In this episode we look at how Jesus responds to different challenges from the highest levels of religious leaders as they continue to look for ways to get rid of Him. From these challenges we learn more things about Him and also get to process some warnings from His interactions with these leaders.

Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the Pine Hills church podcast. My name is Aaron. So grateful you are with us today. Hopefully your fall is going really well as we're getting more into that cooler weather.

Football games are on the television. Hopefully you're eating pumpkin spiced something and just enjoying the season that we are in. To catch you up on the conversation just a bit, but I want to point you back to the previous conversation. Catch up, back up with that conversation, because there's lots of little information in there that we can't possibly recap. But again, Jesus triumphantly enters the city, very humbly, riding on a donkey instead of on a horse, a symbol of power he doesn't have, people with him using violence to come overthrow.

But as we see the last events leading up to him being falsely accused and ultimately killed, like, he's willing to take the violence on himself in order to do the things that God has sent him to do. And as Jesus triumphantly enters the city last week, we see that he notices the temple area, which should have been this place for people to connect with God and be filled up by his presence is actually being distorted by all kinds of selling of different items and the exchange of things and maybe people being possibly exploited in that exchange. And he gets really frustrated because he says people are no longer going there for, but they're actually going there just to buy things and to follow through with religious obligations that their heart actually isn't in. And so all of this different stuff is happening. He gets really mad.

He ends up flipping tables, driving out these sellers of things, and it makes the religious leaders pretty mad. And this week we're going to see Jesus's authority at the highest levels now in the city. Not just common religious leaders who might have come out, but like the highest levels of religious leaders, religious authority in his day in Jerusalem are going to come out and begin to challenge him. And I wonder, for me, when, when I think of these things of like the highest levels of authority, I have these feelings back from when I was a kid getting called into the principal's office for like, who knows what and just that anxiety that rises up in my chest. Or maybe it's like today if a boss sends me a last minute message saying, hey, we need to have a last minute one on one, that anxiety kind of just queues up again.

And I wonder if Jesus felt these same type of anxieties and maybe not in the stories that we read. He seems to just be really cool as he's responding to the challenges to his authority that come his way. But as he gets challenged in his authority. I wonder how you respond when your authority gets challenged. Maybe it's boss, coworker, family member, maybe it's a random guy in the Costco parking lot.

I don't know what that looks like. But how do you respond? Is it typically cool? Is it typically level headed and calm? Or is it typically, like, angry and being upset?

Where do you fall on that spectrum? Let's look and see how Jesus responds to it. Says, after he entered the temple, we're going to mark 1127. After he enters the city again, the religious leaders are fuming at his behavior from the previous day, and they demanded, by what authority have you done this? They're hoping that he would somehow claim to be God, put himself on level with God so they can accuse him of blasphemy and ultimately have him killed.

Remember, they're looking for anything and everything that they can use to ultimately get rid of Jesus because they're sick of all the different stuff that he's doing in the city. Even though it's so good, even though it's healing people and miracles happening and people being welcomed into the family of God, and people pumped and excited about who God is and all the different things that are happening, still, they want to get rid of him. And Jesus kind of sees through this, and he responds by letting them know that he's more than willing to answer their question, but they need to answer one of his first mark, chapter eleven, verse 30, says, did John's authority to baptize come from heaven, or was it merely human? Answer me. Remember John the Baptist?

Was this guy that the gospel of Mark opened with. He was a weird guy out in the desert that was drawing massive crowds to him. He was telling people to prepare the way for Jesus's coming by repenting of where they were off course with God and following through with baptism, which was this symbol of being dunked into the water, of coming up in this new life, but ultimately preparing themselves for Jesus work in their lives. And John the Baptist carried out good work all across the area. There was favorable opinion by so many different people, but he was ultimately killed because he spoke out against political powers of his day when they engaged in inappropriate relationships that weren't right, that were very wrong, that were unjust, that were causing a terrible things.

And John the Baptist speaks truth, and he's not afraid of that. Ultimately, it cost him his life. And again, remember, John was massively adored by a lot of people. A lot of people left the city to come out to hear his message and to follow through with baptism. And so there's a big problem on the hands of the religious leaders.

When Jesus asked this question, he said, because if we lay it out, if they admitted Jesus was sent by God, like most people did around that city, then they would affirm that Jesus actually has authority by God because John claimed that Jesus was the messiah. Remember, he's saying, I'm preparing the way for the Lord's coming, the savior of the world. And John recognized Jesus as, this is the one I've been preaching about and talking about like, I'm unworthy to be in his presence. I'm unworthy to be here. And yet he gets to baptize Jesus, and he gets to see Jesus ministry begin to spread all across the area.

So if the religious leaders would have affirmed, affirmed about John, then they would have to affirm Jesus's message as well. And if they said that John's authority was merely just from humans and not from God, then they would probably lose their position of leadership and power, because the. The opinion of them would have changed in the eyes of the people. They probably would have forced them out of their positions. And so the people were trapped like we.

They simply, they don't believe that Jesus is from God. And at the same time, they're also scared to lose their positions. So instead of being brave and actually owning the things that they believe, they play ignorant and say that we just don't know. And Jesus says, I'm not answering your question then, because you're dodging mine and you're actually not being honest. He knows that they don't believe he was sent from God.

Despite all the evidence and the miracles. They're too afraid to share their real beliefs because of the social fallout. How sad. Like, they're not actually willing to stand up for anything. They're actually not willing to give their life for anything.

They want to protect themselves. They want to protect themselves. And Jesus. What's interesting here is he doesn't have to prove his authority to anyone. He knows his identity before God.

He's sent from God. He's deeply loved by God. Remember the baptism scene? The clouds open and God affirms, this is my dearly loved son in whom I'm well pleased. He knows who he is in God.

And so he gets his affirmation and his validation from God, not from other people. And so maybe this is how he can stay cool under challenge, because it doesn't matter their opinion of him. He knows his opinion before God, and that matters beyond anything else. And he also knows his God given purpose. He knows why he came to show people what the kingdom of God was like, to proclaim the message of the kingdom of God, and ultimately to offer himself as a sacrifice so more and more people could come into the kingdom of God to have the power to rid themselves of past stuff and to step into a completely new identity as agents of the kingdom.

As we get filled up with his power and his presence, we carry that out to the rest of the world to allow his kingdom to continue to invade the kingdoms of the world, bringing peace and prosperity and hope and all of that to the rest of the world. It's a beautiful message. And Jesus here, he doesn't feel like he has to prove any of his authority to any of these people who are questioning him, because, again, knows his identity, his affirmation, validation, come from God. He knows his missional purpose. So Jesus doesn't answer the questions.

And then he begins to address them with a pretty pointed story. Mark twelve. It's a parable of the evil farmer, but let's read it starting in Mark, chapter twelve, verse one, it says, then Jesus began teaching them with stories. A man planted a vineyard. He built a wall around it, dug a pit for pressing out the grape juice, and built a lookout tower.

Then he leased a vineyard to tenant farmers and moved to another country. And again, this is starting a story. But what's so interesting here is that Jesus is speaking to the highest levels of religious leaders in his day. And they would have been able to easily recall what Jesus is doing here because he's quoting the exact words of Isaiah, chapter five. And so they would have brought it to mind right away.

And in this passage, it's about the nation of Israel. Remember, there were the religious leaders charged over Israel to lead people towards the heart of God, to be the in between, between God and the people, to be the spokesman, right? To represent who God is to the rest of the people and to represent to the people, to God. It's this kind of in between type position. But they would have pulled this to mind because they had this stuff memorized.

It was a passage about the nation of Israel. Instead of being people marked by righteousness and justice, instead they were marked by oppression and injustice. They were being unfruitful, which, again, was the accusation Jesus had made last week. Remember the stories about the fig trees that he curses, which is ultimately cursing the temple? That was malforming people.

Malforming people not towards the image of God like they should have been, but forming them away from the image of God. And the hearers would have heard Jesus intro to Mark chapter twelve and recognized Isaiah's words, and they would have immediately gone in their minds to the conclusion of Isaiah five seven, that the people of goddess, the nation, were being unfruitful. And the religious leaders probably would agreed with this critique. All of the people out there are messed up, but we, not us, like we're the religious leaders, we're the examples, like we represent a devoted life before God. You should be following them and honoring them and showering them with all kinds of clout and respect and all of this stuff.

And yet Jesus here, by using Isaiah's words in Mark chapter twelve, flips script. Let's keep reading again. Let's pick it back up in verse one so you know you have the context. You can understand it a bit more now. Jesus began teaching them with these stories.

A man planted a vineyard. He built a wall around it, dug a pit for pressing out the grape juice, and built a lookout tower. Then he leased the vineyard to the tenant farmers and moved to another country. At the time of the grape harvest, he sent one of the servants to collect his share of the crop. But the farmers grabbed the servant and beat him up and sent him back empty handed.

The owner then sent another servant, but they insulted him and beat him over the head. The next servant he sent was killed. And others he sent were either beaten or killed until there were only one left, his son, whom he dearly loved. The owner finally sent him, thinking, surely they will respect my son. But the tenant farmers said to one another, here comes the heir to the estate.

Let's kill him and get the estate for ourselves. So they grabbed him and murdered him and they threw his body out of the vineyard. What do you suppose the owner of the vineyard will do? Jesus asked him, I'll tell you. He will come and kill those farmers and lease the vineyard to others.

Didn't you ever read this from the scriptures? The stone that the builders rejected has now become the cornerstone. This is the Lord's doing. And it is wonderful to see. If you didn't pick up on the parable.

It's about the religious leaders who are questioning Jesus authority. And he flips his script because the mental maps would have led to the assumed conclusion that it's the people out there being unfruitful that he's critiquing. But when you change something so familiar to people, it causes them to lean in more. Then they hear the punchline that Jesus delivers. And it's not about the people.

It's about the religious leaders being unfaithful to God. And remember, they are the ones who take great pride in following every letter of the religious law. And they think that they're the perfect picture of radical devotion. And they're going through the motions or actions which seem right, but their hearts are actually very far from God. So hard that they would in fact be involved in a plot of killing God's son.

And Jesus is reminding them of their history. God had lovingly sent messenger after messenger to call the people to abandon their ways that are unhealthy, exploitative, or unjust living, and return again to God who's full of grace and mercy. This has been God all throughout the whole Bible. If you read the first half the Old Testament, you see a God who lovingly offers grace over and over again to a people who would constantly rebel against him and reject him. And yet God would send people, return to me and be faithful as I am faithful to you.

And yet they continue to reject, and to reject and to reject. They have rejected runoff and beat all of those messengers. They've killed some, and God is now sending his son. And how do they respond? Are they going to respond in repentance, to turn back to God, to be caught up again in God's grace?

Are they going to turn away and they going to follow through with their plan to actually keep Jesus killed? And the religious leaders are offended by the irony here. So offended that they actually follow through on the accusation that Jesus is making of them in the story. So I want to ask you, what do you do when Jesus flips the script in your life? Are you offended and run to do harmful things?

Or do you take the offense to Jesus and allow him to transform and change your perspective, to lead you in the right direction? And as the story in Mark continues, the religious leaders choose to allow the offense to lead them to continue to try to tear down, discredit, and get Jesus to slip up into saying something that could have him killed. And the next challenge comes around the idea of taxes. So mark 1213 17, you can read it, but these Pharisees and Herodians team up in this challenge to try to get Jesus to trap Jesus, which is a very unlikely pairing. Pharisees believe only someone from the royal line of David should be king over them, while Herodians supported the current roman occupation that happened to be over them.

To say it another way, if that, that kind of, that missed you, you didn't understand what that was. They were political enemies. And just like in our cultural, political climate. These people didn't want to hang out with each other because they're at different ends of the political spectrum. So imagine Republicans and Democrats.

Like, they don't typically want to hang out when they're so bought in on that political ideology. I want nothing to do with that person. I don't want to hang out with that person, much less team up to work with that person to accomplish something. It's the same thing that's happening between the Pharisees and the Herodians. They ask Jesus, is it right to pay taxes to Rome or is it not?

That's a tough question. They're trying to trap them. If Jesus validated paying taxes and he recognized an oppressive political power as legitimate, which would have caused, probably panic in the city, it would have caused riots. It would have caused all kinds of things happening. If he advocated not paying taxes, it would have got him killed by the roman authorities because he would have been delegitimizing the roman occupation, which didn't take that lightly.

Right. They, in fact, invented ways to torture people so that they knew that you don't do that. And Jesus simply staying calm under pressure. Again, I don't know the anxiety he might have been feeling. He asked for a coin, and he says, whose picture is on this coin?

And they respond, obviously, Caesar's like, pretty easy answer. Mark 1217. Well, then Jesus said, give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and give to God what belongs to God. And his reply completely amazed them, because he found another way out. Like, he's not buying into their trap.

You might be thinking, okay, like, what does that really mean for my culture? What this might say in our current cultural moment is that participation. We need to participate in being part of society. We need to bear taxes where we need to. We need to vote.

We need to have a voice in what that looks like. But your highest allegiance isn't to a political false gospel, but commitment to King Jesus and radical commitment to inviting people into an alternative kingdom that actually brings about good news. And it's not a kingdom of political devotion. It's commitment to the kingdom of Jesus. We share the good news of Jesus, not the false hope of policy.

And this is challenging in our culture. This is what Jesus is even kind of challenging in his culture. And there's one more challenge that Jesus finds himself in. Last encounter, the Pharisees and the Herodians couldn't take care of business. Like, they failed in trying to trap Jesus.

So sadducees say, you know what? Like, hold my cup. And they come with Jesus with this ridiculous hypothetical situation. They ask if a woman marries a mandev, and before they have kids, the husband dies. So in their cultural custom, it would have been the brother of the brother that would marry this woman and produce a kid to help carry the family line.

But to also provide. And remember. Cultures can be weird to outsiders, and we are outsiders. So, yes, we are all thinking that this is a pretty weird story. But they double down and they continue to go.

The sadducees take it further. They say, well, what if that brother dies and the next brother dies? And then finally all seven brothers die after they marry this woman? When, what would you be thinking like in this situation? If I were like, number two or number three brother, I'd be thinking, I'm getting the heck out of dodge.

I'm not following through with this. But they ask, if all these brothers die when they go to heaven, who is this lady actually married to? She had seven different marriages, the same family. Like, what does that look like? And what's interesting is people, the sadducees, don't believe in resurrection.

They don't believe in this possibility. In fact, they're having a very disingenuous question. They're trying to trap Jesus and make him look foolish. Because in their cultural moment, this was often a pretty simple way of poking fun at the Pharisees. And what the Pharisees believed.

Because they believed in a resurrection. They believed in this life with God. And so they're essentially poking fun at Jesus. And poking fun at things he believes and what he identified with. He's a teacher in the jewish tradition.

Probably just they're trying to trap him. They're trying to discredit him. They're trying to bring up questionable, outlier, hypothetical situations. To get Jesus to say something silly. And so, remember, this is the highest religious leaders of their day.

All trying to trap, all being disingenuous, none of them being honest. Mark 1224 25. Jesus replied, your mistake is that you don't know the scriptures. Try to live by them, but you don't know them. And you don't know the power of God.

For when the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage. And in this respect, they will be like the angels in heaven. And you might be thinking, like, what in the world? Like, deeply love my spouse, and I'm looking forward to being with them. And maybe your spouse has passed away, and you're looking forward to the day you get reunited with them again.

And so this offers up all kinds of difficult questions. That we might bring to the table as we read this today day. But let me, let my boy, Tremper Longman III clear some things up. He says, jesus does not claim that the intimacy of earthly relationships will be discontinued in eternity. He only says that they will.

There will be no need for the institution of marriage. Like that will change, but these deep connections, these people will change. But the covenants that we have here on earth, like those will just look different. We don't know what those will look like because the Bible doesn't talk much about the realities of heaven, or even hell, for that matter. So cued conversation from a few weeks ago, because the Bible is so caught up with sharing how Jesus is redeeming people right here, right now.

And he explains the end goal is to rid the world of evil, to push it out, to heal the world under the reign of Jesus. That's what the Bible is most concerned with. And tremper longman III goes on. We may reasonably poised, however, that all relationships, including those most dear to us today, will exist on a higher plane in eternity. And I think that's beautiful.

Like, we'll have deeply formed relationships and connections. And what's great about that is being in the presence of God and being connected with him, like being able to be better connected with people than we are able to be with them here, because we're held back oftentimes by mixed motives, selfishness, ambition, like all kinds of just wrongful things that are deep within our hearts and our lives and our souls and our spirits. And we get to be free to that, to freely connect more with other people. Jesus continues. Mark, chapter twelve, verse 26 through 27.

But now, as to whether the dead will be raised, haven't you ever read about this in the writings of Moses and the story of the burning bush? Long after Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had died, God said to Moses, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. So he is the God of the living, not the dead. You have made a serious error. He's the God of the living, not the dead.

And Jesus claims to be God. He connects himself to goddess. We see this throughout, Mark, and we're seeing this unfold more and more and more. And so Jesus is making us claim that in him. In him, he's partnered with God.

He's sent from God. He's actually God himself here in flesh on earth. And he's the God of the living, not the dead. Death, for followers of Jesus is not the end of the story. Jesus is victorious over death himself.

You know how he proves that because in a few chapters, we're going to see that Jesus gives his life and he dies, but he doesn't stay dead. So he's victorious over that. He rises again, which is the beauty of the gospel, which is the power to actually save and transform and do something in our lives. And so Jesus in his conversation with these people, discredits the attempt to discredit him by essentially saying to these supposed experts in the scriptures that after a lifetime of study, they have no idea. No idea.

And sometimes that can be true of us. And we need to come to the scriptures humbly learning. And when Jesus flips the scripts on us, we need to not allow that offense to lead us away from God, but to bring the offense to God and allow God to transform and change. And so let's bring it all together, because there's a bunch of claims about Jesus. And remember, Mark is primarily concerned with who is Jesus, what was Jesus like and why that matters for our life.

And the claims about Jesus is that Jesus is sent with the authority from God. He carries it. He doesn't have to prove himself and doesn't need the approval of others. He is firm in his identity and his purpose. And Jesus came to offer his life for others, his life.

He gives his life as a sacrifice. And this is what gives us spiritual freedom that we're all seeking. And then Jesus is God of the living by offering us life now and life eternal. Remember, even after we experience bodily death, like, that's not the end. And so Jesus is sent with the authority from God.

Jesus came to offer his life for others, and Jesus is God of the living, the living. And then there's some warnings that are caught up in the text. I think we need to pay attention to warnings of the negative example of the religious leaders. And so ask us a few questions. And so makes the space even now to like, think through and process these questions, or maybe go back and listen to them later.

We can journal the questions out and be in conversation with the Holy Spirit about, is there anything in you that he wants to have a conversation about? Or maybe after the question, hit pause for a second and just allow the Holy Spirit to speak anything to you with these particular questions. The first question is, do we recognize or do we challenge the authority of Jesus in our lives? Do we recognize or do we challenge the authority of Jesus in our lives? The next question, do we listen to Jesus warnings in our lives?

He wants to lead us in the right direction. He's going to warn us when we're off track, or are we going to listen? Are we going to stay on our path to destruction? Next question. Are we living primarily for Jesus, or are we living for a lesser vision, especially in our cultural, political climate?

Are you advocating more for a political party? Are you advocating more for the kingdom of God? I think that reveals much about what kingdom is primary in your life. Remember, seek first the kingdom of God above all things. That's the thing that matters more.

Give to Caesar what is Caesar? Give to God what is God. Participate. Be an active part in our community of working towards health. A lot of that comes from a christian perspective.

But at the same time, we need to make sure that above all things, we're pointing people to the good news of Jesus, not the false news of policy. So are you primarily for Jesus, or are you for a lesser vision? The last question, do we recognize the gift of life that Jesus is offering right now, right where you're at with whatever you might be having going on? Maybe you've never believed in Jesus before, and Jesus is on offer right now, offering you life. Maybe you've been following Jesus for a bit, but you've not been following him in a while.

There's a call to come back to him. There's that grace to continue to return. Remember, God has done this all through the Bible. We go sideways on God. He continues to send things to call us back to him.

So he might be calling you back to him even right now. And the good news that is cutting through all of this is a relationship with Jesus is always on offer. Wherever you might be at, you're listening on the podcast, you're watching on YouTube, wherever you might be at, Jesus is calling you back to him. And in him you can find comfort for whatever you're going through, comfort right now with whatever difficult thing you're going through, you can find peace that somehow God works out even the most complicated, difficult things. And in him you can find wisdom for each next best step.

And so just spend time even with God, just talking with him about this. Does your life mirror? Some of the religious leaders are just so caught up in their own ideology, their own mental maps, their own way of doing things. Are you actually humble enough and responsive enough to heed the warnings from Jesus in your own life, changing things that need to be changed or being led in a positive direction of keeping ultimate things, ultimate meaning God above all things. Like, what does your life look like?

What are the things you're buying into? Are they of God or are they not of God? And so wherever he might be leading you to just say yes, because that's the best thing that you could do with your life. And it might be scary and it might be hard to take that step, but I promise you, it will always be the right step for you and you won't regret that you did it. So right now, I just want to pray for you, Jesus, wherever, wherever we are at today, would you allow your presence to be fully felt?

I would you allow your presence to draw near to us, to come near to us, to lead us in some of these questions that we're asking? I pray that we can all respond to your authority. I pray that we can listen to your warnings. I pray that we can keep you ultimate in our life. And I pray that we can respond to your gift of life now and eternal.

And so fill us up with your presence, because we recognize that we're now your temple, and we're called to carry your presence out to other people so that people don't have to pilgrimage into wherever you might be, but you're going to people. You're sending us out just like Jesus was sent out. He went out to people and he called them back to the heart of God. Help us to recognize that our job now is to go out to people and to call them back to the heart of God. So let us get caught up in that.

Let us be empowered by that. In your name we pray. Amen. So just appreciate you. If you need help with your walk with Jesus, please go to pinehillschurch.org.

reach out to us. We love to be in conversation about how do we partner with you in your journey with Jesus, helping you with whatever your next best step might be. So connect with us on there. If you're finding value from any of these conversations, we would love for you to partner with our community. We're a brand new community.

We're just been going about a year. And so really just in this awkward baby stage, still just needing a lot of support as we continue this mission. God has called us to, to be an active presence in the south side of Bend, to love people really well, build people, build up relationships with people, calling people back to the heart of God. And so part of that just requires people who would lovingly and generously support us. So if that's you, if God stirs your heart to donate towards the call that God has in our lives and what God has called us to, I want to invite you go to pinehillschurch.org.

hit the give tab. Give one time or recurringly for the next few months or whatever that might mean for your life, however God might be leading. I just want to thank you and bless you. I want you to continue to invite you to the next conversation or share this conversation with someone that you might think be helpful in their journey. And so let's just continue to grow together.

Because we're in it together. We're better together. Let's do it. See you in the next episode. Have a great day.