THE TEMPLE WAR: The Lordship of Christ – part 1

Sep 27, 2026 • Rory Mosley

074 THE TEMPLE WAR: The Lordship of Christ – part 1

Mark 12:35-37 (35-36)

September 27, 2026

Last Sunday we covered such an important text.

Jesus Himself called it the “foremost of all” of the commandments.

Mark 12:12:29-31 “Jesus answered, “The foremost is, ‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ “The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

Jesus, I suppose, could have answered somewhat diplomatically and said something like, “Oh, they’re all great!” “Oh, I could never choose just one.” “I love all of the commandments of God.”

But that’s NOT what He did.

He didn’t hesitate and He didn’t studder.

He immediately quoted Deuteronomy 6:4-5.

Hands down the absolute foremost is that we are called to love God.

· Our calling is NOT simply to recognize Him.

· Our calling is NOT simply to know about Him.

· Our calling is NOT even to preach Him or teach about Him.

OUR PRIMARY CALLING IS TO LOVE HIM.

This was the constant problem of Israel throughout the Old Testament.

· They knew who God was.

· They had copies of God’s Law.

· They sat and listened to God’s prophets.

· They participated in God’s feasts and sacrifices.

· They experienced God’s deliverances.

BUT THEY DID NOT LOVE GOD.

· Not with all their heart, for they began to worship idols.

· Not with all their soul (life), for they devoted themselves to wickedness.

· Not with all their mind, for they grew to hate God’s word.

· Not with all their strength, for they grew apathetic toward the things of God.

We read Jeremiah

· How God refers to them as harlots for their spiritual adultery.

We read Malachi

· About their apathy bringing only broken and lame sacrifices to God.

We read in Haggai

· How they cared only for their own house while the house of the LORD lay desolate.

THEY JUST DIDN’T LOVE GOD.

And therefore their worship was never acceptable to Him.

Had they loved God

· They would have been devoted to Him alone.

· They would have walked in obedience to Him.

· They would have listened to His word.

· They would have taken their service seriously.

Love is the supreme command.

Love is the supreme point.

And it is important that we START THERE THIS MORNING

Even as we move forward to a new text.

Because the texts are clearly linked.

At this point all the interrogation is over.

1. They have confronted Jesus to question His authority.

2. They have confronted Jesus to try to trap Him regarding taxes.

3. They have confronted Jesus to try to stump Him regarding the resurrection.

And they have failed miserably in every attempt.

Now they are all out of bullets.

Mark 12:34b “…After that, no one would venture to ask Him any more questions.”

They were finished with their attacks.

BUT JESUS WAS NOT.

He had a question for them.

And it is a question which again

Strikes at the very heart of their religion.

It is a question that goes beyond simple recognition.

It is a question that goes beyond simple doctrinal accuracy.

IT IS A QUESTION THAT PROBES THE HEART.

Jesus is on the hunt, not just for intellectual understanding,

But for true heart transformation.

WE TALKED SUNDAY NIGHT about those 3 Latin words which the Reformers loved to explain genuine conversion.

· NOTITIA – (notes) – the facts or the truth of the gospel.

· ASSENSUS – (ascent) – believing the facts to be true.

· FIDUCIA – (confidence) – obeying and trusting the facts I believe.

We talked about that Scribe who had notitia and assensus,

He knew the correct answer, and he agreed with it.

We wanted to see if he has fiducia,

Confidence in that truth

So that He will now give His life to the love of God.

Jesus wants to see that too.

In fact, Jesus wants

The entire crowd in the temple to face that very reality.

He wants to push them past the facts

Into genuine trust, confidence, and obedience.

And He’ll do so with yet another Bible exposition.

The subject is: THE LORDSHIP OF CHRIST

THE ISSUE IS: who Christ is and what He actually deserves from us.

And this is a far from irrelevant topic of discussion.

I grew up in the era (and many of you knew it too)

When people like to claim that you could accept Jesus as Savior,

And then later in life make Him Lord.

It was the ultimate expression of what we call “Easy Believism”.

· Where the only thing that mattered was getting someone to walk an aisle,

· Make a public confession,

· And then get baptized.

And if we could get people to do that we told them, “Now you’re saved”.

And it didn’t really matter what happened after that.

We’d see people make that decision in church

And in a very short time totally abandon the church, obedience,

And sometimes even publicly deny Christ altogether.

And in order to explain this rampant apostasy Bible teachers would say, “Well they accepted Jesus as savior and they are saved.

They just never accepted Him as Lord.”

IT WAS NONSENSE AND INCREDIBLY DANGEROUS.

What we learned from reading the Bible is that

There is no distinction between accepting Christ as Savior

And confessing Him as Lord.

Romans 10:9 “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;”

The apostle Paul clearly linked the two together.

YOU MUST CONFESS CHRIST AS LORD.

But he went even further than that, and it is so important.

Romans 10:10 “for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”

Paul taught us that the confession of Christ as Lord

Is only valid when it comes from a heart that believes Christ is Lord

We aren’t looking for absent confessions.

We aren’t looking for empty confessions either.

James 2:19 “You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.”

What Paul was looking for.

What we are looking for.

What Christ was looking for.

Was people who genuinely believed; who genuinely loved God;

And who as a result of that love and belief

Confessed Christ as Lord and obeyed Him.

PEOPLE MUST CONFESS CHRIST AS LORD

BECAUSE THEY BELIEVE HE IS LORD.

NOT LIKE those Jesus warned about:

Matthew 7:21-23 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’”

· They tried to confess Christ without loving Him or believing in Him.

· We know they didn’t love or believe Him because they didn’t obey His commandments, they were those “who practice lawlessness.”

John clarified that too:

1 John 3:4-10 “Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness. You know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin. No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him. Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.”

That’s the same point Jesus was making.

You’ve got all these people who go around saying “Jesus is Lord”

But they don’t love Jesus.

We know they don’t love Him because

· They habitually walk in the very sin He hates.

· Their lives are NOT characterized by love and obedience to Christ

· Their lives are characterized by lawlessness.

It doesn’t matter that they said the right thing,

They prove there was no love for Christ in their heart.

So we understand that a person must confess Christ as Lord,

But we also see that the person must love Him and obey as Lord To vindicate their claim.

1. Failure to confess Him as Lord.

2. Failure to honor Him as Lord.

3. Failure to worship Him as Lord.

All of these indicate the life of an unredeemed man

Who desperately needs salvation.

THE LORDSHIP OF CHRIST MATTERS.

THAT IS THE VERY ISSUE

That Jesus is going to bring before the people in the temple.

· He will preach a sermon on “The Lordship of the Christ.”

· His text is Psalm 110:1

· And His sermon will take Him about 30 seconds to preach it.

And yet, the depth of what He has to say is so great,

We’re going to spend a great deal of time analyzing it.

This is the day Jesus preached about the Lordship of Christ.

We’re just going to break this text down into 3 simple points.

#1 THE SCRIBE’S PROBLEMATIC DECLARATION

Mark 12:35

This is a very interesting point here in The Temple War.

Matthew’s gospel states it a little differently.

Matthew 22:41-42 “Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question: “What do you think about the Christ, whose son is He?” They said to Him, “The son of David.”

· After the answer given regarding the great commandment

· Jesus turned to those Pharisees who were all huddled up.

They had hoped to stump Him and had failed.

Now they were defeated with nothing else to say.

· Jesus looked at them and asked them a point-blank question. “What do you

think about the Christ, whose son is He?”

· And Matthew says that they answered: “The Son of David”

That’s interesting, because according to Mark,

Jesus now turns to the crowd.

“And Jesus began to say, as He taught in the temple, “How is it that the scribes say that the Christ is the son of David?”

He turned to the crowd and said, “Did you hear what they said?”

They said “that the Christ is the son of David?”

And that came from Jesus in the FORM OF A QUESTION.

“How is it..?”

“Why do they say that?”

And we can imagine the crowd all looking at one another,

Not in confusion, but maybe in simple hesitation.

This WASN’T a hard question to answer.

· This is Bible 101.

· Everyone knows that the answer to the question

· The Christ comes from David’s line.

Everyone knows “that the Christ is the Son of David”.

And just to show you HOW OBVIOUS this fact is:

Perhaps you remember

· That it was David who moved the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem.

· That David one night took inventory of his own house and began to feel guilty.

2 Samuel 7:2 “the king said to Nathan the prophet, “See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells within tent curtains.”

It did not sit right with David that he lived in a palace while God’s ark dwelled in a tent,

David decided to build God a proper house; a temple.

But God told David, “No”.

“You’re not going to build a house for Me,

I’m going to build a house for you.”

2 Samuel 7:12-16 “When your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish his kingdom. “He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. “I will be a father to him and he will be a son to Me; when he commits iniquity, I will correct him with the rod of men and the strokes of the sons of men, but My lovingkindness shall not depart from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. “Your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever.”’”

David was delighted and humbled!

2 Samuel 7:25-29 “Now therefore, O Lord God, the word that You have spoken concerning Your servant and his house, confirm it forever, and do as You have spoken, that Your name may be magnified forever, by saying, ‘The Lord of hosts is God over Israel’; and may the house of Your servant David be established before You. “For You, O Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, have made a revelation to Your servant, saying, ‘I will build you a house’; therefore Your servant has found courage to pray this prayer to You. “Now, O Lord God, You are God, and Your words are truth, and You have promised this good thing to Your servant. “Now therefore, may it please You to bless the house of Your servant, that it may continue forever before You. For You, O Lord God, have spoken; and with Your blessing may the house of Your servant be blessed forever.”

We call it the Davidic covenant.

IT WAS PROMISED

God promised to preserve the house or line of David forever.

Psalms 89:20-29 “I have found David My servant; With My holy oil I have anointed him, With whom My hand will be established; My arm also will strengthen him. “The enemy will not deceive him, Nor the son of wickedness afflict him. “But I shall crush his adversaries before him, And strike those who hate him. “My faithfulness and My lovingkindness will be with him, And in My name his horn will be exalted. “I shall also set his hand on the sea And his right hand on the rivers. “He will cry to Me, ‘You are my Father, My God, and the rock of my salvation.’ “I also shall make him My firstborn, The highest of the kings of the earth. “My lovingkindness I will keep for him forever, And My covenant shall be confirmed to him. “So I will establish his descendants forever And his throne as the days of heaven.”

And again:

Psalms 132:11-12 “The Lord has sworn to David A truth from which He will not turn back: “Of the fruit of your body I will set upon your throne. “If your sons will keep My covenant And My testimony which I will teach them, Their sons also shall sit upon your throne forever.”

· This is not some obscure fact hidden in the middle of 2 Samuel.

· This is not some insignificant promise that God made in passing.

God promised and reiterated that promise to David.

He would make for him an kingly line that endured forever.

Beyond that:

IT WAS PROPHESIED

The prophets were told the same and they declared it.

It wasn’t just some personal promise to David.

It was a public declaration of God to everyone.

Isaiah 9:6-7 “For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, On the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness From then on and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this.”

· We hear the prophecy of a coming child who will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom…forevermore.

· This anointed Messiah known as “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Faither, Prince of Peace.”

TURN TO: JEREMIAH 23:5-8

There again is a righteous branch from the line of David who will reign as King and deliver Judah.

TURN TO: JEREMIAH 30:9

Again a reference to the coming Messiah who is of the line of David.

TURN TO: JEREMIAH 33:14-22

Jeremiah picked upon the promise didn’t he?

There is a coming Messiah who will be of the line of David.

And not just Isaiah and Jeremiah.

Ezekiel 34:23-24 “Then I will set over them one shepherd, My servant David, and he will feed them; he will feed them himself and be their shepherd. “And I, the Lord, will be their God, and My servant David will be prince among them; I the Lord have spoken.”

Ezekiel 37:24-28 “My servant David will be king over them, and they will all have one shepherd; and they will walk in My ordinances and keep My statutes and observe them. “They will live on the land that I gave to Jacob My servant, in which your fathers lived; and they will live on it, they, and their sons and their sons’ sons, forever; and David My servant will be their prince forever. “I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will place them and multiply them, and will set My sanctuary in their midst forever. “My dwelling place also will be with them; and I will be their God, and they will be My people. “And the nations will know that I am the Lord who sanctifies Israel, when My sanctuary is in their midst forever.”’”

Or how about:

Amos 9:11-12 “In that day I will raise up the fallen booth of David, And wall up its breaches; I will also raise up its ruins And rebuild it as in the days of old; That they may possess the remnant of Edom And all the nations who are called by My name,” Declares the Lord who does this.”

Or even:

Hosea 3:5 “Afterward the sons of Israel will return and seek the Lord their God and David their king; and they will come trembling to the Lord and to His goodness in the last days.”

This isn’t some hidden piece of information.

· God promised it to David.

· God proclaimed it to everyone through the prophets.

IT WAS PRESERVED

God providentially protected the promise He had made.

1 Kings 11:9-12 “Now the Lord was angry with Solomon because his heart was turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice, and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods; but he did not observe what the Lord had commanded. So the Lord said to Solomon, “Because you have done this, and you have not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you, and will give it to your servant. “Nevertheless I will not do it in your days for the sake of your father David, but I will tear it out of the hand of your son.”

David’s son Solomon became an idolator and greatly angered God.

· So much so that God chose to tear away from Solomon 10 of the 12 tribes of Israel and give them to his servant.

But then look at what God tells that servant Jeroboam

When He reveals the plan.

1 Kings 11:31-35 “He said to Jeroboam, “Take for yourself ten pieces; for thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Behold, I will tear the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon and give you ten tribes (but he will have one tribe, for the sake of My servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel), because they have forsaken Me, and have worshiped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of Moab, and Milcom the god of the sons of Ammon; and they have not walked in My ways, doing what is right in My sight and observing My statutes and My ordinances, as his father David did. ‘Nevertheless I will not take the whole kingdom out of his hand, but I will make him ruler all the days of his life, for the sake of My servant David whom I chose, who observed My commandments and My statutes; but I will take the kingdom from his son’s hand and give it to you, even ten tribes.”

· I would give you the whole kingdom, were it not for David.

· I’m keeping my covenant that I made with David.

· David’s line must endure.

And we see this throughout history.

2 Kings 8:16-19 “Now in the fifth year of Joram the son of Ahab king of Israel, Jehoshaphat being then the king of Judah, Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah became king. He was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem. He walked in the way of the kings of Israel, just as the house of Ahab had done, for the daughter of Ahab became his wife; and he did evil in the sight of the Lord. However, the Lord was not willing to destroy Judah, for the sake of David His servant, since He had promised him to give a lamp to him through his sons always.”

YOU GET THE POINT.

This was not some hidden, obscure, hardly recognized issue.

This was pretty basic information.

As we said, “This is O.T. 101”.

So I hope you understand how strange it is

For Jesus to ask the question:

(35) “How is it that the scribes say that the Christ is the son of David?”

· Well, because He is!

· And it’s not just the scribes, everyone says it!

God said it, Isaiah said it, Jeremiah said it, Ezekiel said it,

Amos said it, Hosea said it, history proved it.

This isn’t really up for debate.

Everyone knows that “the Christ is the son of David”.

I mean, even when we get into the New Testament,

Proving Jesus was of the line of David was one of the absolute chief points of both Matthew and Luke.

· Matthew begins his gospel account with the lineage of Jesus, proving that through Joseph He is of the kingly line.

· Luke brings up Jesus’ lineage in Luke 4, only Luke gives you Mary’s lineage, showing that Jesus, through Mary, is a descendant of David through David’s son Nathan.

And even when the gospel is being proclaimed by the apostles…

Remember Paul’s letter to the Romans?

Romans 1:1-3 “Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning His Son, who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh,”

This is clearly important and obvious information.

So it is a bit strange to us for Jesus to ask such a question.

“How is it that the scribes say that the Christ is the son of David?”

When literally everyone knows that is the case.

And honestly, it even stumps us a little

Because we are of the same opinion.

· We’ve read the Old Testament,

· We too know that the Messiah is the Son of David.

AND YET, this seems to be the very truth that Jesus is challenging.

Let me go ahead and give you the second point

1. The Scribe’s Problematic Declaration

#2 DAVID’S PECULIAR DESIGNATION

Mark 12:36

This helps us get a better handle on how Jesus is challenging the crowd.

He makes a simple point.

· You’ve got a temple full of scribes here who quickly and easily answer the question regarding whose son the Christ is.

· They can quickly and confidently say that the Christ is “the son of David”.

AND JESUS WILL RESPOND:

Well don’t you find it interesting that that is not what David, nor the Holy Spirit called Him?

The issue here is not the DNA of the Christ.

The issue is the position the Christ holds in your life.

It’s NOT about facts or recognition.

It’s about submission and love.

Jesus is doing the same thing He did back in Caesarea Philippi.

Mark 8:27-29 “Jesus went out, along with His disciples, to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way He questioned His disciples, saying to them, “Who do people say that I am?” They told Him, saying, “John the Baptist; and others say Elijah; but others, one of the prophets.” And He continued by questioning them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered and said to Him, “You are the Christ.”

Remember, that was the pinnacle moment for Mark’s gospel.

You have all these people with their idea regarding who Jesus is,

But it matters who you say Jesus is.

HE’S DOING THE EXACT SAME THING HERE.

Who do the scribes say that the Christ is?

· And the Scribes are quick to say, “the son of David”.

And then Jesus turns to ask,

· “Well who does David say He is?”

And what is the answer they give?

“Lord”

(and we note that David learned that from the Holy Spirit)

IT IS TRUE: If we are discussing the physical lineage of the Christ

That it is Promised, Prophesied, and Proven

He comes from the line of David.

· That is Biblically undeniable.

· It is absolutely essential.

· Even the gospel writers are quick to prove it.

BUT IT IS SO IMPORTANT

That you have a deeper understanding of the Christ

Than simply to know who is great-great-great-great grandaddy is.

IT’S NOT ABOUT KNOWING THE FACTS ABOUT HIM.

There is something so much bigger in play.

David didn’t say:

· “The LORD said to my grandson…”

In Psalms 110:1, David said,

· “The Lord said to my Lord…”

Are you picking up on the difference yet?

Are you beginning to understand:

· Why the scribe’s answer was technically right and terribly wrong?

· How their answer was both accurate and inadequate all at the same time?

I can ask you today who is Jesus and you can tell me who He is.

· You can tell me that He is Christ the King.

· You can tell me that He is the Lord.

· You can tell me that He is the Son of God.

· You can tell me that He is the Savior of the world.

And that is TOTALLY ACCURATE.

And at the same time it is terribly inadequate.

WHAT MATTERS IS:

· Is He your King?

· Is He your Lord?

· Is He your God?

· Is He your Savior?

AND EVEN TO THAT WE WOULD GO FURTHER AND ASK:

· Do you obey Him? (King)

· Do you serve Him? (Lord)

· Do you worship Him? (God)

· Do you trust Him? (Savior)

· Do you love Him with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength?

Their answer was right and yet it was terribly wrong.

David knew what none of these scribes understood.

The Christ of God is NOT JUST some descendant of David

Who will claim the throne based on his birth records.

The Christ of God is one

Whom God appointed to rule and to reign over your life.

WHO IS HE TO YOU?

That’s the distinction Jesus is making.

Do you see that?

NOW THIS IS THE CRUX OF THE ENTIRE ISSUE HERE.

This is the point of contention.

And we need to discuss it even more deeply here.

(36) “David himself said in the Holy Spirit, ‘The Lord said to my Lord…’”

Let’s start by DEFINING THE TERMS here a little.

You know that in the Old Testament God revealed Himself by name.

That was the name Yahweh.

· But the Jews were absolutely terrified of breaking the commandment regarding taking His name in vain.

· They were afraid that if God’s name were spoken it would be too easy to blaspheme His name and so they refused to say it.

Instead, they substituted a different word for the name of God.

They called Him: ADONAI

(Now you can go watch a great sermon by R.C. Sproul on this subject

And I’ll put the link in the notes)

https://learn.

The Jews called Him ADONAI

The root of that word is simply ADON

· And ADON just meant “master” or “Lord”

· And it was a fairly common title.

· Even a husband might be called “The Lord of the house” or “The Lord of the Manner”.

The title even gets brought into secular conversation and mystic religion like when we see the word “Adonis” which is of course the ultimate male specimen.

But the Jews DIDN’T refer to God as ADON,

They added those last two letters and called Him “ADONAI”

Which intensifies the word.

When they called God “ADONAI” they were saying that

He is in fact the supreme Lord or we like the phrase “Lord of Lords”.

Now, we come to Mark 12:36

Where Jesus quotes Psalm 110:1 and we read:

“The LORD said to my Lord…”

· In the Hebrew that reads: “Yahweh said to my Adonai…”

David here, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit,

Is given access to a conversation

That happened within the very confines of the trinity.

David hears Yahweh talking to the One David refers to as “my Adonai”

AND WE MIGHT ASK,

“Who is this Adonai that David refers to?”

Clarity comes when we hear what Yahweh said to Him.

“Sit at My right hand, Until I put Your enemies beneath Your feet.”

Clearly He is God’s coming Messiah

So David hears Yahweh speaking to the coming Messiah.

Only David doesn’t call Him my “son” (though that is technically true.)

To David He is much more than that.

· To David He is “my Adonai…”

· He is “my Lord…”

David Himself was bowing in submission

To this One who was yet to come.

It wasn’t just about identifying Him, it was about submitting to Him.

It was about worshipping Him.

It was about serving Him.

And we notice that David assigned to Him

The very name that was typically assigned to God.

What does that tell you

About David’s understanding of the nature and authority of the Christ?

· David knew that the Christ was God.

· David knew that the Christ had ultimate authority.

He may very well be coming from David’s line

But He was far from some equal or subordinate of David.

SEE THE SCRIBES WERE SIMPLY LOOKING FOR

Another human king in David’s line who would be a great national leader to save the nation.

AND THEY WERE SELLING HIM WAY TOO SHORT!

It would be a thing of great honor for you or me

To be compared with Elijah or Jeremiah or John the Baptist or David,

But for Jesus that is a slap in the face.

Even David didn’t do that.

David knew that one coming from His line was the Lord of Lords

And He deserved full submission and worship.

Now, we’re almost out of time,

But take that very thought into the New Testament.

The N.T. wasn’t written in Hebrew, they didn’t use the word ADONAI,

They used the Greek equivalent to the word, and that word is KURIOS.

In New Testament times KURIOS became the name associated with God.

And what you notice is that

The apostles made absolutely sure that when they identified Jesus

They made absolutely sure to identify Jesus by that very divine name.

They called Him KURIOS – “Lord of Lords”.

Philippians 2:5-11 “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Paul said that Jesus was ascribed the name above every name.

· But don’t misread the text, Paul is not referring to the name “Jesus”.

· That’s not the name above every name.

· What we see is that “every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is KURIOS – “Lord”.

Now there is so much more to discuss in this text,

And we’ll come back to it tonight,

But very simply this morning we just come asking the same question.

It is NOT who does the world say Jesus is?

It is NOT who do the scribes say Jesus is?

IT IS WHO DO YOU SAY HE IS?

AND WE’RE NOT INTERESTED

In empty titles for there are many who get the title right, but the heart is wrong.