Who gives Jesus Authority

Verses: Luke 20 : 1 - 8

My thoughts about the verses:

You can see the religious leaders getting together and deciding that they can catch Jesus and trick him.  You can see them plotting it all out.  Go to the temple when he is teaching with a lot of people.  At the right moment we will ask who gives him the authority to teach.  He will have to admit that he sees his actions coming from God.  Then we will have him right where we want him.

So there they sit at the temple and they wait.  At just the right moment they spring the question who gives you authority to teach.  Now Jesus knew what they were up to.  He could have answered them but instead he through a question back at them.  Who gave John the authority to baptize.  Now here is the dilemma that the Pharisees were trapped in if we say God then we are giving him what he wants.  Yet, if we say it wasn't God all these people are going to stone us to death right here where we sit.  So they answer we don't know.  Jesus then replies well I am not telling you who gave me authority.

I love this because how many times have people tried to catch us within their web.  They sat and wait hoping that we will fight back.  Then they can say look at them how can they be a Christian. See we were right.

I was recently at the Gay Pride event in my hometown.  There were over thirteen churches that were in the parade sharing their love of God with the community I love.  Yet, there were two small groups that stood there on the sidelines with their words of hate.  They were trying to tell people that they needed to accept God yet instead of using love they were using scare tactics.  One of the greatest moments for me was when of the pastors came and stood in front of them with a sign that said God loves gays.

After the parade they were finally allowed to come across the street where thousands were gathered celebrating their pride in the gay community.  They were there and people were starting to yell back which is exactly what they wanted.  I was in my amigo and I basically told everyone to go celebrate pride and they would leave.  After a few minutes the group left and sure enough without an audience they left.  See they only had room to fight if they had people willing to fight them.  Yet, with the crowd gone they had no one to ridicule or scare into salvation.

The important lesson for Gay Christians can be learned in these few lines of scripture.  Do not get caught in fighting those that are against you.  That only encourages them.  Instead walk away. They are not use to other Christians showing them brotherly love.  It is best not to debate because they have their one or two scriptures down pat.  Yet, they miss the main story of the Bible and that is love.  Showing love will change the lives of those that don't know the story of Christ long before any scare tactic will.

Prayer:

Dear God thank you for loving us.  Thank you for giving us the gift of salvation.  Thank you for teaching love and tolerance through the life of Christ.  We now ask that you help us show brotherly love to those that hate us.  Help us to walk away and not encourage the hate that others preach. God help us be a light so that others can find the path to everlasting life.  In your name we pray. Amen

Questions:

Have you ever had to face someone that was teaching you that your life was not worthy for salvation?  Have you ever been faced with someone that is trying to get you in a debate of the biblical truths?  What can you do to help others find the love of Christ?