1. "Sometimes the truth is in plain sight, but we just can't see it."

2. "Don't be impressed by long sermons or beautiful prayers or loud singing if they're not backed up by lives of love toward others."

3. "Good leaders are those who regardless of what they wear, or what they're called, or where they sit, or how they pray, they are those who do justice and love kindness and walk humbly with their God."

4. "However long their prayers are in public, they pray more in private. Widows' houses aren't devoured by them, but instead the poor and the weak are protected and helped by them."

5. "The point of raising up the pastors, the elders even of this local church, is so that the great majority of the members who are not elders can actually be this kind of leader in their own lives, as a mother or father among their family, as a boss at work or a teacher at school."

6. "Who is Jesus is the question you want to sort out. It's not that there are no other important questions, but every other important question will be answered following on from that one. How you answer that one will be determinative of all of your other answers."

7. "I want the better someone knows me, the more that they'll be able to understand me and trust me as a sincere follower of Christ."

8. "To understand the Messiah as merely the Son of David, descendant of David, is to misunderstand the Messiah. That is not to faithfully represent what the Bible teaches."

9. "Jesus in His earthly ministry taught His own divinity. That was a part of the teaching of Jesus. That's where we Christians get this from."

10. "The seed may lie in the ground until we do. And then spring up."

Observation Questions

1. In Luke 20:45-46, what specific behaviors does Jesus warn His disciples to "beware of" regarding the scribes?

2. According to Luke 20:47, what two actions does Jesus say the scribes do that will result in their receiving "greater condemnation"?

3. In Luke 20:41-42, what question does Jesus ask about the Christ, and from which book does He quote to support His point?

4. What does the Lord (Yahweh) say to "my Lord" in the quotation from Psalm 110:1 that Jesus cites in Luke 20:42-43?

5. In Luke 20:44, what specific puzzle does Jesus pose to the teachers regarding David's relationship to the Messiah?

6. According to Luke 20:40, what was the response of the religious leaders to Jesus before He asked them this question about the Messiah?

Interpretation Questions

1. Why is it significant that Jesus delivered His warning about the scribes "in the hearing of all the people" (v. 45) rather than privately to His disciples alone?

2. How does the contrast between the scribes' public religious displays (long robes, best seats, long prayers) and their private exploitation of widows reveal the nature of false spiritual leadership?

3. In Psalm 110:1, David calls the Messiah "my Lord." Why would it be unexpected or problematic for David to call his own descendant "Lord," and what does this suggest about the Messiah's identity?

4. How does Jesus' use of Psalm 110:1 demonstrate that the Messiah must be more than simply a human descendant of David? What does this reveal about Jesus' understanding of His own identity?

5. Why do you think Jesus chose this particular moment—after silencing His opponents' questions—to raise the issue of the Messiah's true identity as the central question?

Application Questions

1. Jesus warns against leaders who "love greetings in the marketplaces" and "places of honor." What modern equivalents might exist today (in church, social media, or professional life), and how can you guard your own heart against seeking recognition over genuine service?

2. The scribes appeared religious publicly but exploited vulnerable people privately. What practices can you put in place to ensure that your private conduct toward others—especially those who cannot repay you—matches your public profession of faith?

3. Jesus taught that understanding who He truly is—both human and divine—is the most foundational question. How would you explain to a friend or family member why the identity of Jesus matters more than any other religious or moral question?

4. The sermon emphasized that good leaders protect and help the weak rather than exploit them. In what specific relationship or area of influence (family, work, neighborhood, church) could you more intentionally use your position to serve someone vulnerable this week?

5. Many religious teachers that day missed the truth about Jesus that was "in plain sight" in their own Scriptures. What regular practices of Bible reading and reflection can help you avoid spiritual blindness and recognize what God is revealing in His Word?

Additional Bible Reading

1. 2 Samuel 7:12-16 — This passage contains God's original promise to David of an everlasting kingdom through his offspring, which forms the background for understanding why the Messiah would be called "David's son."

2. Daniel 7:13-14 — The sermon references this vision of the "Son of Man" receiving eternal dominion, which helps explain how the Messiah could be both human and possess divine authority.

3. Acts 2:29-36 — Peter's Pentecost sermon uses Psalm 110:1 to proclaim that Jesus, the crucified and risen one, is both Lord and Christ, showing how the early church applied Jesus' teaching.

4. Hebrews 1:1-14 — This passage extensively quotes Psalm 110 and other Old Testament texts to demonstrate Christ's superiority and divine nature as the Son of God seated at God's right hand.

5. Matthew 23:1-12 — This parallel account expands Jesus' warning about the scribes and Pharisees, providing additional detail about the contrast between false religious leadership and true humble service.

Sermon Main Topics

I. The Rosetta Stone and Hidden Truth in Plain Sight

II. What Leaders Should I Follow? (Luke 20:45-47)

III. What Has God Promised? (Luke 20:41-44)

IV. The Identity of Jesus as David's Son and David's Lord

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Detailed Sermon Outline

police and postal services, catapults and battering rams, zoos and paved roads, toothpaste and bandages, calendars and sundials, pulleys and razors, pens and doors, tweezers and even tables and chairs, short stories and letters, hair gel and perfume, alphabet, schools and board games, and I had barely scratched the surface.

Do you know what all these things have in common?

The earliest record we have of any of them is in ancient Egypt.

Much of the recovery of knowledge about ancient Egypt came because of the arrogance and pride of one man, Napoleon, and his desire to conquer it. In part, this is because in 1799, through the occasion of the French invasion of Egypt, the Rosetta Stone came to the attention of scholars. Ancient Egypt had long been regarded as one of the high-water marks, really the headwaters, of human civilization. The pyramids alone were greater and taller than any of the structures in the world made by humans for thousands of years. But much of the history of ancient Egypt had been locked in a series of symbols anyone under 10 can answer.

A series of symbols called, anyone under 10, most of whom are in Praise Factory, I'm aware of this, 10-year-old, 9-year-old, got an answer. What are these Egyptian symbols called?

Yes. Joseph Barwick, ladies and gentlemen.

Joseph, you want to just come and take the rest of the manuscript? I know you've been waiting for the day.

The Rosetta Stone had been carved in 196 BC. It contained a royal decree, but here's the key. It was in three letter, three styles of writing. It had hieroglyphs and ancient Greek. And because scholars in the early 18th century, early 19th century knew how to read ancient Greek, then they cracked the code and they could figure out how to read the Egyptian hieroglyphs that no one had been able to read for over a thousand years.

And so all of a sudden, all of this knowledge of history contained in hieroglyphs all over Egyptian monuments, tombs and stones became open to scholars, to the world. They began to understand much about Egyptian history that had been in plain sight all the time. But people had been unable to read it.

That's why, by the way, in the middle of the 19th century, there's such a craze for all things Egyptian in Europe and in America. That's just a side note. Connection here, tenuous though interesting, to our text.

Sometimes the truth is in plain sight, but we just can't see it. That can be so for different reasons. And we see a couple of examples of those in our passage this morning at the end of Luke chapter 20. So please turn there. If you're using the Bibles provided, you'll find it on page 880, the very end of Luke chapter 20.

I want to underscore what Caleb said earlier about if you don't have a Bible, please feel free and take that Redwood from us. Last Sunday night, a lot of us heard Nick Naa telling the story. He had his Pew Bible all beat up from 10, 15 years of use that he had come and taken as a non-Christian visiting here. And he took it away with him and he read it and he wrote he reads it still today, now that he knows the Lord and is in Christian work. So who knows what could happen to you if you take that Bible home with you today?

Anyway, sometimes what seems most obviously the case isn't. And that's what's going on with the scribes and the public religious leaders there in Luke chapter 20 verses 45 to 47. And other times it's there for everyone to read if they just stop and notice it and consider what it really means. That's the passage we just have before that in verses 41 to 44. I think these lessons from Jesus, both the warning, the people, and the asking the leaders could be important for you today.

So listen carefully. First we'll consider the question posed by Jesus' warning in verses 45 to 47, what leaders should I follow?

And then we'll look at the question Jesus asked the teachers, what has God promised in verses 41 to 44. And I pray that as we consider these questions from so long ago, they will answer some of your questions today and solve some of the riddles that you've brought with you, maybe even here this morning.

So let's begin with Luke chapter 20. Verses 45 to 47. Looking at the question of what leaders do you follow? What leaders do you follow? I want us to start with this second half of our passage because it reminds us of the setting.

Jesus had been in the temple precincts all day dealing with chief priests and scribes and elders and Sadducees, religious teachers of various sorts, and always with the people around him, his own disciples, but also the crowds. And so we read here, verse 45. And in the hearing of all the people, He said to His disciples, Beware of the scribes who like to walk around in long robes, and love greetings in the marketplaces, and the best seats in the synagogues, and the places of honor at feasts, who devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. Make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.

That last sentence of the chapter has grabbed many people's attention. They will receive greater condemnation. Does that mean that there are levels of punishment according to the Bible? Yes. We see that taught many places.

James 3:1, Not many of you should be teachers, brothers. Teachers will be judged with a stricter judgment. Or you think earlier in Luke's Gospel, Jesus tells a parable to illustrate exactly this. In Luke 12, when he exhorts them about the servant who knew his master's will but did not get ready or act according to his will, he will receive a severe beating. But the one who did not know and did what deserved a beating will receive a light beating.

Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom much they entrusted, they will demand the more. That's Luke 12:47-48. But I really can't fill in much more about that, and that's not the point of this passage. So that's all for that. All right?

That's to preempt all the questions at the door. That's what I've got for you there, okay? Now, about what I think is Jesus' point here, it's to the people to instruct them about who they listen to, who they follow. So Jesus warned his disciples about bad leaders. But though he directed his comments to them, he did it as it were, it says here, in the hearing of all the people.

Matthew even says that Jesus said this to his disciples and to the crowds. So whatever it was he was saying, it was worth positioning himself and raising his voice to make sure he would be heard by a lot of people, because it was so important and so applicable to the very people who had faithfully come there that week on annual pilgrimage to the temple in Jerusalem.

And what does Jesus do? But he takes those aspects of what would have been most obvious to the out-of-town religious tourists, and he warns them to be careful about believing what their eyes were seeing. I mean, it's impressive stuff, especially to those who weren't used to being around all of these professional religious people.

You know, it's like when tourists come to D.C. and they see a senator they recognize coming out of the Capitol building or a reporter that they've seen before in the airport, there's just increased awe at something that's not their normal experience. And that's what's going on here, I think, with so many of the people in the crowds that Jesus is addressing is they're taking in the sumptuous religious sites of the temple. At Passover time. Here come these long lines of men in dignified robes, people making way for them respectfully, greeting them with their words, even a bow. In the streets or marketplaces, you see things that you've never seen before where you come from, maybe not even in your synagogue.

People listening sometimes with rapt attention to long, eloquent prayers.

Jesus knew that many people in the crowds would be impressed by what they were seeing around them. And so Jesus cautioned them. He says, Look for their examples beyond their public duties. He warned his disciples that the apparently good can be really bad. Some leaders are actors pretending to serve so that they can be served.

Don't be fooled by the fake he's egg. Jesus warns him, you want leaders who live lives of love that bless those around them.

I wonder what Jesus would warn his disciples here today about like this. Don't be impressed by long sermons or beautiful prayers or loud singing if they're not backed up by lives of love toward others.

Good leaders are those who regardless of what they wear, or what they're called, or where they sit, or how they pray, they are those who do justice and love kindness and walk humbly with their God. The fruit of the Holy Spirit is evident in their lives and in the experience of the people around them, how they are affected by them. However long their prayers are in public, they pray more in private. Widows' houses aren't devoured by them, but instead the poor and the weak are protected and helped by them. That's the testimony of the kind of leaders you want to follow.

Lives of love, leaving those around them edified and built up, not huddled out and taken advantage of by the teacher's own enrichment. Friends, this is very practical. Now, this is not mainly a word to the leaders, much application we could go into there. It's mainly a word to those who look for whom they should follow. And I simply want to say one thing I've appreciated about so many people in this church over the years is what a good job I've seen so many of you do in reaching out and caring for people when they're in need.

These days in our congregation, we don't have a lot of widows. We have some. But do you know, even in things like that, there's a practical way that we try to serve when we're aware and we have knowledge and influence, we can. We don't want a widow, particularly if she has no family around, to try to make the funeral preparations by herself. We'll try to make sure that a pastor or a member would go with her.

To the funeral home. We try to make sure that those people who are in vulnerable spots in their lives are going to be cared for and carefully shepherded for their own good. There are brothers and sisters here in this room who have carefully gone over the finances of someone at their request to try to help them, to know what they can do to sort of make it through a tight spot. Friends, in very practical ways, I rejoice in the way God has surrounded me here with self-sacrificial loving elders. Sometimes because we spend so much emphasis on this church and raising up pastors, people can think the point of a church is to raise up pastors.

That's an unusual error, but it is an error. The point of raising up the pastors, the elders even of this local church, is so that the great majority of the members who are not elders can actually be this kind of leader in their own lives, as a mother or father among their family, as a boss at work or a teacher at school. We want to see not just five or 10 or 20 elders, but we want to see five or six or 700 Christians caring for those around them, using the authority they have not to take advantage of those who are weaker around them, but to try to see what they can do to help. And just person after person that I could name, every one of whom would be embarrassed by my naming them, has just been a wonderful picture of this, as I've seen you care for your family, for neighbors, for the elderly, for people in work the way you care for people under your authority at work. I think you exemplify the very thing that Jesus, by implication, is teaching by this warning.

And I just as a pastor of the church want to praise God for not only the pastors we have who exemplify this, which I'm very thankful for, but for you, the Christians here, who I think are reflecting the very reason God gave us authority. So when you are caring for your kids well, parents, when you are looking out for that employee who seems overburdened and you're in authority, when you are trying to take care of that older neighbor, you're doing what you should do to reflect the Lord Jesus Christ. What we should never do as Christians is the kind of stuff Jesus describes here, where we want to make a show of being religious, but we really want to take advantage of other people for our own good. That's the opposite of what we see the Lord Jesus doing, and that's the opposite of what we should do.

So, I would just warn you, visitors, I don't know what kind of church you've come from, I don't know what you've been assuming, but Jesus would challenge you to beware of some leaders, not so that you could participate in the sort of current disease of mistrusting all authority, that's a suicidal position, but so that you could discern the difference between good authority and bad. Jesus by no means is teaching here that there are no good leaders. He's showing you what kind of leaders you should beware of, you should avoid. He wants to help his followers find those whom God has placed around them that they can trust, who don't devour widows' homes. That is, take advantage of those who are weakest and most vulnerable and most dependent on them.

They'd rather use themselves to teach and encourage and equip and care for others. Spur those on who are getting tired.

So members, I hope you understand what this means for you. We intend to work to protect you from fake teachers, not by getting rid of all teachers. Kind of like the church is a kind of Christian animal farm, you know, no more leaders. We're not trying to do that. But rather, we're trying to equip you by slowly and faithfully and systematically on Sunday morning and again Sunday evening and Wednesday night and in small groups and in Bible studies and in discipling relationships and through an amazing number of good books slowly but surely given out or encouraged for you to get, we teach you God's Word accurately.

And as you come to understand it, we hope that you see plainly what kind of teachers you should respect, what kind of teachers whose examples you should follow, however imperfect we may be, those that you can emulate, and those whom you should avoid. So some good conversation for you to have over lunch would be just talking about how can you know, how can you figure out what leaders you should follow? How are you doing that?

And if you're in a church where you feel that you or others are being abused by the leaders, what should you do? Well, Jesus gives the command here very clearly, verse 46, beware, be wary, be careful. So pray, seek counsel from other godly leaders, perhaps leaders outside of your church.

To give you wisdom on what you should do.

And my fellow religious leaders, let's consider what these kinds of warnings mean to us. Let's watch our own hearts, monitor how much we love the shows of respect from those around us more than we love them and love the Lord. I'll never forget touring the Soviet Union in its last days and noticing that again and again buildings that would look so impressive from a distance When you get up close, we're full of cracks with weeds growing through them. Friends, I don't want my life to be like that. I want the better someone knows me, the more that they'll be able to understand me and trust me as a sincere follower of Christ.

The better someone knows me, they'll never declare me guiltless.

But that's true of all elders, that's true of all the leaders that Jesus is by implication exhorting his followers to follow. But we can be people who are sincerely following the Lord and living exemplary lives. Pray for me, pray for other elders in that. Husbands and wives, isn't that what you want? Isn't that what you pray for your own life in front of each other?

Parents, isn't that what you want from your kids? Them to see you and know you? And yes, of course, if there's anyone who sees our imperfections in the world, it's our kids. And yet how many of us can truly love our parents through any ways we saw, yes, they weren't perfect, because we've realized in them the real love they've had toward us. Friends, I know that's not universal, but it's very common.

Praise the Lord. For his kindness to us. Kids, you might want to think what leaders have encouraged you in your family, maybe an older sibling, obviously parents, perhaps people at school you've known. Try to think through what these warnings of Jesus might mean in your own life, even this week. Maybe there's some leaders you've been following some social influencers, you've subscribed to their channel.

I'm not sure that's the right verb. Something like that. You know what I mean. That it'd be better if you didn't follow or subscribe to. Right.

Pray for our church that we be led by God-fearers more than by men pleasers, by those who will risk popularity for faithfulness' sake. Pray that we would never seek your appreciation more than your good. Pray that God bless us by giving us pastors here who are here for God's honor and the good of the sheep. Men who are elders more than influencers. And thank God for how much he's already answered those prayers.

That's the first question I want us to notice that I think Jesus leaves us with as his disciples today.

What leaders do you follow?

Now let's turn to the question raised in the first part of our passage, verses 41 to 44, and that is, what has God promised? What has God promised? All chapter long, the public teachers and religious authorities had been questioning Jesus, trying to put him on the defensive, to trap him, forcing him either to openly oppose Rome or renounce his claims to be the promised Messianic king. They wanted him to get on the wrong side of either Rome's law or the people's favor. And so they pushed him and they pushed him and they tried him until we read up in chapter 20, verse 40, they no longer dared to ask him any questions.

Because his answers were so good that these attacks through questions were being counterproductive. As they would make their verbal assault confident of their position, before they knew it they would find themselves pushed back and even penned against the wall of some contradiction they'd not considered. So it wasn't coming out well for them. So they didn't ask Him any more questions, we see in verse 40. But Jesus had one for them.

He turned away from these leaders to warn the people. But before he did that, he would question his questioners and teach the teachers. And no more about the secondary issues of death and taxes. Jesus would go for the jugular, which is this: who exactly is the Messiah?

They had been dancing around the question, trying to get him to say something, but he knew this was what the everything was about. He wanted it known. Who is he? That's the key issue. Friend, if you're here today thinking about Christianity, which is super common here.

So if you're a visitor here, you may think everybody else in this room is a member of this church, and I'm the one non-very sorted out religious person here. And I'll just let you know, is the person who watches everybody in this room all the time and stands at that door for a long time afterwards. If you're a not religious person, you're definitely in the minority here, spending a couple hours on a Sunday morning in the church building, but you're not alone. There are more of you around than you'd think, and you're here in part, either you've got a friend you're trying to show respect to, or you have some real questions yourself. And even when we were sitting here right as the service was getting started, my phone buzzed because a guy some of us had talked to yesterday, who's not a Christian, just buzzed me and said, yeah, he wants to get together and talk this week.

Friends, that happens all the time. So your questions are welcome here, but I just wanna focus you in, what I'm about to talk about right now is the most important thing. This is it. Who is Jesus? Is the whole shoot and match.

This is Christianity and Christianity would tell you this is your whole life. Who is Jesus? Is the question you want to sort out. It's not that there are no other important questions, but every other important question will be answered following on from that one. How you answer that one will be determinative of all of your other answers.

So who is Jesus is exactly what Jesus presses on and the question he leaves with them. You look there in verse 40, well, in Matthew, in his account of this, he gives a little more detail here, and he lets us know that Jesus started this off by asking a group of Pharisees that were near him the simple question, what do you think of the Christ? Whose son is he? And they said to him, the son of David.

Now, that would be the answer he would expect. So Jesus pointed them to a well-known psalm of David, which we've already heard from this morning, Psalm 110, in which we hope to hear about more tonight, Psalm 110. But it's interesting, we have no record of this psalm being taken as a messianic psalm before Jesus. I can't say it wasn't, I don't have exhaustive knowledge. But I will just say with all the records we do have, we don't have any evidence.

Of Psalm 110 being taken to be about the Messiah before this question. This is where it surfaces. Jesus asked them, and he knew that if they answered from this passage, there would be an unexpected hook that he meant them to experience. Look again at verse 41, but he said to them, How can they say that the Christ is David's son? That's the simple question he gives them.

It's an obvious question. Everyone would call the Messiah the son of David. He's asking a very simple question laying there, it looks like it's nothing at all. How can they say this? And then he quotes something David himself said, Psalm 110.

For David himself says in the book of Psalms, The Lord said to my Lord, that's slightly confusing for people, some, the Lord, that means Yahweh, God, the Lord, said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. David thus calls him Lord. So how is he his son? Now follow this carefully. There are not a lot of moving parts, but there are two or three.

You just need to have them clearly in your mind. Jesus is quoting this verse from the Old Testament from Psalm 110, verse one. Jesus believes in the Bible. He believes in the inspiration of Scripture. You'll notice when Jesus is in an argument and he pulls out the Bible, he means that to end the argument.

That's just the end of the argument for him. When I was a freshman religion major, I got into all kinds of arguments about the inerrancy of the Bible.

And I finally just decided, you know, I'm a Christian, I'm gonna do with Scripture what Jesus did. I'm just gonna follow him. So he says it's reliable, I'm with him. I'm saying it's reliable. That's just the Christian way to treat the Scriptures.

So I'm gonna trust that he knows more than I do. I'm just gonna trust him in this. Now this Psalm, it's interesting, nowhere explicitly says the Messiah would be David's son, a descendant of David, but he's bringing that in to the conversation.

That's assumed. Everybody knew that from elsewhere in the Old Testament. The very famous promise of mainly that God had made to David in 2 Samuel 7, where God said to David, When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. So there it is.

That's referring to the Messiah, the anointed one, the king who has promised to come. And he's very clear that he would be a descendant of David. It's not an obscure point. It was not a controversial point. All of the Jews accepted that the Messiah was David's son.

In fact, that was the sort of most well-known thing about him. That he was a descendant of David. He would reestablish the Davidic reign, the throne. It would be established forever. This promise of the everlasting kingdom coming from David's family had become as brightly burning a hope in the hearts of Israel as had the promises given to Abraham or the laws given to Moses.

In fact, it would be the Davidic king who was understood to be the keeper and defender and propagator of the truth about the Lord.

So, here in our passage, Jesus asks the simple question about the Messiah, the Christ, being David's son, which they all knew from elsewhere in the Scriptures, because here in Psalm 110, God the Lord is giving a promise of victory which sounds very much like the promise God made to David about the everlasting throne of his kingdom forever. That's what would happen when all the enemies of someone are made his footstool. That's what that phrase means. They come under his rule. So Jesus rightly points out to them this ignored repetition of the promise to the Messiah.

Ah, the Lord said to my Lord, and then he quotes his promise as if it's a divine promise to the Messiah. It's like the divine promise that he had given to David. Earlier in second Samuel seven. But there's more to it than that. That alone, you'd have to reason with just slightly to get there, but it's, it's, it's not hard.

But that's not Jesus point. There was also the fact that David is describing this one. David is describing this one that God was making such promises to David. Calls him my Lord. Now that is the conundrum.

That's what it seems like no one had noticed.

That's where any idea of opposing the Trinity in the name of monotheism hits a problem with the Bible. The Bible is ferociously monotheistic, and committed to the idea of the eternal Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one God, three persons. And this is where you see that peering out even in the teaching of Jesus as he puts this to the teachers of the day. The recognition of Jesus is that specially anointed Son of David happens in the Gospels. It's by the blind, it's by those who've seen Jesus heal the sick, the Canaanite woman, the crowds of pilgrims.

Interestingly, the only one who's not calling Jesus the son of David out loud in the gospels are the professional teachers of the Bible. The ones who it's their job to know this. If they think it, they're not saying, they're just, they don't comment because it just wouldn't be good for their positions to do that. But this is what we see assumed here. And then Jesus points out though, this is the critical thing.

That this verse shows that merely presenting the Messiah as the Son of David, as the people of the time viewed the Messiah, He's the Son of David, merely understanding this is to misunderstand the Messiah.

So to understand the Messiah as merely the Son of David, descendant of David, is to misunderstand the Messiah. That is not to faithfully represent what the Bible teaches. Whether or not you or I like the idea is not the point. If the question is, what does the Bible teach? The Bible clearly teaches that the Messiah would certainly be David's son.

That's true. But he would also be not just human son of David, share our nature, but he would also be someone that David here could refer to as his Lord. And because he's already said, the Lord said to my Lord, now we're entering the confusing space of needing to unfold an understanding of God that's a little more complicated than simple monotheism. Because all of a sudden I've got the Lord, and David is referring to someone else as my Lord. And if I say that's the Messiah, oh, but then how could his son, his descendant, be someone that David would call his Lord?

That doesn't make sense on a couple of different levels. First of all, it doesn't make sense that you would call someone younger than you or after you in the line your Lord, because in every traditional societal understanding, the ones who come before, the progenitors, are the one who you owe your life to, quite literally. So if there's a Lord around, it's the other way around. The one who's your son calls you the Lord. So who on earth would he call my Lord?

And then how could David be speaking to someone who, if he were merely his descendant, didn't even exist?

What is going on that the son of David could be alive for David to say, my Lord?

So, friend, if you're trying to figure out what the Bible teaches about the identity of Jesus, Jesus himself presents this as a crucial clue.

Now, we Christians have incorporated this into our understanding, and we celebrate this all the time, unwittingly perhaps. We in our clever planning have already led you to confess out loud and say what I'm teaching you now. Did you notice that? Did you notice where we've already done that in the service? Grab your bulletin.

Just humor me. Grab your bulletin. Go to page 8. Go to page 8. You might want to circle this little phrase with your pen or pencil.

It's the hymn stricken, smitten, and afflicted. Look at the first stanza and go the third line down. See the second half of it? David's son, yet David's Lord. See, even in that simple yet, he has captured the very tension that Jesus was intending to show to those Pharisees that day.

It's the yet. It's the surprise. It's like, how is someone who is the descendant of somebody ever said to be their Lord? David's son, yet David's Lord. That's the whole conundrum that Jesus left with those teachers that day.

How can Messiah be David's son if David is addressing Him as my Lord? And what Jesus is showing there is He's moving them to see that this Messiah would be human. He would be David's son, but He would also be more than human. This is the one whom Daniel saw in a vision in Daniel chapter 7 who was one like a son of man coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into His presence.

He was given authority, glory and sovereign power. All peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed. Friends, Jesus spent his public ministry teaching that he was the suffering servant who would bear our sins and that he was the Son of Man. So this great figure from Daniel 7 is also the suffering servant of Isaiah 52 and 53.

This is the one who would be of the flesh, descended from David, who would be able to exhaust the claims of God's justice by bearing the punishment due to us in his body on the tree. Does that make sense to you? Even if it's surprising, do you understand what I'm saying? This is the very nub of the good news of Jesus Christ. That the God who's perfectly holy and has never done anything wrong that you or I have done today or yesterday or the day before, and who never has, who's never behaved in any way toward any of us in any way that should ever do anything other than cause us to love him and like him and enjoy him and want to celebrate him and tell everybody about him.

He's just never done anything wrong to us. This one we have sinned against.

And in His great love, though He would be entirely within His rights to damn all of us forever now, like in the middle of His sermon, now, He hasn't done that. But instead He sent His only Son to be truly a man. He's the Son of David, but also His own Son, the Son of God. Truly man, truly God. He sent him then to live a perfect life, never sinning against his heavenly father, always trusting him, and then dying on the cross bearing the penalty of the disobedience that all of us who would turn and trust in him deserve.

God raised him from the dead. He ascended to his heavenly father where His father accepted that sacrifice on behalf of all of us who would turn and trust in him. Friends, that's God's provision that he's made for our sins in David's son, the Son of God and Son of Man, the long-promised King and Messiah who suffers in our place for our sins. All chapter long, these religious teachers had been pushing other topics on Jesus, but the real issue was never any of those things about taxes or the nature of the afterlife. Those matters are not unimportant.

They're important matters, but the real issue is who is Jesus. That is the issue that determines our eternity. That is the issue that determines the quality of our life today. That's the issue that allows us to hear or not hear these very words. And by teaching who the Messiah is, Jesus teaches more about who He is.

He is David's Son, and yet that alone is insufficient to explain the Messiah prophesied here. This shows that as the Messiah, Jesus, though David's descendant, is in fact greater than David. That's why. Because He's also the Son of God. The eternal Son of God incarnate in the flesh.

So what Jesus is doing here is setting out the basis for our understanding that Jesus is truly man and truly God. And for any of you who have been through the brainwashing of religion departments in secular universities, as I have been, I just want to point this out, that he is doing this, Jesus is doing this, before the four Gospels were written down, before the Christian community theologized, before Paul wrote his letters, or even Peter preached his sermons. In fact, Jesus Jesus taught this before He was raised, even before He was crucified. Jesus in His earthly ministry taught His own divinity. That was a part of the teaching of Jesus.

That's where we Christians get this from.

If we want to understand the truth about who He was and is, we have to understand this. Jesus clearly taught here that the Messiah was David's human son, his descendant. But he was more than that. He was also David's Lord. There's so much more we could get, even from this one verse he cites.

I think Taylor will give us maybe a little bit more tonight. But the rule and reign, you know, put his enemies under his feet, we can meditate on that forever. We're doing a sermon series on this verse. That's what Hebrews 10 uses this verse for. But that's not what Jesus is doing here.

That's more showing who he is and his identity is Jesus' point here. It is to this one that God would call to sit, having completed his work of humiliation and substitution, of satisfaction and redemption, to sit at my right hand, that is at the place of God's power and authority, until interesting there's a limit until this aspect of Christ's reign Simon Gathercole calls it his combative reign. That is, between his ascension and before his return, when the church on earth is the church militant, still contesting, where Jesus' influence is still being worked out until he returns and ends that combat, he is at God's right hand until... He says in verse 43, I put your enemies under your feet. You see what this scene is.

We're in the last week of His earthly ministry. We're days before the cross.

Jesus may be, though, about to be taken and crucified, but keep watching this space. He will have the last word, a last word that will exonerate Him and condemn all that oppose Him. And his victory will be final. God had promised not just to send David's son, they needed to read their Bibles more carefully. He had promised to send David's son, but he was sending his own son as well.

And so the spiritually blind pilgrims are awakened to their danger and the spiritually blind teachers are exposed to the truth of the Bible and the truth that was literally standing before them.

Do you see how important this is?

Mark, shouldn't you have more application in your message? I mean, more specific points.

Friends, I just want to point out that who Jesus is is the most important matter we can wrestle with.

It's not the only matter, but it's the most foundational matter, and it's what Jesus is talking about here. Who Jesus is.

You know I like historical trivia. So in case you didn't know, 140 years ago today, the Indonesian island of Krakatoa exploded. The tiny little island between Java and Sumatra blew up with its estimated 13,000 times the explosive power of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima at the end of World War II.

And friends, that eruption, as staggering as it may be in its immediate physical effects, pales in consideration of the explosive significance of Jesus' conversation that day. And the point that he was making to the disciples as he questioned the teachers. He helped people not to be fooled and pointed the teachers and everyone else to the truth about how God would fix our greatest problem, our sin and our guilt, which would separate us from a good God forever and would call down his just punishment upon us and everyone we know forever. This is the problem that Jesus had come to deal with. And it worked.

Many followed Jesus and weren't taken in by the self-serving religious hypocrites just to line their own pockets. Many were brought to understand who the ancient promises of Jesus, the ancient promises of the Bible were about. Great David's greater son, as another hymn puts it. It's Jesus. He is the answer to the riddle that David, by the Holy Spirit, put down in that Psalm all those centuries before.

And Psalm 110:1 would actually in some ways be the kind of Rosetta Stone of the first Christians understanding, beginning to understand who Jesus is as someone greater than just the son of David. We know because of how much they kept using it. Peter grabs it and uses it just a few weeks later in the first Christian sermon in Acts chapter 2. Paul uses it when he writes to the Corinthians, the writer to the Hebrews quotes it in Hebrews chapter 10. In fact, the same idea is found at the very end of the Bible.

Do you know who the last person named in the Bible is?

It's Jesus. Okay, it's the obvious answer. You're a church. But, Do you notice who the second to last person named in the Bible is? It's David.

In this very connection, Revelation 2216, it calls Jesus, it identifies Jesus as the root and descendant of David.

Jesus was teaching that day that the descendant of David was actually also the Son of God. And it wasn't just the disciples that day that ended up believing this. I wonder if some of the scribes and the priests that Jesus first pointed this out to came to believe in him. What do you think?

Why do I guess that? Because a few chapters later, if you look in the second half of Luke, which is The book of Acts, Acts chapter 6, verse 7. Acts chapter 6, verse 7, you read, and the Word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith. Praise the Lord. I'm guessing some of those guys were standing there and heard Jesus.

Set off that little Psalm 110 explosion in their minds.

Do you have any hope for those that you've shared the gospel with around you that seem uninterested for yourself?

As one writer reminds us, the seed may lie in the ground until we do. And then spring up.

Who do you believe Jesus is? I'm praying that you'll see who Jesus really is today, the Son of David and more. And that you won't be deceived by showy religious fakers, but that you'll become obedient to the faith, faith in Jesus Christ as Lord today.

Lord God, we thank youk for the promises that yout've given us and for how they circle and center on the Lord Jesus. We come in his name asking that yout will pour out yout Spirit on our hearts. Give us believing hearts. Lord, if we've not had them until today, give them to us today. Help us to truly trust yout and the gift that yout've given us in giving us yous Son.

We pray in His name, Amen.