Well, let me begin by just saying happy Father's Day. I know it's already been said, and I just want to say to you dads, you have such an amazing calling. I have such an amazing calling to be a dad, to be a father. You young men here, fatherhood is such an awesome, awesome thing that God will call you to, and I pray that you give your all to it. fatherlessness is a great trouble and a trial in so many families and so many people and. But one of the and one of the things that is given in the calling of fatherhood is this this task of training up people, training up young people in an understanding of authority of authority. No one really bestows this in a society in a culture in a church than dads and fathers in a family. It's one of the reasons we have. You can have such a incredibly prolific and growing criminal class of people that have very little regard for authority. But if you ask many of them, they'll say how much they fear and. Regard their mothers and grandmothers. It's like where? How does this work, right? But. In in a godly society and a godly culture, fathers have this way of teaching and training up the young in what it means to honor authority, honor fathers and mothers. And authority is really the great subject of what we have going on before us. this morning. And so let me begin by asking you, are you confused or curious about this passage, right? It seems kind of a strange argument, but it is a crucial paragraph. For the next few chapters in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus is going to dismantle the religious leadership in the temple in Jerusalem. And this paragraph really summarizes and sets the tone for Jesus' relationship with the religious leaders of Jerusalem in his day. And really I say summarize because what this paragraph tells us is that these religious leaders in the eyes of Jesus and in the eyes of God are done for. They don't hold the office that they think they have. But it also sets the tone because Really, Jesus is going to devastate them paragraph by paragraph, parable by parable, woe by woe, judgment by judgment. And in this opening statement, in this opening statement, he's basically saying something that is so basic to these leaders. It is this. You are not worthy of me to answer your You are not worthy of me to even answer your first question. This is the first question that Jesus is asked in the temple. You know, what authority? That's what Jesus is doing here. But that's not totally it. It's not just about Jesus and the religious leaders of his day. This paragraph is about Jesus' relationship with you, actually. Do you know it? because this paragraph is about authority. And the question of authority is really the most important question that hangs over your head. Who is your authority? Who has the reins over your life? Ultimately speaking, who is your king? Who's your ruler? And you've got to know this, I think I've shared this with you before, there's never such a thing as not an authority. It's either going to be God or it's going to be something else. It's either going to be God or it's going to be, really, I'll go ahead and define it, it's going to be yourself. There's never such thing as not authority. You are always doing the will of someone. And there's a good reason we talk about free will, but I think it was Charles Spurgeon who said something like, I've heard about this thing called, I've heard about free will, but I've never met it, right? And we have capacity in and of ourselves to choose, but what Spurgeon was getting at, what that preacher was getting at is we are always, our wills are always bound. to do the will of someone or something. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter where you are, what you're choosing to do, you are always obeying some will. And I'll give you a verse, I'll give you a thought on this from Paul's letter to the Romans in Romans chapter six. Romans chapter 6, he says this, Romans 6 verse 15, he says, What then, are we to sin because we are not under law, but we are under grace? By no means. Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed. And having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. So that's the condition. Everyone's in this condition. Either you are a slave to sin or a slave to righteousness. And a slave to righteousness is actually the definition of true and everlasting freedom. That's what it is. You're always doing the will of something. And here, this is crazy. It's a wonderful, or maybe just a, not maybe, but it's a providential thing that we're talking about authority this morning. Yesterday I was with my friend and he asked me if I had heard about this thing called the No Kings protests in all our country. And I guess I had been living under a rock all weekend because I had not heard of this thing. I thought he was referring to something else. No Kings! Right? And the whole point, the whole protest all throughout our country, I guess thousands, maybe even millions of people gathered to accuse our current president, President Trump, of fascism and being an absolute monarch. That he's not going by democratic principles, but more by fascist principles. And I don't want to get into a rant or anything, but I was looking this up and reading article after article late last night. Wasn't good for my soul, to be honest. But I'm reading these articles and I'm thinking, oh, please, this is so stupid. I mean, any one of us, anywhere in our country, can wake up tomorrow or today. You can buy and sell whatever you'd like. You can get a job. You can resign your job. You can buy out. You can go anywhere. You can move to this state. You can do anything you want right now. And people are accusing someone of being a fascist dictator. That's stupid. Where were these people just a few years ago when the governmental regime was telling you to close your church or that your job is an essential or that you have to take a vaccine to go to work or you should mask up your toddler? Where were these people then? All of it, all of it looked just a few years ago like we were living in some sort of social experiment from 1984. I will say this, though. It was a good reminder, it was a good reminder, you see these pictures of people that say no kings, or no king, or however they wanted to put it. It was a good reminder that in our country's founding, there was this thing that made, I think, Americans exceptional, and that was the view that Americans had, and that view was that nobody is exceptional. They said that there should be no one, no human authority that has absolute power, right? That was the big commitment. And that was a good thing. Okay, I've deviated too far. I gotta come back on this. But I did find it interesting that the Lord served up this question that everybody has on their mind, authority, authority. Let me just go back to you. It's not a matter of what, or it's not a matter of, I should say, whether, Or if you'll give your obedience and submission over to some authority. It's a matter of what authority or which authority. Who is your Lord? Whose will do you aim to accomplish? Remember what the great disease is, the great destroyer of every human heart. It's sin and sin by definition is going against God, going against the supreme monarch of the universe. That's what sin is. And that's the negative aspect of sin, but sin also has a positive aspect. Sin always tears down, but it also builds up something phony. So sin negatively rebels against God, but what sin does is it puts up a phony throne, a phony authority, a false one. It promotes something else. It promotes another monarch. It promotes yourself. You know, in sin we say, I'll take my stand in the place of the Holy One. And the Bible actually says that this is not freedom. This is actually slavery. This is actually slavery. Being completely enslaved to sin, yourself, and the devil. And when Jesus came, he came saying, the truth will set you, what? Free, right? Whom the Son sets free is free indeed. And here it is. Jesus is king, right? We say no kings? Well, no king but Jesus should be what we say. No king but Jesus. Christ is the Lord. And here's the main thing. It's actually a A direct quote from the Bible this morning. It's from Colossians 2 10. Jesus is the head of all rule and authority, not some rule in authority. He's the head of all rule and authority. Now let me just briefly get into some. Context here about this passage. It'll help it'll help clarify. the situation here. Remember that this is the final week of Jesus' life before his crucifixion. So this is what we call Holy Week or Passion Week. And it's likely, we think, the events that Jesus, the events or these sayings of Jesus, Jesus uttered these sayings on the Tuesday of Passion Week. He came into the temple on a Sunday, cleansed the temple on the next Monday, and he was healing and cleansing in the temple, and now he's teaching in the temple on Tuesday. And all these things, him coming into the temple, him cleansing the temple, him healing in the temple, him teaching in the temple, these are the things that the elders and the chief priests and what you call the council, the Council of Religious Leadership in Jerusalem, the Jews, these are the things that they come to Jesus and ask, what authority do you do these things by? By what standard are you operating and doing these things? What standard, Jesus? Who authorized all this? These chapters, Matthew 21 through 24, They are all about, as I mentioned, God's judgment on the religion of the Jews in Jesus' day. God in Jesus is dismantling, disqualifying, He's disestablishing. the temple, its leadership, and its status. And it's all going to culminate in Matthew 24. You know, that's the great apocalyptic thing Jesus says, where not one stone will be left unturned on this temple mount. People like to think Matthew 24 is about the second coming of Jesus. I want to tell you, I think it's about the judgment of the temple that will happen in that same generation that alludes to the second coming of Jesus. In case that's confusing, just stay with me, okay? I'm saying these chapters, Matthew 21 through 24, is all about God's judgment on the temple. He's transforming everything. Out with the old, bringing in a new. Out with the old temple, bringing in a new temple, the church. Out with the old priesthood, in with the new priesthood, which is disciples of Christ. Out with the sacrifices, in with the all enduring sacrifice, Jesus paying the price and shedding his blood on the cross. Okay? It's out with the old, in with the new. He's putting to death this religious life, you could say that he's putting to death this religious death and bringing to new life, a new kingdom, a new priesthood, a new temple, a new creation. So and for the rest of this chapter, 21, Jesus is showing the chief priests and the elders who exactly they are in the eyes of God, which are human vessels who are fit for nothing but judgment and destruction. You'll see this in the parables that he says, that he utters, and even the chief priests and the elders start to understand what Jesus really means, that we don't have long before we are destroyed. Let me show you three things from this passage, three principles to take away. I want you to see, firstly, that those who are proud in sin always try to discredit the godly. They try to discredit the godly. In this passage, leaders, the religious leaders, you could say the authorities, come to Jesus, but they don't come in any sort of honesty. Remember, they have seen his power in his works, They hear the kind of preaching and teaching that he gives. And one of the things that is said, that is spoken of Jesus from early on in ministry, is he preached in a way that was very unlike the scribes and the religious leaders. He preached as one having what? authority. This was a key mark in his ministry, is that he was one who carried a certain weight. Even the wind and the waves obeyed his voice. Demons fled when he spoke. When he taught, souls hung in the balance. Everybody understood that Jesus Whatever authority the religious leaders had, Jesus's was more. Jesus's was more. And the religious leaders understood that Jesus had authority too. That's why they ask him. They see that he's obviously got some sort of, there's something behind him. There's something, there's a standard, there's a clear operating will behind him, underneath him, all around him, that he is accomplishing something, a higher purpose. And that's why they go and see they see it. But it's not just that they are threatened by his authority. He was a herald of the message of heaven because he was the message of heaven. The crowds would listen to Jesus, they would go to Jesus for healing. But instead of coming to Jesus for life, the religious leaders, they became envious and hateful. And they looked for a way to destroy him. They're seeing Jesus do all these incredible things. They've seen him turn over the tables of the money changers. And now they're coming to Jesus and saying, hey, what are your credentials? Explain what your credentials are. And this might be kind of an easy trap if you think about it. A chief priest or a Pharisee or a scribe could say, I was educated in the school of Rabbi Shimei or Rabbi Hillel or Rabbi Gamaliel. They could say, I have an ordination from these priests who laid their hands on me. I have all this learning and all this seminary and all this conferences. I don't know what they did exactly back then. I have the Twitter following, the YouTube clicks. What is Jesus? He's this rabbi from Galilee with 12 ordinary disciples. It seems obvious. Here they are in front of people. Show us your credentials, Jesus. What do you have? What are the degrees behind your name? In other words, they're saying to Jesus, prove yourself to us. And let me tell you something. you will always get yourself into a troublesome situation when you demand that God, Jesus, proves himself to any man, including yourself. When you stand and say, I will judge, Jesus, present some evidence to me, Or Christian presents some evidence to me about Jesus. When you stand and say, prove it God. I'm going to tell you something. The tables will turn quickly and not in your favor. And that's what happens to these men here. Jesus has to prove himself to no man. He is not going to be gamed. Man is not the judge. Jesus is the king and the judge. It's actually the other way around. You. man or woman, you who have sinned, you actually have to stand before the judge and you have to prove yourself to him. I want you to know that. That really is the question mark of your life. At some point, and really you could say it's today, at some point you have to prove yourself to God. You have to prove how righteous you are, how holy you are, how powerful you are. You have to prove your incredible worth in your eyes to God. You should try it. Try and talk about how good you are in the sight of God. Try it out. See what happens. See how you can exhaust the great things about yourself pretty quickly. You can't do that with God. And this is what happens with people who are rebelling against God, who don't want his authority. They always try and discredit the godly. Look, man is not judge. God is judge. But this also happens, and I'm not trying to minimize Jesus or maximize man's role, but just think Christian, this happens when you witness to the gospel. When you are unashamed of the gospel, you go out and declare the good news to people, you want to see people come to the Lord, and maybe it's a touchy situation. What is one of the strong tactics I think we all feel when it comes from the unbelieving world? What do they like to do? they like to discredit the godly. Whether that's, oh, the church is just a bunch of hypocrites. Or, oh, the church isn't doing enough good in this sector of society. It's just this, you know, how it goes. Everybody wants to discredit the godly, but it has nothing really to do with the godly. It has more to do with people who don't want to be under the authority of Christ. They want to be their own authorities. Have that in mind, these leaders, this is the situation with these leaders, right? They have a pretty impressive resume, they have all the things, and Jesus is saying, look, your temple, your external worship is not accepted by God. And they're going to Jesus and saying, who are you, right? Who are you to say to us? Who are you to say to us these things? And you know what Jesus' response to that question is? Let me ask you a question, actually. Let me ask you a question. You want to put me to the test? Let's see how well you do under the examination of God. So, those who are proud in sin always try to discredit the godly. Second thing I want you to see here is that you should never forget the importance of the ministry of John the Baptist. This is an incredible argument that Jesus makes. Right on the spot, he says, okay, you want to know what authority? I'll tell you what authority I operate by, but answer me one question. Answer me one question. And he brings in something, and you might think this is an evasion, like he's avoiding the question. But he's actually asking them a question very similar to theirs. It's very much like the question they asked. It's still a question about authority. It's still a question about authority. John the Baptist, in case you don't know, John the Baptist is the last Old Covenant prophet, or the last Old Testament prophet. You need to think of John the Baptist as like an Elijah, as like an Isaiah, as like a Jeremiah. He was one who was born of a miracle birth. Remember his mom, Elizabeth, was past the age of childbearing, and yet she conceived John, and he was born, and he was born with the Holy Spirit anointing him. And he was authorized by God with one singular, simple mission. His life was to be devoted to one single thing. And it was to introduce the world to Jesus, the Messiah. To prepare the world for Jesus, the Messiah. And John the Baptist is a huge figure in Palestine, in this region. Jews were coming to John for baptism. They were they were getting they were getting they were repenting of sin. And actually, at one point, the religious leaders go and investigate the baptism of John the Baptist, and he refuses to baptize them. He says, you brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bare fruit in keeping with repentance. And so these religious leaders did not like John the Baptist. But remember, John the Baptist was an incredibly important figure, nationally and spiritually. The people viewed John the Baptist as an anointed servant of God. And John the Baptist's very mission was to point people to Jesus Christ. In fact, what's his famous statement? Behold, what? The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. That is what John the Baptist was preaching on the banks of Jordan. Behold the Lamb of God as Jesus walked up. So, This was a singular life mission, and Jesus puts it before the religious leaders, these chief priests and the elders. He says, which one is it? Did John, is his ministry authorized by heaven or by man? And the religious leaders don't believe it's authorized by heaven. They did not like John the Baptist. They only liked John the Baptist for one reason, and that was because he called out Herod's wicked adultery. So it was a political reason. Spiritual too, but mostly political. They don't like Herod. John called out his sin, so you know how it works. At least for a second, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. They did not like John the Baptist. They refused to believe that him introducing Jesus was actually a heaven-sent thing. They believed in their hearts that John The whole ministry of John the Baptist was man-made He was though he was born of a priest. He didn't work in the temple. He lived in the wilderness He ate locusts and wild honey and clothed themselves with Leather and camel skins and all that. He was a weirdo Not like the other priests they viewed him as being of man silly hick, hillbilly and outside in the desert. I don't know what you call the desert, you know, the nomadic kind of people out there. And they believed him to be powerless. And but yet they couldn't say that because, you know, when you are not submitting yourself to God, your eyes are always looking sideways, you're always seeking the glory of man. Right. And so they didn't want to frustrate the people. so they they have this discussion among themselves and you see the discussion you know it's really simple it says if we say from man we are afraid of the crowd they're afraid of the crowd for we all hold that john was a prophet but if they believed if they said from heaven right then they would have indicted themselves because Why? Because John the Baptist was saying that Jesus was the Lamb of God, the one to come into the world. He was the one who is the Lord, whose way has been prepared, the true God. That's what John the Baptist was telling people. So these Pharisees, these religious leaders, chief priests, elders, they are on, what you could say, the horns of a dilemma. And so they say, we'd rather not answer the question. In fact, they lie. They say, we don't know. We don't know. And this opens up for Jesus many opportunities to teach these religious leaders where they stood in the sight of God. And I want to tell you this, just before I move on to this final point here, that John's ministry, you can still be blessed by today. He was the one who said, as I mentioned, the Lamb of God, he told you to behold Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And right now you can be blessed by the ministry of John the Baptist. Still, even today, we sing it in our songs, we preach it in our sermons. Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. You can believe in that heaven authorized message. If you repent of your sins, trust in Jesus to be the Lamb who took away your sin, you shall be saved. It is still an important and godly ministry. Yes, Jesus has eclipsed it in that we only preach Christ. We don't preach John the Baptist, but we still declare what John declared, that Jesus is the Messiah. He is the one who came after John the Baptist, who no one is worthy of. The one who would take away the sins of the world. So. Esteem, don't forget the importance of John the Baptist's ministry. And just a note here, when Jesus says the baptism of John baptism, I'll put that in quotes here. Baptism is a catch all term for the ministry of John. OK, the ministry of John, his preaching. his baptism, his confrontation with Herod, all of it was about pointing people to Jesus. And finally, finally I want you to see this, that you don't have, know and learn this, remember this, you do not have endless quarter with Jesus as you rebel against him. I don't know why I put that point like that. That can be confusing. I know why, I guess. I know why. What I mean by that is, while you refuse Jesus, he is not there to be examined by you. While you rebel against him, you don't have a safety in the presence of Christ. While you scorn his authority while you try and throw off his kingship. He is not simply there to endure forever that silly rebellion. He's not. He's not. You don't have an endless quarter with Jesus as you rebel against him. He does not answer you in your pride. He does not deal with you while you exalt yourself and strut your stuff. He doesn't have a word to answer anyone in self-exaltation. Remember what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount. He said, do not give what is holy to what? To dogs. And do not cast your pearls before what? Before swine. He is not a prover of himself to the proud. He is only a judge to them. That's the thing you must know, that God doesn't owe you or anyone an explanation of himself. He doesn't owe anyone one proof. But you do. You owe God the proof of your life. How do you stack up to him, right? Do you hold a bunch of religious words, religious deeds up to God and say, God, see how righteous I am? Maybe it's, A popularity thing like the chief priests and the elders who could say, Jesus, look at all these people who follow us. Do you see the population around us? Do you see how many people follow me? Or do you maintain some sort of virtue and say about yourself, see how full of hard work and integrity I am? See how full of goodness and kindness? And remember, as you hold up these evidences. As you hold up these evidences, they're proofs that you're still trusting in yourself. You're still authorizing yourself to be your own king and your own savior. And this paragraph, this section, Jesus is looking at these religious leaders who are the prime example, the best example that the world could offer in terms of self-righteousness, or religious workings, or religious precision. Chief priests, elders, scribes, Pharisees, Sanhedrin, Sadducees, these were remarkable people. They were austere, pious, attentive to their works, you could really not say too many bad things about them, or many of them, but Jesus could uncover their hearts. And Jesus is saying, look, all of that stuff, all of that is trusting in yourself. All of that is self-exaltation. The point is to turn aside from pride and self-righteousness and look to Jesus. Come to Him that you would have life. The leaders, they were seeking the glory of others. They didn't want to be in a bad spot in the people's eyes. And so what does that say? Don't have your eye on what other people think. They are not the king. You are not the king. There is only one King. His name is Jesus. His name is Jesus. That's what was found here is that these Pharisees who came to Jesus demanding that He show His authority, He was showing them, you don't even have authority to ask me one singular question. You don't have the authority to test me. It's not because Jesus is prideful. It's not because He is arrogant. Look at the way He responds to people who come to Him for help, who look to Him to be a provider, look to Him for a healing, who look to Him to be an answer for their needs, who look to Him because they're at the end of their ropes in life, in their hearts, in their abilities. That's when Jesus demonstrates, oh, a great patience, a great love, a great accessibility. a great availability, a great willingness to be your answer for your life. But when we come, or when you come to God and say, prove it to me, God, prove yourself, show yourself, answer to me, people, you have no safety before Jesus when you stand that way. That is a posture of pride, and the Lord will cast it out. That's why it says, the Holy One of heaven lives, dwells with the humble of heart, Isaiah 57. Remember this, we know that Jesus is the one who is authorized by God. He said when he was on the earth, my will is to do the will of the Father who sent me. We know that He had already been sharing with everyone, everyone, people would just be paying attention, that He came to do the work of God the Father. And that work would be to provide a sacrifice so that a new people, a believing people, People whose hearts have delighted in God and trusted in Jesus for salvation could be forgiven of their sins, can have their pride and their rebellion against God washed away, and they can be raised to new life so that they could be servants of God in righteousness all their days. That's what we are, church. That's what we're called to be. We're called to be those who say, Jesus, your will be done. Father in heaven, your will be done. Your kingdom come, not my kingdom. Not not Nelson Church kingdom, although we hope it aligns with God's kingdom. Not my friend's kingdom, not any of that. It's the kingdom of Christ and his righteousness. Seek first the kingdom of heaven and his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you. Close with Christ. Serve him, look to Jesus. And confess him to be Lord of all. That is true life. That is true, true service. It's true authority. Have you called upon Jesus? Have you bowed your knees to him? Because time is running out, there is a day coming where it all will be revealed. and no one will be mistaken. The earth will tremble at His feet. Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Do you know it? You don't know when that time is, but it's coming. It is coming. And you want to be those who are right now with Christ, bowing the knee and serving Him in joy and faithfulness. Because on that day, when you simply have to say, if it's you, you've been rebelling against God, and Jesus shows up, and you simply have to say, oh, now it's clear, you're the king, it will be too late. What will he do? He will cast you away into outer darkness. Close with Christ, be found in him, bow the knee, bend your head, humble yourself, and say, Jesus, you are my king. Amen.