Word of Salvation – Vol.19 No.02 – October 1972
From Heaven Or From Men?
Sermon by Rev. Jac. Jonker, B.D. on Luke 20:1-8
Scripture Reading: Romans 8:28-39; Luke 20:1-8
Psalter Hymnal: 7; 84:5; 303:1,2,4; 445
One of the first impressions after hearing and reading this text might be: What is going on here? Is Jesus playing a game of ‘yes and no’ when these people ask him about his authority? Why does not He give a straight forward answer? That question about his authority is important enough, is it not?
To find a solution we will have to dig into the story of Jesus’ performance during the nearly three years of his travelling through Palestine.
He had most certainly performed eye catching miraculous things. Many who had been blind can now read again the holy books of Moses. He is being followed by men and women who had been crippled for life and who now have the full use of their limbs.
In quite a few homes there are now families who can talk and communicate with loved ones who had been deaf and sometimes even dumb since birth. Lepers are cleansed, dead brought back to life… staggering happenings…!
On top of all that, he had been instructing his followers about the real significance of the Law of God as given by Moses and, using many parables, he had introduced them to the meaning of the Kingdom of Heaven that now had come near.
The Jews of Jesus’ time were human beings just like us and they must accept that things like these had not happened since the wonderful days of Elijah the prophet, and that was a very long time ago!
Let us refresh our memory: that was the time of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel; the days of that drought of three and a half years’ duration. The time of that grand competition on Mount Carmel, where the battle was fought about who was God: Israel’s Lord or Baal!
Jesus’ coming among his people had brought a completely new concept of the life and service of God. Also Jesus’ coming had been introduced by another personality of extraordinary character …to wit, John the Baptist, to whom people had flocked from all over the country to witness how he was inviting the Jews to confess their sins and to be baptised – as if they were mere heathen coming to Israel. John had been in the public eye because of his conflict with King Herod and his subsequent murder when his head was brought on plate to the drunk King and his “cobbers” by a little girl!
That was at that moment about two years earlier. Jesus himself had been teaching for nearly three years. As is said in our text: he had been teaching but also been preaching the gospel of Israel’s God – full of grace for all who seek Him.
During his work among the Israelites Jesus had had several collisions with the Jewish religious authorities. He had been attacked by Pharisees and Sadducees and had had pointed discussions with the lawyers, the so-called scribes. But all those encounters had been on a more or less unofficial basis. Even when his enemies were members of the Jewish Council, the Sanhedrin, they did not officially represent the Sanhedrin as such.
Now in our text it is described for us how at long last this was changed! Jesus now was approached by THE CHIEF PRIESTS AND THE SCRIBES AND THE ELDERS. They must have been a set of representatives of the Council itself as they comprise all the three sections of the Sanhedrin: chief priests (the religious leaders), scribes (the theologians whose task it was to explain the Law and the prophets) and the elders, who were responsible for the worldly government of the Jewish nation.
In terms of our days we would say: here is an official committee from the Jewish Council, comprising all three sections of its 70 members. Now the stage is set for a first official confrontation between Jesus and the leaders of the Jewish nation.
And full of curiosity we ask: WHAT WILL IT BE ALL ABOUT?
This is the arrow they shoot at Jesus:
“Tell us by what authority you do these things,
or who it is that gave you this authority.”
Do we understand this question well? It means: Are you the Messiah, the one promised that we are waiting for, OR: Who is behind you that gave you this authority, God the Lord perhaps?
Oh it is fully clear that they have not mentioned these words. No, they have wrapped up their question in very vague terms, more indirect, somewhat “innocent-like”.
What now is the point in balance between these committee members and Jesus? You might say it is a point of order! This is the issue: Is this enquiry about Jesus’ authority sincere; is it meant to gather genuine information – or is it a trap set up to incite Jesus to an explanation that makes him liable to an indictment when they catch him on a word?
Of course this must be made clear first – and that is why Jesus counters with a question of His own. A question moreover that lies on the same level when it asks about the origin and value of the baptism of John the Baptist.
Here is a point that must be raised. We find in the Old Testament several prophets who accost the Jewish people. Time and again they commence their warnings and messages from God with these words: THUS SAYS THE LORD! With them there was no uncertainty about the origin of their authority. But Jesus had never spoken like this. Neither had John the Baptist. Their words and their miracles had to speak for themselves. Quite formally the Jewish Council had a point when they asked Jesus about His authority. The matter however is whether they were SINCERE, whether they were straightforward and inquired in good faith! This now is what Jesus will bring into the open when He asks about John’s baptism: “Was this from heaven or from men?”
When Jesus says “from heaven” he uses the common expression by which Jews spoke about God. They avoided the name JHVH, LORD, as much as possible.
His enemies must have understood Jesus perfectly: what John had done in his baptising, was that commanded by God…?
The other possibility is mentioned as the alternative: was John’s baptism from MEN?
That could only mean that John had invented it himself or that it was the result of a certain theory or theology.
Now the gauntlet is thrown down by Jesus. Let the gentlemen from the Sanhedrin show their colour! John’s baptism is already three years old. It had in its days made a huge impact on the thoughts of the Jewish people. The Sanhedrin as the responsible body of the Israelite religion and community has had ample time to make up its mind about this unusual happening of the baptising John. What has been the verdict? Was it from God or from men? The committee of the Sanhedrin starts to discuss it. What will they answer Jesus? “If we say from heaven, he will say ‘Why did you not believe him?’ When we say: ‘From men’, all the people will stone us; for they are convinced that John was a prophet.”
So they answered, like little lads caught out, THAT THEY DID NOT KNOW WHENCE IT WAS.
Hereby they show themselves insincere and incompetent. Insincere because their aim had never been to get a grasp of the truth, not regarding John, even less regarding Jesus.
And incompetent as well, for what can you say about a responsible body that after more than two years still had no fixed opinion about John and his mission?
On top of all that they are just afraid of the reaction of the people, afraid for their own precious life!
WE DON’T KNOW. . . here their puny situation is made clear. And Jesus said to them: “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things!”
Jesus DECLINES TO GIVE THEM AN ANSWER.
This then is the historical situation in our text. Jesus declines to answer them about his authority and declines to answer whether God had sent him or not.
However brothers and sisters this is not the end of the matter. There is more at stake here than just something from the past – simply because our Bible has more to say about it.
In Matthew 26 verses 63 and 64 we read that later when Jesus as a prisoner appeared in the meeting of the full Jewish Council and was interrogated by the High Priest Caiaphas personally, he did NOT decline to answer!
At first when accused by false witnesses he was silent.
Then the high priest can no longer contain himself and throws all pretence aside when he growls to Jesus: “I adjure you by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God!!!
Now there’s no more hedging by priests and Sanhedrin. Now the question is squarely put and Jesus is put under oath: “I adjure you by the living God…!”
But now there comes an answer. Jesus said: “You said so…!” meaning what you say is true.
But more is to come:
“BUT I TELL YOU hereafter you will see the Son of man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.”
At first hearing it is difficult to understand what Jesus could mean. For certainly the high priest did not see Jesus in heaven at that moment. It must have this meaning that Jesus when he confessed to be the Christ pointed to THE LAST ACT that he would perform, namely his return in judgment. He by-passed for that moment his death on the cross, his resurrection from the dead, his ascension to heaven and focused all attention on his position of power and his coming on the clouds of heaven. For especially those last acts were clearly prophesied by Daniel when he spoke about the Son of Man.
In this way the Lord Jesus put everything in one line and warned what ultimately his “being the Christ” would mean for men.
I TELL YOU, is the introduction that warns the high priest and all the members of the Sanhedrin… and is just as much a warning to us today!
Let us take note of this warning: when Jesus speaks of his return in judgment he embraces all of history from the moment he speaks until the day all will see him on the clouds. Here we too are included for his return has not taken place yet.
THIS MEANS then that we are faced with the same question: what is Jesus’ authority . . . and who is behind him, God or man!
Behind Jesus – is there God, the creator of heaven and earth – or MAN, either in a church, a religion, a philosophy, or a system? Perhaps even man in his fear of hell and in his selfish wish to get a good life after death! It boils down to this: is the Biblical person of Jesus as shown in the gospels and the letters of the New Testament and as accepted by us here A TRUE PICTURE of the Saviour sent by God to man – OR – is He perhaps A CONCEPTION of him made by the early Christian Church and explained by us according to our human ideas, our ideals and our fears of death and our wish for happiness in heaven?
The fact is that we today don’t SEE Jesus Christ working his miracles neither do we HEAR his own voice teaching people and preaching the gospel.
The Jews of his day had seen him healing the sick, so had the members of the Sanhedrin and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and Galilee. Also it is a fact that after Jesus’ days of teaching and healing he has died on the cross, he also arose from the grave, ascended into heaven and sent his Spirit on Pentecost to dwell in his church, to enlighten his apostles to be his witnesses. These apostles then travelled and preached and wrote their letters. The result thereof is found in our four gospels, the Acts of the Apostles and the various other books of the New Testament.
This New Testament again is faced with the same kind of query as Jesus had been himself. “TELL US BY WHAT AUTHORITY SPEAKS THIS GOSPEL?” – and also – WHO IS IT THAT GAVE THIS BOOK ITS AUTHORITY?
This is even the primary question in our days in all theology. It is a question alive in every church. It was one of the main subjects on the meeting of our Reformed Ecumenical Synod in Sydney last August. To say it in the terms of the American T.V. quiz: this is the 64 dollar question. Indeed it is the principal question of life and death.
IS JESUS CHRIST THE SAVIOUR SENT BY GOD?
IS WHAT SCRIPTURE PROMISES US DIVINE TRUTH
or no more than an exalted dream of the early Christian church
or a projection of our own fears and pious wishes?
HOW IS OUR ATTITUDE as a congregation regarding the message that Jesus Christ is God’s son and the only real Saviour of lost mankind? Don’t think please, that this is only a question of theoretical value and a matter for study by theologians!
In theory one can so easily utter orthodox words and declare with a broad gesture: All of the Bible is God’s infallible word! But now in practice, let us ask all the members of the congregation from A to Z (and all letters in between): Why my brother and sister do you accept this about Jesus and about the Bible? Do you do it because they all say so at home and all profess it in our church?
What did the Sanhedrin committee say? “If we say that the baptism of John was from men, they will stone us; for they ARE ALL CONVINCED THAT JOHN WAS A PROPHET”.
In the same way all our people are CONVINCED that Jesus is the Son of God and that the Bible is the word of God. Woe him or her who denies that! We would not be stoned perhaps if we were to deny this but there would be no place in our church for us!
But again there is place for THAT OTHER HALF of the discussion of the committee; when we accept that John with his baptism and Jesus with his cross and resurrection and our bible as well are from HEAVEN, that means: are from God – might not Jesus when he comes on the clouds ask us? WHY DID YOU NOT BELIEVE ME?
For let us be frank about it: do we believe that?
Do we follow up what we promised when our babies were baptised? Are we faithful in instructing them in the biblical truth? Do you seek help in that instruction when they grow up? Do you send them to Sunday school and catechism classes?
There is even more: quite a few of our young people asked to be married in church when one of the two was not a confessing Christian. Notwithstanding that you sought a CHRISTIAN marriage in the kingdom of God. But where are they now? Do they live by the Bible or by Television? Do they share in the financial responsibilities of our church?
Listen well for we must continue! When we believe the gospel of Jesus Christ, so continuously preached to you, where and when do we SHOW our joy because of forgiven sins? Where is our GRATITUDE? Here we are on the practical level of everyday life: We KNOW what our Bible says but we also know ourselves as sinful creatures, as men and women with sinful thoughts and desires. We are never free from sin, but do we believe that enormous mystery proclaimed by God, that our sins are FORGIVEN? Indeed this unfathomable wonder that we may start a NEW life every NEW day?
Is that really true, direct from God in heaven, what baptism testifies: that we are cleansed from our guilt?
And what the Lord’s Supper reminds us of that Jesus Christ made himself a sacrifice for a complete atonement of all our sins?
The Jewish deputation from Sanhedrin asked Jesus about his authority and he refused to give them an answer because they did not seek to get genuine information about his mission but wanted to catch him out in order to accuse him.
When we ask, will we get an answer regarding the authority of the Bible and the value of its promises?
We will most certainly when we seek God in his word. When we don’t use this book to fight him but when we bow down before his majesty that He has given His Spirit in order that Apostles would testify about Him to all nations even to the ends of the earth.
This Jesus Christ, born in Bethlehem, who died on the cross under Pontius Pilate was raised by God on the third day. That is what our New Testament gospel is all about. As Paul the apostle has written: I did not want to know among you anything but Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
This Christ received his authority from God and works through his Spirit who uses the word of preaching.
That is the only reason why there are still believers and churches. Why there are still sacraments administered and why there is still a gospel of grace for sinners proclaimed.
And is that not wonderful to know that God has so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son so that everyone who believes upon him will not go into destruction but will have eternal life?
Is not that the only comfort in troubles and grief, the only light in the dark valley of death that this Jesus is there and that he made us his property?
He declined to answer the treacherous Sanhedrin but he SHOUTS it to us week by week: remember me until I come.
I TELL YOU THAT YOU WILL SEE THE SON OF MAN SEATED AT THE RIGHT HAND OF POWER AND COMING ON THE CLOUDS OF HEAVEN!
He is coming… what will you do?
Do you have YOUR answer ready?
What kind of answer? Amen. Yes, amen Lord Jesus, my Lord and my God!