What did they know they refused to believe?

OK… let’s set the scene.  Jesus is preaching.  The “chief priests and the elders” confront Him and ask, “By what authority do you do these things?”  Now I say “confront” but I truly believe that there were some who really wanted to know.  There were undoubtedly some among who longed for God.  Perhaps they were among the first to here Peter’s Pentecost sermon and believe.

But back to the original discussion... Jesus answers them and says He answer if they will.  Then he asks,“The baptism of John, whence was it? from heaven, or of men?”

Their response…

“And they reasoned with themselves, saying, If we shall say, From heaven; he will say unto us, Why did ye not then believe him? …And they answered Jesus, and said, We cannot tell.”  Matt 21:25,27

Notice that they didn’t say, “We do not know.”  They simply said it like it was, “They couldn’t say,” because if they did they were in heap of trouble either way.

Why?  Because of what John had said to them.  They knew that to say that John’s baptism was from heaven meant that the following was true:

“The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. This is he of whom I said, After me cometh a man which is preferred before me: for he was before me. And I knew him not: but that he should be made manifest to Israel, therefore am I come baptizing with water. And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him. And I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. And I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God.” John 1:29-34

John told them all.  They were without excuse.  They were ignorant… which is choosing to ignore… of the fact that John had already declared Jesus to be “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world …  the Son of God.”

Religion has a way of doing that… trapping you in your own rules… your own words.  They said He wasn’t the Messiah.  They represented the religion.  Therefore, the religion (the man-made system of reliance) said He wasn’t. 

To now say that He was would destroy the credibility of both them and it.

But that is just what Jesus came to do… destroy what man had made and bring in what God wanted…

GRACE!

Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world!

SDG