Authority

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern

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Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

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And now here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg. The Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew chapter 21 verses 23 through 27.

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When Jesus entered the temple the chief priest and the elders of the people came up to him as he was teaching and said by what authority are you doing these things?

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Who gave you this authority? So Jesus answered them well I'll ask you a question and if you tell me the answer then

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I will also tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John from where did it come?

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From heaven or from man? So they discussed it amongst themselves saying well if we say from heaven he will say to us well why then did you not believe him?

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But if we say from man we are afraid of the crowd for they all hold that John was a prophet.

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So they answered Jesus we don't know and he said to them well neither will

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I tell you by what authority I do these things. This is the gospel of the Lord. In the name of Jesus.

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All right so what on earth is going on in our gospel text today? Seems like a wee bit of a showdown and I love the artwork that is in the front of our bulletins on this.

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Jesus looks like he's just about had enough of these fellows. Yeah so this is quite an interesting story but in order to really get it we're gonna have to take a look at the context of it.

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So let's back up a little bit in Matthew 21. I'll start in verse 12 see if we can figure out what's going on.

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And you're going to note that well earlier in the chapter Jesus has made his triumphal entry into Jerusalem.

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Palm Sunday. We celebrate it right before Easter and Jesus's Palm Sunday entrance.

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And Jesus's first order of business after writing into Jerusalem continues thus verse 12.

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Jesus entered the temple. He drove out all who sold and bought in the temple. He overturned the tables and the money changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons.

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He said to them and listen to these words. It is written my house shall be called a house of prayer but you make it a den of robbers.

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Oh yeah that's right Jesus just said this is my house. Now just kind of explain just how awkward this might have seemed to the people there in the temple.

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Imagine if somebody showed up at your home and decided that that they had the authority to tell you well the there's a little too much dust on the coffee table and the floor needs vacuuming and that kitchen tile of yours.

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When was the last time you mopped that thing? If they came in and started barking orders at you in your own home telling you to clean these things up you could probably have words with them.

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Who do you think you are? And so Jesus here in this text makes it very clear whose house this is.

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This is the Holy Temple in Jerusalem and he says it's my house. Wow that's kind of interesting.

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After Jesus drives out the money changers and all those people that turned the temple into a marketplace it says this the blind and the lame came to him in the temple.

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Yeah that's right Jesus kind of sets up office hours if you would and now the blind and the lame are coming to them and they're leaving with their sight the ability to walk and the chief priests and the scribes when they saw, watch what the text says, the wonderful things that he had did.

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You wish that the text would then say these words. They fell on their knees praising

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God that they had been visited by God. You wish it had said that right? But it says this that when they saw the wonderful things that he did and the children crying out in the temple

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Hosanna to the Son of David they were indignant. That seems a little disjointed does it not?

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Here you know so you got a blind person walking in to see Jesus in the temple the blind person how has their sight and they're praising

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God the children around seeing of this are just in awe and they're singing and praising Hosanna to the

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Son of David and the chief priests are all hmm doesn't make any sense does it?

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You see our text is really all about authority. The text continues then says so they said to Jesus do you hear what these children are saying and Jesus said to them yeah of course have you never read out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise?

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Jesus seems a little nonplussed if you would. That's the context of what's going on here and so as the chapter continues

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Jesus after office hours day one in the temple he goes out to the Mount of Olives he curses a fig tree comes back the next day that's the context of our gospel text so picking up then at verse 23 so Jesus coming back to the temple when he entered the temple you can hear security going he's here again he's here again you got to get get on it he's he's at the entrance of the temple quick quick quick quick so the chief priests and the elders they came out to him as he was teaching and they asked this in amazingly bizarre question by what authority are you doing these things and who gave you this authority hmm now real quick by way of clarification authority we oftentimes think authorities like raw naked power no that's not what authority is authority is permission in fact if you change this word here by what permission or who gave you permission to do the things that you are doing who gave you this permission that's a better way to think about authority people who have authority have been given permission by somebody greater than themselves does that make sense so watch how this works the president of the

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United States I don't care what you think about the fellow I mean there's a lot of people who seem to be really flustered about this fellow but he has been given permission authority by us we the people to do business on our behalf in the executive branch of our government who gave him that permission that authority we did now by so that you don't get confused here ultimately it's

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Christ who gave him that authority Christ gave him that authority through all of us and so currently he has permission to do things on our behalf me pastor

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I have permission to do certain things very limited permission by the way as far as authority I have the authority to preach the word

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I have the authority to baptize I have the authority to administer the Lord's Supper I have the authority to forgive sins and retain them after that the details get really fuzzy

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I don't I'm pretty sure I don't have any other authority after that who gave me this authority y 'all did it was a congregational meeting he said we wanted to extend the call to this pastor so and ultimately that call comes from Christ but the call comes from Christ through y 'all so I have permission to do certain things now

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I do not have permission to do other things for instance what if I decided that in my studies that I've come to the conclusion that I'm truly embarrassed that Christianity keeps getting clobbered by these evolutionary people and that the majority of the people out there believe that we all evolved from grandma and grandpa monkey therefore

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I'm sick and tired of not being invited to all the best parties in town and so in order to get rid of this scourge this stigma of believing that well what the

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Bible says I've decided that we're just gonna not believe that anymore and so I'm gonna start teaching evolutionary theory from here and we're gonna set up a new

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Saints Day st. Charles Darwin's Day do I have authority permission to do that no not at all and see this kind of helps here a little bit here because remember when

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Jesus comes into the temple he drives the money changers out did they have authority to turn

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God's temple into a marketplace nope not at all in fact them challenging

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Jesus regarding who gave him authority to do the things that they were doing is actually quite ridiculous and that's really the subtext of all of this these fellows who were acting in ways that they had no authority to do were questioning

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Jesus who had every bit of authority to do what he did because last time

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I checked it got the authority goes all the way to the top and Jesus is what

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God in human flesh that's who he is so you remember he comes in says my house mine it's mine he claimed the authority to do what he's doing based on the fact that the

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Lord's house is his house because he's the Lord that's the idea now to help us understand this concept here then is that we oftentimes are tempted to believe or to do things that we do not have authority to believe or do in 2nd

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Timothy chapter 4 there's a prophecy given of the state of the visible church in the end times and Paul writes that in those days a time will come when people will not endure sound doctrine but they will gather to themselves preachers to but basically tell them what their itching ears want to hear and they will turn away from the truth and wander off into myths do pastors have authority to preach myths no so we got a problem here and this is where authority is a very helpful thing for us because we can ask ourselves does pastor have the authority to say the things he's saying and then furthermore do

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I have authority from God to say to believe these things or to do these things so you kind of think of it authority in the sense of belief as well as actions the two go together and I want to give you an example historically from the

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Old Testament where this concept is actually played out very interestingly in the life of Jeremiah the prophet if you want to turn over to Jeremiah chapter 27 this is a fascinating chapter actually we're going to take a look at parts of two chapters but if you're familiar with the story of Jeremiah the prophet he's the last prophet before Israel is sent into exile in Babylon for their persistent idolatry absolute persistent refusal to repent refusal to be forgiven and God finally says enough is enough

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Jeremiah is the guy who gets to deliver the enough is enough message Jeremiah's career is one as you read it you sit there and go poor

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Jeremiah but pay attention to who had authority from God to say certain things that's kind of the point we're gonna make here so Jeremiah chapter 27 we'll start in verse 1 and here's what it says in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah, Zedekiah was the king of Judah the son of Josiah the king of Judah this word came to Jeremiah from Yahweh so we know where it came from it came all the way from the top from God himself thus

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Yahweh said to me make yourself straps and yoke bars and put them on your neck so God told him to make a costume the costume involved him making for himself a yoke to wear like the oxen did in those days aren't you farmers glad that they don't do it this way anymore so he's put it he

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God says make a costume you're gonna put on yoke bars on yourself put them on your neck so this is a visual aid to what's coming next send word to the king of Edom the king of Moab the kings of the son of Ammon the king of Tyre the king of Sidon by the hand of the envoys who have come to Jerusalem to Zedekiah the king of Judah let me explain you familiar with from time to time we have foreign dignitaries visit

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Washington DC and from time to time the president of the United States puts on what's called a state dinner and so you know maybe the the guy who's in charge of the

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Prime Minister of Great Britain will be there or maybe the Prime Minister of Russia but a state dinner is a big deal and usually everybody's on their best behavior during state dinners because if you do something wrong it creates what's called an international incident you remember years ago when

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George Bush threw up on the Japanese guy that it was terrible okay they were putting on a state dinner and he wasn't feeling well and you know that created an incident international incident well

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I'm gonna explain to you here what what God is telling Jeremiah to do is to create an international incident and he has permission from God to do it it's actually quite funny when you think of the details so alright so you got the king of Tyre you got the king of Edom and Moab everybody's in town in Jerusalem for the state dinner that Zedekiah is putting on and God wants

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Jeremiah to give them this message give them this this charge to their masters thus says

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Yahweh of hosts Yahweh saba oath hosts by the way means armies and so the

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God of Israel this is what you shall say to your masters it is I who by my great power and my outstretched arm have made the earth with men and animals that are on the earth and I give it to whomever seems right to me now

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I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon my servant and I have given him also the beast of the field to serve him all the nations shall serve him and his son and his grandson until the time of his own land comes then many nations and great kings shall make him their slave but if any nation that includes everybody here in town in Jerusalem or kingdom will not serve

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Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon and put its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon hence the prop that Jeremiah is wearing

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I will punish that nation with the sword with famine and with pestilence declares the

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Lord until I have consumed it by his hand so do not listen to your prophets or your diviners or your dreamers your fortune tellers or your sorcerers who are saying to you you shall not serve the king of Babylon for it's a lie that they are prophesying to you with the result that you will be removed far from your land and I will drive you out and you will perish but any nation that will bring its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him

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I will leave on its own land to work it and to dwell there declares the Lord could you imagine so you've got this international entourage of royalty in town for the state dinner being put on Judah and there's

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Jeremiah with a big old yoke around his neck saying you got to put yourselves under the yoke and Nebuchadnezzar if you don't you're gonna die international it this was all over the

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Jerusalem times I'm just saying you kind of get the picture now as ridiculous as this all kind of sounds it's important to note who had authority here

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Jeremiah did he had it directly from God the message he was speaking not only he had permission but he was actually pushed and told by God to go and do this did this make him popular in Jerusalem let's take a look ahead now to chapter 28 and see what ends up happening and you're gonna notice a fellow rises up who does not have authority but who speaks in the name of the

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Lord 28 verse 1 that same year at the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah the king of Judah in the fifth month of the fourth year

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Hananiah the son of Azur the prophet from Gibeon spoke to me in the house of the

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Lord so isn't this fascinating same place as our gospel text today this all takes place in the temple so there's

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Jeremiah in the and guess who shows up Hananiah he's a prophet from Gibeon and here's what ends up happening so he spoke these words to me in the house of the

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Lord in the presence of the priests and the people saying thus says Yahweh of hosts the

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God of Israel I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon within two years I will bring back to this place all the vessels of the

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Lord's house which Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon took away from this place and carried to Babylon I will also bring back to this place

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Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim the king of Judah and all the exiles from Judah who went to Babylon declares the

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Lord for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon did he have permission to give this message not at all and yet you're gonna note he followed the exact prophetic template as Jeremiah invoking

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Yahweh Sabbaoth saying that this is the God of Israel who's speaking and he just gave a completely contradictory message than that of Jeremiah who had authority here did

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Hananiah have authority none whatsoever and that's kind of the rub watch the response the

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Prophet Jeremiah spoke to Hananiah the prophet in the presence of the priests and all the people who were standing in the house of the Lord and the

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Prophet Jeremiah said well a man may Yahweh do so and may Yahweh make the words that you have prophesied come true and bring back to this place from Babylon the vessels of the house of the

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Lord and all the exiles which by the way the Lord had prophesied through Jeremiah that the vessels of the house of the

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Lord would be returned to Jerusalem but not within two years 70 longer time than that so he says amen to that piece of it yet here now this word that I speak in your hearing and in the hearing of all the people the prophets who proceeded you and me from ancient times prophesied war famine pestilence against many countries and great kingdoms as far as the prophet who prophesies peace when the word of the

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Lord of that prophet comes to pass then it will be known that the Lord has truly sent the prophet and that's what

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Deuteronomy says you can tell somebody speaking the truth if they say something's gonna happen and it comes to pass then the prophet

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Hananiah get this took the yoke bars from the neck of Jeremiah Jeremiah had been wearing those for a little bit of time now continuing to make his point everybody needs to put themselves under the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar and Hananiah broke the yoke bars and Hananiah spoke in the presence of all the people saying thus says

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Yahweh even so I will break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon from the neck of all the nations within two years but Jeremiah the prophet went his way now

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I'm sure Hananiah's message oh man I bet that just scratched everybody's ears it made them feel good

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I mean oh it's kind of like a warm snuggie on a chilly autumn morning or maybe it's like getting into one of those warm jacuzzis oh we just relaxed or maybe sitting in a sauna and just letting all the stress out oh two years the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar is gonna be broken but see the reason why

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Hananiah's message was so warm was because it was heated from the fires of hell he had no authority to speak these words none whatsoever and it goes on to say sometime after the prophet

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Hananiah had broken the yoke bars from off the neck of Jeremiah the prophet the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah you go tell

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Hananiah thus says Yahweh you have broken wood bars but you have made in their place bars of iron for thus says

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Yahweh of hosts the God of Israel I have put upon the neck of all these nations an iron yoke to serve

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Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon and they shall serve him for I have given to him even the beasts of the field and Jeremiah the prophet said to the prophet

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Hananiah listen Hananiah Yahweh has not sent you you have made this people trust in a lie and that's what everybody who speaks in the name of the

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Lord who gives a message that they do not have permission to give does they cause people to trust in lies therefore thus says

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Yahweh behold I will remove you from the face of the earth this year you shall die because you've uttered rebellion against the

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Lord and that's what it is if this were in Greek and this is not a Greek text it's a Hebrew text but the

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Greek word for rebellion we all know it apostasy you've heard of apostasy that's what it is it's rebellion you have preached you've uttered rebellion against the

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Lord so we need to pay very close attention to who has authority to speak what and to do what when somebody comes along and speaks things that they do not have authority to speak or does things that they do not have authority to do then those should be the red flags make you sit there and go whoa we've got a problem here the authority is a big thing so coming back to our text then

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Jesus answered these fellows who are questioning his authority and the irony is thick I'll ask you one question

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Jesus said you tell me and then I will tell you by what authority I do these things the baptism of John the

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Baptist where did it come from from heaven or from man now consider this for a second these chief priests these elders these elders of the people they believed in baptism baptism was a

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Jewish practice at that time for the catechumens for the newbies those who are studying to become

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Jews it wasn't for those who were born into it who were lifers if you would so they didn't think they needed

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John the Baptist baptism but let me ask you this did Jesus submit to John the Baptist baptism yes he did it was a sinner's baptism but Jesus had committed no sin what was the purpose that Jesus gave for doing so in order to fulfill all righteousness so notice

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Jesus didn't consider John the baptisms baptism beneath him he got under it you see it these fellows on the other hand are now thrown into the horns of a dilemma so you're gonna notice that Jesus isn't reasoning with them saying come on here's the reason why it is this that or the other thing he just takes their unbelief pins it to the wall so you can see it for what it is so they say hmm if we say it's from heaven he'll say to this then why did you not believe him right yeah but if we say it's for man we're afraid of the crowd ah see there it is fearing people rather than God how many churches have found themselves hearing and listening and believing doctrines that they have no permission or authority to believe because the people in the congregation fear the scorn of the people who are out there in the they take

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Christianity and kind of smorgasbord get together hometown buffet it well take a little bit of this and a little bit of that but I'll leave that out it's like working through the

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Nicene Creed and kind of going I believe in one God the Father Almighty now maybe maker of heaven and earth no and of all things visible and invisible definitely not and in one

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Lord Jesus Christ the only begotten Son of God yeah sign under that begotten of his father before all worlds who knows

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God of God light of light very God of very God sounds a little high and mighty to me maybe not by whom all things were made no who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven was incarnate of the

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Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary no virgins don't give birth that wasn't true you see it that's the doctrine version of it but this also has to do with morals and over and again

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I have seen Christians and spoken with people who are Christians who are thrown on the horns of a dilemma do they believe

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God's Word or do they modify God's Word because somebody that they love is doing something that is sinful

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I remember one time having a very very difficult conversation with a mother who contacted me because her son had decided to engage in the gay lifestyle and was attracted to another fellow and she said to me how can

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God condemn my son for this he loves that fellow why would

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God condemn somebody for being in love what does God's Word reveal regarding that sin it's a sin you can't bend what is true just because somebody you love is doing different in fact that creates all kinds of conflict the type of conflict that Jesus says will lead to father against son mother against daughter and things like that you can't change the truth just because someone you love has decided that they have they've they're gonna go a different way so they feared the crowd and they say well if we say was he wasn't a prophet they fear the crowd because they thought he was a prophet so they gave

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Jesus this completely non -committal answer which is a total lie we don't know yeah well you have an opinion you haven't shared it and he said to them all right then

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I'm not gonna tell you by what authority I do these things so authority is a big deal let me ask a couple questions what are we to do as Christians what do we as Christians have the authority to hear to believe in Christ Church what do

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I have the authority as a pastor to preach in Christ Church notice it's not mine next question what are we to do when we discover that something that we believe or that we are doing that we do not have permission or authorization from God to believe or to do and by the way there are far too many ways that this happens in each of us me included far too many ways for me to begin to list them all this kind of takes some introspection on your part well the answer to what you do in this situation is actually found in our

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Old Testament text partway through our Old Testament text Ezekiel 1825 says

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God saying to the people of Israel you say that the way of the Lord is not just here now

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O house of Israel is my way not just is it not your ways that are not just you see in when

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Israel was in a similar situation they ended up blaming God and saying God this is your fault if you were just you wouldn't demand this of us and so they were actually complaining about God being not just which is silly and so God responds back and says no no

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I'm not the problem you are is my way not just it's is it not your ways that are not just when a righteous person turns away from his righteousness and does injustice which is a great way to describe sin especially sins against neighbor work through the list not honoring parents murdering committing adultery stealing slandering coveting all of these things cause you to create an injustice committed injustice against your neighbor so when the righteous person does injustice he shall die for it for injustice for the injustice that he has done he shall die again when a wicked person turns away from the witness that he has committed and does what is just and right he shall save his life because he considered and turned this is repented away from all the transgressions that he had committed he shall surely live he shall not die yet the house of Israel says the way of the

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Lord is not just O house of Israel are my ways not just is it not your ways that are not just you kind of get the gist of what's going on there you see over and again we want to blame

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God we want to blame God because we want to do this he says no and then we sit there and say it's your fault

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God you're not just this is not fair and God says no no my ways are just you are not and it requires us to repent and repentance is the daily walk of the

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Christian life so what do we do when we find that what we want to do or what we are doing or what we believe or want to believe that we do not have authority to believe or do any of those things what do we do

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Ezekiel says repent turn from your wickedness so I noted the fact that our gospel text finds us in the context of Jesus in Jerusalem at the very end of his life he's just days away in our gospel text from going to the cross and bleeding and dying for your sins and for mine and so what do we do we repent and we trust that when

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Jesus was stripped and beaten and flogged and nailed to the cross and bled and died for our sins that he bled and died for all of the different ways in which we rebel against what

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God says and have done and believe things that we do not have authority to believe or do and the good news is this is that I do have authority

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I have authority to tell you that your sins are forgiven

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Christ has given me this authority so repent believe be forgiven their fruit in keeping with repentance in the name of Jesus if you would like to support the teaching ministry of Cunzinger Lutheran Church you can do so by sending a tax -free donation to Cunzinger Lutheran Church 15950 470th

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Avenue Northwest Oslo Minnesota 56744 and again that address is

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Cunzinger Lutheran Church 15950 470th