Matthew 21:23  says, And when he was come into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came unto him as he was teaching, and said, By what authority doest thou these things? and who gave thee this authority?  This time, the chief priests and elders came to Jesus, not to learn from Him, but to question His authority.  I believe that the chief priests and elders thought that they were the authority, and they had not authorized Jesus to teach or anything else.  There are some religious leaders today that think that all authority is theirs, and some that even think that they control the salvation of all who worship under their authority.  The church, as an earthly organization, will never control salvation nor the service of a person called by God to fulfill His purpose.  In verse twenty-four Jesus said, And Jesus answered and said unto them, I also will ask you one thing, which if ye tell me, I in like wise will tell you by what authority I do these things.  Jesus said that He would ask them one question, and if they could answer it, then He would tell them by what authority He did the things He was doing.  The chief priests and elders thought they could accuse Jesus of acting without authority, but as they found out, we are never smarter than God.  All they had to do was answer one question, and that is really all anyone has to do to be saved.  The question we have to ask in order to be saved is whether or not Jesus, with the authority of the heavenly Father, came to provide the one and only way to salvation, with faith without wavering.  Though this was not the particular question that Jesus asked them, I believe that Jesus already knew that the chief priests and elders did not believe that He was the Messiah.  Verse twenty-five says, The baptism of John, whence was it? from heaven, or of men? And they reasoned with themselves, saying, If we shall say, From heaven; he will say unto us, Why did ye not then believe him?   Jesus asked the chief priests and elders if the baptisms that John the Baptist preformed were of God or of man.  In other words, were they willing to acknowledge that John the Baptist was the forerunner of Christ, or was he simply a man acting under his own authority.   The chief priests and elders were unsure what to answer.  First, they said that if they said John the Baptist was sent by God, then they would have to answer why they don't believe him.  Then verse twenty-six states, But if we shall say, Of men; we fear the people; for all hold John as a prophet.  They then reasoned that if they said that John the Baptist was not sent by God, then they would upset a lot of people who felt that he was a prophet sent by God.  That is the same question everyone has to ask about Jesus.  Is Jesus the Savior of the world, or is He just some man.  We cannot base our answer on what other people think, but must base it solely on our own faith.  Verse twenty-seven declares,  And they answered Jesus, and said, We cannot tell. And he said unto them, Neither tell I you by what authority I do these things.  The chief priests and elders, the religious leaders of the day, could not answer Jesus' question because they weren't looking to God for the answer.  Jesus said since they couldn't answer His question, then He wouldn't answer theirs, which was by whose authority was Jesus doing His works.  Until we accept that Jesus is indeed Who He says that He is, we cannot hope to understand how God works in the world.  Just like the chief priests and elders, we can never discredit God by our own reasoning powers, but must simply come to Him through faith in Christ.