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Chapter 28 - Two Sons
Two Sons
Matt. 21:23
23 And [kai] when he [autos] was come [erchomai] into [eis] the temple [hieron] , the chief priests [archiereus] and [kai] the elders [presbuteros] of the people [laos] came [proserchomai] unto him [autos] as he was teaching [didasko] , and said [lego] , By [en] what [poios] authority [exousia] doest thou [poieo] these things [tauta] ? and [kai] who [tis] gave [didomi] thee [soi] this [taute] authority [exousia] ? KJV-Interlinear
23 And when He had come into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to Him as He was teaching, and said, 'By what authority are You doing these things, and who gave You this authority?' NASB
Jesus Christ is God. By that definition He has all the power of the universe and more. He has all the right to exercise that power as He is the divine sovereign. Jesus Christ came to earth in accordance with a plan designed by the Father. Jesus Christ executes every detail of that plan in history.
Because He already possesses omnipotent power, He need no further assignment of power nor the right to use His power from any earthly source.
The Temple had its bureaucracy of human authority, accreditation, ordination, or credentials through which priests were trained and brought up through the ranks of the priesthood. Upon fulfilling these criteria a student is finally given the appropriate title, rank, and duties within the bureaucracy of the priesthood.
Jesus did not go through any of these systems of education, and therefore was not recognized by the priests. They did have a problem with His obvious powers. For many months now (years actually), Jesus has healed illness, cured diseases, restored missing limbs, made whole, body parts that were defective, restored sight to the blind, and hearing to the deaf. And not too long before coming to Jerusalem this last time, He performed a very remarkable miracle in which He raised Lazarus from the dead after Lazarus had been in the grave for four days. He had brought back to life, several people, but their miraculous recoveries were not as dramatic as that of Lazarus, Jn. 11. And Lazarus' recovery to life was very recent.
Jesus was renown in His deeds. Jesus' power was indisputable. Even in the Temple He was healing and curing and restoring without missing a beat. By the way, who is missing from these scenes? Jesus entered the city with quite a commotion on Sunday, just two days prior. He drove out the merchants on the previous day.
Where is the High Priest? Where are the highest officials of Jerusalem? We know that they are hiding in the shadows plotting Jesus demise from John 12. One would think that they would be here in the Temple personally greeting Jesus. Personally bowing down to Him, the Son of God, the creator of the universe. But they are not.
They feared for their authority and positions rather than realizing just who Jesus was. The evidence was overwhelming as to who Jesus was. He had on many occasions claimed to be equal with God, to be the Son of God. He claimed God the Father as His equal (being related to the Father as being the Son, therefore equal to God and being in fact God himself, and being in the capacity of the Son, being obedient to the one and only plan of God).
But the Pharisees were attempting to somehow trap Him into yet another confession, within the Temple walls no less, to being God Himself. As though this confession might be of more significance because it is in the Temple!! They were not interested in the truth, but on making an impression on the crowds present, and to somehow legitimize their claim on Jesus' heresy.
Jesus did not fall for the trap, but instead challenged them into making their own confession, but that is not until tomorrow's study.
Now the application to ourselves. The facts of the Bible are clear. The truth of the Bible is clear (whether you accept it or not is irrelevant). The principles of the Bible are clear. And, the challenges of the Bible are clear. Just as these truths were clear to the Pharisees and to the crowds in Jesus' time, so we too have those same circumstances before us in our current life.
How do we read the Bible? To be entertained? To make ourselves feel good for a brief time? To lighten up some guilt we might have? To help us detach from the real world of problems we have?
Or, do we read the Bible in order to learn how to make our spiritual life complete, and therefore to establish, for ourselves, the most favorable terms of our eternity? Remember that our life here on earth is but a few short years. Maybe we will live to be ten. Maybe we will live to be ninety. Whatever!
Our life in eternity will run for billions of trillions of quadrillions of years. Our few years here on earth are nothing when compared to eternity. Remember from yesterdays study, God does not care if we are successful or failures in this world, rich or poor, fat or thin, etc. What God cares about is the quality of our faith, and faith comes from learning and applying doctrine to our daily lives. Responsibility accompanies that growing up process.
As we have already studied, the only general problems which make growing up spiritually, difficult, are when Gods principles conflict with some standards or habits that we have become accustomed to in our life. Pulling away from our set life style, habits, or beliefs can be difficult. But, with continued exposure to truth, then anyone can make that transition.. Don't defeat yourself by deciding you 'can't' do it, or that God doesn't like you, or some other excuse for not going on in your spiritual life.
All of eternity is riding on your decisions which you make daily. That is a huge gift to just throw away without a fighting effort on your part. Suppose you owned Mt. Everest, some 28,000 feet high plus, and that it was made of solid gold, and that all you had to do was to get to it. Wouldn't you try?
Well, trying by means of the worlds effort, on your own, you would have to walk or swim there over the ocean, over the desert, fight off opponents along the way, etc., and you couldn't get there. But following Gods plan, God would simply fly you there, to that mountain of gold. A much easier path to follow.
And so it is with your spiritual life. A trillion, trillions of years of eternity are at stake and all you have to do is study, learn, and apply Gods principles (none of which are very demanding) to your daily life. Name one, just one, command that God requires of us, that we cannot perform! Every human being is capable of complying with every command, with every principle of Bible doctrine which God requires of us.
Soooo! What more motivation does it take to get people to kick start their Bible study? What is the power source of this Bible? By whose authority does is come to us? When will we realize it? Really realize it!
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