A reading this morning is from Matthew chapter 21, verses 23 to 32. When he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him while he was teaching and said, by what authority are you doing these things? And who gave you this authority? Jesus said to them, I will ask you one thing, which if you tell me, I will also tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John was from what source, from heaven or from men? And they began reasoning among themselves, saying, if we say from heaven, he will say to us, then why did you not believe him? But if we say from men, we fear the people, for they all regard John as a prophet. And answering Jesus, they said, we do not know. He also said to them, neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things. But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, son, go work today in the vineyard. And he answered, I will not. But afterward, he regretted it and went. The man came to the second and said the same thing. And he answered, I will, sir, but did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father? They said, the first. Jesus said to them, truly, I say to you that the tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him. But the tax collectors and prostitutes did believe him, and you, seeing this, did not even feel remorse afterward so as to believe him. May God bless the reading of his word. Good morning, church family. So glad you're here this morning. Israel's religious leaders question the authority of Jesus. And they're essentially saying to Jesus in the scriptures we just heard read, who's in charge here? Jesus, you're in the temple, which we feel is our jurisdiction. Jesus, you're teaching in the temple without our sanction. By what authority do you do these things? Who's in charge here anyway? Now I would submit to you that that question is actually a good question. There's no problem with the question at all. All of us should consider our lives in light of the question of authority. Who's really in charge of your life? Is it you? Or is it God? The salvation of sinners at its core is to do with a change in authority, a change in who's in charge, who's calling the shots, and for what purpose. So this interaction that we're about to explore in some more detail, this interaction between Jesus and the religious leaders of ancient Israel is for us more than just a very interesting happening in the days before our Savior's crucifixion. It is that, but it's so much more than that. It is for each one of us here, in the hearing of God's word, a cause for self-examination. What do I mean by that? I simply mean my life's priorities, yours too, my motives, yours too, reveal who is in charge. Now, I want us to just be sure that we see it in the text. I'm not freelancing here. I'm not just making this up. So, look at verse 23. It says, when Jesus entered the temple, So there's our context. The chief priests and the elders of the people came to Jesus while he was teaching and said, by what authority are you doing these things? Who gave you this authority? Again, there's no trouble with the question. In fact, it was a common thing to test a rabbi with a difficult question. The question in and of itself is not rude. It's the motive behind the question That is really the issue here. These religious leaders, as we've seen throughout Matthew's gospel, are insincere. They feign devotion to God while their hearts are essentially and utterly self-absorbed. Self-motivated, you could say. In fact, they ask Jesus this question of authority while they know themselves to be plotting the murder of Jesus. And this plot will progress rapidly from our perspective. This plot will deepen in Matthew's accounting of it in chapter 21, 22, 23. And we're going to watch Jesus over these next few Lord's Days as we're in Matthew's Gospel. Jesus using his divine authority to confront insincerity. Who gives you the authority to do these things? These things surely includes all of the things that Jesus had been doing since that day we now call Palm Sunday when he entered Jerusalem and received worship. from the people who were accompanying him on his journey up the hill to Jerusalem and to the temple, the people who were pouring out of the city to greet him, including children. Jesus actually received worship from those who were hailing him as Israel's long-awaited Messiah. I mean, just think of the enormity of Jesus receiving worship. What's Matthew showing us? Jesus really is the King that God had promised to His people. He's the eternal King. Come to receive worship from people. Jesus then chased away the merchants and the money changers, the profiteers who had turned the religious practices in the temple into an opportunity for pure commerce and Here is Jesus again. He's the great high priest. It is his jurisdiction to do this, what he's doing in the temple. He is the one mediator between God and man. And Matthew keeps showing us this in his gospel. Jesus then did what? Well, he healed the lame. He gave sight to the blind. That is the purview of God himself. And now, says Matthew, Jesus comes to the temple again on what is more than likely the Wednesday prior to Calvary, and he's calling God's people to repentance and faith in him. You say, well, how do we know that? Well, Luke tells us in his accounting of this that Jesus was teaching the people and preaching the gospel. Jesus is the prophet above all others. He's the one greater than Moses who has come in these days before his crucifixion. He comes as prophet and priest and king with great authority. And with his great authority, before he goes to the cross for you and for me, he's going to expose insincerity. among those who name God. And you can be certain that his teaching on this day we're reading of was teaching like no one had ever heard before. In fact, we already know from Matthew's narrative that people were just mesmerized by the teaching of Jesus. It was almost as if he had written the Bible, right? In Matthew 7, after the Sermon on the Mount, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one having Authority. There it is again, that word authority. It's the Greek word exousia, and it's to do with power. It's to do with the right to exert power over someone or something. And so I encourage you to think within yourself this morning, with God's help, who has authority in your life? Who or what is the dominant influence in your life? The prevailing jurisdiction, if you will, in your life? Authority merits submission. It merits deference. If you get pulled over by the police, has that ever happened to you? Of course it has, some of you. It's happened to me. It's happened to me in the parking lot of this church. That's my rap sheet. I'm not proud of that. Always signal before turning. The point of it is you readily hand over your license and registration. You're not going to quibble about that, are you? Because you're one who's under authority. Authority merits submission. Authority merits deference. We do well, church, to ask ourselves, to what ultimate authority do I submit? To what authority do I live in deference to? Am I my own authority? Christianity, I'm talking about real Christianity, not, you know, religiosity. Christianity stands on this question of authority. Is Christ the recognized authority over you in your life? Do you submit to his authority? He calls you to repent and believe in him. Are you a repenting, believing person? He calls you to follow Him, to obey Him. Are you, however imperfectly, by some measure, but with God's help, a Jesus-following, obeying person? Who's in charge here when here is your heart, your life? This question of authority is what separates genuine Christianity from false religion. It separates real religion from the religion of pretense and insincerity. So here come these religious leaders. You still listening? Here come these religious leaders and they're questioning Jesus as to his authority. And what we've noticed throughout Matthew's gospel is that they've just been doing this all the time. That's always been their issue. Jesus healed a paralyzed man. We remember reading about that back in Matthew 9. But he didn't heal the guy before he declared his sins forgiven. And don't you know that that was a shot across the bow among those who question the authority of Jesus. Jesus alone has the authority to forgive sins. Jesus is God. He has all authority. In fact, one of the things you, the most important things you can know about Jesus is that there is no higher authority than the authority of Jesus. He doesn't get authority from anywhere. He is the authority. And this divine authority angered the religious leaders who saw it, who denied it, who fought against it, who harbored hateful thoughts toward Jesus. All the while, they wanted to appear among the people as those who were devoted to God. And Jesus won't have that. So he's gonna use his authority to expose their insincerity. When Jesus had forgiven the paralytic's sins, for example, the scribes didn't do anything. They were just thinking within themselves. Is he a blasphemer? Does he really think he's God? And Jesus had authority to perceive and to expose their unspoken thoughts. Matthew 9, 4, Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, why are you thinking evil in your hearts? I mean, such is the authority of Jesus. He doesn't need to be told by anyone what's going on in anybody's heart. He perceives the reality of our hearts here today. But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins, he said to the paralytic, get up, pick up your bed, and go home. There it is again, the authority of Jesus. It comes up again and again in Matthew's gospel. I mean, I'm not the brightest bulb, and I'm just spitballing here, but it must be kind of a big deal. Resistance to Jesus is ultimately about authority. So if we fast forward now from Matthew 9 to Matthew 21, what's happening here? Temple teaching, from a human perspective, was the purview of the Jewish religious leaders. It was their exclusive privilege to to credential and vet and otherwise endorse whoever was doing the teaching. Jesus was neither credentialed or vetted, if you will, by man, certainly not by the religious establishment. And they just wanna know, well, what gives Jesus the right to teach the way he's teaching? What gives Jesus the right to expect submission and deference from the people, from the religious leaders, from anybody. Look at Jesus' answer. I will also ask you one thing, which if you tell me, I will also tell you by what authority I do these things. Now, the first time you read that, you kind of chuckle, and you think, well, I mean, that's just clever, isn't it? Well, it is clever, but it's so much more than that. I mean, it was not uncommon at all in rabbinic circles to answer a question with a question. So this isn't a cheat, although Jesus certainly knew that a confrontation could move these men further along in their murderous plot than God's timetable called for. So here is Jesus using his authority to even micromanage what people will do in the circumstances that bring him to Calvary. But he responds with a question of his own. Verse 25, the baptism of John was from what source? From heaven or from men? And you see, this is not a difficult question to understand. It's not a difficult question to answer. That's the whole point. It's an impossible question to answer when your heart is insincere in its devotion to God. John the Baptist was God's anointed appointed forerunner to his Messiah, Jesus. John's ministry was preparatory in that sense. He was calling the people to repentance. His was a baptism of repentance. This was preparing the hearts of God's people to receive, to believe upon Christ. And multitudes, the gospel writers tell us, multitudes responded to John's Gospel if you will the call to repentance And at first it even seemed like some of the religious leaders Would get right into the water With John and the rest of the people Matthew 3 told us that there were Pharisees and Sadducees who came to John for baptism, but John denied them. Why did he deny them? This is one of those talking in church things Well, I've begun something now, haven't I? No, you got it. I heard hypocrites. I heard insincere. John knew their hearts were not in alignment nor allegiance to the call of God to repent. They simply wanted to appear that way to the people. They wanted to score points with the public, with a religious ritual, and John with God's help obviously called them out on it. And so here is Jesus perceiving in the religious leaders this prevailing insincerity. They haven't changed at all. And you know, we're meant to think about that with respect to ourselves. Jesus perceives the insincere. He sees that. Jesus perceives any and all insincerity among us in this room now. So we can just get that part out of the way. And Jesus uses his authority to highlight for these religious leaders their own insincerity with this question about John the Baptist. Which is it, the baptism of John, from heaven or from men? And they began reasoning among themselves, saying, if we say from heaven, he will say to us, then why did you not believe him? We'll be discredited, we'll be exposed as phonies. But if we say from men, verse 26, we fear the crowd, for they all regard John as a prophet. Luke tells us that these guys worried that the people would stone them if they dissed John. Because John was so revered among the people and John the Baptist was seen by so many of the masses as God's own prophet, as he clearly was. Either way, these men have a problem with their answer. And that's the trouble with insincerity, when it's perceived by Jesus, is you've got a big problem. Because either way you turn, the results are the same. You get exposed. Their problem then is the problem faced by all who are religious but insincere. And I want us to just think about what motivates this kind of activity. What's going on with these guys at their core? See if you can relate to this. What motivates anyone to feign submission to divine authority. How about love of self? I mean, that is mankind's besetting sin, really, isn't it? Love of self. The religious leaders do not love God more than they love themselves. Their religion ultimately is about them. They want to maintain their grip on their power and their influence and their public persona. And going through the motions with some religion helps that for them. And love of self has an ugly twin, fear of man. Fear of man. The religious leaders cannot risk offending the people because what other people think is what feeds love of self. Self has a voracious appetite in that sense. Self is never satisfied. So that fear of man, fear of what other people think becomes a prison of sorts. You're hearing this. And friend, let me just say that if you're here this morning on this first Lord's Day of 2025, and you find yourself, because your conscience tells you this, imprisoned by this insatiable love of self, imprisoned by this oppressive fear of man, Using religion even to manage what others think. Let me just encourage you. Jesus not only perceives it, but he exposes it as a mercy. That's what he's doing with these religious leaders. They answered Jesus and said, we do not know. Well, that's a lie. They obviously do have an answer to the question. Jesus also said to them, neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things. You see, Jesus not only perceives their insincerity, he's exposing it. Not for the sake of shaming them only, for the sake of awakening them to the reality of the condition of their heart. How many of you know, as uncomfortable as it is to be exposed as a phony, it's a mercy from God. Jesus exposes the insincere. Jesus does it with this question about John the Baptist, and then he doubles down on it with this simple parable. Look at verse 28. He immediately goes into this story. What do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, son, go work today in the vineyard. And he answered and said, I will not. Anybody have kids? I mean, there you go. Anybody been a kid? I mean, there we are. There's humanity right there. But afterward, he regretted it and went. The man came to the second and said the same thing, and he answered and said, I will, sir. But he did not go. Anybody here been a kid? Which of the two did the will of his father? This story is so simple, so easy to understand. The first son defiantly refuses to submit to the Father's will, but later regrets that defiance and does the Father's will. Friends, this is a picture of repentance. This is what it looks like to repent from sin and turn to God the Son, turn to Christ. Repentance from sin is an act of surrender to divine authority. It's to say, I've been in charge of my life until this day. I've made nothing but a mess of it. I turn from that and I turn to Christ. I submit to his gracious authority. Is that you? What about the second son? I mean, he says the right thing to his dad. People listening in on that would have said, well, that kid, that's the keeper. I mean, what a sweet response. But, of course, he doesn't follow through. He has no intention of obeying the Father. Why? Well, again, self desires to appear devout without actually being devout. Self fears the very thought of appearing less than by others. Which of the two boys did the will of the father? Obviously, the first. And again, I just urge you to not miss the opportunity Jesus is showing here in extending this challenge to the insincere. It isn't just that he perceives it, and it isn't just that he exposes it for the sake of exposing it. Jesus challenges the insincere. I wonder if the Word of God in the hands of the Spirit of God is doing that even now. Challenging, confronting the insincere. Why do I urge you to take a few moments in the quiet of your own heart to consider this with respect to yourself. It's because the insincere don't have to stay that way. That's why. These men are being given an opportunity to change course. Embarrassing as this situation is for them, The first son in the parable proves the point. He starts out in rebellion, he regrets that, changes course, and does the will of the father. And friends, when it comes to the gospel, initial responses are not always ultimate responses. So if you're here today, of all days, and you didn't see this coming, It's a work of the Spirit of God. But God in his mercy is saying to you, you need to change course. Don't miss the opportunity. Be done with the pretense. You who are denying the authority of Christ with your life, You've denied His call to repent and believe in Him. You've repeatedly gone through the motions of being a good church person, hiding out in the company of God's people without actually surrendering to Him from the heart. Let me encourage you this morning, you don't have to stay in that spot. And if you're here today thinking, well good heavens, I thought in 2025 the guy would be kinder and gentler. Listen, the tone of the message is the tone of the text. I'm not making stuff up. Jesus is confronting the insincere religious people of his day. Spurgeon puts it this way, he says, my friends, It is one thing to go to church or chapel. It is quite another thing to go to God. And wouldn't this be a year for you if it were the year that you could say, you know, that was the year I went to God. That was the year I was done with all this churchified stuff I've been doing with an insincere heart. And I came to Christ because he changed my heart. And he gave me a love for God. He gave me an appetite for the things of God. He gave me a desire to obey the word of God, however imperfectly. I wonder, are you hearing this? Well, the second son in the parable settles for appearing devout. He just says the right stuff. Just like these Jewish religious leaders. just like religious people can be prone to in our day. J.C. Royal in his commentary on Luke puts it this way, he says, open sin and avowed unbelief no doubt slay their thousands, but profession without practice slays its tens of thousands. Jesus perceives and exposes and challenges the insincere because it is among the religious folk that this rebellion seems to be so common. And I mentioned earlier, you still with me? I mentioned earlier that first responses don't have to be permanent responses, you realize that cuts both ways. I mean, is there such a person today among us, I wonder, who thinks of their Christianity as a decision made way back when? so that when people ask you, are you a Christian? You say, oh yeah, because 20 years ago I prayed this and I even got in the tank with the other people being baptized. Well, not with them, but you know what I mean, same day. Let me just encourage you to think of your life right now. Who's in charge here? Is it possible that your hearts Lack of present proximity to Jesus is simply showing you that you were not sincere in naming Him as Savior and King. This ultimate evidence of repentance and faith in Christ is devotion from the heart, obedience from the heart. Perfection, no. A new motive, though. A new heart. Not just religious words and activities. That's the lesson of the parable here. You can put it more simply, I guess. A person cannot believe in Christ sincerely apart from obeying him. And I would submit to you, church, that that is a message that all of us, with God's help, might find ourselves preaching to others in whatever our context is in our community this year. Because it is a popular false gospel in our day, right here in conservative Idaho, that you can name Jesus and not follow Jesus. Jesus said to the church in Thyatira, whose members were going through the motions of religion, and in reality they're all caught up in idolatry, and he said this, I am he who searches the minds and hearts, and I will give to each one of you according to your deeds. How interesting, your deeds, why your deeds? Well, he's acknowledging that righteousness flows from those who know the righteous one. What happened to the fig tree? Again, talking church thing. Yeah, it was judged, right? It withered from its roots. We saw that last week. Why? No, it wasn't fulfilling the purpose of a fig tree. A fig tree's supposed to have some figs on it. Now, it could be, and this is the part where I'm starting to wind down, but we're not done yet. It could be that you're thinking, well, is there no tenderness in a message like this? Is that what's happening? Because I thought he said something about this going all the way through Matthew 23. I mean, is that what we're in for, really? Well, I urge you just to consider what Jesus has done with his authority. No one ever had the authority that Jesus had on planet Earth. Jesus is God. But listen, no one on Earth ever lived under authority as Jesus did on Earth. Jesus lived under the authority of his earthly parents perfectly. He had imperfect earthly parents. Some of you are parents, some of you have had parents, you know all about this, right? Jesus lived under the authority of his earthly parents perfectly. Jesus lived under the authority of a flawed, godless human government perfectly. Jesus lived under the authority of God's own holy law, His law, perfectly. Jesus lived under the influence of the Holy Spirit every day of His life on earth, perfectly. You notice the pattern, perfection. The one who has all authority lived under authority for the express purpose of offering himself as a substitute for you and for me. A substitute and a sacrifice for all of us natural born insincere people. So that all who simply surrender to his gracious rule. benefit from both expressions of his authority, his perfect submission. Oh, how we benefit from the perfect submission of Christ to authority. And also his perfect rule. And so I urge you, friend, run to Christ now. And we who are believers enjoy his authority over sin, not to condemn you. Think about this. How many of you are glad for this today, as a Christian, that there is no ability that sin has to condemn you? Because Jesus took your condemnation for you. He is eager to use his divine authority to shelter you from God's wrath for your sin. What a scandal this gospel is. Romans 8 says, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. His shed blood at Calvary releases you from all condemnation, ushers you into God's eternal favor. How can you not? want to be under the authority of this king. Run to Christ. Enjoy his authority over death itself. I don't know if you checked the stats, but you're gonna die. Me too. 100% death rate among people. I mean, that's the math, right? This is the curse of sin. Jesus has defeated sin and sin's death for his people. And it's in his submitting to the authority of God's justice that he makes possible you and I to have a share in that victory. Rising again from the grave as he has, he has justified his people. And I wonder if there's anyone else here this morning who can say, praise God for this. We don't live in fear. Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live even if he dies. And everyone who lives and believes in me will never die ever. Do you believe this? In other words, that's not my question, it's his. Now you know where that comes from. because it's meant to inform the way you look at and live life as one who is under the authority of Jesus. Run to Christ and enjoy his authority to defend you from Satan's relentless attacks, to change you from the inside out, to empower you to live to the glory of God. This is what Christ has done and is doing with his authority for his people. So yes, Jesus does perceive the insincere. And Jesus exposes the insincere. And Jesus confronts or challenges the insincere. But you know, he only does so that we might run to him. He says in Matthew 10, everyone who confesses me before men, I will also confess him before my Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies me before men, I will also deny him before my Father who is in heaven. So, we do well to ask ourselves this day, which son describes you in the parable? Because the Jesus who perceives and exposes and challenges insincerity, one day will be the Jesus who judges insincerity. Look at verse 31. Which of the two did the will of his father? And they said, the first. And Jesus said to them, truly I say to you, the tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the kingdom of God before you. For Jesus came to you in the way of, for John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him. But the tax collectors and prostitutes did believe him, and you, seeing this, did not even regret afterward so as to believe him. Just think about that. Tax collectors, money-grubbing, self-focused traitors to the Jewish nation, people like Matthew, repented and turned to Christ and found shelter in him. found purpose submitting to his authority. And to think that prostitutes, sexually immoral, ritually unclean from a Jewish perspective, women like Rahab who has her name appear in the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew's gospel, how interesting. To think that both types are closer to the kingdom of heaven than the outwardly religious but insincere, how can that not be a stunning judgment that rings out even to this day? Well, let me just end with some encouragement. Do you mind being encouraged? Then we'll go back to the other stuff. When it comes to your life, just ask yourself, who's in charge? By God's grace, is Jesus in charge? This word authority, as it turns out, is big in your New Testament. It comes up all over the place. This Greek word, exousia. And it refers not only to power, but it refers to privilege. And I wanna encourage you to just think about that. To have authority, God says, is to have privilege. We even think of that in English. We think of, well, we say, well, that doctor has privileges. Well, what does that mean? Well, it means that he or she can practice medicine at that hospital, right? So we know what that is. They have authority to do that. When you get under the authority of King Jesus, friend, you are privileged like no one else on planet Earth. Only the people of God Know this. Have this. Listen to John 1. Those who were his own did not receive him. We just read of that. But as many as received Jesus, to them he gave the right, the exousia, the privilege, to become children of God. Even to those who believe in His name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. That's what is given to all who surrender to the gracious authority of Jesus. The right, the privilege to be called a child of God. Are you a child of God? And this change in authority that happens through repentance and faith is a change that develops and expresses itself every single day of our life. This is what we're living toward. Listen to Revelation 22. It says, blessed are those who wash their robes so that they may have the authority to the tree of life and may enter by the gates into the city. I mean, what an image this is. People saved by grace, redeemed by the kindness of God in Christ, are given the privilege of being called the children of God, living toward this privilege that is everlasting life in His presence. Again, how can you not submit to the authority of such a gracious King? All right, that's it. Let's pray. Lord, we do thank you so much for these astonishing confrontations that we see in your Word. Lord, we thank you so much for the raw honesty of your Word to us in every way. that you have given us a king who sees all and exposes all and challenges all that we might run to him for safety, for shelter from all that one day will most certainly be judged with finality. And Lord, I just thank you for the reminder from your word this morning that for the insincere, that initial response to you, Lord, need not be the final response. So I ask Jesus that you would change hearts among us today. And it does remind us as your people, Lord, that you are faithfully and in strength killing off the remaining insincerity in us. Lord, we wanna be a people who love you truly. We wanna be a people who obey you quickly. Lord, we wanna be a people who live in light of this liberty that is ours from condemnation and even death itself. So Lord, we pray that you would make it so. And we pray that you would find us soft and shapeable in your hands. And we ask you this for your namesake, amen.