The Messiah is David’s Son
Mark 12:28-37
Good morning.
September 25th, 2023 is Yom Kippur, which is known as the ‘Day of Atonement' and it is the holiest day in Judaism.
The Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, is when the High Priest performed rituals to atone for the sins of the people, which the Lord commanded them to do in Leviticus 16.
The Lord warned Moses and Aaron not to enter the Most Holy Place of the Tabernacle, except on the Day of Atonement.
The Lord God appeared in the Holy of Holies, by His own Shekinah Glory, His Divine presence. Only the High Priest could enter the Holy of holies, and onlyonce a year.
The High Priest had to do special ceremonial washings and would sacrifice a bull for a sin offering for himself and his family and then sprinkle the blood onto the Ark of the Covenant.
Then the High Priest would bring two goats, one to be sacrificed because of the uncleanness, rebellion, and sin of the Israelites, and its blood was also sprinkled on the Ark of the Covenant.
The other goat was the scapegoat, where the High Priest placed his hands on its head and sent the goat out into the wilderness.
The Shema from Deuteronomy 6:4 is one the best-known prayers in Judaism and it was to be recited on Yom Kippur.
The word Shema means “hear” in Hebrew and it is the classic Hebrew confession of faith, describing who God is and what our attitude towards Him, should be.
Deuteronomy 6:4 "Hear(Shema), O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one!
Deuteronomy 6:5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.
Please open your Bibles to the Gospel ofMark 12 as we continue in averse-by-versestudy of that Gospel.
Last time inMark, two enemies joined forces to trap Jesus.
The Pharisees and the Herodians formed a temporary allianceagainst a common threat, Jesus; similar to what they did in Mark 3after Jesus healed a man on the Sabbath.
They asked, “Shall we pay, or shall we not pay taxes to Rome?”
If Jesus said to pay the tax, He would have angered the people and admitted Rome had control over Israel instead of God.
If Jesus said not to pay the tax, He would be in danger of Rome arresting Him for being a criminal revolutionary like Barabas, so the religious leaders thought they had set the perfect trap.
Jesus said to render to Caesar, but the other thing He said is way more important, “And to God the things that are God’s”.
Then they questioned Jesus about the Resurrection because the Sadducees did not believe in the Resurrection of the dead.
As Jesus taught the Sadducees about the Resurrection, He took them to the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Old Testament since the Sadducees only believed those books were inspired.
In Exodus, the Lord didn’t say, “I was”, but “I am”, using the present tense showing He is the God of the living, not the dead.
Today after the Pharisees, the Herodians, and the Sadducees had all tried to trap Jesus; a Scribe, who was a lawyer from the Pharisees, then questioned Jesus.
I. The First Commandment.
Read Mark 12:28-31
Matthew 22:34 says Jesus “silenced”the Sadducees.
The word “silenced” in the original language means to muzzle.
This is just a couple of days prior to Jesus’ arrest and the Pharisees decide to muster their troops together once again.
Each group who had sent messengers, had the intent to discredit Jesus with an ultimate goal of destroying the Son of God.
The Pharisees decide to send this lawyer to have a debate over the Mosaic Law. This man was a Scribe of the Mosaic Law, not a lawyer in the sense we would think of today.
The Rabbis had taken the 10 commandments and turned them into 613 laws. Since the creation, God’s desire has been to have fellowship with mankind, but our sin separated us from Him.
The religious leaders complicated God’s commandments to a point that it took experts to determine what they really meant.
The Scribes came to Jesus with this question, again trying to test Him. For centuries the religious leaders had debated what was the most important commandment.
Some people try to say Jesus never asserted Deity, yet all through His teachings, Jesus made claims, He indeed was God.
This question from the Scribes desired to trip Jesus up; either He was not God and He had made false claims while teaching, or Deuteronomy 6, stating that there is only one God, is wrong.
So, they ask Him what the most important commandment is.
Jesus, God incarnate, uses the Shema and tells these lawyers the greatest thing His children can ever do, is to love Him.
The first and foremost commandment comes from the Law in…
Deuteronomy 6:4 "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one!
Deuteronomy 6:5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. NKJV
The Lord is not concerned with religious activities a person performs if those activities do not flow out of love for Him.
Jesus told the Church at Ephesus Revelation 2:4 Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. NKJV
William Lane, “Because the whole man is the object of God’s covenant love, the whole man is claimed by God for Himself.”
The most important thing you can do as part of God’s creation is to love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.
Jesus continues with His answers, again quoting from the Old Testament Law from
Leviticus 19:18 You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD. NKJV
We are to love our neighbor, because they should receive from us, the same kind of love we want to receive from them and God
This is not an either/or: Love God or love your neighbor. By the way, this commandment is impossible to perform in our own strength, but we cannot love God without loving our neighbor.
1 John 4:20 If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?
1 John 4:21 And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also. NKJV
We have been studying parables Jesus gave as answers, to the Pharisees who questioned Him, after He cleansed the Temple.
Remember, the religious leaders asked Jesus in Mark 11:28, "By what authority are You doing these things? And who gave You this authority to do these things?" NKJV
Instead of answering their questions directly, Jesus told them some parables to describe His authority. But here Jesus seems to give a straight answer to this Scribe when he asks this question.
Why the difference in answers? It could be because this Scribe was somewhat sincere in his question, even though the Pharisees who sent him were not.
This man asks Jesus the question, but he has no idea who he is talking to. Jesus is the One True God of the Old Testament who gave the Ten Commandments, so He is able to answer the man.
Colossians 2:9 For in Him (Christ) dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. NKJV
These religious leaders were talking about Commandments having to do with deeds, but Jesus is talking about affection.
The Lord clearly teaches He wants our undivided love.
Loving God with all your heart, which will cause you to love others; so, all of the commandments hang on those 2 principles.
Henry Ironside said, “When the heart is right with God, and He is loved supremely, man too will be loved unselfishly, and so the whole life will be ordered in obedience to the divine Word.
Jesus answered the man’squestion, and the Scribe speaks again.
II. You are close to the Truth.
Read Mark 12:32-34
Notice the Scribe tells Jesus that He has spoken the truth and that there is only one God as revealed in Deuteronomy 6:4, "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one!
The monotheism of the Old Testament meant any claim to deity would be thought of as blasphemous.
Israel was warned several times that there is only One God. But,
Jesus healed people, forgave sins, raised the dead, healed the blind, and many times claimed to be One with the Father, making Himself equal with God.
So, it seems that the Scribe is trying to challenge Jesus’ previous teachings about His own Deity.
Then notice what the Scribe says about the importance of loving God, verses presenting offerings and sacrifices.
Re-read Mark 12:33
When the Scribe mentions the importance of loving God verses offerings and sacrifices, he is possibly thinking back to the words of God to His people through the prophet Isaiah.
Isaiah 1:10 Hear the word of the LORD, you rulers of Sodom; give ear to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah:
Isaiah 1:11 "To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me?" says the LORD."I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed cattle. I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs or goats. NKJV
God had Isaiah write that because Judah thought the way to please the Lord came from religious ceremonies and offerings.
If Judah’s heart wasn’t changed, humbled, and surrendered to the Lord, it made no difference what they offered God. Without the right heart, God hated their religious ceremony and service.
Matthew Henry said, “When sinners are under the judgments of God, they will more easily be brought to fly to their devotions than to forsake their sins and reform their lives.”
The Lord is not asking us for religious rituals and ceremonies, or religious service, as a way of earning His favor. He wants those things offered to Him by us naturally because we love Him.
Why do we love Him? Because He loved us first.
1 John 4:19 We love Him because He first loved us. NKJV
This man realized it was not empty religion that made a person right with the Lord, rather it was a relationship and a surrendered devotion to Him, that the Lord desires.
So, Jesus tells the Scribe, he was not that far from the kingdom.
III. Messiah is Lord.
Read Mark 12:35-37
By this time, the religious leaders had asked several questions...
What do You say about paying taxes to Rome?What do You believe about the Resurrection? What is the greatest commandment in the Law?
So, Jesus asks them a question, not to trap them, but to get to the heart of the matter. Jesus basically asked these leaders, “Do you realize who I am?”
Since these religious leaders had been taught about the coming of Messiah since they were young, they thought they knew everything there was to know about the Messiah.
Jesus asked them a question they probably had not considered.
We must remember that there was roughly 1000 years between David and Jesus. If you study Matthew 1, you will find out that the physical linage of Jesus came directly from King David.
Why did David call the Messiah Lord?
This passage Jesus is referring to in Mark, is found in Psalms 110, which every Scribe believed to be a Messianic Psalm.
Psalm 110:1 The LORDsaid to my Lord"Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool." NKJV
The LORD YHWH or Jehovah, the self-existent God.
My Lord Adonai; master or boss, another name for God.
Strong’s concordance says that Adonai can be used as a reference to God, or as a parallel with Yahweh (YHWH).
The inescapable fact is that by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, David called the Messiah Lord, therefore making Him God.
600 years before Jesus came to earth the prophet Jeremiah said,
Jeremiah 23:5 "Behold, the days are coming," says the LORD, "That I will raise to David a Branch of righteousness; a King shall reign and prosper and execute judgment and righteousness in the earth.
Jeremiah 23:6 In His days Judah will be saved, And Israel will dwell safely; Now this is His name by which He will be called: THE LORD (YHWH) OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. NKJV
What the critics fail to understand is what is known in Christian Theology as the hypostatic union of Jesus Christ, which is a fancy way of saying Jesus is the only one who has a dual nature.
According to gotquestions.org, “The hypostatic union is the term used to describe how God the Son, Jesus Christ, took on a human nature, yet remained fully God at the same time.”
Jesus has always been God, and at the incarnation, Jesus took on flesh as Emmanuel, which means God with us.
Jesus is eternally the Godman, 100% God and 100% man, in one being, forever more.
Jesus said in Revelation 22:16 "I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things in the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the Bright and Morning Star" NKJV
Jesus’ rhetorical question to the Scribes in Mark 12, pointed His listeners to the only valid answer: the Messiah is David’s Son and David’s Lord, at the same time.
The Scribes may have thought Jesus could have come from David’s physical line, but they would not believe He was God the Son.
There are two very different responses to Jesus’ claims.
Notice Mark 12:37, And the common people heard Him gladly.
The common people witnessed the miracles and heard His teaching, so they were willing to take Jesus at His word.
But in this same account in Matthew’s Gospel, we are told in Matthew 22:45 If David then calls Him 'Lord,' how is He his Son?"
Matthew 22:46 And no one was able to answer Him a word, nor from that day on did anyone dare question Him anymore.
After the religious leaders had asked several questions and Jesus answered them all without any room for argument; they have nothing to refute His claims, and nothing left to say to Him.
But, even with all the evidence the religious leaders still would not believe in, nor accept Jesus.
IV. Practical Application.
All parts of leadership in Judaism had come and questioned Jesus. In today’s passage, a lawyer came trying to trap Jesus with a question about the most important commandment.
Jesus replies with verses from the Old Testament Book of Deuteronomy which says to love the Lord with every part of us.
The Lord desired to have relationship and fellowship with His creation; so, He ordered the building of the Tabernacle in the desert and after Israel was settled in the land, the Temple.
The Lord God appeared in the Holy of Holies, by His own Shekinah Glory; His Divine presence dwelt among His people.
The Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) was the only day of the year where the High Priest could enter into the holy of holies and perform certain rituals to atone for the sins of the people.
The High Priest would bathe and put on special garments; sacrifice a bull for a sin offering for him and his family and its blood was then sprinkled on the Ark of the Covenant.
Then he would take two goats, sacrifice one for the sins of Israel and sprinkle its blood on the Ark of the Covenant. The other goat was used as a scapegoat.
Yom Kippur was a picture pointing forward to Jesus’ shed blood at Calvary, where God declared His love and acceptance for the people, as the great exchange, our sin for His righteousness.
The rituals done in the Tabernacle were simply symbols of the satisfaction for sin brought by our High Priest, Jesus Christ.
After all the rituals, the High Priest could enter in; if he had some un-confessed sin in his life he would be killed instantly.
Though the High Priest could finally enter in the Holy of Holies where God’s Shekinah glory was; the High Priest still could not obtain nor provide others with real fellowship with the Lord.
Since 70 A.D., there is no longer a Temple in Jerusalem; because the Old Testament Temple was simply a picture of Jesus would do on the cross, and the real Temple is in heaven.
Since Christ’s death, there is no longer a need for a physical temple or animal sacrifices; the Holy Spirit now lives inside believers; so,our bodies are now the Temple of God.
Later the Apostle Paul asked, 1 Corinthians 6:19 do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?
1 Corinthians 6:20 For you were bought at a price; therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.
When Jesus offered Himself as our offering on the cross, He fulfilled the righteous requirements of the Law on our behalf.
There is no longer a need for animal sacrifices; He covered our sin, made peace between us and God, and paid for all our sin.
The cross is how we become “Holy, acceptable” to the Lord.
Romans 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.
Romans 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
One we are saved, as a response to all the Lord has saved us from, from a heart of Love, a Spirit Filled walk of a believer, means dying to self and living for Christ, moment by moment.
It is so important for the believer to understand the difference between the “practical” and the “positional” life in Christ.
There are times when a believer does not see themselves, the way the Father sees them as Holy or Acceptable to God.
The words they may have spoken, their actions, or the thoughts in their heart, may not constitute holiness.
A Christian is not Holy and Acceptable because, they have lived a sinless life after they have come to faith.
A Christian is Holy and Acceptable because God the Father sees Jesus Christ, living in that follower.
When a person comes to Christ by Faith and accepts His free Gift of Salvation, the Lord cleanses them by His shed blood.
In the song, “Here I am to worship”, part of the lyrics read, “I'll never know how much it cost; to see my sin upon that cross”.
The price Jesus paid to redeem dead, sinful, fallen man, was the ultimate sacrifice; but why did He want to purchase us back?
The Lord created us, first for His glory; He also created us in His image. We were created for the His purposes, to fellowship with Him, to worship Him and enjoy the life He gave us.
Left to our own vices and decision making, we would never fulfill the plans the Lord has for us; so again, you are not your own; you were bought at a price.
God doesn’t cause sin; fallen man and the enemy cause sin.
Because the Lord is sovereign and knows the outcome of everything, He uses trials, suffering, relationships, and blessings, in order to conform us into the masterpiece He made us to be.
Once we are saved, we become a new creation, with a new identity, with a completely new way of thinking!
If a person’s heart is focused on the Lord, and He has first place in their heart, they will naturally want to fulfill His will.
Deuteronomy 14:2b the LORD has chosen you to be his treasured possession. NIV
That’s how it is for the Lord. He created us; He owns us; but we were sold to sin.
So, Jesus died to purchase us back and when we accept His free gift, we belong to Him, as His treasured possession.
