The Messiah Is David's Son

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.