Mic Drop Series

Background to passage: This is final exchange in the volley between Jesus and the religious leaders since he entered Jerusalem as a king on a donkey a few days earlier. Jesus will give a couple of long sets of teaching (chapters 23-25) before the events directly leading to his death commence.

Work in Honor God’s Plan, Faith Foundations, basic bible study and theology

Main thought: Jesus brings all the Q&A down to the most important thing: Who is the Christ?

1) Interpretation is Crucial (v. 42-45)

Matthew 22:42–45 ESV

42 saying, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “The son of David.”

43 He said to them, “How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying,

44 “ ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet” ’?

45 If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?”

1) Interpretation is Crucial (v. 42-45)

Explanation: Jesus is blowing up a preconceived notion based on or leading to a misinterpretation of scripture, Psalm 110:1. Jesus clearly believes in the authorship of David, the inspiration of every word of scripture, and the Holy Spirit’s oversight of its words.

2 Timothy 3:16 ESV

16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,

Two views of the Messiah, the Christ, the Chosen One. First that he would be the lesser than great King David, and like David he would be a mighty warrior and a ruling king of a geo-political nation. This leads to improper emphasis, expectation, and identification of that Messiah

Psalm 110:1 ESV

1 The Lord says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.”

Secondly, Jesus understands Messiah meant being “a teacher, and being a redeemer, one who would die for others, not one who would head up great armies and slaughter people.” This would have been a challenge to the religious leaders and their view of the Messiah in front of watching disciples and crowds.

Illustration: John MacArthur and his experience with Dr. Feinberg. Exactly how it is supposed to happen: church member calls another to talk about a hard text they have read and think together. Start with things we know and are sure of, clear, established teachings of the scripture, and together ask questions of the text and context moving into things understood less, interpreting them by clear verses.

Application: What can we draw from this? Two main things. First, we must study hard. God has revealed himself to us, and it is the most important of all things - God. It is essential to your growth that you know and understand scripture. What it says and what it means. You must take responsibility. There are people here that can help you learn to do it. The church as a community can pass along these skills. Learn from and with each other.

2 Peter 1:20–21 ESV

20 knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation.

21 For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

Secondly, know thyself. Understand that you do have preconceptions and previous filters. It’s not that filters are bad or wrong. One of Jesus’s filters was a construct of the truthfulness of the word. We just have to be humble enough to admit that we are not Jesus, and we might be wrong. Again, community is important in helping each other see blind spots. We have to seek and be willing to receive help from those inside our faith family.

2) Application is Critical (v. 45)

Matthew 22:45 ESV

45 If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?”

2) Application is Critical (v. 45)

Explanation: Jesus made his point. Matthew is clear, nobody was able to answer him, nobody dared asked anymore questions. Mic Drop. The religious leaders now had a choice. They could cling to their now misinterpreted discredited theology, or they could turn and reconsider much of what they thought about the Messiah. One that would eventually lead to eternal death. The application here is whether or not one is willing to change if they were wrong.

Illustration: I love history. Don’t get to much, but when I used to watch documentaries on the history channel or the Discovery channel, there would be all these experts and scholars from Harvard or Yale or Princeton and various other educational and intellectual powerhouses that new the scripture well, but they always explained why it couldn’t be just as it was written.

Application: We always want to know what the text of scripture says, what it means, but we must figure out the ways that it applies to our lives. Then we must go one step further so that information leads to transformation. We are called to live the Christian life and not just be able to explain it. Your theology may be perfect, your logic may be impeccable, but your life can still be worldly and hypocritical. In fact that is the definition of hypocrisy - to say you believe something and then live like you don’t. I am meeting with a young man right now weekly as week consider our walk of faith together. This week our material asked us “how do we move from information to transformation.” This is a key question to a necessary concept in the Christian life. We are supposed to transformed/conformed into the image of Christ.