We All Live By An Authority

Jesus’ visit to Jerusalem was the last, climactic, and fatal week of His life. It reveals the Lord in confrontation with the various authorities of the area. He is dealing with the central issue of all time, the basic question of everyone’s life:

What is the final, ultimate authority in life?

My Authority Is: God, Me, or The Natural Order

What is my final, ultimate authority of life? Should I obey the state, or should I obey my conscience? Which is higher, the church or the secular government?
Should I walk by reason or by faith? Should I follow science or religion? These are questions every one of us must face, daily.

No one is ever his/her own ultimate authority. We all refer to something other than ourselves, something that compels us, or something we think or feel is important. Something governs our decisions. When we deal with this question of authority, we are wrestling with what is absolutely basic and fundamental to all human behavior.

Living My Life By My Authority

Mark 11:15 And they came to Jerusalem. And Jesus went into the temple, and began to cast out those who sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers and the seats of those who sold doves. 16 And He would not allow any man to carry any vessel through the temple.

In the books of Leviticus and Numbers, you see that God had instituted a certain set of rituals for the temple which necessitated that the priests would carry many things through it. They had to bring the animals into the temple, bind them upon the altar, slay them, and so forth.

On that day, Jesus stopped the offerings and sacrifices of the Mosaic system. This meant that He stopped the traffic of the priests, as they were carrying out their normal duties connected with the sacrifices, and he would not allow them to continue.

He closed the doors of the temple.

These sacrifices of the Levitical system were the heart and center of the life of the nation. Yet here was Jesus, on His own authority, bringing this priestly traffic, all traffic in the temple that day, to a halt. Jesus cleansed the temple from all the false manifestations which had crept in— something the priests should have done. He refused to allow anyone to commercialize these sacrificial offerings.

Our Actions Question Our Authority

By what authority are you doing these things, or who gave you this authority to do them? Mark 11:28

That question is behind all human behavior. When you refine any issue down to its essentials, what you have left is the whole issue of authority in life. Why do you act the way you do? How do you justify what you say and do?

Jesus said to them, “I will ask you a question; answer Me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. Was the baptism of John from heaven, or from men? Mark11:29-30

The baptism of John was something different, something new and startling, that had never occurred before. Jesus asked, What do you think of this innovation of John’s? Was it from God or from men?”

When you clear away all nonessentials, all authority is either of God or men; there are no other authorities.

We are either trying to please God and obey Him, being responsive to truth that He reveals, and responsible to His power; or we are trying to please men, to manipulate them and use them, or to gain something from them.

“We do not know.” Their answer revealed that they really did not care whether John’s baptism was from God or not. They were not interested in the truth, nor were they willing to answer that question at all; they only cared about serving their own interests.

Thus they revealed themselves as being opposed to God’s authority, acting only out of the intrigues and craftiness of men.

Dying By An Authority

Mark 11:18 And the scribes and chief priests heard it, and sought how they might destroy Him; for they feared Him, because all the people were astonished at His doctrine.

It was undoubtedly this act of Jesus, stopping the worship in the temple, which resulted in His death within the week. The scribes and the Pharisees would no longer put up with anything Jesus did or said from that moment on. This sealed His earthly death; but it also sealed their destiny.

The immediate result was the withering of the life of the nation; it was the point of no return for this nation.

All of us live and die by an authority, God’s or our own. Many people act as if life after death and the resurrection have nothing to do with their examination of the here and now. We cannot escape the reality of our own death. If we shove that off and never examine it, as a person made in the image of God, we will be haunted with fears that we will never resolve, and troubled with guilt that we cannot handle—often masked by anger and defensive mechanisms. Don’t let that happen to you.