Latest / Reformed Thinking / Heaven’s Authority and Human Evasion: Christ’s Wisdom and the Exposure of Unbelief (Matthew 21:23–27)

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Heaven’s Authority and Human Evasion: Christ’s Wisdom and the Exposure of Unbelief (Matthew 21:23–27) · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to Reform thinking. I am thrilled you are joining us
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today. So I imagine walking into a
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courtroom. Right.
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OK, a courtroom. Yeah, and the defendant suddenly
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steps up, bangs the gavel and demands the judge justify his
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own credentials. That sounds completely absurd.
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It is right you expect a courtroom to have this very
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clean, binary structure. The judge sits high upon the
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bench in the black robe, wielding the gavel.
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Right. The bailiff points and says, you
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know, all rise. You're either the sovereign or
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you are the subject. There is no middle ground there.
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Precisely. But historically, this exact
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reversal happened. A criminal demanded to sit on
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the bench while the true judge stood in the dock.
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Wow, and that criminal was the highest religious court in the
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ancient world. Yeah, Which brings us to our
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focus. For this deep dive into the
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source material, we are doing a rigorous, unflinching
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examination of Matthew 21 verses 23 through 27.
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It's. Such a weighty passage.
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It really is, and we're looking at 2 specific theological
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sources that breakdown this text. 1 is called Heaven's
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Authority and Human Evasion, and the other is the collision of
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two kingdoms. Both are fantastic resources for
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unpacking this. Yeah, and to give you the
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listener, the lay of the land right out of the gate, we are
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going to look at this text through the lens of Protestant
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Reformed theology. Which means we will be using the
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framework of the Westminster Confession to understand things
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like the mechanics of human rebellion.
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Right. And the unfolding of the
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covenant of grace and how Jesus Christ executes his threefold
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office. Those are crucial theological
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anchors. So here's the question we are
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putting on the table for you to keep in mind today.
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What happens when the created demands that the Creator justify
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himself? That is the ultimate tension.
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How does the King of Heaven respond when sinful humanity
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tries to put him on the witness stand that.
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Tension is just the central heartbeat of this entire
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narrative, and to understand how that tension explodes, we cannot
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just look at the words on the page in a vacuum.
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No, we have to look at the physical, historical and
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chronological setting. We are dropping into a very
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specific moment in time. Tuesday of Passion Week.
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Yes, Jesus has left the relative obscurity of Galilee.
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He has orchestrated the triumphal entry Riding into
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Jerusalem on a Donkey. Which fulfills Zechariah's
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prophetic expectations. Absolutely.
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It forces the entire city to reckon with his messianic
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identity. So now he is standing within the
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temple precincts in Jerusalem. And the atmosphere is basically
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a powder keg at this point. Oh, if you were standing there,
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you would feel the tension in the air.
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The Roman eagle looms over the city.
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Right. The Antonia Fortress sits right
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adjacent to the temple complex. Filled with Roman soldiers who
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are just, you know, watching the crowds.
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And the city is flooded with hundreds of thousands of
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pilgrims for the Passover. It creates this really volatile
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mixture of religious fervor and political dread.
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And we have to rewind the clock just 24 hours to understand why
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the religious leaders are so hostile.
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Monday, the day before Jesus walked into the temple and
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cleansed it. And when we say cleansed it, we
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really need to understand the sheer scale of what he
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disrupted. Yeah, he drove out the buyers
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and sellers. He overturned the tables of the
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money changers. He did not just cause a minor
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disturbance. The temple had a massive, highly
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lucrative economic system functioning in the court of the
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Gentiles. Because pilgrims traveled from
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all over the known world. Right, and they could not use
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Roman or Greek coins to pay the half shekel temple tax.
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Because those coins had images of emperors on them.
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Which violated the command against Graven images.
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So they had to exchange their money for Tyrion Shekels.
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And the exchange rates were just exorbitant.
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It was an absolute monopoly. Furthermore, if a Pilgrim
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brought their own lamb for the sacrifice, the temple inspectors
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would often find some microscopic blemish on it.
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Right, they would declare it unfit.
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And force the Pilgrim to buy a pre approved certified lamb at a
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massive markup from the temple booths.
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Booths that were owned and operated by the family of the
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High priest. Historically, this was known as
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the Bazaars of Anis. It was a religious extortion
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racket operating under the guise of holy worship.
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That is spot on. So I was trying to think of a
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modern equivalent to the picture this.
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It is kind of like an unrecognized undercover CEO
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walking into a corrupt, failing branch office.
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Oh, I like that analogy. Yeah, he sees the regional
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managers embezzling funds, charging the customers fake fees
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and ruining the companies reputation.
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But he does not call a meeting or send a memo.
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Right, he just walks in, fires people on the spot, rips the
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computers out of the wall and flicks over their mahogany
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desks. And then the next day, those
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same corrupt managers walk up to him absolutely furious.
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Demanding to know who he is and who gave him the right to do
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this. They are completely blind to the
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fact that he literally owns the building.
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That is a brilliant way to visualize the institutional
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blindness happening the text the people in charge think they own
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the building, but the actual owner has arrived for an
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inspection. And if we connect this to the
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broader redemptive historical setting, the timing dictates the
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theological weight of this confrontation.
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From a covenantal perspective, this moment is the absolute
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climax of the era of the Law. Because Jesus presented himself
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as the Davidic King on Palm Sunday.
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Yes, that was the formal public offer of the Kingdom.
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But here in the Temple on Tuesday, we are witnessing
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national Israel officially, institutionally rejecting their
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Messiah. The true king has come to his
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own, and his own are refusing to receive him.
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This ties into what the Apostle Paul writes about later in his
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letter to the Romans for the idea of branches being broken
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off. Yeah, Romans Chapter 11 is
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crucial for understanding the backdrop here.
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Paul explains that the natural branches of the olive tree,
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representing national Israel, are going to be temporarily
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broken off because of their unbelief.
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And this breaking off happens so that the wild olive shoots,
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meaning the Gentile church can be grafted into the tree of
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blessing. So what we are reading in
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Matthew 21 is the historical moment that fracture occurs.
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This is the final definitive offer of the Kingdom to that
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specific generation of leaders. Their defiance is not just a
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localized argument, it is a monumental shift in redemptive
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history. The sources we are reviewing
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also point out a really fascinating literary structure
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that Matthew uses to highlight this fracture.
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It is a literary device called an inclusio.
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Specifically involving A fig tree.
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For you listening, an inclusio is basically a literary
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sandwich. Right.
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A writer will start with the specific theme or event.
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Put the main meat of the story in the middle and then conclude
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with that same theme or event to bracket the whole section.
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So right before this temple confrontation, Jesus walks up to
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a barren fig tree and curses it. And right after this
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confrontation, Jesus delivers 3 devastating parables of
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judgment. The parable of the two sons, the
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wicked tenants, and the wedding feasts.
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This temple confrontation sits right in the middle of that
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sandwich. And that structure is
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intentional. The fig tree is not just a
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random piece of agriculture. In the Old Testament prophets
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like Jeremiah and Hosea, the fig tree frequently represents the
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nation of Israel. Specifically, it's spiritual
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health. Right by cursing the barren tree
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on Monday morning, Jesus is enacting a living, breathing
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parable of judgement. The tree had all these outward
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leaves. From a distance, it looked
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incredibly healthy and vibrant. But when Jesus the Creator
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inspected it up close, there was 0 fruit.
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The leaves were just a disguise hiding its barrenness.
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So when the religious leaders approach him the next day in the
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temple, Matthew wants the reader to recognize that these men are
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The Walking, talking embodiments of that cursed tree.
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They possess the office, the status, the reputation, the
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phylacteries, and the ceremony. They have massive amounts of
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leaves. But they're entirely barren of
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genuine repentance or faith. Their religion is a hollow
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shell. So understanding that physical
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volatility, the economic disruption, and that literary
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framing explains why the challengers approached Jesus
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with such venom. Let's look at who these
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challengers actually are in the specific trap they set.
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The text says the chief priests and the elders of the people
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approach him. These are not random critics
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shouting from the back of the crowd.
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No, these men are the heavyweight.
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They represent the apex of Jewish society.
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They are key members of the Sanhedrin, which was the 71
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member Supreme Court of Israel. Under Roman occupation, the
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Sanhedrin held the absolute highest religious, civil and
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judicial authority permitted to the Jewish people.
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The chief priests were largely Seducian aristocrats.
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They were the political realists.
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They were the man who collaborated with the Roman
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governor Pontius Pilate to maintain the status quo.
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Keep the peace and keep their highly profitable temple
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operations running smoothly. The Elders represented the
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wealthy, influential lay leadership of the 12 tribes.
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Together they held the official keys to the nation's orthodoxy
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and civil order. They approached Jesus while he
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is publicly teaching in the temple.
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Which is itself an assertion of jurisdiction on his part.
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And they asked him a very specific, calculated question By
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what authority are you doing these things?
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And who gave you this authority? Wait, hold on.
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Let me push back on this a little bit because I think a lot
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of people reading this might give the Pharisees the benefit
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of the doubt. How so?
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Well, the Old Testament actually commands Israel to test
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prophets, right? That is true.
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If you go back to Deuteronomy, Moses explicitly says that if
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someone comes along performing signs or claiming to speak for
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God, the community has to test them to make sure they aren't
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leading the people after false gods, right?
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So aren't the Sanhedrin just doing their literal job here?
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Why do our sources call this a wicked rebellion?
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Shouldn't we view this as responsible religious oversight?
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That is a very perceptive objection, and the answer lies
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in the specific Greek vocabulary Matthew uses, combined with the
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context of their motives. OK, unpack that Greek vocabulary
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for. Us The source has been
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considerable time analyzing the Greek word used here for
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authority, which is exusia. Exusia, yes.
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Exusia does not just mean raw physical strength or the
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miraculous ability to do something the.
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Greek word for raw strength is dynamis, right from which we get
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the word dynamite. Precisely.
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Exusia means jurisdiction. It means the legal recognized
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right to rule. It is the absolute prerogative
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to make decisions, issue decrees and pass judgment.
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In Greco Roman legal proceedings of the 1st century, this term
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denoted the absolute sovereignty of a magistrate.
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So they aren't asking how he has the sheer physical capability to
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to flip tables or heal the blind, they are asking for his
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legal permit. Correct.
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By asking about his exusia, they are not acting as humble
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shepherds seeking to verify a prophet, according to
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Deuteronomy. They are acting as supreme
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magistrates, demanding that a rogue citizen produce a license.
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They operate on the assumption that they are The Fountainhead
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of all legitimate authorization in Israel.
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They are demanding to see his rabbinical credentials.
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Implying that since they did not convene a council and give him a
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piece of parchment authorized surprising him to teach or
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cleanse the temple, his actions must be illegal.
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They are not investigating truth, they are defending their
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territory. And it is a perfectly
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constructed lose lose scenario for Jesus.
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It is a rhetorical trap. They think they have him
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completely boxed in if. Jesus answers their question by
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claiming human authorization. If he says I am just a reformer,
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my jurisdiction comes from my own reading of the law or
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something similar. The massive crowds of pilgrims
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who believe he might be the Messiah will instantly dismiss
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him as a fraud. He loses his popular support,
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the crowds turn on him, and the Sanhedrin can just arrest him
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quietly without causing a riot. But on the other hand, if he
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claims divine authorization, if he says God the Father gave me
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this exucia, I am the Son of man.
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The Sanhedrin will immediately charge him with blasphemy
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uniform trial and execute him according to Levitical law.
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They think they have him backed into an inescapable corner.
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The trap is brilliant from a political perspective, and it
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reveals a massive theological truth about the human condition.
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This is a vivid illustration of a fallen world that assumes it
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sits on the judge's bench while God stands in the dock.
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They want to force Jesus into a category they can control,
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measure and condemn. They want to dictate the terms
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of engagement. They are entirely blind to the
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supreme irony of the situation. The one they are interrogating
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is the actual Lord of the Temple.
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The created beings formed from the dust of the earth are asking
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the eternal Creator to show his papers.
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Their question is an act of ecclesiastical insurrection
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against the Lord of the Covenant.
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Which brings us to the way Jesus handles this trap.
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He avoids the snare entirely. But I love that he does not do
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it by changing the subject or running away from the
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confrontation. He strikes directly at the
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theological center of their rebellion.
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He takes their trap, reverses it, and springs it on them.
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Jesus replies by saying, I also will ask you one question, and
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if you tell me the answer then I also will tell you by what
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authority I do these things. The baptism of John.
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From where did it come? From Heaven or from man?
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The structure of this response is absolute.
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Masterful Jesus refuses to accept the role of the
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defendant. He strips them of their assumed
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superiority and steps onto the judges bench himself.
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Instead of the leaders defining the terms of the encounter,
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Jesus dictates the terms. It is exactly like a brilliant
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legal cross examination. Imagine a prosecutor who thinks
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he has the witness completely cornered on the stand, right?
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He asks the final, damning question, but the witness turns
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the tables by introducing a piece of prior, undisputed
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evidence that traps the prosecutor in his own logic.
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Jesus brings up John the Baptist.
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We have to remember, John was not some minor obscure figure
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preaching in a cave somewhere. The whole nation went out to the
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wilderness to hear him. Everyone knew what John
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preached. And Jesus relies here on a
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crucial redemptive historical link between his ministry and
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Johns. In Reformed theology, we often
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talk about the analogy of faith. Which is the hermeneutical
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principle that Scripture interprets Scripture.
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We use clear passages to shed light on less queer ones.
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Jesus uses that principle in real time here.
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The sources highlight that John the Baptist was the prophesied
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forerunner. Malachi chapter 3 verse one
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promised a messenger who would prepare the way for the Lord.
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Isaiah chapter 40 verse 3 spoke of a voice crying in the
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wilderness, making straight the highway for God.
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John was the literal fulfillment of those ancient prophecies.
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He was the divinely appointed herald.
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And what was the core of John's message?
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He explicitly testified about Jesus.
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He pointed his finger at Jesus and announced to the world,
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Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
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So the logic of Jesus's counter question is inescapable.
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If you accept the messenger, you are logically bound to accept
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the king that the messenger announced.
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You cannot say we believe John was a true prophet speaking for
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God and then reject the very person John identified as the
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Messiah. Jesus connects his exusia, His
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jurisdiction, directly to the prior revelation God had already
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given the nation. He is telling the Sanhedrin you
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already have the answer to your question.
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God already gave you the evidence through John.
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Your problem is not a lack of information your the problem is
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that you rejected the information God already
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provided. This exchange perfectly
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illustrates a central tenet of the Westminster Confession.
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Chapter 8 of the Confession details Christ the Mediator and
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his execution of the threefold office.
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Prophet, priest and king. We see all three of those
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offices operating simultaneously in the single confrontation.
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Let's break those down. First, consider his role as
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priest. In the Old Testament, the
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priests were responsible for maintaining the purity of the
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sanctuary and offering sacrifices for the sins of the
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people. Jesus has just cleansed the
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temple, demonstrating his zeal for pure worship.
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He acts as the great high priest, purging his father's
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House of corruption. He does this to foreshadow the
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ultimate purification he will achieve by shedding his own
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blood on the cross just a few days later.
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The contrast is staggering. The earthly priests stand before
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him, corrupt, defiled and seeking murder, while the true
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priest stands ready to offer himself as the spotless lamb.
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The false priests interrogating the true priest, that is such a
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stark image. And he is operating as a prophet
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here too, isn't he? Yes, because Prophet prophets in
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the Old Testament were always the ones confronting the
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establishment. In his office as prophet, Christ
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reveals the will of God for our salvation.
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But unlike the Old Testament prophets who had to say thus
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says the Lord Jesus speaks with intrinsic self attesting
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authority. He speaks as the Lord.
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His counter question about John the Baptist is prophetic because
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it cuts right through their hypocrisy.
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He exposes their hidden motives, laying their hearts bare before
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the crowd. He reveals A comprehensive
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knowledge of their inner thoughts and their spiritual
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bankruptcy, a knowledge that belongs exclusively to the
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Divine. And finally, he is operating as
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king. The Davidic King does not submit
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to a performance review from a corrupt Sanhedrin.
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A true sovereign does not need a permission slip from his
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subjects. He asserts his absolute
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sovereignty over both the religious and civil spheres of
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Israel. He stands in the literal center
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of Israel's worship, surrounded by his enemies, and he dictates
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the terms of reality. The Sanhedrin immediately
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realizes the severity of the trap Jesus has just sprung on
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them. They recognize that they have
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completely lost control of the interrogation.
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The crowd is watching. The tension is.
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Thick. This forces the leaders to
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withdraw and deliberate, which brings us to one of the most
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revealing psychological and theological moments in the
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entire gospel narrative. Yes, the private huddle.
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I picture them stepping back into a tight circle, pulling
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their robes around themselves, whispering furiously.
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They have to the damage and calculate their next move.
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The text says they reasoned among themselves, saying, If we
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say from heaven, he will say to us.
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Why then, did you not believe him?
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But if we say from man, we are afraid of the crowd, for they
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all hold that John was a prophet.
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The Greek verb used here for reasoned is dialogizomi.
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It implies A thorough calculation, a balancing of
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ledgers and accounting process. Matthew, through the inspiration
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of the Holy Spirit, allows the reader to hear the internal
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logic of the religious elite. And what we hear is spiritually
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devastating. Notice what they do not do.
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They do not search the scriptures to see if John
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fulfilled the prophecies. They do not pray to God for
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wisdom. They do not ask themselves what
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answer would be true or what answer would honor the Lord.
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They only calculate the political and physical
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consequences of their words. This is a perfect moment to
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address a very common modern assumption.
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You hear this all the time today.
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What assumption is that? People will say I would believe
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in God, I just need more evidence.
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If God would just write a message in the stars, or give me
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a mathematically certain proof, or perform a miracle right in
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front of me, then I would submit.
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The assumption is that human beings are fundamentally
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objective and unbelief is just a lack of sufficient data.
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So looking at the Sanhedrin here, did they lack evidence?
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Were they just honest skeptics who needed a bit more data to
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reach a logical conclusion? The sources emphatically answer
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no, and this is where the passage provides a massive
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refutation of Armenian theology regarding the human will.
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And a staunch affirmation of the Reformed doctrine of total
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depravity, as outlined in Chapter 6 of the Westminster
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Confession. Historically, the Armenian
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framework suggests that while humanity has fallen, God
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provides A prevenient grace that restores the human will to a
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state of neutrality. In that view, the unregenerate
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mind retains an island of uncorrupted logic, a capacity to
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impartially waste spiritual evidence and use free will to
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choose God or reject him. But this text shatters that
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illusion of neutrality. The leaders had an overwhelming
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abundance of evidence. They had seen Jesus perform
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miracles with their own eyes. They knew about Lazarus being
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raised from the dead in Bethany, which was just a couple of miles
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away. They watched Jesus cleanse the
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temple single handedly. They heard the massive public
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prophetic testimony of John the Baptist.
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Their issue was not an intellectual deficit.
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They were not lacking data. The Reformers codified this idea
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in the Westminster Confession, this idea that humanity isn't
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just slightly injured by sin. The very engine of our logic is
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Birkin. It is a rebellion of the will.
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Yes, theologians refer to this as the noetic effects of sin.
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No, attic refers to the mind and the intellect.
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Sin does not just corrupt our actions or our desires.
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It acts like a virus in the software of human logic.
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It corrupts our reasoning faculties.
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The human mind, apart from sovereign regenerating Grace, is
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completely disabled and made opposite to all good.
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You can see this virus operating in the grammar of their huddle.
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The sources point out the use of first class conditional
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statements in the Greek text here.
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Let's break that down for the listener.
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What is a first class conditional statement and how
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does it prove they have this logic virus?
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In Greek grammar, a first class conditional statement assumes
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the premise is true for the sake of argument.
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The leaders are saying if we say X, and let's assume for a moment
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that we do say X, then the inevitable result will be.
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Y they are not saying what if John really was from heaven?
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They're saying, assuming we publicly state that John is from
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heaven, the inevitable result is that Jesus will humiliate us for
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not believing him. It shows they aren't debating
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the theological truth of the matter at all.
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They're literally just doing public relations math.
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They are sitting in a corporate boardroom weighing disaster
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scenarios. If they admit John was from
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heaven, they indict themselves and confess their own history of
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unbelief. They would have to step down
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from their positions of power and repent in sackcloth and
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ashes. But if they declared John was
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merely a human fraud, they face a literal riot from the crowds
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in the temple courtyard because the masses Revere John as a
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prophet. They are caught between self
22:07
incrimination and physical danger.
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It is the ultimate expression of the fear of man.
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They feared the crowds reaction more than they fear the
22:14
judgement of God. They had the truth staring them
22:17
in the face, but they calculated that the truth was too expensive
22:21
to acknowledge. This is Romans chapter one verse
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18 playing out in real time. The Apostle Paul writes that
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unrighteous men suppress the truth in unrighteousness.
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Unbelief as categorized by this text is not an innocent absence
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of certainty. It is moral cowardice.
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It is a live of darkness because their deeds are evil.
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Brilliant, highly educated men calculate their own destruction
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because their foundational axioms are corrupted by pride.
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They calculate their answer based entirely on self
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preservation because their minds are enslaved to their own
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autonomy. That is a chilling diagnosis of
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the human condition. It means that when someone
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demands evidence from God, they are often using that demand as a
23:06
shield to hide their moral rebellion.
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They don't actually want evidence, they want an excuse to
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maintain control of their own lives.
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If God gave them the evidence, they would just find a way to
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suppress that too. So the Sanhedrin finishes their
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frantic calculation. They realize they cannot pick
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either option without destroying their own sway over the people.
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And that brings us to the climax of the confrontation.
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The actual answer they give to the son of.
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God, they step out of their huddle, look at the Incarnate
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creator of the universe and say we do not know.
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Now, in almost any other context, saying I don't know is
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a mark of humility. It is a sign of a teachable
23:40
spirit. It is what a good student says
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to a teacher. But here it functions completely
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differently. It is like a criminal sitting on
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the witness stand pleading the 5th Amendment to avoid self
23:51
incrimination. They know what the truth is, but
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they refuse to speak it because the truth condemns them.
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The sources define their response as a judicial
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confession of their own incompetence.
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Think about the sheer absurdity of their answer.
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These are the chief priests and elders.
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They are the theological guardians of the nation.
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Their entire job description, their reason for existing as an
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institution, is to distinguish true profits from false ones, to
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interpret the law, and to guide the people in truth.
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By claiming ignorance regarding the most significant nation
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shaking prophetic ministry of their generation, the ministry
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of John the Baptist, they are officially forfeiting their role
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as Israel's spiritual judges. By saying we do not know, they
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are admitting utter spiritual bankruptcy in front of the very
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crowds they claim to lead. Their answer is calculated
24:39
ambiguity. It is feigned neutrality.
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But in the presence of Christ, feigned neutrality is actual
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hostility. And Jesus's response to them is
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devastating, he says. Neither will I tell you by what
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authority I do these things. He just shuts the door.
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He closes the book. We must be very careful not to
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read this as Jesus being petulant.
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He is not throwing a tantrum. He's not saying, well, if you
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won't play my game, I won't play yours.
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His refusal to answer is a severe divine theological
25:07
judgement. Jesus is acting as the
25:09
eschatological judge. He does not owe for the
25:12
revelation to men who have willfully rejected the
25:14
revelation they already possessed.
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That is a massive concept. Withheld revelation is a
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consequence of rejected light. Yes, when people suppress what
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God has already made plain, they invite judicial blindness upon
25:27
themselves. God's revelation is coherent and
25:29
progressive. You cannot reject the earlier
25:32
chapters of God's redemptive plan and expect Him to
25:35
illuminate the final chapters for you.
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The leaders refuse to submit to the Forerunner, so the King
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refuses to explain himself to them.
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Light rejected brings deeper accountability and darkness, not
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increased privilege. Jesus's silence here is an act
25:48
of judgment confirming them in their self chosen darkness.
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He leaves them to the consequences of their own
25:53
suppression of the truth. So we have this intense 1st
25:55
century confrontation in the temple courtyard, but the
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sources are very clear that this dynamic did not end in the 1st
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century. It echoes loudly today.
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I want to spend some time looking at how this exact
26:06
scenario plays out in modern churches and in our individual
26:10
lives. How does a confrontation between
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ancient Sadducees and Jesus apply to someone listening to
26:16
this deep dive right now? The primary application drawn by
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the sources is a severe warning against religious hypocrisy,
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pragmatism and the fear of man. It is vital to remember that the
26:26
chief priests and elders were not secular atheists mocking
26:31
religion from the outside. They were the respected,
26:33
credentialed custodians of public religion.
26:36
They had the theological vocabulary, they had the robes,
26:39
they had the institutional clout.
26:40
Yet they were completely hardened against the Lord.
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That reality should send a shockwave through every modern
26:46
church. It is entirely possible to be
26:48
externally religious, to defend Orthodox traditions, to attend
26:53
every service, and to hold leadership offices while
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remaining inwardly resistant to the actual sovereign
27:00
jurisdiction of Christ over your life.
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Let's talk about the institutional church for a
27:04
moment. How does this text act as a
27:06
critique of the modern evangelical seeker sensitive
27:09
movement? Because the parallels here seem
27:11
incredibly sharp. The critique is devastating.
27:14
When you look closely at the motives.
27:16
Modern churches often fall into the exact same trap as the
27:19
Sanhedrin. When the leaders huddled
27:21
together, their primary concern was not What has God spoken?
27:24
Their primary concern was what will the crowd accept without
27:28
starting a riot. They tailored their theological
27:31
public statement based entirely on public opinion and the fear
27:35
of losing their audience. Today, ecclesiastical pragmatism
27:39
operates on the same frequency churches design their services,
27:43
their preaching, and their theology around what the
27:46
surrounding culture finds palatable.
27:48
Ministers will soften or completely ignore difficult
27:52
biblical doctrines. Like the reality of hell, the
27:55
absolute necessity of repentance, or the exclusivity
27:58
of Christ? Because they are afraid of the
28:00
crowd's reaction. They prioritize dependence
28:02
figures, social media metrics, and public respectability over
28:05
divine revelation. The world says adapt the message
28:08
to fit the audience. But the text shows us that
28:11
Christ demands we submit to the truth of heaven regardless of
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the social cost or the threat of being unpopular.
28:18
The fear of man makes cowards out of those entrusted with the
28:20
truth. That changes how we should view
28:22
pastoral leadership. True leadership is not about
28:25
managing consensus or reading the room to see what people want
28:28
to hear. True leadership is standing firm
28:30
on the authority of the Word of God, even when the crowd turns
28:33
hostile and threatens to walk away.
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And we can apply this even more specifically using the reformed
28:39
concept of the uses of the law. Historically Reformed theology
28:44
teaches that the moral law functions in different ways, and
28:46
the sources highlight two of those uses here.
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First, this text acts as a mirror, which is the first use
28:53
of the law. The law exposes our own
28:55
corruption and drives us to see our need for grace.
28:59
This passage holds up a mirror to our own tendency toward what
29:02
the sources call practical atheism.
29:05
Practical atheism. That is a heavy phrase.
29:08
Let's define what that looks like in the life of a typical
29:10
person listening today. Practical atheism is the habit
29:13
of acknowledging Christ's authority on Sunday morning
29:16
during a worship service, but then living Monday through
29:19
Saturday as if we are the autonomous Lords over our own.
29:22
Lives. We might recite the Korean and
29:24
sing hymn about His Lordship, but we act as our own supreme
29:27
magistrates over our finances, our career choices, our Internet
29:30
habits and our private thoughts. We sing about his authority, but
29:34
the moment his commands clash with our personal desires, the
29:37
moment he tells us to forgive someone we hate, or to give
29:40
generously, or to pursue purity. We suddenly demand that he
29:43
justify his rules to us, just like the Sanhedrin.
29:46
We ask, but what authority are you telling me how to handle my
29:50
money or my relationships? The text exposes that hidden
29:53
rebellion in all of us. We want the benefits of His
29:56
saving grace without the demands of His absolute jurisdiction.
30:00
We want a savior, but we bristle at the idea of a king.
30:04
OK, so that is the mirror. It shows us the disease of our
30:07
own autonomy. What is the cure?
30:09
How does the law function for someone who has actually been
30:11
regenerated by the Holy Spirit? That brings us to the third use
30:15
of the law, which is the rule of life for the believer, as
30:19
detailed in Chapter 19 of the Westminster Confession.
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For the Christian, the absolute authority of Christ is no longer
30:25
a threat to our autonomy. It becomes our greatest comfort.
30:28
The law guides us toward grateful obedience.
30:30
We do not obey out of a legalistic terror of being
30:33
struck by lightning or cast into hell.
30:35
We obey because we recognize the massive covenantal grace of a
30:38
king who willingly stood silent before his accusers.
30:42
Who allowed himself to be condemned by a corrupt earthly
30:45
court so that we might be given a voice and a standing before
30:48
the Heavenly Father? We gladly submit to His exusia
30:52
His jurisdiction, because we know His jurisdiction is
30:55
righteous, good, and aimed entirely at our eternal
31:00
salvation. So to summarize the core of what
31:02
we've covered today, we cannot grant Christ authority.
31:05
We cannot vote him into office. We cannot legitimize him by
31:09
giving him a platform. We can only recognize the
31:12
absolute authority he already possesses from eternity past and
31:16
then choose either to bow and submit to it or rebel against it
31:19
and face the consequences. That captures the essence of the
31:22
passage. Jesus Christ possesses self
31:25
attesting divine authority. It is not derived from human
31:28
consensus, democratic elections or institutional approval.
31:31
Human evasion, The constant demand for more evidence, the
31:34
shifting of goal posts, the feigned neutrality.
31:37
It is all just a symptom of total depravity.
31:40
It is a smokescreen for the desire to remain the God of our
31:42
own lives. As we wrap up our look at these
31:44
ticks today, I want to leave you the listener with a final
31:47
concept to chew on. It builds directly on everything
31:50
we have discussed about jurisdiction.
31:52
Think about this. The very same exusia, the exact
31:56
same legal authority that silenced the Pharisees in the
31:58
courtyard, that cleanse the corruption from the temple, and
32:02
that brings terrifying judicial silence upon false religion.
32:05
Is the exact same authority that guarantees the justification of
32:08
the believer. It is the authority that has the
32:11
sheer might and legal right to forgive your sins and preserve
32:15
you to the end. So consider this in your own
32:17
life, by resisting the absolute jurisdiction of Christ in your
32:22
daily decisions, your habits, your private moments.
32:25
Are you fighting against the very authority that secures your
32:27
eternal hope? You cannot split Christ in half.
32:30
You cannot take Him as a fire insurance savior and reject Him
32:34
as the Lord who commands your obedience.
32:36
He holds the gavel and his jurisdiction covers every square
32:39
inch of reality. The judge is on the bench and
32:42
his authority is not up for debate.
32:44
The only question is how you will plead.
32:46
Thank you for joining us for this session of Reformed
32:48
Thinking.