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.

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Matthew, chapter 21, verses 23 through 32. Please stand. Jesus entered the temple courts, and while He was teaching, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to Him.

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By what authority are you doing these things, they asked, and who gave you this authority?

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Jesus replied, Well, I will also ask you one question. If you answer me,

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I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things. John's baptism. Where did it come from?

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Was it from heaven or from men? So they discussed it among themselves, and they said,

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Well, if we say from heaven, He will ask them, Why didn't you believe Him? But if we say from men, we're afraid of the people, for they all hold that John was a prophet.

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So they answered Jesus, We don't know. And then He said, Well, neither will I tell you by what authority

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I am doing these things. What do you think? There was a man who had two sons.

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He went to the first, and he said, Son, go and work today in the vineyard. I will not, he answered.

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Later, he changed his mind, and he went. Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing, and he answered,

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I will, sir. But he did not go. Which of the two did what his father wanted?

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The first, they answered. Jesus said to them, I tell you the truth. The tax collectors and the prostitutes, they're entering the kingdom of God ahead of you.

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For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him. But the tax collectors and the prostitutes did.

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And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe. This is the gospel of the

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Lord. In the name of Jesus. Sometimes the assigned gospel text feels like when you're flipping channels, and you find a really compelling movie playing on one channel, but it started 40 minutes ago.

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You ever have that happen? I've kind of given up on TV for such reasons. I like the on -demand stuff now, so that way

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I don't have to miss anything. So today's text, well, it's kind of like that. It begins with Jesus in Jerusalem entering the temple courts and beginning to teach.

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Now while Jesus is teaching, the chief priests and the elders interrupt Jesus and demand to see

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Jesus' credentials by asking him, by what authority are you doing these things?

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Notice the religious leaders, they don't believe in Jesus. Strange, isn't it?

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And you have religious leaders who claim to be worshiping the same God that Jesus is, and they don't actually believe in him.

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How do the kids say it nowadays? Awkward, right? They don't know who they're dealing with here.

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So this is straight out rank unbelief cloaked in religion. So of course they're asking for Jesus' credentials, and this begs the question, what things exactly are the things that they were referring to when they asked the question, by what authority are you doing these things?

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It kind of makes a good, well, what things, right? That's the point. We've kind of started in the middle of the story.

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The movie's 40 minutes in, right? So this requires us to apply our three rules for sound biblical exegesis in order to understand what is going on in this text.

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So if you have your pew Bible, open up to Matthew chapter 21. We're going to start at verse 1.

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We're going to get a little bit of context. And you'll notice that this is a text that deals with what we normally call

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Holy Week. This is Jesus' last week on earth, and it begins with his triumphal entry into Jerusalem.

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We'll pay close attention to some of the details here. Here's what it says. Tell them that the

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Lord needs them, and he will send them right away. There's kingly messianic things going on here.

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And it's nice that Jesus didn't come in on a white war stallion. That would have been a bad sign, right?

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So that's actually, if you read the book of Revelation, that's kind of how he comes the second time.

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He ain't riding a donkey. He's on a war horse. We continue, though. Well, this isn't going to go over very well with the religious leaders.

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There's the crowd. All these pilgrims coming into Jerusalem for the Passover.

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And Jesus, rather than coming in on foot like all the other pilgrims, he comes in on a colt full of a donkey, and the crowd addresses him and praises him and declares him to be the son of David.

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Big deal. Big deal. So Jesus' first task, once he gets into Jerusalem, is not going to be very fun for the chief priests and the elders.

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So when Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, Who is this? The crowds answered, This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth and Galilee.

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So Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves.

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Pay close attention to what he says here. He says, It is written, he said to them,

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My house will be a house of prayer, but you're making it a den of robbers.

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Jesus enters the temple and says it's his house. This is part of what's going on in the background with the chief priests and the elders saying,

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By what authority are you doing these things? Jesus goes into the temple as if he owns the place.

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Well, he does. He's God. In fact, the temple itself was a type and shadow that points us to Jesus.

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Because the book of Hebrews makes it clear that the blood of animals and beasts never cleansed people from sins.

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The thing that cleansed people from sins is the once for all sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

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And so the temple points to Jesus. In other words, you can say that Jesus, the temple enters the temple.

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Right. It's great stuff. Lots of good things going on here. And then it says this.

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Then the blind and lame came to him at the temple. He healed them. So right there in the presence of the chief priests and the elders and the people, there are people who are blind, who are lame, and they are walking and they are seeing.

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There's miracles going on left and right, right? But, you've got to love the but.

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Oftentimes, but is a verbal eraser. It erases the thing before it, right? That's a big but.

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So, but when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple area,

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Hosanna to the son of David, it should say, and they praised

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God. It says they were indignant. So they took issue.

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Do you hear what these children are saying? They asked him. Yes, he replied.

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Have you never read from the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise? Jesus quoting

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Psalm 8, applying it to himself. He's got a major God complex, right?

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Yeah, that's because he is God. So, that's our kind of initial pass as to what's going on.

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So, by what authority are you doing these things? Let's fill in a little bit more data. We'll keep reading. So, after this day one,

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Jesus left them and went out to the city of Bethany where he spent the night. So, day one in Jerusalem is finished.

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He goes to Bethany, spends the night. And here's what it says. Early in the morning as he was on his way back to the city, he was hungry.

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And seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except for leaves.

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Then he said to it, may you never bear fruit again. Immediately the tree withered. Now, a lot of people go, what's this all about?

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What's with this withering fig tree thing? Well, there's something going on here.

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There's a theme that Matthew puts into his gospel. And this goes back to John the Baptist.

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I'll explain it in a minute. So, let's fill out the text. And then I'll take you to the John the Baptist text and you'll begin to see.

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When you compare these two, you can see what's going on. There's this trees without fruit theme going on here.

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And so, Jesus curses the fig tree. In a sense, it's kind of like a visual parable.

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So, you have to look in the text. Who are these trees without fruit? Well, it's the Pharisees.

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That's what's going on. Jesus curses the tree without fruit. But let's continue. So, immediately the tree withered.

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When the disciples saw this, they were amazed. How did the fig tree wither so quickly, they asked. Because Jesus told it to.

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That's how that works. Yeah, he's God. So, Jesus replied, I tell you the truth. If you have faith and do not doubt, not only will you do what was done to the fig tree, but you can also say to this mountain, the mountain is the temple mount, go throw yourself into the sea and it will be done.

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If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer. So, there's our setup.

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Now, we've done a quick synopsis. We're now 40 minutes into the movie. We know what's going on.

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So, back to the point where we picked up the story, where we're flipping the channels and we dropped in on the story. Jesus entered the temple courts while he was teaching.

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Teaching, while he was teaching. The chief priests and the elders, the people came to him. By what authority are you doing these things, they asked.

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I mean, this would be like if somebody came into Kongsvinger right now, in the middle of my sermon, and started having a challenge, you know, started challenging me.

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By what authority are you preaching, Pastor Roseborough? You know, it would be that, it's that kind of awkward.

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In the middle of his teaching. So, he gave, and who gave you this authority?

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Jesus replied, I will also ask you one question. If you answer me, I will tell you by what authority

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I'm doing these things. John's baptism. Where did it come from? Was it from heaven or from men?

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Now, let me remind you what took place earlier in the gospel of Matthew, if you want to flip back to Matthew chapter 3.

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Now you're going to understand what the fig tree is all about. And you'll get, let's just put it this way.

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John the Baptist, he needed a PR guy to kind of smooth out the relationship between him and the

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Pharisees. No, it wasn't a very good relationship, okay? Let me read to you.

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Now, in those days, John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

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Right, this is the one, right, who was prophesied, would be the forerunner of Christ. For this is he who was spoken by the prophet

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Isaiah when he said, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord and make his path straight.

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Now, John wore a garment of camel's hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey.

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A little funny note here. Have you ever seen those companies that try to take advantage of Christians in a sense?

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Have you ever seen Ezekiel bread and things like that? We've got a biblical recipe. My question is why there's no diet company out there selling the

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John the Baptist diet. It's biblical. I just don't think it would go over very well.

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Just had to put that in there. All right. So he wore a garment of camel's hair, a leather belt around his waist, his food was locusts and wild honey, and then

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Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him, and they were baptized by him in the river.

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Get this, confessing their sins. The preaching of repentance.

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They're confessing their sins. And we have this from another text, that his baptism is for the forgiveness of sins.

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Cleansing. Now, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the elders and chief priests, they didn't think themselves needing to have their sins forgiven, especially by somebody the likes of John the

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Baptist, right? So here's what it says. But when he saw many of the

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Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, they were coming from Jerusalem.

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The check -em -out headquarters sent them on an exploratory mission, right? So here's what it says.

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You can kind of throw into this. He spit a grasshopper leg at them, and then he said,

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You brood of vipers. Translation, you whose moms are snakes.

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And this is kind of how that gets translated. Not good PR, okay? Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

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Bear fruit in keeping with repentance, and do not presume to say to yourselves,

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We have Abraham as our father. For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.

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And even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree, therefore, that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

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Wow. By the way, that explains why we just read, in the context, why

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Jesus withers the fig tree. A fig tree, a tree not bearing any fruit.

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He withers it. Why? That's the visual parable. Who are the trees without fruit?

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Oh, it's these religious guys. These religious guys who claim that they keep the law, but you know what?

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They don't believe in Jesus. They don't trust him. They don't think they need their sins forgiven.

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They're not about to get in the waters of the Jordan with the prostitutes, with the tax collectors.

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Are you kidding me? We're holier than that. We have Abraham as our father.

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And John the Baptist sees them for what they are, hypocrites, who cover their evil with religious piety.

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And all the while, it's unbelief. They don't actually believe at all. Scary, isn't it?

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They are trees that don't have any fruit. So every tree, therefore, that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

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So there you go. John the Baptist preaching. There's the context. So Jesus asks this question.

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There's the Pharisees, right? They're not even at square one.

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These are the people who refuse to believe the message of John the Baptist. They refuse to believe him, that the

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Messiah was coming, that the kingdom of heaven was at hand. They refuse to repent. So Jesus takes them back to square one.

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Okay, with his little challenge question. All right, you guys want to know by what authority? Well, let me ask you a question, okay?

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John the Baptist, his baptism, was it from God or from man?

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The Bible commentator, Dr. Paul Kretzmann writes, it says, Jesus' question placed them in a dilemma.

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By what authority John the Baptist had performed the work of his ministry, and especially his baptizing?

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They considered the matter very carefully among themselves. They carefully weighed a possible answer which would not compromise them.

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But there was only this alternative. In one case, they invited a censure of Christ.

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Why? For not believing John. On the other, they, well, risked the hatred of the people.

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Oh, you can't have that. See, one of the things about religious power is it's based upon the adulation of the people.

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You don't want to upset the people. Oh, we can't say that it was from man because the people would be upset and our approval ratings would plummet, right?

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So, if John had divine authority for his baptism,

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Paul Kretzmann continues, there was no excuse for their opposition to him. None. If it truly was from God, there's no excuse.

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Their refusal to believe, there's no excuse for it. On the other hand, if they should dare to express their belief, this is what they really believed, that John the

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Baptist's baptism had no divine authority, well, the hatred of the people could easily have made it more than unpleasant for them.

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So, the religious leaders, they preferred to give no answer at all, thereby absolving

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Jesus from the necessity of answering their question. Close quote. Hmm.

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Wow. If they had to admit that John had divine authority, how much more did the teaching in the miracles of Jesus that he had just performed in their presence, gave sight to the blind, healed the lame, in the temple, day one, right?

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How much more did the teaching in the miracles of Jesus argue for his being sent by God himself?

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They knew by whose authority Jesus was acting. Who else but God can give the ability to somebody who's lame to walk?

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Who else but God can give sight to the blind? In other words, their unbelief, the

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Pharisees' unbelief, it's rank immorality. It's a breaking of the first table of the law.

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You will have no other gods before me. There's the one true God in human flesh, and you don't believe.

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What's your God then? Your piety, your self, your power, your money? What is it?

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Sure isn't God. But here's the thing. Unbelievers cannot deny the evidence of Scripture, and yet they don't want to accept the truth.

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So therefore, unbelievers, lies, evasions, excuses, slander, these are their only weapons.

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This is what they're reduced to. You don't want to believe the truth? The only thing you've got left is to tell lies, and that's what these guys do, right?

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So the text continues. So they disgusted among themselves and said, well, if we say it's from heaven, he'll ask, well, why didn't you believe him?

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But if we say it's from men, which is what they believed, we're afraid of the people, for they all hold that John was a prophet.

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So they answered, we don't know. And they said, neither will I tell you by what authority I'm doing these things. And then comes the parable.

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What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, son, go and work today in the vineyard.

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I will not, he answered. But later he changed his mind and went. Now notice, according to Jesus' own explanation of the parable, the son who says,

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I will not, that's like the tax collectors. That's like the prostitutes.

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I will not. But later changed his mind, changed his mind, repented.

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That's what that means. Later he repented and went. Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing.

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He answered, I will, sir. But he did not go. Which of the two did what his father wanted?

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The first they answered. So both sons, both of them, they were approached with the same questions, same words.

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One piously said, sure, dad, I'll go and work. But in spite of his apparent eagerness and politeness, he set aside both his father's authority and his duty to obey as a son.

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All cloaked in, sure, dad. The other, who's rude and kind of in the father's face, upon second thought he went and worked for his father.

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But this kind of begs the question here, because we want to make this clear. We're not saved by our works. In the

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Gospel of John, chapter 6, verses 28 and 29, here's what it says. So then they came to Jesus and said, what must we do to be doing the works of God?

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What must we be doing to do the works of God? Jesus answered, this is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.

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That's the work of God. All other works, serving your neighbor and piety, true piety, they all flow from belief.

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Without faith, it's impossible to please God, Hebrews 11 says, right? So what's the work of God?

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To believe. And this is what Jesus is getting to the point at here. And this is what he's pointing to, their rank unbelief.

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This is the problem of these religious leaders. Religious leaders, they don't believe. It seems oxymoronic, does it not?

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You're a religious leader and you don't believe. The two should not mix, right?

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What must we be doing to do the works of God? Believe in the one whom the Father has sent. Back to the text.

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So then the parable ends this way. Jesus said to them, I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes, they're entering the kingdom of God ahead of you.

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What a slap in the face. The tax collectors and the prostitutes are the ones whom the

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Pharisees and the religious leaders had thrown out of the synagogue. And they believed.

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They believed the message of John the Baptist about the coming Messiah. They believed and they confessed their sins.

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They believed and they were baptized. The Pharisees needed Jesus' forgiveness every bit as much as any tax collector or prostitute ever did.

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And they persisted in unbelief. So there's the slap.

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The tax collectors and the prostitutes, they're coming into the kingdom ahead of you. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe

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John the Baptist. So by what authority is Jesus doing these things?

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He's doing these things by the authority of the Father and by the authority of the fact that he's God the

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Son in human flesh. Let me remind you what it says in the Gospel of Mark 2. This is kind of the first signs of what

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Jesus really truly has the authority to do. It says this, when he, Jesus, returned to Capernaum, after some days it was reported that he was at home, and many were gathered together so that there was no room, no more room, not even at his door.

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And he was preaching the word to them. And they came, bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men.

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And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him. And when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay.

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And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, Son, your sins are forgiven.

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Now, some of the scribes sitting there, questioning in their hearts, why does this man speak like this?

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He's blaspheming. Who can forgive sins except for God alone? And immediately Jesus, perceiving in his spirit what they thus questioned within themselves, he said to them, why do you question these things in your hearts?

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Which is easier to say to the paralytic, your sins are forgiven, or to say, rise and take up your bed and walk?

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But so that you may know, so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.

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He said to the paralytic, I say to you, rise, pick up your bed and go home.

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And he rose and immediately picked up his bed and went out before them all, so that they were all amazed and glorified

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God saying, we have never seen anything like this. That's right.

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Jesus has the authority to forgive sins. That's what he has the authority to do.

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And remember Matthew 28, the Great Commission. Here's what it says. And when they saw him, Jesus, after the resurrection, they worshipped him, but some doubted.

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Jesus said to them, all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. All authority. Jesus has it all now.

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Died and rose again. He has all authority. There isn't a single ruler on the planet, in the kingdoms of men that has not been signed off on by Jesus.

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All authority has been given to me. So go therefore, and here's what he tells us to do.

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Make disciples of all nations, baptizing. Baptizing, what's baptism for? It's for the forgiveness of sins, the

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Apostle Peter says in Acts chapter 2. Baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. And teach, teach them to observe all that I have commanded you.

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Behold, I am with you always, even at the end of the age. So Jesus has all authority. He has the authority to forgive sins.

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To absolve sinners. He's given me the authority to declare to you that you're forgiven.

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And to preach his word, only his word. Only the things that he's commanded. This is what I have the authority to do.

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And all of this for this reason. That like the tax collectors and the prostitutes, you will believe.

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And by believing, be forgiven. And by being forgiven, have life eternal. Jesus has the authority to give you eternal life.

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And I'm here to declare to you, you Christians, you have it already in Jesus, in his name.

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Amen. If you would like to support the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, you can do so by sending a tax -free donation to Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950 470th

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Avenue NW, Oslo, MN 56744 And again that address is

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Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950 470th

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Avenue NW, Oslo, MN 56744 We thank you for your support.

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