Sermon Tone Analysis

My dad was a pastor, and as I grew up I saw his life.

I saw the drama, the conflicts, the hypocrisy (or at least what seemed to me to be hypocrisy) my dad had to deal with day after day.

So growing up I always said that there was one profession that I would never, ever, under any circumstances, go into: and that was the profession of pastor.

For example, is a beautiful text for Christians who are suffering.

is absolutely vital for those who are persecuted for their faith.

Song of Solomon is great for young couples, or young singles who want to know how to navigate a future relationship.

And so on.

The Bible is full of texts which speak directly toward specific people, in specific situations.

growing up I always said that there was one profession that I would never, ever, under any circumstances, go into: and that was the profession of pastor.

But it wasn’t just because of all the relational difficulties being pastor caused him.

It was because I heard multiple times as a child that pastors will be judged more severely than others.

We get this from , which says:

Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.

Our text today, —perhaps more than any other text we’ve seen since we planted five years ago—seems tailor-made for Eglise Connexion.

And as a young person, I couldn’t understand why.

If all sin—all rebellion against God—is worthy of condemnation, then why should some people, or pastors, be judged more severely than others?

That question is at the heart of today’s text.

There’s nothing absolutely revolutionary here; nothing we’ve not seen before.

But it is rare

Four weeks ago, we began chapter 20 of the gospel of Luke.

And we need to remember that context if we want to feel today’s passage () as we should.

If you remember, the story of the Bible is one story, split up into two parts.

In the first part, the Old Testament, we see God promise to live with his people as their God and King.

He reigns as King through the kings (like King David), who were his representatives; and he reigns as God through his presence inhabiting the temple.

But both the monarchy and the priesthood in Israel fail in their tasks: the kingdom is split, the people are exiled into foreign countries, and even after their return from exile, the monarchy is broken, and God’s presence doesn’t return to the temple.

But through his prophets, God promised to bring his presence and his reign back to his people.

And he would do it, he said, through a figure called the Messiah, or the Christ.

The big question was, how would this Messiah come, and what would he look like?

The people had some ideas.

The promises of the Old Testament said that this Messiah would be a descendant of King David.

In , for example, we find one of the most famous prophecies concerning the Messiah, and Isaiah says (v. 7):

Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom.

Everyone knew these promises.

Everyone knew that God promised a Messiah to his people, and everyone knew that this Messiah would come from the family of David.

This was common knowledge.

The funny thing is, David himself wrote about the Messiah to come.

The most famous of his Messianic psalms—the one most often quoted in the New Testament—is .

Let’s read the first four verses of that psalm, just to get our bearings:

1  The Lord says to my Lord:

“Sit at my right hand,

until I make your enemies your footstool.”

2  The Lord sends forth from Zion

your mighty scepter.

Rule in the midst of your enemies!

3  Your people will offer themselves freely

on the day of your power,

in holy garments;

from the womb of the morning,

the dew of your youth will be yours.

4  The Lord has sworn

and will not change his mind,

“You are a priest forever

after the order of Melchizedek.”

Now obviously, the word “Messiah” never shows up here.

But what we see is the prophecy of a future King, whose reign will come not just because of his family, but because God himself made him King.

The Lord sends the king’s scepter and tells him to rule in the midst of his enemies.

In addition, David describes this King as not just a King, but a priest.

V. 4: You are a priest forever...

We don’t have time to go into who Melchizedek was and why he was important; but the Bible says that he was both a king, and a priest of God.

And he wasn’t a priest because he was born into a family of priests, but because God made him a priest.

So David’s saying that this Messiah wouldn’t only be King; he would be a priest of God, chosen and equipped by God to fulfill that function, and he would reign as priest and king forever.

God had promised to send a Messiah; this Messiah would be of the family of David; he would be not just a king, but a priest-king, chosen and sent by God himself.

All of this information was constant in the minds of the Jews at the time of Jesus.

So you can see why the religious authorities were in such a twist over Jesus at this point in our text.

in chapter 19, Jesus enters Jerusalem as King of God’s people, and begins exercising his authority as King of God’s people.

So the religious authorities—those who up to now have controlled the religious life of the Jews—begin to challenge Jesus’s authority.

They try to show that he is not the King everyone says he is, the King he seems to suggest he is.

In chapter 19 of the gospel of Luke, Jesus enters Jerusalem as King of God’s people, and begins exercising his authority as King of God’s people.

This, of course, freaks out the religious authorities, who want to maintain their control over the religious life of the people.

So they begin to challenge Jesus’s authority.

They try to show that he is not the King everyone says he is, the King he seems to suggest he is.

So the religious authorities—those who up to now have controlled the religious life of the Jews—begin to challenge Jesus’s authority.

They try to show that he is not the King everyone says he is, the King he seems to suggest he is.

They come after him with three separate attacks.

First, they directly question his authority.

When that doesn’t work, they ask him a moral question about where the loyalty of God’s people should lie—in the government, or in God.

When that doesn’t work, they put him before a theological puzzle, hoping to trap him in an indefensible position.

To every attack, Jesus responds calmly and efficiently: the religious authorities can mount any verbal attack they want, and it always just slides right off, like water off a duck’s back.

And they come to a point (we see in v. 40) where they no longer dare ask him any questions, because he keeps showing them up.

But that doesn’t mean Jesus is finished with them.

This passage is the climax of chapter 20—after the incessant challenges from the religious authorities, Jesus gives a challenge of his own.

And it shouldn’t be surprising that when Jesus gives a challenge of his own, it’s a very tough nut to crack.

Jesus’s Challenge (v.

41-44)

41 But he said to them, “How can they say that the Christ is David’s son? 42 For David himself says in the Book of Psalms,

Jesus still talking to the Sadducees.

“ ‘The Lord said to my Lord,

“Sit at my right hand,

After these incessant challenges from the religious authorities, Jesus gives a challenge of his own.

The Westminster Larger Catechism, a standard that has exercised considerable influence over the life of the Protestant church for centuries, states a principle rarely expressed in our age of relativism and fuzzy thinking—namely, that the same sin may be more terrible when committed by one person than another.

43  until I make your enemies your footstool.”

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Jesus’s Challenge (v.

41-44)

44 David thus calls him Lord, so how is he his son?”

Because although everyone knew , although everyone knew it was a prophecy of the Messiah, of the Christ, of the priest-king God promised to send to his people, apparently none of them had really thought of the language David uses to describe this Messiah.

The first thing we need to define is the word “Christ.”

Contrary to public opinion, “Christ” is not Jesus’s last name.

“Christ” is a title.

When David became King, they started calling him “King David.”

In the same way, when the Bible calls Jesus “Jesus Christ,” it is calling him according to his title.

The title “Christ” means “Messiah.”

Literally, when we hear “Jesus Christ,” it means, “Jesus the Messiah.”