{"id":24534,"date":"2022-12-26T22:00:07","date_gmt":"2022-12-27T05:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/mark-11_20-26-copy\/"},"modified":"2022-12-14T20:21:58","modified_gmt":"2022-12-15T03:21:58","slug":"mark-11_27-33","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/mark-11_27-33\/","title":{"rendered":"Unbelief vs. Honest Questions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mark 11:27-33 Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs!<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Mark 11:27-33.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Mark 11:27-33 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n27\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0They arrived again in Jerusalem, and while Jesus was walking in the temple courts, the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders came to him.
\n28\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“By what authority are you doing these things?” they asked. “And who gave you authority to do this?”
\n29\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Jesus replied, “I will ask you one question. Answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things.
\n30\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0John’s baptism–was it from heaven, or from men? Tell me!”
\n31\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0They discussed it among themselves and said, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will ask, ‘Then why didn’t you believe him?’
\n32\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0But if we say, ‘From men’….” (They feared the people, for everyone held that John really was a prophet.)
\n33\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0So they answered Jesus, “We don’t know.” Jesus said, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.”<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 27-33:\u00a0 At one time Jesus\u2019 critics claimed that it was by the prince of demons that Jesus drove out demons, basically attributing Jesus\u2019 power to Satan.\u00a0 But Jesus put that argument to rest (Mark 3:22-30).\u00a0 Still, Jesus\u2019 critics couldn\u2019t figure out where Jesus\u2019 power came from and they were also unwilling to acknowledge that God was behind Jesus\u2019 ministry.\u00a0 So they ask Jesus, \u201cWho gave you the authority to do what you\u2019re doing?\u201d (v28)<\/p>\n

Was Jesus avoiding their question by asking another question (v29)?\u00a0 No.\u00a0 Jesus\u2019 response is in fact brilliant.\u00a0 Jesus brings up the late John the Baptist and asks his critics whether John\u2019s baptism \u2013 that is, John\u2019s ministry \u2013 was from God or merely a human thing.<\/p>\n

Why bring up John the Baptist?\u00a0 It’s because Jesus\u2019 ministry was built on John the Baptist\u2019s ministry.\u00a0\u00a0Jesus knew that how his critics looked at John the Baptist would be the same way they look at Jesus.<\/p>\n

Jesus knew that his critics\u2019 opinion about Jesus would be swayed more by their own pride, fear and unbelief than any evidence or argument that someone\u00a0presented them.\u00a0 It\u2019s as if Jesus is saying to his critics, \u201cIf you can\u2019t understand whether or not John the Baptist\u2019s ministry was from God, then you won\u2019t understand my ministry either and there\u2019s no point in us talking about this further.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s another layer to Jesus\u2019 response:\u00a0 Jesus reasoned that there was no point trying to answer his critics when they had already made up their mind not to believe anyway.\u00a0 It\u2019s as if Jesus is saying, \u201cWhy bother talking to you guys about this if you\u2019re not going to believe regardless of what I say?\u201d<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?
\n–\u00a0\u00a0You\u2019re not going to figure out Jesus by simply giving human explanations.\u00a0 If you do, you\u2019re missing the point of Jesus\u2019 ministry.<\/strong><\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0Sometimes our hearts can be so hard that we don\u2019t recognize God even when He is right in front of us.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0There is a big difference between having sincere, honest questions and asking questions because of unbelief and pride.<\/strong>\u00a0 Sometimes people will ask questions not because they are honestly searching for an answer, but as a smoke screen, a defensive mechanism, as a way to put up obstacles to avoid having to reach a conclusion.\u00a0 Their questions might sound intellectual, but in fact they\u2019ve already made up their mind.\u00a0\u00a0God welcomes our honest questions, but unbelief tests God\u2019s patience.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Humility fuels honest questions.\u00a0 Pride fuels unbelief.<\/p>\n

Jesus, I pray that I would not blinded by pride and unbelief.\u00a0 I pray that I would always be curious, ask honest questions and have the humility to look at the evidence before making a conclusion.\u00a0 In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs!<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Mark 11:27-33.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Mark 11:27-33 (NIV)
\n27\u00a0\u00a0They arrived again in Jerusalem, and while Jesus was walking in the temple courts, the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders came to him.
\n28\u00a0\u00a0“By what authority are you doing these things?” they asked. “And who gave you authority to do this?”
\n29\u00a0\u00a0Jesus replied, “I will ask you one question. Answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things.
\n30\u00a0\u00a0John’s baptism–was it from heaven, or from men? Tell me!”
\n31\u00a0\u00a0They discussed it among themselves and said, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will ask, ‘Then why didn’t you believe him?’
\n32\u00a0\u00a0But if we say, ‘From men’….” (They feared the people, for everyone held that John really was a prophet.)
\n33\u00a0\u00a0So they answered Jesus, “We don’t know.” Jesus said, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.”<\/p>\n

On verses 27-33:\u00a0 At one time Jesus\u2019 critics claimed that it was by the prince of demons that Jesus drove out demons, basically attributing Jesus\u2019 power to Satan.\u00a0 But Jesus put that argument to rest (Mark 3:22-30).\u00a0 Still, Jesus\u2019 critics couldn\u2019t figure out where Jesus\u2019 power came from and they were also unwilling to acknowledge that God was behind Jesus\u2019 ministry.\u00a0 So they ask Jesus, \u201cWho gave you the authority to do what you\u2019re doing?\u201d (v28)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24536,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24534"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24534\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24537,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24534\/revisions\/24537"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}