Questioning the King

What a great song to be able to dwell in the house of the Lord to meditate upon his word and to behold the beauty of the Lord taken from Psalm chapter 27 verse number four that that was something that wasn't happening during the time of Jesus when he showed up in Luke chapter 19 at the temple and had to cleanse the temple, you know, would it be that every one of us would have a deliberate passion one thing I seek. A daily passion that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life a deliberate passion a daily passion a discerning passion that I might meditate upon the law of God and understand who it is.

I honor and worship that that should be the desire of every single one of us as we gather together to honor the Lord. And I hope that that's your passion. I hope that you're passionate about your worship and that you're passionate about the God you worship Israel was not as we make our way through the last week of our Lord's life here on earth and begin to understand everything that takes place. We're going through every conversation and Luke's gospel every interaction every communication because we want you to understand what is happening in the life of our Lord.

Let me read to you Luke chapter 20 verses 1 to 8 because that's where we are in our study Luke chapter 20 verses 1 to 8.

It reads as follows and it came about on one of the days while he was teaching the people in the temple and preaching the gospel that the chief priests and the scribes of the elders confronted him and they spoke saying to him tell us by what authority you are doing these things or who is the one who gave you this authority and he answered and said to them. I shall ask you a question and you tell me was the baptism of John from heaven or from men. And they reason among themselves saying if we say from heaven, he will say why did you not believe him?

But if we say from men all the people will stone us to death for they are convinced that John was a prophet. Then they answered and they did not know where it came from and Jesus said to them neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things. What a sad sad commentary on the leaders of Israel and the response of the Christ is even sadder. Here was a time in which Christ is questioned about authority. And authority is very important. We understand to some degree authority. Everybody in this room today has some kind of authority and everybody in this room today reports to somebody who is in authority.

We understand that. We have children who report to their parents because their parents are in authority. You go to work tomorrow. You have a boss. He he's in charge. He has authority over you. Every one of us has someone that rules over us that's in charge of us that gives us direction. That's called submission to authority at the same time. We understand a little bit of authority because every one of us has probably somebody under us where we exercise authority over them. We understand what it means to have a government that's in authority and we submit to the government of our country.

Well, the question comes to Christ about his authority, but you need to understand the kind of authority that Jesus had. Remember in Matthew chapter 28. It says that all authority has been given unto me both in heaven and on Earth all authority. Now, what does that mean all authority to understand all authority? You must understand what it is Christ was able to do and what Christ was able to accomplish while he was here on Earth. Remember back in Luke chapter 4 in Luke chapter 4. These words are spoken by our Lord Luke chapter 4 verse number 32.

It says this as he was in Capernaum teaching the Sabbath. It says and they were amazed at his teaching for his message was with authority. His message was with authority when Christ spoke he spoke authoritatively. If you go back to Matthew chapter 7 in Matthew chapter 7 verses 28 and 29 after he concluded that great sermon on the Mount. These words are spoken. It says the result was that when Jesus had finished his words the multitude were amazed at his teaching. For he was teaching them as one having authority and not as their scribes.

In other words Jesus was completely different than their rulers because when he spoke he never quoted anybody. Their scribes and their rabbis they would have to quote somebody who was an authority. But Jesus he never quoted anybody because every time he spoke it was the word of God and he spoke with authority. So whenever he opened his mouth he exuded authority. Over in Matthew chapter 9 verse number 6 these words are given. It says as he heals a man who is paralyzed tells him to rise up and walk.

He says these words and Jesus knowing their thoughts because the religious leaders were thinking about the situation with Christ. How he was a blasphemer. Why are you thinking evil in your hearts? For which is easier to say your sins are forgiven or to say rise and walk. But in order that you may know that the son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins. Then he said to the paralytic rise take up your bed and go home. He says I want you to understand that the son of man has the authority to forgive sins.

They would say that no one can forgive sins except God himself. But Jesus says knowing their thoughts you must understand that I had the power to forgive sins.

I have the authority to do so. Then over in Matthew chapter 10 it says and having some of his 12 disciples he gave them authority over unclean spirits. To cast them out and to heal every kind of disease and every kind of sickness. That's authority. Listen if you have authority and then you can dispense that authority to somebody else. So they can do exactly what you're doing heal sickness cast out demons. That's authority and that's the kind of authority that Christ had. And you can go on and you can read throughout the Gospels and realize that in John chapter 5.

He has the authority to judge all men over in John chapter 10. He says I have authority to lay down my life and to take it up again. And nobody has that kind of authority. So in Revelation 1 verses 17 and 18 as the glorified Christ stands before the apostle John on the island of Patmos. He says I hold the keys to death and Hades. I am in charge of death and Hades. I control who goes to Hades. Who dies when they die. I'm in charge. That's authority. Nobody has that kind of authority. And this was all prophesied way back in the book of Daniel.

Daniel chapter 7. The Lord God would say these words. Daniel chapter 7. It says I kept looking in the night visions. Verse 13 and behold with the clouds of heaven one like a son of man was coming. And he came up to the ancient of days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion, glory, and a kingdom that all the peoples, nations, and men of every language might serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away. And his kingdom is one which will not be destroyed.

So even the prophet Daniel would speak about the dominion and the authority and the power that the son of man would have when he came. And then over in Isaiah chapter 9. You know this. We talk about it at Christmas all the time. For a child shall be born to us and a son will be given. And the government shall rest on his shoulders. And his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. And there will be no end to the increase of his government or of peace on the throne of David.

And over his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness. For then on and forevermore the zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this. The prophecy about the coming Christ child, the Messiah who would be born of a virgin was all about his authority. Was all about his dominion. And so when Christ came he said all authority has been given unto me. I am the authoritative one. I am the son of man. And so he proved it by having authority over death. He proved it by having authority over demons.

He proved it by having authority over disease. He proved it by having authority over the depths of the sea. When the men that are on the boat said oh what manner of man is this. That even the winds and the waves obey him. Everything is subject to Christ because of his authority. These men, these scribes, these elders, these Pharisees, these religious leaders. They come and they want to question the king's authority. He's demonstrated his authority all throughout his ministry. But some way in order to trap him they want to question his authority.

Submission to Christ and his authority is never an option. It's always an obligation. Always. And yet these men saw it as an option. And so Christ came, demonstrated his authority. There are two words in the Greek that explains that. One is the word dunamis where we get our English word dynamite which speaks of power. The ability to do something. We know that Christ is omnipotent. He is all powerful. And there's another word called exousia which speaks of the right to do that. The permission to do that.

So not only does Christ have the power, he has the permission. Not only does he have the ability, he has the right. Because all authority has been given unto him. That's the kind of power he has. Not only is he omnipotent, he can do anything he wants whenever he wants to do it. He has the right to do it because he is the king of kings and lord of lords. We need to understand that. Israel did not. They needed to grasp that. And on this day, they would come to question the authority of the king. He has no limits to his power.

He has no limits to his ability. He has no limits to his rights. He can do whatever he wants whenever he wants to whomever he wants. Because he is God in the flesh. You need to understand that. Israel did not understand that. And so they came and they were shocked at what he did. They were shocked. So shocked they would begin to question him. Because when Christ came, he destroyed the sacredness of their system. He came and he destroyed everything they thought was good. Because they would go through the patterns of giving and fasting and all these things for a show.

He destroyed all that. He tore it apart. He went into their place of worship and absolutely turned it upside down. Upside down. He ran everybody out because they were so wretched, so corrupt, so perverted. And they thought they were righteous. And he turned and took them all away. So that he could present the truth there in the temple. And so when he came in in John chapter 2 at the first cleansing of the temple.

He never asked permission to do that. He just did it. In Luke 19, he never asked permission to do that. He just did it. Why? Because it is his house. It is his father's house. It is his dwelling place. He can do whatever he wants in his place. And so he did. And he ran out everybody who was against him. They questioned him because he wasn't like their teachers. He didn't have any earthly ordination, any earthly education. He didn't have anything that would put a stamp of approval on him. The rabbis would wear a certain hat that would signify that they followed a specific teacher, a specific rabbi.

Jesus wore no hat. He just did his thing. And they had a problem with that. They had a problem with him coming and wrecking their system. Here's the issue. They didn't matter to Jesus. And if you think you matter. And somebody doesn't think you do. You're not happy. That's your problem. See, they loved when people would come and call them teacher and father. And they would wear their long robes and their tall hats and their long tassels. They thought, listen, if anybody's preaching to you and they got a robe on or a hat on or tassels on and they want to be called father, run.

Just run the other way. Because it's not from above. It's from below. Mark it down. It's from below. And here they were, always wanting to get the approval of man. And so here comes Jesus, the most popular individual in the land of Israel, who says to them, you guys just don't matter. You don't mean that much. You think you do, but you don't. And that irritated them. Because, you see, he would bring them down in the eyes of the people. And they wanted to be lifted up in the eyes of the people. They wanted to be the people in the chief seats.

They wanted to be the most important people around. And there's nothing worse than if you think you matter and you're important and somebody doesn't think you're important, that irritates you. And it irritated them. And so, therefore, they were angry at Christ. Let me give you six words to describe our time in Luke 20, verses 1 to 8.

Six words. Situation, proclamation, confrontation, question, deliberation, condemnation. To help you understand what's happening here. First comes the situation.

You must understand where we're at. If you've been with us, you know we're at the last week of our Lord's life. We are at the place where he's already come into the city. There's been this triumphal entry. We know from Daniel chapter 9, verses 24 to 27. It's the exact year. It's the exact day of his arrival. That's why it says, if you would have known in this day, this day, this particular day. It was that day that Daniel the prophet had prophesied so many years earlier. And so he rides into the city.

He comes in and there he is on the backside of the donkey as prophesied in Zachariah chapter 9. Before that happens, understand this. You need to understand the chronology. Before that happens, on the Sabbath, on Saturday, he is with Mary, Martha and Lazarus and his men in Bethany. Please understand this. It will unfold for you more as we go through the last days. On Saturday, the Sabbath, he is with Mary, Martha, Lazarus and his men in Bethany. On Sunday, the multitudes come to him and they want to see not only Jesus, but Lazarus because he was raised from the dead.

On Monday, is when he rides into Jerusalem on the backside of the donkey. People have asked me over the years, how come you guys don't celebrate Palm Sunday? I said because Jesus didn't go into Jerusalem on Sunday, he went in on Monday. If you want to come back to church on Monday, we can do it on Monday if you like to. People get that all messed up. They say, wait a minute, I thought Jesus rode into Jerusalem on Sunday. No, he rode in on Monday. If you read all the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, look at the chronology, look at everything that's happening, you realize that on Saturday, he's with Mary, Martha and Lazarus and his disciples.

On Sunday, the multitudes come out to him. The Pharisees come out to him. They want to kill Lazarus because he's a living testimony to the resurrected Christ. On Monday, he descends into Jerusalem. On Tuesday, he cleanses the temple. On Tuesday, he cleanses the temple. He rides in, he goes into the Eastern Gate. The triumphal entry ends at the court of the Gentiles. He sees, he looks at what's going on, he goes back to Bethany for the night, as Mark's Gospel tells us. He comes back on Tuesday, the next day, and cleanses the temple.

Turns over the money changers, runs them out. Talked about that last week, right? That's what he did on Tuesday. On Tuesday. Now this is important. Turn to Matthew 21 with me for a moment. Matthew chapter 21. Please hurry. We've got to run through this baby real quick. Matthew 21 is Matthew's account of what happens. He cleanses the temple, verse number 14. And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he had done, the children who were crying out in the temple and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David.

They became indignant. Now understand the scene. Christ has already cleansed the temple. He's run out somewhere between 500 and 1,000 money changers and those thieves, and run them all out. He's turned over their tables. He made sure that nobody could carry anything out of the temple. That's power. And at the same time, he has these boys saying, Hosanna. Hosanna. Because they see him as the Son of David. They see him as the Son of God. It says particularly, Hosanna to the Son of David. They were singing his praises.

And you can imagine the scene. Here are boys. Now they're probably 12 years of old. This is their bar mitzvah. They're sons of the law. They're at their first Passover at 12 years of age.

And they're watching this scene with Jesus and everything. The pigeons are flying. The doves are flying. The coins are falling. The tables are being overturned. And they're saying, Hosanna. Hosanna. Go, Jesus. Go, Jesus. This is amazing. Yeah, Jesus. Son of David. Go, go, go. You're 12 years old. What else are you going to say, right? They're on fire. They're looking at Jesus and saying, Man, this guy's amazing. This has got to be David's son. They're 12 years old. They are taken in by Jesus. Think about it.

If your kids were there and they were 12 years old, what would they be saying? They followed on the footsteps of their parents the day earlier when they said the same thing and laid their garments down. What an amazing scene. And the men, the leaders became indignant. Why? Because they're cheering the one who's destroying their place of worship. And they're calling him the son of David. And they're indignant. And Jesus says, And he said to them, Do you hear what these are saying?

These are the religious leaders. And Jesus said to them, Yes. Have you never read? This is Psalm 82. Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babes, thou hast prepared praise for thyself. Don't you guys read the Old Testament? Don't you guys know what's going on in the Bible? The Torah? The law? The prophets? Don't you know what's going on in your Bible? And he left them. That's a word of great sadness. He left them. It says he went out of the city to Bethany and lodged there. That was on Tuesday.

That's what happened on Tuesday. On Wednesday, Matthew's account, there is that barren fig tree episode and then he goes back into the temple. That's where we are in Luke chapter 20. So when you come to Luke 20 verse number 1, it's Wednesday of Passion Week. That's where we're at. Now I know some of you have study Bibles. And you're going to read your study Bible right about now.

And you say, Pastor, my study Bible says this is Tuesday. I know that. Some of you have a MacArthur study Bible that says it's Tuesday. And as Nick's printing, he's going to change that. He's going to change it. How do I know that? Because I asked him. He says he's going to change it because he knows it's Wednesday, not Tuesday. So just in case you want to question what I'm saying here, that's okay. You can question it. We'll go through the whole week for you, explain it to you so you understand everything that's happening.

You must understand the chronology. Every Gospel must be taken into account so you know exactly what's going on here. This is important. So it's Wednesday of Passion Week. That's the situation. And with that situation comes the proclamation. It says he was teaching the people in the temple and preaching the Gospel. Wow. This is great. He can do that now.

Why? Because all the error has been removed. All the hypocrisy has been run out. All the corruption, all the perversion is gone. And now truth can be spoken. And he begins to teach. He begins to preach the Gospel. What does he say? Well, he's preaching the Gospel. It must have to deal with the forgiveness of sins because that's what the Gospel is. It must have to deal with taking up your cross and following Him because that's what the Gospel is. We'll learn more about that with Simon of Cyrene as Simon of Cyrene is compelled out of the crowd on that Friday to carry the cross behind him because it was the last living testament of the message he preached all the time.

Salvation in Christ is about cross bearing, denying yourself, taking up your cross and following Christ, saying no to me, yes to Christ, no to my ambitions, yes to Christ's ambitions, no to my will, yes to God's will. That's salvation. Nothing less than that is salvation. That's not saving faith. Saving faith is Lord, you are King, I'm going to follow you, you are Lord, I'm going to submit to you. That's salvation. And that's what Christ did with Simon of Cyrene. We'll talk about that in great detail when we get to that part in Luke's Gospel.

But here he is preaching the Gospel, telling people about the way of salvation, talking to them about the kingdom. He's got to be talking about the kingdom. His whole life was about the kingdom of God. He's preaching about the kingdom of God and all that it entails. So he's telling them about the kingdom, he's telling them about how to enter the kingdom, he's talking to them about the forgiveness of sins, he's talking about grace and mercy, the love of God, the patience of God, all these things. He also, as he teaches them, he's got to teach them about hypocrisy, about all the error that's happening there.

All this is going on in the temple because Jesus now is back in charge of his domain. He's going to make sure they know the truth because they've been filled with lies all their lives. So he's going to give them the truth. They need to understand this. It says in Luke 21, verse number 37, these words, and all the people would get up early in the morning to come to him in the temple to do what? To listen to him. To listen to him. We saw last week in Luke 19, they were hanging upon his lips. They were hanging on the lips of the Lord Christ.

They were hanging on everything he said. They could not get enough of what he was saying. Of course, they lived in anticipation that maybe this is the time he's going to say and tell us how he's going to set up his kingdom. Every sermon he preached, every word that came out of his mouth, they hung on every word from his lips. And they listened to what he said. And all the while, the Pharisees, the scribes, the chief priests, members of the Sanhedrin would walk around the crowd and follow the Christ as they would listen to his words.

Mark 11 tells us that he went around walking there in the temple area, preaching and teaching as he was going. And they would walk and they would follow to hear what he was saying. They too were listening. And it says the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders confronted him. That's an ecumenical group right there because they didn't agree on much of anything except one thing, that Jesus had to go. They all agreed on that. They had different views when it came to the scriptures. They had different views when it came to morality.

They had different views when it came to situations within the land of Israel. But they all agreed on one thing, that Jesus had to go. So they could all come together for this brief week to agree that they had to get rid of the Messiah. And so they followed him around and they moved from the situation to the proclamation to the confrontation. It says and they spoke to him, verse 2 saying, tell us by what authority you are doing these things? Or who is the one who gave you this authority? Now, what are they asking?

Are they asking about who gives you the authority to say what you're saying? I don't think so. Although it could apply to his teaching, I don't think that's the issue. Now, we know that he healed the lame and the blind who came to him. You see, isn't it interesting that the lame and the blind, when he overturned everything, he ran everybody out. They weren't afraid of Jesus. Isn't that interesting? Of course, the blind, they didn't know what was going on anyway. They couldn't see, okay? They could hear, they couldn't see.

But they weren't afraid. They would come to Jesus. Because the blind and the lame were not allowed to be a part of the chief priests, the scribes, the Pharisees, the rulers of Israel. They were outcast, but Jesus would take them in. And so while everybody else scattered, and while everybody else was afraid of Jesus, the blind, the lame, no, they weren't afraid. They came to Jesus, and they were healed by Jesus. On the same day, on Tuesday, at the temple cleansing, which would cause the praise of those 12-year-old boys to erupt even higher, because they would see not only the fact that this son of David had moved everybody out, but people were being healed.

Miracles were taking place. So they come, and they say, what authority do you have to do these things? Could it be the miracles? Could it be the message he preached? It could be, but I don't think that's the case. I think it simply is the temple cleansing itself. What authority do you have to come in here and run everybody out of here? Who do you think you are? I thought about that for a moment. I said, I thought to myself, you know, there's a lot of people in the church who say the exact same thing to Jesus because things don't go their way in their family.

You ever notice that? They might come out and say, who do you think you are, God? But they're mad at God because things aren't going their way in their family. They question the King. Listen, you cannot question the King. You can't. He's the King. He's in charge. He's all powerful. And once you realize that, you can then submit yourself to the King and his rule, and then guess what? You always understand exactly what the King is doing. But as long as you're questioning the King, you're never going to understand exactly what he does and why he does it because you're too busy seeking your own agenda for your own family and your own personal life.

You can't do it. You must subject yourself to the King, his authority, and his word, and say, Lord, I don't understand it. I don't know what you're doing, but you're in charge, and because you're in charge, I'm going to follow. That's the answer we are to give to the King, the Lord of Lords, Christ himself. So they come and they ask the question, man, what authority do you have to do these things? You came the first time in John 2, no permission.

Didn't ask anybody. You came again. Now, here's the funny thing. They know what they think he's going to say, and they know where his authority comes from because he's already told them. He's already told them this over and over again. In fact, in John 5, in the pool of Bethesda, he said, my father is working and so am I. And they wanted to kill him right then. And they wanted to kill him because they said, you make yourself equal with God because no Jew ever called God his father in a personal sense.

You make yourself out to be the son of God. You make yourself out to be God in the flesh, and therefore we want to kill you. Same thing happened in John chapter 10. So they know what authority he has because his authority has been given to him by his father in heaven, and his father, he always came to do the will of his father, and the will of the father was the will of the son because the son and the father are one. And so he came to do the will of the father. But he never asked permission. In fact, nowhere during his earthly ministry did he ever ask to do something.

Because if you're the king, you don't have to ask anybody anything. You're in charge. That's the way Jesus is. He's in charge. What authority do you have to come in here and destroy this thing? What authority do you have to come in here and disrupt our sacred business? What authority do you have to come in here and run everybody out of here? Who do you think you are? You just can't come in here and do your own thing. By what authority? That's a question they asked. So what did Jesus do? He answers the question with the question, which is what Jesus did on many occasions.

He just simply asks a question. This is his response. He says, I shall also ask you a question. And you tell me, was the baptism of John from heaven or from men? Boy, that's a zinger because he's got them. And they know they're trapped. Now, remember Luke's Gospel way back in Luke chapter 1 and Luke chapter 3 with Zacharias and the angel Gabriel coming to him and visiting him and telling him he's going to have a son and his wife Elizabeth, who's barren, is going to have a son. His name's going to be John.

He's going to be the forerunner to the Messiah. And Zacharias breaks into this long praise in Luke chapter 1. Zacharias' song. And then in Luke chapter 3, John the Baptist comes on the scene and he begins his ministry of baptism. The baptism of John is the ministry of John. What he came to do, he came out of the Judean wilderness like a locomotive, coming and preaching the Gospel of repentance. And the Bible says that everybody from Jerusalem was coming down to the Jordan River to be baptized by John.

He was the hero in Israel. He was Israel's hero specifically because he was martyred by Herod. He was killed by Herod. He was beheaded. And so everybody knew about the ministry of John. He was the forerunner to the Messiah. He came and he pointed to the Messiah. Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He pointed to the Messiah. And so John the Baptist was a national hero. And back in Luke chapter 7 we have a commentary on what the scribes and the Pharisees believed about John the Baptist.

It says in verse number 29 of Luke 7, And when all the people and the tax gatherers heard this, they acknowledged God's justice having been baptized with the baptism of John, but the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected God's purpose for themselves not having been baptized by John. They weren't going to be baptized by John. Why? Because John's baptism was a Gentile baptism. Something that would happen if a Gentile was going to convert to Judaism, admitting that I'm no better than a Gentile. That I'm filled with sin.

I need to be cleansed from my sin. I need to follow the Messiah and give my life to the Messiah. And that's what John's ministry entailed. So Christ says, let me ask you a question.

John's ministry. John the Baptist. The national hero. The guy beheaded by Herod. We all know John. Was his ministry from heaven or was it from man? In Mark's account he says, Answer me! Jesus can say that because he's the king. Answer me! Now can you imagine how that went over with the religious leaders? Because he wanted them to understand that he was the one in complete control of even that conversation. So then you go from the question to the deliberation. The Bible says And they reasoned among themselves.

They deliberated. They discussed. Can you imagine the scene? There are hundreds maybe even thousands of people in the court of the Gentiles following Jesus all around as he would preach. Can you imagine what was happening when these men would have to go and deliberate? I mean did they go off in a corner someplace and deliberate? Did they huddle up together arm in arm and deliberate? How did they deliberate with one another? They began to discuss among themselves. And what did they say? It says Well, if we say from heaven he will say, why did you not believe him?

Because he didn't. But if we say from men all the people will stone us to death for they are convinced that John was a prophet. Boy, they're caught between a rock and a hard place. Jesus says if you believe that John's ministry was from heaven guess what?

I'm the Messiah. Because he pointed to the Messiah he was the forerunner to the Messiah I'm the Messiah. So if you say that John's ministry is from heaven you must admit that I'm the Messiah. We're not about to do that. But the problem is if they say no his ministry is not from heaven, it's from men they would deny that he was a prophet of God and the people there in Israel would stone them because everybody believed that John the Baptist was a prophet from God. So what do they say? Uh, we don't know.

We don't know. Blah, blah, blah. We don't know. But they knew. They knew exactly about John's ministry. They knew exactly what he came to do. But they could not bring themselves to believe in Christ as Messiah so as to submit themselves to his authority and his kingship. They would not do that. So they said simply we do not know. Really? Really you're the spiritual leaders in Israel and you don't know? If I'm in the crowd I'm thinking wow, you guys are a bunch of morons. Who gave you the authority to lead us?

You don't even know about John the Baptist? Everybody knows about John the Baptist. How do you guys not know that? We don't know. So here comes the condemnation. And they answered and they didn't know where it came from and Jesus said to them neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things. I'm not giving you any more information. I'm out. I'm done. It's over. I'm not telling you anything else. The door is closed on you. Wow. That's pretty powerful stuff. I'm done. I'm not telling you guys anything else.

Now he's going to question them later. He's going to question them because he's going to pin them to the wall again because he takes initiative. He questions them. He's not giving them any more information. His whole ministry was filled with all of his messianic credentials. Everything he said was about the truth of God from heaven. They wouldn't believe. They refused to believe. In fact, later on in Luke's Gospel in Luke chapter 22 verse number 66 And when it was day, the council of elders of the people assembled both chief priests and scribes and they led him away to their council chambers saying, If you are the Christ, tell us.

But he said to them, If I tell you, you will not believe. If I tell you, you're not going to believe. And if I ask a question, you're not going to answer because you can't answer. You can't give the truth. But from now on, the son of man will be seated at the right hand of the power of God. From now on, all you're going to know is the judgment of God. That's all you're going to know. You're judged. You're condemned. That's all you're going to know. And they all said, Are you the son of God then? He said to them, Yes.

Yes, I am. Last thing he said, Yes, I am. Herod, later on, had looked to be with Jesus, to hear some words from Jesus, and Jesus would not give him one word. Not one. See, the Lord had shut the door on Israel's leaders. He will continue to preach through Wednesday, through Thursday, preaching the Gospel, teaching the people of Israel, giving them one more opportunity to hear. This is why this is so crucial and important for you, because this is the last week of our Lord's life. This is the last thing He says to the nation of Israel.

You need to understand what He said and why He said it. Of all the things that Jesus said, He's going to put everything down to two days, or three days, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. He's going to give them everything they need to know about the kingdom, everything they need to know about salvation, about His kingship, about His messianic credentials, everything they need to know right now, three days, here it is. It's the last opportunity for them to hear the Gospel. He's going to give it to them in a variety of ways.

We'll look at each of those encounters. But that's what He does. But to the leaders, He's out. It's done. It's over. It's like what God said to Ephraim and Hosea. Ephraim has been given to idols. Let them alone. I'm done. It's over. Close the door. Close the door. People don't believe that God closes the door. Believe me, He does close the door. That's what the book of Hebrews is about. And all the warning passages that are given there about God closing the door. Listen to what it says over in the book of Nehemiah.

Nehemiah chapter 9. It says, God admonished them in order to turn them back to the law. Yet they acted arrogantly and did not listen to Thy commandments, but sinned against Thine ordinances by which if a man observes them, he shall live. And they turned a stubborn shoulder and stiffened their neck and would not listen.

Would not listen. That was the leaders of Israel. The book of Jeremiah, 11th chapter. For I solemnly warned your fathers in the day that I brought them up from the land of Egypt, even to this day, warning persistently, saying, Listen to my voice. Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked each one in the stubbornness of his evil heart. Therefore I brought on them all the words of this covenant which I commended them to do, but they did not. Verse 11. Therefore thus says the Lord, Behold, I am bringing disaster on them which they will not be able to escape, though they will cry to me, yet I will not listen to them.

Why? Because they closed their ears to the truth. God says to the men, I'm not giving you guys any more information.

I'm done. Because if I tell you, you're not going to believe anyway. No matter what I say, you will not believe. Simply because you will not listen.

You will not listen. And there could be somebody even here today who has never given their life to Christ, but has heard over and over and over again. You're in danger of God saying to you, I'm out. And you're done. I've given you every opportunity to repent, and you will not. You've turned a stubborn neck, a stiff neck, a dull ear to my words, you will not repent. I'm done. And that's why this passage is so sad, because these were the religious leaders of Israel. These were the ones who were to lead the nation into truth, and they led them into error.

And they would not listen. My prayer for you and me is that we would always listen to the King. When the King speaks, our ears should perk up. And the only response is, yes, Lord. Keep speaking, and we will follow. Let me pray with you.

Father, thank you, Lord, for this day, this time together, a chance to be in your word. We are grateful, Lord, for the truth of your word. And our prayer, Father, is that you would lead us and guide us in the way that we should go, that we would be obedient to your word and follow everything that you say. In the name of Christ, we pray these things. Amen.