More Than a Son, More Than a Man

Let's take your Bibles this morning and if you would open them to first of all to Luke chapter 20.

But we're not just going to look at Luke chapter 20 verses 41 to 44, but I'm also going to have you turn to Matthew chapter 22 and verses 41 to 46.

So pretty much the same numbers of verses, different books, different chapters. So if you want to go ahead and find those two and just hold your finger there, I'm going to begin reading with the passage in Luke because that's where we have been for some time now, has been preaching through this gospel, the gospel of Luke.

And so I want to begin with that passage starting with verse 41, Luke chapter 20. And he said to them, as he's saying specifically to the scribes, he said to them, how can they say that Christ is the son of David?

How can they say that? Now David himself said in the book of Psalms, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool.

Therefore, David calls him Lord. Now is he then his son? That is, how can he be son at the same time? And then Matthew chapter 22, if you want to go ahead and turn to it.

Matthew is a parallel account of the same event. So Matthew 22, starting with verse 41. While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, say, What do you think about the Christ?

Whose son is he? And they said to him, the son of David. And he said to them, how then does David in the spirit call him Lord?

Saying, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool. If David then calls him Lord, how is he his son?

No one was able to answer him a word. Nor from that day on did anyone dare question him any more. So you can see these are parallel accounts.

And I include Matthew's account. And by the way, it is also included, this event is also recorded for us in Mark. The Gospel of Mark. And I will get to Mark's account of this a little bit later in the sermon.

But I read Matthew's account here at the beginning because in Matthew's account, he adds a few other details or includes a few other details that give us clarity on two issues that we want to deal with this morning.

And the first one is kind of a practical clarification. And that is, why did Jesus ask the question that we have recorded in Luke?

Now, you pick up Luke's account and it's kind of seemingly midstream in some dialogue, some discussion. And so why did Luke ask that question?

So Matthew gives us clarity on that. And the other issue is what the Jews, and it's primarily the Pharisees, what they actually believed about the person of Christ, the nature of Christ.

And that really is the issue that we want to deal with this morning. Because that is the issue that Jesus is dealing with in these questions that he is posing to the scribes or the Pharisees.

Now, again, let me remind you that all throughout the chapter, this chapter that we've been looking at in chapter 20 of Luke, it has been Wednesday. So all of this has been taking place midweek of Jesus last week, his Passion Week.

And he'll be crucified, of course, on Friday. So we're very near the crucifixion. And on this Wednesday, Jesus has been teaching, teaching in the temple. And he's been teaching to large crowds of people there in the temple, in various places in the temple.

But as you remember, embedded in these crowds are spies. That's what the Bible calls them, spies. And they're from the Jewish leadership, from the Pharisees and the scribes and the Sadducees and the chief priests and the Herodians and kind of dealt with those different sects within Jewish leadership several weeks ago.

But all of the various political and theological parties are together here. They don't generally agree on anything. But on this one thing, they most hardly agree.

And that is what? Get rid of Jesus. All right? They're all together on that. Get rid of Jesus. And so they attempted to catch Jesus in his words. Right? They're listening to him preach.

And they are throwing in a few questions that are designed to trip him up, to catch him saying something that might incriminate him, something that would appear to be insurrectionists to the Romans.

And so the Romans would come in and arrest him and maybe kill him. And then they would take care of Jesus for them. All right? So it's all designed to do that. And that certainly was the wicked designs of the scribes, who were primarily Pharisees, when they asked the question about taxes.

You know, should we pay taxes to Caesar or not? All right? So it was designed to trip him up. If he said no to that, which is what they really believed he would say, then the Romans would come in and likely arrest him and maybe even have him executed as an insurrectionist.

But now if he said yes to that question, an unqualified yes, the people would then abandon him, which was what they wanted as well. And because the people, they resented paying taxes to the Romans, right?

Now they resented the Romans. And they were looking for their Christ to come and deliver them from not only taxes, but to deliver them from the bondage of Rome.

And so they would turn against Jesus if he were to say, yes, pay your taxes. All right, so as you remember then, as we studied that particular passage a few weeks ago, Jesus answered their question, and in so doing, he demoralized these Pharisees.

And so the Sadducees, I guess, thought that it was their turn. And so they give it a try, and they ask Jesus a question pertaining to the doctrine of the resurrection, which they did not believe in.

And we studied this last week. And of course, as we saw, their question was really designed to make any belief in a resurrection to seem ridiculous, to seem stupid.

And so Jesus gave them an answer to their question about the resurrection. He gave them a scriptural answer to their silly, stupid question. And it was the Sadducees, not Jesus, who ended up looking stupid.

All right, you remember that from last week. All right, so now, as we kind of follow the flow of the story here, the Pharisees, who believed in the resurrection, they were pretty pleased with Jesus' answer to the Sadducees.

Pretty pleased. I think we could probably imagine them grinning from ear to ear, maybe patting each other on the back, and giving high fives. And they're saying, well said, teacher. Remember?

Remember? And so now, Jesus is going to wipe the smiles from their ridiculous faces. And he does so with a few questions of his own.

All right, so their questions are over. And now Jesus is going to ask his questions. And really, it's kind of a two-part question. And this two-part question is directed specifically to the Pharisees, the scribes.

And it's designed to expose the theological error of the Pharisees. All right, so remember, the Sadducees were in error about the resurrection.

They didn't believe in the resurrection. And so Jesus masterfully exposed them. And now it is the Pharisees' turn. And the Pharisees were wrong about the Messiah.

And this is what Jesus is going to address. And what was their error concerning the Messiah? Well, they did not believe that the Messiah was God. That's the error that Jesus is going to address here.

He dealt with the Sadducees about the resurrection. Now he's going to turn to the Pharisees and deal with them. And really, Jews in general, about their theology concerning the Christ. They did not believe that he will be God.

Now I'm not talking about what they may or may not have believed about Jesus in particular, personally. That's not really the issue here. Even though Jesus is the Christ, they certainly didn't believe that.

But he's dealing with what they believed about the Messiah in general. Kind of their Christology. Their theology about the Christ. Because, again, to the Pharisees and to most Jews generally, when their Christ or Messiah comes, he will come as a man.

That's what you need to remember here. And this helps us understand the point that Jesus is making in his old desire here in asking these questions. They believe that he would just be a man.

Now certainly he would be a powerful man. He would be a miracle-working kind of person. He would be a great leader. And specifically a military leader.

And he would rule the nations. But, to them, in no sense will he be God. And this is the issue that Jesus is addressing. In fact, according, again, to their Christology, their theology about the Christ, for any would-be self-proclaimed Messiah to claim deity at the same time, it would be considered blasphemy for him to do that.

And, of course, Jesus didn't claim that, did he? And so there you have the reason, another reason, why they rejected Jesus. They considered him to be a blasphemer.

All right, so as the scribes, or the Pharisees, the scribes were primarily Pharisees, as they were celebrating Jesus' answer to the Sadducees concerning the resurrection, Jesus then crashes their little party by asking them a question.

Really a couple of questions. We might call it a two-faceted or two-part question. Now, Matthew records the first part of the question. That's why I've included Matthew's account in our study this morning.

He records the first part of this two-part question. In Matthew 22, 42, again, he says, What do you think about the Christ? That's how we get this little dialogue started, where Jesus got it started.

He asks the question, point blank, What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he? And they answered, what?

David's. The son of David, meaning a descendant of David, in the genealogy of David. The second part of the question is recorded, really, both in Matthew and Luke, and also Mark.

But let me quote it from Matthew, Matthew 43, Matthew 22, 43. How then does David, in the spirit, call him Lord? So there you have the two parts of the question.

What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he? And they say David. All right, so then how does, how then does David, in the spirit, call him Lord?

That is, if, as you say, Christ is David's son, and that is all that you believe about him, then why did David say that Christ is the Lord?

All right, so what is the point of this query? The point is that Christ is more than a son of David. He is more than a man. He is God also.

He is God also. So, this is very doctrinal, isn't it? And a very core, significant, theological doctrine within Christianity. Jesus Christ, the Christ, is both man and God.

In his humanity, he is the son of David. Yes, he is. Of the lineage of David. In his deity, he is the son of God.

And that is Jesus' point. Jesus Christ is both man and God. Now, with that as an introduction, let me just draw from this passage three truths.

Three truths. First of all, pertaining to Satan. There's a truth here about Satan, and here it is. Satan tempts us to believe wrongly about Christ.

Satan works very hard to do that. Get people to think wrongly about the person and nature of Christ. So that's the first truth we want to deal with this morning.

Satan tempts us to believe wrongly about Christ. Let me go ahead and give you the other two. Second, Scripture teaches us to believe rightly about Christ.

And we can get this from this passage that we're studying here in Luke 20, as well as the passage, the parallels in Matthew and Mark, as well as many other places in Scripture. Scripture teaches us to believe rightly about Christ.

So we need to believe the Scripture, don't we? And then thirdly, and this is rather interesting as we look particularly at Mark's account of this, we get this truth.

The Savior tests us to believe redeemingly about Christ. All right, so let's get to it. Number one, Satan tempts us to believe wrongly about Christ.

You know, there's an axiom in life that goes kind of like this. A half-truth is a whole lie. You know that axiom? A half-truth is a whole lie. And the Jews believed only a half of the truth concerning the person, the nature of the Christ, of their Messiah.

You see, the Jews in general, and the Pharisees in particular, they believed only in the humanity of Christ. That's what they taught about Christ. They believed only in His humanity, not in His deity.

They did not believe in the deity of Messiah. Now, how do we know that? Well, we know that just from the historical record. Because even today, the Jews, or Judaism, in its theology, is non-Trinitarian.

Did you know that? The Jews are non-Trinitarian. They don't believe in the Trinity. Or any sense of the Trinity. They do not believe in the deity of Messiah. And they do not believe in the deity of the Holy Spirit.

To the Jews, to Judaism, the Holy Spirit is simply the Spirit of Yahweh God. Not a separate person within a Godhead, in any sense. They do not believe in the Holy Spirit as God.

And the Messiah will be, when He appears, only the man. Just a man. Just an ordinary man. Well, not necessarily an ordinary man.

But in His humanity, flesh and blood, man, and that's it. Though He will be endowed with certain powers from God. And so the Jews then, in Jesus' day, as well as now, believe that the true Messiah will be a man.

A powerful man. A miracle worker, certainly. A very influential man, in that sense, who will come and fulfill all of God's promises given to Abraham as we get ahead also to David, who will come and become the ruler of Israel, reestablishing the throne of His father David.

This is what they believe about this man. And He will conquer all of Israel's enemies, and He will rule the world from His throne in Jerusalem, and as promised to David, permanently establish the kingdom of God.

And they would just point us to 2 Samuel 7, verse 16, where God was David. And this is what it says, And your house and your kingdom shall be established forever before you.

Your throne shall be established forever. That's the promise that God gave to David. He's speaking of His offspring, His son, in His lineage, He's talking about the Messiah.

And so the Jews believe that Messiah will come and do all of these things that I've just mentioned, but He will do them as a man, not as God.

And we know this historically from Judaism. But we also know this from their answer to Jesus' first question, first part of His question. Again, let me read it to you.

Verse 42 of Matthew 22, What do you think about Christ? Whose son is He? And their answer, the son of David. He's the son of David.

That's all they said. Now this is a half truth. It's only half of the truth about Messiah. Now, by the way, compare their answer with Peter's answer to essentially the same question.

And we find that in Matthew 16, 15, where Jesus said to His disciples, remember this, But who do you say that I am? Essentially the same question.

And what did Simon Peter say? Remember. He answered and said, You are the Christ. Then He added, what? The son, not of David.

No, He was. But the son of the living. Quite a different answer, isn't it? And how did Jesus respond to Peter's answer? Well, He said, Blessed are you, Simon bar Jonah, Simon son of Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you.

That is, you were not taught this in the synagogue. God, as you were growing up. Your Jewish teachers and priests did not teach this truth to you because they didn't believe it.

And so who then, who taught this to Peter? Who revealed this to Peter? Jesus said, My Father, which is in heaven. And so you see, the Jews only believed a half-truth concerning the nature of Jesus Christ, of the Christ and a half-truth is a whole lie.

And Satan is all about half-truths. You know that? In fact, that's one of his most effective approaches. It's not to just simply try to promote a whole lie, you know, but a half-truth, which is still a lie.

And so either he will attempt to have you believe or tempt you to believe wrongly about the deity of Christ or he will tempt you to believe wrongly about the humanity of Christ.

Either one is a problem. And if you just believe in the humanity of Christ and not the deity of Christ, then you're wrong. And if you just believe in the deity of Christ and not the humanity of Christ, then that's equally wrong since both are true of Christ.

Both are taught in Scripture. and both salvation, the reality of salvation is crucial to both of these truths and both must be believed.

Did you know that most of the heresies in the church throughout the history of Christianity have pertained to the person and nature of Christ? Go back and you can do a little study and I'll mention some of them here this morning.

Some of the major heresies that cropped up in the church from the first century and really they're still around today. Most of them either deny the humanity of Christ or they deny the deity of Christ.

And to deny either, again, to deny either one negates the validity of the cross. It negates the truthfulness of the holy word of God and it therefore negates the validity of Christianity.

That's how important these two truths are about the nature of Christ. I think perhaps the earliest heresy that came up in the church in the first century church pertained not to the deity of Christ but to the humanity of Christ, denying the humanity of Christ.

And it's called Gnosticism. Some of you probably have heard of Gnosticism. And Gnosticism really was the first major heresy to threaten the church during the apostolic age.

And the apostle John wrote to combat Gnosticism in the church and so did Paul in many of his writings. And among its multifaceted belief system was the view that all physical matter is evil.

That's what the Gnostics believed. They believed some other things too. But they believed that all physical matter is evil which would include the body. the body is evil.

So in their view you could do anything you wanted with the body because it's evil anyway and so it's only the spirit that matters. So it led to gross immorality. And this was the heresy of the church. But the heresy went a step further because as you can imagine since the body is evil then guess what?

They did not believe in the humanity of Jesus Christ. That the Christ had a real human body because it's evil. And that couldn't be.

And so Gnosticism came up in the church in the first century and they denied the humanity of Christ. But you get to the second century a number of other heresies developed in the church that denied the deity of Jesus Christ.

For example adoptionism. You say adoptionism? What's wrong with that? Well this was a particular heresy that took root in the church in the second century.

And this heresy denied the pre-existence of Jesus Christ. His eternality and therefore his deity and it taught that Jesus was simply a man who was tested by God.

And after passing the test he was given supernatural powers and then was adopted by God as his son. There's a whole lot more to this heresy but adoptionism basically denied the deity of Jesus Christ.

That is originally he became deified by God after he passed the test. And then there was Ebianism. I want you to write down all these isms.

Okay? You'll just love these. Ebianism. The Ebianites were quote in quote Christian Jews living in the second century and in their view Jesus was just a man.

Nothing more. So they denied the deity of Christ. Another second century heresy that denied the humanity of Christ and we kind of go back and forth with this thing.

Either the deity or the humanity of Christ is denied. Another one in the second century was called docetism. Docetism. And the name of that heresy comes from the Greek word dokesis which means to appear or see.

This is really quite strange because they taught that Jesus only seemed to be human. He only appeared to be human.

And so he was not human he only appeared to be human so there is no incarnation they would deny the incarnation. God becoming a man. And he did not really die upon the cross he only appeared to die.

Okay? Because they only appeared to be human. And so there was no resurrection no real resurrection. All these things just appeared to happen. And so you have docetism.

And on into the third century have monarchianism. Don't you love these? Monarchianism. And this heresy taught that there is only one God who manifested himself in one person only not three persons like who would believe it according to the doctrine of the trinity.

But just one God manifests in one person and so the monarchianism denied the divine person of both Jesus Christ as well as the Holy Spirit.

Then you have sabellianism. These are just wonderful. This will bless your heart. Maybe you could write these down and include them in your devotional life. Don't do that.

Sabellianism and this heresy taught that God is one person but capable now get this he's capable of manifesting himself as either father or son or Holy Spirit and he's able to manifest himself in these three different persons instantaneously but not simultaneously.

It could be all three at the same time. And so Jesus was God at times. And then at other times he was not. And so he could not have been God when he died upon the cross because God cannot die.

That's what they taught. These heresies infiltrated the church and had to be dealt with by councils and certain books written and so forth.

Then you get into the fourth century and there is a Apollinarianism. Apollinarianism. By the way, have you noticed that anything with the word ism on the end of it is always bad, always wrong.

So if you get an ism on something, you don't want any part of that. And so Apollinarianism, this heresy denied the complete, the full humanity of Jesus Christ, he merely had a mind that was divine.

That's all they believe. And then you have Arianism. Possibly you've heard of Arianism. It came up in the fourth century. By the way, we have all of these isms still today.

They're not, they're renamed to many of them and repackaged and kind of retooled for our culture today, but many of these still exist today and so does Arianism.

In fact, this is the basic theology of Jehovah's Witnesses, by the way. And Arianism taught that Jesus was a created being. He was created, begotten of the Father, and in this view, only the Father is truly God.

And so since God is too pure and too perfect to appear on the earth, so he created Jesus as his first creation. In fact, he created Satan too, Jesus and Satan brothers.

And Jesus then created the universe and God then adopted him as his son, possibly at his baptism. That's Arianism.

Then on into the 5th century, I'm going to come to the end of the list here pretty soon, so don't wait, you have Nestorianism. Nestorianism. And this heresy taught that Mary only gave birth to Jesus' human nature, not his divine nature.

And so essentially, they maintain that Jesus was really two separate persons, and only the human Jesus was in Mary's womb.

Therefore, Jesus was not God incarnate while in the womb of Mary. He became God at a later day. and then there was Eutychianism.

Right? You like that one? Eutychianism, or the other word is monophysitism. Monophysitism, and this heresy claimed that Jesus had only one nature, not two natures, but one nature, and basically it was a third kind of unique nature that was a blend or mixture of human and divine.

Right? It came into one nature. Sixth century, in the sixth century of Christianity, we have Sosinianism. This is the last one I'm going to give you. This heresy taught that Jesus was just an extraordinarily good man.

We still have that belief today, don't we? Just an extraordinarily good man, self-sacrificing and loving, and we should learn from his example, but he was not divine in any way.

So you see, there are many others by the way. And you can see that at the heart of the majority of the heresies in the church that have infiltrated the church from the first century really all the way up into our century, the 21st century, because they still exist today, and different names, and so forth.

But at the heart of these heresies was some denial concerning the nature and person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And see, Satan is all about that.

That's his agenda, and it has been his agenda all along, because if Satan can tempt you to believe that Jesus was just simply a man, then he cannot be the sinless savior.

It would not be possible. and so the Bible is not true, and therefore Christianity is a false religion. And on the other side of that, if Satan can tempt you to believe that Jesus was not human at all, he was just simply divine, and not human, not a man at all, then there is no incarnation, God becoming a man.

And more importantly, no perfect substitution for us. Die for us on the cross. If he's God and not man at all, and again, the Bible is not true, and again, therefore, Christianity is a false religion.

See, Satan tempts us to believe wrongly about Jesus, about Jesus Christ. Let's move on to the second truth. Scripture, on the other hand, Scripture teaches us to believe rightly about Jesus.

Right. It does. And so, Jesus asks this question, what do you think about the Christ? That is, what is your view concerning Messiah, the Christ?

What nature will Messiah bear when he comes? That is, whose son is he? And they answer very quickly, don't they?

David's. David's, that is, in terms of his lineage, he is David's son. And that is exactly what Jesus knew would be their answer. And by the way, you should know, that Jesus does not dispute that answer.

And why? Because it is correct. It is correct, and the record bears that out, doesn't it? genealogies that are recorded in Matthew 1 and the genealogy recorded in Luke 3 bear that out, that Jesus is the Christ, is of the lineage of David.

In fact, if that could not have been proved, Jesus would not have had even a chance of claiming to be his son. They just looked up the record, and if he was not a son of David, then that would disqualify him.

Because it's not only the record that bears it, the genealogy records, but also scripture bears this in. That the Messiah is to be the son of David, and there are a number of places in the Old Testament that we can go to find that.

I quoted from one of them earlier, and in 2 Samuel chapter 7, let me read the larger text, this is a promise to David, King David, and in 2 Samuel chapter 7, starting with verse 12, when your days are fulfilled, and David, he's talking to David, and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you.

This is a reference to the Messiah that will one day come. Your seed, what's the seed? It's someone who's going to come out of David. I will rest, excuse me, set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, a descendant of yours, and I will establish his kingdom, and he shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.

Now, he's not talking about Solomon here, okay, because Solomon's kingdom, even though he built the temple, his kingdom did not last forever, right? So he's not talking about Solomon, he's going way beyond Solomon.

I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, with the blows of the sons of men.

But my mercy shall not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I removed from before you. And your house and your kingdom shall be established forever before you.

Your throne shall be established forever. How long? Forever. That's a reference to the Messiah. The Messiah will be the son of David. He will come out of David.

It will be his seed. It will be his offspring. And so the scripture bears this out. You could also turn to Psalm 89, verses 3 and 4.

I have made a covenant with my chosen. I have sworn to my servant David, your seed I will establish forever and build up your throne to all generations.

We could also turn to Ezekiel. Let me just read that passage to you. Ezekiel chapter 37 starting with verse 21 Then say to them Thus says the Lord God Surely I will take the children of Israel from among the nations wherever they have gone and will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land and I will make them one nation in the land on the mountains of Israel and one king shall be king over them all.

They shall no longer be two nations nor shall they ever be divided into two kingdoms again which has happened in their history right and they shall not defile themselves any more with their idols nor with their detestable things nor with any of their transgressions but I will deliver them from all their dwelling places in which they have sinned and will cleanse them then they shall be my people and I will be their them now this is not king David you know that was their king second king after Saul this is a descendant of king David David my servant shall be king over them and they shall all have one shepherd they shall all walk in my judgments and observe my statutes and do them then they shall dwell in the land that I have given to Jacob my servant where your fathers dwell and they their children and their children forever and my servant

David this is Messiah Messiah shall be their prince forever forever so you see the scriptures bear this out that Jesus or the Christ Jesus Christ is the son of David so in that regard the Pharisees were right and Jesus does not dispute it but their error you see is not in their view of the humanity of the Messiah their error was in their denial of the deity of the Messiah and that is why Jesus asked the second part of this question Luke 20 41 how can they say that the Christ is the son of David meaning how is it that all they say is that Christ is the son of David that's all!

is that all they say about the Christ that he is the son of David and that is all that's that's the point here and so then Jesus quotes for them something that they they all knew very well a passage of scripture out of psalm 110 in fact it's the first verse of psalm 110 a psalm that among the Jews would have been universally considered a messianic psalm and so verse 42 this is what he says now David himself said in the book of psalms psalm 110 the Lord said to my Lord sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool so the Lord said to my Lord David said now how can that be how can that work this this point the Messiah is David's son yes he is scripture bears that out but also the Messiah is

David's Lord is God how how can that be only one way he has to be the eternal God who becomes a man born of a virgin born in the lineage of David he is David's son he is David's Lord David's God by the way David spoke in the present tense not in some future tense but the present tense he said the Lord said to my Lord my Lord right now present tense and so the Christ is the eternal God he doesn't become God he's eternal and notice something else here David did not speculate about this reality he's not just dreaming this up or rationally thinking about this or expressing some desire of his you know liberal theologians have wanted us to believe that David was simply wrong about this

I mean he really believed it but he was just mistaken no because both Matthew and Mark testify that David said this in the spirit spirit with a capital s mark even adds David was speaking by the Holy Spirit so this wasn't just something that David was dreaming up and he was wrong about it not just something that he was kind of putting two to two together coming up before he's not mistaken about this he's speaking under the inspiration of God what David said was true my son is also God my Lord my descendant the one who will sit on my throne forever the one whose kingdom will stand forever he is my Lord he is my God is what he said and also if you look at this the Lord he says the Lord that's God the Father said to my Lord that's God the Son sit at my right hand till

I make your enemies your footstone now Jesus included that part of the song it might have been enough for him to say what David said the Lord said to my Lord and that would have been enough to make his argument but I think he's kind of putting a little bit of this in here for the Pharisees benefit because I wonder if that got their blood treasure who were they they were the enemies of the enemies of the enemies and you know under Messiah's foot is not a place that you would want to be in fact you might remember some of you who were regular attenders on Sunday night and way back when I was teaching through the book of Joshua remember in Joshua chapter 10 there were five pagan kings Canaanite kings that were brought they were captured because their armies were destroyed and these five kings were brought to Joshua and in Joshua chapter 10 verse 24 listen to this it came about when they brought these kings out to Joshua

Joshua called for all the men of Israel and said to the chiefs of the men of war who had gone with him come near put your feet on the necks of these kings so they came near put their feet on their necks and so Joshua struck them and put them to death and hanged them on five trees what does Jesus say that he will do when he comes he will put all of his enemies under his feet his judgment his condemnation his destruction and so Jesus is saying in these questions the Messiah he's more than a son he is more than a man he is God he is God so Satan tempts us to believe wrongly about Jesus scripture teaches us to believe rightly about Jesus there's one other thing here real quickly the savior tests us to believe redeemingly about Jesus savingly about Jesus it's interesting when you consider that this is the last time

Jesus will engage the religious leaders of Israel last time last time that he has this kind of conversation or dialogue with them now if you were Jesus what would you tell him it's your last shot well you know if you were Jesus you'd tell him exactly what he did the most important thing they should know about him is that his nature is God he's God and yet you know you have to admit it does seem futile for Jesus to do this to say this bring this issue I mean surely Jesus knows that these leaders hate him and they're pretty resolute in it resolute in their rejection of him surely Jesus knows that this boy in fact he knows because he's God that these Pharisees and Sadducees and priests and Herodians and scribes all these people they wanted him dead they were fixed in that desire surely Jesus did it so isn't it too late

I mean why bring this issue up at this point this issue about his true identity isn't it too late well apparently not apparently not not for some of them how do we know that well we have to look at Mark's story what he includes in this account and Mark includes actually includes another question that is asked of Jesus in this time frame it's asked by a scribe and the scribe comes to Jesus and asks him what is the first commandment of all this is in Mark's account of this same event at the same time the scribe asked what's the first commandment and you know Jesus answers that question and then it says that the scribe agreed with him he answered well and then he said to this scribe in Mark 12 34 you are not far from the kingdom and immediately after he says that to this scribe he then asks this question about the deity of now here's his point he knew that there were some who were not far from the kingdom not far from salvation the question was a test to reveal what they really believed would they believe redeemingly would they believe savingly and so even down to the very last conversation

Jesus is still the evangelist he's still the evangelist here's the truth he says will you believe it no and it's absolutely essential to salvation absolutely essential that this be true about the nature of Christ that he is everything depends on there is no salvation apart from it there is no hope of heaven apart and even more seriously no one will go to him who does not believe that Jesus is gone do you do you believe he is God and if you do what does that mean to you that he is supreme sovereign

God Lord over all what does it be that Jesus is Lord Thank you.