Who is Jesus? Bart Ehrman, who has taught
religious studies at UNC for the past three decades, has famously
argued that Jesus was an apocalyptic prophet and nothing
more. According to Airman, Jesus's
main message was that the end of history was near, that God would
soon intervene to overthrow evil and establish his Kingdom on
earth. According to Airman, Jesus and
all his disciples believed that these end time events would take
place within their lifetimes. Airman argues that Jesus never
claimed to be anything more than a human teacher or prophet.
According to Airman, Jesus certainly never claimed to be
God. What do you think?
Who is Jesus? The whole gospel of Mark has
been addressing that question. Almost every paragraph of Mark's
gospel in one way or another is about that question.
Who is Jesus? Now in chapter 12, Jesus has
come to what he knows will be the last week of his life.
He's been teaching in the temple.
He's been fending off challenges to his authority from the
religious leaders of the day. And as we saw in our passage
last week, he answered all their questions so well that he
silenced his opponents. It says no one dared to ask him
any more questions. Match and set went to Jesus.
Our passage for this morning is in verses 35 to 37 of Mark 12.
If you don't have a Bible, you can raise your hand and somebody
will bring you one. If you don't have a Bible, like
you don't have one at home, that you can easily read it.
You can also keep it, take it home, read it.
We'd love to talk to you about it in our passage.
After silencing his opponents, Jesus turns the tables.
He asks a question of his own. His question is addressed to
everyone out there in his audience who's willing to
listen. But it's particularly a
challenge to what the religious authorities are teaching.
And Jesus's question is even more than that.
It's a Riddle. Jesus poses a Riddle and he
doesn't answer it explicitly, although I think the clues to
answer it are they're in the Riddle, they're in the rest of
Mark's Gospel, they're in the rest of Scripture.
So just a little bit of a heads up, this passage, this sermon
this morning is going to be a little bit extra teaching.
Jesus is posing us a theological Riddle.
We have to do a little bit of work to get the answer.
Who do you say Jesus is? More importantly, who does Jesus
say he is? Mark 12 verses 35 to 37.
And as Jesus taught in the temple, he said, How can the
scribes say that the Christ is the Son of David?
David himself in the Holy Spirit declared, The Lord said to my
Lord, sit in my right hand until I put your enemies under your
feet. David himself calls him Lord, so
how is he his son? And the great throng heard him
gladly. Who does Jesus say that he is?
We'll consider the answer in three parts.
The 1st 2:00 will be pieces of his answer.
The third part we'll put it all together, .1 David's son.
David's son. Now, of course, Jesus is in fact
asking a question about this very point.
Verse 35. How can the scribes say that the
Christ is the son of David? What's going on here?
When Jesus asks about the Christ, he's talking about the
Messiah. Throughout the Old Testament,
using different titles and images, the Lord promises to
send a deliverer to redeem his people.
In Genesis 315, it's a seed of the woman who will crush the
seed of the serpent. In Genesis 49, eight to 10, it's
a descendant of Judah, who's described as a lion who will
rule the nations. In Numbers 2417, it's a star
that will arise from Jacob and defeat Israel's enemies.
There are dozens more like that. But this promise of a coming
deliverer takes a giant leap forward in clarity and
specificity in Second Samuel Chapter 7.
This is when David has consolidated his reign over
Israel. He's in the process of bringing
peace and unity and harmony to Israel.
And in that chapter, in response to David's desire to build God a
house, that is, David wants to build God a temple.
God promises to build King David a house.
That is a dynasty, a royal dynasty.
But God's promise goes beyond a dynasty.
It's not just about a succession of kings one after another.
Here's Second Samuel 712 to 13. When your days are fulfilled and
you lie down with your father's, 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.
And verse 16 your house and your Kingdom shall be made sure
forever before me. Your throne shall be established
forever. This is why the scribes,
Israel's official religious teachers, say that the Messiah,
which in Greek is Christ, is David's son.
God himself promised David a son who would reign forever.
This promise to David is the backbone of the Old Testaments
expectation of a Messiah. The scribes are right.
They are correct on this point. Not only that, but the Gospel of
Mark itself affirms that Jesus is the son of David.
Remember blind Bartimaeus calling out in Mark 1047, Jesus
son of David, have mercy on me. Jesus doesn't rebuke him.
Jesus doesn't correct him. He just shows him the mercy that
Bartimaeus is right to expect from the Son of David.
Then in Chapter 11, when Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a
donkey, he's openly declaring that he is the Son whom God
promised to David. He's fulfilling the messianic
promise of Zechariah Chapter 9, and the crowd around him get it.
They shout out in Chapter 11, verses 9 and 10, Hosanna.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
Blessed is the coming Kingdom of our Father David.
Mark's point is the crowd is getting it right.
So we know from the rest of the Bible that God promised David a
son who would be the Messiah. And we know from the rest of the
Gospel of Mark that Jesus is this Messiah, this son of David.
So why does Jesus ask the question in verse 35?
How can the scribes say that the Christ is the son of David?
It's important to note the form of the question.
He asks how. How asks for an explanation.
It asks for a reason. It might ask you how two things
can be true at the same time. That might seem to contradict
each other. So Jesus question is not a
denial. Instead it invites A deeper
understanding. From the outset we should assume
Jesus question is not denying that the Messiah is David's son.
Instead, he's asking a question that requires us to understand
that son of David is not all that the Messiah is.
He's something else, He's something more, and he's
something that is so much more that it might be hard to
understand that something more and also how he can be David's
son. At the same time, Jesus is not
going to deny belief in the Son of David, He's going to show
that it isn't the whole story. Jesus question is essentially
asking is the category son of David a box that is big enough
to fit everything the Messiah is into it.
Now we see Jesus use questions like this in a similar way a few
times before this in Mark, he asked questions that don't
categorically reject the position of the person he's
talking to. Instead, his question shows that
what the person is affirming is not enough.
For instance, Mark 828, Jesus disciples tell him that some
people say he's a prophet. In the next verse, Jesus asks,
but who do you say that I am? And Peter confesses that he's
the Messiah. Now Jesus isn't denying that
he's a prophet. He is a prophet, but he's more
than a prophet. Or in Mark 1017 and 18, the rich
young ruler approaches him with the title Good teacher.
That's how he addresses him. Jesus asks, why do you call me
good? No one is good except God alone.
Similar to our question, but instead of asking how, he asks
why. Jesus isn't denying that he is
good. Instead, he's challenging the
ruler to recognize that he is good with the goodness that God
alone has. Jesus questions like this aim to
accomplish the same thing that his two stage healing of the
blind man in chapter 8 did. They aim to move someone to it
from a partial to a fuller vision of him.
So Jesus question how is meant to sow seeds of thought.
It's meant to open people's minds wider so that more of the
truth about him can fit in. Just one brief point of
application here. Jesus question about the scribes
teaching does not imply that they're wrong on this point, but
it does imply they're wrong about something.
That's why he's asking the question.
They're missing something. Those leaders who are officially
charged to publicly interpret Israel's scriptures and help the
people of Israel live accordingly are missing
something big about the Messiah. They were not infallible.
They were not perfect bearers of an utterly authoritative
tradition. They got stuff wrong.
What does that teach us? It should teach us to hold
Scripture supreme above every teacher.
God gives teachers to help us understand and apply Scripture,
but no teacher is supreme, only scripture is.
No teacher is infallible, only Scripture is.
No teacher is inerrant, only scripture is.
So search the scriptures regularly.
Test whatever teaching you hear against the scriptures.
Learn to spot when a teacher is missing something that scripture
teaches, like the scribes here, or denying something that
scripture affirms or contradicting something
scripture asserts. If you ever hear a little alarm
bell going off in your head, well, the the teacher, the
person on the radio, the podcaster, the author, well,
they said this, but doesn't scripture say, well, definitely
double check that little alarm bell in the back of your mind.
Go look up that passage. Go figure it out.
Does Scripture really say that? Does it contradict this teacher?
If so, at the very least you need to be more cautious about
listening to this teacher. You need to understand they
might be wrong at this point if they're denying something
Scripture affirms. Only Scripture is supreme.
So what? Is this something more that
Jesus's question is pointing to point #2 David's Lord, Who is
Jesus? He's David's Lord.
That's what Jesus proves from Psalm 110, verse one.
In the rest of our passage, verses 36 and 37, Look with me
at those verses. David himself in the Holy Spirit
declared, The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until
I put your enemies under your feet.
David himself calls him Lord, so how is he?
His Son and the great throng heard him gladly.
Notice how Jesus introduces the biblical passage that he quotes
David himself in. The Holy Spirit declared Jesus
is affirming that David spoke the words of Psalm 110, verse
one, and he's affirming that David spoke the words of Psalm
110, verse one. Under the inspiration of the
Holy Spirit. He's teaching that these
genuinely human words of David are also the words of God.
They are divine revelation. They're from the mouth of God
Himself. All Scripture has both a human
author and its ultimate divine author. 1 central reason why
Christians should believe in the verbal plenary inspiration of
Scripture. That is that the very words are
inspired and the totality of it is inspired.
One reason we should believe that is Jesus himself believed
it and taught it. If you want to be a follower of
Jesus, you should follow his understanding and belief of what
Scripture is. If you want to be a follower of
Jesus, you should believe his teaching.
That Scripture is the words of the Holy Spirit of God.
So what's going on in Psalm 110, verse one, David is speaking and
he's reporting a prophetic vision.
In this vision, the Lord speaks to the one David calls my Lord.
The Lord is the God of Israel, and the Lord is installing
David's Lord in power and glory at his right hand.
Now, Jesus clearly takes David's Lord in this verse to be the
Messiah. That's why he brings it into the
discussion. Who else could inherit such
authority from the Lord Himself? But this verse also creates
complications for understanding the Messiah as merely the Son of
David. You don't go around calling your
son Lord. Speaking in human terms, a
father has authority over his Son.
A son does not outrank his father.
But not only that, David is the highest ranking human in Israel.
He's the king. There's no human Lord over him.
Who could be Lord over him? Who could he refer to as my Lord
in addition to the Lord? If the Messiah is David's son,
how can he call him Lord? Now?
Here's the most crucial detail in the passage to notice in the
verse from Psalm 110. Where does the Lord invite
David's Lord to sit? It's at his right hand.
So where are we? We're in heaven, and there's
only one throne in heaven. To sit at God's right hand is to
share God's throne and share God's rule.
In other biblical depictions of heaven, no one else sits with
God on His throne. Angels, like we heard in Hebrews
1, stand as servants, ready to be sent out to minister
according to God's orders. Glorified Saints may sit on
their own seats, but not on God's throne.
Just as there is only one God, so in heaven there is only one
throne. So who besides God could sit on
it? Well, you have to remove that
phrase besides God, because only one who is himself divine can
sit on that throne. In other words, Psalm 110 verse
one is one of the Old Testaments clearest witnesses to the
mystery of the Trinity. There's only one God, and yet
this one God eternally exists as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit who
is David's Lord in Psalm 110 verse one.
It is the eternal divine Son of God.
So now we arrive at the answer to Jesus question.
Who is the Messiah? He's not only David's Son, but
also David's Lord. Scripture itself says so.
How can that be? Because the Son of David is also
the Son of God. As man, he descends from David.
As God, he is David's creator and Lord.
So Jesus is saying to the scribes that their view of the
Messiah is too small. Even though they were
authoritative teachers of Scripture, they didn't take into
account what Psalm 110 verse one says about the Messiah.
Is your Jesus too small? Do you view Jesus as merely a
good teacher? Do you view Jesus maybe as
someone who gives good directions for your life, or
someone who has bequeathed a rich moral inheritance to
Western culture that we shouldn't give up on?
Only the scriptural Jesus is the real Jesus.
Any other Jesus is too small. The real Jesus will not fit
inside any box you make for him. Only the Jesus who is both God
and man is the real Jesus. Jesus here tells us that he is
God become man for our salvation, the eternal Son of
God who became the Son of David, the Messiah who is going to
reign as a human being on the throne of God himself.
If you're not a believer in Jesus, what boxes are you
tempted to put Jesus in? Does a smaller Jesus feel safer
to you? Jesus teaching in this passage
is a Riddle, and it's a Riddle that open ultimately opens out
into a mystery or actually 2 mysteries.
This passage and the Psalm 110 verse one that it cites is one
of the crucial scriptural witnesses to two mysteries at
the very heart of the Christian faith, the Trinity and the
incarnation. There is only one God and there
is personal distinction within God.
There's only one God and within that one God the Lord God the
Father can speak to David's Lord, the Son who is talking to
whom in Psalm 110 verse one Jesus is crucial insight is that
it is one divine person addressing another.
So the doctrine of the Trinity is not some sort of like distant
conclusion where if you kind of reason it all out and get all
your steps right, kind of like a big algebra problem where you
got to do 40 steps and keep working and going get to the
end. And if you did every single step
right, you get the right answer. Jesus saying the doctrine of the
Trinity is there in the text. The identity of David's Lord is
that he is God's Son. That's how he has authority to
sit at God's right hand. That's why he's way more than a
human son of David. You can only make sense of this
verse. You can only make sense of Jesus
use of this verse with the doctrine.
Would you equally call the mystery of the Trinity.
This text also bears witness to the mystery of the Incarnation.
Jesus would come to fulfill this prophecy as a man through his
life, death, resurrection, and ascension.
When did Jesus take his seat at God's right hand?
As we read in Hebrews one, it was after making purification
for sins. As Acts 2 verse 32 says, it was
after his resurrection that Jesus was exalted to God's right
hand. So in Psalm 110 verse one, when
it comes to be fulfilled, the Father is speaking to the divine
Son Incarnate. Now the Trinity and the
Incarnation are mysteries in two senses.
They are mysteries in the sense of the Apostle Paul frequently
uses the word like in the book of Ephesians.
It means something present but hidden in the Old Testament,
something that's really there that God has really revealed in
the Old Testament Scriptures, but that only comes fully to
light once Jesus himself comes to accomplish our salvation.
The Trinity and the Incarnation are also mysteries in another
sense. They're mysteries in the sense
that they exceed our ability to comprehend them.
We can understand something of the truth of them.
We can see something of their coherence.
They're not irrational, they're not against reason, but they go
above and beyond reason. Our reason can never fully grasp
their whole dimensions. And we could never have
discovered these truths had God himself not revealed them to us.
And the way He revealed them to us was by sending his Son to be
become Incarnate for our salvation and sending His Spirit
to indwell us. The way that God revealed that
He eternally is the Trinity is by bringing the Trinity to bear
on the stage of history and wrapping us up by faith into the
life of the Trinity. Looking into Jesus comments in
Psalm 110, verse one. In our verse 37 of our passage,
David himself calls him Lord. So how is he his Son?
There's that word how again and again Jesus isn't making a
denial. Instead, he's pointing to a
surprising fact that requires explanation.
Ah, so the Messiah is David's son, you say.
Well, then I'll see you David's son, and I'll raise you David's
Lord. What do you say?
Now by asking how Jesus is putting the burden of proof on
the scribes, you guys explain this.
How are these two things true at the same time?
You tell me. Jesus is saying that the only
way that the scribes can affirm all that Scripture teaches about
the Messiah is by recognizing him as divine.
Just like they've tried to pin him into a hard position by some
of the questions they've asked him, now he's doing something
similar to them. But notice how he does it.
He uses only the words of scripture.
He pins them to the wall with a proof text and says explain this
part of the Bible. To me.
That also shows Jesus attitude towards scripture, that he views
it as fully inspired, authoritative, inerrant.
He's using scripture to refute his opponents.
So he's really leaving them only one of two possible conclusions.
One, not only is Jesus the Messiah, but he's also the
divine Son of God. That would be the right answer.
Two, he's a liar and a blasphemer.
Sadly, as Jesus's trial will show, his opponents are going to
go with option 2. They're going to charge him with
blasphemy. If you're not familiar with that
term or that category, it means someone falsely claiming for
themselves privileges or dignities that belong to God
alone. It's like when Jesus tells the
paralytic in Mark 27, My son, your sins are forgiven.
The scribes instantly say he's blaspheming.
Who can forgive sins but God alone?
Good question. Theologically true.
Nobody can forgive sins but God alone.
Jesus can only forgive sins because he's God Incarnate.
So he's claiming to do something only God can do because he
really can. But that leaves you only the
option of faith in him as divine or rejecting him as a
blasphemer. There's no middle ground.
There's no nice prophet Jesus that you can say, oh sorry, he
got the whole apocalypse thing wrong.
I guess. He's an interesting religious
figure. We don't have to pay attention
to anything he's really doing. He's just one more casualty of
history that you know people then made-up and did a whole
bunch of stuff with. There is no middle grounds.
Either he's the divine Son Incarnate, as the whole Gospel
of Mark has shown, or he's a liar and a blasphemer, and the
charge of blasphemy is going to be what gets him crucified.
By resolving to regard Jesus as a blasphemer, the scribes are
rejecting his claim to fulfill Psalm 110, verse one.
In Psalm 110 verse one, there is another figure who receives
divine dignities, divine privileges, rights that belong
to only God. Like, say, I don't know, ruling
the whole universe from the throne of heaven.
That's what Jesus is claiming he's going to get.
That's his right. You either accept that, rejoice
in it, embrace it, or the sentence you yourself pass on
Jesus is that he's a liar and a blasphemer.
When it comes to the revealed mysteries of Christianity, there
are basically two ways you could ask the question How one comes
from skepticism, from unbelief. You can ask how meaning, how can
this all be true? If this just doesn't make sense
to me, so it it, it must not be true.
I can't explain it. This just doesn't seem to all
hold together. Therefore I conclude false.
And actually, there's some people earlier in Mark's gospel
who basically do that with Jesus, Chapter 6 verse two
people in his hometown synagogue.
When he comes back, they say, where did this man get these
things? What is the wisdom given to him?
How are such mighty works done by his hands?
But they're not really asking for an explanation.
They're like, we know this guy, he's the hometown carpenter's
son. They're skeptical of the things
he's doing and saying because they think they know better.
And their question how is really more like, yeah, we're not
buying it, but there's another way to ask the question how.
You could ask the question how as an expression of faith
seeking understanding, you could say I know scripture reveals 2
truths that seem contradictory to me.
It's like what Michael mentioned in the evangelism class coming
up next week. It's a mystery.
Divine sovereignty and human responsibility.
People have broken their heads on these two seemingly
contradictory truths for thousands of years.
Not just Christians, but secular philosophers, all kinds of
people. What is free will doesn't exist.
Is there a God who rules over all things?
Ultimately, it's a mystery. Scripture teaches 2 truths that
we have a tough time reconciling.
You can say how in a way that leads to a deeper understanding
of both so you come to a fuller knowledge of who God is and who
he's created us to be. You could say I struggle to see
how these two things can be true at the same time.
Lord, show me how. Grant me to accept all that you
teach. Grant me to grow in my
understanding of this part and this part so that I see better
how they fit together. That's essentially the the
challenge of coming to a deeper knowledge of God.
That's a question we always have to keep in mind when we're
reading Scripture. Whenever you come upon a sort of
new truth in Scripture or something that's unfamiliar to
you, you really want to keep in mind everything you already know
to be true about from Scripture. It's possible this new thing you
learned goes and changes an interpretation of something else
you thought you knew. That's always possible, but you
always want to say, Lord, I'll believe everything you reveal.
I will submit to everything you teach.
And if anything ever seems not to fit, I know the problem's me,
not you. I'm going to ask how in faith
and trust that you will lead me deeper into understanding.
So pray. When two scriptural truths seem
to be butting up against each other, turn it into prayer.
Hand it over to God. Submit yourself to Him
spiritually, emotionally submit your mind to Him.
Ask for His help in understanding Him better.
The question How can either express unbelief seeking
validation or faith seeking understanding?
So if Jesus is David's son and Lord, what does that mean for
you and me right now .3 Putting it all together, who is Jesus?
He is God's Son reigning in heaven now and supreme over all
then. God's Son reigning in heaven now
and supreme over all. Then we see this in verse 36.
It's in the part of Psalm 110, verse one that we haven't paid
much attention to yet. Look again at Jesus citation of
the passage, verse 36. Sit at my right hand until I put
your enemies under your feet. In just a few chapters, the
Gospel of Mark is going to narrate how Jesus gets arrested,
tried, killed, how he rises from the dead, and then it kind of
ends abruptly. That's it.
But Psalm 110, verse 1 is a script for what happens next.
It's a script for the rest of the story.
It tells us what's going to happen immediately after Jesus's
earthly career in the book of Acts witnesses to this, and the
rest of the New Testament does too.
After Jesus lives, teaches, dies, rises again, what then?
He ascends to heaven, and he sits down at the right hand of
the Father to do what? To reign over all things from
heaven. Twit end.
God will one day subdue all the sun's enemies under his feet.
That will be God's work, not ours.
It will happen at Christ's return and not before.
That word enemies is unsettling. If you don't trust in Jesus, you
might not naturally think of yourself as God's enemy.
We often overestimate on what good terms we must be with God.
God must be looking at me as a pretty good moral person.
I'm doing my best. I'm an upstanding citizen.
I take care of my family. I pay taxes.
I'm contributing to other people's welfare through my job.
But if that's how you're thinking of yourself before God,
you are missing your fundamental spiritual condition.
Scripture teaches that we're enemies of God.
Our hearts are set against Him. We reject his rule and reign
over us. And that shows up in specific
things we do, which the Bible calls sins.
But sin in the singular is deeply rooted in our hearts.
It's dictating the course of our lives.
It's dominating us. It's setting us at enmity with
God. And his right and righteous
response is wrath. It's punishment.
It's to be set against us as a righteous judge.
If you don't trust in Jesus, you are right this second.
God's enemy. But you do not have to remain
God's enemy. He sent Jesus into the world for
the whole purpose of teaching, healing, living, dying on the
cross to pay for the sins of all those who had turned from sin
and trust in Him. Rising from the grave to triumph
over death and offer eternal life to all who believe.
Ascending into heaven to begin His reign to guarantee that all
who believe in Him will share in His Kingdom.
That's what God sent Jesus into the world to do, to turn you
back to Him through faith in Christ.
If you turn from sin and trust in Christ, you instantly go from
being God's enemy to being God's friend through nothing you've
done but everything that Jesus has done for you.
If you've never turned from sin and trusted in Christ, believe
in Him today. Think about the religious
leaders that Jesus is calling out here, the scribes.
We've seen again and again in the last few chapters that the
scribes are dead set against Jesus.
They're scheming to find a way to kill him.
They're his enemies and they will get him killed.
But after that, one day he will subdue them under his feet.
In the end, there will be only two categories of humanity,
friends of Jesus and enemies of Jesus.
It will be an infinitely fearful thing to be Jesus's enemy on
that last day. Jesus vengeance on his enemies
will last forever. But if you are his enemy now,
you do not need to remain his enemy any longer.
Turn from sin and submit to him. Entrust yourself to him.
Psalm 110 verse one is something like a master key that opens up
the whole New Testament. As Michael mentioned, it's the
Old Testament verse that the New Testament quotes or alludes to
most frequently. And that's by a landslide.
You might even say Psalm 110 verse one is the New Testament's
favorite verse in the Old Testaments.
Why? Because it proclaims Christ's
divine equality with the Father. It reveals some of the fullest,
deepest truth about who Jesus is.
It proclaims Christ's finished work of atonements.
Only after making definitive atonement for sins could Christ
sit down at God's right hand in heaven.
Like Hebrews 10 says, all the old covenant priests had to
stand whenever they were offering sacrifices, stand as
they ministered in the holy place.
Jesus offered one sacrifice, then sat down, showing that He'd
taken care of all the sins of all of God's people.
Psalm 110, verse one proclaims Christ's intercession for us.
Paul Elizabeth verse in Romans 8 to remind us that Christ is
there in God's presence at God's right hand for us.
His presence with God is the pledge of our acceptance with
God. Psalm 110 one proclaims Christ's
present reign over all things. It proclaims His future
judgement of all people, and it implies our final resurrection.
If all of Christ's enemies will be put under His feet, that will
include death, and so our bodies will come up glorified out of
the grave against the backdrop of early Jewish expectations of
a Messiah. Psalm 110, verse 1 is a kind of
all-purpose proof text to explain how Jesus really can be
the Messiah. Think, think your way back into
the situation of the first believers in Jesus right after
his death and resurrection. They would have faced a number
of tough questions from Jewish people that they were trying to
persuade to believe in Jesus as Messiah.
And Psalm 110, verse 1 answers virtually all of them.
What kind of Messiah is Jesus? A dead one?
Didn't the Romans crucify him? You say?
No, he's a resurrected Messiah. What kind of Messiah do you
have? I don't see him on David's
throne. Where is his throne?
It's in heaven. He reigns not over a limited
geographic territory, but over the whole universe, over every
person. He has all authority in heaven
and on earth, and one day every single person who has ever lived
will answer to him. What kind of Messiah do you
have? His enemies appear to be running
rampant all over the place. I don't see any Kingdom of God
around here. The answer is implied in Psalm
110, verse one. He's going to return, sit at my
right hand, until when Jesus returns, every person, every
spirit, every atom in this universe will be subjected to
his will. And so this verse offers the
same rich answers to modern skeptics questions.
What kind of a savior do we Christians have?
One who's not dead but resurrected.
One who's not powerless but reigns over all things.
One who hasn't abandoned us, but who will one day soon return.
Jesus already reigns over all things, but his reign is not yet
perfectly manifested, executed, brought to bear.
It will be 1 day, but until then we wait in hope to kind of round
out the sermon. I want to zoom out and offer
four points of application that flow from the whole passage,
from the truth Jesus is teaching us about himself in light of
Psalm 110 verse one. Four more extended application
points to conclude the sermon #1 when you share the gospel, don't
stop at Jesus death. Instead, keep going to his
resurrection, his ascension, and his rule at God's right hand in
heaven. Consider Peter's gospel
preaching in Acts 530 to 31. This is speaking to a Jewish
audience. He says the God of our fathers
raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree.
God exalted him at his right hand as leader and Savior to
give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.
Or consider Paul's gospel preaching to a Pagan,
polytheistic, non Jewish crowd. In Acts 17 verses 30 to 31, Paul
says the times of ignorance got overlooked, but now he commands
all people everywhere to repent because he has fixed a day on
which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he
has appointed. And of this he has given
assurance to all by raising him from the dead.
Have you ever read through the book of Acts and wondered why do
the apostles seem to say so much about Jesus resurrection and
ascension and kind of little about his crucifixion or the
atonement? It's not because the crucifixion
was unimportant. Redemption, atonement,
forgiveness are all there in the book of Acts.
But the apostles are so insistent about Christ's
resurrection and ascension because the resurrection proves
Christ's claim to be the Messiah.
And Christ's ascension to heaven and sitting down on God's throne
are how he was installed in office as Messiah.
When Christ entered heaven, he took his throne and began to
reign. That's why Jesus says in Matthew
2818 after his resurrection, all authority in heaven and on earth
has been given to me. The cross is absolutely central
to our salvation as Christians. In his death on the cross,
Christ paid our debt in full. But what happened next is
equally important. A dead savior is no savior, and
a king without a throne is no king at all.
So when you share the gospel, don't stop with Jesus's death.
Keep going to his resurrection ascension, his sitting down to
God's right hand, and his soon return.
Application #2 Be confident Christ reigns on heaven's
throne. Be confident Christ reigns on
heaven's throne. Sit at my right hand until those
6 words are the bedrock of a Christian political philosophy.
Christ reigns over all, and until he returns, no earthly
political order will ever perfectly align with his rule,
which means that we as Christians must be in some
measure skeptical and critical of every earthly political
platform, party, and order. Christ has all authority in
heaven and on earth. He is the King of Kings and Lord
of Lords. He is the ruler of the kings on
earth, and yet his reign is not yet perfectly executed.
One day his reign will be undisputed.
That phrase sit in my right hand until tells us that the last
things have begun but are not yet fully present.
So don't let news headlines lead your emotions around on a leash.
Instead, lash your heart to the comfort and the hope of Christ's
present reign in heaven. Psalm 110, verse one is also a
proof text for surviving A cultural crisis.
The key to keeping calm and confident amid any kinds of
challenging circumstances or disturbing trends is fixing your
mind and heart on the fact of Christ's present rule and the
promise of His perfect rule. Whatever news feeds you scroll
through during the day, make sure the news feed from heaven
plays loudest. Make sure that in your mind and
heart, the news from heaven tells you how to interpret the
news from earth. Make sure that the news from
earth doesn't drown out the news from heaven.
And the news from heaven is the same as it has been every day
for 2000 years. Jesus, the Messiah who died for
your sins, reigns on the throne of heaven.
That's good news, That's great news.
It is news that never gets old #3 be encouraged.
Your salvation and sanctification are powered by
Christ's present reign. In Acts 232, Peter proclaims
this Jesus, God raised up, and of that we are all witnesses.
Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having
received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he
has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and
hearing. And then Peter cites Psalm 110,
verse one. Jesus, when he was exalted to
God's right hand in heaven, received the gift of the Holy
Spirit and poured it out on his church, poured out the Holy
Spirit to convict us, to convert us, to sanctify us, to renew us.
Like many kings do. Upon beginning his rule, Jesus
began a building project. But his building project is not
a palace or a temple or a castle.
His building project is us. His building project is a chosen
people from every language and tribe and nation.
And the way he's building us up, the way he's exerting his power
from heaven, is through the Spirit whom He gives to convict,
to convert, and to sanctify us. Jesus puts forth his almighty
power to preserve and transform and conform you to His image.
Your salvation is safe in his omnipotent hands.
Forth. Be patient, be patient.
One day Christ's reign will be perfected and His glory will be
yours. Consider how Paul quotes Psalm
110 verse one in First Corinthians 15, verses 25 and
26. For he must reign until he has
put all his enemies under his feet.
The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
So we're waiting not just for heaven, but for resurrection.
Not just rest, but glorification.
We're waiting for justice. We're waiting for joy.
We're waiting for everlasting intimacy with God.
We're waiting to see our Savior face to face.
That's what you're waiting for. Until Jesus puts all his enemies
under his feet, and he will. So wait patiently and wait and
hope. Jesus is already reigning over
all things, and one day he will bring heaven's rain to earth.
Who is Jesus? Is he just an apocalyptic
prophet? Jesus teaching in this passage
utterly demolishes Bart Ehrman's view of who he is and that of
many other critical scholars. Jesus is not only the Son of
David, but the Lord of David. Jesus not only the son of David,
but the Son of God. The main thrust of Jesus
teaching here is to charge the scribes with having a too small
view of him. So the question for you is, is
your Jesus too small? And if your Jesus is too small,
how do you get a right sized Jesus?
It's not by brainstorming. It's not by saying I like to
think of Jesus as. It's not by looking down into
the well of your own heart and seeing your own reflection.
It's not by lifting a finger to the wind and trying to find a
Jesus who will fit most smoothly with the way the wind's blowing.
The only way to receive the real Jesus is to embrace from the
heart everything Scripture says about Him.
Our job is not to limit what Scripture says, but to
gratefully receive it all. Look at the very end of the
passage, one last little bit. We haven't said anything about
verse 37, The very end. And the great throng heard him
gladly. They could hear the point he
scored on the scribes. This was a mic drop moment for
Jesus. But the kind of vicarious thrill
of seeing Jesus score a point, Yeah, Jesus, you really got him.
Liking the kind of mic drop Jesus doesn't necessarily bring
you any closer to moving from being his enemy to being his
friend. That calls for submission.
That calls for faith. That calls for repentance.
Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we pray that we
would receive Jesus as He is, as you've revealed Himself, as
you've revealed Him to be in Your word, as He showed Himself
by his actions and teachings in His earthly ministry.
Pray that we would submit to Jesus.
Lord, pray that we would delight to crown Him.
Lord of all and Lord of our lives, we pray in Jesus name,
Amen.