The Person of the Gospel
Luke 20:41-44
August 9, 2020
As we have studied the 20th chapter of Luke
We have listened as Jesus has preached the gospel in the temple.
Luke 20:1 “On one of the days while He was teaching the people in the temple and preaching the gospel…”
• We have noted that it is Wednesday.
• In two days Jesus will be dead.
• But here we find Him preaching the gospel in the temple to all who are there.
We have taken notice of what His gospel preaching looked like,
And we have noticed that thus far Jesus
Has really only been able to give really the first point of the gospel.
The word gospel of course is a word that means “GOOD NEWS”.
But as has been often pointed out, before people will believe the good news, they first need to hear the BAD NEWS.
• The bad news is that we have sinned against God.
• The bad news is that God is infinitely holy and will judge all sinners.
• The bad news is that there is a day of judgment and no man will escape it.
This bad news is essential to understand
So that a man is ready and eager to hear the good news.
And thus far in the temple,
THE BAD NEWS IS REALLY ALL THAT JESUS HAS PREACHED.
Various groups have confronted Him regarding various issues,
But regardless of the questions,
Jesus always has managed to turn it around to the gospel.
When they asked Him by what authority He was doing these things, He referenced the baptism of John.
• It was a baptism of repentance.
• It was a repentance they had rejected.
When He told a parable of a vineyard owner the point was that those in the vineyard had rejected and killed His Son.
• And the point was that those who rejected the Son would be broken to pieces and scattered like dust.
When they tried to trick Him regarding paying taxes to Caesar He told them to pay their debts, and at the same time He reminded them of their debt before God saying,
• “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”
When they tried to confuse Him regarding marriage in the resurrection,
• He reminded them that eternal life in heaven is only for those who are worthy and that when the dead are raised they will all be raised to stand before God.
It really hasn’t mattered.
Whatever the question, whatever the accusation, whatever the dilemma, Jesus has continually landed on that first step of the gospel message.
He has routinely reminded of what we might call the bad news.
• You have an unpaid debt before God.
• You are not worthy to have eternal life.
• You are in need of repentance, which you have rejected.
• You are in need of a Savior, whom You will kill.
Everything He has had to say
Has been for the simple purpose of CONDEMNING HIS AUDIENCE,
And believe me, the audience felt it.
We even read last week.
Luke 20:39-40 “Some of the scribes answered and said, “Teacher, You have spoken well.” For they did not have courage to question Him any longer about anything.”
No matter what they say, He ends up condemning them.
• Have you ever tried to argue with God?
• Have you ever tried to excuse your sin before Him?
• It doesn’t work.
And so finally, here on Wednesday, the crowd has finally become silent.
• The arguments are over.
• The accusations are over.
• The tricks and the traps are finished.
• The crowd stands before Him too afraid to say anything else.
And so now Jesus is free to give whatever message He so desires.
And it is no surprise to us that He returns to the gospel.
Only now, He moves to THE SECOND LEG OF THE GOSPEL.
A lot of what we are going to study this morning
Is also what the youth studied a couple of weeks ago at camp.
One of the things we talked about there on the last day was
TO CLARIFY THE GOSPEL.
If I were to ask you, “What is the gospel?”
How would you answer?
If I can clarify it for you a little this morning.
If we were to sum up the gospel in ONE WORD,
Then obviously that word is “Jesus”.
The gospel message is simply this:
It is the message of the person and work of Jesus.
It is to preach who Jesus is, and what Jesus did.
And I tell you that because you’re going to see this morning
That after Jesus has successfully silenced and condemned the crowd
He is now going to move into the gospel.
And His message here is very simply: THE PERSON OF THE GOSPEL
It is very important.
WHAT WE’RE GOING TO DO THIS MORNING IS
Sort of take a quick trip through this passage and gain the overall scope,
Then we’ll come back and look at the truths that are being revealed.
SO HERE WE ARE.
In LUKE’S GOSPEL, Jesus has just silenced the crowd by answering every question and thoroughly binding them up under their guilt.
Now Luke does omit one story.
Matthew 22:34-42 “But when the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered themselves together. One of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And He said to him, “‘YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’ “This is the great and foremost commandment. “The second is like it, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ “On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.” “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.”
There was one more question asked, before the crowd quit asking,
And it fit right in line with Jesus purposes.
After successfully condemning the crowd,
It is extremely fitting that the next question asked
Had to do with God’s righteous requirement.
If I find out I’m condemned before God
Then it is only right to ask what He wants me to do.
They DIDN’T exactly ask, “What should I do?”
If they had then Jesus would have told them to repent and believe in Him.
But they asked what was the most important command to obey in the Law And Jesus gave them the two most impossible ones to obey.
And if you’ve never figured that out then you should hear it here.
Telling an UNREGENERATE MAN that he is required to love God with all of his heart, soul, mind, and strength is an IMPOSSIBLE REQUIREMENT.
• Sinful man does not love God.
• Sinful man does not even seek God or fear God, let alone love Him.
• Sinful man also does not love his neighbor as himself.
• Sinful man loves himself.
Those are impossible commands
So you see that Jesus really just condemned them again.
They turned to the Law for their relief,
But they would find no relief there
For the requirements of the Law are far too high.
But it is on the heels of that question
That Jesus turns to this crowd to ask them a question.
According to MATTHEW’S GOSPEL He asks, “What do you think about the Christ, whose son is He?” They said to Him, “The son of David.”
AND THAT IS WHERE WE PICK UP IN LUKE’S GOSPEL.
(41) “Then He said to them, “How is it that they say the Christ is David’s son?”
Well, first off the answer to that question would have been obvious
To the religious crowd listening.
2 Samuel 7:12-14 “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,”
Psalms 89:35-37 “Once I have sworn by My holiness; I will not lie to David. “His descendants shall endure forever And his throne as the sun before Me. “It shall be established forever like the moon, And the witness in the sky is faithful.” Selah.”
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.”
The reason they all knew that the Christ would be “David’s son”
• Is because there were so many prophesies that clearly indicated that the Christ would be a descendant of David.
And with this fact they were well-acquainted.
It was a slam-dunk, no-brainer to them.
But Jesus is about to challenge their thinking a little.
There is another passage that Jesus wants to quote
That seems to make a real confusing point.
Jesus is going to quote Psalms 110:1
(42-43) “For David himself says in the book of Psalms, ‘THE LORD SAID TO MY LORD, “SIT AT MY RIGHT HAND, UNTIL I MAKE YOUR ENEMIES A FOOTSTOOL FOR YOUR FEET.’”
Ok, we’ve read that before…
So what’s the problem?
(44) “Therefore David call Him ‘Lord,’ and how is He his son?”
• Do you pick up on the dilemma?
• Do you catch the mystery?
Everyone knew the Christ would be the descendant of David.
But in Psalms 110:1 David referenced that he already had a Lord.
“THE LORD (Yahweh) SAID TO MY LORD (Adonai), “SIT AT MY RIGHT HAND, UNTIL I MAKE YOUR ENEMEIS A FOOTSTOOL FOR YOUR FEET.”
If David is already submitting to the Christ as his Lord,
Then how can it be that the Christ will be David’s son?
That’s what you call a dilemma.
• Can you see the crowd scratching their head?
• How can the Christ be both before David and after him?
• Perhaps they didn’t know the Christ as well as they thought.
YOU AND I KNOW THE ANSWER.
Because the Christ is more than just a man. The Christ is also God.
And this is the point that Jesus is making about Himself
As He reveals to the people the very person of the gospel.
At youth camp two of our services were focused on this.
• Stephen preached that “The Deity of Jesus is Essential”
• Then I had the next sermon that “The Humanity of Jesus is Essential”
That is to say that they are non-negotiables.
If they aren’t true then we can’t be saved.
We are talking here about THE PERSON OF THE GOSPEL
Who is the Christ?
Who is the Messiah?
Who is Jesus?
And this morning I’ll just give you
The TWO ANSWERS that Jesus points out to the crowd.
#1 THE CHRIST IS DAVID’S SON
Luke 20:41
“Then He said to them, “How is it that they say the Christ is David’s son?”
We already read some of those prophetic passages
That emphasize that the Christ would be a descendant of David.
Certainly the gospels bear this out regarding Jesus.
Matthew 1 & Luke 3 both give us THE GENEALOGY OF JESUS.
• Of course you have read them and recognize that they are different.
• Matthew’s gospel gives the genealogy of Joseph and thus Jesus’ political right to the throne.
• Luke’s gospel gives the genealogy of Mary and thus Jesus’ blood right to the throne.
It’s really quite remarkable that Jesus fits them both.
• On one hand Jesus had to be of the kingly line of David.
• However, there was one king in particular (Jeconiah) that God swore would not have a child sit on the throne.
It seemed like a contradiction and impossibility.
Well, he didn’t and yet Jesus still came from that line.
• Jesus was not the blood son of Joseph, and thus not the descendant of Jeconiah.
• He did not get His blood right to the throne from Joseph,
• He got that from Mary through David’s son Nathan.
But the real point of it all is that Jesus was born; JESUS IS A HUMAN.
HE IS FULLY MAN.
Or as R.C. Sproul would say, “He is truly man”.
AND WE SEE THIS CLEARLY.
• We see Him eat, drink, sleep, grieve, weep, and face exhaustion…
• We clearly saw humanity in Him.
And though we must hit them quickly
There are TWO MAIN REASONS why He had to be human.
1. There was a human obligation to fulfill (obedience)
2. There was a human debt to pay (death)
If Jesus is not human then He cannot obey as a human and He cannot die.
Man needs an advocate to do both for him and so Jesus had be human.
He had to be the Son of David.
1) We are familiar with the necessity of His obedient life.
Hebrews 10:5-10 “Therefore, when He comes into the world, He says, “SACRIFICE AND OFFERING YOU HAVE NOT DESIRED, BUT A BODY YOU HAVE PREPARED FOR ME; IN WHOLE BURNT OFFERINGS AND sacrifices FOR SIN YOU HAVE TAKEN NO PLEASURE. “THEN I SAID, ‘BEHOLD, I HAVE COME (IN THE SCROLL OF THE BOOK IT IS WRITTEN OF ME) TO DO YOUR WILL, O GOD.'” After saying above, “SACRIFICES AND OFFERINGS AND WHOLE BURNT OFFERINGS AND sacrifices FOR SIN YOU HAVE NOT DESIRED, NOR HAVE YOU TAKEN PLEASURE in them” (which are offered according to the Law), then He said, “BEHOLD, I HAVE COME TO DO YOUR WILL.” He takes away the first in order to establish the second. By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”
Jesus had to come and fulfill the obligation of man.
• God demanded holiness from man.
• God demanded obedience from man.
Thus far no man had ever given either to Him.
• Jesus said that a man must “render to God that which is God’s”
• And no man ever had.
Psalms 14:3 “They have all turned aside, together they have become corrupt; There is no one who does good, not even one.”
Man had yet to satisfy the righteous requirement of God.
Jesus had to come as a man to do that.
But that’s not the only reason He had to be human.
2) More than anything, He had to become a human SO HE COULD DIE.
Hopefully our young people will remember, but turn over to Hebrews 2.
TURN TO: HEBREWS 2:5
We can’t spend as much time on it here this morning,
But you’ll get the main point.
(5-8) is where the writer of Hebrews quoted Psalms 8 and God’s promise to subject all things to man.
• The only problem, the writer says is that, “But now we do not yet see all things subjected to him.”
• God promised that man would rule over all things, but look around, we don’t see it.
• Man doesn’t control the weather.
• Man doesn’t control the beasts.
• We can’t make the ocean hard enough to walk on.
• The rain doesn’t yield to our commands.
• When we were at Yellowstone, they warned us repeatedly not to get close to wolves, bison, bears, or moose.
We don’t see man in control, even though God promised it.
The reason of course is because
Our great great great…granddaddy ADAM BLEW IT.
• He sinned against God,
• Gave his authority over to the usurper (the god of this world)
• And Adam incurred a debt to pay before God for his rebellion.
• That debt was death.
Until God’s holiness was satisfied through Adam’s death
There could be no return.
Simply put, a man had to die to pay the debt of man.
And that is what the writer of Hebrews points out.
(2:9) “But we do see Him who was made for a little while lower than the angels, namely, Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.”
Jesus became human so that He could die.
Later in the same chapter the writer reiterates it again.
(2:14-15) “Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.”
• Man had a sentence…
• Man had a dilemma…
• Man had an enemy…
And it is an enemy that we could not beat.
• We could not beat it because we deserved it.
• We could not beat it because we earned it.
We stood in desperate need for someone,
For some human, to first live a holy life
And then who could face death for us and defeat it.
And before Jesus, all we ever had was failure.
• We saw man after man after man die,
• BUT NO ONE WAS ABLE TO COME BACK FROM IT.
Death had a perfect record.
• No one was able to pay off Adam’s debt
• Because each man was accruing his own debt before God.
• It was failure after failure after failure.
If you’ll remember this was the lament of Revelation 5.
There John looked at the scroll, the title deed to the earth, and the search was made for anyone who was worthy to open it and take back the earth from the usurper.
Revelation 5:1-4 “I saw in the right hand of Him who sat on the throne a book written inside and on the back, sealed up with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the book and to break its seals?” And no one in heaven or on the earth or under the earth was able to open the book or to look into it. Then I began to weep greatly because no one was found worthy to open the book or to look into it;”
THAT ISN’T JUST THE WEEPING OF JOHN,
That’s the weeping of all humanity for all time.
• No one is worthy.
• No one can undo what Adam did.
• No human has been able to live this life without offense to God so that he might pay off Adam’s debt.
And so John wept.
But there was good news! (the gospel)
Revelation 5:5 “and one of the elders said to me, “Stop weeping; behold, the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome so as to open the book and its seven seals.”
Christ overcame!
The son of David overcame.
He overcame sin and temptation and lived a holy life.
And so when He faced death, He overcame that too!
Revelation 1:17-18 “When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man. And He placed His right hand on me, saying, “Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.”
I know that’s quick, but do you see why Jesus had to be human?
• Only a man could pay man’s debt.
• Only a man could die.
• Jesus had to enter Adam’s race.
• Jesus had to enter Adam’s dilemma.
• Jesus had to face Adam’s battle.
• Jesus had to endure Adam’s struggle and temptation and suffering.
• Jesus had to suffer Adam’s death.
He had to be human.
If He is not human then there is no salvation.
But that’s not really the tough one for this crowd.
They were well aware that the Christ would be a human.
The Christ is David’s Son
#2 THE CHRIST IS DAVID’S LORD
Luke 20:42-44
We find that not only would the Christ be born as a descendant of David, We also find out that the Christ first existed as David’s Lord.
And He is the sovereign Lord of all.
• He sits at the right hand of God (the seat of authority)
• And all enemies are made a footstool for His feet.
• That is to say that He is the ultimate sovereign and preeminent authority.
What we are talking about here is that
THE CHRIST IS AND MUST ALSO BE GOD.
When we talk about Jesus we use terms like “God-Man”
Or we talk about the “Hypostatic Union”
As I told the youth, if you wish to understand it.
God is referred to in theology as 1 WHAT & 3 WHOS
• WHAT? God
• WHO? Father, Son, Holy Spirit
But Jesus is referred to as 1 WHO & 2 WHATS
• WHO? Jesus
• WHAT? God & Man
Mysterious? Yes, but absolutely necessary.
And just as we clearly see His humanity in Scripture
WE ALSO CLEARLY SEE HIS DIVINITY.
We see Him having authority over everything.
• Nature, Disease, Death, Sin, Demons – everything obeys Him.
We see Him with power to create.
• Wine from water; bread from nothing; restoring withered arms, etc.
We Him with omniscience.
• How many times we read that He knew what they were thinking.
There is even a thread of omnipresence.
• We remember how He told Nathanael, “when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” (Jn 1:48)
WE CLEARLY SAW THE DIVINE NATURE IN HIM.
The youth will remember from Stephen’s sermon
How Jesus so often claimed to be God.
• There are His famous 7 “I Am” statements.
• There are His authoritative words “I say to You”
• There is His power to forgive sin (which God alone can do)
• There are His claims to be God like in John 5 or John 8
We could ADD TO THAT HIS MIRACULOUS WORKS which Jesus said prove that He is from the Father.
We could talk about the responses He had.
• When Thomas called Him, “My Lord and My God” Jesus did not rebuke him.
• When the Bible says the disciples worshiped Him, Jesus did not correct them.
• Jesus even told the disciples in John 14 that they would pray to Him and He would answer them.
The deity of Jesus is clearly seen throughout Scripture.
BUT WHAT IS THAT IMPORTANT?
We saw that He had to be man to fulfill man’s obligation and pay man’s debt, BUT WHY DID HE HAVE TO BE GOD?
Hopefully the youth will remember Stephen’s point.
He had to be God because He came to save.
If Jesus is nothing more than righteous human example
Then He does us no good at all.
Before Jesus came WE ALREADY HAD A RIGHTEOUS EXAMPLE;
That’s exactly what the Law is.
The Law clearly articulates the “Do’s & Don’ts” of life.
The Law clearly spells out the expectation of God.
If all Jesus was, was a moral or righteous example
Then He only adds to our condemnation.
Now, we are doubly condemned
• We can’t even use the excuse that righteous living is impossible
• Since Jesus, as a mere man, would have done it.
There is no hope for us if Jesus is only a man.
Jesus has to be more than a man.
• He not only has to escape all the traps and temptations of humanity
• He also has to bear the punishment for all the sin of all the elect for all time.
The main issue that plagues us from birth is that as humans
We bear the fallen nature of our father Adam.
We are born sinful and bent toward sin.
In fact we are born spiritually dead.
And we are born loving sin.
Jesus was born of a virgin (conceived by God)
So that He would not bear Adam’s fallen nature.
He could not just be a human like the rest of us.
Certainly this was what allowed Him to resist every temptation.
But then, He would go to the cross
Where He must bear the punishment, not just for the one sin of Adam,
But for every sin of all of God’s elect for all time.
The ONE SIN OF ADAM is enough to put him in hell for all eternity.
Jesus must bear that, AND every other.
We remember Isaiah 53.
Isaiah 53:6 “All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him.”
Let that sink in.
• If one sin is enough to send me to hell for eternity
• Upon which there is no remission,
• What must the weight of my entire life of sin be like?
• And then I add that to your sin.
• And then I think of the sin of all those who have gone before me.
• And I think of the sin of those who will come after me.
The cost is absolutely unfathomable.
When we talk about a sin debt, we are talking about a debt
That makes The National Deficit look like nothing.
We are talking about thousands of years and billions of people
And sins beyond number, each of which carries an eternal sentence of hell, and Jesus had to pay all of that.
IF HE WAS GOING TO SAVE,
HE HAD TO PAY OFF THE ENTIRE DEBT OF ALL THE REDEEMED.
No man can bear that weight, only God can bear an eternal weight of sin.
Jesus had to be man, but He also had to be God.
• He had to be able to face death and defeat it.
• He had to be able to bear sin and judgment and survive it.
• If He isn’t God then He can’t save.
Jesus isn’t just David’s Son, He is also David’s Lord.
He is human and He is divine.
And with one verse in the Old Testament
He points that out to this crowd in the temple.
IT IS THE NEXT LEG OF THE GOSPEL.
• First He delivered to them the bad news of condemnation and judgment and
an unpaid debt before God.
• But now He is beginning to give the good news which is the person and
work of Jesus.
And when we talk about His person
We are talking about the one who was perfect man and eternal God.
And He had to be if you and I were to be saved.
• There had to be a payment valuable enough…
• There had to be a Savior strong enough…
JESUS WAS.
Hebrews 10:11-14 “Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, SAT DOWN AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD, waiting from that time onward UNTIL HIS ENEMIES BE MADE A FOOTSTOOL FOR HIS FEET. For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.”
That is the PERSON of the gospel.
That is the SAVIOR.
This morning we come to remember that Savior
Through the taking of the Lord’s Supper.
We see this bread
• We remember that it represents a perfectly holy life lived in a human body
• And He did so that He might satisfy our righteous requirement before God.
• He lived this life for us.
We see this juice
• We remember that it represents His life blood
• Which was offered to God on our behalf
• To pay off our penalty and condemnation.
• He died for us.
And when we partake we confess our need for this sacrifice.
• When we partake we confess our loyalty to Him.
• When we partake we confess to the world that only through His death does salvation occur.
This morning, we will have our time of preparation.
We examine ourselves, we humble ourselves.
We then come and partake of the table of the Lord.
