The Gospel of Luke (#87) The Lord Silences His Critics (1) January 19, 2025

First Baptist Church Leominster

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And this morning we start a new book in the New Testament, the Paul's epistle to the

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Ephesians. Paul was writing to this church after he had learned of their faith and their love for the for the brethren, the twin evidences of salvation.

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They had come to Christ in repentance of sin and faith in Christ, but they needed to understand that although they came to believe on Christ, it was

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God in his grace that had saved them. He even had them on his heart from eternity.

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And Paul said that he once he heard of their salvation, he continually prayed for them that the

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Lord would open their eyes, their understanding, to give them an understanding in the revelation of God's will that he had saved them from eternity because of his everlasting love in Jesus Christ and by his grace causing them, all those sinners, to come to faith and repentance in Jesus Christ.

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Ephesians 1 and may we follow the apostle's example and pray for one another similarly.

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Ephesians chapter 1 Paul an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God to the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus.

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Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the

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God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

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Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him.

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In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace with which he has blessed us in the beloved.

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In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

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In him we have obtained an inheritance having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.

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In him you also when you heard the word of truth the gospel of your salvation and believed in him were sealed with the promised

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Holy Spirit who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory.

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For this reason because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and your love toward all the

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Saints I do not cease to give thanks for you remembering you in my prayers that the

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God of our Lord Jesus Christ the father of glory may give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation and the knowledge of him.

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Having the eyes of your hearts enlightened that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the

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Saints and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places.

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Far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named not only in this age but also in the one to come.

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And he put all things under his feet and gave him his head over all things to the church which is his body the fullness of him who fills all in all.

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Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we do thank you that every spiritual blessing has been given to us in Christ Jesus.

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Our election, our predestination as sons and daughters, our redemption, the forgiveness of sins, the sealing of the

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Spirit. Lord all things are given to us freely in Christ Jesus and in these things

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Lord we rejoice. And I pray Lord that the the eyes of our hearts would be enlightened that we would understand these magnificent blessings and that we would live our lives accordingly.

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And now Lord as we continue to worship you through the preaching of your word we pray that you would give Lars wisdom that you would make his voice strong so that we might hear your truth and that we would be transformed and that we would come to a fuller knowledge of you and that we would be conformed to the image of Christ.

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Thank you Lord for these things in Jesus name. Amen. Well today we arrive at Luke chapter 20.

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This is the 87th Lord's Day. We've been in the gospel of Luke. We got a few more to go.

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In our recent study of Luke's gospel we considered how the Lord Jesus after a long journey to Jerusalem from Galilee came into the temple and purged it of persons who had corrupted its purpose as a house of prayer and a place where the

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Word of God was taught. Well after he had cleansed the temple we find the

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Lord every day teaching in that temple teaching the Word of God. Now chapter 20 contains a record of some of that teaching and the reaction of those who heard him and so this will be the subject of our consideration for several weeks to come.

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And as we look over our passage we can identify various subjects of his teaching.

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I listed six here. There are more but these are the six that we want to give attention to.

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The question about Christ's authority verses 1 through 8. This led to him giving a parable of the vineyard owner sometimes described as the parable of the wicked tenants.

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The rejected stone becomes the capstone paying taxes to Caesar and he addresses teaching regarding the resurrection bodily resurrection of the dead and then lastly

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Christ questions the scribes. And so there are six episodes here in the first part of Luke chapter 20.

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And when we examine these subjects we see that they have a common theme that characterizes them.

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Each of these episodes reflects conflict between Jesus and the existing

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Jewish authorities in Jerusalem. And so first Jesus responded to the

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Jewish leaders who challenged his authority. He silenced these critics.

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Verses 1 through 8. Jesus then told a parable that foretold God overthrowing the existing leadership because of their failure to serve

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God and their position of authority. In the Jews religion. Verses 9 through 16.

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Jesus next proclaimed that though these Jewish leaders rejected him he would destroy them in the judgment.

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As a stone he would grind them to powder. Very strong words.

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The Jewish leaders then sought to discredit and trap Jesus regarding their tax liability to Caesar.

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But he again confounded their efforts in the manner that he responded to them. Verses 20 through 26.

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Well the party of the Sadducees stepped forward and posed a challenge to Jesus regarding the truth of a future bodily resurrection of the dead.

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And Jesus refuted them handily from the scriptures. And then upon the commendation of Jesus by some scribes who rejoiced that he put down the

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Sadducees. The Lord Jesus challenged and discredited them due to their absence of understanding of the scriptures of the foretold

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Messiah. And Jesus basically declares from David's writings that he is truly

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God and truly man. He was David's Lord even though he was David's son.

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And so through these episodes we read of Jesus engaging his critics and as a result he came off the great victor over them all.

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And so Jesus silenced his critics is a good summary of these episodes of Luke 20.

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And so today we will begin to address our Lord's engagement as he vanquished and silenced his critics that he had engaged in the city of Jerusalem.

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The Lord silences his critics. We'll be here a few weeks I suspect.

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And so first we read of this challenge to his authority Luke 21 through 8.

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Now it happened on one of those days as he taught the people in the temple and preached the gospel that the chief priests and the scribes together with the elders confronted him and spoke to him saying tell us by what authority are you doing these things or who is he who gave you this authority?

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But he answered and said to them I also will ask you one thing answer me the baptism of John was it from heaven or from men?

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And they reasoned among themselves saying if we say from heaven he will say why then did you not believe him?

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But if we say from men all the people will stone us for they are persuaded that John was a prophet.

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So they answered that they did not know where he was from and Jesus said to them neither will

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I tell you by what authority I do these things. Let's work through these with some explanation these verses.

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Verse one now it happened on one of those days as he taught the people in the temple and preached the gospel that the chief priests and the scribes together with the elders confronted him.

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Luke was not very precise in the chronology of this event but simply stated that this event occurred on one of those days.

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Some suggest this took place on Monday following his formal triumphant entry into Jerusalem that was on Sunday on Sunday and that may be so.

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Others I read however suggested it was on Tuesday of his passion week that this encounter took place.

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But again Luke was not precise as to when it happened only that it did indeed happen.

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Let's consider what Jesus was teaching before the crowds. Jesus taught the people and preached the gospel and so we read

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Jesus taught the people in the temple and preached the gospel. The gospel that Jesus taught the people was clearly the gospel of the kingdom we would assert.

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This was the central message of both John the Baptist and of the Lord Jesus himself.

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The kingdom of God had arrived in the person of Jesus Christ and the gospel of the kingdom was the announcement that sinners were to repent of their sins and in faith believe and submit to Jesus Christ the promised king of Israel.

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It was Jesus teaching and proclaiming this message that stirred his opposition to publicly confront and challenge him.

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The gospel of the kingdom. Now oftentimes well -meaning evangelicals reduce the content of the gospel to how

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God forgives sinners of their sins through faith in Christ Jesus. That is their understanding and definition of the gospel.

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And although that's certainly true of God's dealings to reduce the gospel to that message alone does not do justice to the full meaning of the gospel in the

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Holy Scriptures. The gospel of Jesus Christ is the gospel of the kingdom of God over which

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Jesus Christ is king. Jesus is Lord. Jesus is

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Lord is at the heart of the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is very important and has tremendous implications.

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The message of the gospel of the kingdom is set forth throughout the New Testament. When we consider the opening message of the

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New Testament, we read of the initial announcement that the days of expectation and hopefulness had arrived, the kingdom of God was at hand.

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For example, we read in the birth narrative of Jesus in Luke 1, the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary announcing the birth of the king.

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When she Mary saw him, the angel, she was troubled at his aid and consider what manner of greeting this was.

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The angel said to her, do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God and behold, you will conceive in your womb, bring forth a son.

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She'll call his name Jesus. He'll be great. He'll be called the son of the highest. And the

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Lord God will give him the throne of his father, David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom.

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There will be no end. Later in Luke 1, the record of the prophecy of Zechariah, the father of John the

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Baptist, confirms this inspired by the Holy Spirit. Zechariah foretold the kingdom that would soon be inaugurated by this son of David.

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It would be the kingdom of God in which its citizens enjoy the forgiveness of sins, the blessing promised to Abraham, even of their liberty to serve

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God without fear and in holiness. At the onset of the ministry of John the

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Baptist, we read in Matthew 3, 1 and elsewhere. John quoted a passage from Isaiah announcing the need to prepare for the onset of the promised kingdom of God.

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In those days, John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness to Judea, saying, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

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And by the way, the kingdom of heaven is the same as the kingdom of God. It is described in Matthew as the kingdom of heaven because it's principally to the

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Jewish readers and they would attempt to economize and avoid using the name

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God because they regard it as so holy. And so instead of saying the kingdom of God, they'd refer to the kingdom of heaven because that's where God was and dwelt, was out of regard.

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Some well -intentioned evangelicals, but errant evangelicals, used to distinguish that and said the kingdom of heaven is a thousand year earthly millennium, kingdom of God is our current spiritual kingdom that Jesus, of which

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Jesus is Lord now in this church age, the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God are identical in the

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Gospels. And so John the Baptist came preaching the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

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And this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the

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Lord, make his path straight. Then in Mark one, farther along in the chapter, we read of the beginning of the ministry of our

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Lord Jesus. And it identifies his central message. What did Jesus proclaim after John was put in prison?

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Jesus came to Galilee preaching, notice, the gospel of the kingdom of God, saying, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand.

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Repent and believe in the gospel. And so here the gospel is defined as the gospel of the kingdom.

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And this was the message that our Lord proclaimed throughout his Galilean ministry. We read in Matthew four at the beginning of his

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Galilean ministry, Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching what the gospel of the kingdom and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people.

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The main theme of the Sermon on the Mount was the kingdom of God, with particular emphasis on the ethics for kingdom citizens.

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How are they to live? The word kingdom is mentioned nine times in the three chapters of Matthew, five, six and seven, which contain the

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Sermon on the Mount. In fact, the entire sermon could be understood as delineating the meaning of our

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Lord's words. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. In Matthew eight, our

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Lord promised that many Gentiles would be seated along with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of God, referred to the

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Romans and Shurian. And then in Matthew nine thirty five, we have a summary of our

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Lord's preaching ministry, which is almost identical to the description of his ministry at its beginning.

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Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing every sickness and disease among the people.

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And then, of course, in Matthew twelve, eight, our Lord declared that the kingdom of God had been realized.

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But if I cast out demons by the spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you.

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All of the parables of Matthew 13 address the kingdom of God, the nature of the kingdom, in contrast to the expectation of the

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Jewish people who envisioned the promised son of David to reign over a political kingdom with physical borders in which the

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Jewish people would be preeminent over the Gentile nations. Our Lord taught that the promised kingdom of God was of a much different nature.

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It was spiritual in nature. It would eventually encompass the entire world, but there would be unconverted people under the authority of this king in his kingdom.

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Jesus is Lord over all. And even in the world, there would be among the wheat tares, unconverted people intermixed with the citizens of the kingdom.

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But the day would come when the king would judge the world, separating the wicked from the just, which speaks about the final judgment at the second coming of Christ.

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Our Lord continued to teach regarding the kingdom of God during his final journey to Jerusalem from Galilee.

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We've dealt with that now for months. This travel narrative encompasses a large section of Luke's gospel from Luke 951.

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He set his face to Jerusalem. And what we just recently saw in Luke 19 as its conclusion, his arrival,

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Jesus taught of the present realization of the kingdom. The kingdom is manifested upon his ascension from the dead and through the present age, but also the future final manifestation at his second coming.

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It's present now, and yet it will be more fully realized at his second coming.

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There's a present aspect of the kingdom, but not yet aspect also. And you have to keep that in balance.

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The Lord Jesus taught that experiencing salvation was entering his kingdom. He said, assuredly,

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I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it.

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Eternal life was a benefit of possessing the kingdom. We read, so Jesus said to them, assuredly,

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I say to you, there's no one who's left house or parents or brothers or wife or children for the sake of the kingdom of God.

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Who shall not receive many times more in this present time and in the age to come eternal life.

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Notice eternal life belongs only to citizens of the kingdom of God. On Palm Sunday, our

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Lord's entrance into Jerusalem was the arrival of the Davidic king to Jerusalem. Matthew wrote the inspired words.

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All this was done that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the prophet saying, tell the daughter Zion, behold, your king is coming to you lowly, sitting on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey.

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And here we are in the passion week in Luke chapter 20. And while in Jerusalem, our Lord during this week continued to teach about the kingdom of God.

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He declared that though he was as a capstone rejected by the builders, that is, the

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Jewish leaders alluding to his crucifixion, he would nevertheless be made the capstone. That is, the ruler, the king over the kingdom of God, which, of course, resulted from his resurrection, ascension into heaven and being seated on the throne of his father.

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Jesus Christ is Lord and Jesus declared this was the Lord's doing. And at the same time, he declared that the

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Jewish leadership of Israel would not serve as leaders in his kingdom, but rather the kingdom of God would be taken from them.

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And so Jesus declared to the Jewish leaders, therefore, I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation.

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That's a reference to this church age, a nation that buried the fruits thereof.

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Jesus was referring to him giving ruling authority to his apostles to become the new leaders of reconstituted

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Israel. The kingdom of God under a new covenant, not the old covenant at Sinai, when the physical nation, the ethnic

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Jews were constituted a political nation, a people. But Israel was reconstituted under a new covenant, and those that are in the new covenant are true disciples of Jesus Christ.

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Who believe on Jesus as Lord and are compliant to Jesus, leading them to live according to his law, the word of God.

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And so in Luke's gospel, we read of Jesus telling his apostles, but you are those who have continued with me in my trials.

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And I bestow upon you a kingdom as my father bestowed one upon me that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones doing what?

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Judging the 12 tribes of Israel, not as a trial judge passing condemnation or judgment, but judging as in the

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Old Testament sense ruling over Israel. The 12 apostles were to rule over the 12 tribes of Israel.

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And so our Lord took the stewardship of Israel from the Jewish leaders and trusted that leadership, the oversight of his 12 apostles over the 12 tribes of Israel.

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And so the apostles are leaders in the spiritual Israel of today and that the apostles witness is contained in our

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New Testament governs our faith and life within the kingdom of God. They are our judges.

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They are rulers. What we believe in is apostolic Christianity that is conveyed to us in our

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New Testament. And even at the last, when our Lord was crucified, when it was that one thief hanging next to him said,

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Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And remember, Jesus confirmed this day, you'll be with me in paradise.

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The kingdom was inaugurated with the death of Christ and most fully on his resurrection ascension.

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And so we see that through the gospels, the kingdom of God is a major theme. It's central to our

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Lord's teaching. It's associated with, yes, even identified with the gospel.

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The gospel of Jesus Christ is the gospel of the kingdom of God. And biblical scholars have recognized acknowledges reality.

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I've quoted George Ladd in the past about this in the first sentence of his chapter on the kingdom of God in his classic book,

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Theology of the New Testament. He made this statement. First statement in the chapter. Modern scholarship is quite unanimous in the opinion that the kingdom of God was a central message of Jesus.

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And I would argue that although well -intentioned evangelicals teach that the gospel is how you can have your sins forgiven through faith in Christ, that's one aspect, essential aspect, but only one aspect of the gospel, the essential good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ is

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Jesus Christ is Lord and you're not, and you better acknowledge him as Lord and believe on him and submit to him.

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Otherwise, you will not have salvation. You will not have eternal life. And so salvation is certainly includes the forgiveness of sins, but it's much more.

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It becomes you're becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ. You take up your cross daily and follow him.

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You deny yourself and you are granted a place in the everlasting kingdom of the

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Lord Jesus Christ. And so what did the Lord Jesus teach these people in Jerusalem on one of these days of this last week of his earthly ministry?

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He taught the people and he proclaimed to them the gospel. This was the gospel of the kingdom that they might be saved.

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Now, in the passage before us, we read of the religious leaders at Jerusalem opposing Jesus. It's important for us to know something of the various religious groups of that day.

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If we were to understand the motivations and reasons for all that occurred in Jerusalem through this last week of our

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Lord prior to his crucifixion. In Israel, the first century, there were groups,

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Pharisees, Sadducees, scribes and priests. There are other groups as well, but these were the main ones within established

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Judaism. Let me just describe them briefly. The Pharisees represented really the progressive party of the day.

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This was a society of men who are highly regarded by the people. They were very popular. They were from among the people, lived among the people.

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They were the teachers and pastors of the day, the Pharisees. And although they're denounced by Jesus repeatedly, there were many good and godly

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Pharisees as well. They were scattered about Nicodemus. John chapter three was a man who wanted to know the truth.

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The Pharisees had control of the synagogues and all the cities and were therefore they for therefore lived and ministered among the people.

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They were the pastors of the people. And it was apparently a large group. The first century

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Jewish and Roman historian Josephus wrote that there were about 6000 Pharisees in Palestine in the first century.

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Josephus is known to kind of embellish his numbers, but that's, you know, he was a first century primary witness.

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And so we'll defer to his assessment. Pharisees regarded as scripture what we identify as our

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Old Testament, the Hebrew scriptures. They were a people of the book, in other words.

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Unfortunately, however, they also had a second authority, which was to them as authoritative as the scripture.

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And this was the tradition of the fathers, as it was called. This was a collection of teachings about the scriptures, which had originally been oral tradition, teaching of the rabbis, but had been written down and codified, perhaps in the early second century

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B .C. To them, tradition was as binding as scripture. And this is where they went astray.

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The Lord seemed to always be challenging their perverted understandings of scripture caused by the influence of their tradition.

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The Pharisees, of course, were zealous for what they believed. They had a very rigid set of beliefs and practices.

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They believed in the uniqueness of Israel as God's covenant people. They did believe in angels.

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They believed in a future bodily resurrection, and they believed in the coming of a Davidic Messiah, a son of David.

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It is interesting that from this point in Luke's gospel, however, there's a rather strange silence regarding the religious group of the

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Pharisees. They're not mentioned again in Luke's gospel. They had been the chief source of our

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Lord's opposition throughout his ministry in Luke. But from here on through the remainder of the gospel, the

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Pharisees are not mentioned again. Why is this? Well, probably because the Pharisees were largely ministers of the people in the synagogues of the cities and villages rather than in Jerusalem proper.

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In Jerusalem, the Jewish priests and Sadducees were the dominant people in power, although there were some

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Pharisees among them. Nicodemus was among the the

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Jewish leaders on the Sanhedrin we'll talk about, but he was a Pharisee. So there were

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Pharisees in there, but they were not the dominant group in Jerusalem. The Sadducees, secondly, were the conservative party of the day.

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This was a society of men who were much smaller in number than the Pharisees. They only numbered perhaps a couple of thousand, maybe into the many hundreds.

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They were largely men comprised of the aristocracy within the nation.

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They were not a group from among the people favored by the people generally, for they were regarded as the privileged class.

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In fact, Josephus wrote of them, they only gained the will to do. The rich and powerful, they have not the people on their side, the people did not like the

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Sadducees generally. They had control of the political institutions of the day, but more importantly, for somehow some way, they were the group that represented the

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Jewish priesthood. Most of the Jewish priests in Jerusalem were Sadducees. They were centered in Jerusalem and they controlled the temple.

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The Sadducees regarded written scripture alone as authoritative, however, their understanding of what constituted the written word of God was limited to the writings of Moses, Genesis through Deuteronomy.

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He didn't accept the Psalms, the prophets, the historical writings as scripture, only the first five books of Moses.

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They rejected the authority of the written tradition, which the Pharisees adhered to so strongly.

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And they were regarded as secular by the devout Jews because the Sadducees did not believe in the bodily resurrection of the dead, if you can imagine that.

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They denied immortality, once you're dead, that's it, it's over, and they denied a future judgment, that is a final judgment of mankind, and they also didn't believe in angels, and they controlled the religion of Jerusalem and the temple.

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Of these two groups, the Pharisees and Sadducees, Josephus wrote about them, again, a

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Jewish man who had become a Roman historian for the general Titus, he watched

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Jerusalem destroyed in AD 70 and recorded the events, he wrote. But then as the two other orders at first mentioned, the

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Pharisees are those who are esteemed most skillful in the exact explication of their laws and introduced the first sect.

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These ascribe all to fate or providence from God, and yet allow that to act what is right or the contrary is principally in the power of men, they believed in free will, basically, although fate does cooperate in every action.

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They say that all souls are incorruptible, but that the souls of good men only are removed into other bodies.

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But that the souls of bad men are subject to eternal punishment. But the

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Sadducees are those that comprise the second order and take away fate entirely, because God is not in control of anything.

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Suppose that God is not concerned in our doing or not doing what is evil, they say that to act what is good or what is evil is that men's own choice, and that the one or the other belongs so to everyone that they may act as they please.

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They also take away the belief of the immortal duration of the soul, the punishments and rewards in Hades or hell.

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And moreover, the Pharisees are friendly to one another and are for the exercise of concord, concordance, they get along, wanted to get along with one another, and regard for the public, they cared for the people.

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But the behavior of the Sadducees one towards another is in some degree wild, and their conversation with those that are of their own party is as barbarous as if they were strangers to them.

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And again, they were they were the leading priests in the temple. So one can see that there must have been no love between Pharisees and the

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Sadducees, they were always fighting one another. But they did unite in their opposition to the

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Lord Jesus because he was a threat to them both. What about the scribes?

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Well, the scribes, or teachers of the law, were the experts of the Jewish religion. They were the theologians, the teachers of the day.

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Now the Pharisees were a religious party, but to be a scribe was an occupation, perhaps an office which was held.

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Most scribes were Pharisees, but the Sadducees had scribes too, loyal to Sadducees.

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And then we'll just mention the Sanhedrin, sometimes referred to as the council. This was the official governing body of Judaism respecting religious affairs, and within some limitations, the political affairs under the authority of Rome.

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So it would have been, say, the Jewish parliament of the day, it was comprised of 70 members, with a president who was also the high priest.

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At that time, and the members of the Sanhedrin lived and served in Jerusalem, they were comprised of men who were representative really of all aspects of Judaism.

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There were a few Pharisees, mostly Sadducees, on the Sanhedrin. So those are the different groups.

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And in Luke 20, we see the Lord Jesus nailing each of them, frankly. Well, here we read of the point of their challenge was of Jesus' authority in Luke 20, verse 2.

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Again, the first two verses, it happened on one of those days as Jesus taught the people in the temple, preached the gospel, that the chief priests and the scribes, together with the elders, probably the

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Sanhedrin, confronted him and spoke to him saying, tell us, by what authority are you doing these things, or who is he who gave you this authority?

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The probable point of their opposition was due to what Jesus had done forcefully in clearing the temple.

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The city was filled with people. The feast of the Passover was in a few days. The seven days of unleavened bread had already begun, and Jews from all over the

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Roman world had journeyed there. And then in a very violent manner, causing a great commotion,

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Jesus had cleared the temple of corrupt people. And so the Lord must have unsettled the entire region through his actions, and it would have caused consternation for the

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Jewish leaders on at least two fronts. First, their own authority over the people was being challenged by Jesus because they had sanctioned all those, you know, traitors in the temple courts.

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But secondly, the Jewish leadership would have been held accountable to the Roman authorities for the disruption of the city.

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Although the Jews were under Roman domination, the Roman permitted a measure of freedom for the Jews, but with conditions.

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Order was to be maintained. Taxes were to be collected. The Romans watched the

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Jews closely and moved in quickly at any sign of trouble, and it would seem the

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Jews were always stirring up trouble. Religious zealots tend to do that. Roman troops were normally headquartered in the coastal city of Caesarea up to the northwest, but during Jewish religious festivals, a large number of Jewish troops were sent to Jerusalem in order to maintain order.

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And they were quartered in the fortress Antonia, which was situated on a hill overlooking the temple area just on the west side of the of the temple wall, temple court wall.

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And the location of this pagan fortress was itself a cause of much consternation to the

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Jews. They knew that the Romans were looking down on them in their temple. And the

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Romans may have witnessed the commotion of Jesus cleansing the temple. And we can imagine the Jewish Sanhedrin was called to task about it, and they may have been told by the

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Romans they better maintain law and order or else. This is surmising, but it's reasonable to suppose this is what occurred.

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But even if this were not the case, the Jewish leaders would have been fearful for the prospect of having to answer to the

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Romans for what had occurred. Jesus was establishing, was challenging the established authority of the

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Jewish leaders. And so they came to challenge his authority. And note when it was a challenge him, it was at the very time he was preaching the gospel to the preacher, to the people.

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Verse one. Rather than these religious leaders rejoicing in the truth and rejoicing in the fact

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God's word was proclaimed to the people out of concern for their own authority, their own self -interest, they confronted and challenged

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Jesus. Matthew Henry wrote regarding this kind of opposition to the gospel.

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Men often pretend to examine the evidences of revelation, the truth of the gospel, when only seeking excuses for their own unbelief and disobedience.

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Good word of application. Christ answered these priests and scribes with a plain question about the baptism of John, which the common people could answer.

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They all knew it was from heaven. Nothing in it had an earthly tendency. Those that bury the knowledge they have are justly denied further knowledge.

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Jesus didn't pander to them. It was just with Christ to refuse to give account of his authority to those who knew the baptism of John to be from heaven, yet would not believe in him nor their own knowledge.

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And then another commentator, Norval Geldenhise, in his commentary on Luke, described the dilemma of the

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Jewish leadership. The purification of the temple by Jesus was indeed a drastic interference in the religious life of the

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Jewish people. Only a person who was invested with the very highest religious authority in the religious sphere among the

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Jews would have been able to venture on bringing about even a slight measure of reform. In matters concerning the temple, so it was natural,

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I think Geldenhise is giving them a little benefit of the doubt. So it was natural for the Jewish authorities to ask him on whose authority he had acted.

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They no doubt hope he would give a reply to their question in a manner that would bring him into disfavor with the multitude.

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They had, however, grossly miscalculated, which is certainly truism.

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And then John Calvin, he seems to always have a good word, commented on the challenge leveled against Jesus regarding his authority.

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But when the divine majesty of Christ had been attested by so many miracles, they act maliciously and wickedly in inquiring whence he came, from where he came, as if they had been ignorant of all that he had done.

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For what could be more reasonable than that, after seeing the hand of God openly displayed and carried in the lame and blind, they should doubt if he were a private individual who had rashly assumed this authority.

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Besides, more than enough evidence had already been laid before them that Christ was sent from heaven, so that nothing was farther from their wish than to approve the performances of Christ after having learned that God was the author of them.

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Remember Nicodemus in John chapter three, he came to Jesus by night. We know you're of God, for no man can do these things you do unless God be with him.

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Nicodemus was a member of the Sanhedrin. He knew that Jesus was of God, and these people knew too, they just refused to admit it.

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They therefore insist on this, that he is not a lawful minister of God because he had not been chosen by their votes, as if the power had dwelt solely with them.

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But though they had been the lawful guardians of the church, and Calvin sees the church as all believers throughout both testaments, still it was monstrous to rise up against God.

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We now understand why Christ did not make a direct reply to them. It was because they wickedly and shamelessly interrogated him about a matter which was well known.

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It was not a sincere inquiry on their part. These Jewish leaders sought to discredit

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Jesus as he was preaching the gospel to the people. And as again, Matthew Henry once noted, note,

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Satan and his agents do all they can to hinder the preaching of the gospel to the people, for nothing weakens the interest of Satan's kingdom more.

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Amen. Matthew Henry. So how did Jesus answer their challenge?

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Verses three and four, when he answered and said to them, I also will ask you one thing, answer me, the baptism of John, was it from heaven or from men?

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And so the Lord wouldn't answer them directly. Jesus answered their question with a question.

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Jesus posed a question that would have led to an answer to their question if they answered the question of Jesus honestly.

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And the footnote in the Reformation Study Bible gives this comment on these verses. Jesus is not avoiding their question.

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John has testified that Jesus is the Messiah. If they answer Jesus's question, they will have the answer to their own.

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Then we read in verses five and six, their response to our Lord's question. They reason among themselves, saying, if we say from heaven, he'll say, why then did you not believe him?

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But if we say from men, all the people will stone us for their persuaded John was a prophet.

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So they answered that they did not know where it was from. And so the chief priests and scribes felt the need to consult with one another before answering

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Jesus's question posed to them. They had attempted to discredit Jesus before the crowds, but Jesus turned it about.

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And the result was that they would be discredited before the crowds. And would have even been stoned by them if they answered the question honestly.

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And as one wrote, Spurgeon, the question our Lord put to the chief priests and elders was simple enough.

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Had they been honest men, but as they had a game to play, they could not reply without great difficulty.

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An honest man or woman doesn't have that problem if they're always speaking the truth. They had not recognized the legitimacy of the ministry of John the

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Baptist, but the people had. So we see these religious leaders for what they are. They're really unconcerned about the truth, but they are concerned about how the people regarded them or about the possible consequences of what they would say.

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They refused to answer Jesus, so he refused to answer them. The point is that they had recognized the legitimacy of John's ministry or if they would have, they would have also recognized the legitimacy of Jesus in his ministry.

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And then Jesus gave them a parable, a parable of the vineyard owner, sometimes called the parable of the wicked tenants.

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But we'll have to address that next time. Now, let's consider a principle or just a general way of application that there is opposition to the gospel by both ecclesiastical and political authority.

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This is what Jesus faced, and this is what the people of God have always faced throughout all of human history.

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Throughout the history of the world, the people of God have suffered the oppression and persecution of both ecclesiastical, and we mean by that religionist, and political authorities.

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It comes in those two forms. God declared at the fall of man into sin that there would be enmity, there would be enmity between his people and the people of the fallen world.

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Genesis 315, God said to the servant, I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed.

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He shall bruise your head, speaking about Jesus conquering the devil on the cross, and you shall bruise his heel, speaking about the devil crucifying

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Jesus. The footnote in the Reformation Study Bible gave one aspect of this condition in the fallen world.

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Humanity, all the way back in Genesis 3, is now divided into two communities, the redeemed, who love

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God, and the reprobate, who love self. The division finds immediate expression in the hostility of Cain against Abel, he killed his brother.

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This prophecy finds ultimate fulfillment in the triumph of the second Adam, and the community united with him over the forces of sin, death, and the devil.

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But it is what has continued throughout human history. The hostility and persecution by both religious and civil authority of the people of God is manifested throughout the

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Old Testament record. The people of God suffered the persecution and enslavement of the

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Egyptians, 400 years, and then the assault and danger of the

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Canaanites in the land. Later still, the Assyrian Babylonian empires, and after them, the

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Greek and Seleucid, the Greek Seleucid and Ptolemaic Egyptian kingdoms, that were the kingdoms that were divided after Alexander the

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Great died in 322 BC. But apart from these civil worldly authorities that persecuted the people of God, the corrupt religious authorities also afflicted the people of God throughout the

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Old Testament. And this was seen in the many evil kings of both Israel and Judah, and was particularly evident in their unified maltreatment and persecution of the prophets of God.

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Jesus denounced the Jewish religious leaders. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you build the tombs of the prophets, adorn the monuments of the righteous.

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Oh, you look back and you say you were all for them. If we had lived in those days of our father, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.

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But Jesus basically says, you're among them, and you're accountable and responsible. Therefore, you are witnesses against yourself that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets.

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Fill up, then, the measure of your father's guilt, serpents, brood of vipers. How can you escape the damnation of hell?

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Rhetorical question implying you're not escaping. And therefore, indeed,

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I send you prophets, wise men, scribes. Some of them you will kill, crucify. Some of them you will scourge in your synagogues, persecute from city to city, so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous

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Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.

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Surely, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. And that's what happened in AD 70, when the

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Lord sent the Roman armies to destroy Jerusalem, conquer that people.

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But ecclesiastical and political opposition and persecution would not end with the cross of Christ, when the serpent's head was bruised, that is, when his authority was deposed.

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For in the next chapter of Luke's Gospel, we read of our Lord telling his disciples they would encounter this opposition in the future.

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Jesus told them that before the end of the age will come, before the second coming, they'll lay their hands on you, persecute you, delivering you up, notice, to the synagogues and prisons.

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You will be brought before kings and rulers for my name's sake, but it will turn out for you as an occasion for testimony.

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Take note, the Lord said this opposition would come upon them from both ecclesiastical authorities,

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Jewish synagogues, and political authorities, prisons, kings, and rulers. And this was certainly reflected in the early decades of the

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Christian era, and has continued throughout this church age. It was the church father,

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Tertullian, in the second century, that famously set forth the idea, the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.

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He didn't say that specific clause, but he did express the truth that was later developed.

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Tertullian lived in Carthage, North Africa, when the persecution of Christians by the Roman Empire was intense.

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It began around AD 100 and went all the way to early 300s.

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At that time, Christians were fed to the lions, beaten, sawed in half, killed by the sword, burned in fire, chained in prisons.

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And Tertullian wrote that the more Rome persecuted Christians, the more greatly they multiplied. And later,

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Tertullian's assertion was modified by Augustine of Hippo, who asserted in a sermon, the earth has been filled with the blood of the martyrs as with seed, and from that seed have sprung the crops of the church.

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They have asserted Christ's cause more effectively when dead rather than when they were alive.

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They assert it today. They preach him today. That is, the dead Christians in their martyrdom preach him today.

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Their tongues are silent. Their deeds echo around the world. They were arrested, bound in prison, brought to trial, tortured, burned at the stake, stoned to death, run through, fed to wild beasts, and all their kinds of death they were jeered at as worthless, but precious in the sight of the

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Lord is the death of his saints. Of course, the persecution of the

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Roman Empire came to an end with the enthronement of Constantine, who claimed to conquer

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Rome on behalf of Christ. But it was not long after the political persecution of the pagans came to an end with Constantine that the religious persecution began under the

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Pontiffs of Rome. Roman Catholicism opposed and sought to discredit and extinguish any and all persons and peoples who resisted

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Roman authority over their faith and practice. And so there were communities of true

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Christians which sprung up in Southern Europe that were extinguished by Roman Catholic armies under papal authority.

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This is history. It happened for a thousand years. These included groups as the

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Albigensians, the Waldensians, the Huguenots, who were French Protestants.

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The evangelical churches in the valley of the Piedmont famously were slaughtered.

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They were Waldensians. Of this last group, the evangelical churches in the valley of the

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Piedmont, there's an entire biography or book about them. Many of the Waldensians, to avoid the persecutions to which they were continually subjected in France, went and settled in the valleys of Piedmont, where they increased exceedingly and flourished very much for a considerable time.

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Though they were harmless in their behavior, inoffensive in their conversation, the way they lived, paid tithes to the

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Roman clergy, yet the latter could not be contented but wished to give them some disturbance.

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They accordingly complained to the Archbishop of Turin that the Waldenses of the valleys of the

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Piedmont were heretics. For these reasons, they did not believe in the doctrines of the Church of Rome, that they made no offerings or prayers for the dead, that they did not go to Mass, that they did not confess and receive absolution, seek forgiveness from a

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Catholic priest, that they did not believe in purgatory or pay money to get the souls of their friends out of it.

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And upon these charges, the Archbishop ordered the persecution to be commenced and many fell martyrs to the superstitious rage of the priests and monks.

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They were slaughtered off. It was genocide. And that happened many, many times in many places.

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We didn't have time to talk about the whole Inquisition. The formation of the

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Jesuits was to be the enforcement arm of Papal Rome, forcing so -called heretics to come back into the fold.

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And they would even torture them if they could get a confession from them that indeed, you know, the

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Pope was the vicar of Christ or, you know, Mary was a perpetual virgin or whatnot.

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And they would torture these people. Whatever it took, even by holding their feet to the fire and burning their feet, if it brought about repentance and a return to Rome, they were doing their souls good.

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And so the Inquisition, horrendous. They went on for hundreds of years by Rome.

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Nevertheless, God continued to raise up men who stood and spoke for the truth of God's word against the errors held and taught by corrupt ecclesiastical authority.

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Men like John Wycliffe, who translated the Bible into English. John Hus, the reformer near Prague, Czechoslovakia.

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Savonarola of Florence, who was a Catholic priest who became much evangelical in his understanding and was contrary to the

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Pope and the Mass and whatnot. They killed him. And after the onset of Protestant Reformation, ecclesiastical persecution continued.

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And even Protestant denominations persecuted those people and groups that would not adhere to their doctrines or submit to their authority.

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And much of this was because of state church relationships. And so Protestants persecuted the

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Anabaptists and persecuted Jews terribly. The Puritans in England and here in New England suffered persecution, deprivation from both

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Roman Catholic and Church of England authority, so -called Protestant. And most everyone is familiar with the story of John Bunyan, the author of Pilgrim's Progress.

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He was jailed for 12 years because he refused to stop preaching the word of God in his community and church.

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He could have been released had he just agreed, I'll no longer preach. It was only a three -month sentence, but they wouldn't let him out until he made that commitment.

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He never did until finally England changed the law. And then he was released.

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I wrote a little bit about that jail sentence. It's not in the sermon notes, but it's at the end on page 11.

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We're not going to deal with that, but I put that there for your interest. And here in Massachusetts and Connecticut, the established but corrupt congregational denomination, the

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Congregationalist churches controlled Massachusetts. It was a state church until 1833.

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One such man was Isaac Bacchus, persecuted by them. He was converted under the preaching of George Whitefield in the

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Great Awakening in the 1740s, but then he became a Baptist in Connecticut, Norwich.

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Bacchus and his Baptist churches, of which he founded over 50. He died in 1805 at the beginning of the

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Second Great Awakening. They suffered oppression, confiscation of their properties because of their refusal to pay a 10 % tax to support the established state clergy of the

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Congregationalists. So here are a few words of a letter written to him by his elderly mother in Connecticut.

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Norwich, 1752. My dear son, I've heard something of the trials amongst you of late. He was persecuted.

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He was attendant at the First Continental Congress, and it was largely through Isaac Bacchus' influence, who influences

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James Madison, that we have the first amendment in the Bill of Rights, religious liberty.

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It was Isaac Bacchus' influence. I've heard something of the trials amongst you of late.

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I was grieved till I had strength to give up the case to God and leave my burden there, and now I would tell you something of our trials.

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Your brother Samuel lay in prison 20 days. October 15th, the collectors came, and again, they're coming to collect the tax, and they felt they couldn't do that in honesty to support the corrupt leadership.

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By that time, many were heretics. Came to our house and took me away to prison about 9 o 'clock in a dark and rainy night.

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Brother Hill and Sabins were brought there the next night. We lay in prison 13 days and were then set at liberty, by what means

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I know not. And whilst I was there, a great many people came to see me, and some said one thing, some said another.

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Oh, the innumerable snares and temptations that beset me, more than I ever thought before.

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Oh, the condescension of heaven. Though I was bound when I was cast into the furnace.

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She's alluding to the three Hebrew youths cast in the furnace in the first portion of Daniel.

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Though I was bound and cast into the furnace, yet I was loosed and found Jesus in the midst of the furnace with me.

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Oh, then I could give up my name, estate, family, life, and breath freely to God, and now the prison looked like a palace to me.

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I could bless God for all the laughs and scoffs made at me. Oh, the love that flowed out to all mankind.

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Then I could forgive as I would desire to be forgiven, and love my neighbor as myself.

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Deacon Griswold was put in prison on the 8th of October, and yesterday Old Brother Grover, and they are in pursuit of others, all which calls for humiliation.

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This church is appointed the 13th of November, Baptist Church in Norwich, Connecticut, to spend in prayer and fasting on that account.

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I do remember my love to you and your wife and the dear children of God with you, begging your prayers for us in such a day of trial.

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We are all in tolerable health, expecting to see you, these from your loving mother,

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Elizabeth Bacchus. That was here in America, here in New England.

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Well, our Lord Jesus said there'd be difficulty and persecution brought upon his people by both ecclesiastical and political powers.

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They'll lay hands on you, persecute you, delivering you up to synagogues, religious, and prisons, political.

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You'll be brought before kings and rulers for my name's sake, but it will turn out for you as an occasion for testimony, as Sertullian Augustine declared.

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But we should recognize these events, these kinds of experiences, are not to be relegated to historic events for this persecution of the

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Lord's people and churches is conducted throughout the world today. Here's one report

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I just pulled down, quick stats. Nearly 4 ,500 Christians were murdered for their faith in 2024.

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Over 7 ,600 churches and Christian properties were attacked in 2024. Over 200 ,000

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Christians were forced from their homes and do hiding for their faith. In the five countries persecuting

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Christians most, North Korea, Somalia, Yemen, Libya, Sudan.

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May the Lord bless and protect and preserve his people and the tribulation they're facing in the fallen world. And I included this, but I thought about the hundreds of people that have already received these notes today.

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In Kenya, in India, in Pakistan, I heard from a young man, he looks 20, but has a church in Pakistan, Muslim Pakistan, who wrote me this week.

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And he won't even tell me what town he's in because he doesn't want it on the internet. It would make him and his group vulnerable.

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May the Lord bless and protect and preserve his people and the tribulation they're facing in the fallen world.

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But may we be very grateful and thankful for the liberty we continue to enjoy in these United States.

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And I was thinking about these people who are reading this who are not experiencing this as we enjoy.

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May we not take it for granted at all. May we always be concerned for these people and pray for them.

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A week doesn't go by, I don't hear from Pastor Prem, pray for us because of the persecution of the culture, the

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Hindu culture and the oppressive Hindu government there in Southeast India as they try and further the kingdom of God.

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May the Lord preserve them in their trials and afflictions. And may we not be hardened and take things for granted what

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God has so wonderfully given us. He's given us freedom, he's given us liberty, but it comes with responsibility, doesn't it?

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Accountability, how are we using our liberty? I trust that it's to serve the

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Lord and his kingdom. Amen? Let's pray. Thank you, Father, for your word and for the wisdom, our

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Lord Jesus, that you displayed in confronting and refuting your detractors.

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Give us wisdom, our God, that we would know how to respond to those, Lord, that would withstand us who claim they want to know or understand, but in reality it's just a cloak of maliciousness attempting to discredit us.

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Help us, our God, to be wise, to clearly take the gospel to needy souls, but at the same time be wise not to cast our pearls before swine, as you warned us.

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And so give us grace and wisdom, our God. Bless our church as we attempt to live for you in this new year, for we pray these things,