Whose Son is Jesus?
Notes
Transcript
The text we will look at today, is did God become a human being and why. Still in Matthew 22 All these groups that followed him around and asked him questions and a couple weeks ago they raised the question of distractions.... and asked about politics… then asked about theology… and he kind of silences them to a point where it comes to right now
41 Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question,
So he basically says I am done with all of your questions, let me ask you a few questions and Dallas Willard says Jesus was the smartest man that ever lived. We dont really understand him that way.. but he is always pushing back against us and showing us how to change our ways and he is basically saying you are wrong abotu what you think is right for your life and you will finally see I am right.
Addicts.
The scandal of Christianity is Jesus pushes through the mess and says Look I am telling you what is best for you are you going to heed it now, or are you going to remember it later?
41 Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question,
The pharisees were the religious… they knew the things about Jesus but they didnt know him… and it is ,much like us today… and JEsus cuts through it and says do you actually know me love me or not we may be interested in teh things of Jesus but not actually know him
Sproul defining faith… its like a chair… and showing you have faith means sit in the chair… and piper follows and says its not just about sitting on a chair… it means you have to love and embrace the chair above anything else in the universe… and the pharisees knew about the chair… they had ideas and faith in him but they didnt love him because they rejected the ultimate revelation of GOd himself...
Some of you in your marriages are great at the duty part, but not the delight part…sometimes the other side… but they don’t know the covenant and delight elsewhere also… but you have to have BOTH
This is what Jesus warns them of in revelation… you lsot your first love...
How do we not become a pharisee? He just told us… You shall love the Lord...
THe only way you can stop loving one idol in your life is to actually love something else more… and Jesus said the only thing you can love more is me
The only way back he tells us in Rev 3… is to remember… remember what it was like when you first fell in love with God… if you are evaluating whether you are just a fan or a follower… remember what it was like when you first got saved… the people you would tell the sin you would confess… go back to that… that is what would help you…
The pharisees were people that loved God but wouldnt obey him…
Book No one around you can get a picture into psychology.... everyone lies about whether they have drank, voted, everything… and this is why nobody predicted teh win of Trump… people lied on their way out… the problem is, we also lie to ourselves.... but in front of a computer there is a truth to it all, for everyone in this room, the pharisees lied to themselves… and that is why he is about to get to the most angry chapter in the whole new testament.. and it is projected at the MOST RELIGIOUS PEOLPE....
1 Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples,
2 “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat,
3 so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice.
4 They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger.
5 They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long,
You would put something about your head and put scripture in little boxes to show how religious yhou are and tassles showed how religious… but then he says in verse 13
13 “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in.
Then
25 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.
26 You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.
He says we got it all wrong, religion says do things and god will accept you and jesus says its all internal do you love him… so hes challenging them
so back to 22
42 saying, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “The son of David.”
When he says the Christ.... he is saying to the pharisees… you know you have to love God with everything… and he says here is the solution to your problem… who is Jesus.... thats the question you need to answer… and he says what do you think about the messiah… meant a king… and the jewish understanding was the world was a mess but one day a king would come and rule and clean it all up… now listen to what he says… he will explain he is this king
and most of modern christians relate to Jesus as savior and friend very well… but we dont relate to him as king very well… but he is about to say exactly that… live here do this change that… We want oparts of this and that… and the king is like thats not how it works… you either did it or died...
When Jesus calls us there is going to be times that he calls us to places that might kill us… you may be called to go to a foreign country and called to serve.
This isnt a request from Jesus it is a command… hes a king....
Some of us are scared to ask what Jesus wants in our lives because we are afraid that he will tell us something that we dont want to hear...
I dont get to do what I want to do,,, I have to do what the king says… there is one person in control of this unverse and its jesus....
and he says what do you think about the messiah, the annointed one.... he is going to look at the pharisees and say I am god… and you are in teh scripture and never figured it out...
42 saying, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “The son of David.”
43 He said to them, “How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying,
44 “ ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet” ’?
45 If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?”
46 And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.
First you should have been able to figure this out… but we cant because it seems like it doesnt make sense to us at all… and we dont see things because we don’t want to…
IF you lust after a woman… that can’t be a thing… Jesus is like my expectations as King is you live as a human, but dont objectify women and men as your culture does… but they are people made in the image of God… we cant use and discard them… and he says in the sermon on the mount how to use our money and forgiveness… love your enemy but prayf or thsoe that persecute you… and everything about what Jesus wants us to do is hard… and how you know you know him is obedience when you do things that you dont want to do.
43 He said to them, “How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying,
44 “ ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet” ’?
IF david is looking at the Messiah and saying you are my lord… but he is his great grandchild why would he look at him and call him Lord… unless he is his Lord long before David ever existed… and davids lineage pre existed before david and has authority over it....
at Christmas Angels appear to Joseph… You will have a baby, and hes like I know how that happens… and hes like get me out… I want you to name him Jesus… and if you named him you got authority over them… kids names,,, you manage them,,, and Joseph doesnt get to name Jesus… and you can’t manage him… its the same thing… because he existed before him… and Jesus jumps into the contreversy and says cant you understand...
Larry King.. who would you interview… JEsus… one question… born of a virgin? If so… it changes everything,,,
THe NT writers didnt just have to figure out whether or not Jesus was God, they really had to redefine what they thought of as God…even as you say the word God you ahve to reframe it around JEsus...
N.T. Wright says.... Paul is unpacking Jesus as God… first born of all creation… showing Jesus is God… in the beginning… everyhthing made through him.... all these old passages take OT passages to reform them… God never shared glory… but all these passages get reworked around Jesus
Paul is taking the word God and filling it with new content or rather discovering what its true content always was, what he knows to be true about Jesus leaves him with no choice...
What he understood as a Jew needs to be filled with new content about Jesus…
IF you say you dont believe in God… teh question should be what God do you not believe in… which one… THe one I believe in is hte one who came down in the person of JEsus and showing this is who God has always been… you arent just rejecting a God that rules from a distance… The scandal is breaking up who you say you don’t believe in… and doing the same thing to religious people… do you believe that I am Lord… that I am God… and this is the scandal to the Jews they coiuldnt wrap their mind around it… this is what confronts us...
JI packer...
The real difficulty, the supreme mystery with which the Gospel confrontsus lies not in the good friday message of atonement or the easter message of resurrection but in the christmas message of incarnation.... this is the real stumbling block in the world… God becoming human is difficult… Jesus here is reiterating what he said in John 8 before Abraham I am its THE name of God....
What are we going to do with this claim…
At the end of the day when you are comparing religions all you need to know and ask is who is Jesus.... he is either God, or he is not… and that is where the line of difference comes from… and there is a line of people
Buddhism… Jesus not god. but enlightened
Hinduism Jesus is one of many incarnations of god
Islam Jesus was a prophet inferior to Muhammed
Jehovahs… Jesus was Michael a created being that became a man
New age Jesus is a state of conscousiness we can all aspire to
Scientology.... an implant forced upon thatan millions of years ago
The question is do you believe he is a good teacher or that he is Lord… the question ad the end of the day is who is he… we all have a position on God and eternity the only question is what is the content what does it look out on… do you believe that I am all these weird things and a good teacher… or do you believe i am Davids lord becasue I existed long before David… and that is the scandal… he came and he died so that we could be made right with him.....
We all have a faith position…
Our faith position needs to be that Jesus is God… and he came down to save us… so what is their faith position
46 And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.
and you can choose to go quiet and not decide or you can follow him… that is why he came… to give you lfie...
13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again,
14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”
Once you treasure him this is what you say… just give me it all… and you want it more than anything
