By What Authority Are You Doing These Things

In one paragraph

This message came from Tuesday of Holy Week, the day the chief priests, scribes, and elders confronted Jesus in the temple with a direct challenge to his authority. Pastor Carl walked through the same exchange as recorded in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, showing how Jesus responded not by dodging the question but by exposing the real issue underneath it. The service closed with communion. The...

Read together

1. Revelation 22 Opening invitation read to the congregation: let anyone who is thirsty come, drink freely from the water of life
2. Ephesians 3 Prayer read before offering: that God would power us with inner strength through his Spirit and that Christ would make his home in our hearts
3. Acts 17:28 Basis for the song Great Are You Lord: in him we live and move and have our being
4. Isaiah 5:1-2 Background to the parable of the vineyard owner and vine growers: the vineyard imagery drawn from this passage
5. Psalm 118 The stone the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone, quoted by Jesus to the chief priests and elders, also connected to the triumphal entry Hosanna
6. Matthew 21 The official challenge to Jesus' authority, the parable of the two sons, and the parable of the vine growers
7. Mark 11-12 Parallel account of the challenge to Jesus' authority, the vine growers parable, and the question about taxes to Caesar
8. Luke 20 Parallel account including the description of spies sent to trap Jesus, and the question about paying taxes to Caesar
9. Genesis 1:26-28 God made mankind in his image, used to draw out the implication of whose image we bear in the Caesar and coin discussion
10. Romans 13 The government is established by God, cited briefly in application of give to Caesar what is Caesar's
11. Jeremiah Referenced as an anticipation of the new covenant, connected to the words of institution at communion
12. Joel Referenced alongside Jeremiah as anticipating the new covenant proclaimed by Jesus at the Last Supper
13. Matthew 28 Closing benediction: all authority has been given to me, go and make disciples

Talk about it

1. Pastor Carl asked the congregation to think about why the religious leaders said 'we don't know' when they actually did know where John's baptism came from. When have you found yourself giving a safe or evasive answer to a question you already knew the truth of, and what was driving that?
2. In the parable of the two sons, the first son said no but then regretted it and went anyway. Pastor Carl described that moment of regret and turning around as repentance. What makes it hard for us to admit we were wrong and change direction, even when we can see it is the right thing to do?
3. The religious leaders saw the transformation that John's message made in the lives of tax collectors and prostitutes, and still would not believe. Pastor Carl said they couldn't let go of their own erroneous notions. Have you ever watched God clearly at work in someone else's life and still resisted what that was showing you? What was holding you back?
4. Pastor Carl drew out the implicit question behind Jesus and the denarius: whose image do you bear? He connected this to the idea that every person carries the Imago Dei, the image of God, and that this is where our deepest obligation lies. What does it look like in daily life to give yourself to the One whose image you bear?
5. At the communion table, Pastor Carl prayed that God would point out the ways we owed ourselves to Him and chose otherwise, and then offered those back for complete forgiveness. How do you personally experience the tension between the weight of recognizing your own sin and the relief of bringing it to God?