Experience TRUTH - #25

Nakita Kolov, the Russian nightmare.

No, the devil's nightmare here. From it's time to man up. Challenging men to step into their true manhood. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few seconds. Enjoy it.

Share it. But most of all, thank you for listening to the Truth Podcast Network. The Lord is in his house, and they've been pounding him with questions. But this week, Jesus Christ turns the tables on them and asks them a question. Who is Jesus? Is there a more important question that you can ask in all of eternity in life right now?

When's the last time you asked someone that question? Who is Jesus Christ? Front and center on our discussion today on Experience Truth. Robbie Dilmore is with me.

Back again for another great week. Robbie, read our Scripture passage, and let's get off on a good start here. Luke chapter 20, verses 39 through 47. Then some of the scribes answered and said, Teacher, you've spoken well.

But after that, they dared not question him anymore. And he said to them, How can they say that Christ is the Son of David? Now David himself said in the book of Psalms, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand till you make your enemies your footstool. Therefore David calls him Lord.

How is it? He then is his son. Then in the hearing of all the people, he said to his disciples, Beware of the scribes who desire to go around in long robes, love greetings in the marketplace, the best seats in the synagogue, and the best places at feasts. Who devour widows? Who devour widows' houses, and for pretense make long prayers.

These will receive greater condemnation. So Jesus Christ comes at them with this question and then this indictment on the scribes, and they got nothing for him. Robbie, ask the first question that's gonna jump us right into the context. So what led to Jesus asking this question?

You know, why did he ask him this question? So first he gets jumped on by the the Sadducees and then by the Herodians on this tax issue, the money guys, they're all over them, the Sadducees about the resurrection. And so then Jesus and the Pharisees are all trying to entrap him with all these questions, and each time he stuns them with his answer. He stuns them about the authority of where the baptism of John the Baptist came from. They don't know what to say, they're stupefied, they're stumped, so Jesus says, neither will I tell you what authority I do these things. It's all about authority. It's all about who's in control. It's all about, is this Bible, is this word legit or not?

Is it true or not? That's the question the ages, because if the Bible is not authoritative, everything I've ever done and stood for all my life in this ministry and this teaching, it's pointless. Go out of the way. You know, atheists are not attacking the veracity of Plato's Republic. Atheists aren't attacking even the children's story, Goodnight Moon, or any of these fun little things. They don't attack the Easter Bunny, they don't attack the Tooth Fairy. Why do they go out of their way if they believe it's a complete fraudulent book, the Bible, and if they believe that Jesus is a big fake poser, fiction of your imagination?

Why do they go out of their way to spend their time consumed with attacking it? So bottom line is, Jesus is who he said he is and was, and this week we're looking at this. So the question came out of all these assaults as he's front, center, left, and right being attacked by all these religions. He's in the center of Passion Week, likely this is Wednesday when this is going on, leading up to Good Friday, Robbie, and Jesus has been asked all these questions each time he answers his detractors and reveals them to the goodness and the grace and the truth of God, but also confronts them. And this one, this is the epitome of it when he points and turns to them a question. He says to them, who is, basically, David's son, the Christ, which means the anointed one? For David himself says in the book of Psalms, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.

This is right from Psalm 110, this is God talking to God, this is a beautiful, brilliant picture of God the Father talking to God the Son. This is the same answer to the book of Proverbs. What is his name? And what is his son's name?

You remember that from the book of Proverbs? Who created the heavens? Who spoke the worlds into existence? There is a deity of Jesus here that's brilliant, and Jesus uses Scripture to point that out to them in a brilliant way.

Second question here, Robbie, will even go farther. So what's significant about the title, Son of David? So David, obviously the great patriarch in Israel's history, the great king, and David in his writings spoke about another king. And he was promised by God through the prophets that he would be the progenitor of the seed that would be the greatest king to ever rule Israel, which would be King Jesus. And Jesus was born in Bethlehem, the city of David. He was born of both Mary and Joseph, who were in the lineage of David's bloodline.

Brilliant picture. So here Jesus is the Son of David, and when you start bringing David up to the Jews, they take attention, right? And Peter does it in Pentecost, by the way, in his powerful sermon in Acts chapter 2, where he basically says, who's buried in David's tomb?

It's a trick question for you, Robbie, I don't know if you want to dare venture there. Well, it seems to me that Jesus is asking the disciples, and obviously the Pharisees, he's asking the Pharisees this question, but he's telling the disciples something right after there. It's almost like, you guys don't even know who the Messiah is, yet you're walking around here like a big shot.

I mean, does he shorten the whole deal? You guys don't even know who the Messiah is, and you're walking around here like a big shot. And those who understood that who Jesus is don't want to even fall under that condemnation, because he says under greater combinations. Look at verse 40, they no longer dare to ask him any questions. So what does Jesus do?

Oh, I got some questions for you. Let's start with a big Psalm 110. The Lord said, and my Lord said at my right hand, this is a statement that he is the preeminent God, the Son, he is the Son of God, he is the Son of David.

Remember the blind beggar? Have mercy on me, Son of David. See, the blind beggar recognized earlier on in 18, maybe it was just the chapter 4 of this, the beggar recognized that Jesus in chapter 19 himself had royal lineage. He was the king, and what did they say as he came in on that royal steed, an unbroken colt, which is the symbol of peace. When a king would ride a colt, he'd come in peace.

We ride a big white, you know, steed, a horse, he was coming to declare war or to vanquish the enemy, but he came on a kingly colt and he was met with the cries, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna to the king. The king is here. The king has arrived in David's capital. The last king of greatness that sat on a throne here was David, and now we're looking at the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, who will reign forever and ever. So this David-Davidic connection is just huge when you study it. We're just touching the surface on it, but we got another question here, don't we? I love this question.

It's really insightful. It says, so who are his enemies? You know, there are gonna be footstools here.

Yeah. What's the significance of them becoming his footstool? Yeah, wow, and this is a reference, obviously, to ancient culture, when you have the conquering king would come in, and those that he had bested in war, the other rulers, they literally, and this happened in Joshua's day, I believe it's Joshua chapter 16 somewhere there, where they would put their feet on the necks as a deep symbol that, you are now under me, and you bow, and I am above you. And so it's a great statement of, again, Christ, He is, you don't see it now, Pharisees, you should see it, religious leaders, scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees, Sanhedrin, you should see it, because this is all, these scriptures have been talking about me, this, I'm the object, I'm the hero of all this, you don't see it. But one day you will, when you, as my enemies, depending on what you do with Jesus, of course, are gonna be under my feet. You're gonna be in the, you know, either you let this stone fall on you now, and be poor in spirit to be crushed by it, or the stone will crush you later. It's your choice.

And when he comes back a second time, he will come in judgment. Go to this next question, because that is rich. It really is. So what seven things does Jesus say in condemnation of the scribes? Wow. Boy, these are tough, man. You know, you go through each one of these, each one of these is a sermon. You know, you first, you know, first he says a warning, beware. By the way, there's more condemnation of false preachers. The people with the strongest language in Scripture, it's not against just pagans, unbelievers, deniers of God, but it's against false teachers. They're called everything, they're called vipers, they're called wolves in sheep's clothing, they're called awful things. You look at 2 Peter, 1 Timothy, you look at Jude, these false prophets.

And so first there's this warning, you know, beware. The first thing of the seven, they desired to go around in long robes. Clothing was everything, right? They had long tassels often to show off their deep prayer life. They wore small boxes containing Scripture on their forearm, their forehead.

They were called phylacteries in keeping with Deuteronomy 6, 6-8. They wore it, they showed it, so they had long robes. They loved greetings, you know, the second thing. They loved the social aspects. They loved being seen at temple. They loved to make that impression. Number three, they had the best seats in the synagogues.

Hey, when you have this pom-pacity, you know, you have this hollowness in your soul, you got to dress it up, you got to sit in the prominent places. Best place at the feast is the fourth thing. Fourth thing, they wanted the prominent positions not to celebrate God, ironically. The feasts were to celebrate God.

They wanted to celebrate themselves. It was about them. Verse 47, they devoured widows' houses. You know, who was the weakest person in all of Israel? Well, the woman whose husband had died, who couldn't fend for herself, couldn't pay for herself, couldn't work for herself.

She stuck begging or gleaning, as in the case of Ruth. They were weak, they were defenseless, and these guys, oftentimes these scribes would be lawyers, Robbie, they would serve as the estate managers for widows. So imagine a guy, a double duty, he's not just your pastor, he's your lawyer, and your estate's up, and he's watching over it, and he's dipping into that thing, double dipping, triple dipping, and manipulating resources for himself, for his own gain. They should have been the first people to help the widows, right? What did God say? He said, love the widow, support the widow, you know, in the land. But what do they do?

They exploited the widow for their own personal gain. Now here's another one, number six, long prayers. They were great at praying publicly and out loud, which is the practice Jesus condemned in Matthew 6, 5, and 7. Public prayer is not bad, or your preacher would have to quit his job, right? He prays every week. But pretentious, pious, fake, fraudulent, selfish, prideful public prayers are what's condemned in Matthew 6, 5, through 7.

Hypocritical prayer is what Jesus is condemning. Just like, remember in Luke 18? Two men went to the temple to pray? One prayer God heard, one prayer hit the ceiling, came back. What was the prayer of the Pharisee who said, thank you God, I'm not like that scallywag?

So that was their final thing. And the final seventh thing is, he says they're gonna receive a greater condemnation. Over and over again in Luke 17, verses 1 and 2, in all these places, Luke 10, 10-16 talks about where there's greater light, there's greater accountability and judgment. Their day will be brutal, and hell will be hotter, per the words of Jesus, for those who have greater light. He said it'll be better for you, it'll be better for Sodom and Gomorrah, those wicked, evil, perverse cities. It'll be better for them that God had to rain hail and fire and brimstone on.

It'll be better for them than for you in the day of judgment. Robbie! We're out of time. We're gonna pick up on these and wrap up this passage and what Jesus says, and why the deity of Jesus Christ and who He is is quintessential to everything, to life.

Do you know Him? We're out of time, experience truth, we got to go. Read the Word, share the Word, study the Word, pass the Word on to someone, and be a doer of the Word, not a hearer only. This is the Truth Network.