Kingdom Principle: Who or what has ultimate authority in your life? What or who do you look to for guidance in your decisions and actions? Is it society, is it scholarship or is it the Word of God. In our text for this morning we see that the authority of God’s Word is challenged by the expert class. Jesus establishes his authority over every realm by asserting his authority over truth.
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Thus Saith the ___________________________________
Luke 20:1–2 (ESV) — 1 One day, as Jesus was teaching the people in the temple and preaching the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes with the elders came up 2 and said to him, “Tell us by what authority you do these things, or who it is that gave you this authority.”
The central manifestation of Christ’s reign in this age is over spirit and truth. (John 4:24)
The council’s members were drawn mainly from the leading priestly families and the religious instructors known as “scribes” or “teachers of the law”
Matthew 5:27–28 (ESV) — 27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
Sanhedirn derived their authority from tradition, from scholarship, from the will of the people and from the state of Rome. The main problem with the authority of the Sanhedrin was that it did not submit to God’s Word.
John 5:39 (ESV) — 39 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me,
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Thus Saith the _______________________________
Luke 20:3–4 (ESV) — 3 He answered them, “I also will ask you a question. Now tell me, 4 was the baptism of John from heaven or from man?”
The Sanhedrin could not claim that John’s message was from heaven because it was a direct contradiction of their own message.
Matthew 3:7 (ESV) — 7 But when he (John the Baptist) saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
Luke 7:29–30 (ESV) — 29 (When all the people heard this, and the tax collectors too, they declared God just, having been baptized with the baptism of John, 30 but the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected the purpose of God for themselves, not having been baptized by him.)
The Sanhedrin used the “Scriptures” as their justification for authority, but they really had no authority because they rejected God’s authority. They had no authority because they had assumed their own authority. And they were approaching the one who had ultimate authority as if he had no authority.
John 1:1–5 (ESV) — 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
John 1:14 (ESV) — 14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
There is no truth but God’s truth and God’s truth is embodied in the person and work of King Jesus. To reject Christ is to reject truth.
Question to Consider
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Do you see God’s Word as the ultimate authority in your life?
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What would it look like to submit all your other experiences to the Word of God?
