Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Do You Trust Jesus's Authority? | The Gospels | Mark 11:27-33

Episode Date: February 13, 2026

When you’re in a "pickle," whose authority do you trust: your own, others’, or Jesus’s? Where does Jesus's authority come from? And what does it require of us? In today’s episode, Jeff reflects on Mark 11:27–33, revealing how Jesus’s question presses beyond intellect to the heart and calls us out of avoidance and into repentance and freedom. Read the Bible with us in 2026! This year, we’re exploring the Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passage: Mark 11:27-33

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Jeff Parrott. If you're familiar with the game of baseball, you know that a pickle is not just something you eat alongside a sub-sambwich. It's also something that can trap you and take you out of a game. Now, in American baseball, a pickle, which is also called a hotbox or a rundown, is a special scenario where a base runner is stuck between bases as the fielders on defense, pass the ball back and forth in an effort to tag the runner and earn an out. Now in a pickle,

the goal for the base runner is to go back and forth as quickly as possible between bases, forcing the fielders to throw the ball back and forth to each other and eventually, hopefully, make an error allowing that runner to make it to the base safely. Now, if you're completely unfamiliar with a pickle or a rundown in baseball and you have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about, do yourself a huge favor later today and look up a video. of Josh Harrison getting out of some truly epic pickles. You will not regret it. Even if you're not a baseball fan, it'll completely brighten your day. Sometimes the most frustrating yet important pickles in life come when we're stuck on the issue of who we should trust as the ultimate

authority over our lives. We go back and forth like a base runner between potential authorities. Do we most deeply trust ourselves, the voices of other people around us? Or do we trust an authority beyond our world, beyond our control, and submit to the living God of the universe. When it comes to the question of who reigns over all things, humanity often finds itself in a kind of cosmic rundown. Our passage today from the Gospel of Cornyna Mark demonstrates the way that even the most fervently religious people can be caught in a pickle of their own making, exposing their true need to trust in an authority that is far beyond themselves. And yet, We'll come to see that we are so much like the religious leaders here in Mark 11, needing to

encounter Jesus' authority so that we can be freed from the rundown and into a relationship with the author of life. Now, as we get ready to approach God's word together, let's pause and ask for His grace to move through our time. Heavenly Father, we do thank you for the gift of life and breath in this new day, and we thank you for the gift of your word. We bring before you our joys and our sorrows, our anxiety and our excitement, our calendars and our contingencies, meet us in this space. Jesus, help us abide in you and remain in you as we engage with your truth. Holy Spirit, we ask you to move in and through this time in Mark's Gospel account. As we read your living word, may it read us and restore us to new life with you. We pray in Jesus'

name. Amen. All right, so our text for today picks up in Mark chapter 11 with a confrontation between Jesus and the religious leaders in Jerusalem. Let's go and dive in with verses 27 through 28 that kind of set the scene for us. And they came again to Jerusalem. And as he, Jesus, was walking in the temple, the chief priests and the scribes and the elders came to him. And they said to him, by what authority are you doing these things? Or who gave you this authority to do them? Now let's pause here. a note what the religious leaders are asking about. They say, by what authority are you doing these things? What exactly do they mean by these things? Now, certainly, they're referring to Jesus's judging and cleansing of the temple back in verses 15 through 19. In fact, back there in verse 18,

after Jesus judged the religious establishment by quoting Jeremiah 7, Mark tells us that the chief priests and the scribes heard it and were seeking a way to destroy him, for they feared him, because all the crowd was astonished at his teaching. So with that in mind, obviously Jesus's actions at the temple are stirring up this question of authority from the religious establishment. But at the same time, these things also refers to the greater work Jesus has been doing in his ministry overall. His authoritative teaching, his restorative miracles, his upending of the norms assumed by the religious establishment, norms like healing people on the Sabbath and being able to forgive sins as the living God. Going back to the very first chapter of Mark, we see people standing in awe of Jesus's

authority. His unique authority has been a hallmark of his ministry so far. So notice something here that the religious leaders, they see that Jesus has authority. They can't help but have experienced it in his life so far. They see that Jesus has some kind of authority, but they're intentionally obscuring the origin of that authority as a tactic to keep themselves from having to submit to it, to keep themselves from having to submit to Jesus. If they can just convince themselves that this isn't the authority from the author of life, well, then it's an authority that they don't have to obey. Jesus responds to their deceptive question with a question of his own. Let's pick up in verse 29. Jesus said to them, I will ask you one question. Answer me, and I will tell you by what

authority I do these things. Was the baptism of John from heaven or from man? answer me. And they discussed it with one another, saying, if we say from heaven, he will say, why then do you not believe me? But shall we say, from man? They were afraid of the people, for they all held that John really was a prophet. So they answered Jesus, we do not know. And Jesus said to them, neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things. Now, it might strike us as odd here that Jesus would invoke the baptism of John the Baptist here. Why does he go back to the ministry and the message of John like this in responding to the religious leaders? Well, we have to remember that John was the forerunner who prepared the way for Jesus.

Back in Mark chapter 1, we learned that John proclaimed a baptism of repentance, emphasizing the need to turn from sin and turn to God in light of his gracious forgiveness. When people encountered John's baptism, they confessed their sins. They recognize that they need a healing from an authority beyond this world. They needed the authority of the author of life, who can restore life. Now, with this connection to John the Baptist and repentance and forgiveness, we see that Jesus' question to the religious leaders really is a penetrating one for them, and for you and me too.

It goes beyond the level of the intellect and goes for the heart. To say that John's baptism was from heaven is to acknowledge a deep need for forgiveness of sins that changes our life trajectory. If John's baptism is from heaven, then these religious leaders need the one that John's baptism pointed to. They needed the king from heaven who heals their hearts. They need Jesus. But to say that John's baptism was from man is to reject any true need for Jesus and his restorative authority. Now, in response to Jesus' question, the religious leaders take a moment to huddle, massaging the reply out of fear that they'll be perceived by people in a way that's not favorable.

Should they acknowledge their need for Jesus' authority? Or should they reject Jesus, but then be subject to the authority of the crowds? There's no response that they can give that won't expose them in some way. These religious leaders are caught in a pickle of their own making, going back and forth between options. It's a pickle that's taking them out of the game. So they simply say, we do not know. Now, in saying we do not know,

the religious leaders don't just try to avoid giving an answer they try to avoid Jesus's restorative authority. They stay stuck in the rundown. Here's how the New Testament scholar Alan Cole describes the religious leaders here in Mark 11. The root of the trouble lay not in their intellect, but in their stubborn wills. They stood self-condemned.

The question of Jesus to them was not a trap. It was yet another opportunity for them to realize and confess their blindness and to ask for sight. Jesus isn't trying to keep these people trapped in an intellectual pickle here. He's trying to free their hearts. He's trying to do the same for us, too.

I wonder if there are ways that you and I make the same move as the religious leaders here. Are there ways that you've been avoiding God's authority, dodging his call to repent from a certain sin, and therefore avoiding the fullness of his forgiveness? Maybe you're stuck between whether you should trust your own authority, or the authority of the crowds, or the authority of an influencer or a news outlet. Whenever we're confronted by Jesus' true restorative authority,

we follow the pattern of the religious leaders sometimes. We all find our ways of saying to Jesus, I don't know. We don't know. Every time we respond to God's authority with, I don't know, we demonstrate a refusal to trust in his reign, and we stay stuck in the rundown of disobedience. But here's the thing, whoever you are, whatever your life looks like today, this confrontation

with Jesus is not meant to condemn you. It's meant to free you. Remember what Alan Cole said. The question of Jesus was not a trap. It was yet another opportunity for them to realize and confess their blindness and to ask for sight. Every day of our lives, Jesus gives you and me an opportunity to realize and confess our blindness and ask for sight.

an opportunity to stop going back and forth in the pickle of who we should trust with our lives. The only way out of the rundown of sin is to look to Jesus, to repent, to change direction, and run to him as the one who has the authority to change and renew our lives. So think about your life. How is this passage stirring your heart and your mind to look to Jesus in a new way today? How do you see your own need to trust in his authority that guides your life and renewing? your life. Turning to him in repentance is a gift that takes us out of the rundown of sin and puts us into a life of freedom and flourishing. That's the life we were made for, an authentic life

with the author of life who loves us. Father, help us see your authority as the one who made all things and is making all things new. Jesus help us trust in your authority as the one who not only guides our lives with your word, but renews our lives through your death and your resurrection. Holy Spirit, would you draw us out of the trap of sin and draw us nearer to you as we turn to you together as a community of faith? We pray all of this because of your grace, for your glory in your story. In Jesus' name, amen.