Mark 12:35-44 “Jesus Questions & Condemns the Religious Leaders”

Good morning Calvary Chapel Lake City!

Men… I hope you will be able to join us this Saturday for our monthly Men’s breakfast…

Should be a good one! Bern McGrane… a Jesus Revolution testimony.

I’ve got SUCH High expectations… No pressure Bern.

Don’t blow it!

Bern’s gonna get me after service.

Well… after that edifying moment… let’s now get into the word. Please open your Bibles to Mark 12. Mark 12:35-44 today… finishing out the chapter.

We left off where Jesus just finished being questioned by various leaders of Israel… on Tuesday of His Passion Week.

Pharisees and Herodians questioned Him about taxes.

Sadducees questioned Him about the Resurrection.

And, a Scribe questioned Him about the greatest commandment of all.

To which He essentially replied to Love God… and to love your neighbor as yourself.

And, the wisdom and handle He had on eternal matters and scripture left all these top religious and political leaders to be silenced.

We left off reading, “But after that no one dared question Him.”

In two of those encounters, it’s written that they marveled at His words… and that the multitudes were astonished at His teaching.

The intention was to discredit Jesus and to find charges against Jesus…

But instead… the multitudes of people were astonished at Jesus’ teaching.

What they intended for evil, God used for good.

And, so often… that’s how God moves in the lives of those who walk by the Spirit.

And, now that questioning Jesus has come to a close… and now that the crowds stand in awe of Jesus… now that all eyes are on Him…

Jesus has something to say.

Reflected in our sermon title… “Jesus Questions & Condemns the Religious Leaders.”

Let’s Pray!

In reverence for God’s word, please stand as I read our passage today.

Mark 12:35-44 “Then Jesus answered and said, while He taught in the temple, “How is it that the scribes say that the Christ is the Son of David? 36 For David himself said by the Holy Spirit: ‘The LORD said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.” ’ 37 Therefore David himself calls Him ‘Lord’; how is He then his Son?” And the common people heard Him gladly.

38 Then He said to them in His teaching, “Beware of the scribes, who desire to go around in long robes, love greetings in the marketplaces, 39 the best seats in the synagogues, and the best places at feasts, 40 who devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. These will receive greater condemnation.” 41 Now Jesus sat opposite the treasury and saw how the people put money into the treasury. And many who were rich put in much. 42 Then one poor widow came and threw in two mites, which make a quadrans. 43 So He called His disciples to Himself and said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all those who have given to the treasury; 44 for they all put in out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all that she had, her whole livelihood.”

Praise God for His word! Please be seated!

Let’s pull up our first slide to show the Temple… our scene today… Jesus is teaching at the Temple in Jerusalem with many people around Him…

Entering the Temple proper was very restrictive to the Priests… so we understand the setting to be the Court of the Gentiles… where anyone could gather…

The Greek word for Temple (hee-er-on´) hiĕrŏn used here denotes “the entire precincts” versus the Gk word naŏs which is the central sanctuary.

Some Bible translations even translate V35 as “While Jesus was teaching in the temple courts...” for clarity.

The crowd gathered here is a highly Jewish crowd being that this week is the Passover Week… one of three required feasts for Jews to attend…

And, the highly orthodox Pharisees were also gathered…

In fact, this interaction that is being witnessed by many of the common people… is a continued interaction between Jesus and the Pharisees.

They questioned Him… and now He questions them.

Matt 22:41-42 reads, “While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, 42 saying, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose Son is He?” They said to Him, “The Son of David.”

When the leaders of Israel questioned Jesus… their motive was to ensnare or to trap Jesus.

What Jesus is doing here is not the same… He’s bringing the central matter… important for every human being who draws breath into their lungs… front and center…

He’s asking them… “Do you know who I am?”

WHICH IS A QUESTION STILL VALID TODAY… do you know who Jesus is?

And, what Jesus does here to answer this question is He takes the word of God and Messianic prophecies as a proof to lead any with an honest and searching spiritual heart… to revelation that He is the Christ… the Messiah.

First, He shows that He is the Christ… and then He’s going to address Lordship.

And, buckle up… because we are going to talk about both of these topics today.

First, what it means for Jesus to be the Christ.

And, then what it means for Him to be our Lord. And, I intentionally said “our” Lord, and not “the” Lord… because I want it to be personal.

Because His relationship with you has to be personal. He can’t just be the Lord that rules and reigns over all the earth.

You have to personally connect He’s also the Lord who rule and reigns over my heart.

So, to begin… Jesus first brings up the topic of the Christ…

In all three Synoptic Gospels, Jesus asks what they think about the Christ, the Son of David?

Jesus is the Christ, but He refers to Himself in the third person here because He knows the Pharisees don’t believe He is the Christ.

So the question is crafted to give them freedom to speak about their belief on the Christ…

And, in Matthew’s Gospel… they give a brief response that the Christ is “The Son of David.”

Which Jews understood to point back to the Davidic Covenant in 2 Sam 7… which is an unconditional covenant made between God and David… where God promised David and Israel that the Messiah would come from David’s lineage and He would establish a kingdom that would endure forever.

“Son of David” was a favorite messianic title Jews used…

In Matthew’s Gospel, I count 9x that Jesus is referred to with this title…

Here’s three examples…

Jesus’ Genealogy: Matt 1:1 “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham:”

I love the outcry of Blind Bartimaeus and his blind friend… Matt 20:30 reads, “… when they heard that Jesus was passing by, cried out, saying, “Have mercy on us, O Lord, Son of David!”

Also at the Triumphal Entry…

As Jesus entered Jerusalem on t a Donkey in Matt 21:9 the multitudes cried out, “Hosanna to the Son of David! ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’

It was expected that there would be a man… who would be a descendant of David… which Jesus was… just look at His genealogies in Matt 1 and Luke 3.

And, Jesus will present a dilemma about the Son of David… which we will see in a moment, but first let’s also understand what it means to be the Christ…

Jesus Christ is how we refer to our Savior… Jesus is His name… Christ is NOT His last name… it’s His title signifying He was sent from God to be King and Deliverer.

Christ in Gk. is Christos meaning the Anointed One, the Messiah…

In the OT, the Hebrew word mâshîyach is the same idea… which is translated as “Messiah” in Dan 9.

Sometimes in the OT, mâshîyach is translated as “Anointed One” to refer to someone set apart by God for special service as a prophet, priest or king… as in the “Lord’s Anointed” (like Saul or David).

Jesus is uniquely special in that He fulfills all three of these roles…

Prophet, because He embodied and preached the Word of God… and foretold prophetic events…

Priest, because His death atones for our sins and reconciles us to the Father.

King, because after His resurrection God gave all authority to Him… and He is coming again to establish His kingdom.

Jesus is also uniquely special because no other prophet, priest or king … were anointed ones in the absolute as in “the anointed One.”

The Anointed One… as understood commonly by the Jews and the Israel’s leaders… was the coming “messiah.”

As in John 1:41 when Andrew said to his brother Simon Peter, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated, the Christ).”

In the OT, there are only 2 verses that translate mâshîyach as “Messiah”… referring to the absolute Messiah… and they are…

Daniel 9:25–26 which reads, “Know therefore and understand, That from the going forth of the command To restore and build Jerusalem Until Messiah the Prince, There shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; The street shall be built again, and the wall, Even in troublesome times. 26 “And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself; And the people of the prince who is to come Shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end of it shall be with a flood, And till the end of the war desolations are determined.”

V25 speaks about Daniel’s 70th Week “The Tribulation”… yet future where the Temple will be re-built… and Messiah the Prince would come in His second coming to usher in the Millennial Kingdom.

Which we and Jesus understood, but the Jews didn’t understand the second coming.

V26 speaks about the First Coming of Messiah… where the Christ enters Jerusalem during the Triumphal Entry… and then is cut off or crucified.

We’ll come back to all of this in the weeks ahead as we enter Mark 13 “The Olivet Discourse”… a study on the end of the age.

And, if any of this is confusing to you… imagine how difficult Israel in the first century felt…

There stood before them Herod’s Temple… a marvel in it’s own right… and Dan 9 spoke about the re-building of the Temple… that must have been confusing…

2 Sam 7 spoke about the King who would come from the line of David… who’s throne would be established forever…

And, peace in Israel was promised according verses like 2 Sam 7:10 “Moreover I will appoint a place for My people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in a place of their own and move no more; nor shall the sons of wickedness oppress them anymore, as previously...”

Yet… in Israel in the first century there was no King… they were subjects to Rome… and it’s oppression…

And, so they longed for the Coming Messiah who would break the shackles of their bondage from Rome… and set up His kingdom forever…

The Pharisees so longed for the Coming Messiah… and held to the promises they read… they thought they knew the Christ…

And, what He would accomplish, but they did NOT understand there would be a first and second coming of the Christ…

They did not have the advantages that we do…

Specifically that of hindsight… to be able to look back and see what Jesus did on the Cross.

And, they did not have the writings of the New Testament… which are inspired by the Holy Spirit…

The New in the Old concealed… the Old in the New revealed…

The insights, revelations, and applications of OT scriptures and how they apply to… and are fulfilled by Jesus Christ… we have that blessing.

Not that it would have mattered for the most of the Pharisees because… even with all the revelation… theirs was an issue of hard-heartedness…

They had built up an expectation… the Messiah would overthrow Rome… and Jesus was NOT fitting the mold.

Jesus came teaching, preaching, and healing… but, there was NO indication that He would free Israel from Rome’s oppression.

There was a great oppression that most of Israel did not want to acknowledge… the oppression of sin… and that’s what Jesus defeated.

Today, things are not so different… many people want a Jesus that can tackle the big things in life that are on the offensive against us…

Destroy corruption in society…

Bring prosperity and peace…

Deliver me from sickness and disease…

Tell a good story and keep me entertained…

But, don’t get personal in my life.

Don’t put your finger on the bigger issue in my heart.

And, that’s what Jesus was doing…

why did jesus come in his first coming?

continue…

Read ahead… Mark 13 next week… parallel to Matt 24-25… the Olivet Discourse… a teaching on the Tribulation and the end of the Age… big chapter.