The Gospel of Luke 20:41-47 The Son is Davids son

Good morning. We're going to proceed here through Luke 20, 41 through 47, as Randy just read for us here. And one of the things to point out to you is this is still Wednesday. As a matter of fact, it's been Wednesday for several Sundays, right? And for the next few Sundays, it's still going to be Wednesday, right? So just get that, you know, Straighten your mind here. The Jews would have called it the fourth day of the week. They wouldn't settle for what we have is actually our names for days of the week are actually a pagan origin. It doesn't mean that to us though.

The Jews, at this point in time, are pouring into Jerusalem and the surrounding areas. They're beginning Passover the next day, and then they'll have the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which will last for about another week. So Passover is just the beginning of it.

So you'll have Jews in great number pouring in, not only from Israel, but coming in from other parts of the Roman Empire, and even outside the Roman Empire. And so the population of Jerusalem would typically swell from about 40,000 to about 250,000 during these feast times. So as Jesus is teaching, there's quite a few people that are pouring in. Some of them may have heard Jesus teach before. Others may not have, and it may be their first time listening. So everyone will soon be occupied with preparing for Passover.

Slaughter of the lambs would begin at noon the next day by the way thousands and thousands and thousands of lambs So they'd start at noon. They'd have all priests on deck basically for this slaughter of the lambs the last supper as we call it, for Christ and His disciples, begin after sundown the next evening. So this is getting to the point where we're kind of counting the hours here as it gets closer and closer to the Last Supper and then following that, Christ's arrest and crucifixion.

This would be a pretty genuine picture of what the temple would have looked like from the Mount of Olives. One of the things you'll note there is that while the temple is gleaming and they've got a lot of gold on it, that was true to the temple as it was upgraded, with an upgrade that was begun under Herod, as we call him, not so great. And there would have been a fire continuously going through that. This is kind of an oblique view looking down at the temple and the temple courtyard.

That courtyard during times of feasts like this would be jam-packed, full of people, some of whom would be Jews and some of whom would not. And also during that era, lots of animals being brought in. In preparation, actually the selection of the Passover lamb was typically done several days before Passover. But the animals would be brought in for slaughter the next day.

But nonetheless, jam-packed here, usually in the perimeter colonnade that you see there, where Jesus would typically be teaching and we have let's see if we can get this thing going here properly there we go this would be starting looking up the roadway starting from about where Jesus was going to hold the Last Supper and heading towards the temple area.

And as you get closer you'll see off on the corner there's a little archway. We're going to get a closer look at that archway momentarily here as the simulation changes shape. So this would be the path from about where the Last Supper was held up towards where the Temple Mount was located.

Now shifting, this would be called Robinson's Arch in the foreground and the arch you see in the background is called Wilson's Arch. Robinson's Arch is the one you see in the foreground, Wilson's Arch is the one in the back. Now it's going to take a walk up the stairs. So now you're seeing what it would be like if someone were heading up those stairs and heading towards what's called Robinson's Arch there. and be one of the ways there was also a southern entrance to the temple and people would be coming in pouring in from all these locations.

Now here would be the perimeter colonnade that Jesus would be teaching in. He would have people gathering in there and he'd be teaching often in these areas. and have people gather around. The acoustics would be better in there, too, rather than out in the open courtyard. This is from what's called the Royal Stoa from the south coming into the temple courtyard. And the Royal Stoa, as we just saw, would be another place where Jesus might be teaching. They're heading towards the temple courtyard.

One of the things you see is the smoke coming up continuously. According to the Law of Moses, that smoke was always to be there. They were never to let that fire go out. They had rotations among the different tribes and clans as to who was responsible for cutting the firewood to keep the firewood coming into the temple so that there was always firewood and it never went out.

Okay, so here is a snapshot. This is Robinson's Arch. as we saw there in the animation, and this would be Wilson's Arch. Let's take a look at how those look now. This is under Wilson's Arch in the Western Wall Tunnels, so that arch is still there and present and visible. You can still see it. Robinson's arch, however, is a different story. That story where you saw the simulation, you saw the arch, it's broken off. Here's Coordinator Ingrid looking at it. You can see it was a very substantial structure at the time, but it was broken off by the Romans and subsequent attacks.

Now, why would I go over all this stuff? It's more than just technical detail. You may hear people say, oh, Jesus, all that stuff is just a bunch of mythology. I've even had some internet interactions with a couple of atheists who said that Jesus never existed. And so my reason for going over this is partly just to get a sense of this is real stuff. These were real people at a real time and a real place. This actually happened. This was not mythology. And so here in these courtyards, the perimeter colonnade along the outside of the courtyard would be where Jesus would be teaching. And even though those were all destroyed by the Romans, they were real things at the time. And even to the point where UCLA is the one that put together this animation with the Israel Antiquities Authority.

So we looked some time ago at the Jesus genealogy through the line of Mary, and that was back in Luke chapter one. But additionally, you get the genealogy through chapter three. And so the Messiah must be descended from King David. That's one of the requirements. He must be of the tribe of Judah, which is why we hear him in Revelation. Christ called the Lion of Judah. and of the line of Abraham, and born of a woman, and not a man. And so that woman was Mary.

Jesus is without question of the line of King David, and that's in both Joseph's line and Matthew. And I think your handout may have a typo. It should be Luke 3, 23 through 38. So many times Jesus is called simply the Son of David, and that was often given as a title for the Messiah. Jesus would be called Son of David, and that's what that references to. But there's some problems with that.

Many of the Jews had superficial ideas of the Messiah. Now would be a great time for the Messiah to come, because we really need him to get these stupid Romans out of here, right? And so that mentality was actually pretty common, even to the point where we're going to get the Romans out of here whether the Messiah comes or not became the mentality. So anyway, and again, it's a very superficial mentality because if the Jews are under somebody else, it's because they need to repent and change, right? Not because they need to overthrow the Romans or whoever else is over them.

The other really big problem, and one that Jesus is going to address here, the Pharisees saw the Messiah as the son of David, but did not see him as deity. And this is true of the Orthodox Jews today. They see the Messiah as the son of David, a descendant of David. They do not see the Messiah as deity. Jesus is addressing that problem. But it created a huge problem in the Jews accepting Jesus, as we'll see.

The prophet Nathan said to David, and this is roughly 1000 BC, your house and your kingdom shall endure before me forever, your throne shall be established forever. In accordance with all these words and all this vision, so Nathan spoke to David. So this is the covenant with David, where David is promised, a descendant of yours will reign forever. So here's the Apostle Paul describing it in his terms in Galatians 4, 4, and 5. But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, so that he might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

So in Luke 20.41, it says, Then he said to them, How is it that they say, The Christ is David's son? So Jesus is asking this.

How is it that they say that the Christ, the Messiah, and the Christ is the Greek form, Messiah, is the Hebrew form, both mean the anointed one. Both mean the anointed one. How is it said that the anointed one, the Messiah, is just simply David's son? So at first it might sound like Jesus is questioning that he is David's son, but he's trying to make another point here. So let's hear him out.

He's actually going to bring up a really big point that the Pharisees don't understand. That is, Christ is not just the son of David, but he is also deity. People will ask from time to time, well, why didn't the Jews accept Christ as the Messiah? This is one big reason right here. And that's exactly what Jesus is pointing out. The point Jesus is about to make asks this question, how is it that they, and essentially the Pharisees were the teachers who said this, and they were popular among the people, and they had following among the scribes, they say the Messiah is only David's son and nothing more. That's the issue.

He is only a descendant of David, nothing more, but he certainly is not God. He certainly is not deity. That's what they didn't get. That's what they didn't understand. So by not understanding that, that Jesus was more than just a physical descendant of David, who will be the Messiah, but he's also deity, they concluded Jesus was a blasphemer instead of he's the Messiah, right? So this was a big point in their rejecting Christ, because they didn't understand that He would be both God and man, that He would be deity and full humanity as well.

They didn't get that. So instead, when He would claim deity, what would they do? It's time to pick up rocks, right? In this instance, He's just simply asking the question. Of course they're not into answering his questions right now. They found that that doesn't work very well. So he can ask it even if they don't answer. But I have to tell you it gets worse.

Not only have the Pharisees and their friends the scribes and their mutual enemies the Sadducees all thought that Jesus was a blasphemer claiming himself to be God. Now think about the Sadducees. The Sadducees didn't believe there was a Messiah. They didn't believe there was one at all. But they all thought that Jesus claiming to be God Himself was a horrible, most awful thing to do. Blasphemy. Worthy of death.

By not correctly understanding that the Messiah is also deity, all of these leaders, all of them, have rejected Christ as the Messiah and have refused to believe the gospel of the kingdom we've mentioned before there are two gospels gospel of the kingdom having to do with the kingdom and Christ as Messiah and then the gospel of substitution Christ died for your sins was buried and rose again this is the gospel of the kingdom that they've rejected outright because Christ not only claimed to be the Messiah, a descendant of David, but he also claimed deity, something they outright rejected. And so all the groups would have considered his claim to deity to be invalid and rejected it. So it meant two things, lost opportunity and horrific tragedy. Not only did the rejection of Christ as the Messiah and as deity, both, set aside the opportunity for the kingdom to come into being quickly and for all to enjoy the kingdom in eternity. You see, what would have happened if the Jews would have said, Wow! Jesus really is the Messiah!

Right? And what if they had embraced Him right there and recognized Him? Do you realize that the kingdom would have followed soon? Shortly thereafter. And guess what? There wouldn't be us, the church. Right? But that's not what they did. So they lost the opportunity by failing to see not only was Jesus the descendant of David and the Messiah, but he was also deity. And they lost that tremendous opportunity. What would it have been like if the kingdom had begun almost 2,000 years ago? Wow! But they also brought on a horrific tragedy upon themselves.

The failure to see Christ for who he was and is now, it also brought on this massive tragedy that the Jews would bring upon themselves great loss of life. We've mentioned previously over a million Jews died in this Roman attack upon Jerusalem and upon Israel.

Horrible, horrific time. so they brought on both a loss of opportunity as well as this horrible tragedy upon themselves so Luke 20 42 and 43 says for David himself says 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 I was quoting from Psalm 110 and interestingly enough that's the most quoted psalm and in fact the most quoted Old Testament verse in the New Testament. So as the Lord says to my Lord, Psalm 110 says, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. And by the way those two words for Lord are different words in the Hebrew. We'll talk about that.

This is quoted in the New Testament aside from this passage we are looking at now, otherwise in whole or in part or made reference to in Acts, Romans, 1st Corinthians, Ephesians, Colossians, Hebrews, 1st Peter and Revelation, in all those places as we were going through the book of Hebrews numerous times beginning at the first chapter, Hebrews 1.3, and continuing at intervals all the way into chapter 10. many references in Hebrews, but nonetheless often quoted throughout the New Testament, even used in Peter's first address there on the day of Pentecost when the church was begun and Peter was addressing Jews from different parts of the Roman Empire and even outside the Roman Empire. The Jews were very familiar with this passage. One of the things for us to note, this is Psalm 110, we just took a look at there.

The Psalms took a thousand years to collect. And a lot of times we don't think of that. There is 150 Psalms, almost half, 73 of those, written by King David. He's credited for almost half of them. So that's a great number. And this Psalm 110 is one of those Davidic Psalms, one of those Psalms written by King David.

Psalms we can look upon as Israel's national hymn book. People often read the Psalms and just take everything in directly. It's important to recognize it's Israel's national hymn book. It is inspired writing. It is written for our instruction. We have to learn to interpret and apply and understand it correctly because it's Israel's national hymn book. It's not intended to to be taken directly without scrutiny by us in the church and the body of Christ.

Here's Psalm 110.1 that Jesus quote will bring out strongly that the Messiah is deity not just a human being David nor just a descendant of King David. It's interesting some years ago I had an opportunity to sit down with an Orthodox rabbi here locally and talked to him about various things, and it was fascinating, but every other thing that he said was kind of startling. But one of the things he said is, we do not see the Messiah as deity, and I don't want to talk about it. So this is a key point.

Psalm 110.1 very much makes the point, and so Jesus quotes it and then asks the question.

And I said previously, the two words for Lord are different words. Yahweh is the personal name of God. Sometimes that's pronounced Jehovah, although that's not the most correct way to pronounce it. Yahweh is the personal name of God, says to my Lord. And that second word for Lord is one having authority. So this is the one having authority over David. So Yahweh, the personal name of God, says to My Lord, the one who has authority over me.

So Jesus is showing that God the Father is addressing God the Son and telling Him that He is to be seated with Him. So this is the personal invitation, be seated with Me. So this is one person of the Trinity, God the Father, addressing another person of the Trinity, who is God the Son. And so we have this illustration and table here to explain the Trinity.

Oftentimes people get rather puzzled, but what the Bible teaches is the Trinity, the three persons, are three personal beings, one essence. Three personal beings, one essence. One of the reasons we struggle with that is because we human beings are one personal being, one essence. And so for us to say, OK, three personal beings, one essence, we don't go there. We don't do that. Right. So but that's the way the scripture makes clear three personal beings, one essence.

And we have in there, between the Father and the Son, the Father is not the Son, so John 18, 1 through 11. And by the way, I modified that reference based on Adriana's asking a question one Sunday after church. And I said, OK, we need to put more verses in there. The Father is not the Holy Spirit, John 14, 26. And the Son is not the Holy Spirit, Acts 10, 38. Now, I give those as references. In fact, you could give more, right?

But the Father is God, is deity, as we say. The Son is God, is deity, as is the Holy Spirit. So that's what that statement is intended to communicate here. So what this passage is saying, it's referring to the Father who is saying to the Son, you know, be seated at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.

So here is how the Apostle Paul includes this truth in Colossians 3.1, Therefore, if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. So there's that truth, and that's also how we respond to that truth. Christ is seated at the right hand of God, so what do we do?

Set your mind on things above. Keep seeking the things above where Christ is. Here's Hebrews 12, 1 and 2, and I've abbreviated verse 1 in order to get to the point in verse 2. Therefore, let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. We also have some Old Testament passages that I think are insightful.

In this one, Exodus 15.6, your right hand, O Lord, is majestic in power. Your right hand, O Lord, shatters the enemy. I'd like to give some context for that. This is a part of the Song of Moses. In other words, it's a larger psalm, not only there in Exodus, but also carried over into the Psalms. So let's look at the background of that, go quickly through it.

Moses and his brother Aaron, would appear before their own people and also before Pharaoh's court and so they would repeatedly go and appeal to Pharaoh and then because Pharaoh did not respond the Lord brought on ten plagues and they got progressively nasty more and more nasty until the death of the firstborn at which Pharaoh finally relented for a time And then the Jews had their Passover, where they were to eat the Passover meal, standing up. By the way, that was something that standing up requirement was something that the Jews kind of backed off on as subsequent observances came where they actually do and did sit down. So the Passover meal, and then they had the Exodus, taking off, all the Jews leaving. until they got pressed up against the sea. And so, as the Jews are panicking, Moses says, no, wait a minute.

Parts of the waters, right? And so then the Egyptians say, hey, wait a minute, we shouldn't have done that. And so they start sending an army after the Jews. But Moses outstretches his hand and says, Lord, it's part of the waters. As the waters were parted, the Jews would enter on dry land, and they had this really great walk-through aquarium. So they made it through, went pushing through, and got all these Jews through the sea. And as they got over there, and there was also the pillar of fire right over the water. So the Jews then came out on the other side. Then Pharaoh's army, who had been held back by this pillar, of cloud and fire, they've been held back, were then allowed to pursue. And pursue they did.

And they didn't come out so well, right? Because then the Lord brought the waters back and wiped out the enemy and the Jews didn't have to even fight. They didn't lose, you know, some percentage of people, nothing. And the Lord defeated the enemies, the Egyptians. So that's the context for your right hand, O Lord. And what's the right hand? And I'm a lefty, by the way. The right hand is the hand of power. Right? The right hand is the hand of power. And so your right hand, O Lord, shatters the enemy.

That's the context for what this is saying. Here is Luke 22, and this is the passage we're going to be getting into. This brings up the very same points that Jesus is talking about here. And this, by the way, is Caiaphas giving an interrogation. When it was day, the council of elders of the people assembled, both chief priests and scribes, and they led him, that is Christ, away to their council chamber, saying, If you are the Christ, that is the Messiah, tell us.

But he said to them, If I tell you, you will not believe, and if I ask a question, you will not answer. But from now on the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the power of God. And they all said, Are you the Son of God then? And he said to them, Yes. And not just, Yes I am, but Yes Ego Emi, that is, Yes I, I am, in fact, Deity.

He told them straight out, didn't he? I'm the Messiah. I am deity, and you guys do not believe in any of this, are you? Right? And they said, what further need do we have of testimony, for we have heard it ourselves from his own mouth. He's claimed to be the Messiah. He's claimed to be deity. He's a blasphemer. Therefore, he deserves to die.

Here's Hebrews 1, 1 through 4. God, after he spoke long ago to the fathers and the prophets in these many portions and in many ways in these last days, has spoken to us in his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he also made the world. And he is the radiance of his glory and the exact representation of his nature, and upholds all things by the word of his power. When he had made purifications of sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. Right hand, the hand of power, right? Having become much better than the angels as he has inherited a more excellent name than they.

Okay, so this word until, okay? Until. The last part of Psalm 110.1 says, until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. The picture there is on a throne and then they would have a footstool in front of the throne for the royalty to rest their feet upon.

So Christ is now seated at the right hand of the Father and we are now in our position and Christ seated with Him in the heavenlies. A day is going to come when Christ will come from heaven to earth and us with Him. That day could be as soon as seven years from now. He will come again. He will come in power. We will come with Him, but we won't have to do any fighting. He will do it all with the word of His mouth, and He will crush all those who oppose Him.

Luke 20.44, Therefore David calls Him, Lord, how is He a son? He's not calling in to question the fact that he is a son of David.

That's what they would already embrace. As a matter of fact, in the Hebrews it is evident that he's of the line of Judah. You could walk over to the records that they kept there in Jerusalem and look up, Jesus was descended from Judah, he was descended from David. You could tell, and nobody disputed that. He was descended both through Joseph and through Mary, from David. That could be shown. That wasn't a question. What was in question in their minds, and they had not embraced it, was Christ was also fully deity. Fully God and fully man. So David calls him Lord. This is the word Adonai.

It's not a question directed to the Pharisees teaching about the Messiah. Excuse me, this is a question directed to the Pharisees teaching about the Messiah. Jesus asked it to everyone who was listening there. Why? Because all the people, with the exception of the Sadducees, all the people highly regarded the Pharisees. In fact, that's something that we'll take a look at here shortly. Only in the New Testament do you read negative things about the Pharisees. Only in the New Testament. Nowhere else.

David called the Messiah Lord, Adonai, and the same as Gideon also called God Lord and Adonai. Judges 6.13. My Lord, my Adonai." People had seen that questioning or debating with Christ didn't work out so well for them, right? So they didn't ask any questions, nor give any answers. But Jesus could still ask it. Get them thinking. For any who would dare to think.

So here's Luke 20, 45-47, and while all the people were listening, He said to the disciples, Beware of the scribes! who like to walk around in long robes and love respectful greetings in the marketplace. And chief seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets and who devour widows' houses for appearance's sake offer long prayers. These will receive the greater condemnation. Let's take a look at some of the things that are offered there.

Everything that Jesus describes has to do with relationships with other people. How do I look to other people? With the clothes that I wear. How do I look to other people with how I pray? Everything is about relationship with other people. the chief places in the synagogue. When you sit down in the synagogue, you want to sit in the important places, right? When you sit down at a banquet, you want to sit near the head of the table to get top ranking. They always sought that. Give me the important places at the synagogue and at banquets.

We have it in this context here because we give the Matthew 23, 14 and Mark 12, 40 cross-references there. Now, one of the things we point out is about widows. Widows were especially vulnerable right alongside the orphans. Widows and orphans are kind of words that you see together because they were both very vulnerable in Jewish society. Almost two dozen times, widows and orphans are in the same verse together in the Bible, Old Testament and New. A widow's estate often became the target of strategies to get property and valuable possessions.

And guess who wrote down things like death certificates, and here's the will, and things like that? The scribes would write those things down. It would put them in a particularly good position to take advantage of the widows. And that's why Jesus would write, devour widows' houses. And they would go to judges who were hired by the Romans and make deals with them in order to get the widow's houses and take the property away from the widows so that the widow had nothing, nothing left.

So Jesus spoke out boldly against these scribes. They were friends of the Pharisees. And in Matthew 23, 1-36, Jesus pronounced eight woes against the scribes and the Pharisees together, right? Just great diplomacy, of course, right? And that was in parallel with the same event that we're reading about here, okay? There are at least two reasons for Jesus to make these kinds of pronouncements against the scribes and the Pharisees and at this particular time. One, nobody else was warning people. We don't have anyone else writing negative things, recorded from that time, outside of the New Testament. Nobody else was warning about the problem with these scribes and Pharisees.

Secondly, Jesus was pressing them to take His life soon. All the questions that they had come to Jesus with, that were supposed to trick Him, didn't work. None of them worked. They had run out of ideas. He wanted them to come and take his life at the right time. Not quite yet. He still had things to tell his disciples. But at the right time. He wanted them to take his life. So Jesus, within just a couple of days, be crucified. Less than 48 hours actually from this time. And why would he do that? Why would he do that? There are at least six things that happened on the cross as Christ was crucified that day and we'll be taking a look at those in a little bit more detail later.

One, Christ died for our sins in our place. This is something that is probably most commonly understood as to why Christ would die. And that was for every single person on the planet for all time. Christ died for your sins and for mine. Christ died for the sins of Adam to the last person born on the planet. He died for the sins of Adolf Hitler. He died for the sins of Judas. In that sense, everyone is savable. In that sense, everyone is savable. He died for our sins in our place, instead of me. Christ's death made the devil powerless for every person who believes. The devil's threat, the devil's threat is empty. Christ's death confirmed Israel's new covenant.

This is what we'll see as we get a little farther on in Luke. This is the new covenant in my blood. This is his death as the confirmation, as the gesture or sign that will confirm Israel's new covenant. We see this, for example, in the life of Abraham and of Jacob. where there would be some sign or gesture that would go along with the covenant, the sacrifice for example. And this was God's sacrifice confirming Israel's new covenant.

Next, Christ paid the bride price for us. One of the things we pointed out in recent weeks in our How to Study the Bible class is that Jewish wedding traditions required that you pay a bride price for the bride. And it was established between the father of the bride and the father of the groom, ultimately then face-to-face negotiated with the groom. But the bride price required for you and for me was his death. He paid the bride price for us in the church. Christ paid the price for a slave or a flock. for us in the church.

This is Acts 20, 1 Corinthians 6. And finally, the sixth purpose, and this has to do with the church, we were identified with his crucifixion and with his death. So there are at least those six things, and I'd be open to finding more, but that's something we'll point out here. At least those six things that were being accomplished there that day.

And can you imagine, here's the disciples, They are terrified. They are freaking out to see Christ dying. And Christ is, on His end, He's looking at it and saying, I'm getting a lot done today. I'm getting a lot accomplished. All these things, He accomplished. And He had them in mind. A lot got accomplished that day and he's only less than 48 hours from that time when he'd be crucified for you and for me. So the believer is in Christ starting with having been crucified with him. Isn't that a great accomplishment?

Let's pray. Lord, we thank you as we look at this passage. It's amazing that with what's coming up, that you were, as we look back on it, you were not so preoccupied with what was taking place, that you would stop warning, that you would stop teaching, that you would stop offering the truth. And so we just pray as we see that truth, just that we would understand it, that we would take it in and learn from you. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.