Who Is the Messiah?

[0:00] And it's a great lead-off even today as we're going to be talking about who is the Messiah, you know, because those two questions really connect to understand not just the Jesus that people think in their mind, but who does the Word of God say that He is.

[0:17] And so as you take your Bibles this morning over to Mark chapter 12. This morning, Mark chapter 12, as we continue with our series as we go through the Gospel of Mark here. And we know that Tuesday here, we're still on Tuesday of the last week before the crucifixion here, as we find that Jesus is in the temple, and it's definitely been a busy day, as the religious authorities had sought out Jesus' desire to, the Bible says, to catch Him in His words, you know, seeking a way to discredit Him before the people or to cause a disruption with the government, with Caesar.

[0:55] And they spent the day questioning Jesus about His authority. You know, remember when He first came into the temple that Tuesday morning, they questioned Him, by what authority do you do these things?

[1:08] You know, that question of authority. And we find that they started to ask all sorts of different things about, how do we give up tribute or responsibility and accountability between Caesar, which is the government, and with God?

[1:23] How do those things balance? Remember, Jesus said to render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's. And He answered them well, and they had a probing question about marriage and the resurrection.

[1:37] And finally, one came, as we looked last week, and asked Him the question very clearly, you know, which is the greatest commandment? Which commandment gives us priority, and which one sets the parameters for the rest of them?

[1:53] On what are those things hung? How do those things put together? And Jesus skillfully replied in truth, and each one of these, He answered them with Scripture.

[2:04] He gave them the Word of God, that God had declared to them. He revealed that once again to them. And He tells them something very important, though, as we ended last time, that He looked at the scribe and said, you're not far from the kingdom of God.

[2:21] They agreed on all the things that had come about, but Jesus looks at them and says, hey, we agree intellectually on all this, but there's a question because you're still not far from the kingdom of God.

[2:36] In other words, you still haven't quite understood everything you need to understand in order to recognize the Savior. You know, oftentimes we can get filled with information and miss the application.

[2:51] You know, to understand what's taking place, you know, what was missing in their life, you know, how could one have the right answer and still miss? You know, that seems contrary in our mind, doesn't it?

[3:04] To be able to have all the right answers, but yet still fall short. You know, today you might ask is, how could one grow up in church or attend church every week and still miss salvation?

[3:19] It's before them, at least in a solid church, it's before them. All the time, how could one do everything they were instructed about God and still fall short?

[3:30] You know, many do all the things that somebody tells them they need to do to be close to God, and they still fall short. Because they're missing one very key thing that we're going to look at here today, that Jesus points out.

[3:43] And Matthew, in his account, he tells us as he sets the stage, Jesus asked a question of them just before this, and we see that he looks at them after they had come to this point, and he says, What think ye of Christ? Whose son is he?

[4:01] He's asking them a question of whose son is Christ. In other words, who is the Messiah? Is what he's asking. How do those things fit together? How are those things put together?

[4:13] Because Jesus, after they say, because notice this, they say unto him, The son of David. Now I want you to understand, they had a partially correct answer.

[4:27] There was nothing inaccurate about their answer. But you know, when you were in school, did you ever have a test sometimes that the teacher would give you partial credit because you got part of it right?

[4:40] But yet you didn't get full credit because you didn't get the rest of it. Or you left it out. The problem with their answer is not that it was inaccurate.

[4:53] The problem that Jesus is going to deal with, it wasn't complete. Because we need to understand, when we answer the question about who is the Messiah, we don't need a partial answer, we need a complete answer.

[5:05] To understand fully who Jesus is. And so if you found your Bibles this morning, Mark chapter 12, let's stand together in honor of the reading of the Word of God.

[5:17] And we're going to pick up here in verse 35 here this morning. Let's read a couple of verses. And if you found there in verse 35, it says, And Jesus answered and said, while he taught in the temple, How say the scribes that Christ is the Son of David?

[5:31] For David himself said by the Holy Ghost, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool. David therefore himself calleth him Lord, and once is he then his son.

[5:49] And the common people heard him gladly. Let's pray. Heavenly Fathers, we come before you this morning, Lord. We're just thankful for your Word. Lord, we're thankful for the reality of who you are.

[6:03] Lord, the complete picture of who you are. And Lord, as we just ask your hand upon each heart here today, Lord, you know those that have called upon you, those that have recognized you, not as just a man, but Lord, as a Savior, as Christ, as the Messiah, the one that has come to deliver us from our sin.

[6:24] And Lord, we pray just have your hand upon each one today, Lord, as we look at this to understand the importance of the question. And Lord, we just ask it all in your precious name. Amen.

[6:35] May be seated. You know, as we find here, the question here Jesus asked was not a trick question. You know, up to this point, they'd been asking Jesus mainly trick questions.

[6:47] You know, trying to trick him, trying to get him to say something that he ought not to say. But Jesus asked the question here, not just for information, but for their application, to help them understand who he is, to understand the importance of all that he is.

[7:10] Because the question about who is the Messiah impacts everything. The question Jesus is asking here is still relevant today because what somebody thinks about Jesus when it comes to answering what Jesus is asking here has eternal implications.

[7:31] Because our very salvation is built upon the fact that Jesus is all that he is. Not just that he's man, and not just that he's God, but that he was the God-man.

[7:43] You know, the fancy term theologically that the people use is they talk about the incarnation. That's that connection there. But we're going to try to stay away from fancy terms today, you know, like hypostolic union and all the different things that people refer to it as and all the different labels.

[8:02] We're going to break it down how Jesus, I think, would want to break it down to where we can grab a hold of it. You know, because you can know all the fancy labels and miss the point.

[8:13] And I want you to not miss the point this morning because as Jesus asked this question, he asked about the teaching of the scribes. You'll notice back here in verse 35, he says this, how say the scribes that Christ is the son of David?

[8:31] In other words, he's asking the people before him, the crowd that had gathered had been listening to these things throughout the day, because the common teaching of the day that Christ or Messiah would one day come through the lineage of David.

[8:45] Now their answer we saw there in Matthew was pretty quick and concise, was not any disagreement among them. Now I want you to understand, when you see in the scripture, Christ or Messiah, they're referring to the same.

[9:03] There's no difference. One is a Greek reference word, the other is a Hebrew word, and both mean the anointed one. You'll find Messiah used in Daniel chapter 9, that this term is used there to describe the Messiah, the prince that was to come.

[9:21] You know, when we understand this is who the conversation is going to be focused on, the one that is to come. And you know, and when we understand the pivotal nature of this dynamic of who Jesus is.

[9:39] You know, when we understand that David was told this in 2 Samuel chapter 7, in verse 12, David was told by the Lord, it says, when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom.

[9:59] And he shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the thrones of his kingdom forever. I want you to understand, it was clear in scripture that the Messiah, the Christ, the appointed one, was going to come through the lineage of David.

[10:14] That's the one thing that everybody there that day agreed upon. You know, have you ever noticed it's hard sometimes to get consensus on something? Where everybody in the room says, yes, we agree.

[10:26] That was a point when Jesus said, when the scribes and Pharisees replied that, he's going to come through David, he's going to be a son of David. Nobody disagreed.

[10:36] Jesus didn't disagree. Jesus said, yeah, you're right, but now we have, you're still missing it because you only have a part of an answer. You're getting partial answer here.

[10:47] You know, even Isaiah foretold, he said this in Isaiah chapter 11 in verse 1, he says, and there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse and a branch shall grow out of his roots.

[10:59] It's referring to the Messiah that would come through the line of David. You know, the scribes taught the Messiah would be of the line of David and it was seen clearly.

[11:10] It was very easy to see because they were looking for a descendant of David that was going to come and be a physical king, a great military leader that would deliver them from all those that oppress them.

[11:24] They had this mindset, you know, look over to Jeremiah chapter 23. Jeremiah 23 in verse 5 tells us this, it says, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise up unto David a righteous branch and a king shall reign and prosper and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.

[11:46] You know, rightly so, those passages, when they're read, it's very clear that Christ should come from the house of David. The earthly lineage of Jesus is given in Matthew and Luke and now Jesus is given this question concerning what David said about the Messiah because this brings into a different context that we're going to see that Jesus brings forth.

[12:12] This is what David, if it comes through the line of David, what did David say? And he presents them with a question that really puts their mind into a quandary.

[12:24] It begins to try to process how does this fit together? Because the teaching of David, look here at verse 36, it says, For David himself said by the Holy Ghost, the Lord said to my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand till I make thine enemies thy footstool.

[12:42] Now, I want you to understand this is Psalm 110 verse 1. Jesus is quoting the Old Testament, the Psalms that David wrote, that David penned.

[12:54] And I want you to understand that very importantly here because something was taking place because David didn't just come up with this off the top of his head. Jesus said David spoke by the Holy Ghost.

[13:08] Scripture is not given by men. Look over at 2 Peter for a moment. 2 Peter chapter 1 verse 21. You know, Jesus is teaching a lot of different things right here to him and some application.

[13:23] In 2 Peter, Peter says this in 1 21, it says, For the prophecy came not of old time by the will of man, but holy men spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

[13:35] In other words, Jesus is saying what David presented here in the Psalms was not David's thoughts but God's revelation to him. That God revealed to him something that was different that they weren't understanding.

[13:52] Because we know that the question here left them stunned. They had no answer. It left them speechless. You know, look at the end of the text there in verse 30, or in Matthew, I guess we'll find it over there.

[14:07] In Matthew 22, 46, it says this, when Matthew's given this account, he says, No man was able to ask him any word, neither does any man from that day forth ask him any more questions.

[14:19] In other words, nobody was able to answer the question, how did David call his son Lord? Lord. Now to us today in our culture, that's like a, really not a big concern in our mind mostly, because we don't understand what's happening but in a culture of the day, when this, even throughout history, even in the Middle East today or places you have kingdoms, the king himself would never call one of his descendants Lord over him.

[14:54] It's an illogical thing to say, I'm the older, I'm the elder, I am the one that produced you and to call you Lord would not have been logical.

[15:06] In other words, what Jesus is pointing out here, David says that he's calling his descendant Lord. Jesus is asking, how did David call him Lord?

[15:18] They were looking at him with that look, you know, you get when somebody says, I have no idea what you're talking about. Sometimes it's like the look the preacher gets on Sunday morning. But hopefully by the time we finish today it won't be, I don't know what you're talking about, I understand the importance and the reality of what you're talking about.

[15:35] Because what we're talking about today is critical for your salvation. To understand the reality of what's happening because Jesus had put before them that the Messiah would not merely be a man.

[15:51] He was saying the Messiah would not only be man of the lineage of David but he would be God. That's a mind-blowing statement. That Jesus was not just a man but he was God.

[16:07] That there's no distinguishing between it. He was God with us. You know, we talk about that, you know, we're getting ready to get into the Christmas season and you sing O come O Emmanuel.

[16:18] That term means God with us. In other words, I want you to understand when Jesus Christ came he was literally God with man.

[16:30] God with us. He was fully God and fully man. And we're going to understand the principle of this as Jesus is dealing with this. You know, it's clear that what David had penned they could not deny it.

[16:44] They believed that Christ would be a man, a man that did many good things. But they missed the fact that he was more than just a man. Because remember the scribes taught that he was going to be the son of David.

[16:56] They were looking for a human savior. They were looking for one that was going to come and deliver them. Now, they were accurate in their assessment but they were incomplete in their assessment.

[17:09] When we look at this this morning I want you to understand that they're not like, they're just like many today. because many today they will believe the Bible's record about Jesus.

[17:22] You know, people love the idea of Christmas, you know, and celebrating a babe in the manger, you know, and Christmas makes them feel all warm and fuzzy. And I want you to understand it's important that he came as a babe in the manger.

[17:34] But he was just not any babe. The Bible says he was born of the Holy Ghost. I want you to understand he was different from anybody else who had ever been born.

[17:45] He was not just any babe. He wasn't just flesh in the manger. It was God veiled in flesh in the manger.

[17:55] But people like the idea of the baby in the manger. Sometimes they appreciate him feeding the multitudes. You know, you'll hear people today, you know, we want to be like Jesus.

[18:05] We want to help people and do this. And they get caught up in the good things that Jesus did for people. And those things were essential that he did. had identified who he is in feeding the multitude and healing the sick and raising the dead and even his teaching of loving and respecting others.

[18:25] You know, some even consider that he was crucified on the cross. But the idea that he is God in the flesh boggles their minds. It hinders them from grasping that he is the only way to God.

[18:39] The Bible tells us he is our mediator. He is the one that can mediate between God and man. He is our only hope of salvation. Like the scribes that day, many people who appreciate what Jesus has recorded for us in the word about who he is as far as the good things he did and all the things that he promoted, they miss the very thing that keeps them from salvation.

[19:07] because you can appreciate who Jesus is as a man, but if you don't understand that he is God that was veiled in the flesh and came and died, took our sin upon him, you miss the point.

[19:21] A partial answer gets you not far from the right one. Jesus told the scribe before him you're not far from the kingdom of God. You have all the right answers to this point, but your answer is incomplete.

[19:34] Many people think they're going to be okay because they do good things, because Jesus did good things. They get a mindset that it's a fleshly thing, but I want you to understand what the implications of this is here this morning, because salvation is so much more, and we need to understand the importance of all that's taking place here as we look through this this morning.

[20:00] As David was there and raised up by the Spirit of God to declare in Psalm 110 that he was going to call the one that was come, that the Savior was going to be called Lord.

[20:16] What David penned that day was teaching regarding who the Messiah was going to be. I want you to understand the fact that the Messiah, the Christ, will be seated in a place of authority.

[20:28] Notice Psalm 110 tells us very clearly, take a look back over there in the Bible, scripture there with you, let's take a look back at what that says because sometimes whenever you see the Bible quoted in the New Testament, it's always good to go back and look at the Old Testament.

[20:43] You know, Psalm 110 verse 1 says, the Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou at my right hand till I make thine enemies thy footstool. He calls him Lord, he calls him a position of authority, he declares those things.

[20:57] I want you to understand that Christ is declaring that he's going to be put forth in a place of authority, an authority that's equal with God. Look into the New Testament, look at Philippians chapter 2.

[21:10] Philippians chapter 2, look at verse 9, look at the scripture, it tells us, wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name.

[21:21] And at that name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth. what this is describing is Jesus being put on equivalency with God himself, God the Father.

[21:37] Now I want you to understand there's no distinction between Jesus and God when it comes to the reality of the Godhead. The Bible says they are one. They're unified.

[21:48] The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, they're one. It's essential to understand that they are one. But he says that Jesus is going to be lifted up and placed in that position and authority.

[22:02] And notice what it says in verse 11 that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father. I want you to know today that just to know that Jesus lived is not enough.

[22:15] To know all the Bible stories about Jesus are not enough. It's essential for something more. Because we're not trusting our salvation in a good man. We're trusting our salvation in the Messiah, the Christ, the one that came and the only one who had the ability to take my sin and your sin upon himself to pay the penalty.

[22:37] Remember back in Matthew chapter 16, Jesus asked Peter a question. He'd ask the disciples questions preceding to this, asking him, you know, who do others say that I am?

[22:47] And they had a good prophet, you know, you have all the different things that they listed. And then he looks at Peter and he says, Peter, who do you say that I am? Now before we go any farther, I want you to grab a hold of this.

[23:00] What other people say about Jesus doesn't matter. Sometimes we put too much credit in what somebody else says.

[23:10] I want you to see here, he was asking Peter and the disciples what the other people think. And then Jesus turns and looks at him and it becomes personal. Because it's personal, it's what do you understand who Jesus is?

[23:27] And notice Peter's reply. He answered and said, thou art the, what's that word? Christ. The son of the living God.

[23:38] I want you to understand Peter's declaration was a recognition that Jesus was not just a man that he was following, but it was God himself he was following. That thou art the Christ, thou art the anointed one, thou art the Messiah, thou art the one that Daniel spoke of and Isaiah spoke of and Jeremiah spoke of and David spoke of.

[23:59] You're the one that was foretold into Adam and Eve after they sinned in the garden that said that one day you're going to raise up one to crush the head of the serpent all the way from the very beginning, all the way through.

[24:12] Peter was saying, you're not just a man. He's standing there looking to him. Remember, you got to remember Peter hung out with Jesus, ate with Jesus, walked with Jesus, talked with Jesus.

[24:24] He understood Jesus' humanity, but he also understood that Jesus wasn't just a man. He wasn't just a man. He was the son of the living God.

[24:36] The son of David, but also the son of God. You know, in John's gospel, John 1 in verse 34, John the Baptist, when he's asked about Jesus, he made this statement.

[24:47] He says, I saw and bear record that this is the son of God. What a powerful connection. Earlier there in John, look in John chapter 1 in verse 1.

[24:59] It says, in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. Then down in verse 14, it tells us this. It says, and the word was what?

[25:09] Made flesh. And dwelt among us. And we beheld his glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

[25:24] Today, I want you to understand the importance of this recognition. Because oftentimes people today, even people who claim to follow Christ, they follow Jesus as a man and not the Savior.

[25:38] They follow good works to say, I want to emulate what he does instead of the Savior. We need to understand that when we call upon him, we're not calling upon a man to save us.

[25:50] We're calling upon God himself. The one who came and gave himself for us. Look a little farther in the New Testament. Go over to 1 John chapter 4. Because this is essential because if you miss the point of who Jesus is, you miss salvation.

[26:07] He records this. He says, hereby we know, hereby know ye the Spirit of God, every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God.

[26:18] Now John here is dealing with the opposite problem. Because you had a whole other group, the Gnostics, who thought the idea of Jesus being fully man, he couldn't have been fully man because flesh is evil.

[26:30] He just came in the Spirit. I want you to understand the importance of this. Jesus, that he came, that God came and dwelt among us, is essential that he was both fully man and fully God.

[26:45] There was no separation. Jesus understood everything physically like as we are. I want to encourage you this morning, I put together a little list for you.

[26:56] Or should I say I found a list and reprinted it? You know, why recreate the wheel? That you can get on the church app there, and there's a little blue tab there in the front page. That you can download all the verses in Scripture that speak about Jesus as a man.

[27:13] Also, all the ones that speak about him as God. See, there you go, right there. Take care for it this morning. I'll give you a little clue. There's whole college semesters on this. Okay? So, I'm trying to condense this down for you, okay?

[27:29] But I do encourage you to download that and to read those. To grab a hold of the list and lists of elements in the Scripture that point to this.

[27:42] And the essential nature of it. It's a message that Peter preached at Pentecost to those there that day. Acts chapter 2. Peter points out this very fact that Jesus had said earlier.

[27:56] Acts chapter 2 and verse 34. Peter's preaching and he says, For David is not ascended into the heavens, but he saith himself, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool.

[28:10] Therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. You know, as I was reading this and preparing, it really made me begin to stop and think.

[28:24] Because it made me wonder, because Peter was standing in the temple that day when he preached this. It makes me wonder, just a few months earlier, about 51, 52 days, earlier you had a group of people listening to Jesus declare that David called him Lord.

[28:42] On the day of Pentecost, Peter stands up and he points to him, he says, hey, Jesus, the one you crucified is both Lord and Christ, the Messiah.

[28:53] And it's amazing, it says there was about 3,000 souls that responded in faith that believed that Jesus was not just a man they heard earlier, but that he is the Savior.

[29:08] Today's the same thing. We need to understand that Jesus is not just a man. He's fully man. He understood all the things, the ailments, the problems we have.

[29:20] And you say, why would God send him as a man? Because, you know what, we relate with people who can relate to us. That have been through things that we've been through. You have a common connection.

[29:31] Have you ever noticed that, that if you find somebody else that's going through something similar to you, you have a connection and empathy? Jesus became man for us to say, I understand where you are.

[29:45] I want to connect with you. I want you to understand who I am. But he never surrendered an ounce of who he is. The Bible reveals that he veiled himself.

[29:57] In other words, I want you to understand as you read through and study it, Jesus never surrendered a bit of being God. He made a choice not to exercise all his authority as God.

[30:07] Why? For us. Those there even heard Peter's message on Pentecost, when they understood who Jesus is, they sought to know how to be saved. You know, today, people ought to desire to say, if Jesus did that for me, if God came and became flesh, and he suffered and died, he took upon my sin, he took upon all those things.

[30:30] To provide a way for me to be redeemed, to be rescued from my sin. I want you to understand the importance here.

[30:43] Because this is critical. Look over in 1 John again. 1 John chapter 5. The apostle John, in the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, tells us this.

[30:54] It says this in verse 11. It says, and this is the record. In other words, he says, I want you to make the record clear. This is the record that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.

[31:11] He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto you, that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.

[31:31] I want you to understand, believing on the name of a human being is not going to save you. It's by acknowledging Christ came, and the Bible says that he put his sin upon himself.

[31:43] He took my sin and your sin and carried it to the cross. He made payment in full, so that he might offer salvation freely to all those who will call upon him.

[31:54] How can he give it freely? Because he says, I already paid for it. Contrary to popular belief, nothing is free. Everything has to be paid for. You might receive it free, but somebody else paid for it.

[32:06] Your salvation is offered to you free because Jesus paid for it. He says, I took care of everything that is needed.

[32:18] When Jesus looked at them that day and asked them, how is Jesus both Lord and Son to David? He was asking them a question of who Christ is.

[32:32] Because they had to understand that the one before them was not just a mere man. It was God veiled in flesh. The reality is important. You know, the scriptures wind down in this way in Revelation 22.

[32:49] Down in verse 16, it says, I, Jesus, have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David and the bright and morning star.

[33:02] Jesus, his final testament is, I want you to understand, I fulfilled everything that was required to identify myself in the lineage of David, but I never surrendered a bit of who I am as God.

[33:16] And I came and I suffered and died for you. And I want you to know it. I don't want you to guess. I don't want you just to hope so.

[33:30] As John wrote, that you ought to know so. Not because of what you've done, but because of what he has done. You know, this morning we face the same question when it comes to Jesus.

[33:45] What will you do with Jesus? Because how you respond determines the life to come. Because he will either be your savior or your judge.

[33:59] If you've never trusted Christ for salvation, I invite you to come today and call upon the Lord to save you. Call upon the one who became a man to pay for your sin.

[34:16] Don't leave here today without knowing where you stand with God. As heads are bowed and eyes are closed this morning, what about you today?

[34:27] Are you trusting in the savior? Are you trusting in the one who came? Veiled as a man, fully man, fully God. If you've never trusted him, I encourage you to come.

[34:38] Let me show you from God's word how you can know that you're saved. If that's a need today, I encourage you to come. That's the reason Christ came for you.

[34:51] Heavenly fathers, we come before you this morning. Lord, we just thank you for the day, for the opportunity. Lord, you know each soul here today. Lord, there may have been some that were thinking of you as just a mere man.

[35:04] One that did many good things and to trust in those good things. But Lord, if we miss the fact that you're not just a man that came and lived a sinless life, but you're God himself.

[35:15] The very holy one. The one above us. The one who created us. Lord, I pray just have your hand upon each heart here today. That there wouldn't be one that departs not knowing and having confidence in who you are as their savior.

[35:38] Lord, we ask all these things in your precious name. Amen.