The Psalm That Proves Messiah Is God

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I had thought tonight about moving from our series in Mark and doing something specifically related to Christmas. But as it turns out, in God's providence, the next passage in Mark has very much to do with Christmas. And so I thought we would move ahead in, in our study of Mark's gospel and come back here even for tonight. I've entitled tonight's message "The Psalm that Proves Messiah is God", "The Psalm that Proves Messiah is God".

There's a book I would encourage you to read if you've never read it. If you want to know what Jewish people, Orthodox Jewish people today think – if you want to get a glimpse into their thinking (if you had Jewish friends, others you're trying to reach for Christ and you just want to understand where they're coming from), there's a great book called This is My God written by Herman Wouk. You'll recognize that name, some of you. He wrote a, a book, several books back in the last part of last century that became miniseries. The Winds of War was one; War and Remembrance another that became very popular in that day. But he also as a, as a gifted writer wrote this book from the perspective of an Orthodox Jew in today's world, what do they believe This is My God. The, the same man wrote another book, kind of a companion book entitled The Will to Live On: This is Our Heritage. He's talking about the heritage of the Jewish people. And it's very fascinating because, in that book, he comes to the point of talking about David – understanding, helping us understand the connection between David and the Jewish people. And this is what he writes, Herman Wouk in The Will to Live On. He writes: "Scripture (talking obviously about the Hebrew Scriptures) sees the entire hope for Israel's future in the restoration of David's line. Some three thousand years after David lived, that remains the core of the Jewish Messianic vision. David, King of Israel, lives! Lives and endures' This is what the boys sing as they dance with the Torah during the rejoicing of the Law. So, worshipers turn to each other and say at the blessing of the new moon, 'David, King of Israel, lives and endures!' Our writings declare that the Messiah is to be a descendant of David. Even the gospels are at pains to trace a descent of Jesus from David. By the phrase 'son of David', we Jews mean nobody but the long-awaited Redeemer. In the long perspective of the sacred story, the lawgiver Moses reaches back to revelation and creation, and the poet King David reaches forward to the vanishing point of the future, the coming of the Redeemer. This all-embracing perspective shapes our Bible, start to finish." Wouk writes of the Jewish people today: "They are looking and anticipating a Messiah who is in David's line and who will restore David's line." Really there's nothing different between the views that are held today and the views that were held in the first century when Jesus was here. They too were looking for the Messiah. They too were looking for one in David's line who would complete all that had been promised. And in fact, He came.

Now just to be clear as we begin, I want to make sure you understand that these expressions are identical. The Hebrew is Hamashiach literally. It is the anointed One or, as we've Anglicized it, Messiah. The Greek word is Christos. So, in Hebrew, Hamashiach; in Greek, Christos; in English, Messiah, Christ, anointed One. All of those mean the same thing. Jesus of Nazareth claimed, and Mark records the claim, that He was in fact the Messiah that God promised to the world through the Jewish people. In fact, go back to Mark 1. This is where Mark starts. Verse 1: "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus (there's His human name) Christ (Christos - the Messiah), the Son of God." This is also where we come in the high point of Peter's recognition in Mark 8. Remember in Mark 8:29, He was talking to His disciples about who people were saying that He is. "And He continued by questioning them (Mark 8:29), 'But who do you say that I am?' Peter answered and said to Him, 'You are the Christos' (the Messiah, the One who was promised).'"

Now clearly the Jewish people of the first century believed that their Scriptures promised a Messiah would come, and they were expectantly looking for and waiting for that Messiah. Turn over to John's gospel and, and you see this several times in John's gospel. When a group goes out to, to check on John the Baptist and who he is, they ask him in Verse 19 of John 1: "'Who are you?' He confessed (Verse 20) and did not deny, but confessed, 'I am not the Messiah' (the 'Christos')." They say, "Well, if not him, who?" And they continue to probe. Down in Verse 24: "Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. They asked him, and said to him, 'Why then are you baptizing, if you're not the Christos?'" They were anticipating in the first century that the Messiah would arrive. And so they're wondering if John is in fact making the claim to be Him.

Go over to Chapter 7 of John's gospel and you see this same sense of anticipation. They were living in anticipation that the Messiah could come. John 7, look at Verse 25: "So some of the people of Jerusalem were saying, 'Is this not the man whom they were seeking to kill? Look, He's speaking publicly, and they are saying nothing to Him. The rulers do not really know that this is the Christos, do they (the Messiah? Maybe the rulers are leaving Him alone because they think He's the real deal). However, we do not know where this man is from; but whenever the Christos may come, no one knows where He is from.'" So, they were anticipating, they were looking for the Messiah.

Verse 31, "Many of the crowd believed in Him; and they were saying, 'When the Christ comes (when the Messiah comes), He will not perform more signs than those which this man has, will He?'" He's coming. Maybe this is Him. Maybe this is He. Maybe, maybe He's arrived. Verse 41: "Others were saying, 'This is the Christ.' Still others were saying, 'Surely the Christ is not gonna come from Galilee, is He? (Well, as we saw this morning from Isaiah 9, they obviously weren't remembering that text. Others were saying, 'This is the Christ'.) Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the descendants of David, and from Bethlehem, the village where David was?'" So you see there was this, there was this anticipation. The people were looking for the Messiah. They thought maybe John was the Messiah. Then there's some question, "Maybe Jesus is the Messiah." So, they were anticipating Messiah.

But the question is was there evidence in the Hebrew Scriptures that the Jewish Messiah would be more than a mere man? The Jewish leaders didn't think so because every time Jesus, who claimed to be the Christos, who accepted that, claimed to be God as well, what happened? How did the Jewish leaders respond? They accused Him of blasphemy. They wanted to stone Him. Look at John 10. John 10:31. When He said in Verse 30, "'I and the Father are one' (we're one in essence), the Jews picked up stones again to stone Him. Jesus answered them (Verse 32), 'I showed you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you stoning Me?' The Jews answered, 'For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy; and because You, being a man, make Yourself out to be God.'" Obviously, while they anticipated a Messiah, they didn't anticipate a divine Messiah. They anticipated a human Messiah. Their response to the idea of a divine Messiah, and by the way, this is still the Jewish response to a divine Messiah, is that it violates the oneness of God. It violates monotheism in its most basic form. There's only one God, and Yahweh is His name.

But were they right? Are there clear reasons in the Old Testament Scriptures, in the Hebrew Scriptures, to believe that the promised Messiah would be both man and more than man, would be divine? Well, we've been looking in Isaiah 7, God with us and Isaiah 9, the mighty God, but there's another Old Testament passage that is foundational to understanding the true nature of the Messiah. And on Tuesday of the Passion Week while Jesus was teaching at the temple, He brought it up. You remember that on that Tuesday, Jesus was teaching. On Tuesday of the Passion Week, Jesus was teaching on the temple mount. This whole area is the temple mount. The large structure in the center is the temple proper. And on that huge open area, hundreds of thousands of people could assemble and did at feast time. And Jesus is teaching there, and He's teaching over in Solomon's portico most likely, there on the temple mount. A large crowd of people who were there to celebrate the Passover a few days later had gathered to listen to this charismatic Rabbi from Galilee. But His teaching that morning had been interrupted several times by questions from His opponents, the religious leaders of the nation. And so at the end of their series of questions, Mark records that Jesus turns the tables on them and He asks them a question. You read about it back in Mark's gospel 12:35, "And Jesus began to say, as He taught in the temple, 'How is it that the scribes say that the Christ is the son of David? David himself said in the Holy Spirit, 'The LORD said to my Lord, Sit at My right hand, until I put Your enemies beneath Your feet.' David himself calls Him Lord; so, in what sense is He, his son?' And the large crowd enjoyed listening to Him."

Now first of all, what's the link between this brief account, this paragraph, and the questions that were asked just before it? I think there are a couple of links. One is Jesus here sort of identifies the key issue underlining their questions. What is the nature of the coming Messiah? And in light of that, could Jesus be the Messiah? That's why He raises this issue. But I think, secondly, Jesus was, and this is a fascinating observation by William Hendriksen. Jesus was fulfilling the commandments He had just talked about, the great commandments. What are they? Love the Lord your God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself. Love God. Love others. How could Jesus best demonstrate love for these people who were enslaved to their sin, who were facing the eternal wrath of God in hell? The best way He could love them was by directing their attention to Himself as their Messiah, sent to deal with their sin. Hendriksen writes: "Now He is putting this love into practice by directing the attention of His audience to faith and Himself. For apart from such faith and from the right conception about the Christ, no scribe or anyone else can be saved." So it really was a heart of compassion on the part of Jesus for these people who were terribly confused and terribly lost.

The leaders of the nation had questioned Him and now He questions them. And His question is designed to expose their misunderstanding of what the Hebrew Scriptures taught about the Messiah, about His nature. The theme of the passage really comes down in Verse 37. Jesus says, "David himself calls the Messiah 'Lord'; so, in what sense is He, his son?" Jesus argues in this passage that the Old Testament prophesied that Messiah would be both human and divine. Even though there is only one true God and His name is Yahweh, God has sent His Son, who is equal in every sense. God has a Son, and Jesus is arguing this from the Hebrew Scripture.

You know, when you think about the Old Testament, when you think about how it reveals, understand the old saying, perhaps you've heard it, that says, "The New is in the Old concealed and the Old is in the New revealed." "The New is in the Old concealed and the Old is in the New revealed." That's exactly right. Or maybe another image I like that Benjamin Warfield, the great Princeton theologian, used is he said the Old Testament is like a, a richly decorated room. All the furniture's there. All the beauty's there, but the lights are turned down really dim. So you can make out everything that's in the room, you can understand it, but you don't really see it in its fullness and in its glory. Warfield was right. If you look carefully in the Old Testament, you can see everything in the room; you just can't see it clearly.

The Old Testament clearly implied that the promised Messiah would be more than just a man, and that's the issue Jesus addresses here. And He raises this issue of the Messiah's true nature in order to accomplish two goals. The first goal is to undermine the idea of a merely human Messiah, to undermine the idea of a merely human Messiah. It's in Verse 35. But before we get to Verse 35, Matthew tells us that there were a couple of questions that led to Verse 35. Look at Matthew 22. I've got it up on the screen there for you. This is what Matthew tells us happened just before the account we have here: "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.'" So, while the Pharisees were gathered together still – they're licking their wounds from their last attempt to trip Jesus up with the question of the great commandment – Jesus initiated with them this question: "What do you think about the Christ, whose Son?" And of course, their response isn't surprising: "The son of David." This is what the rabbis of the first century consistently taught. And in response to that, Jesus turns to the crowd, the vast crowd gathered there, and that's where we pick up the story in Mark's gospel. Look at Verse 35: "And Jesus began to say, as He taught in the temple (and now He's not talking to the scribes and Pharisees; He's talking about the scribes and Pharisees to the crowd), 'How is it that the scribes say that the Christ is the son of David?'" So now He's asked them a question. He's heard back from them. He turns to the crowd and He intends to make this a teaching moment. He says, "Why do they say that?"

Now notice we're still in the same circumstances. It happened as Jesus taught in the temple. It's been a full day already on that Tuesday as we've studied so this probably happens sometime in the afternoon. Around Him are His twelve disciples, others of His disciples, the Pharisees including several scribes and, according to Verse 37, a huge crowd. And Jesus is talking to the crowd and He asks them this question: "Why do the scribes say the Christ is the son of David?" Now what does Jesus' question mean? What it does not mean is that the Messiah was not to be in any sense the physical descendant of David. In fact, that's exactly what the Old Testament taught is what Jesus Himself had reiterated time and again. If we were to go back to 2 Samuel 7, in that text God promises David that the Messiah will come from his line and will sit on His throne forever. So there was no question about this. The, the scribes were right. It's not that they were wrong in their answer. It's that their answer didn't go far enough. They only understood half of the truth and Jesus is pointing that out.

The problem with the Pharisees' view when you look at it was really twofold. One is that the Messiah would be a merely human deliverer for the nation. That was their flawed view. And secondly, they refused to believe that Jesus was in fact their Messiah. This was their problem. Jesus would later, as we go through Mark, we'll see this, Jesus would later, deal with the second problem here, but here He deals with the first problem, their picture, their conception of the Messiah as a human deliverer for the nation.

And that brings us to Jesus' second goal. Not only does He undermine the idea of a merely human Messiah but, secondly, He corrects the idea of a merely human Messiah. He sets them straight. He begins by reiterating, reiterating again and again in this passage the crucial role of the Messiah. In the Jewish faith, Messiah is foundational. How do we know that? We know that because it was where the scribes taught. The scribes taught that the Messiah was foundational to their faith. That's what prompted Jesus' question of them. And in Verse 35, He says the scribes maintain that the Messiah had to be a descendant of David. So, in even the scribes' thinking, Messiah was key. But also, according to Jesus, Jesus obviously thought that the Messiah was foundational. That's what prompts Him to ask this question at this crucial juncture in His teaching ministry.

But that's not the point really of this text either. The real way Jesus highlights the crucial role of the Messiah is by pointing up that the Hebrew Scripture points out and asserts that Messiah is foundational. And here's the heart of Jesus' point. Here is the heart of what He wants to communicate, the heart of His argument. And He goes to a psalm to prove that the Hebrew Scripture punctuates the crucial role of the Messiah. And as it turns out, it's a psalm that not only proves that the Messiah is important, but that He must be more than a mere man. Look at Verse 36, "David himself said in the Holy Spirit, The LORD said to my Lord, 'Sit at My right hand, until I put Your enemies beneath Your feet.'"

Now before we look at that quotation and what it means, I am fascinated by Jesus' view of Scripture that's revealed in that statement. Let me show you what this text tells us about Jesus' view of Scripture before we look at it in its context. Jesus in this text really makes two assertions about Scripture. First of all, He makes the point that it is the product of a human author. He says, "David himself said." David actually wrote Psalm 110, the person, the human. But at the same time, Jesus maintains that it is the product of the Spirit of God. Notice what He says. It is "in (or by) the Spirit, the Holy one." It is, he did this in the Spirit or by the Holy Spirit. Both were speaking through this verse at the same time. What is that? It's what theologians call inspiration. David was really speaking, and yet the Spirit was really speaking at the same time as well. As Peter describes it in 2 Peter 1:21, "No prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God." Men spoke, but they spoke as they were driven along. The word moved here is a word that's used in Acts, in the end of Acts to describe that, that ship that got caught in the storm and was driven before the wind. That's this word. Men were driven by the Holy Spirit and, in so doing, they spoke from God. That's what Jesus is affirming in this text. We live in a day when that's unpopular, when it's becoming increasingly popular to think looser about the Scripture, more loosely.

Now with that background, let's look at the quote itself. First of all, let's make some general observations here. It is obviously a quotation of Psalm 110:1. And Jesus here attributes Psalm 110 to David. Thirdly, Jesus affirms what the rabbis also taught that Psalm 110 is about the Messiah. It's talking about the Messiah. By the way, Jesus and the rabbis weren't the only ones; the rest of the New Testament does as well. Peter does in Acts 2; he uses this text on the day of Pentecost. Paul uses it in 2 Corinthians 15. And the writer of Hebrews uses it as well. Psalm 110 is about the Messiah.

But what does it mean? What I want us to do is I want you to turn back with me to the psalm itself. Go back to Psalm 110 only because it'll be easier to recognize some things in the way the text is structured in English in Psalm 110:1. Now first of all, I want you to notice, let me read it for you and then let's, let's look at it carefully, "The LORD says to my Lord, 'Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.'" Now in this verse there are three people, three distinct people mentioned. First of all, there is Yahweh. You notice the word LORD in all caps? Again, as I've told you many times, that is God's personal name; that is, when He says it, "I am"; when we say it, "He is". Yahweh, "He is". That's God's personal name. So, there's the first person, Israel's God. Then there's the one speaking who is David. The third person in this text is the Messiah. Remember, both Jesus and the rabbis agreed that this psalm is about the Messiah. So this psalm then is talking about David's descendant who will be the Messiah. In that sense by the way, the Messiah is David's son. He's his physical offspring, his physical descendant.

But notice in this verse David makes a clear distinction between two persons. One he calls Yahweh LORD and the other he calls; you see the word Lord in smaller letters. That is the word Adonai. So, Yahweh says to my Adonai, my Lord. Yahweh, who's God says to David's Adonai or David's Lord. To this person, Yahweh makes two amazing promises; to the One who is David's son and at the same time David's Lord – two amazing promises. The first promise is this: I will give you authority to sit at My right hand. You see that? He says: "Sit at My right hand" Now understand what that is. That is a statement that says, "Assume equal authority with Me. Rule as an equal with Me." You say, "Is that really what it's saying?" Yeah, listen to the writer of Hebrews in Hebrews 1:13. When he's arguing for the superiority of Jesus Christ, the writer of Hebrews says: "But to which of the angels has God ever said, 'Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet?'" The point is not to one. Even the highly exalted angels, God never says to them, "Sit at My right hand. Occupy the place of equal authority with Me."

But there's a second promise here as well. It's, "I will put Your enemies beneath Your feet." What does that mean? Well, you see here in Psalm 110: "I will make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet", same idea. The idea comes from Old Testament imagery and in typical warfare in the ancient world. Here's an example from Joshua. This is just an example from the times. Joshua 10:24 "When they brought these kings out to Joshua, Joshua called for all the men of Israel (they had captured these kings), and he said to the chiefs of the men of war who had gone with him, 'Come near, put your feet on the necks of these kings.' So, they came near and put their feet on their necks." That's the image of Psalm 110:1. God promises the Messiah that He will so completely defeat all of His enemies that it will be like they lie in the dust before Him as their overwhelming conqueror. And He will, as it were, come forward to demonstrate His complete subjugation of them and put His foot on their neck. It's a sign that He has totally subdued them. God says to the Messiah, "I am going to subdue all of your enemies until they are in the dust before You and Your foot is on their neck. All they can do is humble themselves in abject submission before You and acknowledge You to be their sovereign." Does that sound familiar to you? My mind goes to Philippians 2. "He's given Him the name above every name (the name Lord), that at the name of Jesus (what?) every knee will bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord." So, in this text, God, Yahweh is promising David's descendant and the One who is at the same time David's Lord, Adonai, that He's going to give Him equal authority to Himself, and that He's going to make everything in the universe subject to Him.

Now there's another point this passage makes, not only the crucial importance of the Messiah but also the unique nature of the Messiah, the unique nature of the Messiah. And this is Jesus' main point. Psalm 110 that Jesus quotes here clearly teaches that the Messiah will be most unique. He'll have a unique nature. David back in, go back with me now to Mark 12:37, "David himself calls Him 'Lord' (here's Jesus' commentary on the text; David himself calls Him Lord); so, in what sense is He, his son?" Jesus said in light of what Psalm 110 says about the Messiah, He must be human, but He can't only be human. He will be both David's son, his descendant, his offspring as promised in many places in the Old Testament, but He also will be David's Lord. He'll be David's Lord. So He'll be a human descendant of David, but He'll be David's Lord. In other words, He will be both God and man. He will be equal to God in authority. God will say to Him, "Have a place of equal authority with Me. Rule with Me at My right hand." That in the ancient world was the place that the sons of kings occupied. There were, there were times in the, in the history of the kings when your son came of age, that if you were still living and you were the king, your son was a coregent with you. He ruled with you, and he was your equal in every sense. He was every bit as much the king as you were. That's what God is saying to the Messiah here; unique, both God and man. And Jesus wanted the Pharisees and He wanted that huge crowd gathered there that day to know that they had seriously misunderstood who the Messiah would be.

Amazing passage. But what are the implications of this passage for us? First of all, understand that Christianity is not a replacement for Old Testament Judaism, but the fulfillment of it. This is so important. Why does this matter? Because Jesus claimed to be what? The Messiah, the One the Old Testament promised; and at the same time, He claimed to be God. So if the Old Testament didn't point to a divine Messiah, then Jesus misunderstood the Old Testament. And Christianity then was a new religion with no ties to what God had previously revealed. Jesus then would have been a false teacher and a fraud who created something entirely new. He would have been no better than Mohammed, creating something new out of the air. But clearly understood, Jesus' claims to be both God and man are not, are not a heretical departure from Old Testament Judaism. Old Testament Judaism prophesied that the Messiah would be both the son of David and his Lord.

There's a second implication and that's that Jesus met the qualifications to be the Messiah found in Psalm 110. He was qualified humanly to be the Messiah. In fact, He was qualified twice. Jesus was twice the descendant of David. He was the physical descendant of David through His mother Mary. That physical connection to David through Mary is recorded in the genealogy in Luke's gospel. But He was also the legal descendant of David through His adoptive father Joseph, and that legal descent is recorded in Matthew's genealogy. So through Mary, His mother, whose human blood actually flowed through His veins, and through Joseph, His adoptive father – in both directions Jesus was qualified to be the son of David. That's why His parents went to Bethlehem to be registered to the city of David because they were of the house and descendants of David. So He was qualified.

And by the way, the New Testament writers do make much of this as the, the Jewish writer Herman Wouk mentioned in my quote at the beginning. Go back to Matthew 1. Matthew 1:1. Matthew begins his gospel this way. Writing to the Jewish people, he says: "This is the record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, He is the son of David, the son of Abraham." And he traces that lineage back through Joseph's line. You see it down in Verse 20 of Matthew 1, "But when Joseph had considered divorcing Mary (because he found out she was pregnant and he knew the child wasn't his), behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, 'Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife'" Joseph was the son of David so Jesus came in that line.

You see it also over in Luke 1. Luke 1:27, "Gabriel came to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the descendants of David" Chapter 2:4: "Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David." It's not unimportant that Jesus' parents, both of them, were descendants of David. The Messiah we're told would come through the line of David.

So Jesus was qualified twice on a human level to be the Messiah, but Jesus also claimed to be God. He claimed to be God's Son. Turn to Mark's gospel. Mark 1:1. We already read this text in one connection but look at it this way. He says, "The beginning of the good news of Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God." Chapter 3:11. We've seen this throughout the flow of, of Mark's gospel: "When the unclean spirits saw Jesus, they would fall down before Him and shout, 'You are the Son of God!'"

But there's a text we still haven't gotten to in Mark's gospel where this becomes very clear. If you have any question about Jesus' claims, look over at Mark 14:55, "Now the chief priests and the whole Council (this is this secret trial of Jesus at nighttime after He was arrested; they) kept trying to obtain testimony against Jesus to put Him to death, and they were not finding any. For many were giving false testimony against Him, but their testimony was not consistent. Some stood up and began to give false testimony against Him, saying, 'We heard Him say, 'I will destroy this temple made with hands (the, the temple of Herod), and in three days I will build another made without hands.'' (In other words, He's a terrorist. He's gonna destroy the temple). Not even in this respect was their testimony consistent. (They couldn't get their facts straight, times and dates and exactly what it was He said. So, the high priest decides to take matters into his own hands.) Verse 60, "The high priest stood up and came forward and questioned Jesus, saying, 'Do You not answer? What is it that these men are testifying against You?' But He kept silent and did not answer. Again the high priest was questioning Him, and saying to Him (okay, let's, let's cut to the chase here), 'Are You the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?' (Are You the promised Messiah? Are You the Son of God?) And Jesus said, what, 'I am.'" Couldn't be any clearer, could it? This is who He claimed to be. And they got it. He goes on, by the way, in Verse 62 to quote a passage from Daniel that was clearly Messianic: "'You shall see THE SON OF MAN SITTING AT THE RIGHT HAND OF POWER' (there He is, having equal authority with God), and coming with the clouds of heaven. (Verse 63), Tearing his clothes, the high priest said, 'What further need do we have of witnesses? You have heard the blasphemy; how does it seem to you?' And they all condemned Him to be deserving of death." No question Jesus was qualified to be the Messiah at a human level, and He claimed to be God's Son.

And it wasn't just His claim. When the angel showed up, the angel Gabriel, to talk to Mary, he said this: "Your Son will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of (what?) His father David." There are both of those qualifications; the throne of His father David, His human descent, and He is at the same time the Son of the Most High, the son of David and David's Lord.

As Psalm 110 indicated, Jesus was unique, absolutely unique in His qualifications. I love the quote I read this week from S. Lewis Johnson. Listen to what he preached when he was alive. He says, "Jesus Christ is absolutely alone (He's absolutely unique). He is an amazing person. He is a person who comes among men and points out men's sins, but acknowledges no sin on His own part. He is a man who comes and says to men, 'You must repent.' But He never repents. He tells us that we are sick, but that He is the good physician. He tells us that we are sinners and not only that He is not a sinner, but that He is the Savior for us. He tells us that we are sheep, and He says that He is the Good Shepherd. If Jesus Christ is not really what He claims to be, He's a madman, and He is not one that we can follow." Because it's very clear, He claimed to be the Messiah, the Son of the living God, to be on the same par with God Himself. He's both man, a physical descendant of David, and He's God.

You know, there are many people around us today who try to take a middle ground? There are a lot of people who don't want to say bad things about Jesus. I mean, who wants to talk negatively about Jesus? And so what do they say? They say, "Oh yeah, Jesus. He was, He was a wonderful man, a great man, a wonderful teacher, one to pattern your life after, a wonderful example." Listen. How many other great men do you know who claim to be God? Listen. If Jesus is not Messiah and the Son of God, He is either a liar, He knew that what He was saying wasn't true and He was lying through His teeth because He was a deceiver and a fraud, or He was out of His mind, He was a lunatic who thought He was the Messiah and the Son of God but had no clue what real reality was. Those are the only three options. Jesus met the qualifications.

There's a third implication quickly. Jesus in this passage was extending a gracious invitation to people to believe on Him. Most of the people there in that huge crowd that day, they would reject Him, they wouldn't believe in Him. But He raises this issue why? Because it's His expression of love to them. It's His, this is the last time Jesus would talk publicly to the Pharisees. He's got them there and He brings up the issue of who is the Messiah why? Because that's the central issue. This is, in a very real sense, the tender heart of Jesus reaching out to these people.

And Mark includes it here I think so that we as His readers will be forced to deal with Jesus as well. What are you gonna do? Let me ask you this question. If you're not a believer in Jesus Christ right now, let me ask you the question: what are you gonna do with Him? What are you gonna do with Him? You gonna say He's a liar? You gonna say He's a lunatic, out of His mind? Or are you gonna acknowledge the truth of all that He said? Consider who Jesus is.

There's one final implication and that is that Mark is warning us not to just enjoy Jesus and His teaching without making a decision. Here's where a lot of people are. The crowd was. Look at Verse 37: "And the large crowd enjoyed listening to Him." Now what does that sound like on the surface? It sounds pretty good, right? "Wow, those people really like Jesus. They were really listening." This exact expression occurs only one other time in Mark's gospel. Turn back to Mark 6, Mark 6:20: "Herod was afraid of John the Baptist, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he kept him safe. And when he heard him, he was very perplexed; but here it is, he used to enjoy listening to him." Exactly the same expression that's said of the crowd in Mark 12. Now remember, this is the same Herod who had John beheaded. And it's the same Herod who, within three days of the, the account we've been studying tonight, would consent to killing Jesus, send Him back to Pilate. And yet he enjoyed listening.

Don't be like the crowd on that Tuesday afternoon at the temple mount. These words are a warning to us. Don't be one who simply enjoys listening and hearing about spiritual things and hearing about Christ and, "Oh, that's nice," and yet never really respond to the truth. It's like those in Ezekiel's time who enjoyed listening to him. Ezekiel says: "They come to you as people come, and sit before you as My people and hear your words, but they do not do them. Behold, you are to them like a sensual song by one who has a beautiful voice and plays well on an instrument; for they hear your words, but they do not practice them." That's exactly what the crowd was doing to Jesus. And this is a warning for all of us. Most of that great crowd who enjoyed listening to Jesus on that Tuesday afternoon never acted on what they heard. The question is, have you? Let's pray together.

Father, thank You for Your Word to us. Thank You for Your Messiah. Thank You, Father, for how clear You've made it. Thank You for the psalm that proves the Messiah would be both human and divine, both a son of David and David's Lord. And thank You, O God, that Jesus of Nazareth meets the qualifications that You Yourself established. Father, we bless You for the fact that You have opened our eyes to see. Thank You that You have caused us to respond to Him, to own Him as Messiah and Lord.

Father, I pray for those here tonight who are much like the crowd that day. They just enjoy listening, enjoy hanging around the church, enjoy hearing about spiritual things because people are nice and it's a place to go. Father, I pray that You would keep them from hearing and not responding, that they would be forced even tonight to deal with Jesus. What will they do with Jesus, who is called the Messiah? Lord, don't let them go to sleep tonight until they have answered that question for time and eternity.

Father, for those of us who know You through Your Son, may this week as we celebrate His birth be filled with adoration and worship of who He is and of what He's done. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.