Calvary Baltimore Weekly Sermons

Habakkuk 1...

Hab 1:1-4 - Begins with a question: "How long shall I cry for help?" Habakkuk is wrestling with God in prayer. He's confused about God's justice and timing.

Judah is sinning, but Babylon is worse. Why is God using Babylon to judge Judah?

Word for "violence" here is the same Hebrew word used in Gen 6:11 (Noah's flood) - things are so bad they need a total reset.

The Law (Torah) is "paralyzed" - not defeated, but grown numb/cold in the Promised Land.

Today, western countries are abandoning the Lord. When the Word of God is abandoned, justice becomes perverted.

Hab 1:5 - God responds: "Look among the nations... doing a work... you would not believe."

New Testament: Paul quotes this in Acts 13:40 as a warning against hard-heartedness and rejecting Jesus (the cross/resurrection).

Hab 1:6 - God is raising up the Chaldeans (Babylonians). They are fierce, fast, and worship their own might.

Hab 1:12 - "My God, my holy one." Habakkuk claims a personal relationship. (Good prayer model: claiming God as our Father, like Jesus taught).

Habakkuk describes Babylon dragging nations away in nets and fishhooks.

A New Testament reversal: In the Old Testament, the enemy "fishes" men into slavery and death. In Matt 4, Jesus calls us to be "fishers of men," netting people alive into the Kingdom of God!

Habakkuk 2...

Hab 2:1 - Habakkuk goes to his watch post. He's waiting on God. Waiting on God isn't being lazy! It is faithful, vigilant responsibility.

Hab 2:2 - God says, "Write the vision... it awaits its appointed time." - This reminds us of the Rapture. It's written and will happen right on God's perfect, sovereign schedule.

Hab 2:4 - "The righteous shall live by faith" (massive verse, quoted 3 times in the new testament).

Babylon appears multiple times in scripture:

- Tower of Babel (Gen 11) - "Let us make a name for ourselves" = Pride.

- Babylonian Empire (Habakkuk's time).

- 1 Peter (referencing Rome).

- Revelation 17 & 18 (Future Babylon).

- The "Spirit of Babylon" = pride that defies God.

Do we have this spirit in our own lives or culture today?

Woe 1: Plundering. "He who lives by the sword dies by the sword." Warning against a culture of endless war. Christians should be peacemakers.

Woe 2: Evil gain. "The stone will cry out from the wall."

Woe 3: Building a city on blood. Without Christ, there is only chaos. We share the gospel not just to get people to heaven, but to bring order and life to them right now!

Woe 4: Making neighbors drunk to exploit them.

Woe 5: Idolatry. Making wooden/metal images. Idols are ridiculous, and powerless!

Habakkuk 3...

We turn from a complaint into something more like a Psalm...

Hab 3:2 - "Revive your work... in wrath remember mercy."

How is our prayer life? Is it urgent? Bold? We need to repent of puny, lukewarm prayers!

Luke 11 shows God wants to answer us.

Revival starts with us. We need to be the spark in our own homes and neighborhoods.

God's Power (v8-15): Creation bends to His will. He will pierce the enemy with their own arrows.

Verses 17-19: Habakkuk realizes God isn't stopping the invasion, but he is at peace.

"Though the fig tree should not blossom... yet I will rejoice in the Lord."

Earthly things (health, money, nation) can be taken away. Salvation in Christ cannot be plundered.

God makes his feet like the deer's on the "high places."

The book starts with Habakkuk in the dirt, crying and desperate. It ends with him dancing on the high places. His circumstances didn't change, but his heart did because he learned to trust the living, sovereign God.

Verse 5... Pride and arrogance are the mark of those outside the faith. Sin is never satisfied; it will progress infinitely if you let it, until it destroys you. 

So submit to Jesus. You belong to him, and your soul is satisfied in him! The world is restless, chasing their sin. 

V6-8... One day the nations will collect... You reap what you sow. 

V9-11... Babylon thinks it's safe. But it's built on the blood of others. 

V12-14... Babylon may be beautiful, but it was built on injustice. 

We proclaim not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord! 

Satan wants you to believe you're in a losing battle. That's a lie. The light overcomes the darkness! There are so many Christians in heaven they can't be counted! 

Gates are defensive, not offensive. The church lays siege to Satan's kingdom! All false gods... Zeus, Caesar, Ra... are all gone. But Jesus remains! 

Habakkuk says the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of God. We need to be ready to give a defense for the Gospel, in season and out! So read his Word and submit to it, every day!

V15-18... ill-gotten power will be put to shame. 

V19-20... Babylon has put its trust in a false god, but the Lord is high and lifted up in his holy temple!

When our God moves and speaks, the whole earth stands in silence. 

Chapter 3...

V1-2... Habakkuk remembers the great works of the Lord, and pleads with him to revive it! 

God can change the whole world with a small group of people! Equip us, strengthen us, God! Revive your great works!

God can pour out his spirit whenever he wants, and he's looking for humble servants who depend on him completely. He's faithful to a thousand generations!

V3-7... He's reflecting on the Exodus. 

V8-12... How God uses creation to enact his justice. 

V13... This recalls how God put enmity between the woman and the serpent (whose head was crushed)... Jesus on the cross was the bruised heel.

V14-15... The Father is already talking about sending his Son!

V16-19... He quietly waits for God's wrath to come upon the unrighteous enemy! God is his strength. 

1. Habakkuk is the praying prophet...

God's not going to answer his prayer the way Habakkuk wants; he has his own purposes. Yet true faith says "I trust the promises of God!"

2. Singing in the rain...

In 1 John, we see that perfect love casts out fear... here Habakkuk is trembling in fear! But through it all, he knew God was good, no matter what would come his way. God is more powerful, more able, more glorious, than anything else! 

What to do when your earthly comforts are taken from you? Remember that God makes you tread in high places.

...Psalm 123:1... We lift up our eyes... Our strength comes from the Lord!

Colossians 3... Seek the things that are above! Your life is hidden in Christ! Our strength comes from the Lord. 

In Heaven, all things will be made new! This is our hope, our peace!

Stop ruminating on what scares you, and look up!

Habakkuk 1:1... Written around 600 BC. 

Habakkuk was the praying prophet. The whole book is one long prayer. 

We know God is perfect, but sometimes we feel he's too slow, or forgets about us.

The Chaldeans (Babylonians) are so awful they're bringing Habakkuk to his knees. He wants God to get rid of them or change their hearts.

Those who know God is good still call out desperately for God to do his work! 

V5-11... Habakkuk prayed for revival, and God responded that he'd never understand what God is doing if he showed him. If we only knew what he was planning for us!

V12... Habakkuk doesn't like the response. When is God going to show up? And he compares Israel's righteousness with the Chaldeans'. 

Habakkuk 2:1...

We won't have to strive to reach up to God, to impress him. We have Jesus! If you pray genuinely to God, he hears you! You can wait on his goodness.

Jonah... When asked "who is your God", Jonah revealed he's the God of everything, not just the sea. It's all God's! Nothing is beyond his ability. So pray big prayers!

V2-3... God says to write down the message he gives Habakkuk. It will come to pass in time. So he must learn to wait on the Lord.

V4... The deadliest sin is pride. It will sneak in unexpectedly, subtly. Satan wanted worship, some of God's glory. That one unchecked sin led to all the death and sin in human history. Pride rejects humility and submission, and keeps people out of heaven. 

The bad news: you are a sinner. 

The good news: John 3:16!

Pride is deceptive... We can even take pride in how little pride we have! The Pharisees... everything pristine and perfect on the outside, but prideful on the inside. 

We must be humble! We must DAILY submit to the Father. It's hard to pray because it's spiritual. We need the holy Spirit to convict us daily. 

Pride opposes submission to God, but the righteous shall live by faith! There should be no prejudice, it's never justifiable. We must come to the cross and see what WE did to Christ. We are NOT "pretty great." At the cross, pride melts away.

Faith... Hebrews 11:1... The assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. 

Real righteousness is faith. God here wants to see us the assurance and conviction in God's Word, and his justice and mercy. 

Hebrews 10:32 quotes Habakkuk. The early church received the holy Spirit, and all hell broke loose... Persecution of all kinds, suffering.

During suffering, Christ is doing something in you that's greater than your comfort.

Trust that God is good even if you don't see it. The righteous shall live by faith!

When you're waiting for God to do something, trust him, even if it takes a long time, because he's true to his word.

The righteous shall live by faith. Who's really righteous? Those who are in Jesus. The just are those who have faith in God! Righteousness can only come through faith.

Romans 3... All have sinned, and are justified only by grace, as a gift! 

Propitiation... the wrath of the Father has been eternally satisfied in the work of Christ! 

The full measure of God will come down again, in even greater measure than before. Jesus is the hope: though we will die, we will live! 

Waiting on the Lord is not passive, but an active endurance, an anticipation of the coming works of the Lord! Being faithful until the works of the Lord come.

God is able to deliver, provide, revive, help you endure a trial! 

Isaiah 40:31... Wait for the Lord, and God will be with you! 

Three other Gospel accounts of today's text:

Matthew 22:15-22... The Pharisees are leading the pack, and only sent their disciples (a cowardly move). Jesus was aware of their malice in asking him the gotcha question! 

Luke 20:19-26... Luke says they "sent spies who pretended to be sincere" to get Jesus to say something actionable by Pilate.

Mark 12:13-17... the Pharisees and Herodians say four things about Jesus to flatter him:

1. We know you are true

2. You don't care about anyone's opinion... no peer pressure!

3. You aren't swayed by appearances... he doesn't look upon the faces of men. No partiality in judgment. He called like he saw it!

4. You truly teach the way of God (they obscure it!)

Then they try to trap him regarding paying taxes to Caesar... if yes, he loses the support of the people, and if no, they'll label him an enemy of the state.

"Tax" here is a Latin-derived word, indicating Mark was written with a Roman gentile audience in mind (they spoke Greek and Latin).

Just like the Roman coin (bearing the likeness of Caesar) should be returned to Caesar, we are marked and sealed for protection with the likeness of Christ, and will be returned to him!

v17... give back to Caesar what's his, and give back to God what's his! They marveled, were astonished. Luke says they stayed silent... this is an indication of defeat.

How did the Pharisees and Herodians receive this message? Luke 23... they lied, saying he forbade them to give to Caesar. They say Jesus is a man of truth, but they lie through their teeth.

That's today's text.

Civil disobedience vs. civic duty...

1. 1 Timothy 2:1-2... Pray for your civic leaders, even when they're persecuting the Church! We must pray for them no matter what.

2. Augustine would draw from this text that we're God's money; as the coins must be returned to Caesar, we must be returned to God. But we've wandered from him; we have his stamp on us, but we're faded, scratched by this world. That said, we still bear his image and receive his protection!

3. How will we be known? Though they were trying to flatter him, Jesus is known as truly having the qualities the Pharisees and Herodians ascribed to him. How do our enemies view us? May they see the same things in us! 

a. He's true, and truly teaches the Word of God... how should the world see us? We should be a people of the truth and conviction!

b. He doesn't care about opinions, and isn't swayed by appearances... the Church is NOT downstream from culture! We don't have to appeal to the world in order to draw the lost. The modern Church has gone wrong here; we are to be UPSTREAM from the culture, leading and not following. We are above all those influences; we shouldn't be changed by the culture. Our affections are to be pointed to God!

We can't change our whole country overnight, but through the Holy Spirit, we can change ourselves. We belong to the one who made us and saved us! 

4. Peter Paul Rubens painted a picture of this account. The Pharisees and Sanhedrin are bent over, looking at the coin, looking at each other, looking away... but there's one man looking directly at the eyes of Jesus. Jesus is pointing to Heaven. This is the heart of today's text!

Jesus points to something bigger than the coin, bigger than Caesar, bigger than the government. Give Caesar what belongs to him, but to God, give yourself! He draws our eyes to the Father.

Everything in this world can be given away freely; we shouldn't be too attached to anything... but our life should be given to God!

Philippians 1:20... to live is Christ and to die is gain.

Galatians 2:20... "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."

Therefore, render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God what is God's!

Mark 11: Triumphal entry, Jesus inspects the temple, turns over money tables.

Mark 12:1-12: The Sanhedrin question him and he tells a parable against them.

Today's text, Mark 12:13-17... here and for the rest of this chapter, the Sanhedrin are trying to trap him in his words so they can put him to death.

v13... "trap" is used here in the sense of capturing an animal.

The Pharisees are all about purity laws, and a Jewish-only Israel. The Herodians are aligned with the Roman-leaning Herod, illegitimate (and non-Jewish) leader of Israel. Complete opposites, extreme left and right of Israel... except they both want to see Jesus dead! The entire government is conspiring against Jesus.

v14... they flatter him first, then try to trap him with their question.

Jeremiah 9:8... his tongue is a deadly arrow, speaking peace to his neighbor but in his heart planning a deadly ambush.

Two kinds of enemies: those who tell you to their face they don't like you, and those who shrewdly pretend to have your back, but secretly plot against you. Fake friends with honey in their mouths and daggers in their hands. 

v15... "...knowing their hypocrisy..." - Matthew says malice, Luke says craftiness; this same word describes the serpent in Genesis. A denarius was a day's wage; the denarius coin indicated Tiberius Caesar's deity, and so was blasphemous. They're trying to get him to upset one side or the other.

v16... the Pharisees and Herodians are able to produce a denarius which was considered by them to be unsuitable for use in the temple, yet here they are! He could have trapped them on that alone... but he answers...

v17... Give Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give God what belongs to God. They marvelled at his answer! You'll bever be more clever than God :-)

...as the denarius was made in Caesar's image, we were made in the image of God. Give Caesar the things of the world... but give to God our souls, our worship, everything! 

Render means to give back... if Rome wants it, give it back to them. But give back our souls, our worship, everything we are, to God! It all comes from him. The air in our lungs, our strengths, our unique qualities... it's all a gift we are to give back to him. 

That's today's text. Two thoughts...

1. Caesar's coin...

How should a Christian operate in this world under its governing authorities? Respect for the opposition is eroded. 1 Timothy 2: we are to pray for our political leadership, even if we don't like them! 1 Peter 2:13... be subject to every human institution. Honor everyone, fear God, honor even the emperor! (He was killing Christians!) Live godly lives, don't cover up evil! But we are to pray for those in leadership. It's part of our Christian witness and apologetic!

Romans 13... Be subject to the governing authorities as they have been instituted by God! Even if they're bad (that's a judgment on a nation)... so don't resist the government. Pay taxes, revenue, respect an honor to whom they're owed. We are to be the best citizens of our country!

Pliny the Younger was not a Christian, and was a governor. He began killing the Christians of his town, but a revival started. He wrote a letter to Caesar, describing the exemplary behavior and morality of the Christians despite his persecution. We can't worship Caesar, but we can be his best citizens! Virtuous, honest, upstanding. Justin Martyr makes a similar case.

We can't worship Caesar, but we can be his most upright citizens, praying for even the worst leaders, that God be glorified in our witness! It was our light that helped convert Rome.

The more Christ-like we become, the more radical we'll seem to the world; our witness will draw people to Christ.

Our default position is to be the best citizens, to the glory of God! 

Only then should we consider:

Civil disobedience...

Acts 5:27... the apostles are instructed not to teach in Jesus' name. They decide they must obey God over men when men are demanding they oppose God! In Daniel and in Revelation, we see there are times it is our duty to disobey the government. Taking on the mark of the beast, burning incense to Caesar. 

When the laws of the government oppose the laws of Christ, we must resist. We must not violate Scripture.

Our country is very blessed! Individual freedoms are one of our strong points. We should also support programs that take care of those who are vulnerable. But government tends to get bigger and bigger, and over-reach into our personal freedoms... legislating every little thing, indoctrinating our kids.

Government here is starting to take over the lives of its citizens, controlling money, food, water, education, healthcare. If the government ever says we can't worship God, we will be in a pickle. Satan's plan is to use an overreaching government to control the Church. Christians should be apprehensive to let the government take these things over.

We should vote in ways that support God's Kingdom on earth, not man's.

2. God's coin...

As the denarius bears Caesar's likeness and name, so does the believer bear the likeness and name of Christ! And we're sealed with the Holy Spirit. Money we give to Caesar, but our very selves we give to God.

So...

a. Don't be too attached to Caesar's coin! Don't let riches become a god. It can all be taken from you. Live only for Christ and his Father!

b. We belong to God and not Caesar! The government doesn't own its people. God does! You've been bought with a price by the Lord Jesus Christ! We're adopted sons and daughters, royalty of another Kingdom! Because God owns you, Caesar can't!

c. So our allegiance belongs only to King Jesus! Yes, respect your earthly rulers, but we're all under the authority of Jesus Christ! Only he is worthy to open the scroll! Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven!

When Jesus is asked to pick a political position, he chooses himself. Give yourself to the triune God who made you! Joshua 5:13-15... Jesus is not for your side or the enemies' side; he is the commander of the Army of the Lord! He's on his own side!

You may identify more with the Democrat or Republican party in our country, but who is your King? Jesus is everyone's only true King... and we must render to God what is God's!

God purchased humanity with the last drop of His blood, demonstrating the infinite value he places on rebellious dust like us. Jesus experienced complete forsakenness on the cross, crying "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" showing God himself forsaken of God.

The eternal Word who spoke light into darkness fell silent in the tomb, only to thunder forth in resurrection!

Humanity wants "$3 worth of God"... just enough for comfort, but not enough for transformation. The human heart is desperately wicked and blind to its own madness; people don't recognize their need for salvation. Salvation is entirely by grace through faith, not by works, so no one can boast!

Believers are God's "workmanship" or poetry; we are masterpieces being crafted through difficult circumstances.

The spear wound in Jesus' side is called "the gate to heaven," pouring forth the birthing fluid from which the church was born.

The rolled-away stone answers humanity's greatest question: "What about death?"

As Christians, we're called to live boldly and speak freely about our faith, not in fear, but in confidence that God is for us!

Parables are to give an image of what Jesus is talking about. However, he normally uses them not to make his message easier to understand, but to communicate judgment. Unbelievers remain in darkness; those hearing and not understanding are about to be judged.

The Sanhedrin understood what Jesus meant here; he wanted them to understand judgment was coming!

This parable is the conclusion of Mark 11, and the introduction to chapter 12 (the disputations). 

v1... fences around vineyards are to keep animals away, a pit holds the winepress, and a tower is to keep a lookout for threats. The owner has set up his tenants to succeed! 

v2... the vineyard should be producing good fruit at some point, so the owner sent to check on progress. Vineyards are a picture of the Garden.

v3... Servant after servant is beaten, some killed.

v6... The final servant, the son, is killed. 

Isaiah 5... similarly shows a beloved son and a vineyard. Also found in the Song of Solomon! Where the woman is waiting for her beloved to return. In a sense, here in Mark we have the Beloved returning to the garden. But Israel ahs rejected their beloved.

At the garden tomb, Mary Magdalene is looking for the Lord... she finds her beloved! She leaps and clings to him. In Revelation 10, Jesus says he will return among the lampstands, Menorahs, an image of trees, a garden or vineyard. But Jesus will be rejected and killed.

v7... the tenants want to kill the heir so they can have his inheritance. Similar to Joseph's brothers scheming against Joseph. Genesis 37:20... they wanted to kill him. The Sanhedrin are acting like these evil brothers! And they're delusional if they think the owner would hand the vineyard over to them after killing his son.

The temple didn't just exist for Israel, but the Sanhedrin want it all for themselves.

v8... they killed him. Stewardship is not ownership. On Sunday when we gather, it's as if we're assembling God's vineyard each week. But we're only stewards! Every day is a gift. We're just tenants of the vineyard, not owners! Any power we have is gifted to us by the real authority.

How are we stewarding the parts of our life God has given us dominion over?

What will the owner to do these evil tenants? The Sanhedrin answer (in Matthew) that the owner will kill the evil tenants! After he quotes Psalm 118, they realize the parable was told against them!

2 Sam 12... Nathan gives David a parable after David had killed Uriah, and like the Sanhedrin in Mark, David agrees the deeds of the parable's antagonist are worthy of death... then Nathan reveals it's about David. The same here happens between Jesus and the Sanhedrin! But unlike David, the Sanhedrin didn't repent.

Aramaic was the common language of the day. The word "ben" meant son, and "eben" meant "stone"... so the ben thrown out of the vineyard is the eben that becomes the cornerstone. Jesus is the rock that the church is built on!

v11... this is the Lord's doing and it is marvelous; Mark quotes more of Psalm 118 than the others here. Jesus declaresa himself the Lord!

v12... The Sanhedrin figured it out, and left. If you oppose the Christ, you will be crushed. But for the rest of this chapter, they will argue with him... though they fear the people. If only they truly feared God more!

Mark 12:1-12

Irenaeus wrote a book against heresies... He used today's parable to refute bad doctrine, that God's nature changed between the Old and New Testaments. The same Father that sent the prophets in the OT sent the Son in the NT. God doesn't change! Jesus was the plan from the very beginning. 

v1... The vineyard owner gave his tenants everything they'd need to be successful.

The vineyard in Isaiah 5:1-7 was a picture of Israel... its grapes were no good to eat. Israel should be joyful, a place of blessing, but it was not. The church today should be as well! 

Who owns the vineyard here? God, and he's in heaven. The Sanhedrin are the tenants. 

v2-5... God sends messenger after messenger but the tenants reject again and again. 

v6-8... He sends his beloved Son, and they not only reject him but kill him!

The Sanhedrin didn't own the temple; they're only stewards of what belongs to God. But they'd created an identity around the false story that the own the temple. They were foolish and delusional!

They hated John, and they hate Jesus even more, for threatening their delusion. They're even willing to kill God himself for it. 

The only way to break delusion is to introduce truth. God snaps us out of the delusion that we're "good enough!" We are not. Though others may be fooled, God is not. Sometimes God's truth is uncomfortable! 

"Follow your heart" is a lie! Our heart is deceptive above all things. Follow him. Live by the truth! Measure yourself by the standard of the Word!

We are to reject the lie, and get our standard from the Word of God. Stop pretending there's not sin where there is. Submit to the true authority of God, not the false authority of the world!

v9... What will the vineyard owner do to the evil tenants? Mt21:40... Matthew says it was the Sanhedrin who answered, LOL! When Jesus writes Psalms (the stone that the builder rejected becomes the cornerstone)... The Sanhedrin knew he was talking about them.

The gentiles had been grafted into the tree of the family of God, when the Jewish people rejected Jesus. So Jerusalem will fall. 

v10... Psalm 118 is quoted... This is the Psalm that was sung as Jesus entered Jerusalem. He reveals that he's the cornerstone! The victory will only be secured when the evil tenants kill him, the beloved Son.

Colossians 2:13-14... He's forgiven all our trespasses. All! And a trespass is a willful, planned sin. And it's all forgiven! Cancels the record of it, regarding your eternal destiny. Christ's blood cancelled our debt! All we have to do is believe. And we grow to value the Lord above everything else!

...Colossians 2:15... He put the authorities to shame, killing them, and Jesus becomes the cornerstone!

The enemies of Christ think they're winning by defeating us, but they're sealing their fate.

We build our life in one foundation: Christ and his word! 

Mark 12:12... The Sanhedrin picked up that Jesus was talking about them. They will be judged. If your want to reject him, be prepared to pay the cost for eternity.

Today's text marks the beginning of six conflict stories showing genuine faith vs. false faith. It parallels the triumphal entry: welcoming him as King vs opposing his authority. The spiritual leadership of Israel has missed what the people see clearly.

v28... they challenge Jesus' authority. His authority struck people, amazed the crowds. He's not quoting the rabbis; he's speaking as God, with God's authority, as the arbiter of truth. He performed miracles and forgave sins! He himself is authority.

v29... the old religious guard didn't like John, so they didn't want to give weight to his words. Instead of genuinely inquiring of Jesus, they attempt to trip him up, showing they don't care about truth, just about finding an excuse to kill him.

George Washington held above all else the character of an honest man. To stand with the Lord Jesus is to stand with the truth, and against corruption and lies... and to be hated by the darkness. We are to be a people of the truth and hold our ground! We are to eschew tactics like what the Sanhedrin do here.

The Sanhedrin are the elite theological, intellectual, legal experts. They challenge Jesus on the basis that he has not earned the same credentials they have. People who are losing arguments will often make this appeal. If an idea is true, it will stand on its own merit, credentials or not!

So be anchored in the truth, the Word of God. Paul was happy that the Bereans checked what he said against Scripture!

The clergy here feel they have the authority over Jesus because of their institutional office. They're not questioning what he's said, but his right to say it because they, the governing board, haven't approved him to speak at the temple!

v30-32... Jerusalem has become the new Egypt; their hearts are hardened as Pharaoh's heart was hardened during the plagues. The Sanhedrin have become like Pharaoh! They walk in darkness and can't even tell where the light came from. Like Eli the high priest, they have become like blind guides.

Jesus rode to Jerusalem in peace... but because they've rejected him, they will be brought low and exposed.

We must be open to the teachings of the Lord, walk in the light as he is in the light, completely submit to his Word, and resist resisting him! If it opposes Christ, it has to go. 

Mark 11:27-33, 1 Peter 3:13-17

v27... He walks into the temple for the third time, and the high priests, the Sanhedrin, interrogated him.

v28-30... He answers with a question, brilliantly designed to give them no answer options they were willing to give.

Jesus doesn't talk about his theology or his miracles. He talks about baptism. At his baptism, he was revealed to be the Son of God. 

Jesus's authority also simply comes from himself. He is God! As God, he even gave Pontius Pilate his authority.

v32... They were afraid of the people! They were being like politicians. They desired their approval. But it's only the fear of the Lord that's the beginning of wisdom! Not fear of people.

If you want to live, you first have to die to yourself, pick up your cross.

v33... They won't answer, so he refuses to answer them. 

The Sanhedrin didn't care about truth, only about indicting Jesus. They're just looking for something they can use against him. 

It was believed that the time of the prophets was over. But they considered John to be a great prophet, which gave the people hope. This made the Sanhedrin nervous. They were spiritually blind!

Don't miss what God is showing you! God can be doing things around us, and we may miss it if we're not attuned to the Spirit of God. So read the Word, pray, seek counsel from fellow believers!

The great divide in our country is for political or social; it's spiritual. Christ has been removed from society. This world so badly needs Christ! The Holy Spirit will guide us into the truth. 

That's todays text!

Today's text covers two topics:

- The authority of Christ is attacked

- Unbelief

Apologetics: defending the faith or sharing the faith with unbelievers. 

1 Peter 3:13-17...

When you to the work of Christ, don't fear man! 

v15: always be prepared to give a reason for your faith with gentleness and respect! 

It may be God's will for you to walk through persecution. It's better to suffer for doing good and standing with Christ than to give in to popular opinion. 

Share your faith faithfully! Don't be a hypocrite. We are to live the words of Christ in addition to sharing them.

The world may hate us, but better to die in Christ!

Every Christian should want to see everybody they meet in heaven! 

It's not only about heaven and hell. People are miserable following their own hearts. We want the best for them now!

v15 again... 

In your heart, honor Christ as holy! He is Lord of all. He is the only path! 

Always be prepared to give a reason for the hope, with gentleness and respect. Hope looks forward!

We can face persecution because we have hope, that one day we'll be received into the Kingdom of heaven!

The hopeful are to be prepared to make a defense and give an answer for the reason for our hope. We don't need the perfect answer for every question. Just say why you love the Lord Jesus!

We're not personally responsible to save anyone. Only the Lord can save the dead. Yet we are to be ready to be part of that process! You may be the vessel today God uses to usher someone into eternity. What an honor!

So share! 

And do it with gentleness and respect.

Jesus was gentle with the Sanhedrin! As God, he had options, but he chose gentleness and respect. Also, a gentle answer turns away wrath! 

Be a faithful witness until the end.

Witnessing to non-believers is also about what we do, not just what we say. Don't be a hypocrite! Be a good representative of Christ to them! Be kind, be joyful. Who's going to want what we have if we show a bad example of Christ?

Have a peace that surpasses all understanding. Worship him through the pain! People will see the Gospel in your life. Our hope cannot be stomped out!

Christianity isn't true because it works; it works because it's true!