Does It Really Matter?

Introduction

Good morning. Will you open your Bibles with me to Matthew chapter 21? Matthew chapter 21, and we’ll begin the reading in verse 23. In Matthew chapter 21 and verse 23, it says, And when he entered the temple, the chief priest 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? Jesus answered, Then 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. 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?

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. And he said to them, Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things. Now this is an interesting passage with numerous good points to be taken from it. But first of all, what was it that Jesus was being questioned about to begin with? Well, certainly it was his authority, but his authority for what? Well, look with me in chapter twenty-one at verse twelve. You have an example of Jesus cleansing the temple. Do you see that in verse 12? And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons.

He said to them, It is written, My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you make it a den of robbers. And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. But when the chief priest and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, Hosanna to the son of David. They were indignant. And they said to him, Do you hear what these are saying? And Jesus said to them, Yes, have you never read? Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babes, you have prepared praise? And leaving them, he went out of the city to Bethany and lodged there. So you see the question coming up with Jesus by what authority are you cleansing the temple?

By what authority are you allowing yourself to be called? As they say in verse 15. Hosanna to the son of David, after all, the son of David to the Jews would be a significant position. Because it was the son of David who they expected would reign. It was their kingdom they were expecting, and Jesus was the Christ, but he wasn’t the king they expected. And so when you look back at verse 23, you see that the people do come to him with a very fair question. Now it wasn’t fair because they meant it fair. They were trying to trap Jesus. They didn’t like what he was doing. They didn’t want to accept what he was doing. But their question was fair. Do you see what they had at the end of verse 23?

By what authority are you doing these things? And who gave you this authority? This morning I want to ask the question, does it really matter? These questions of authority, do you not see in verse 23, and then also in verse 25, both the chief priest and the elders ask a question of authority? And then Jesus responds with a question of authority or at least origination? Well, certainly we need to understand that authority does matter. But I hear all the time. I say, does it really matter? Is it really a big deal if we do this? If as a congregation we act like that, is it okay if we do these things that the Bible does not speak of, or perhaps do the things that the Bible specifically says do not do?

Does it really matter? Now I have an opinion on these things as well as probably just about every person in here. However, there is only one opinion that matters, and that gets to the heart of Jesus’ response in verse 25. What was his question? It was one of two answers. Was this baptism from man? Or was it from heaven? You see, to answer the question of do matters of Bible authority matter? Does it matter if the church has a fellowship hall? Does it matter if churches cooperate to run an orphan’s home? All these important questions. Do they really matter? It matters, doesn’t matter to God. But first of all, let’s break down our text and see what happens. You see the chief priests and the elders approaching Christ with a question of authority.

Now, this is about three days before the crucifixion of Jesus. And of course, this is in relation to a bunch of other questions that Jesus took from various groups. He took questions from the Sadducees. He took questions in this case from the chief priest and the elders. They wanted to trap Jesus. They didn’t like who he was. They didn’t like the following that he was taking. And so they were going to trap him. Well, Jesus, of course, responds by asking that question of authority. Do you see that one question he asked? He says, if you give me the answer, I will tell you by what authority I do these things. Now, I do want to stop and think for a minute. What if we all just in life, I mean, every single person on the face of the earth did what the chief priest and the elders did, or asked the question that Jesus did with pure motives.

Can you imagine if for every single thing we did, we said, by what authority am I doing these things? Am I doing these because God said so? Am I doing these because I want to? Am I doing these because some other teacher said so? In fact, if you consider the chief priest and the elders, they had a good question I think we could ask. Anytime you learn something about the Bible or about Christ, what should we do? Should we say, oh, well, that sounds good? We should know by what authority does the teacher come up with these things. There’s all kinds of fantastic theories. If you want to do that, pick up some readings on the book of Revelation. You’ll see some very interesting stuff. But that doesn’t make it true.

That doesn’t make it right. So when we come to the chief priests and elders, what is their response? Well, pick up the reading again with me at verse 25, following Jesus’ question, and they discussed it among themselves, saying, if we say from heaven, he will say to us, why then do you not believe him? So that answers out in verse 26. But if we say from man, we are afraid of the crowd, for they all hold that John was a prophet. So you see, they’re in the middle of a tough decision here because they don’t want to acknowledge who Jesus is, or that the baptism is from heaven because after all, they should be doing it. Now on the other side of that, they were afraid.

Why? Well, because they like John so much? Well, no, because the people held John the Baptist to be a prophet. And what was the big problem with acknowledging who John the Baptist was, by the way? Not only would that bother the people, but what did John the Baptist teach? What was his entire role? We know this in our sleep. To prepare the way for Christ. You see how they’re kind of stuck either way, they’re between a rock and a hard place? Because no matter how they answered this question, Jesus had authority. Jesus was the Christ. But they didn’t want to participate. And you see then their answer. Do you see it in verse 27? I hear this answer all the time on various things, even today.

We do not know. Hear that all the time. That’s the classic cop out today. The number one group I think that offends this line of reasoning is the agnostic. You talk start reasoning with someone about faith, and they say, I just can’t know. And you start talking with them, and you say, Well, what about this? And what about this aspect of God’s creation? And how did this come into order? They say, Yeah, I just don’t know for sure. Now, that line of reasoning doesn’t even make sense because either God exists and you should worship him and please him and serve him, or you believe he doesn’t and you live that way. It’s okay, but stridding the line is not helping anyone. If God doesn’t exist, you’ve wasted your life straddling the line of belief.

And if God does exist, you’re certainly not pleasing him by doubting his existence. That’s not the kind of faith that we need. After all, Hebrews 11 says, without faith, it is impossible to please him. But I also hear this in Bible studies with people on various questions, even on things that we would consider fundamental, like what must I do to be saved, on issues like baptism, let alone the Pandora’s box of how the church should act, according to Scriptures, and that is we just don’t know for sure. There’s a whole lot of options out there. And of course, do you think about what did the chief priest and the elders do with this question? Was this just an honest reasoning? And they just thought, you know, I’ve really spent a lot of time studying this issue.

I I’ve considered this baptism of John, and I just don’t know. Well, no, the scripture reveals their reasoning. They didn’t want to submit to the teaching. They didn’t want to make the people upset. And so they said, we do not know because it was a cop out. They dishonestly answered Jesus. Now, by the way, Jesus is no fool. He certainly knew that, and of course, by that he says, Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things. Think about what does it mean that all these people take different opinions on different Bible issues? It’s confusing. It really is. If you think about how people interpret the Bible, it’s very different depending on what group you talk to, and maybe even what person you talk to within a particular group.

They have all kinds of different understandings. So my first question is does that disqualify the fact that there can be truth? Well, no, people have tons of issues on a lot of things, tons of ideas on varying issues. That doesn’t mean there is a right or wrong. If someone thinks murder is fine, that doesn’t all of a sudden strike it from our books. Murder is wrong. Our country understands that, certainly our Lord understands that. So do I cop out in my reasoning? Well, what do we do if someone responds with that? Or what if someone just asked the question frankly? Does it really matter what we believe at all? Do matters of Bible authority really matter to God? I think there’s an easy way to solve this question, and then we’ll draw some applications therein.

1. In the Patriarchal Period, Does It Matter?

Do you matters if Bible authority really matter to God? Let’s see. Let’s check the Bible. Let’s see. In the patriarchal period, do they matter? Look with me at Genesis chapter 4. Does God expect to be obeyed to the letter? Does God have expectations that he expects man to keep? And Genesis chapter 4, will you read with me beginning in verse 1? Now Adam knew Eve, his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord. And again she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground. In the course of time, Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground. And Abel also brought of the firstborn of the flock and of their fat portions.

And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering. But for Cain and his offering, he had no regard. So Cain was very angry and his face fell. You can see that right there, that there was a distinguishing between the two sacrifices, and Cain knew it. In verse 6, the Lord said to Cain, Why are you angry? And why is your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? If you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it, and boy, was sin crouching at the door of Cain. Wouldn’t this be easy if Cain and Abel had just offered sacrifices that were pleasing to the Lord? Isn’t that what the Lord responds to Cain with these saying?

Why are you angry in verse 6? Look at the second part of the Lord’s response to him. Excuse me, in verse 7. If you do well, will you not be accepted? Isn’t that the operandi of the Christian? If we serve the Lord, we can be saved. We can please God. What a blessing that is. Amen. We can serve the Lord. We know what we are to do. The question is, will I do it? So you see, in the patriarchal period, I could also put up numerous passages, including Genesis chapter 11, with the Tower of Babel. What was the problem with the people building a tower? Well, you can make a sermon out of that whole story, but what were they supposed to be doing?

2. In the Mosaic Period: Unauthorized Fire

They weren’t doing that. How did God deal with that? He said, Well, that’s great. I’m going to wait till they build their tower all the way up into heaven and meet me. That’s not quite what they were doing, but you consider the fact that God separated the people. He confused their language and scattered them abroad to serve his purposes. So in the patriarchal period, God absolutely cared, and by the way, could be satisfied, could be obeyed, but he did care when those did not meet his expectations. Now I could put up all kinds of explanations for this one during the Mosaic period, but let’s look at Leviticus chapter 10. I think this is perhaps the most to the point one. Leviticus chapter 10. If you want to be startled by a Bible passage, read with me here.

Leviticus chapter 10. This one takes a turn for the worst pretty quickly. In the book of Leviticus, chapter 10. You see an example with Nadab and Abaiu. You’ve heard those names in verse 1. Now Nadab and Abaihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censor and put fire in it, and laid incense on it and offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, which he had not commanded them. Okay, here’s our premise. We have Nadab and Abiyu. They’re doing something the Lord had not commanded. They did not have authority for what? Well, that unauthorized fire they have, or strange fire, as your translation might read. So verse 2, and fire came out from before the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord, and everyone lived happily ever after.

Isn’t that a great story? What happened? How did Nadab and Abaiu get dead? Frankly. How did they just die? Well, verse 3, then Moses said to Aaron, this is what the Lord has said, Among those who are near me, I will be sanctified. And before all the people I will be glorified. And Aaron held his peace. What was the problem with Nadab and Abaihu? These were sons of Aaron. Didn’t Aaron please the Lord? Well, it depends on what chapter you’re reading, I suppose. But you consider what was Nadab and Abiu’s fault. They did not have authority for what they did. God cares about being obeyed. In fact, even by the sons of Aaron, even in sacrifices to him, he expected it to be done the way he had commanded.

Do you see that part at the end of verse 1? They took their censor, they put fire in it, laid incense on it, and offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, which he had not commanded them. That was the problem. Okay, so in the patriarchal period, in the Mosaic period, this is very clear. God expected to be obeyed, not going beyond or short of what his expectations were. By the way, have you noticed that both of these involved sacrifices to the Lord? If there ever was a time that the Lord would just be happy with what we’re doing, it would be when we’re sacrificing to him, when we’re just simply trying to please the Lord. But that’s not how the Bible reads. So let’s look during the Christian period.

3. In the Christian Period: Abide in the Teaching

Again, we could look at many passages, but look all the way in your New Testament. It’s the 2 John verse 9. 2 John verse 9. In 2 John verse 9, it’s written, everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting. Whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works. Do you not see in verse 9? What is the first part of that? If you abide in Christ, well then you’ll have him. If you do not, you do not have the Father and the Son.

That’s pretty clear. What does God expect from us to obey him? And so we come back to the question, does it matter? Absolutely. But does God really care about how we operate as a church? Isn’t our job to help everyone who needs it? Isn’t the church’s role in the community to be the pillar in the ground of truth? Shouldn’t we help everyone who needs it? Because that’s what good people do. Well, first of all, we are to be the pillar and the ground of truth. That is what the church is. Read the book of Timothy for that. But do you think God has a plan for how we are to do these things? If God suggests that we as individuals are to be playing a certain role, let’s take our sermon from just two weeks ago, Matthew chapter 20, excuse me, last week, at the 11 o’clock hour about Matthew chapter 25 and verses 31 through 46.

4. Do All in the Name of the Lord

Who was to help the least of his brothers? I am. Not the South Bumbi Church of Christ. You know that. Why? Did you see that in verse 31 through 33? Who was gathered before the Lord? Those were separated into the sheep and the goats. Who was it? All the nations. Is it the United States of America? No. Is it the South Bumbi Church of Christ? No. Individuals. We are judged by how we help others. That is part of pleasing the Lord. That is unquestioned. God cares. But what about some of these issues? Do they really matter? Well, since God expects us to respect his authority, I think you can see three pretty clear understandings. We will strive to do all in the name of the Lord.

Will you look at Colossians chapter 3? And while we’re there, we’re going to look at verse 16 as well. In Colossians chapter 3. I know this is basic teaching. I know a lot of people understand this. But this is so fundamentally core because of these points. Starting with how I am going to serve the Lord. Do you see in Colossians chapter 3 and verse 16? Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom. Singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whenever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Now, verse 17 is very interesting. In what way are we to do everything in the name of the Lord?

Are we supposed to go and buy a Kit Kat bar and say, by the way, doing this in the name of the Lord? Go to a football game and say, I’m rooting for the gators because that’s the Lord’s team. Now that may be, but that’s coincidental. Think about what it’s like to be doing something in the name of Christ. It means by his authority. Now you think about Matthew chapter 28, and you see, Jesus has been given all authority where? In heaven and on earth, what are they supposed to go teach? Well, that everyone should be baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And then what? Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And though I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

Now, if we’re supposed to do all that Christ has commanded us, does that mean that we have authority to act as Christians? Does it not explain clearly to us that we have expectations? As an individual, this is very clear. In fact, look at Matthew chapter 23 and verse 23. I love the symmetry of that. If you notice, in the middle of these woes to the Pharisees, Jesus is frankly undressing the scribes and the Pharisees in Matthew chapter 23. But there reaches this interesting point where the Pharisees had failed, and yet there’s a teaching for us in something that we still should be doing. In Matthew chapter 23 and verse 23, woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you tithe mint and dill and cumin and have neglected the weightier matters of the law.

Justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done without neglecting the others. Now, this is interesting because Jesus talks about weightier matters of the law, and oftentimes people come back to a question on should the church do this or that, or should I do this or that as an individual? And they say, isn’t it just all about helping people? Doesn’t it just matter that I’m doing it with the right attitude or I’m doing it in the name of the Lord? Well, if you do it in the name of the Lord, you’re doing it by his authority. But what was the message in Matthew 23 and verse 23? The first part of that is you have neglected the weightier matters of the law. Absolutely. Faithfulness, love, mercy, critical components of being a Christian.

But we ought to follow Jesus’ teachings to the Pharisees here and realize, yes, we are to be faithful. Yes, we are to be merciful. But we’re supposed to do those things without neglecting the others. Well, what were those others? Those things those Pharisees were so tightly following. Do you see that? You tithe, Mint, and dill and Kuman. The Pharisees had all sorts of laws protecting against violating God’s law, at least in theory from the beginning. That’s good. It’s good to care about what God says. It’s not good to create our own law. We’re going to read about that momentarily. But if I am a Christian, I not only care about those greater matters of the law, I not only care that I am forgiving others, so by the way, as Matthew chapter 18 makes clear that I also can be forgiven.

5. We Will Not Follow Doctrines of Men

But I need to keep all that God expects of me. And part of that is that we will not follow doctrines of men. Will you look at Matthew chapter 15? This one’s very interesting. In a lesson like Bible authority, we focus on not transgressing that authority. But I think there’s another aspect of this that is dangerous and perhaps equally dangerous. A lot of us here say, I’ve heard this Bible authority lesson, I don’t know, ten million times. But I want to think about Matthew chapter 15 here. Yes, following the commandments of men is wrong. But I want to understand what they did and why quickly this morning. In Matthew chapter 15, beginning in verse 1. Then Pharisees and scribes, they can’t catch a break, can they came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders?

They do not wash their hands when they eat. He answered them, and why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God commanded honor your father and your mother, and whoever reviles father or mother must surely die. But you say, if anyone tells his father or his mother, what you would have gained from me is given to God. He need not honor his father. So for the sake of your tradition, you have made void the word of God. Now that’s a big problem. Now, what is the offense in verse 2? Let’s be very clear. Why do your disciples, not Jesus, your disciples, break the tradition of the elders? Verse 7, you hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophesy of you when he said, This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

Will you look closely at verse 9? In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrine, the commandments of men. We should not follow the commandments of men. And that involves two aspects. First of all, going back to Matthew chapter 21, it involves perhaps questioning authority. Just because someone is preaching doesn’t make them right. If you’ve heard me, you know that that’s true. That’s supposed to be funny. You can laugh. We’ll wake up yet. In Matthew chapter 21, you see they came to Jesus and said, By what authority do you do these things? Jesus’ question in reverse was, where’s the baptism of John? Is it from heaven or from men? That’s a good question. We should seek authority for what we say, even if someone says their authority.

How about we open the good book and check? You know, by the way, one way that would greatly assist us would be to read the word of God, to know the word of God, so that we can act in the name of Christ. Does that not make a lot of sense? We need to be in the book to know the book. That’s how this works. But, in addition to just asking, what must we be careful of? Being just like those Pharisees and those scribes, what did they do? Oh, they knew the law. What was the deal with this tradition of the elders? To wash their hands when they ate. Is that just hygiene? Were they just sickened by the disciples of Christ? No. Perhaps this had formed as a way to shield against violating Jewish law, and that is the law of God.

6. Will We Respect the Silence of the Lord?

But over time it had been so corrupted that. What was the charge in verse 2? Your disciples are breaking this tradition. Which is basically equivalent to saying your disciples are doing wrong. You need to stop them. Why are you allowing that to happen, Jesus? And you see that for a fact in verse 9 when Jesus says, in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines, the commandments of men. They were making up these rules because they were good, but I have to be careful. Because when I start thinking about what the Bible says and does not say, I have to decide, what am I going to do with that? And that raises an interesting question. Will we respect the silence of the Lord? I want to take a step back for just a moment.

We have a couple minutes left this morning. I want to say, would anyone disagree with what I have on the screen? We will strive to do all in the name of the Lord. I hope not. Colossians chapter 3 and verse 17. It’s pretty clear we must be doing that. Does anyone disagree that we should not follow doctrines of men? Although there is a big religious body that says no, for the most part, Christians are going to say, oh, Jesus is pretty clear about that in Matthew chapter 15. Whether we call it that or not, we’re going to agree with that. And respecting the signs of the Lord. That sounds good to me. 1 Peter chapter 4 and verse 11. Any man who speaks, how is he supposed to speak?

As with the oracles of God. I don’t think anyone disagrees with that. However, when we start thinking about how do we do this, we realize, you know what? The Bible doesn’t talk a whole lot about church lights. Or song books. Or can I say this morning, getting the PowerPoint up to sing songs? You don’t read about that in the scriptures. Well, what did we read in Colossians chapter 3 and verse 16? We’re going to be singing, teaching and moshing one another with what? With all wisdom? How are we supposed to sing? Singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord? Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 19? We are to sing. How are we going to do that? Well, we’ve got to sing a certain type of song.

How are we going to get that song? We sing with our hearts. You sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Where are you getting those from? By repetition? Maybe. From a PowerPoint screen? Maybe. There’s authority in doing those things. But what about these things that the Bible doesn’t speak of? What if they’re good ideas? Well, I have to decide. Am I going to be abiding in the teaching of Christ or not? 2 John verse 9. Am I going to be like Nadab and Amiu offering something that the Lord has not commanded him? It’s great to serve the Lord. It’s fantastic. But that doesn’t mean we get to make our own way. Who is our King? Jesus the Christ. We need to glorify God. When I consider that God expects all of this of me, and I question, does it really matter?

Conclusion

I have to decide. What does God expect? I see in the patriarchal period that God very clearly expected something that Cain failed in and Abel passed with flying colors. I see in the Mosaic period that Nadab and Abaiu were struck down dead for offering unauthorized fire. I see in the New Testament that we are to abide in the teachings of Christ. I understand from Galatians chapter 1 that they had already left the gospel of Christ. Not that there was another one, but this false teaching. There was one gospel. If God doesn’t care, why does Paul mind that they’ve left it? In fact, why does Paul care in Galatians chapter 5 that circumcision was being added to it? Because after all, that could be considered a good thing, depending on how you looked at it.

The Jews certainly viewed it as a good thing. Why not just add that in? Because God cares. God expects things to be done his way. Can I make one final point on does it matter? Let me change the question. Is there right and wrong in serving the Lord? Absolutely there is. In Matthew chapter 7 and verse 21, what does Jesus say? Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven will enter. There is a will of the Father. We are not playing a game we cannot win. We can serve the Lord. We know the will of the Lord. The question is, will we do it? When it comes to silence, we have to decide, am I going to act or will I refrain?

Let me ask you the question. Since God does care, since it does matter to God, since basically everyone would agree with what’s behind me. When it comes to matters of silence, how are we to act? With the authority of Christ. How do we get the authority of Christ? If the Bible is not silent. Silence is rare, actually, if you study the commandments of the Lord, if you see the expectations for God and His people. How will I act? Trusting in the Lord? Or will I begin teaching his doctrines the commandments of man? We need to consider by what authority men do these things. We need to have an answer ready for what Jesus says on any biblical issue, on any idea, we need to know is this from heaven or is this from man?

If this is from man, we should not be following it. If it’s from heaven, we must if we wish to serve the King. Will you go to God in prayer with me at this time? Our dear God and most gracious Heavenly Father, we praise you for your greatness, and we are so humbled by the fact that you’ve chosen to love us. We pray that we are always found pleasing in your sight, that you will forgive us of when we do wrong. Help us to study your word, to know the book, to allow your law to meditate in our hearts and on our minds. Well, Lord, we know that we ought to be lights in the world, but sometimes we get caught up with things that we want to do or things that others have taught us.

Help us to recognize that there is right and wrong, that you do expect to be pleased and to be done so in the way that you have chosen and outlined for us. Thank you so much for not having us just wander around hoping to please you, but revealing your word to us. Thank you for sending Jesus to Christ to die on the cross for our sins. We pray, dear Lord, that as we study your word, and we will not only grow in knowledge, but in our application of the word, that in so doing we will not neglect the weightiers and matters of the law. Help us to forgive as we wish to be forgiven. Help us to be merciful as you show us mercy. O Lord, help us to be faithful, truly, completely, and fully committing to you for not only today, but each and every day that you allow us to have life.

O Lord, forgive us of when we do wrong. Help us greatly to do right. Keep us safe through this day. Help us to focus on pleasing you, glorifying you, and worshiping you in spirit and truth this very morning. It’s in your Son’s name we do pray. Amen.