Introduction
This is the word of the Lord,
Ephesians 4:11–16 ESV
11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers,
12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,
13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,
14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.
15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,
16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
I have a bone to pick with modern evangelicalism, an issue that needs addressing if I am to be able to effectively take us through Matthew 23. And the issue is this – the misbelief that niceness is the highest virtue, even greater than love. The Bible teaches us in 1 Corinthians 13:13 that
1 Corinthians 13:13 ESV
13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
But according to the vast majority of Christians today, there is faith, hope and love, and the greatest of these is not popping your neighbour’s emotional balloons. In fact, you’re not even supposed to publicly recognise that you see said balloons.
We have let the unbelieving world teach us that since Jesus was kind and gentle, his followers have to likewise share in that fruit. Sure, but Jesus’ kindness was the kind that got him killed for it. Not the kind that gained him the whole world and lost his soul in the process.
Why am I saying all this? Because I’m trying to make a biblical case for sarcasm, ridicule and mockery.
“To what end?”, you may ask. To the end that you will not be in denial when you see Christ’s use of sarcasm, ridicule and mockery in chapter 23.
A seasoned theologian is like a seasoned builder who recognises the difference between structures that need reinforcement and those that need to come down. A poor builder will either tear everything down needlessly or will unnecessarily reinforce structures that will nevertheless come down on its own eventually.
And the sheer wanton fragility of the sentiment of modern evangelicals needs to collapse like the house of cards that it is.
We’ve taken the righteous Christian virtue of ‘kindness’ and ‘gentleness’ and spoilt them like unruly children and they’ve taken over the house, demanding that we do everything their way.
And I think it’s time we put our house back in order.
——
Therefore, after much thought and prayer, I’ve decided to take two Sundays to lay the groundwork that I believe will help us find our way through chapter 23.
In time, I pray that all of you will come to appreciate the foundation I hope to establish in these two weeks.
But let me begin with this disclaimer.
There is no good preacher of the word who is not often challenged by both the intellectual rigour and personal holiness that the text he preaches demands.
Some of these things that I have been preaching to you have been extremely challenging in my own life, partly because some of these things have come to my own understanding in recent times.
And as I’ve studied the subject that this sermon intends to engage with, I am convinced that it is far more an exercise in unlearning rather than in learning.
So, part of what I’m trying to do is dismantle certain popular notions of some Christian virtues in the hope that it would equip us to see the fullness of Christ in the next chapter.
Winsome or Wisdom?
We are taught by this world that the highest virtue is empathy. It is the gentle consideration we have of the other person in all circumstances. And this doctrine of empathy has redefined the meaning of love for so many Christians. Love is no longer the unrelenting power that desires the good of the other person, it has been redefined as the unrelenting power that desires not to cause offence.
But what Christians forget is that God has given them the right to interpret Scripture, not the right to redefine it. And we know that Jesus who is the embodiment of love (for God is love) was an offence to the Jews. What drove the world to kill the Son of God?
Couldn’t Jesus have been more winsome? Couldn’t he have neutralised much of the tension that was rising against him by choosing to pause the controversy for a bit and welcome the Pharisees over for dinner and talk about things that they agree on? Showed them his love and care, and laboured to establish a good relationship with them before trying to reprove and correct them?
As I say these things, I hope you can tell how this sounds like just the advice that many of us would give Christ had he been ministering in the flesh in our time. Because this is just the kind of advice we have to give each other in all circumstances.
Love is not a delicate flower that hangs by a thread in a thunderstorm. It is the thunderstorm of passion and dedication that does the will of God in all circumstances. For it is the same love that causes a mother to cuddle her new-born in her warmth, that cases a man to drive a spear through an enemy in the battlefield in defence of his homeland.
A popular Christian song renders that ‘Love is not a fight but it is something worth fighting for’. This is a true statement. Love is not all about fighting, but our fighting could be all about love.
Love in the Bible is not a delicate flower. Love in the Bible is the immutable standard that is seated on the throne of thrones and the earth is his footstool. The banner around his chest reads ‘King of kings and Lord of lords’. His voice is like thunder and the rush of many waters.
God is love!
Does kindness and gentleness have any place in the Christian life? Beyond a doubt for they are the fruit of the Spirit. But they are courageous virtues not timid ones. In our commitment to these virtues we have desired above all to be winsome at the cost of wisdom.
Proverbs 9:10 ESV
10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.
See how wisdom and knowledge come not from love, but fear. They are not wrought in God’s winsome nature but his divine glory that is great and fearsome.
Love is a bloodied cross upon which hung the Son of God. It is not a delicate matter, but a bold and bloody matter. Christianity is not matter of softness, but of righteousness and condemnation.
John 15:18–27 ESV
18 “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.
19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
20 Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.
21 But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me.
22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.
23 Whoever hates me hates my Father also.
24 If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both me and my Father.
25 But the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled: ‘They hated me without a cause.’
26 “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.
27 And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.
And those who bear witness of this Christ will be hated and reviled by the world. For indeed the world that hated Christ must hate his messengers.
Put aside this false notion that you are called to be winsome in perpetual softness. You are called to be wise, and the wise know the appropriate response given the situation and circumstance it finds itself in.
Know that certain times call for not hindering the children from coming to you and other times call for making a whip of cords and driving the people out of the temple. Certain times call for encouragement and you shall name him Peter, and other times call for severe correction and you shall call him Satan.
But that was Jesus who did it. He knew what he was doing. How can we imitate him? How? Because the Bible says so. 1 Corinthians 11:1
1 Corinthians 11:1 ESV
1 Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.
Or are we to only imitate Christ in his kindness, and not in his firmness? Are we to pick and choose Christ like a serving roasted chicken where you pull out the part that you like and leave the rest for someone else?
Romans 8:29 ESV
29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
Are we conformed to part of his image and not the whole? Is it all of Christ, or some of Christ?
Satire in Scripture
In these two sermons I want to give a biblical defence of satire as a biblical polemic. I’ve used two uncommon words here.
Satire is the exposure of human vice or folly through rebuke or ridicule
And, a polemic is a speech or piece of writing expressing a strongly critical attack on or controversial opinion about someone or something.
And the case I make for such satire is that the Bible heavily relies on it as a literary device. And when it comes to the use of satire and sarcasm, the one character who mostly and masterfully employs it is none other than Jesus himself.
Here’s a quote from Doug Wilson whose book ‘The Serrated Edge’ (the title after which this sermon was titled) I heavily lean on.
If a Christian employs satire today, he is almost immediately called to account for his “unbiblical” behaviour. But we should begin by noting the true oddness of our position. Suppose a man were to refer to certain respected theologians dismissively as having graduated from Bag of Snakes Seminary. He would instantly be upbraided for his un-Christlike behaviour. Unfortunately for the one delivering the rebuke, it was discovered shortly thereafter that the speaker was Christ.
Matthew 23:33 ESV
33 You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?
Two types of satire. Named after two famous Roman satirists.
• Horatian – Horatian satire (named after Horace) is light, urbane and subtle. Doug Wilson points out that one biblical master of this was Luke. If a reader is not paying attention, the satiric element can be entirely missed. For example, Luke delivers a jab at the philosophy department at the University of Athens. All the learned johnnies there “spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing” (Acts 17:21).
• Juvenalian – Juvenalian satire (named after Juvenal) is biting, bitter and angry, as epitomized by the book of Amos and Jesus’ oratory against the Pharisees sees in Matthew 23.
And Jesus was far more often a Juvenalian than a Horatian satirist.
Although I’m eager to jump in to show you how satire is pervasive in many parts of the Bible, I will hold myself back and leave that pleasure for next week. Today, I want to work on something more basic.
Arrogance & the Sin of Satire
• It is not arrogance to speak the truth in order to bring glory to Christ. It is arrogance that refuses to do it, or that does it with no regard for God’s glory. And such arrogance is sin and it is not the Christian way.
I am not advocating for a hateful form of Christianity, I’m advocating for a wholesome form of Christianity. That we not pick the kindness of Christ at the cost of his polemic, but neither should we then embrace his satire at the cost of his willingness to die for the sake of another.
The arrogance of modern evangelicals in their demand for perpetual winsome behaviour in all circumstances is their foolish confidence that they know what best serves the souls of others. They are confident that gentleness at all costs will ultimately serve better than being biblical. Their arrogance is that they think they know better than Christ.
1 Corinthians 3:6 ESV
6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.
Psalm 127:1 ESV
1 Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.
The arrogance of modern evangelicals is that their evangel is that God will not bless unless you are gentle. Yet, they do not speak for the God of the Bible. For you, O Christian, are not the master but the slave of Christ. You are not to plant, water or build as though your hands can guide anyone to salvation. Your job is to be faithful to Scripture and trust in God’s providence.
So know Christ, understand him and then be like him, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
I cannot tell you how often not the gentleness but the sting of rebuke has saved my soul. Even some of you here have been recipients of my stern or even sarcastic word, and some of you had and might still deem those statements as being folly. But I need you to understanding that by and large I stand by most of what I have said and will employ such language again because I don’t want to pander to your emotions but rather to faithfully and fearfully do what Jesus would have me do.
• The use of sarcasm is by and large not motivated by love or the desire for good. Yet, the issue here is not with sarcasm but with the one who uses it. As I have often said, the abuse of something is not evidence of its lack of usefulness. The response to such abuse is not cessation but proper use.
Biblical sarcasm is concerned with the glory of God and the good of the saints. It is indended to make a mockery of sin and those who heartily sin.
How does this serve for our good? Because it enacts the true and righteous disposition of the righteous against evil.
Atheism, ultimately, is not a reasonable matter, it is a laughable matter. The distortion of human sexuality, ultimately, is not a worthy debate, it is worth the contempt and mockery of the righteous.
Therefore, there is a place for reason, discussion, debate, but ultimately, there is a reason to laugh at it and mock it.
But how can you say that? The Scripture teaches us in Psalm 1 that blessed are those who do not sit in the seat of mockers.
Yes, that is true. But the same scripture employs mockery to mock the mockers.
1 Kings 18:25–29 ESV
25 Then Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Choose for yourselves one bull and prepare it first, for you are many, and call upon the name of your god, but put no fire to it.”
26 And they took the bull that was given them, and they prepared it and called upon the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying, “O Baal, answer us!” But there was no voice, and no one answered. And they limped around the altar that they had made.
27 And at noon Elijah mocked them, saying, “Cry aloud, for he is a god. Either he is musing, or he is relieving himself, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened.”
28 And they cried aloud and cut themselves after their custom with swords and lances, until the blood gushed out upon them.
29 And as midday passed, they raved on until the time of the offering of the oblation, but there was no voice. No one answered; no one paid attention.
• Maybe your god is stuck in the bathroom
• But what about kindness and gentleness? Beloved, it is not an either-or question. They are not mutually exclusive.
Exegesis
Ephesians 4:11 ESV
11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers,
• The apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers are like any of Paul’s lists not intended to be exhaustive. By such language we have to immediately recognise that Paul is talking about those that are in the leadership of God’s kingdom as it is presently manifest upon the earth. Leaders of the church.
• Such leaders are not born for themselves or by the people but have been given by God. The grand orchestrator of this scheme is not man but God. So, Paul draws our attention then to what God is doing here, by giving ministers to the church.
Ephesians 4:12 ESV
12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,
• He gave them to the church for a purpose. To equip the saints for the ministry, for building up the body of Christ.
How interesting is that? Here I thought that such leaders were those that did the work of the ministry. At least that’s how we often talk about the ‘ministry’. Yet, God’s intention according to Paul is that the ‘work of the ministry’ is the work of the saints – all of them. It is not the activity exclusively reserved for the leadership, but the responsibility that is given to all Christians.
The Leaders are meant to work their part by training the members to do the work of the ministry.
• The Body of Christ is built by the saints not by the leaders themselves. The leaders are to lead them in the construction but their duties primarily serve in equipping.
Ephesians 4:13 ESV
13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,
• And this task of equipping they must perform ‘until’ – so God in giving these leaders to equip the saints has an end goal in mind.
• All attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ
Three things are said here and as is common in Greek literature they are not three separate realities, but the same basic truth reiterated in greater detail or summarised.
• There is a ‘unity’ of faith in and knowledge of Christ. This is the end for which leaders are to equip the saints, that all would likewise be of the same faith. Strong across the room. But all would likewise know and understand Christ, the Word of God.
This is why they are called apostles, prophets, teachers, shepherds and evangelists. Those terms depict a certain function that they serve in uniting God’s people in both knowledge and faith.
• When such unity develops there is spiritual maturity. The reason for the masculine language here is because if you look at these three things mentioned they indicate a conformity to the man, Christ.
• To the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Now we are given a measure, a standard that must be reached. And notice how that standard is not a part of Christ, but the fullness of Christ. This isn’t some of Christ but all of Christ.
• Therefore, the leaders of the church are not to equip the saints for the work of the ministry by teaching them what they deem necessary but by teaching them what serves the end of rising to the measure of the fullness of Christ.
To teach men and women to be like Christ is to first know the fullness of who Christ is. Not to take what seems reasonable and respectable in our day and age and to reject the remaining time that Christ behaved most unlike himself. Doing so would be arrogant.
Ephesians 4:14 ESV
14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.
• He gave us leaders to equip us for the ministry until we rise to the measure of the fullness of Christ. Verse 14 now justifies why. Why did he give us leaders to achieve this?
• Because their equipping of the saints was meant to stabilise the faith of the church. tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.
Children – For one, it is a dangerous thing to send a child out into the storm. The duty of the children is in the safety of the home not in the raging battlefield.
Yet the battle is very real and children can’t be children for long.
Every wind of doctrine – Here they are tossed to and fro like a delicate sail caught in a raging storm. A wind this way drives the boat to the east and wind another drives it away north. It’s a boat that cannot be steered.
The image here is visceral – a child caught in a storm.
Human cunning – And the storm isn’t every wind of doctrine, but also the wind of human cunning. A child is not prudent or shrewd to understand the cunning of the world.
Matthew 10:16 ESV
16 “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.
See here the glorious unity of serpents and doves in the Christian character, of shrewdness and innocence.
By craftiness in deceitful schemes – Again a way of repeating the human cunning.
Ephesians 4:15 ESV
15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,
• Rather – He gave us leaders to equip us for the ministry until we rise to the measure of the fullness of Christ so that we would be shrewd, mature and wise.
Such maturity is displayed when we are not like children, but rather – what?
• Speaking the truth – Here are those who not only hear and know the truth, but they speak it. They are not ashamed of it, but believe it.
• In Love – Given all the context I have laid just from the way this passage is structure, how many of you will interpret love here to mean softness.
In love here is a reference to that most highest virtue and passion that drives the Christian. Love for his God and for his people.
For he speaks the truth passionately and without restraint for love takes no prisoners. Love cares more for your good than your feelings.
That is the speech of love.
• Grow in every way into him – And by doing this we are to grow in every way into Christ. In every way!
Conclusion
- We have idolised the human feeling above truth and love. We have let the world redefine for us the meaning of words.
- People fear the imitation of Christ’s anger because they are afraid they’ll mess it up. But it is a false assumption that thinks that you can imitate Christ’s love without messing that up.
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
