was the "stone of stumbling" for the "leaders": "forgiveness" was to be rooted the attitude of "repentance" and not in the behavior of "obedience" ("obedience" is too close to "boasting" to be allowed any place at the table of "forgiveness"; we are "forgiven" when we "repent", not when we "take action").
- b) It was this thesis that the leaders did not want to hear or teach, because it wiped out their "performance theology" wherein God operates by "Justice" and not by "Grace".
- b. What Jesus was "forcing" was "repentance unto forgiveness" as a basic "teaching of Heaven".
- 4, That the leaders both recognized Jesus' "point" and revealed their own duplicity was Mark's entire point.
- a. Honesty would have required them to either "believe" or "reject".
- b. Dishonesty, driven by the fear of the multitude, forced them to declare "we do not know."
- 1) The word, "know", generally means "to have a knowledge rooted in basic reasonableness".
- 2) That they denied having such knowledge was a total lie.
- 5. Jesus' response was to deny them the answer they wished to have because they were not looking for "Truth" but, rather, some way to trap Jesus because of His previous day's actions.
- F. The "problem" the leaders had was far greater than they realized because God responds to "unbelief" with a curse.
- 1. He does not merely refrain from granting the blessings of "faith".
- 2. He imposes a "death penalty" upon those who operate out of what the author of Hebrews called "an evil heart of unbelief" that caused all of those who operated by such to die in the wilderness (Hebrews 3:12 and 17-18).
