SPIRITUAL DIARY
FOR 10/18/2012 9:15:28 AM
My Worship Time Focus: A
Question of Authority PT-1
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Mark
11:27-33
Message of
the verses: Today’s Spiritual Diary will be the last SD
on the eleventh chapter of the book of Mark and the reason that it is part one
is because we see that in chapter twelve there is more on this subject. Dr. Wiersbe states that from the 26th
verse of Mark chapter eleven until the end of chapter twelve that Jesus will
ask four questions and the section that we look at today is just part of answer
to His question. In the first twelve
verses of chapter twelve Jesus will continue his discussion with those who
asked Him about His authority over the cleansing of the temple. This sub-section that we look at today is
under the main section from Dr. Wiersbe’s commentary entitled “The Servant-prophet.”
A Question of Authority Part One (Mark
11:26-33)
“27 They came again
to Jerusalem. And as He was walking in the temple, the chief priests and the
scribes and the elders came to Him, 28 and began saying to Him, "By what
authority are You doing these things, or who gave You this authority to do
these things?" 29 And Jesus said to them, "I will ask you one
question, and you answer Me, and then I will tell you by what authority I do
these things. 30 “Was the baptism of John from heaven, or from men? Answer
Me." 31 They began reasoning among themselves, saying, "If we say,
’From heaven,’ He will say, ’Then why did you not believe him?’ 32 “But shall
we say, ’From men’?"-they were afraid of the people, for everyone
considered John to have been a real prophet. 33 Answering Jesus, they said,
"We do not know." And Jesus said to them, "Nor will I tell you
by what authority I do these things.’”
Let us begin this section by stating that the
chief priests and the scribes and elders who came to Jesus were actually doing
their job in finding out who Jesus was.
We will look at a section from the book of Deuteronomy to show that what
they were doing was right, but the problem with them is that they were not
looking for the right answer, for if they would have they would have known that
Jesus was who He claimed to be, and that is the Son of God, God in human
flesh. Deuteronomy 18:15-22 is the
section we will look at and this section actually gives the children of Israel
the criteria to know if a prophet is actually sent from God or not. It also shows that God would raise up a prophet
like Moses in the future. When the
Pharisees came to John the Baptist to find out who he was they ask him if he
was “the prophet,” to which he answered by stating who he was and what his
commission from the Lord was. Deut.
18:15-22, “15 "The LORD your God
will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen,
you shall listen to him. 16 "This is according to all that you asked of
the LORD your God in Horeb on the day of the assembly, saying, ’Let me not hear
again the voice of the LORD my God, let me not see this great fire anymore, or
I will die.’ 17 "The LORD said to me, ’They have spoken well. 18 ’I will raise up a prophet from among their
countrymen like you, and I will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak
to them all that I command him. 19 ’It shall come about that whoever will not
listen to My words which he shall speak in My name, I Myself will require it of
him. 20 ’But the prophet who speaks a word presumptuously in My name which I
have not commanded him to speak, or which he speaks in the name of other gods,
that prophet shall die.’ 21 “You may say in your heart, ’How will we know the
word which the LORD has not spoken?’ 22
"When a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the thing does
not come about or come true, that is the thing which the LORD has not spoken.
The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.”
Dr. Wiersbe writes of these men by stating,
“They were not seeking truth; they were looking for evidence to use to destroy
Him (Mark 11:18). Jesus knew what they
were doing, so He countered their question with another question and exposed
their hypocrisy.” The question that we
may want answered is why did the Lord go all the way back to the ministry of
John the Baptist? John the Baptist was
sent by God to prepare the way for the Messiah and his ministry to the nation
of Israel came after four hundred years of silence that began after the last OT
prophet’s writings, which took place after the Jews returned to Israel after
the conquest of the Babylonians. One
would think that these leaders of Israel would have known the prophecies of
John the Baptist and if they would have understood the writings of the prophet
Daniel they could have figured that the time was near for Messiah to come. Daniel 9:24-27 speaks of the timetable of the
arrival of Messiah. God gave light in
the person of John the Baptist and these spiritual leaders of Israel rejected
that light and so they would receive no more light. Dr. Wiersbe states that this principle is
seen in John 7:17 which states, “"If anyone is willing to do His will, he
will know of the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak from
Myself.” Dr. Wiersbe quotes an English
Pastor, F. W. Robertson who says, “Obedience is the organ of spiritual
knowledge.” “The Jewish religious
leaders had not accepted what John had taught, so why should God say anything
more to them? Had they obeyed John’s
message, they would have gladly submitted to Christ’s authority, for John came
to present the Messiah to the nation.”
I think that these so called spiritual leaders
would have made good politicians today.
They were caught in a dilemma that they actually made for
themselves. They really did not want to
know the truth, and they really did not want to know what was right, but what
they were looking for was what was safe.
Dr. Wiersbe writes “This is always the approach of the hypocrite and the
crowd-pleaser. It certainly was not the
approach of either Jesus (Mark 12:14) or John the Baptist (Matt. 11:7-10). He refused to accept and endorse their
hypocrisy. He was not being evasive; He
was being honest.” Jesus had more to say
to the spiritual leaders, but that will have to wait until next month when we
look at the rest of the story.
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: Telling
the truth because it is the truth is something that I strive to do, and there
are sometimes when that is not easy, for it may be easier to take the ways of
these spiritual leaders of Israel took, but that would not be the way that
Jesus took.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Continue to
learn contentment and patience as I walk with the Lord. Continue to be ready to tell others about
Christ when God brings people into my path who are willing to listen.
Memory verses for the
week: 1Corinthians 13:8-11
8 Love never fails; but if there are gifts of
prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if
there is knowledge, it will be done away.
9 For we know in part and we prophecy in part, 10 but when the perfect
come the partial will be done away. 11
When I was a child I use to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like
a child; when I became a man I did away with childish things.
10/18/2012 10:03:09
AM
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