Introduction
Romans 5:1–5 ESV
1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,
4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,
5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
This is our third Sunday in this advent season, and the subject that I will be preaching about is Joy. In the first Sunday, we saw the Love of Christ. Last Sunday, Ashok preached on the Peace of Christ, and now I bring to your attention the Joy of Christ.
A Personal Testimony
It is not rare for preachers like me to find ourselves rebuked in the preparation of our own sermon, where the scripture leaps out like a lion and grabs a hold of you, and wrestles you to the ground.
And in sermons, much more than others.
That’s where I am in preaching this sermon, held down by the sheer force of the jaws of Scripture so that I might comprehend ‘Joy’!
I am sharing this with you because I need you to know that I consider myself a novice to this kind of joy, and I am nevertheless preaching to you about this because I have been totally captivated by Scripture regarding this subject.
The more I meditate on this subject I feel the teeth of God’s word, like a bait caught in my heart and I’m being pulled deeper and deeper. And then I thought to myself – this is what it means isn’t it – Romans 10:17
Romans 10:17 ESV
17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
John 6:39 ESV
39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.
This is how he keeps me. This is how he writes his law in my heart.
“He will hold me fast. He will hold me fast. For my Saviour loves me so. He will hold me fast”
Why you should listen to this sermon
1. Joy is simultaneously the most valuable and the most volatile of human emotions
2. The Bible commands you to rejoice always
3. Joy is the primary indicator of one’s satisfaction in Christ.
Why is Joy important?
1. Joy is an essential part of Christian conversion
8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory,
9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
Let us briefly unpack this text and see what Peter is telling us.
• The text here is speaking to believers and is referring to their past, present and future.
• The past – you have not ‘seen’ him, you love him. The Christian’s love for God is rooted in something deeper than human sight. It is wrought by the power of the Holy Spirit who convicts our hearts.
• The present – you do not ‘see’ him ‘now’, you believe in him. That love for God is continuing to manifest in the life of the believer’s life today in his belief (faith).
• And – this conjunction is so important. The Bible does not say Or. This isn’t an either-or reality but a both-and reality.
• rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory – The Christian’s love for God is presently manifested in both belief and rejoicing.
• The future – the outcome of such faith – love, believing and rejoicing – is eternal life (salvation of our souls)
Listen to the Psalmist
Psalm 51:12–17 ESV
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.
13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you.
14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.
15 O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.
16 For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
Salvation brings joy and praise!
Here’s more.
Galatians 5:22–23 ESV
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
John 15:5 ESV
5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
Joy is a fruit of the Spirit and whoever abides in Christ bears fruit – and hence rejoices. Rejoicing is not an option for the Christian. It is an essential part of his faith.
Let me give you two more verses just to satisfy my excitement here,
Luke 1:43–44 ESV
43 And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
44 For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.
Luke 2:10–11 ESV
10 And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.
11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
Do you see how the human emotion of joy is ingrained in the reality of Christ in us?
2. Joy is pervasive throughout Scripture
I don’t know how else to explain this except to say that your joy is a subject that is spoken of throughout the Bible. It is everywhere.
I feel ashamed for I consider myself as one who has been more influenced by John Piper than any other theologian, and yet I have not seen the central message of his life’s work this clearly before.
The argument for Christian Hedonism as Piper coined it, is an attempt at explaining the co-existence of ‘glorifying God’ and ‘pursuing joy’. As Piper argues extensively, just as C.S Lewis did in his lifetime, and Jonathan Edwards in his, the Christians pursuit to glorify God and the pursuit of joy are not two mutually exclusive realities, but the same.
Doug Wilson writes this in his blog – ‘We should therefore thank God for Jonathan Edwards in the eighteenth century, C.S. Lewis in the twentieth, and in our time, John Piper. In various ways, and in accordance with their respective gifts and contributions, they made sure to get our affections back into play.’
So, John Piper’s famous statement – God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him – explains this unity. God is glorified in our satisfaction in him. And the primary emotion of satisfaction is ‘joy’.
Now, you might as, “How can you say that? Can’t satisfaction be manifest through other emotions?”
Yes they can. You can have satisfaction manifest in peace, or hope, or thankfulness. But tell me, is there something as joyless peace? Is there a joyless hope? Can you be thankful without joy?
There isn’t! To be satisfied is to be joyful!
In his book ‘God’s passion for his glory’, John writes, “Sometimes people ask: should we pursue obedience to God or joy in God? Edwards would answer: The question involves a category confusion. It’s like asking: should I pursue fruit or apples? Obedience is doing what we are told. And we are told to delight ourselves in the Lord. Therefore pursuing joy in God is obedience.”
One of the arguments Piper makes is from Psalm 37:4
Psalm 37:4 ESV
4 Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
Let us look at this text for a moment.
• We have a command – delight yourself in the Lord
• And we have a promise – he will give you the desires of your heart
What we have here is a call to obedience coupled with a promise of joy.
Joy is the satisfaction or fulfilment of our desires. And the one who truly delights in God will have desires that are appropriate to his delighting. And God will fulfil those desires.
Therefore, God’s command for us to delight in him, to pursue and worship him, to obey him, is not without satisfied desires.
Therefore, if the Bible is all about God’s glory, it must in essence be all about our joy, because God has determined to make much of himself through our joy in him.
3. We were created for joy
One of the reasons that the Bible addresses joy all over the place is also because mankind has been created for the pursuit of happiness.
• Thomas Jefferson, in the American Declaration of Independence, wrote, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
When creating a Christian nation under God, men were persuaded of God’s purpose in our pursuit of happiness.
The first evidence of this is the way we all feel about joy. All of us are trying to be happy. None of us are trying to be sad or angry.
If God is most glorified in our joy in him, and Isaiah 43:7
Isaiah 43:6–7 ESV
6 I will say to the north, Give up, and to the south, Do not withhold; bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth,
7 everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.”
tells us that we were created for his glory, then we were created for the purpose of enjoying God.
And we read in Psalm 16:11
Psalm 16:11 ESV
11 You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
The pursuit of God is the pursuit of joy. We were created to be in God’s presence, and in his presence is fullness of joy.
4. The joy of the Lord is our strength
Nehemiah 8:9–12 ESV
9 And Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, “This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn or weep.” For all the people wept as they heard the words of the Law.
10 Then he said to them, “Go your way. Eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready, for this day is holy to our Lord. And do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”
11 So the Levites calmed all the people, saying, “Be quiet, for this day is holy; do not be grieved.”
12 And all the people went their way to eat and drink and to send portions and to make great rejoicing, because they had understood the words that were declared to them.
5. Joy is a biblical command
Philippians 4:4 ESV
4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.
1 Thessalonians 5:16–18 ESV
16 Rejoice always,
17 pray without ceasing,
18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
Psalm 100:2 ESV
2 Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing!
Now, the problem with biblical commands for us to be joyful is the question, “How can one command affections?” You can’t just snap your fingers and change or produce random emotions.
Emotions are feelings that are produced as a response to something. How are you supposed to feel what you do not feel? If the Bible tells you to ‘be happy’, when you clearly aren’t, how is that supposed to work?
Are you supposed to pretend? But that would be hypocrisy, and the Bible accuses hypocrites. So that doesn’t work.
Let me give you two points on this, and we’ll dive a little more into it at the end of the sermon.
i. The unbeliever is a slave to various passions, whereas the Christian has been set free
Titus 3:3–8 ESV
3 For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.
4 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared,
5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,
6 whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior,
7 so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
8 The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people.
Christians devote themselves to good works because they are not mastered by their passions but have been given the power to master their passions.
The fruit of the spirit is self-control and sober mindedness.
This is why Scripture instructs your passions. And this part has been a greater revelation for me in recent days – that as Christians we are to cultivate our passions.
Matthew 13:44 ESV
44 “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
ii. The Christian is a slave to Christ – his passions are anchored to Christ.
But not only have we been set free from sin, but we have been given fruit that leads to sanctification.
Romans 6:22 ESV
22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.
Galatians 2:20 ESV
20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
There is a radical shift taking place during conversion. And this shift may be best explained like this. Before our salvation, we were slaves to sin and its various passions. But Christ saved us and we are now slaves to God.
Where worldliness was once the object of our hearts desire, Christ has now taken the place of the world in our hearts.
And it is really helpful to note that wherever the Scripture directly commands emotions, the reason specified in all of those texts is – look at God! Look at him! Look, look at the desire of your heart, you Christian! Look and go do! Don’t you love him? Isn’t he your treasure? Haven’t you sold everything you had in order to have him?
Here is a sample,
Ephesians 5:5-8
Ephesians 5:5–8 ESV
5 For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.
6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.
7 Therefore do not become partners with them;
8 for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light
Colossians 3:23–24 ESV
23 Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men,
24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.
This is what accounts for the volatility of our joy that rises and drops in rapid succession – that more often than not our joy is set on the things of this world and not on Christ.
[Parenting in Hypocrisy]
What then, is Joy?
Given all of this context, let us briefly consider a definition for joy, and close with talking about how we can cultivate this joy in our lives.
Joy is a deep sense of happiness, contentmen or delight that is felt in response to something. Joy is the emotion most closely attached to the human desire. We rejoice in our desiring and our desiring fulfilled. We are created as creatures of desire and so joy is a key part of that.
Romans 5:1–5 ESV
1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,
4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,
5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
• Therefore – In the book of Romans, several chapters start with the word ‘therefore’ and indicates how Paul is repeatedly summarising his thoughts. So, having written about sin, the wrath of God, the saving righteousness of Christ, and the hope of that righteousness, he is here summarising his case.
• Now, verses 1 and 2 have a similar structure.
Verse 1 says, since we have ‘x’ – we have ‘a’.
And verse 2 says, since we have that same ‘x’ – we have ‘b’ and ‘c’.
Verse 1 – x = since we have been justified by faith + through our Lord Jesus Christ
Verse 2 – x = through him + by faith
Let us see, what are a, b and c.
a. Peace with God
b. Grace in which we stand
c. Rejoice in hope of the glory of God
• In the first place, we have been set right with God. Our guilt has been washed and we are no longer enemies of God. He is not our foe.
• But it doesn’t stop there. We have also obtained the Scripture tells us,
Grace — Not only is God not our foe but he is our ally. We have not just peace with God but favour with him. God has inclined his favour toward you.
• And – then there is that most crucially important conjunction ‘and’. Among the things we have in our salvation, namely peace and grace, we also have joy. And it is not just any joy, but joy in hope of the glory of God.
Christian joy is a deep sense of happiness, contentment or delight that is felt in response to the hope of the glory of God.
This joy is a joy that is set on the object who is Christ. This is an unwavering joy because Christ is an unwavering Saviour.
Hebrews 13:8 ESV
8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,
4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,
5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
• This joy is so centred on the immutable Christ that even in our sufferings, we rejoice.
• And see the train of reasoning for such joy -> knowledge that suffering – endurance – character – hope (which is the anchor of our joy)
• All this happens because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit (which is another way of saying the same the same ‘x’ we saw in verses 1 and 2 – justified by faith through Christ)
• John Piper calls this joy, Serious Joy. A simultaneous (not consecutive) existence of sorrow and joy. What Paul terms sorrowful, yet always rejoicing! (2 Corinthians 6:10)
Conclusion
How can I cultivate such joy?
• The Cross is for joy
• Christ is the object of our joy
• The ministry for joy in others
2 Corinthians 1:24 ESV
24 Not that we lord it over your faith, but we work with you for your joy, for you stand firm in your faith.
1 Thessalonians 2:19–20 ESV
19 For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you?
20 For you are our glory and joy.
Introduction
This is the word of the Lord,
Matthew 21:23–27 ESV: 23 And when he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came up to him as he was teaching, and said, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?” 24 Jesus answered them, “I also will ask you one question, and if you tell me the answer, then I also will tell you by what authority I do these things. 25 The baptism of John, from where did it come? From heaven or from man?” And they discussed it among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say to us, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ 26 But if we say, ‘From man,’ we are afraid of the crowd, for they all hold that John was a prophet.” 27 So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And he said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.
As we’ve traversed through the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 21 has marked a stark distinction in how Jesus approaches his ministry on the earth.
He is no longer quiet about his Messianic identity. He is going all out. He has entered Jerusalem, the heart of the nation of Israel. He is marching to the cross.
He knows he will die here. His words and actions in Jerusalem will catapult the opposition into a blinded rage in an attempt to destroy this Jewish carpenter.
That is what the mind in the flesh does when it encounters the immovable and unstoppable truth of the Spirit. When you can’t argue or reason your way out, you suppress, you throw tantrums, and then you lash out.
Romans 1:18 ESV: 18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
Today’s sermon is about the suppression of truth, which is the de facto position of the human flesh. And now, as Christians, before you assume that I’m talking about those who are out there in the world and of the world and now about us, let me say it as clearly as I can, I’m talking about suppression of truth in your lives.
Even though you and I are a regenerate people who have our sins crucified on Christ’s cross, who are freed from the curse of sin and death, we are still beings in the flesh and the effects of sin and temptation continue to wage war in our bodies.
Jesus said in his High Priestly prayer, in John 17:15-16
John 17:15–16 ESV: 15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
He also told us that, Matthew 18:7
Matthew 18:7 ESV: 7 “Woe to the world for temptations to sin! For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes!
We are no longer under the bondage of sin but sin is still a very pressing reality in our lives. We are called to fight because we have been given the means to defeat our flesh. We are not helpless anymore for the Lord Himself is our help.
1 Corinthians 6:19 ESV: 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,
So, the force of temptation, the allure of sin and selfishness, pride, and all the weaknesses of the flesh are ever before us. The question is, “How intentional are we in this war?”.
Romans 6:1–2 ESV: 1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?
This is how unintentional Christians think about their salvation. Since we are no longer under the curse of sin, how bad can it be if we fall? And Paul’s basic response is that such thinking isn’t Christian thinking. The Christian response to all sin is, “How can I live in this when I have died to it? I’m dead to this!”
The Christian does not justify or make room for sin, he knows it to be wrong and deals with it accordingly, like one who is dead to that kind of life.
Unrelenting Sleuth On the Scent of Truth
The most crucial and transformative period of my life in coming to a strong and rooted faith in Christ, as I’m sure is the case for many of you, was when I resolved to pursue truth. At some point in my life, it suddenly mattered as it should for all of you, what the truth was.
And when I say truth, I mean it from top to bottom. Not just about the higher philosophical realities of existence and purpose, but also about the reality of day-to-day life and decisions. I realized that it matters that we know why we do what we do and whether we should do what we do.
Life hung in the balance for me at that point because I had to make sense of questions like,
- Why am I here?
- What must I do?
- How must I honor my Father and Mother?
- When and how do I disagree with my parents?
- When do I pursue marriage?
- What do I do with my money?
- Whom do I marry?
- Can I fall in love?
- How do I treat women?
- What are the boundaries of friendship?
- Why must I do engineering?
- Do my grades really matter?
- How high should I aim?
- Can I have ambitions?
- How do I make the right decisions about career and lifestyle choices?
- What movies can I watch?
- Do I need to be a part of the church?
- How must I steward my generosity?
- How must I steward my time?
- Do I join this college or do I accept this job offer?
Trust me, I can go on and on and on and on, and not stop. So many Christians are stuck on so many of these questions because they’ve never bothered to be intentional about their pursuit of truth (about reality, about what really matters) in the small things that suddenly they are caught off guard as though something strange were happening to them. Then, they run to their prayer closets to seek God’s magical answer to their problem while also praying that they wouldn’t catch a cold from all the dust in that unused closet.
John Piper in his poem, The Calvinist, has this phrase – unrelenting sleuth on the scent of truth. Are you unrelenting in the pursuit of truth? I was and that has always been the bottom-most foundational reality in my Christian life. Everything I pursue has to align with what I believe to be true, and what I believe to be true must be ratified by the Bible.
Romans 1 against the whole wide world
Allow me some time to take you through the nature of the flesh as it is revealed in Romans 1. Now, mind you that when a sleuth finds himself in this chapter, he may end up MIA – Missing in Action. Romans 1 is like a mirror maze. Whichever way you turn and run, you run headfirst into your exposed self and it hurts. If there was ever a chapter in the Bible that was written to send the worldliness inside of you reeling in horror and fear, it is this one.
So, have a prayer in your heart for me as I go into Romans 1 and try to navigate our way through some of this truth in under 10 mins.
Paul begins by mentioning his intention in Romans 1:15
Romans 1:15 ESV: 15 So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.
• The apostle Paul is a very logically minded guy and you have to follow his reasoning. What we find after this statement is a cascade of causes. The conjunction ‘for’ in the Bible is a word that points you to the cause. It is a word that precedes the explanation, the reason.
• He is eager to preach the gospel. Not the five ways to please your wife or the 10 ways to hold your tongue. The Bible does speak about all these things and they need to be preached, but Paul’s talking about the essence of preaching, the centrality of the message regardless of what your topic might be. Everything comes out of this most central and unavoidable message, of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Your eagerness to preach anything must be at its most fundamental level a desire to preach the Gospel.
Romans 1:16 ESV: 16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
• According to Paul, the eagerness of preaching the Gospel is an unashamed love for it. This means that the hesitation to preach the Gospel may be a strong indicator that you are ashamed of the Gospel.
• Paul can’t imagine how one could be ashamed about the power of God that saves everyone who believes, whether Jew or Greek.
Romans 1:17 ESV: 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”
• The Gospel is the power that saves because it is the revelation of God’s righteousness that is revealed from faith to faith.
• So you have to work your way back from these three cascading ‘for’s and see how God’s righteousness which is his just approval, moral perfection, the purest right that has no wrong; how this perfection of light with all its power is presented or revealed in the message of the Gospel which is that Jesus died and rose again so that if you believe in him you shall not perish but this pure and perfect light shall cleanse you, but if you do not believe in Christ, you will perish without any hope of a salvation.
He hashes out this judgment in the next verse,
Romans 1:18 ESV: 18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
• See how the Gospel is the revelation of God’s righteousness, his salvation, and those who reject this salvation are called suppressers of the truth.
Jesus, when talking about our salvation said, in John 14:6
John 14:6 ESV: 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
This is the glory of the truth, that Jesus is the truth.
When Moses asked God for his name in Exodus 33, God responded with ‘I AM’. There is a reason that this is the highest name. When you and I use our names we are using words to represent who we are. They are identifying titles to who we are as a person. But who God is as a Being is Existence as we know it.
John 1:3 ESV: 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
No creature can claim to exist apart from God. We exist because he exists.
In much the same way, when Jesus says that he is the truth, he means to say that there is no truth if there is no Christ. He is the Truth.
Paul tells that Christ is the One,
Colossians 2:3 ESV: 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
There is no knowledge apart from knowing Christ. The one who forsakes Christ is forsaking knowledge.
Therefore, what sin does, what the flesh in unrighteousness does, is forsake Christ because you can’t argue with truth, you have to yield. But if you don’t want to yield, the only thing you can do is ‘suppress’.
And when you suppress, you forsake knowledge, wisdom, and above all, truth.
And God’s wrath is revealed against such people.
Romans 1:19–21 ESV: 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
• God has made plain to us the truth. Every act of creation, the cosmos is a constant megaphone declaring to you the truth about God. You cannot escape it. Therefore, sin is not ignorant, it is intentional. It is foolishness.
Hebrews 1:1–2 ESV: 1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.
God has always been speaking, and the coming of Jesus was the loudest and clearest speech. The Gospel is the loudest statement from Heaven.
So, in summarising this cascading causes in Romans 1, God has always been revealing the truth to the world, and the Gospel is the loudest and clearest message of truth. And through the Gospel is revealed the power of God for righteousness and salvation to those who are in the unrelenting pursuit of truth, but for those who suppress the truth the Gospel is the decisive stroke of judgment.
The Centrality of Truth
When the Gospel took such root in my life, I understood that I cannot answer any of the questions in my life meaningfully without the reality of this God in my life.
I understood that the only place that I can find the answers to all the questions pertaining to my life were in the pages of the Bible.
Cornelius Van Til, a Dutch-American philosopher and theologian was famously known to have said that The Bible is authoritative on everything of which it speaks. Moreover, it speaks of everything.
And this has been the foundation stone of much of my practical Christian life and even my apologetics.
Armed with this understanding, let us look at this short passage in Matthew 21
Exegesis
Matthew 21:23 ESV: 23 And when he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came up to him as he was teaching, and said, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?”
• Here we find Jesus back at the temple teaching the people. The Messiah had gone from cleansing the temple to healing the sick and now teaching them.
For all the parents in the room, here is a picture of how the rod of discipline should be used. Discipline is meant to drive out the evil, heal the wounded and to teach.
If you use the rod only to punish and not to heal or to teach, then you are in greater need of the rod than your children.
Be Christlike in your parenting. Let your anger heal and train, not destroy those whom God has placed under your care.
• If there was one thing that the people could not deny, it was the authority with which Jesus spoke and did what he did.
In an earlier passage we’d read,
Matthew 7:28–29 ESV: 28 And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, 29 for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.
So, when Jesus chases out the money changers and traders from the temple courts and then heals the truly needy and teaches them in the place where only yesterday was buzzing with trade, the crowds are watching an authoritative man.
In fact, such was the authority with which he conducted himself that none opposed him as he disrupted trade across acres of land overturning the table of the money changers, beating and driving out birds and goats and the people.
• This again is the nature of Christ, the truth. Since God is the I AM, the only uncaused cause, the very embodiment of existence as we know it; that when he shows up, the authority of his presence will be unlike anything else that exists. When God walks into the room so-to-speak, it’ll be unlike anyone else walking into the room. His very existence is existence.
And here, standing before these Jews was the very truth incarnate, the highest truth and instead of falling flat on their face, they wanted to know his credentials.
This is what the flesh does when it encounters truth. You cannot deny it, debate it, overpower it, so you suppress, you dismiss, and what better way to do that than you try and discredit it.
• By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?
This question is two-fold. It questions Jesus’ authority and the one who gave him that authority. They cannot question the reasoning behind his cleansing of the temple, they cannot deny the reality that people are healed, and they cannot argue with his teaching. So, they ask for his qualifications.
Matthew 13:55 ESV: 55 Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas?
John 1:46 ESV: 46 Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.”
Matthew 21:24 ESV: 24 Jesus answered them, “I also will ask you one question, and if you tell me the answer, then I also will tell you by what authority I do these things.
• For those of you here who are more technically aligned, here is an example of what we call pre-suppositional apologetics. Jesus does not rush to satisfy their request to see the evidence of his qualification. Instead, he presupposes their worldview according to which it does not matter if someone is speaking the truth or doing good things, it matters that he is officially given such authority.
Matthew 21:25–26 ESV: 25 The baptism of John, from where did it come? From heaven or from man?” And they discussed it among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say to us, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ 26 But if we say, ‘From man,’ we are afraid of the crowd, for they all hold that John was a prophet.”
• According to their worldview, if they denied John’s authority, the crowds would turn against them because they believed he is a prophet. On the other hand, if they agreed that it was from heaven, then they are caught for not believing him. Jesus knew that the Chief priests and elders were behaving inconsistently. That they were swayed not by credentials but by the lust for power and the authority they possessed over the people. This forced them to behave inconsistently in how they dealt with John’s ministry. Though they themselves did not believe John, they did not oppose him in front of the crowd.
• Now, see how when push comes to shove, they weren’t bothered about the truth. They did not want to answer truthfully. ‘If we say this, then…’
So many of us in our flesh deal with life in this manner. These chiefs, elders of the people would not answer truthfully because it would either lose them their popularity or it would hurt their ego.
Is Truth your higher treasure? Or are you all about truth when it is most convenient for you?
• How would you deal with sin if it were pointed out to you by your children? Would you receive it or would you question the maturity of their age, their authority?
• The piety of these elders of Israel was an outer display with no inward reality. They prayed aloud so that they could be seen by others, they were generous so that people would speak highly of them.
Are you the same Christian on the inside as you have shown yourself to be on the outside?
When push comes to shove, are you as heavenly minded as you say you are? Do you desire the glory of his name, the glory of his church, and building of his kingdom above all things? Or do you desire your own welfare more?
• Doug Wilson talks about how Christians like to put sin and righteousness on the stuff rather than weigh it upon their hearts. Some like to see their righteousness in the fact that they don’t watch movies, listen to secular music or hang around with unbelievers. Yet none of these things prove any measure of your righteousness.
If you must know, your pastor watches movies, listens to secular music, and hangs around with his unbeliever friends. The measure of my righteousness is not found in me avoiding this world because I am in this world. It must be measured by how much the world has not mastered me, but how in Christ I have mastered the world.
Have you not read Paul who wrote in 1 Corinthians 10:23
1 Corinthians 10:23 ESV: 23 “All things are lawful,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful,” but not all things build up.
• How true is your faith? How genuine is your confession? How passionate are you to want truth to be the banner over your home?
It is easy to be a Christian on a Sunday morning and behind a pulpit. But how Christian are you at home?
Matthew 21:27 ESV: 27 So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And he said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.
• We do not know – In what they thought would be a wise response, they revealed their foolishness. These who came to question Jesus’ authority were people without knowledge. They were left empty and their response shows their lack of authority.
Christ who spoke and worked with such authority stood in stark contrast to these who could not answer his question.
So, Jesus establishes his superior authority by revealing the spiritual nakedness of the Jewish elite.
• And as John Piper pointed out, “Jesus does not deal with those who suppress the truth.”
Conclusion
Jesus who is the very embodiment of truth, does not deal with those who do not love the truth.
The spiritually mature person is one who has gone down further along the road of truth, those who are more aware of it and have aligned their lives to it.
• Anxiety – Trust
• Interests of others
• Dependence on God more than money
• Obey scripture more than culture
• Pray more
• Whose ambitions serve the Glory of God and the good of his Church
