Tuesday Devotional
Main Text: Matthew 21:23-23:39
Everybody has an ultimate authority for what they believe and how they live. If pressed hard enough, people will eventually appeal to a supreme standard that governs their intellectual convictions and daily actions. When it comes to identifying the origins of one’s ultimate authority, there are really only two possibilities: Creator or creature. Either God, or something that is not God, will be the bedrock upon which we build our life. This has been the case since the Garden of Eden, and it will continue to be the case until the end of this sin-cursed age (Ecclesiastes 1:3-11).
It is interesting to note that during the final week of His life, Jesus was asked to identify the source of His ultimate authority (Matthew 21:23-27). By this time, Jesus had a public ministry for over three years, teaching the truth of God and performing miracles in every city He visited (Matthew 9:35). In doing so, Jesus also demonstrated how the Jewish religious leaders had placed themselves in a position of authority that belongs to God alone (Matthew 23:13-36). Instead of being content with what God had revealed in Scripture, the Pharisees and Sadducees took it upon themselves to create man-made laws and extra-biblical traditions (Matthew 15:1-11; Mark 7:1-13). These men began to heap burdens on the people of God that no person could ever live up to, and they became obsessed with maintaining influence over organized religion (Matthew 23:1-7). The longer that Jesus ministered throughout the first century world, the more He exposed the corruption within Israel’s spiritual leadership; this was the seed that eventually brought forth the death of Christ (John 11:45-57).
In all of Scripture, few events illustrate spiritual blindness as much as when the Jewish religious leaders asked Jesus to identify the source of His ultimate authority. As the son of God and the eternal Creator of all things, Jesus is absolutely authoritative over mankind(John 1:1-3; Colossians 1:15-20). Jesus is the King of kings and the Lord of lords, the one to whom every knee will bow (Philippians 2:9-11; Revelation 20:11-15). Tragically, whether in the first century or twenty first century, the majority of people fail to recognize and surrender to Christ’s absolute authority (Matthew 7:13-14; Luke 13:22-30). May we never be guilty of doing the same!
Dewey is a licensed and ordained minister in the Southern Baptist Convention. He was raised in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, is happily married to Beall, and is a proud father of Isabelle Ruth. Dewey played college baseball at Western Texas College, receiving the Associate of Arts degree in General Studies. Following his time at Western Texas College, Dewey would continue as a student-athlete at The Master’s University, earning the Bachelor of Arts degree in Christian Ministries. Upon completion of his undergraduate work, Dewey went on to acquire the Master of Arts degree in Biblical Studies from The Master’s University, as well as the Master of Theology degree in Historical Theology from Campbellsville University. Dewey is currently a doctoral student at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, with an emphasis in Christian Worldview and Apologetics. Over the last decade, Dewey has served local churches in a variety of ways, focusing on next generation ministries. He has experience teaching children in AWANA, serving as youth pastor, as well as leading college students and young adults. He is also passionate about personal evangelism, and has led groups in gospel outreaches in cities around the country. To strengthen his service to the church, and in conjunction with his seminary studies, Dewey has participated in several academic fellowships and cohorts. He specializes in the disciplines of apologetics, biblical theology, historical theology, and systematic theology. Dewey is also actively involved with Covenant Confessions—a ministry of Covenant Baptist Theological Seminary. Today, Dewey serves as the Associate Pastor of Next Generation and Outreach at Metro East Baptist Church (Wichita, Kansas).
You can follow Dewey on Twitter @SlaveofChrist17
