Jesus is more than we hoped for!
Notes
Transcript
Big Idea: Jesus is more than we hoped for!
Big Idea: Jesus is more than we hoped for!
Reading
While Jesus was teaching in the temple, he asked, “How can the scribes say that the Messiah is the son of David? David himself says by the Holy Spirit:
The Lord declared to my Lord,
‘Sit at my right hand
until I put your enemies under your feet.’
David himself calls him ‘Lord.’ How, then, can he be his son?” And the large crowd was listening to him with delight.
Intro
One of the fun areas of being a pastor is getting to know the people of the church.
Learning what they’re passionate about…and then reaping the benefits of it.
Lee Blevins is a master carpenter. You go to his house and its filled with projects…tables and desks.
Now if you go to my house and church office…there are Blevins projects throughout.
But there is one that is more special to me than any other.
I asked him for a prayer bench. Another pastor had one…and I wanted to be as good of christian as he is.
So I showed Lee and asked if he would make one for me. My expectation was something quick.
Then he showed up…and it was incredible. The wood was special. The carvings were special.
The inscriptions were special.
My hope and expectations were blown away.
Church, today we are digging into the hope that we have in Jesus.
And what we’ll find is that Jesus is more than we could ever hope for.
History
For the last three weeks we’ve been dealing with questions.
Now we need to frame this out in the timeline of where Jesus is at:
-Its Tuesday of passion week…meaning he is three days away from the cross
The finish line is infront of Him…and these religious leaders are really bucking right now!
People coming to Jesus trying to test Him or trick Him.
Some were coming because of a wrong heart:
Pharisees and Herodians: Should we pay taxes?
-Intent to trick Jesus into choosing sides
-Jesus tells them, pay taxes…who cares…but give all you have to God
Sadducees: What about marriage and the resurrection
-They missed the entire purpose of both
-And Jesus tells them that God is the God of the living
And at least one person came with genuine interest
Scribe: Came because he heard Jesus answered well…but still wanted to test him
What is the greatest commandment?
-Love God
-Love Others
The scribe agreed and yet still walked away not in the kingdom of God…
What is the common string here?
THEY ARE MISSING THE PURPOSE OF JESUS!
Some are angry that he might take away their power!
Some, such as the scribe, just don’t get it…it doesn’t connect.
And so this week we see Jesus ask a question to the crowd.
A question that is loaded with His purpose!
He is trying to bring some clairty to the situation…
-He didn’t come for just some good teaching
-He didn’t come for just some miracles
-He didn’t come to lead a military uprising
HE CAME TO SAVE!
AND IN THAT HE IS MORE THAN THEY HOPED FOR!
And today…I need you to understand that Jesus is more than YOU HOPED FOR!
So lets answer the question through the text: How is Jesus more than we hoped for?
Points
Big Idea: Jesus is more than we hoped for!
Big Idea: Jesus is more than we hoped for!
Question for the big idea: How is Jesus more than we hoped for?
Question for the big idea: How is Jesus more than we hoped for?
Jesus is not just another King (35)
Jesus is not just another King (35)
Mark 12:35 While Jesus was teaching in the temple, he asked, “How can the scribes say that the Messiah is the son of David?
EXPLANATION
Why is Jesus asking this?
The scribes did not have a good grasp on the Messiah
There teaching was somewhat shallow. They didn’t understand the full implications of who the messiah was.
They believed the messiah was going to be a King in the line fo David that would lead the Jews well…
And so this led the people to look for a ill-concieved Messiah.
The people were looking for a different messiah
I think it is easy to fall into the trap of fitting “religion” or “church” or “God” into our “normal life.”
-God, as long as you work…I’ll follow you.
-God, you better live up to my expectations…or I’ll find a different way
It’s a strange threat and test…and often we do it without even noticing.
The Israelites were expecting a Messiah…a King in the line of David that would bring about the Israelite dominance of the “old days.”
-The scribes taught that this was the case
This was there idol around the Messian.
“A KING LIKE DAVID.”
What they didn’t understand was that Jesus, the messiah, was not a king that pointed back to David, but David was a king that point forward to Christ.
David was a shadow of what was to come…and now the real King had arrived.
And so Jesus challenges the Jewish notion of the Messiah and King.
So Jesus stuns them with this first question. And there is a few things we should know about this:
Colossians 2:9
9 For the entire fullness of God’s nature dwells bodily in Christ, 10 and you have been filled by him, who is the head over every ruler and authority.
(Fighting the Colossian heresy of mixing religions)
The Messiah is the “son of David”
He is fully man
God incarnate
Predicted throughout the OT
Fullness of God’s nature dweels BODILY in Christ
He’s not just going to be “King in the line of David”
He came to be the fully realized King…the greater King
God as man ruling:
Head over every ruler and authority
They cheapened their expectation of the Messiah…and Jesus was correcting them through the OT.
ILLUSTRATION
📷
In 1984 Apple released a commercial during the super bowl.
Look whats coming…its gunna be great! Change the world.
Now what people got was a computer that has less power the an ipod from 2000.
The commercial didn’t show a computer…it just hyped what was to come.
Did what came meet expectations? Yeah…kinda…maybe
But when we look through the entirety of Scripture we see God stating that his Son is coming.
And the people were expecting…but there expectation was a shadow of what came
Becaue the good King had arrived!
IMPLICATION
We worship the true King that was spoken to us throughout History!
Who is unique and Good!
Truly Man, Truly God
Who did what you could not do
Col 2:13-15
13 And when you were dead in trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive with him and forgave us all our trespasses. 14 He erased the certificate of debt, with its obligations, that was against us and opposed to us, and has taken it away by nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and disgraced them publicly; he triumphed over them in him.
How do we respond to the Good King…it should be better than how we respond to earthly Kings
Mini-illustration: you always stood for the King…for the president (even if you didn’t like him)
Wrote to a president…got a response…we didn’t vote for him…but we still framed it, why? Because he was the president.
We should give all honor to HIM!
We get to serve Him
Listen to His commands
He is in Glory and Honor.
And so we sing songs…because HE IS GOD!
WE OBEY…BECAUSE HE IS GOD
WE READ HIS WORD…BECAUSE HE IS GOD.
WE PROCLAIM HIS WORD…BECAUSE “HEAR YE, HEAR YE…THE KING HAS SPOKEN.”
Do not place your hope in another Kingdom
We are here (napa, cal, US) for mission not for comfort
As well find in out in second, Jesus provides the greatest comfort
Don’t look for comfort in your circumstances…look for it in the KING!
Transition: When you begin to understand who Jesus truly is…you understand the gravity and greatness of what he accomplished:
Jesus defeated our greatest enemy. (36, 37a)
Jesus defeated our greatest enemy. (36, 37a)
Mark 12:36 David himself says by the Holy Spirit:
David himself says by the Holy Spirit:
The Lord declared to my Lord,
‘Sit at my right hand
until I put your enemies under your feet.’
EXPLANATION
Another question…
A continuing question on the last one…how can the Messiah be the son of David…when he calls him Lord?
We got to dig deaper here:
David is writing this poem under Holy Spirit inspiration
David wrote the poem
But the Holy Spirit inspired HIm
All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness,
16 All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
So while he was writing…it was revealed to him that the messiah is someone greater than Him
So the Holy Spirit is giving him insight on Jesus, the Messiah
And the HS shows him:
The Messiah is the SON OF GOD
Lord declared to my Lord
Original text:
God (Yahweh) speaking to His Son (Adonai), both Godly words
David understood the that Messiah is GOD!
That Jesus would be both his Son and hIs God.
So Jesus is showing his DUAL NATURE IN THIS TEXT
TRULY GOD
TRULY MAN
AND BECAUSE OF THAT NATURE, JESUS ACCOMPLISHES WHAT WE CAN’T!
‘Sit at my right hand
until I put your enemies under your feet.’
Because the Messiah is God…he will win!
Put your enemies under your feet
I will put hostility between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring.
He will strike your head,
and you will strike his heel.
15 I will put hostility between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring.
He will strike your head,
and you will strike his heel.
Jesus is the one who will defeat death and sin
The one predicted in Gen 3:15
So why does Jesus ask this? How can he be his son?
Because Jesus is showing that the Messiah is greater than we hoped for
Jesus was born in the line of David
But is the uncreated God of the universe
This is the greatness of our God (who is more than we could hope fo)
Truly Man
Truly God
And because of this…HE SAVED US
Born to a virgin
Lived a sinless life
Took our death on the cross
Defeated death in the resurrection
Now sits at the right hand of the Father, with a resurrected body
And will return!
Messiah didn’t just come to defeat Romans…he came to defeat our greatest enemy!
ILLUSTRATION
I have a small back yard with a little vegetation.
-shrubs
But every 3 months or so I have to dig out a tree that had been planted decades ago.
The root is deep…it would take be destroying my whole yard…so I only take what I can.
-I can only work on the symptom…the branches.
-I can’t get rid of the tree.
The people wanted Rome out…but that was symptom…
Jesus didn’t come to fix the symptom
He came to cure the disease
To defeat the root.
IMPLICATION
GOSPEL
Non-Christian: hear me…the church will do nothing for you without Jesus
I can’t teach you to be a better person
The church cannot fill the void that you feel in your heart
BUT THE MESSIAH CAN
THAT VOID IS SIN…
SIN IN THE EYES OF JUST AND HOLY GOD IS PUNISHED BY DEATH
THIS IS PROPER WRATH LAID INTO REBELLIOUS PEOPLE
BUT….
For God was pleased to have
all his fullness dwell in him,
and through him to reconcile
everything to himself,
whether things on earth or things in heaven,
by making peace
through his blood, shed on the cross.
Once you were alienated and hostile in your minds as expressed in your evil actions. But now he has reconciled you by his physical body through his death, to present you holy, faultless, and blameless before him—
19 For God was pleased to have
all his fullness dwell in him,
20 and through him to reconcile
everything to himself,
whether things on earth or things in heaven,
by making peace
through his blood, shed on the cross.
21 Once you were alienated and hostile in your minds as expressed in your evil actions.
So how do you get this reconciliation?
22 But now he has reconciled you by his physical body through his death, to present you holy, faultless, and blameless before him—23 if indeed you remain grounded and steadfast in the faith and are not shifted away from the hope of the gospel that you heard. This gospel has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and I, Paul, have become a servant of it.
Repent of your sins and place your faith in Jesus Christ!
God, Lord of all creation
Savior, that took your death…defeated your greatest enemy!
Today is the day.
Church, our greatest unity is that we are sinners saved by Christ
Jesus fixed the disease…So stop living with symptoms!
That is how we…a rag-tag bunch of people…can sit as a family in the same room
We demonstrate every day the Gospel to the world!
Christ has defeated you greatest enemy and given you his bride
So lets die to sin
And live in unity!
We are free!
Transition: Jesus is the Good King, and because of that He provides Salvation…and when we recognize that…we can truly start getting rid of symptoms by TRULY DELIGHTING IN HIM
Jesus is our source of joy. (37b)
Jesus is our source of joy. (37b)
And the large crowd was listening to him with delight.
EXPLANATION
I read this over and over again…and I could figure out why these people are happy.
Only Mark says their happy..
Matthew says that no-one dared ask anymore question.
Luke doesn’t say anything about their reaction.
Why delight?
Well lets figure it our:
Jesus had a mixed crowd
Matthew states that he was with the Pharisees as well as the normal people
The large crowd was delighted in what Jesus said
Delight means enjoyment…they liked it…it hit them well
They were hearing a theology that no one had brought to them
The scribes had not understood it
And so it was new (while being still old and clear)
It was special…from the mouth of God!
I believe that they were delighted because Jesus was saying the Messiah has arrived and he is greater than what they expected.
-But I don’t think they fully understood it…how can they
-They just heard the key words they wanted to hear
-David
-Lord
-And they knew something special was on the horizon.
-The Gospel, the Word, brought them delight
But were not sure they got it…
We know the religious leaders didn’t
I think some of these people got it…and some just got caught up in the hype..
But we need to know:
Jesus can bring us true joy and delightment
When we truly hear the God news of the Gospel we DELIGHT IN HIM
When we truly love God we delight in HIS WORD!
OT references
Take delight in the Lord,
and he will give you your heart’s desires.
4 Take delight in the LORD,
and he will give you your heart’s desires.
The circular relationship…you delight in the Lord…and you get your desires…which is MORE HIM
God gives himself to us
The creator of the universe!
ILLUSTRATION
We in staff this week talking about this idea. That as we fall more in love with God, we receive more of Him. We delight more in Him.
As we did, Matthew shared an example of this…
We, your pastors, love fly fishing. We got to Putah Creek often.
And as we get into the water and throw the line and catch the fish…it very difficult to have a bad day…its difficult no to delight…
But Putah creek is just a stream…a stream that becomes larger as you go north. A stream that flows from large lake.
-The lake provides the stream that we get to enjoy.
As we look around at the blessing of God, we get to delight in the streams…recognizing the great river that it flows from!
IMPLICATION
WARNING: Don’t walk out of here delighted while missing the point
WARNING: Don’t walk out of here delighted while missing the point
Many people come to me and say: “this sermon really hit me…I need to be better in xyz”
NO…YOU NEED TO BE SAVED BY JESUS…AND THEN DELIGHT IN HIM
AND HE WILL MAKE YOU BETTER IN XYZ
Many of these people were delighted now…and yelling crucify him later
DONT MISS JESUS…HE IS THE SOURCE OF DELIGHTMENT!
Then our delight will stretch to our entire lives
Mini-illustration:
More than 50% will be diagnosed with a mental illness or disorder at some point in their lifetime.3
1 in 5 Americans will experience a mental illness in a given year.4
1 in 5 children, either currently or at some point during their life, have had a seriously debilitating mental illness.5
Significant increase in the last decade
We are people that are desperate for delightment…desperate for hope…desperate for joy.
We are not finding it here…
We are not finding it through our systems and structures.
WE need something more.
When we delight in Christ, we receive more of Him…and that stretches to everything…saturates:
Work
You delighting in your Monday? Or is delight turned to dread?
When your foundation is Christ…the dread of job turns to joy
Mini-illustration: (Maybe Jevon) 15, got a job painting…lasted a week…hated it…but this man did it for years and loved it…because his identity was not in painting but in Christ
God allowed Him to work
God gave him this place…this money for His family.
All joy to Him.
Family
Has you family turned into one more job?
Great…now I can’t rest
Now the kids are going to need something
Mini-illustration: Can I have food after you just sit down…’NO”
I get it…
But when we saturated ourselves in the creator…we find joy in our families
Dinner devotions
Prayer in the car
Marriage
Has you marriage become the source of your delightment…
Spoiler aler…it will let you down…she will let you do
You will let her down
But when we place our joy and delightment in Christ
Grace saturates our marriages
We enjoy them as the created and not the creator
We will delight in the tough things
How do we delight when everything is wrong…we find hope in him
Therefore, since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every hindrance and the sin that so easily ensnares us. Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. For the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Therefore, since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every hindrance and the sin that so easily ensnares us. Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, 2 keeping our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. For the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Yes, we can keep our eyes on Jesus though the tough times
Loss of family
Loss of jobs
Mental illness
WE do this together as a church
Mini-illustraiton: Costa rica…look at the person ahead….we look to Christ.
Discipline: When we screw up and when God is preparing us for something (reference Hebrews 120
Discipleship: Delighting in His Word!
Why do I think these people were delighted? Because they heard the Word of God coming from the mouth of God. And although they didn’t understand all the implications…they knew something was different and special.
When we delight in Christ…we will delight for his Word…and it will disciple us.
All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness,
16 All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
We delight in the Word and it is good for:
Teaching
Rebuking
Correcting
Training in righteousness
These are tough!
But they lead to completion
Including joy
So that we can do every good work
John PIper
“All through the day, every good thing that gives us pleasure should be an instance of delighting in God.”
When you get the point: YOU CAN TRULY FIND JOY AND DELIGHTMENT IN CHIRST
Knowing that Christ is not just a King, he is the full revelation of what a King is.
Knowing that Christ did not just defeat an enemy, he defeated our greatest enemy in sin.
Knowing that we can find joy in Christ when we truly delight in Him.
This is more joy than we could ever hope for!
Outro
I asked Lee for a prayer bench…I showed him a picture of one online.
-i looked fine
-some wood thrown together
And honestly…that what I thought I would get…but then he showed up
And the wood was special.
The form was special, carved and intricate
The middle has a cross.
The underside has an inscription to me.
I use it to pray every morning…
This is more?
But why? Why not less?
Because Lee loves wood working…he loves building…and through this..I can tell he loves me as me as his friend, pastor, co-laborer in Christ.
Church, Christ did not come so that you can live a better 80-100 years. He came because he loves you.
He orchestrated your redemption because he loves you.
And he comes…not for a slight change…but to completely change you.
So whats your expectation?
Whats your hope?
Is it just for a little better life?
-a slight change to the norm
-just fix this for me?
Because that not this faith.
Thats not this God
Thats not this Messiah savior.
This is a complete renovation.
This is a complete change.
And it is accomplished by our God coming ot us.
Jesus is the best King, the only savior, and provides true joy.
Thats more than we could ever hope for!
Let’s pray
Prayer
And understanding of Salvation (eternal perspective)
What Jesus accomplished (salvation, defeat of sin)
Joy as the product of salvation (we can delight in Him)