Lesson 113: The Nature of True Spiritual Authority (Luke 19:45-20:8)

All throughout the account of Jesus’s ministry, a reader is able to see the fact that His leadership is very different from the standard leaders of the day. But as the Lord took his final journey into Jerusalem, it seemed like the tension between He and the religious leaders began to build like never before. They wanted Him to silence those giving praise to Him as the coming Messiah, He upset the financial dealings in the temple, and He refused to give a direct answer to those seeking proof of His authority. Even for the one whose only acquaintance with the Bible was a reading of Luke’s gospel up to this point, it would seem like something had to give. But even in the midst of this tension, the instruction we receive from Jesus’s words and life are ones we must give careful attention to. Pastor Daniel helps us to understand what those lessons are as he emphasizes that, “true spiritual authority comes from God and exalts God as it is exercised.”

Summary by Seth Kempf, Bethany Community Church Staff