Last week, I had the privilege of spending some time with a pastor friend and his son as they were visiting South Carolina. We’ll call him Jim.
Jim is a missionary pastor supported by individuals and churches and sent to typically small, struggling churches in remote regions of our country, in order to help revitalize these churches that are struggling.
This past church he’s been pastoring had dwindled down to around 15 people. It was dying. But over the past few years, as Jim and his family have been ministering to this church, some remarkable things have happened.
Through simply teaching God’s Word and loving his people well, people have come to Christ and grown in their relationship with Jesus. The church has gone from trying to survive to actually becoming a blessing in the community.
For example, they built a community park, made it available to everyone. Land was recently donated to build a community outreach center that would provide a guest house and after-school ministry space.
Jim’s wife continues to see women’s lives transformed through the women’s Bible study. So much good is happening in a very difficult place. But not everyone is happy about the changes.
A small group in the church—some of whom have been there for many decades—is angry with Jim because of his ministry. Recently, some of them spent three hours verbally assaulting Jim for his ministry. It got so bad that Jim’s wife had to leave the room. The things that were being said were so hurtful.
As of last week, the group—who view themselves as the leaders of the church (and are not willing for the church to move toward biblically qualified elders)—made it clear that Jim is no longer their pastor.
The leader of the group, the matriarch of the church, summarized their concerns with one statement. She said, “You are too attached to Scripture.”
In several different ways, she was essentially saying, “We have a way of doing things here, and the teaching of the Bible (that you’re providing) is not consistent with the way we do things (our procedures, our traditions), so you’re done here.”
Now, Jim could call for a congregational vote, and with all the new people and the people whose lives have been transformed, he could easily win. But he is concerned about responding to fire with fire, like meeting one power move with another power move. So he and his wife and family are praying right now about where the Lord would have them serve next.
Tragically, what Jim and his family are experiencing is not new. Wherever God is doing a great work, there will be people who desire to shift the conversation away from “what is true?” to “who are you?” From “what does God’s Word say” to “who are you to say that here, now?”
In some ways, we understand, don’t we? Change is hard. 75% of people do not like change. When God’s Word confronts some of our deepest patterns of life and thinking, it can be extremely difficult, even painful.
If we respond in the flesh, we tend to become defensive, and we say whatever we think we need to say in order to protect ourselves from what we fear.
This is exactly what’s happening here in Matthew 21:23-27. Jesus is fulfilling Old Testament prophecies. He cleanses the temple. He is healing the sick. He’s receiving praise from the children. So much good is happening.
But the religious leaders shift the conversation from “what is true?” to “who are you?” Look at verse 23, at the end. Matthew 21:23, “Who gave you this authority?”
In some ways, they’re shifting from principle to procedure, from “is what you’re saying and doing consistent with God’s Word” to “is what you’re doing consistent with our traditions and procedures?”
That shift is significant, and it allows us a valuable opportunity to see through what they say and do into their hearts and into our hearts. So let’s pray that we’ll be ready to receive what the Spirit has for us.
Father, you know that we find change very difficult. We are so often threatened by anyone or anything that forces us or causes us to have to rethink deeply held assumptions, ways of doing things.
Some of us right now are facing really difficult circumstances, which you often use in our lives to expose lies we believe and to invite us to the truth. But this can be difficult, even painful.
So, Father, we are asking that you would pour out your Spirit on us this morning and enable us to hear what you are saying to us, so that we don’t react in the flesh and pull away from the very thing we desperately need: you. Open our eyes that we may behold wondrous things from your law, we pray, in Jesus’s name, amen.
In our journey through the Gospel of Matthew, we’ve come to the final week, the Passion Week of Jesus’s life.
On Sunday, four weeks ago, we saw Jesus’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem. He then—we learned from Mark 11:11—visited the temple, looked around at everything, and then went back with his disciples to stay in Bethany.
He came back the next day, cursed the fig tree, and cleansed the temple. Then the following day (Tuesday, most likely), the disciples saw the fig tree that was supernaturally withered. It withered so fast it couldn’t have been natural.
Then begins what are known as the temple controversies. These occur on Tuesday and Wednesday. Several chapters in Matthew describe these. Let me walk through these because we’re going to be here for a couple of months, in the temple controversies.
Today is the opening test where the leaders question Jesus’s authority.
Beginning next week, we’re going to encounter three parables where Jesus surgically exposes the religious leaders, followed by three tests where the leaders question Jesus, climaxing in Jesus’s question: “Whose son is the Christ?” Where Jesus reveals who he really is.
Followed by seven woes where Jesus warns the people of the leaders, calling them things like “blind guides,” blind fools (very strong words). Then the final lament over Jerusalem, followed by discourse number five.
Remember, sprinkled throughout Matthew are these major sermons of Jesus. This is the fifth major sermon, delivered on the Mount of Olives, also known as the Olivet Discourse, where Jesus unveils some short-term and long-term eschatology. Can’t wait to get there. It’s going to be like, Lord willing, the end of August when we get to dive into that.
But think about it: All this is happening on Tuesday into Wednesday (most likely). Thursday: Passover meal, Friday: crucifixion, Sunday: resurrection— a very little amount of time encompassing a lot of teaching and action. So let’s begin, for today, in verse 23, Matthew 21:23.
“And when he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came up to him as he was teaching…” (Matthew 21:23a)
The chief priests and the elders were part of a broader group known as the Sanhedrin Council. The elders often functioned as advisors to the chief priest. There are four parts to this interchange between the religious leaders and Jesus.
1. The leaders asked Jesus a question. Verse 23:
“By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?” (Matthew 21:23b)
In one sense, these are good questions. The Sanhedrin should know who is influencing the people. But Jesus smells a rat.
2. He answers their question with a question. Verse 25:
“The baptism of John, from where did it come? From heaven or from man?” (Matthew 21:25a)
Jesus, like a good wrestler, utilizes a reversal technique to move from the defensive position to the offensive. He knows the crowd viewed John the Baptist as a righteous martyr.
He also knows the religious leaders are still fuming over the words of John the Baptist. Like, do you remember way back in Matthew 3:7, John the Baptist called them, “You brood of vipers,” snakes. They illustrate why John said that in the next section.
3. The leaders discuss among themselves, snakeishly. In verse 25,
“‘If we say, “From heaven,” he will say to us, “Why then did you not believe him?” But if we say, “From man,” we are afraid of the crowd, for they all hold that John was a prophet.’ So they answered Jesus, ‘We do not know’” (Matthew 21:25b-27a).
This is like a cardiac MRI. We get to see in their hearts what’s going on. “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ we may appear intellectually inconsistent.” Like God sent John, but we reject John. That’s not going to work. “But if we say, ‘From man,’ we may become socially marginalized.”
The crowd loved John. Luke 20:6 even tells us that the leaders feared for their lives if they went against the crowd. So they claim ignorance, “We don’t know.” Even though they did know. At least, they thought they knew.
4. Therefore, Jesus refuses to answer their question. Verse 27:
“And he said to them, ‘Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things’” (Matthew 21:25b-27b).
What is going on here? The cynic might be tempted to think Jesus is just playing childish games: “If you won’t tell me, I won’t tell you.” Is that what’s happening? No, it’s bigger than that.
Jesus refuses to reveal himself to liars. Jesus refuses to reveal himself to liars. He won’t reveal truth to the untruthful.
Now, we are all untruthful at times, right? But by God’s grace, some of us will admit that. These leaders won’t. They’re unwilling to have a conversation in good faith. They would rather lie than face the truth.
By the way, have you ever noticed in the last chapter of the last book of the Bible, Revelation 22:14-15, there are some statements that will take your breath away? Look at verse 14:
“Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates. Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood” (Revelation 22:14-15).
Everyone who loves and practices falsehood. Does that seem extreme to you? Like it doesn’t fit?
Imagine being in line at the judgment, and everybody’s talking about what they did, and you’re asking people, “What did you do?” “I murdered two people.” “What’d you do?” “I conjured up the dead in sorcery.” “What did you do?” “I raped some women.”
Then they turn to you, and they say, “Well, what did you?” “I lied.” And they’re looking at you like, “Shouldn’t you be in the other line? Not this line, but that line? You lied? That’s it?
This word, “falsehood,” is the Greek word, “pseudos.” It simply means a lie, a deception, what is false. I bet you can’t guess what English word comes from that. Pseudo. Brilliant.
Like pseudoscience. If something is pseudoscientific, it claims to have good data under it, but it doesn’t. Pseudoscience.
Or pseudonym. If you have a pseudonym, like you’re Fred in South Carolina with a wife and kids, but you’re Joe in California with a wife and kids out there. Different one. Pseudonym. That which is false, fake, pretend.
Apart from the grace of God, all of us “do pseudo.” Look at Romans 1:24.
“Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves—” (Romans 1:24)
So all this moral mess flows from where? Verse 25:
“…because they exchanged the truth about God for [a pseudo,] a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen” (Romans 1:25).
But when the Spirit of God opens our eyes in the miracle of regeneration (we repent and believe), we begin to do the opposite. We exchange lies for truth. It’s actually one of the definitions of the difference between a Christian and a non-Christian.
A non-Christian exchanges truth for lies. A Christian exchanges lies for truth. This is why it’s a fundamental part of our discipleship training. This is why Paul wrote in Ephesians 4:25,
“Therefore, having put away [pseudos,] falsehood, [put it away,] let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another” (Ephesians 4:25).
Christians should be defined by truth, not pseudos. We’re not pretending, we’re not faking it, or bending the truth to fit what we want people to think about us. We put away unreality. We put on that which corresponds to reality.
Now, what makes this so difficult is when we understand why we lie. Why do we lie?
Most of us don’t wake up in the morning and think, “What do I have to do today? I have to get some groceries, mow the lawn, and speak some pseudos. That would be a successful day.” No, we don’t plan to lie.
The reason we lie is it protects us from something we fear, or—we think—it provides us with something we need. So let’s look at these leaders. This is why I think this is like a cardiac MRI, because we get a unique opportunity to look into the hearts of the leaders.
What needs did these leaders have that they thought the lies could provide? Remember, two things:
(1) They don’t want to be viewed as intellectually inconsistent.
“If we say John is from heaven, people are going to want to know, ‘Well, if he’s from heaven, why did you reject him?’ That’s incoherent. We’re going to look like doofuses if we hold that. I don’t want to look stupid, so let’s lie. Let’s say we don’t know, because embracing pseudos is more advantageous than looking stupid.” That’s the first example.
(2) The second example is that they don’t want to be socially marginalized.
“If we say the ministry of John is from man, and—most everybody in the crowd believes—from God, we’re going to be on the wrong side of history. We’re going to be socially marginalized. We might even be killed.” So the lie, don’t miss this, the lie provides a place of safety, a shelter.
Why is this so important? In this context, some of us tend to villainize the religious leaders to the point where they look like evil cartoonish kind of characters, like Syndrome or Megatron. I don’t know who these people are, but these unusually evil beings can represent how we think about the religious leaders. “Oh yeah, those religious leaders out there. Evil people.”
No, they’re just like us, aren’t they? They don’t want to look stupid. They don’t want to be unpopular. They don’t want to lose their influence. They want to get their way— all stuff we want, so they lie.
But what happens when we try to find safety or shelter in a lie? Think about trying to escape a thunderstorm, and you jump under a shelter that is a rattlesnake’s nest.
Or you’re camping, and it appears to be about to rain, so you set up your tent to protect yourself. But you inadvertently set it up in a gully, so in the middle of the night, it gets washed away. True story.
Or you turn to Egypt to protect yourself from Assyria. This is what is happening in Isaiah 28. Judah thinks they’re finding a safe place, but Isaiah puts reality on their lips in Isaiah 28:15,
“…for we have made lies our refuge, and in falsehood we have taken shelter” (Isaiah 28:15b).
And so God says in verse 17,
“And I will make justice the line, and righteousness the plumb line; and hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and waters will overwhelm the shelter” (Isaiah 28:17).
Just like in Revelation 22, lies are not safe spaces. But in the middle of the passage, God points us to the place that is. Verse 16,
“…therefore thus says the Lord God, ‘Behold, I am the one who has laid as a foundation in Zion, a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation: ‘Whoever believes will not be in haste’” (Isaiah 28:16).
Who is the cornerstone, the safe place, the sure foundation? In 1 Peter 2:6, the Apostle Peter quotes this verse and says it’s Jesus. Jesus is the Cornerstone. He is the safe place, the sure foundation.
I find it interesting, if you look back at verse 16, “Whoever believes will not be in haste.” Why haste? The Hebrew in this context means panic or reckless reactivity. When we are afraid, we tend to panic and make haste to the closest shelter, even if it is a refuge of lies. In that moment, the Lord says to Judah, Isaiah 28:23,
“Give ear, and hear my voice; give attention, and hear my speech” (Isaiah 28:23).
Slow down. Don’t panic. Don’t just recklessly react. Listen to what I’m saying. Look at who I’ve sent.
Jesus refuses to reveal himself to people who love pseudos, people who will not engage honestly. But Jesus—and this is stunning to me—Jesus is ready to save us from pseudos when we humble our hearts from falsehood and turn to him. So, a couple of questions to consider:
1. Can you think of a pressure in your life right now that may tempt you to try to find safety in a lie?
The religious leaders saw the world changing before them. Jesus threatened their world. Rather than listening, evaluating his teaching against the Old Testament Scriptures, they go defensive and speak deception. “We don’t know,” even though they really thought they did know.
What kind of pressure might you be under right now that puts you in that same place? Could be financial pressure. Could be transition; you’re going through a lot of change, everything feels like it’s up for grabs. Could be fear of exposure. Could be intense loneliness.
One young man identified the fact that on Friday nights, he is most vulnerable to looking at porn. Why? Because waves of loneliness flood him, and it’s easy to make haste to a shelter that is not a safe shelter. It promises something it can never deliver.
That leads to the second question.
2. What does this lie promise to provide?
Porn promises to provide satisfaction and intimacy, and only destroys both of those.
Hypocrisy— something the Spirit has been working on us over the past few weeks, like with the fig tree. Hypocrisy promises to provide approval. “People will think well of us if we keep this front up.” It’s a shelter of lies.
The matriarch I referred to at the beginning (when she said, “You are too attached to Scripture”), she really thinks her traditions, their way of doing church and life, are better than what God’s Word says. That is a lie. It’s not safe.
3. How do the words and the way of Jesus take us to a better place?
Again, it is stunning that Jesus—who loves truth more than anyone else in the universe—would call people to himself who are not characterized by truth.
To people who do pseudos, he’s saying, “Come to me. Come to me with all your lies. I would rather have you come and be honest about your junk and your messed-upness than for you to go on and keep pretending. Just come. I know you better than you know you.”
He died for our lives. He who is the way, the truth, and the life will reveal the truth to us so we can exchange lies for truth. It is in the truth that we are set free. True safety. In the fear of man there is a snare, but whosoever trusts in the Lord shall be safe.
This interchange between the leaders and Jesus (that ends so abruptly) launches Jesus into three parables.
Next week, we’re going to hear a parable about two sons—one who starts out great, says the right thing, but then embraces falsehood. Another son who starts out horrible, living in lies, but repents and changes.
May that miracle happen this morning, where we’re willing to be honest. Jesus prayed to his father,
“Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth” (John 17:17).
So, will we run to the truth? If you follow the pressures in your life, you can often identify some of the lies you’re believing to try to alleviate those.
Let’s take a few minutes and pray quietly. Ask the Spirit of truth to search your hearts. He’s the one who reveals the truth and points us to Jesus.
Then I would love for two people to join me up front after a couple of minutes (just two) and pray.
Pray about something maybe the Spirit has spoken to you. Pray for our church, that we would not be a church of pseudos, lies, hypocrisy, image, but of truth. Honest. That we can be open and honest, transparent and vulnerable with one another. Because Jesus, as we see in this story, pulls away from those who are faking it. He presses near those who want to be honest.
Pray quietly for a minute or two, and then two people join me up front if you feel led to pray for us before we respond.
