Summary
Pastor David preaches from Luke 20:1–8, showing how Jesus’ authority in the temple confronts not only human opposition but also the powers of darkness working through the Sanhedrin. He calls the church to recognize Christ’s absolute authority over every part of life, to lead faithfully under His lordship, and to be unashamed of the conflict and controversy His authority stirs in the world.
Transcript
Good morning everybody, open your Bibles to Luke chapter 20 this morning as we continue to move through the gospel of Luke, Luke chapter 20. And we will be in verses one through eight today. Hear the word of God. One day as Jesus was teaching the people in the temple and preaching the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes with the elders came up and said to him, "Tell us by what authority you do these things or who is it that gave you this authority?" He answered them, "I will also ask you a question, now tell me, was the baptism of John from heaven or from man?" And they discussed it with one another saying, if we say from heaven, he will say, "Why did you not believe him?" But if we say from man, all the people will stone us to death for they are convinced that John was a prophet. So they answered that they did not know where it came from. And Jesus said to them, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things." This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated, let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we come to your word and this morning we would like to say that we are those who acknowledge, confess and submit to and obey the authority of Jesus Christ. But we know that we will be found wanting if we were to say that because our desire to submit to the authority of Christ is greater than our ability to submit to the authority of Christ. And so we pray today that the Christ who has all authority would speak to us, speak to us of himself, placard himself, show himself to us so that as we behold him by faith, we might submit to his authority as our King and our Lord, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the Lord of Lives and the Lord of Hearts. We pray this in Jesus' name, and amen. The broader context of our passage this morning takes us back to chapter 19 and verse 14. In the last part of verse 14 of chapter 19 says this, we do not want this man to reign over us. Jesus is letting them know in the parable of the minas that the issue at hand is the fact that it is that people do not want to, the Jews do not want to, the Sanhedrin does not want to, nobody wants to have this man who is Jesus Christ be their King. We do not want this man to reign over us. And especially those who are looking for a different Messiah than the one that is right there before their eyes, Jesus himself, the Sanhedrin, the chief priest, the scribes, and the elders, they very much do not accept that Jesus has come as the one who is Israel's long awaited for King and Messiah. They do not want this man to rule over them so much so that they are scheming to destroy him as you saw last week. I look at chapter 19 and verse 47. And he was teaching daily in the temple the chief priests and the scribes and the principal men and the people who were seeking to destroy him. So it's not just that we don't want this man to reign over us. It's that we're gonna destroy this man for thinking that he can and should reign over us. Well, that does not stop Jesus, of course. And in chapter 20, we see the first of what's going to be six encounters. So over the next six weeks, we're gonna have six encounters with Jesus regarding the presentation of himself the display of himself as Israel's Messiah and as the world's true king. And we're going to see how people respond to that. And as we come into these six encounters, you must understand that no one is playing nice. The Sanhedrin are not playing nice and Jesus is not playing nice. There is a demonic activity running the Sanhedrin at this point. The powers of darkness are there working through them to seek to destroy Jesus. And Jesus himself will not play nice with those who decide they will not have him reign over them. And that leads us into that first encounter in chapter 20, go where they're with me to verse one, one day as Jesus was teaching the people in the temple and preaching the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes and the elders came up. Jesus has, as you guys learned last week, displaced the temple leadership. He has moved in and he's moved all of the leadership of the temple and he's moved them out and he's established himself as the priest and teacher of the temple. In addition to that, he's replaced the scribes, he's replaced all of the people's teachers, he's replaced the sacrifices, he's replaced the whole gig. He has moved in, he has taken over the temple, he has become the temple and everything that the temple was supposed to be, Jesus himself is and he has moved out everything that is not telling the truth of the temple because he himself has come to fulfill it. This is his house. He said my house will be a place of prayer for all the people. But in addition to that, it tells us that Jesus is doing two things here. He is teaching the people something that he's always done but he's also preaching the gospel. He's bringing to these people that which they had not known because the teaching of their leadership had been false and in error for all of these years. And you wanna know what it is that Jesus was preaching, go back to chapter four, when we see Jesus himself proclaim in Nazareth the good news that he was there to proclaim. In chapter four and verse 18, Jesus quotes Isaiah and says this, "The spirit of the Lord is upon me "because he has anointed me to proclaim the good news." That's why I've come is to preach the good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives, recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. The long-awaited Jubilee that has been promised, to where those who are enslaved to sin and darkness and the devil are now going to be free because of the good news that has come from this one, the clarity, the light, the power, the authority of the proclamation of Jesus Christ to give to those who are enslaved in sin and lost in darkness and to give them supernatural light and to give them liberty and freedom from the sin that entraps them because of himself. Because he himself is the one who is the great liberator from sin, savior from sin, and he is the one who gives light, he is the very light of God. And he comes proclaiming himself from the very beginning, which of course has caused no little consternation there. But in addition to that, along with Jesus proclaiming that, all throughout the gospel of Luke, there's been this forgiveness of sins taking place that is attached to this good news. Now we think that's a very normal, not forgiveness of sins, forgiveness of sins. Well, forgiveness of sins separated from the temple is a whole other thing altogether if you live in that day. The temple was the place where forgiveness of sins was found. You went to the temple to provide the sacrifices, the priests offered the sacrifices. The temple was the locus of forgiveness. But beginning with John, we see that forgiveness is going to be found away from the temple, right? It's going to move out from there. John begins at the Jordan River and preaches what? A baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. So in John, we already have an anticipation of Jesus because John moves the finding of forgiveness from the temple out to the Jordan River. And then Jesus comes and multiple times in multiple hospitality situations. Jesus forgives sin in people's homes. And so what you're seeing is that Jesus is moving and shifting the locus of the forgiveness of sins from the temple to himself, you see. This has been going on from the beginning of the gospel all the way through now. If you want to find the forgiveness of sins, if you want to find liberty from the sin, if you want to find freedom from your captives, if you want to find light in your darkness, I am that one, Jesus said, and I am the only one. And he is preaching this gospel in the temple that he has just prophesied is going to come down surrounded by a priesthood that he has rendered irrelevant. So you can see the consternation that is going to take place. This is scandalous activity by Jesus to begin to siphon off all of the temple to himself and render the temple and its priesthood irrelevant. It is shocking in every way and would have been considered by the Sanhedrin to be blasphemous. So what do they do? They begin to make one of a series of public moves to trap Jesus. Verse two, the elders came up and said to him, "Tell us by what authority you do these things and who is it that gave you this authority?" So much of the concern of the Sanhedrin which make up the priests and the scribes and the elders of the people, so much of their concern is about authority. Who has the right authority and who conferred that authority on you and who can speak for God and who can sacrifice for God and who can represent God. Who is authorized by God to do this stuff? And of course they've been challenging the authority of Jesus all the way through, wondering where it is that Jesus, God has authority to do the things that he did and to say the things that he has said. And here we are again in one of those moments and they do the same thing again. You'll notice the concern is, tell us by what authority you do these things. I think that these things refer back to the sweeping of the temple, the cleansing of the temple that you saw last week. By what authority do you come in here and rearrange our house? This is our house. God's given us this house. And now you're coming in and rearranging things and then usurping our place in this house. This is our house, right? This is like when you're a coach in this football season and you're gearing your team up to play a home game, right? What do you say? No one comes into our house, right? In wins and beats us in our house. That's motivating. Well, this is actually what's happening here. Jesus has come into their house and he is beating them. Okay, and they're not happy about it at all. This is what's actually happening. And so they wanna know like, hey, who do you think you are? By what authority are you doing this, these things? Why did you think you could come in here and rearrange things and sweep the temple? And who gave you that authority? The concern is that they believe they know where their authority came from. They believe their authority came from heaven. And then because Jesus' authority is a conflicting authority, his could not have come from heaven. So how did you get it and where did you get it from? But there's something deeper going on here that we might miss. There is something sinister that's going on here that we might not be able to see on the surface that I think is important for us to look at for a moment. And that is that there is a collusion between the Sanhedrin and the powers of darkness. This is not simply men acting from rebellion against God. This is men who are supposed to be representing the holy God of Israel, who are actually under the influence of the Satanic. When they're doing this. If you look over at chapter 22 and verse 53, this is one of the most chilling verses in all of the Bible. It's especially chilling if you don't know the end. But if you know the end, you know that Jesus is actually gonna subvert this. But in chapter 22, Jesus is on the Mount of Olives and then the chief priests, they come in with the battalion, they come in to arrest Jesus. And Jesus is questioning them. Verse 52 says, "Then Jesus said to the chief priests and officers of the temple and elders." So same group we have in our passage is here. Same group of guys, the Sanhedrin, okay? Jesus said, "Who came out against him? Have you come out against me as a robber with swords and clubs? When I was with you day after day in the temple, you did not lay hands on me." Like, when I was there, we had the fracas, you didn't pursue me, but now you're coming out and now you're pursuing me. Why is that the case? Well, look at what Jesus says, "But this is your hour and the power of darkness." This is the collusion between your hour and the power of darkness. You're both gonna seemingly get your way for just a little bit by me giving myself to you, you see. And so when we are looking in chapter 20 at the Sanhedrin, confronting and questioning Jesus, we are looking at not just men in rebellion, but men under the influence of the power of darkness. We know this in an additional way because when these words are paired together, who and gave and authority, the other times those words are used, they are always in a satanic or a demonic context, one way or the other. So if you go back to chapter four and verse six, Satan offers Jesus just this. Chapter four and verse six in the temptation of Jesus, Satan says this, "To you I will give the authority." The exact same question that the Sanhedrin asked is the very words that Satan used. Who gave you this authority? Satan says, "To you I will give this authority because it's mine right now." Right? Because it's mine, right? It's been delivered to me and to whom I will. Well, of course, Jesus has come to take it away from him. He's the stronger man who's gonna plunder it from him while giving Satan his little moment, his season of time. But you notice, give, who, give and authority, this is a satanic context. Turn to chapter nine and verse one. In chapter nine and verse one, it's the same thing, but it's Jesus giving his disciples authority over the powers. Chapter nine and verse one, he called the 12 together and gave them power and authority over all demons. There it is again, power and authority given over all demons. Who gave an authority? Then in chapter 10 and verse 19, Jesus does the same thing again. Chapter 10 and verse 19, "Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall hurt you." So this is, when Luke uses these words, who, gave, and authority, they are always in the context of the clash with the demonic. Always in the context of a clash with the satanic. And we cannot come to chapter 20 and just think that the fracas that's going on here and the clash that's going on here is a clash between Jesus the man and the Sanhedrin the men. This is a clash between Jesus the son of God and the entire powers of darkness working through the Sanhedrin. It's a clash of heaven and hell, light and darkness. It is a cosmic fracas going on here in this passage in the temple. And these Sanhedrin have tried to assume authority. And we remember that they even challenged Jesus and say, hey, how do you have your authority? Is it by Beelzebub? So there's a lot of activity going on here. A lot of chicanery, a lot of snookering going on, a lot of back and forth. But as at the end of the day, this is a cosmic clash with the powers of darkness coming through the Sanhedrin to Jesus. And then they say, tell us by what authority you do these things and who gave you this authority. Well, notice the concern that they have in verse two. How did you come by this authority? And what is that authority? It's two questions. How did you come by the authority that you think you have? And who's authority is, we have God's authority. Who's is yours? And who gave it to you? How did you come by it? Does Jesus have the right to do what he did? Is the question they're asking him. Is Jesus acting with divine legitimacy? Is Jesus acting with the stamp or the approval of heaven when he cleanses the temple and takes over the temple and shifts things to himself? Well, they don't believe he's from heaven. They don't believe he has a right to do it. They believe that he's an impostor. They believe that Jesus is an impostor. He's a blasphemous false prophet worthy of death and he's presuming to act and to speak for God. He's usurping their rightful leadership to represent God to the people. And what they're trying to do is they're trying to implicate Jesus into, into, they're goading Jesus into implicated himself, right? That's what they want. They want him to speak something blasphemous so they can pounce on it in front of the people and destroy him and do away with him. And so they come asking these particular questions by whose authority and who gave it to you? Why are you here? Why do you think you can be here? And what it is that you're doing here, right? That's what they want to know because they want to trap Jesus into an answer that will give them a reason to get rid of him. Verse three, Jesus very much speaking like Yahweh speaks to Job. Jesus answered them, I also will ask you a question. Now you tell me, I love that. Jesus says, you want to get down to the business authority? I'll tell you who's running the show here. It's not you, you're going to tell me some things. I'm not telling you anything. I am not in the do-- C.S. Lewis has this great essay called God in the Dock. Who's in the dock? Are we in the dock? And God's questioning us or is God in the dock? And we're questioning him. They thought Jesus was in the dock and he turned the tables in a hurry to put them in the dock. And he says, basically, I got some questions for you. And you'll notice that Jesus does not answer them directly. Verse three, he simply answers them by saying, I will ask you a question. So they ask him two questions and rather than Jesus give them an answer, he answers them back with a question for them. That's what he gives them. And he shows his authority, he puts himself in the place of Yahweh like Job and they would have felt that. Now you tell me. And then Jesus poses his question in verse four. Was the baptism of John from heaven or from man? So Jesus asks them a question in response to their two questions. And church, listen, in the question that Jesus asks, there is the answer for the ones that the Sanhedrin asked for those who have eyes to see and ears to hear. Jesus does actually answer their questions with his question if you understand his question. Notice that the question that Jesus asks is not simply about the validity of John's ministry. Let's look at it. Verse four, here's Jesus's question. Was the, not ministry of John, was the baptism of John from heaven or from man? That's a completely different question than was John's ministry valid? Was he a true prophet? This zeros in, some of you are starting to track with me a little bit. This zeros in on the baptismal moment, right? Of John and Jesus together. Why is that so important? Well, because if John's baptism is from heaven, then it answers why Jesus has the authority and where it comes from, okay? So follow me here. If John's baptism is from heaven, John's baptism of Jesus validates who Jesus is, where he got his authority and why he thinks he is who he is, right? The by what of Jesus is the same as John's from heaven. The who gave you this authority, well, heaven itself at the baptism of Jesus. You see, Jesus knows exactly what he's asking here. So he says to them, is John's baptism from heaven? Now let's go back and look at John's baptism. 'Cause here's what it would mean if John's baptism has the validation of heaven, okay? Go back to Luke chapter three. This is so good. Jesus is so wise. By the way, if you ever try to argue with Jesus, you're going to lose. Lord willing, he won't make you look like a fool like he did these guys, but you're going to lose. (congregation sighs) So go back to Luke chapter three and look at what happened at the baptism of Jesus by John. Luke three, 21, 22. Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven. You are my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. At the baptism of Jesus, he receives his messianic ordination. He receives power from heaven as the dove descends on him. And he receives heaven's approval that this one here is my beloved son, the promised son of David, King of Kings, and Lord of Lords. So Jesus says, if the baptism of John is from heaven, look at what that baptism said. It said that I have every right to be doing exactly what I'm doing. The authority that I have was declared on that day at my baptism. And so if John's baptism is from heaven, enough said, right? And then Matthew went on to say in the baptismal passage, one is coming after me, who is greater than me, who's sandal, I'm not worthy to untie. So the whole baptismal event of Jesus is the moment that establishes his authority publicly and his ordination authority and who he is. It's the declaration from heaven on earth. This is my beloved son. It happens again at the transfiguration, but there's only a few people there. And so Jesus is basically setting the trap backwards again to them, right? So the authority of, if the authority of John is from heaven, then the authority of Jesus is because that's exactly what was declared at the baptism. What I want you all to see as Jesus does this, as we go back to chapter 20, as Jesus does this, ask this question about John's baptism from heaven or from man. I want you to see that these men are blind to it. That these men have no concern for truth. They have no concern for righteousness. They have no concern for justice. They have no concern. What if Jesus is right? What if Jesus is telling the truth? What if that's the case? But that's not what they're pursuing. They're not pursuing truth. They're not pursuing righteousness. They're not pursuing justice. They're pursuing the protection of their own power and their own power base and their own lives and their own positions. That's all they're concerned about. And you know, we need to be reminded of that in our own day. That we don't want to be like this as a church. You don't want to be like this anywhere you are. Where you live to protect your power base or your office or your place to the exemption of truth, righteousness and justice. These men were blind to what was happening. And so when they come to deliberate in verse five, it says this in verse five. And when they discussed it with one another saying, if we say from heaven, he will say, why did you not believe him? But if we say from man, all the people will stone us to death for they are convinced that John was a prophet. So when these guys come to deliberate, you'll notice they never ask this question. Is what he's saying true? Should we investigate the question? Should we follow that question about whether John's was from heaven or from man? And what would that actually mean? Should we ask a follow up question to Jesus to clarify some things for us? Because what we really want is the truth. No, they don't. They just want to entrap him. They want to destroy him. They're not coming from a neutral place. They're coming from a hostile place. And so their deliberation, what Dale Ralph Davis called their unholy deliberation, they come together to scheme. It's never about finding the truth. It's not finding a way to do away with Jesus. In verse five, that word discussed and they discussed it with one another as a classical teacher. I just have to say this. It is the only place in the Bible where this word is used. It's used four times in the Septuagint. And it is the Greek word from which we get the word syllogism. Syllogism. So they went together and they put a syllogism together. They were gonna try to truth this out, valid this out. See, they were gonna syllogize this thing. But you'll notice the syllogizing is not about whether it's valid or whether it's truthful. It's how can we protect our power base and get rid of Jesus? But what's interesting is that this word is used in the Septuagint in Isaiah 43, 18. Listen to Isaiah 43, 18 in the Septuagint, which is a Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament. Do not remember the former things and do not consider, syllogize them. That's interesting. The only way the Bible tells us to remember the former things and to consider the former things. Here they're being told not to remember the former things or consider the former things. And it would be good if the Sanhedrin could just judge that way. 'Cause right before them all the old paradigms are falling. Don't remember them. Don't consider the old way 'cause a new way is coming. A new temple is here, a new cornerstone is here, a new people is here, a new way to forgive this of sins is here. If they could just let go of the old and see it fulfilled before their eyes, but they can't because they are deliberating in darkness. Right? Education without virtue makes a man of what? A more clever devil and you're looking right at him. Smart dudes that are devils. They use their cleverness for devilish ends and they're colluding with darkness. Their only concern is how their answer plays to the polls. That's it. That's their only concern. We already know that they don't believe John's word, okay? They're deliberating whether or not they should say, listen, this will just tell you the kind of lies that darkness goes to, right? They already know that they reject John. But maybe if today, except, have you ever seen a politician on one of our television networks like Switch's story? Never in this country, right? I mean, this is exactly what's happening here. They've already, according to chapter seven, listen, they've already rejected John. Like we don't believe John. Chapter seven, verses 29 to 33, listen to these words. When they all heard this, and the tax collectors too, they declared God just, having been baptized with the baptism of John. But the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected the purpose of God for themselves, not having been baptized by him. Jesus says to what shall I compare the people of this generation? What are they like? They're like children sitting in the marketplace, calling to one another. We played the flute for you and you did not dance. You sang a dirge, you did not weep. For John the Baptist has come eating, no bread and drinking no wine, and you say he has a demon. Their assessment of John the Baptist was that he had the demon, not them. But today, if it works for us, decide with demonically possessed John the Baptist because it'll go right into polls, we'll do that. That's how they're syllogizing in darkness. Verse six, they discuss with one another saying, if we say from heaven, Jesus will say, "Why did you not believe him?" We can't really side with John about this 'cause we're gonna get caught in a lie. Verse six, "But if we say from man, "all the people will stone us to death "for they are convinced that John was a prophet "that will make us look like false prophets, "and we're toast." So you'll notice they can't lose the popularity contest. This is all about pleasing men. And I wanna, you guys need to see this, this goes so far, pleasing men and colluding with darkness goes so far that in an honor, shame, culture, they choose the unthinkable. They choose the unthinkable. And that is they choose rather to be shamed. I want you to see just how profound the darkness can be when it mixes with the unbelief of a person. Verse seven, "So they answered that they did not know "where it came from, public shame. "You are the priests, you are the Sanhedrin. "You are supposed to know everything." And they say, "We don't know. "We don't have an answer. "They can't give ground to either side "because either side they lose. "Check, mate, Jesus, it's over." And they are willing to take the public shame rather than bow the knee to this one who they will not have reign over them. Now I want you guys to see this. Jesus does not play nice. Jesus does not say, "I've got an opportunity here." Jesus says, "You get nothing." You get nothing. Look at verse eight. "And Jesus said to them, 'Neither will I tell you "by what authority I do these things.'" You don't get what you want because I'm not giving it to the darkness. But you will get something. And that's next week's sermon. Next week's parable, "Jesus is gonna give them something." We just don't have time for it today. So he's gonna give them something. So what I'm gonna do is I wanna bring this home today with just three implications that I think fall out of the authority of Jesus Christ in this particular sermon. So listen, well, the first is this. The authority of Jesus Christ is absolute in heaven and on earth. All authority has been given to him. There is no square inch anywhere in the universe over which Jesus Christ does not say, "Mind them." Every knee must bow. That is the only option. There is only one option with the fact that Jesus has stamped upon him and he is and comes with the very authority of heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father now. And that the only option is to bow your knee. When you receive your baptism, your life is over. Your life belongs to another. And it belongs fully and finally to the authority of Jesus Christ. Those waters declared the death of your Lordship over your life. And the one who has all authority over every area of your life is not you. There is no me area. There is no my area. There's no off limits area. And there's no forbidden zone like in the planet of the apes. In all of your life, the totality of your life belongs to the authority of Jesus Christ. And does it witness to that? Does your life witness to the authority of Jesus rather than the authority of yourself? Secondly, the people being pummeled here were the church leadership. And so church leadership also does not have an ultimate authority. Church leadership is a delegated authority from the chief shepherd himself. And so all of our authority as the pastors in this church and the deacons in this church, all our authority answers to the ultimate authority of Jesus Christ. And our only responsibility is to be faithful to the authority of Jesus Christ. It doesn't matter what we think is pastors and it really doesn't matter what you think is a congregation. Ultimately what matters to all of us is what Jesus thinks of all of us. That's the responsibility. It can't be about the polls of the people and what makes the people happy. It can't be about the leadership and the things that we enjoy. It must be about the leadership of the church must have as its only agenda, how does this answer to the authority of Jesus Christ and will it be found faithful and nothing else? Which means it will be very ordinary. Ordinary dudes doing ordinary things in the name of the Lord. I will never parachute in for a sermon. It's not gonna, I'm sorry. It's not gonna happen, all right? Not gonna happen. So if that's your dream, it's to see me parachute in on a sermon. It just died, okay? And then the last thing I wanna close with is this. The authority of Jesus Christ will cause controversy in the world. The authority of Jesus Christ will cause controversy in the world. It will cause conflict, it will cause clashing, and it will cause crashing and we must never be ashamed of it. We must never be ashamed of the conflict or the controversy that Jesus's authority creates in the world. We must never compromise, we must never be ashamed of the absolute authority of Jesus Christ over all things. When we confess that Jesus is Lord, that's exactly what we mean. Jesus is Lord. And because his Lordship will not be recognized by the powers of darkness that continue to be at work in this world, and because the authority of Jesus will not be recognized by those who are in the corridors of power sometimes, and because the powers of Jesus, the authority of Jesus will not be recognized oftentimes by the very people in our community, that means there will be controversy if the church stands upon the authority of Jesus and there will be conflict and these will not always be resolved. You have to be okay with unresolved conflict in a world that has these clashes. We have unresolved conflict in our passage. Jesus doesn't resolve the conflict. What he does next week is he lights a fire to it and pours gas on it as we're going to see. And so sometimes there's simply going to be conflict because the authority of Jesus Christ clashes. You see, until the darkness ends, we have to be okay as God's people with conflict and controversy. It will be a way of life for us until everybody submits the need of Jesus Christ. And so in order for us to live in that world, to live in a world of conflict and controversy and submission to the kingship of Jesus Christ, we've been given a royal table at King's Feast, heaven's food on earth. And Jesus's authority establishes this table and he shares this meal with us and he sends us out into the world this week to bear testimony and to bear witness and to live under and to put on display the authority of Jesus Christ in his world. Just like that was his house. This is his world. And we are his ambassadors and let us not be ashamed of the ambassadorship to which we've been called. Let us be fed this morning with word and sacrament and be let out to do the business that God calls us to in the world that Jesus is redeeming. Amen. Let's pray our God in heaven, thank you for your word. It's power and authority. May Jesus Christ himself assert his authority, the greatness of his authority all over this planet today in our own lives, in our own hearts, in our own church, in our own families. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.