Pray the Word with David Platt is a resource from Radical.net.

Today on Pray the Word, we have come to Tuesday of Holy Week, where we remember Matthew

chapter 21, verses 23 through 27. And when He, Jesus, entered the temple, the chief priests 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 them, I also will ask you one question. If you tell me the answer, then I will tell you by what authority I do these things.

The baptism of John,

from where did it come? From heaven or from man? They discussed it among themselves, saying,

if we say from heaven, he will say to us, then why did you not believe him? But if we say from man,

we're 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.

So this picture, if you had seen Jesus walk into the temple and start driving out those who were buying and selling there,

then you would probably wonder,

like, who does this guy think he is? By what authority is he doing these things? So these questions

posed by the chief priests and elders, like, it makes sense. But as Jesus' follow-up question reveals,

this was not like some innocent inquiry.

The Jewish leaders had been threatened for a long time by Jesus' ministry, and rightly so.

He'd been pointing out their sin, their hypocrisy.

His signs and wonders were evidence that his power was far greater than theirs.

And in contrast to their many times false teaching,

he was teaching the truth of God with authority.

And these Jewish leaders knew their power,

their popularity were being undermined by him.

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