Whose Son Is the Messiah?
Text: Matt. 22:41-46
Introduction
1. Many people have attempted to come to grips with the question who was Jesus?
a. "I am of course a skeptic about the divinity of Christ and a scorner of the notion that there is a God who cares how we are or what we do" - Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
b. "I do not believe in the divinity of Christ, and there are many other of the postulates of the orthodox creed to which I cannot subscribe" - William Howard Taft - 27th President of the U.S.
c. I am an historian, I am not a believer, but I must confess as a historian that this penniless preacher from Nazareth is irrevocably the very center of history. Jesus Christ is easily the most dominant figure in all history.--H.G. Wells
d. A man who was completely innocent, offered himself as a sacrifice for the good of others, including his enemies, and became the ransom of the world. It was a perfect act. --Mahatma Gandhi
e. Jesus is God spelling Himself out in language that men can understand. --S.D. Gordon
f. The most pressing question on the problem of faith is whether a man as a civilized being can believe in the divinity of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, for therein rests the whole of our faith. --Fyodor Dostoevski
2. The most important question that we must all ask is Jesus the Son of God or the son of a man?
3. In answering this question we will consider...
a. An Incomplete Response
b. An Encompassing Reply
c. An Intriguing Conclusion
4. Let's stand as we read Matt.22:41-46
Proposition: As the Messiah, Jesus is the incarnate Son of the Living God.
Transition: First, we will look at...
I. An Incomplete Response (41-42).
A. Whose Son Is He?
1. Throughout this chapter Jesus has dealt with the questions of his enemies who were trying at best to discredit him, and at worst trying to come up with a reason to arrest him.
2. However, now the tables are turned and it is Jesus turn to ask the question. Matthew tells us, "Then, surrounded by the Pharisees, Jesus asked them a question: What do you think about the Messiah? Whose son is he?”
a. After responding to all of their questions, now it was Jesus' turn to ask the questions.
b. His question dealt with a very important issue to them as well as us, the identity of the Messiah.
c. The problem with the Pharisees is that they were viewing everything from a strictly human point of view while ignoring the more important spiritual one.
d. It seems we have a similar problem today because people want to look at Jesus from a mere historical perspective.
e. They want to look at Jesus the figure of history while they ignore the things he said and the miracles he did.
3. The Pharisees replied in a way that we should have come to expect, they said, "He is the son of David."
a. Their interpretation of this question emphasizes the Messiah from a political and nationalistic point of view.
b. What they could not see was the incredible authority in which Jesus had answered all their questions.
c. Now, in the climax of this chapter, Jesus is about to demonstrate his authority in a brand new way (Horton, 487).
d. He did not, however, ask directly about Himself.
e. Although He often had declared His Messiahship and His divinity, He now wanted the Pharisees to focus on what they already believed about the identity of the Messiah.
f. To the Pharisees, as well as to most other Jews, the answer was obvious and simple.
g. Because they were convinced the Messiah was no more than a man, the only identity of the Messiah they took seriously was that of his being the Son of David (MacArthur New Testament Commentary - Matthew 16-23).
h. They knew that the Scriptures taught about the Messiah being from the line of David.
i. 2 Samuel 7:12 (NLT)
For when you die and are buried with your ancestors, I will raise up one of your descendants, your own offspring, and I will make his kingdom strong.
j. While there was some truth to their answer, it was an incomplete answer because it only deals with one aspect of the Messiah.
B. Fully God, Fully Man
1. Illustration: A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg – or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God; or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.--C.S. Lewis
2. Jesus is fully man.
a. Philippians 2:7 (NLT)
Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form,
b. He was born to a woman.
c. He lived most of his life in a small town called Nazareth.
d. He became hungry.
e. He got tired.
f. He felt sorrow.
g. He felt the anguish of separation.
h. He bled.
3. He was fully God.
a. John 1:1 (NLT)
In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God.
b. You cannot accept one aspect of who Jesus is and not the other.
c. You cannot say that he was simply a good man or a good teacher.
d. You cannot say that he was simply a historical figure from ancient history.
e. He cannot be considered good and not be who he said he was: the Son of the Living God.
4. People today don't want to accept his divinity because they cannot accept his demands.
a. John 1:10-12 (NLT)
10 He came into the very world he created, but the world didn’t recognize him.
11 He came to his own people, and even they rejected him.
12 But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.
b. They don't want to surrender their desires.
c. They don't want to surrender their sins.
d. They don't want to surrender their time.
e. They don't want to surrender their lives.
f. You cannot say you believe in Jesus and do your own thing.
Transition: What we need is...
II. An Encompassing Reply (43-45).
A. The Lord Said to My Lord
1. Jesus now points out to the Pharisees the error of their incomplete thinking.
2. He says, “Then why does David, speaking under the inspiration of the Spirit, call the Messiah ‘my Lord’?"
a. Using a rabbinical technique of asking a counter question, Jesus shows the error of the Pharisees.
b. The answer that the Pharisees give is not completely incorrect it's just incomplete.
c. You see, the Messiah from a human point of view is the Son of David, based on the fact that He is a descendant of David's royal line.
d. However, he is so much more than that, because the Messiah is both fully human but also fully divine.
e. The Pharisees problem is that they only saw Jesus' humanity and overlooked his divinity.
f. In correcting them, Jesus shows that the Messiah cannot be just the Son of David.
g. Jesus points out that when David wrote the Scripture he was about to quote he was under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
h. The Greek phrase behind inspiration of the Spirit is identical to that used by John of his vision on Patmos, when he "was in the Spirit on the Lord's day" It refers to being under the control of the Holy Spirit in a unique and powerful way.
i. The reason that they were wrong is that they were not filled with the Holy Spirit the way David had been.
j. They were depending on their own human reasoning and upon what they had been taught by older rabbis who had depended on their human reasoning.
k. Therefore, all they could see was the human descent of the Messiah.
l. Jesus wasn't saying that the Messiah was not the Son of David, but rather that he was so much more (Horton, 487).
3. Jesus continues his argument saying, “For David said, ‘The LORD said to my Lord, Sit in the place of honor at my right hand until I humble your enemies beneath your feet.’"
a. What is important for us to see here is that two different words are being used in the original language.
b. You will notice that in English the first word "LORD" is in all capital letters and the second is not.
c. The reason for this is that the first word is a word that refers to only God.
d. We see it used in the Old Testament anytime the Hebrew Word "Yahweh" is used, which was God's proper name, and was so holy that the Jews would not even speak it.
e. The second word "Lord" has only the first letter of the word capitalized because it is referring to the Messiah.
f. It is using the Hebrew word Adonai.
g. What Jesus is trying to show them is that the Messiah is not just a descendant of David, but also is a the divine Lord of heaven.
h. The Pharisees could not see how the Messiah could be both the Son of David and the LORD of David because they failed to see how Ps. 110:1 as a prophecy of how God would intervene in human history and make Jesus the Messiah the Lord of David (Horton, 489).
i. If David spoke to a Lord besides Yahweh, a Lord who would be enthroned at God's right hand as his vice regent, then the eternal King was someone greater than David, more than merely a descendant of David (Keener).
4. They could be no question to what Jesus was saying.
a. Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, David had declared that God told the Messiah to sit at His (God's) right hand, a place recognized by Jews to be a designation of coequal rank and authority.
b. The verb behind sit in the original text indicates continuous sitting in the place of exaltation.
c. God was going to bring the Messiah to a place of equality with Himself in honor, power, and glory (MacArthur New Testament Commentary – Matthew 16-23).
d. Every Jew recognized Psalm 110 as being written by David and as being one of the clearest messianic passages in the Old Testament.
e. Consequently, there could be no argument—and there was none by Jesus' opponents—that David was speaking here about the Messiah, the second lord mentioned.
f. In other words, David addressed the Messiah as his Lord. Jesus was declaring the Messiah's deity.
B. Jesus As Lord
1. Illustration: Buddha never claimed to be God. Moses never claimed to be Jehovah. Mohammed never claimed to be Allah. Yet Jesus Christ claimed to be the true and living God. Buddha simply said, "I am a teacher in search of the truth." Jesus said, "I am the Truth." Confucius said, "I never claimed to be holy." Jesus said, "Who convicts me of sin?" Mohammed said, "Unless God throws his cloak of mercy over me, I have no hope." Jesus said, "Unless you believe in me, you will die in your sins." --Unknown
2. The Bible is clear: Jesus is the Son of God.
a. John 20:31 (NLT)
But these are written so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing in him you will have life by the power of his name.
b. He is more than a man.
c. He is more than a historical figure.
d. He is God in the flesh.
e. He is the creator and sustainer of all life.
f. He is the Son of God.
3. Jesus is clear about Himself: He claimed to be God.
a. John 14:6 (NLT)
Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.
b. He is the only way to God. Everything else is a counterfeit.
c. He is the only truth and reality. Everything else is a lie.
d. He is the only life. All other paths lead to eternal death and separation from God.
e. No one comes to the true God except by Jesus.
4. The early church was clear about what they taught about Jesus: He is the only way to salvation.
a. Acts 4:12 (NLT)
There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.”
b. The statement that all paths lead to the same place is a lie from the pit of hell.
c. There is only one way to salvation.
d. There is only one way to forgiveness.
e. There is only one way to heaven.
f. That way is through Jesus Christ!
Transition: This leads us to...
III. An Intriguing Conclusion (46).
A. No One Could Answer Him
1. When faced with an undeniable the Pharisees could not debate Jesus teaching.
2. Matthew tells us, "No one could answer him..."
a. By pointing to God, Jesus was able to avoid being trapped by their questions.
b. They on the other hand would have to deny God's authority and power if they objected to Jesus' answers. Once again Jesus had silenced them (Horton, 489).
c. It is probable that some of the leaders who heard Jesus that day eventually believed in Him.
d. But when Jesus finished His short but irrefutable proof of the Messiah's divinity there is no indication that anyone profited from that great truth.
e. The Pharisees and other religious leaders there that day were dumbfounded but not convinced, silenced but not convicted, humiliated but not humbled, reluctantly impressed but still unbelieving.
f. Doubtlessly they were thinking that they had been intimidated and embarrassed for the last time by the uneducated, unordained, and in their minds unorthodox rabbi from Nazareth (MacArthur New Testament Commentary – Matthew 16-23).
g. This sad reality has not changed in our day.
h. Truth has been replaced by relativism; the idea that what is true for you might not be true for me.
i. There is no "true truth" in our society.
3. However, we cannot deny the truth anymore than they did. As Matthew tells us, "after that, no one dared to ask him any more questions."
a. The Pharisees were unable to respond to Jesus because of their one-dimensional thinking.
b. This encounter marked the end of their debates with Jesus.
c. The next confrontation they would have with him would be at the kangaroo court that they would set up the night he was betrayed.
d. We have a kangaroo court of our own today; it is the court of public opinion.
e. It is the belief that we do not need Jesus.
f. It is the idea that we can do our own thing and do things our own way.
g. It is the concept that the only thing that is right is what I say is right.
h. It doesn't matter what tomorrow may bring, we only have to be concerned with today.
i. But there is coming a day when everyone will have to come to grips with a righteous and holy God, and without Jesus we will not have a leg to stand on.
B. No Argument
1. Illustration: God may thunder His commands from Mount Sinai and men may fear, yet remain at heart exactly as they were before. But let a man once see his God down in the arena as a Man--suffering, tempted, sweating, and agonized, finally dying a criminal's death--and he is a hard man indeed who is untouched. - J.B. Phillips, "Your God Is Too Small"
2. We will all have to give an answer.
a. 2 Corinthians 5:10 (NLT)
For we must all stand before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in this earthly body.
b. This will not be a time of debate.
c. There will be no time for a second opinion.
d. We will have to answer to God for what we have done in this life.
e. And there will only be one verdict, guilty!
3. However, there is another way!
a. 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NLT)
This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!
b. God offers us a way out of our sin.
c. God offers us a better life here and now.
d. God offers us the chance to be forgiven, transformed and set free by accepting Christ.
4. But it will only be by grace.
a. Ephesians 2:8 (NLT)
God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God.
b. It won't be because of our own goodness.
c. It won't be because of our own deeds.
d. It will only be by the grace of Jesus.
e. You cannot buy it.
f. You cannot earn it.
g. You can only receive it.
Transition: Have you received salvation by the grace of Jesus today?
Conclusion
1. Many people have attempted to come to grips with the question who was Jesus?
2. To answer this question you must deal with...
a. An Incomplete Response
b. An Encompassing Reply
c. An Intriguing Conclusion
3. Have you come to grips with the person of Jesus?
4. His grace and forgiveness is available for anyone that asks.
