The last time we were in California, we were traveling back to Palm Springs. We were staying in Palm Springs, and we attended church in San Diego Sunday morning, and when we were driving back, right after we went through Temecula, we came across a very bad motorcycle accident. There was a motorcycle just a few seconds ahead of us and the man driving had his wife behind him and the man got struck in the face by a large metal object that flew up from the road from a passing car and it hit him right in the face and it knocked him over. They both had road rash. When we got there they were both laying on the side of the road and their motorcycle was in the middle of the road and so we stopped to help and as soon as we stopped I realized that no one was in control of this scene. There were cars going by trying to avoid hitting him or the motorcycle. And so the first thing I did is I assumed control of this scene. The first person that stopped and asked if everyone was OK, I told them how I wanted them to park their car to block us from getting hit. I told them to start directing traffic so there was only one lane passing at a time instead of two. And as people continued to stop and ask to help, I continued to assign people jobs that they could be doing. And so I went over and attended to the man and his wife. I tried to keep her calm, tried to keep him awake until the fire department got there. And when the fire department got there, I told the engine driver what I had done, what we had seen. And then as we got ready to leave, he looked at me and he said, who are you? He wasn't asking my name. He was asking, who do you think you are to assume control of an accident scene on a California state highway? What authority do you think you have? We're back in Mark chapter 11 this morning, and Jesus is also arriving on a scene. It's not the scene of a car accident. He's arriving on the scene of a temple. And Jesus had just, the day before, decisively taken control of the entire scene at the temple. The chief priests and the scribes and the elders are gonna come to Jesus in our passage in Mark 11 today, and they're gonna ask him a question, a question about authority. But whereas I had no authority on a California state highway, Jesus is gonna prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that he has all authority in heaven and on earth. We're also gonna learn that if we are gonna be members of his kingdom, we need to recognize and submit to his authority. So if you have a Bible, please follow along with me as I read Mark chapter 11, verses 27 through 33. I'm actually gonna start reading in verse 15 through 19. So I'll read Mark 11, 15 through 19, then we'll jump down and we'll read verses 27 through 33. Mark 11, starting in verse 15 and then to 19. So they came to Jerusalem. Then Jesus went into the temple and he began to drive out those who bought and sold in the temple and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. And he would not allow anyone to carry wares through the temple. And then he taught saying to them, is it not written that my house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations? But you have made it a den of thieves. And the scribes and the chief priests heard it and sought how they might destroy him, for they feared him because all the people were astonished at his teaching. When evening had come, he went out of the city. And then he came again to Jerusalem. And as he was walking in the temple, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders came to him, and they said to him, by 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 a 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. And they reasoned amongst themselves saying, if we say from heaven, he will say, why then did you not believe him? But if we say from men, and they don't even finish their sentence, if we say from men, they feared the people for all counted John to have been a prophet indeed. So they answered and said to Jesus, We don't know. And Jesus answered and said to them, neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things. Well, that's our passage for this morning. And as we look at it, there's three things I want to draw your attention to. First, we're gonna look at how Jesus's authority is questioned. We'll see that in verses 27 and 28. Then we'll see Jesus questions his questioners in verses 29 and 30. And then we'll see that at the end of the day, Jesus's authority actually goes unquestioned. in verses 31 through 33. But let's begin by noticing Jesus' authority is questioned. We can see that in verses 27 and 28. Let's read that one more time. And then they came again to Jerusalem. And as he was walking into the temple, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders came to him and they said to him, by what authority are you doing these things? And who gave you this authority to do these things? So Mark begins by telling us that Jesus and the disciples are now walking back into Jerusalem and into the temple. That's important because we saw in verses 14 through 17 that Jesus has already entered the temple at the beginning of Passover. And when he came in, he saw the money changers. He saw people buying and selling animals. He saw people carrying merchandise through the temple, using it as a shortcut. There's a general lack of reverence. There's robbery going on. And as Jesus sees everything going on in the temple, he became very angry. Because after all, the temple was his house. It was supposed to be a house of prayer for all the nations where the nations came and worshiped God. But instead they're using it as a den of thieves. And so Jesus took control of that scene. And he did so in a way that established his authority. And it made it absolutely clear who's really in charge in the temple. Of course, you can imagine what that did to Jesus's popularity, especially with the religious leaders. I mean, these guys are getting rich off of this system. And Jesus comes in and shuts business down. They hated Jesus and they were looking for an opportunity to get rid of him. So Jesus has already taken control of the temple once, and now he's coming in again when it tells us the chief priests, the scribes, the elders, all come up with a preemptive confrontation. The scene you should have in your mind is one where these leaders are waiting to see if Jesus will come back. Maybe they've shut down business altogether waiting to see what will happen. Maybe they've started business up again and they're afraid he's going to come destroy it a second time. But the idea that Mark paints for us is one where as soon as Jesus enters the temple, they're there and they stop him with a question. But who are these three groups of people? First, Mark tells us the chief priests. The chief priests were really the priestly aristocracy of Jerusalem. They were leading members of the high priest family and other influential priests. They were the full-time ministers in the temple. They were highly respected by everyone. I mean, after all, these guys are mediators between God and man. They accepted sacrifices for the people. They made intercessions for people. They prayed for the people. They were really a symbol in Judaism of authority and prestige. But Mark also mentions the scribes. The scribes were also a symbol of authority, but their authority wasn't surrounding the temple. Their authority was in relationship to the law. They were professional teachers of the law. They were professional interpreters of the law. They even wrote books on the law. They were the ones that would go and say, this is lawful, this is not lawful. And so really they were like the law police. It was a symbol of authority. Finally, Mark mentions the elders. The elders were the lay leaders in Jerusalem. They were made up of the leaders from influential families from each clan or each group of Israelites. And so because of their influential family connections, these men rose to a place of government, a place of authority, and they really were over all of Jewish culture and affairs. And so there's these three groups of people, each representing really the religion and the culture of Judaism. They also were each contributing members to the Sanhedrin, the body that acted as a liaison between Israel and Rome. And so here comes these three groups of people and they come to Jesus and ask him a question. Their question's really two parts. You can see it in verse 28. They ask him, by what authority are you doing these things? That's the first part. And then by implication, the second part is, and who gave you this authority to do these things? What things are the religious leaders referring to when they ask Jesus, by what authority are you doing these things? What are the things they're talking about? They would certainly be referring to the things Jesus has been doing surrounding the Passion Week. You may remember Passion Week began with Jesus riding in on a donkey. And there was quite a scene as people line the streets and sing his praises and declare that he's the Messiah. Of course, Jesus rode in on a donkey, not because his legs were tired, but because he wanted to demonstrate that he was the Messiah. He was the one that had God's authority to establish a kingdom in the nation Israel, and he would be the one who would deliver God's people. That symbolism is actually prophesied back in Zechariah chapter 9. So listen to Zechariah 9, 9 and 10, and listen to why Jesus rides in on a donkey. Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion. Shout, O daughters of Jerusalem. Behold, your King is coming to you. He is just and having salvation, lowly and riding on a donkey, the foal of a donkey. I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem. The battle bow will also be cut off. He will speak peace to the nations." And then notice how the donkey imagery ties into authority. It says, his dominion will be from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth. The religious leaders would have certainly known Zechariah chapter nine. It's a classic passage from the Old Testament that talks about the Messiah. And what does it say? It says the Messiah will come in and he will ride on a donkey and his dominion will be from sea to sea, from the river to the ends of the earth. He will have all dominion. And so Jesus riding in on a donkey is one of those things that religious leaders are looking at going, what is going on here? Who does this guy think he is? but they would have also not only been referring to the triumphal entry, they would have also been referring to when Jesus cursed the fig tree. No doubt word has gotten out that Jesus pronounced a curse on the fig tree, that it withered up and died, and the religious leaders understood the picture. They knew the symbolism. The fig tree was a representation of the temple and the worship in Judaism, and what Jesus had done there is pronounced a curse on their system. But he didn't just pronounce a curse, he actually then came into the temple and executed the curse. He throws the money changers out, he flips their tables over, he drives out the people buying and selling and carrying things through. Just one day before this, Jesus came into the temple and he assumed all authority over that scene. He forced people out, he threw tables, he chased animals out. So that's certainly one of the things these religious leaders are talking about. But it's also likely they're talking about everything Jesus has done throughout his three-year ministry. For the past three years of his life, he's been casting out demons, he's been healing people, he's been raising the dead, he's been teaching with an authority that nobody has ever seen or heard. He even exercised the authority in Mark 2 10 to forgive sins. all throughout Jesus's ministry. He's demonstrating and he's claiming that he has all authority, not only over the natural world, but also over the spiritual world. And now that Jesus's authority is threatening these people's livelihood, as well as their popularity, they come to Jesus and they ask him, by what authority are you doing these things? Where does your authority come from? Who do you think you are? You could just imagine, we'd ask the same question, let's be fair. If someone came into church next week, And they took my tablet out of my hand and they smashed it on the ground and they took the offering and they threw it across the room. They turned the PowerPoint off and they started like yelling and chasing people around. We would ask the same question, who do you think you are? Where do you get off doing this? This is not your church. But the question about Jesus' authority was an important one. It was important in the minds of the religious leaders because whenever they would teach, or whenever they would do anything that required authority, they would quote rabbis, they'd quote former religious leaders. They were never supposed to have any authority of themselves. So they'd teach and they'd say, well, like this one really old dead guy used to say, but he was always quoting this other really old dead guy. And so they would simply draw their authority from the other scribes and the leaders before them. Jesus doesn't come into the temple and claim someone else's authority. He doesn't quote anybody to establish his credentials. He just walks onto the scene and he assumes that as God, he has all authority over this house. In addition to that, if you wanted to be a rabbi in Jesus's day, you had to go to the other religious leaders and you had to go through this process of vetting. There was this testing process before you were recognized by the other rabbis as a rabbi. Jesus never did that. He didn't jump through their hoops. He didn't ask to play in their playground. He didn't ask them for authority. He just begins teaching as one who has authority. He totally bypassed their system, made them look the fool, and began establishing himself as a rabbi. And the religious leaders hated it. They hated it because it hurt their prophet margins, as Jesus cleansed the temple, but they also hated it because their sense of identity and prestige were so tied up in their own sense of authority. They wanted to be perceived as religious authority. And Jesus comes in without saying a word to establish his own authority, which is unrivaled by them and even calls their little system into question. That's what's behind the scribes and the elders and the chief priests question. And of course, there's really two possible ways Jesus could answer it. He can say his authority is from God, and then the religious leaders would accuse him of blasphemy. He can claim his authority from another man, and they will discredit him by attacking that man. No matter how Jesus answers this question, the religious leaders have him. Of course, we know where Jesus' authority came from, don't we? He told Philip in John 14, verse 10, Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in me? The words that I speak to you, I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does the works." So Jesus has all authority in heaven and on earth as the Messiah because he comes as the one who is assigned the role of the Messiah by God. He comes with God's authority on him who has commissioned him for his work. But let's face it, the religious leaders don't really care where Jesus got his authority. This isn't a sincere question. They're simply asking this question to try to trap him. Again, if he claims his authority is from the father, they charge him with blasphemy. If he claims his authority is from some other man, they can easily discredit him. Either way that Jesus answers this question, they can have him arrested out of their way and they can set up shop again, buying and selling in the temple. But even though their question is insincere, the question about authority is an important one. It was important to the religious leaders because they recognized, even in their insincerity, they recognized that if Jesus is who he claims to be, then his authority jeopardizes our authority. If Jesus is who he claims to be, his identity demands that we recognize his authority and submit to his authority. If we understand that, we understand the same mentality that was behind their question is alive and well today. That really is the predominant worldview in our world today. Where does Jesus get off telling me how to live my life? I never asked him to be my God. I never asked him to rule over me. So to many people, we like the idea of having Jesus as our savior. Sure, he can forgive my sins. Sure, he can adopt me into his family. Sure, he can welcome me into heaven. But he better not get in my business. He better not start rearranging the furniture of my life. He better not start throwing out the money changers in my temple. He can save me, he can forgive me, but he better not act as my Lord. He has no authority over me. And how important it is for us that we are constantly reminding ourselves Jesus has all authority over our lives. He can command whatever he wants. But there's a second thing we see in this passage, and it's that Jesus questions his questioners. Notice again, 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. So rather than answering their question directly, what Jesus does is he responds to their question by asking them another question. And that may seem rude to us at first. Like if your kid comes up and you say, why didn't you go to bed last night when I told you? And they say, why didn't you go to bed when I told you? We have a problem. There's some discipline that's gonna take place in our home. You don't answer questions with questions in our family. But if we understand Jesus's culture, we recognize he's not being rude. He's acting consistent with his culture. A rabbi wouldn't teach his students very often through direct discourse. He would often teach them by asking them a series of questions to lead them through a thinking process that would get them to the conclusion he wanted them to get to. In other words, what Jesus is not doing is he's not playing stump the chump. He's asking them a question, and if they can answer his question rightly, then by answering his question rightly, they will have the answer to their question. William Lane says, answering a question by another question by another question was a common rabbinic custom, especially in the context of debate. What is distinctive here is that Jesus makes his answer depend entirely on theirs. Their decision about John will determine their decision about him. So Jesus asks the religious leaders another question about authority from the life of John the Baptist. He says, the baptism of John, was it from God or was it from men? So why John the Baptist? Why does Jesus ask these men if John's baptism was from heaven or from men? How is John relevant to this discussion? There's a number of ways John's relevant to this. For one, the crowds, as we can see as we look down in the passage, the crowds think very highly of John the Baptist. They considered him a true prophet. And in the context of the busiest week of temple activity, Passover, when there's thousands of people here to ask the religious leaders a question about John the Baptist will hold them to an integrity in their answer. They can't just gloss over John the Baptist in front of all these people. But there's another reason. John's ministry, like the ministry of Jesus, stood in direct opposition to the religious institution of his day. John didn't go into the temple or the tabernacle and put on fancy robes and blend in. No, what did John do? He dressed like a hipster, he ate locusts, and he stood in the middle of the wilderness, and he called out to anyone that would listen to him, you need to repent. So Jesus and John have similar ministries in that they both stand in direct opposition to the religious establishment of Judaism, and they both called for a radical repentance and a reformation from the current religious establishment. But there's another reason why Jesus talks about John's baptism. What you have to understand is that John's baptism, that's really another way of talking about the entirety of John's ministry, which involved baptism, but what was the heart of John's ministry? The heart of his ministry wasn't dunking people in the water. The heart of his ministry was to prepare the hearts of people to receive their Messiah. Listen to Mark 1, one through four. the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the son of God, as it's written in the prophets, behold, I send my messenger before your face who will prepare your way before you. The voice of one crying out in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight. Who is this one? John came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. And so John's ministry, just as it was predicted in Isaiah 4, was a wilderness ministry of preparation. He stands in the wilderness and he preaches repentance, get ready, the kingdom of heaven is at hand, your Messiah is about to come. And so John's ministry, to reject John's ministry is to not only reject Jesus, it's also to reject the prophecies from Isaiah 40 that told John would be the one who would prepare the way for the Messiah. And so if they answer this question, John's baptism, is it from heaven or is it from men? If they answer it and say it's from heaven, Jesus has them against the ropes and he can drive the nail even deeper and say, then why didn't you believe in the one he talked about? But if they say it's from men, then they fear the people and they can't answer that way either. But there's another reason why Jesus asks about the baptism of John. Jesus's earthly ministry began with his baptism by John in the Jordan River. Jesus himself submitted to John's baptism. And when Jesus is being baptized by John, something very significant happened. Listen to Mark 1, 9 through 11. It came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And immediately coming up from the waters, he saw the heavens parting and the spirit descending on him like a dove. Then a voice came from heaven saying, you are my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. So as John is baptizing Jesus, there's both a visible and an audible demonstration that Jesus was indeed the Messiah. Heaven opens up. I don't know what that looked like, but heaven opens up, a dove comes down, descends on Jesus, and the voice of God the Father speaks from heaven and says, this is my son. This is the one I'm pleased in. This is the Messiah. He comes with my authority. If the religious leaders really wanted to know where Jesus got his authority, all they had to do is listen to the voice from heaven. All they had to do is see the dove. All they had to do is see the prophecies in Isaiah 40. All they had to do is listen to the ministry of John the Baptist. They would have known very clearly where Jesus's authority came from. So that's Jesus's question. The baptism of John. Was it from heaven or was it from men? But before we move on to our next point, there's one other thing we have to notice in the way Jesus responds to these men. Notice the last two words of verse 30. He says, In English, it almost comes across as polite. Like, I'm done answering my question, now it's your turn to answer. This isn't Jesus politely saying, I'm done asking my question. This is Jesus maintaining authority. This is Jesus saying, answer me. I'm in charge here. You don't come to question me. I'm here and I'm questioning you. Mark Strauss says, the repetition of the imperative, answer me, at the end, emphasizes Jesus's authority. With audacity, the young prophet and rabbi from Galilee demands an answer from Israel's religious elite. This morning I was reading in my devotions, Ezekiel chapter 20, and I noticed something I had never noticed before. Ezekiel 20 actually prophesies about this very thing. Listen to Ezekiel 20 verse three. Son of man, speak to the elders of Israel and say to them, thus says the Lord, have you come to inquire of me? As I live, says the Lord, I will not be inquired of by you. Jesus won't be put on trial. He will not surrender authority. You can think you can question Him, you can think you can back Him into a corner and put Him on the defense, but at the end of the day, He surrenders no authority and He will not be put on trial. Why? Because he's sovereign. He's in control. He has all authority. And no matter how much we can try to call him into question, he will always maintain authority. And at the end of the day, he will always be the one who questions us. So that's Jesus' question to his questioners. He asks them, was the baptism of John from heaven? Or was it from men? There's a third thing we see though in this passage and it's that Jesus's authority goes unquestioned. Look again at verses 31 through 33. And they reasoned amongst 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 counted John to have been a true prophet indeed. So they answered and said to Jesus, We don't know. And Jesus answered and said to them, neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things. So Jesus has posed his question to the religious leaders and they retreat to confer with one another. They're like, okay, cool question. We're gonna go talk about it. They really didn't have to talk about it. They're not talking about it like from a, well, let's search the scriptures and find out point of view. They're doing damage control. We don't know if the religious leaders openly objected to John's ministry when John was alive. They probably didn't because John was so popular, but they certainly thought John was a thorn in their flesh. Again, he stood in direct opposition to their established authority. He constantly called them to repentance. And now that John has been beheaded, he's out of their way, they would have likely been thankful. Okay, John is gone. Now it's back to normal life and it's easy. But now in front of everyone. Jesus comes in front of thousands of people and he says, John the Baptist, let's talk about that guy. What's your opinion on John the Baptist? And Jesus has them. In front of everyone, he asks them this question that will reveal their foolishness and their hard-heartedness. They're now on the defense and they know it. If they say John's baptism was a divinely appointed ministry, Jesus will pull out his checkmate, And they'll say, why didn't you believe? Why didn't you submit to his baptism? Why didn't you repent of your sins? And why aren't you believing in me, the one he prophesied about? They can't answer Jesus's question that way, because it would establish Jesus's authority, the very thing they're trying to call into question. And it would also expose their hard-heartedness for not believing. But if they say John's ministry was not from heaven, that John was not a true prophet, the people will rise up against them and dethrone them from their places of authority. Because even though he was dead, John still carried the conscience of the masses more than the religious leaders did. That's why verse 32 tells us, they feared the crowd for they all believed that John was a prophet. What was the problem with these religious leaders? Their problem is that they refused to acknowledge the plain truth that was right in front of their eyes. Namely, that Jesus has all authority and he must be submitted to. And because they're afraid of men, they can't outright deny him. So what do they do? They come back to Jesus. And they lie. Notice their deceptive answer in verse 33. They tell Jesus, remember, these are the like scholars in Israel. These are the religious leaders. These are the Bible answer men. And what do they say in verse 33? We don't know. What fools. You better believe they knew. John was a true prophet. He clearly established Jesus' authority as the Messiah. John was prophesied in Isaiah 40. At Jesus' baptism, the Father speaks from heaven and affirms that Christ is the Messiah. They knew. They're playing the skeptic, we're really not sure, we don't have enough information. And instead of believing the truth that they know, they reject the truth. And they deceive themselves into being able to say, we don't know. This really shows us there's two, more than two, but there's two reasons why some people refuse to have any dealings with Jesus. One of the reasons people refuse to acknowledge who Jesus is, is because they know if they acknowledge who Christ is and how much authority he has, it will cause them to have to relinquish their own authority. If they acknowledge Jesus is the Messiah, he has divine authority to come in and wreck my temple, to do whatever he wants to do, that means I'm no longer in control of my own little kingdom. That means I have to bow my knee to Christ. The problem with the religious leaders is not that they needed more evidence. They had plenty of evidence. You don't get more evidence than a voice from heaven, the dove coming from heaven, prophecies in the Old Testament. They didn't need more evidence. They refused to believe the evidence that they already had. They had truth plainly laid before their eyes. But at the end of the day, they would not give up their own authority. They didn't know about John's ministry because they didn't want to know about John's ministry. They don't need more evidence. They refuse to believe the evidence that has already been put in front of them because they love darkness more than they love light because their deeds are evil and they don't want them to be exposed. They don't want to submit to Christ and acknowledge what is true because the superiority of Christ crashes headlong into their lives. If these religious leaders acknowledge who Christ truly is, they have to give up their money-making scheme. They have to give up their public identity and their respective people. They would have to humble themselves and submit themselves to Christ's authority. And that same barrier is alive and well today in the hearts of many people, maybe even in some of you who continue to refuse to bow your knee and submit your life to Christ. You won't submit to Christ because you don't want to lose those things you hold dearly. You don't want to give anything up. You think you have control over your life. You have created this life of pleasure and supposed joy, and it's the way you want it. And you know that if you would submit your life to Christ, it would call you to surrender. So at the end of the day, men today still love darkness more than they love the light, and no matter how much evidence is put before them, they can't see what they don't want to see. For a while, Ray Charles was working for Bill Cosby, and Ray Charles was a blind musician, and one night, Bill Cosby came over to bring him a paycheck to his apartment, and he buzzed up from the ground floor of his apartment, and Ray Charles said, yeah, come on up. I'm up here. Just come on in when you get here. So Bill Cosby opens the door, and it's dark in the apartment. It's nighttime, so you can't see. And he calls out to Ray Charles, and he says, Ray, where are you? And he says, I'm in the bathroom shaving. Hold on a minute. and forgetting for a minute that Ray Charles was blind, Bill Cosby says, well, Ray, what are you doing shaving in the dark? And Ray Charles laughingly calls out back to him from the darkness of the bathroom, and he says, Bill, I've been shaving in the dark my whole life. There are some of you who have been in the dark about Jesus your whole life. And you're not in the dark because there isn't evidence. You're in the dark because at the end of the day, like these religious leaders, you don't want to see Christ. You don't want to have the truth presented to you. You don't want to know who Christ is because you know that if you were to admit who Christ is, it would demand, if there was any integrity in your life, that you would submit to him, that you would bow your knee and acknowledge his lordship. But there's a second reason why men refuse to submit to Jesus. There's a second reason why these men won't answer the question. Notice verse 32 tells us, they feared the people. The religious leaders would neither acknowledge Jesus's authority, neither would they outright reject it because at the end of the day, they were afraid of what people would say. In other words, the opinions and the approval of people was hindering these people from openly and honestly submitting to or rejecting Jesus's authority. At the heart level, these religious leaders cared more about what people thought about them than what God thought about them. And it was that fear of man that prevented them from acknowledging who Christ is or rejecting Him openly. How true Proverbs 29, 25 proves to be. The fear of man is a snare. The fear of man is a trap. I wonder, maybe some of you have never come to Christ. Maybe you've never submitted to Him as the Lord of your life because you're afraid of what people would say. What would my family think if I became a Christian? What would my coworkers, what would my boss, what would my friends think? And at the end of the day, you refuse to bow your knee and submit to Christ and put your faith in Him because you're afraid of what people would think. The fear of man is a snare that keeps many people from having open and honest dealings with Christ. And if you are more concerned with the opinions of your family and your friends and your coworkers than you are concerned with the opinions of God, You are in a dangerous spot. So notice how Jesus responds to these men in light of the fact that they refuse to answer his question. Notice the second half of verse 33. Jesus answered and said to them, neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things. So as a response to the fact that these men refuse to have an open, honest dialogue, that they refuse to expose their own hearts for their own sinfulness, what does Jesus tell them? He says, I'm not gonna play your games. I'm not gonna answer your silly little questions and play along with your supposed skepticism. Instead, I'm gonna walk away and refuse to continue giving you spiritual insight. I've already given you insight. I've already given you the truth. I've lived my life publicly in front of you for three years. You have the Old Testament prophecies. You have the testimony of John the Baptist. You have God's affirmation from heaven. You have all of my miracles. You don't need more evidence. You refuse to believe and submit to the evidence you have. So what does Jesus do? He says, I'm done. I don't have to keep talking to you. I don't have to keep giving you more information. That really brings us to our first point of application, and it's this. God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. Jesus sees the proud and unsubmissive hearts of these men. He sees they're playing fast and loose with the truth, with the truth that they already know. And because they refuse to believe in the truth that they already know, Jesus says, I am not going to continue giving you more light. If you play fast and loose with Christ, if you have been rejecting the truth that God has already shown to you, if you continue in your refusal to acknowledge and submit to Christ's authority over your life, there will come a day when Jesus does to you the same thing he does to these men, when he will no longer give you light, when he will no longer give you insight into who he is, but he will resign you to your state of spiritual darkness and surrender you to the things that you love because you hate him. Jesus already illustrated this back in Mark 4. Listen to Mark 4, 21 through 25. Also, he said to them, is a lamp brought to be put under a basket or under a bed? Is it not to be on a lamp stand? For there's nothing hidden which will not be revealed, nor has anything been kept secret, but that it should come to the light. If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear. And then he said to them, take heed what you hear, for with the same measure you use, it will be measured to you. And to you who hear, more will be given. The light that Jesus is talking about in Mark 4 is the light of the truth. It's the light of who God is, what he's already revealed to be true about Christ. And it's telling us that if we do not act upon what we know to be true, God will take the illumination he has already given us and he will withdraw it. He will not allow us even to continue seeing what we see now. But if we act in faith, if we submit our hearts, if we bow our knees to God and we say, I am going to believe and respond to the truth that you have given me, what is he promising to do? He'll give us more light. The things that are revealed, he will make shown to us. How important it is for us in the realm of spiritual truth to humble ourselves enough that we respond to the truths that we know, that we act when truth is presented to us. Maybe you've never come all the way to Christ because you still have these unanswered questions. Maybe you've never submitted your life to Christ's authority because there's questions you still have. I'm not sure I understand this whole like deity of Christ thing in the Trinity. I'm not sure I have the right translation of the Bible. You may never have all of your questions answered, but if there's one thing we see in this passage this morning, it's this. Whatever we know about Christ, whatever God has revealed to us about Christ, we have a responsibility to acknowledge, to believe, and to submit to. We may not know everything we want to know, but in our passage this morning, we can clearly see Jesus is the Messiah. He's the one who sent from God. He's the one who has all authority, including the authority necessary to die on the cross and forgive you of your sins. He's the one that has authority to raise himself from the dead three days later. And the Bible does not command us to know everything. What it does command us to do is to believe. to submit ourselves to the truth, to turn away from our supposed skepticism, to turn away from our unbelief, to turn away from our sins, in whatever level of understanding we have, to believe in Christ and to submit to His Lordship. Another way we can apply this passage is by recognizing that belief in Christ as our Savior is inseparable from submission to Him as our Lord. These men refuse to believe in Jesus as their Messiah, and they reject his rightful authority in their lives. To believe in Christ as your Messiah, as your Savior, is not an end game. That's not the end of the story. Whenever Jesus truly saves someone from their sins, He not only forgives their sins, He also brings them into a life of submission to His will. He also sets up His kingdom in their hearts where He reigns and rules over every aspect of their life. So this passage is a good test for our hearts to see if we truly believe in Christ, Are you living for Christ? Are you willing to submit to his authority in your lives? Is there any area of your life where you have questioned Jesus's authority to rule? Is there a sin in your life where you say, I want God to forgive me. I want Christ to have died for my sins. I believe he raised himself from the dead, but at the end of the day, I don't want him to have this part of my life. He can't come into my temple and throw this out. He won't rule over this. One of the tests of our heart as God's people is whether we will submit to and believe in Christ as he reveals himself, the one that has all authority in heaven and on the earth. And the question before us this morning is, will we submit to Christ's authority? Will we recognize the authority He legitimately has over our lives, and will we bow our knee to Him in submission? Or will we be like these hard-hearted religious leaders who reject the Messiah, who reject Christ as their Savior, and at the end of the day lose their souls because of it? Father, we pray that we would be the former. Father, let us be those that have had our hearts so captured by the grace of Christ who have seen just how amazing it is that he has authority to forgive our sins, he has authority to resurrect our bodies, he has authority to bring us into heaven. Let those truths, Lord, grip our hearts in such a way that we look at all of life and say, there's not an aspect of our life where Christ cannot reign and rule. And Lord, we pray this for Jesus' sake, amen.