Who is Christ?

Series on Luke, V

The Imminence of the Kingdom

J Title

Text:20:41-47

Introduction

The question Jesus raises here must be answered. The people of His own day were confused about the identity of the Messiah for whom they waited. Therefore when He came they rejected Him. Men still reject Him because they refuse to acknowledge who He is. Our second membership question from the church order of our denomination asks, “Do you believe that Jesus is the Son of God and Savior of sinners and do you trust in Him alone for your salvation as He is offered to you in the gospel?” In fact the early centuries of the Christian Church are littered with the corpses of misguided speculations and heresies about the identity of Jesus. It was not until 450 AD that the Church officially and finally defined the Christ as one person with two natures, fully human and fully divine, unmixed, unchanged, and not a third kind of being. What we have here in our text is Christ at Chalcedon. The Savior is defining for his generation who He is. It is still a crucial question. The very people who should have known whom to expect were the scribes. They were the students of the Bible. But Jesus warns his disciples not to listen to them verses 45-47, While all the people were listening, Jesus said to his disciples, “Beware of the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and love to be greeted in the marketplaces and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets. They devour widows’ houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. Such men will be punished most severely.” They were blinded by their self-centeredness. They were supposed to serve humbly and without charge. Instead they curried favor, loved praise, accepted graft, and insisted on fawning praise from the populace. Jesus was shocked and revolted by the whole charade, but most important was the fact that this self absorption was tied to a national pride that made them look for a Messiah who was an earthly king like David, David’s son who would preserve and protect their crooked lifestyle. Consequently they were not looking for a Messiah who would be Lord of their hearts and lives. Thus I ask you to search with me, today, the Scriptures as Jesus said in John 5:39 and 40. You diligently study the scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. these are the scriptures that testify about me yet you refuse to come to come to me to have life. Consider first then the words of Psalm 110, and then the witness of the Old Testament, the writings of the New Testament and the whole Bible.

I The Words of Psalm 110

That the Messiah was to be the son of David was beyond dispute. God had promised a king to sit on David’s throne forever. But what else was the messiah? Look at verses 41-44, Then Jesus said to them, “How is it that they say the Christ is the Son of David? David himself declares in the Book of Psalms: ”‘The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”’ David calls him ‘Lord.’ How then can he be his son?” According to Jesus in the words of Psalm 110 David himself says that the Messiah is more than his son. He is also his Lord. The actual quotation in the Hebrew says. Jehovah or Jahweh said to my Adonai, that is David’s Lord. In the Greek Old Testament and in the English both words are translated Lord but in the original it is clear that God is speaking to God, indicating the necessity for two persons, the Father and the Son. What God the Father says to God the Son is very important. The majority of the Psalm is framed in military language and speaks of victory over enemies, but right in the middle is this solemn oath of priesthood. The Messiah is of the tribe of Judah, David’s tribe, not of the sons of Levi, the priestly tribe. But he is a priest of a different order. Melchizedek is a priest in Abraham’s day before Levi was born. He was not a priest because he descended from Levi but because of his qualifications. So the Messiah will be a priest because of his qualifications. More importantly we see that the victory is that of a king priest and is not a conventional military triumph, but a victory by sacrifice. It is the Lord’s sacrifice. and this is the witness of the entire Old Testament that the scribes studied.

II The Witness of the Old Testament

First of all, the prophecy of Zechariah, like Psalm 110, brings together the office of king and priest 6:11-13, Take the silver and gold and make a crown, and set it on the head of the high priest, Joshua son of Jehozadak. Tell him this is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘Here is the man whose name is the Branch, and he will branch out from his place and build the temple of the LORD. It is he who will build the temple of the LORD, and he will be clothed with majesty and will sit and rule on his throne. And he will be a priest on his throne. And there will be harmony between the two.’ This may be old stuff to you and me but for the Jews there was an insurmountable barrier between the offices of king and priest. The kings were from Judah, but the priests from Levi. Uzziah the king had wrought many victories for the Lord but his heart was lifted up in pride and he went into the temple and tried to burn incense on the altar as if he were a priest and he was struck with leprosy until the day he died. Here in Zechariah we see that only in the messiah the offices are to be brought together. Furthermore the Old Testament brings together the Messiah’s human descent from David and his eternal divine nature. For example Isaiah says in 9;6 AND 7, For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. When Micah predicts Messiah’s birth in Bethlehem a prophecy the Jews clearly understood to be speaking of Messiah, he says in 5:2, “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.” And, the Old Testament ends with the promise of Malachi in 3:1,“See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the LORD Almighty. The witness of the entire Old Testament is that there will be a final theophany an appearance of God in the flesh, Immanuel. a king-priest who will gain the victory, but they missed it as Jesus says in John 5:39 and 40. Remember he spent much time after his resurrection instructing his disciples in the Old Testament and how it spoke of Him in Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms. Now we must add to this witness the writings of the New Testament.

III The Writings of the New Testament

Though the nation rejected their Messiah, those Jews who received Him recognized the all important fact that He was the king-priest and the God-man deliverer. It is reflected in the gospel teaching because in the gospel accounts Jesus Himself on trial was asked by the high priest, “Are you the Christ, the son of the Blessed?” Jesus replied, “i am and you will see the son of man in the future sitting at the right hand of the mighty one and coming on the clouds of heaven.” This is a distinct allusion to Psalm 110 which declares that the Davidic King will sit at the right hand of God while His enemies become His footstool. Jesus also used the term “Son of man,” directly from Daniel 7:13 and 14, In my vision at night I looked, and there before me 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. Psalm 110 is quoted abundantly in the New Testament in Acts, I Corinthians, Ephesians, Colossians, and Hebrews. In Acts 2 in his sermon on the day of Pentecost Peter says in verses 32-36, God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact. Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear. For David did not ascend to heaven, and yet he said, ”‘The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”’ “Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.” Clearly he is identifying Jesus as both the son of David and the Son of God, and this is the burden of all the Apostolic preaching, namely, to show that this Jesus is that Christ. Furthermore John in the book of Revelation refers to Jesus as the root and offspring of David. Do you get it? They saw clearly that Jesus was not only David’s descendant but David’s Lord, his creator. Paul too adds this clear testimony in Romans 1:i-4, where he declares that he is Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God—the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding his Son, who as to his human nature was a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. Thus we have the witness of the whole Bible to this significant fact.

IV The Whole Bible

Go back to Jesus’ words in John 5:39 and 40, You diligently study the scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. these are the scriptures that testify about me yet you refuse to come to come to me to have life. The Bible does no one any good as a guide to heaven unless they see Jesus in it. The Jehovah’s Witnesses, the new age students, the Mormons the Muslims, the Modernists and the man on the street all use the Bible in their own way as a guide to life, but they all miss the point if they miss Jesus as he is offered in the gospel. He is offered as the only one who can save us because he is the king who is a priest. Since the battle is not against flesh and blood but against sin and death, only a priest can save us, and the only priest who can save us is one who is like Melchizedek, a priest not because of his heredity, but because of who he is. As the God man he is our Messiah; otherwise he is unable to save. But as the Scripture says he is able to save to the uttermost all those who come unto God by Him and by no one else.