Who Gave You Authority? |
Matthew
21:23 Now when He came into the temple,
the chief priests and the elders of the people confronted Him as He was
teaching, and said, “By what authority are You doing these things? And who gave
You this authority?”
Pastor Jerry took his sermon from
Matthew 21:23-32 and broke it up into two parts.
- Authority verses 23-27
- The will of God verses 28-32
In the school yard, older
children may be assigned to keep order and if there is a scuffle; usually the
smaller children argue, “You’re not my boss.”
Where does authority come
from? Often it is assigned, although it
may be by age, education or status. Then
there is the power of money and politics.
We remember when Jesus marched
into Jerusalem
and entered the “Mall” in the temple chasing out the vendors. Who gave Him the authority to do this?
There are no easy answers, and
when Jesus was questioned by the priests and elders the final answer was: “If
you can’t answer my question, then neither will I tell
you by what authority I do these things.”
The second portion of scripture was about
who is doing the will of the Father?
Boys, Go work in my Vineyard! |
A father asked his two sons to go work in his vineyard. The first son
refused to do the father’s bidding. Soon
he had second thoughts and went to obey.
The second son said, “Yes of course I will
go,” but he was busy and failed to follow through.
Jesus asked which son did the will of the
Father?
The scribes answered that it was the first
son who finally changed his mind and went.
The Scribes were known for their many words,
but were short on their good deeds.
Doing the Will of God is not lip service but
is in the action.
Today, what is our response? Do we often lag behind, and finally come
around and pitch in?
Pastor illustrated with a story about a
minister who was asked to spend a week end at a church located 300 miles from his
home. He was glad to oblige and drove
the many miles, spoke at many workshops, did some counseling, preached two
sermons on Sunday and was exhausted. As
he prepared to leave the treasurer handed him an envelope which he stuffed in
his pocket and drove the 300 miles back to his home. When he arrived home, he opened the envelope
and inside was a blank check with the words written across it, “THANKS A MILLION!" and it was signed by the treasurer.
Sometimes words are NOT enough.
Do we volunteer or do we let others do the
job? In our mind do we say, “I will,”
but fail to step forward. Do we say in
our mind, “Not me,” but then relent and take up our cross.
It is sometimes difficult to live up to
promises we make to God and to others.
Jesus said in Matthew
21“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord,
Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father
in heaven.
If you have not already done so, it is time
to sign up, to put on the uniform and prepare to fight the battles ahead. Be willing to listen and be quick to move to
do God’s will.
1 comment:
Lip service is easy, but following through is tough. It goes down to our motives, our values, our integrity.
where our treasure is, there is our hearts.
Likewise, where we focus our time/money/talents/attention is where our hearts our. We mustn't replace "good things" with "Godly things". There's a place and time for it all but God must be the center.
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