LUKE 20 LUKE 20 WITH PASTOR JERRY2020 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Luke 20 Luke 20 With Pastor Jerry

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2020. Well, here in Luke chapter 20, we are looking at the ministry of Jesus in that final week leading up to the cross. It's what we often refer to as Passion Week.

And it begins with the triumphal entry where Jesus rides into Jerusalem on the donkey and the crowds are there shouting, Hallelujah, blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord. And he spends that week going in and out of Jerusalem, from Jerusalem to the Mount of Olives in the evenings and back to Jerusalem in the morning and spending his time there leading up to the Passover, but also leading up to, of course, his crucifixion.

as our Passover lamb. And the season in which all of this is taking place and the Passover season for them and the ministry of Jesus and the role of Jesus, of course, as the Passover lamb introduces for us some really important parallels to consider.

there's a lot of things that we could grapple with and consider in regards to Jesus as the Passover lamb. But just a couple of quick things to get us started as we work our way through this passage. And that is on the 10th of Nisan, which was their...

For us, that's like March, April timeframe, but their month, Nisan, kind of falls in between our March and April. And on the 10th day of that month, they were instructed by the Lord to take a lamb and bring it into their home. And this would be the Passover lamb for each family.

And they would have that Passover lamb close to them in their home for four days until the 14th of Nisan. And then they would sacrifice that Passover lamb unto the Lord. And here, as we consider that Passover lamb in regard to Jesus, we see that Jesus on the 10th of Nisan, when the lamb would be brought into the home, the 10th of Nisan is when Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey.

It's the triumphal entry. And he enters into Jerusalem. And for the next four days, just as the lamb would be four days with the family, for the next four days, Jesus will be with the people there in Jerusalem as everyone is gathered down to Jerusalem for the feast.

But then just as the Passover lamb would be killed and sacrificed on the 14th, Jesus would be killed on the 14th as well. And so he would spend these four days in and out of Jerusalem interacting with them, much as the lamb would with the families before its sacrifice.

Now, one of the things that God required of the Passover lamb was that it be blameless or spotless. In the instruction for Exodus chapter 12, verse 5 and 6, God says,

And so there was this instruction to take a lamb, but it wasn't just, you know, the leftover lambs or the ones that, you know, you weren't going to really get anything for them anyway. So might as well sacrifice it to the Lord. No, it needed to be perfect. It needed to be without blemish, without spot, without issue. And so they would, over the course of these four days, sacrifice.

be inspecting this lamb. And it became kind of their tradition to examine the lamb to make sure that it was worthy of being this sacrifice for them.

And so the lamb was required to be without blemish. And so it would be inspected by the family throughout those days. And here we find a similar thing with Jesus. In these four days, as he is there in and around Jerusalem, there is some inspections going on. The priests, the religious leaders are inspecting Jesus and they're trying to find fault with him.

in a similar way. You might remember when Jesus rides into Jerusalem on the, on the triumphal entry on the donkey, he then goes to the temple and he starts cleaning house. He starts overthrowing tables and driving out the money changers. And, and it's because one of their practices was when someone would bring their lamb to sacrifice, they,

the priests would be looking for any excuse to be able to say this lamb doesn't qualify. It's not good enough. There's blemishes. But you're in luck because we have these pre-approved

sacrificial lambs ready to go. And yeah, I know they cost you a little bit more, but it's pre-approved. It's guaranteed. You're going to be able to offer this lamb if you purchase that. And so Jesus drives out those who are doing those kinds of things from the temple because there was this unfair practices going on and taking advantage of the people by the religious leaders.

And so the priests would examine a worshiper's offering because they wanted to try to find some spot and some blemish. And in a similar way, over these four days that Jesus is in Jerusalem, they're examining him. And they're trying desperately to find some mark, some issue, some reason by which they can dispose of him. They're trying to find some blemish.

in Jesus. And as you read these accounts, and as you think about these things, as we continue reading over the next few days, the days leading up to the crucifixion of Jesus, understand that these are intense events.

What's happening in chapter 20 is all the different people are coming up to ask Jesus questions. It's not playful banter, you know, them just kind of having fun, sparring with words and, you know, trying to win debates and those kinds of things. But it tells us in Luke chapter 20, verse 20, that they watched him. They sent spies who pretended to be righteous, that they might seize on his words in order to deliver him to the power and authority of God.

the governor. And so they are intentionally trying to trap Jesus in his words. And they're bringing their best arguments. They're using their best, you know, attack dogs and trying to trip him up and get him to stumble so that they can turn him over to the governor and have him be killed.

Over the past few years, it seems like we've seen our political scene here in America intensify quite a bit. Of course, politics has always been intense, and that's why they say you're never supposed to talk about politics around the dinner table and those kinds of things, right? But it seems that over the past few years that there's been a remarked

remarkable increase in that intensity, in the passion that's behind on both sides and the hatred, the animosity, the tension between both sides. And as we think about the tension and the intensity there, I would encourage you to maybe let that influence your perspective a little bit here of what's taking place in and around Jerusalem in the ministry of Jesus. And I would even suggest that it was more intense with

With the interactions and the confrontations between Jesus and these religious leaders, there was so much intensity. And the religious leaders hated Jesus so fervently, so greatly, and they were willing to do anything that they could to put him to death. And so that kind of sets the scene for the passage we're jumping into this evening here in Luke chapter 20, starting in verse 27. We're jumping into the middle of some of the questions that have been going on.

There's been some challenges, some attempts to trap Jesus in his words. And that continues now with a group called the Sadducees. And so again, verse 27 says, then some of the Sadducees who deny that there is a resurrection came to him and asked him. And they're going to lay out this scenario. They're going to lay out this situation, this hypothetical idea and see what Jesus has to say about it. But this is a group called the Sadducees.

These are religious leaders, very powerful for the people of Israel. The priests of this time were all from the class of the Sadducees. And the Sadducees and the Pharisees were very similar in many regards, but they were different in some of the things that they believed because the Sadducees only believed the first five books of the Bible, the books of Moses, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

And so they came to the conclusion, well, the supernatural things that the Pharisees believe, angels and spirits and life after death and resurrection, we don't believe any of those things. We don't find them in the first five books they said. So they found themselves to be really strict on some things, really liberal on other things, again, very similar to the Pharisees in that regard, but they did not believe in the supernatural. And so as they pose this question about faith,

the resurrection. It's not because it's something that they believe, but they're just trying to work it all out. They're trying to figure it out. No, they don't believe. And they're trying to, with their question, make it look like such a ridiculous thing to believe in resurrection because of this scenario that they create. But we see here in verse 27, it says that they deny that there is a resurrection.

And I want to just consider that for a second. They deny it. There is a resurrection, but they deny it. They refuse to believe it. They refuse to receive it. And so we see the Sadducees as they begin to interact with Jesus here, they're starting off from the wrong position already. They're starting off with bad doctrine and with invalid or incorrect information.

And everything that happens after that is going to be off course because they're starting from the wrong point. And I think it's important to understand that and consider that because, well, here are these Sadducees who knew the scriptures. They read the word. They studied the word. You know, they had certain ideas about which portions were meant to be studied more than others and those kinds of things. But at the same time, as they looked at the word of God, they realized,

had some presuppositions. They had some ideas already, some conclusions that they'd already drawn. And so they would not believe anything that was contrary to what they already believed. They wouldn't allow the scriptures to influence them in a way that would teach them and change them from the inside out.

And it's important to take note of these things because, well, we need to wrestle with the reality that this is a potential for each of us. And how can we protect ourselves from starting with the wrong information? You see, if you start with the wrong information, I mean, everything after that can seem to make sense and it can seem to be rational and it can seem to be really smart and intelligent.

But if you're starting from the wrong spot, you're already in the wrong direction. And this is the situation for these religious leaders. Pastor Warren Wiersbe says, in their attempt to be rational, the Sadducees denied the very power of God. They tried really hard to be rational.

to really value, and there's a word that's being thrown around a lot lately, science, right? This is science and that is science and this is all based on science. And the Sadducees would have been using that word if they were familiar with it. It's like, no, no, this is what we know. This is what we can agree on. This is what we can measure. And so in their attempt to be really rational and logical, they, well, they denied the very power of God because they started from a position that this can't be done.

true. In the parallel passage to this in Matthew chapter 22, Jesus answers and gives a little bit more in his answer to them. He says that you are mistaken not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. And this was really the core of their issues. They didn't know the scriptures, even though they studied the scriptures and read the scriptures and memorized the scriptures and taught the scriptures, they didn't know the scriptures.

And Jesus says, you don't know the power of God. And that is always going to put us in a place where we're starting from the wrong place. We're starting from the wrong spot. If we don't know the scriptures and if we don't know the power of God, and the combination of those two things is very important for us to grasp hold of.

And so I would encourage you to consider that this evening, to know the scriptures, but also to know the power of God, to know what God says, but also know and believe that God is able to do what he has said and fulfill what he has promised. But they could not do that. They deny the resurrection because they don't know the scriptures and they don't know the power of God. But they come with the question now in verse 28,

It says, So they're coming to Jesus with this question about this passage that Moses provided in Deuteronomy chapter 25. And Moses provided this instruction that if there was a husband and wife and the husband died without having children,

Well, then the brother of the husband should step in and fulfill the role of the husband so that the whole purpose of this was to carry on the family name. And so the first child that was produced from that relationship would basically be inheriting the father's name, the original husband's name, the brother's name. And so he would carry on the family name and he would inherit the

his father's property. And in Israel, you know, God had aligned, assigned the land to the different families of Israel. And so, so that those assignments would not be lost. God gave this instruction that this is the way that it should take place so that each family name continues on and each family's inheritance gets to be maintained. The

This law played a big part in the book of Ruth. And you can check that out if you want to investigate it further. But the whole inheriting of the property and then also inheriting of Ruth as wife is what Boaz did. He stepped in and fulfilled the role according to what is prescribed here in Deuteronomy chapter 25. And so the Sadducees come and they say, look, here's the rule. Here's the law that Moses gave. Now, here's the situation. Verse 29.

Now there were seven brothers, and the first took a wife and died without children. And the second took her as wife, and he died childless. Then the third took her, and in like manner the seven also, and they left no children and died. Last of all, the woman died also. Therefore, in the resurrection, whose wife does she become? For all seven had her as wife. So the idea here is that, well...

If one of them had produced children, well, then it would make sense, okay, that they would be, you know, husband and wife in eternity, but none of them produced children. So now you have seven guys all married to the same woman. Now, if there is life after death, if there is eternity, if there is resurrection, that doesn't make any sense because which one of them is going to be married to her in eternity? That's the idea and the mindset behind their question.

Which wife does she become? Because all seven had her as wife. And so their idea, their thought is, let's make the whole concept of resurrection look ridiculous. Let's make it a mockery. Let's make it funny. Let's make it silly. Let's make it seem like this is a silly thing to believe, a ridiculous thing to believe. And so they come up with this scenario to try to attack it in that way.

And again, this is a tactic that is not foreign to us. This is something that continues on today, that this is one way to win an argument or to have your theory or your idea, your mindset or your worldview be promoted or dominant.

But as they provide this hypothetical scene to Jesus, of course, Jesus sees right through it. He's not, you know, disturbed by it. He's not confused by it. He's not wrestling with it. Again, because, well, they don't know the scriptures or the power of God, but Jesus, he knows both. And so he says in verse 34, Jesus answered and said to them, the sons of this age marry and are given in marriage.

But those who are counted worthy to attain that age and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage, nor can they die anymore. For they are equal to the angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. And so Jesus here makes a distinction. In verse 34, he talks about this age. In verse 35, he talks about that age. And what Jesus here is describing is, look, you guys are looking at this and thinking that

The next life, eternity, is going to be exactly like this life. And you're thinking all the things are going to be the same and things are going to be in place just like they are. And you're picturing the next life to be like this life. But Jesus here makes a distinction. There is this age, which is right now. And we live under this age and it's life on earth and it's life before the rapture of the church, life before the resurrection. But then there's going to be that age.

And everything is different in that age. It's not life as we know it. In fact, it's life that is so far above and beyond what we could know that we know very little about it other than it's promised and it's promised to be glorious. And so Jesus says, look, the resurrection, it's going to be different. In this age, there is marriage.

When people marry and are given in marriage, that's a normal part of this age. And it's even part of our vows, right? Often when we have marriage vows, part of the things that we say is, till death do us part, or as long as we both shall live. And that's part of the commitment, the vow that is made between husband and wife, because, well, marriage is for this life, this age. But there's that age that is different.

There's an age after this age, and Jesus says in that age, everything's different. There's going to be no marriage. There's not going to be new weddings that take place. There's not going to be marrying and giving in marriage. And he also goes on to say, and neither can they die anymore. So in eternity, after the resurrection, things are going to be very different than this life.

And so he says we're going to be like the angels. Now, that doesn't mean we become angels, but he's saying we're different. It's a spiritual existence that is more than what we are familiar with and understand in this life. He says we're going to be sons or children of the resurrection. In verse 34, he refers to us as sons of this age. So right now we're children of this age.

And we're born into this age, but then we will be children of the resurrection with resurrected bodies, glorified bodies, with a whole new life and experience that is very difficult for us to understand. Pastor David Guzik says we can't be completely certain what life and glory beyond will be like.

But we can know with certainty that no one will be disappointed with the arrangements. There's a lot we don't know. Paul, has he experienced eternity, just a glimpse of it?

He came back and he said, I couldn't even try to talk about the things that I heard because it would be unlawful. It'd be such an injustice for what I heard and how glorious it was. And so as we look forward to eternity, there is much there that we don't know yet that's beyond our capacity to know and understand. And yet at the same time, it's promised.

And we need to know the scriptures and we need to know the power of God and start from the right place. There is a hereafter. There is a that age, a resurrection that we can look forward to. Now, Jesus says those who are counted worthy to attain that age.

And so here's something important to understand about that age. And that is not everybody gets to experience that age. There are those who are counted worthy to attain it. And there are those who are not counted worthy. Now, we understand, though, that counted worthy doesn't mean that we work for it or that we earn it. But counted worthy is entirely dependent upon our faith in Jesus Christ and

for salvation and forgiveness of our sins. That we're counted worthy, not because we are worthy, but we're counted worthy because we have identified with Jesus and he is the one who is worthy. And as a result, we are included with him. His righteousness is counted towards us.

so that we are then counted worthy to attain. And so believing in Jesus is the beginning for us to be able to attain to that age and participate in the resurrection of the dead in this way. Now, Jesus moves on from here. He answers their question. He deals with it appropriately, but then he begins to challenge them with the concept of resurrection and their understanding of it. In verse 37, it says,

But even Moses showed in the burning bush passage that the dead are raised when he called the Lord, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. And so Jesus now begins to talk to them about the resurrection. You guys come to me with a question. I want to ask you guys to think about something. And he refers to this passage that's found in

in Exodus chapter three. He calls it the burning bush passage. Remember that time when Moses was out there in the wilderness and he sees this bush that's on fire, but the strange thing is it's not consumed. It's not wasting away. It's just on fire. And so he draws near to check it out, to investigate it further. And as he does, well, the Lord begins to speak to him and the Lord introduces himself and says, I am the God of

of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And so God himself introduces himself and declares, this is who I am. Hi Moses, I'm God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And Jesus highlights this reference of God to himself in

In verse 38, he says, for he is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him. And so Jesus uses this passage here in Exodus. Now, again, understanding where the Sadducees are coming from, they prided themselves. We only believe the first five books, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. So Jesus turns to a book they say they believe.

Jesus turns to a passage. They say, we believe this passage. We, you know, understand that it's inspired of God. And so he uses what they claim to believe in order to show them that this is what God actually says and that there really is the reality of the resurrection. Now, the logic by which Jesus is proving that is in the time of Moses,

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were long gone. Check out a quick look at the timeline here. So Moses, he was, we'll just kind of rough round it. He was around 1400 BC as the children of Israel were in captivity in Egypt.

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, they were, well, Abraham was the father, then Isaac was his son, and then Jacob was Abraham's grandson. So you have three generations there. They were from, they lived from about 2200 to about 1900 BC. And so there's about 500 years between the end of Jacob's life and the beginning of Moses's life.

So for 500 years, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, they were not on this earth. They had died. They had been buried. They were long gone. And when God shows up to Moses and says, I'm the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, these guys had been in the ground for over 500 years. But God doesn't say, I was the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. He doesn't say, you know, 500 years ago, I knew this guy, Abraham. He was a real cool dude. You know, God doesn't introduce himself that way.

He introduces himself as the God of the present Abraham and the God of the present Isaac and the God of the present Jacob. That is that these guys who lived 500 years before Moses and physically they had died, God says, I'm still their God. They're still around. I'm the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. As far as God is concerned, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were still alive as he spoke to Moses.

And as far as God is concerned, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are still alive today. We're talking now, you know, three to 4,000 years ago, but they're still alive. They're in his presence. In verse 38, again, Jesus says, for all live to him. F.B. Meyer puts it this way. He says, those whom we describe as dead are living people who have died. Death is but a passage, a step. There is no break in the chain of existence.

yonder and here all live unto God. We are eternal beings. We do live beyond what happens in this life. And there is much more to our existence than what happens in this age. And so Jesus here calls to their attention what God himself says. I am the God of those who have lived in the past.

Those who have walked with him in the past and those who have trusted him in the past. I still am their God. They're right here with me. They're not gone. All live unto God. Well, as the crowd is watching this interaction unfold, it tells us in verse 39, some of the scribes answered and said, teacher, you have spoken well.

Now we know as we look at this passage, it wasn't just Sadducees here around Jesus. There was religious leaders like the Pharisees and the Sadducees. There was the scholars like the scribes. These were the guys who would write and copy the scriptures and study the scriptures. There was also the multitude of the people who are around all the time and the disciples of Jesus as well. And so they're all observing this. They're watching this interaction and the scribes,

They can't help themselves. As they hear this response, as they hear this interaction, they say, teacher, you have spoken well. Now, it's probably worth noting that the scribes,

Jesus is going to address them in a few minutes as we continue on down the passage. They're not believers in Jesus. And so when they say you've spoken well, they're not saying, all right, we're convinced we're your followers now. But they're really liking the point that Jesus is making. And the Pharisees and the Sadducees, these scribes were possibly members of the Pharisee group, but they would always fight against,

in combat over the concept of resurrection. You might remember the Apostle Paul used this

in his trial, as he was on trial for nothing he did wrong, but just for his belief in Jesus and the resurrection, he was on trial and there was the religious leaders there to accuse him in front of the Roman courts. And it tells us that Paul perceived that there was some Sadducees and some Pharisees in the mix. And so as things were not going anywhere, he says, hey, you know what? It's for the resurrection of the dead and believing that, that I'm on trial today.

And then it caused this uproar between the Jewish people, between the Pharisees and the Sadducees. And they fought so intensely, they almost killed Paul because they were so worked up over this doctrine of resurrection.

And so when the scribes here say, oh, you've spoken well, it's very possible that, again, they weren't saying, oh, I'm going to follow you, Jesus. You speak the truth. But it might be like, hey, that's a good one. I need to write that down for the next time I'm having an argument with my Sadducee friend. I can pull out this argument. That's a good one to make note of. And I can win that debate. That's a good point, Jesus. But then verse 40, after that, they dared not question him again.

anymore. They dared not question him. Again, this is not because they believed. Now, Jesus convinced them with his, you know, correct arguments and truth, and now they believed, and so they did not question. No, they dared not question him. It's not that they had changed their minds, but they learned we keep questioning him, and it keeps backfiring.

It keeps working against us. It's hurting our agenda the more we question him. And so we need to stop questioning him because it keeps hurting our agenda and what we want to accomplish. And that's something to take note of as well. Again, it wasn't that they were convinced. It wasn't that they believed. But in their strategy, they realized this isn't helping what we want to accomplish and what we want to happen.

I would ask you to consider this evening, whose agenda do you want? Because we can, it seems, align ourselves with the Lord when it suits our agenda, but then our real agenda is made known later on when it's not convenient anymore and it doesn't work towards what it is that we want. And

These kinds of thoughts are a little bit in my head as I'm praying over the passage to teach on Sunday. And, you know, every Sunday I choose a passage that we read through the week, going through the Bible in three years. And I'm just going to leave that a mystery. I'm not telling you the passage. But there's some ideas to consider about agendas and whose side are we on or whose agenda do we want? There is definite agendas here.

that are taking place in the world around us. The Apostle Paul, in warning the church and preparing the church for his departure, Acts 20, verse 30, he says, Paul says, you need to watch out because in the church, there's going to be those who rise up and their agenda is to bring people to them.

And so they're going to want a following. They're going to gather people to themselves. And if you haven't recognized it yet, you should recognize it, that everywhere around you, there are people who are trying to get you on their side. You know, come to my side, believe my arguments, be convinced by my arguments, join my team. And there is a lot of agendas being promoted and, and,

People seeking to get you signed up on their campaign. And the question we need to ask is not so much, you know, whose agenda is it, but what's God's agenda? And the tricky part is that a good agenda doesn't necessarily mean that it's God's agenda. And we need to be careful about whose agenda we subscribe to and whose we sign up for. Here are the Sadducees' agenda.

They didn't want the Lord's agenda. They weren't interested in what he had to say. They weren't interested in the direction that he would give, but they found themselves wise enough, strategic enough to stop before they hurt themselves more because it wasn't accomplishing what they wanted to accomplish.

Well, Jesus goes on to challenge them further in the next few verses. Not just the Sadducees now, but all those who were gathering around to question him. In verse 41, Jesus says, he said to them, how can they say that the Christ is the son of David? Now he begins to ask them to think about the Christ or the Messiah. And Jesus says, how can they say that he is the son of David? Now,

The way that they used the word son was not in a super literal way that we might think of it in that, you know, the direct descendant of David, but the son of David meant of the lineage of David. And so just as Jesus talked about being sons of the resurrection and sons of this age, that it was a reference, a way to say that they were of this age or of this line.

And the Messiah was promised to the line of David, was promised to David that one of his descendants would be the promised savior that God had been declaring would come since the very beginning. And here, Jesus says, this Messiah is called the son of David. How can that be? And what's the challenge with that? Because the promise was given to David that the Messiah would come. Well, the challenge, Jesus says,

It goes on to share, comes from Psalm 110, verse 1. In verse 42 here, though, we see it. And so here he quotes from this Psalm of David, Psalm 110, verse 1.

And he makes notes of, well, first of all, he authenticates this is a Psalm of David. In other parallel passage, he mentions and clarifies that David is not speaking of his own, but by the Holy Spirit. So this is the word of God. It's fully inspired. But the challenge here is that the Lord said to my Lord, and there's the repetition of the word Lord in English here.

But in the Hebrew, it's two different words speaking really of the triune nature of God. Although it was not revealed yet, they didn't fully understand this yet. Jesus here is saying, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool. And kind of just paraphrasing to help clarify a little bit. The father said to the son, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool.

And so this is a quotation, kind of a sneak preview into what was happening in heaven when the father spoke to the son and said, sit here at my right hand and I'm going to take care of the enemies. I'm going to make them your footstool. And so here Jesus uses this to say, how can the Messiah be called the son of David? Because here David calls him Lord, the Lord. The father said to my Lord. Now, this is a little bit lost in our tradition.

society and culture because we don't use the terms Lord and son and such in the same way. But in their culture, the way that they would speak about these things, an elder would never call a younger Lord. A younger might call an elder Lord, even not in a reference to, you know, God, but just like we might say, sir, in a respectful way.

But an elder would never call a younger Lord. And so for David to call him Lord presents something perplexing for them and their understanding and their culture. It wouldn't make sense for David to call him Lord because he's going to be the descendant of David. He's going to be younger than David. He wouldn't call him Lord unless he was greater than David because he is God. And that's the point that Jesus is making here.

In verse 44, again, he says, therefore David calls him Lord. How is he then his son? You see, it doesn't make sense in their culture and their understanding for him to be called Lord by David when he's the son of David. But the reality is he was both. He was David's son in the sense that he was, well, he became man. Although he is God, he was born of the Virgin Mary.

And so he became the son of David. He added humanity to his deity. But at the same time, he was David's Lord because he is God. And of course, there is the mystery of the triune nature of God. He's not the father, but he is God. And he's equal to the father. He's part of the triune nature of God. And so David says, the Lord said to my Lord.

And so Jesus challenges them again with their own scriptures, with the things that they say they believe, to help give them a better understanding of who the Messiah is. And that, of course, is who Jesus claimed to be and is. Well, we'll finish up in the final verses here, verses 45 through 47. It says,

And so now Jesus shifts his focus.

He's been interrogated by these different groups here in chapter 20, all coming to him with their questions and intending to trap Jesus with his words. He's fired back and challenged them in their beliefs and what they understand. But now he directs his attention to his disciples. And here we see Jesus talking to his disciples about the scribes in the hearing of all.

You see that? He's talking to his disciples about the scribes in the hearing of all. So there's a few things happening here. But he's addressing the crowd, but he's talking to his disciples. And he's giving them a strong warning against the religious leaders. He says in verse 46, beware the scribes.

So after all these intense interactions happen, after all these failed attempts to trip him up, after all of these attacks have happened, and again, I would encourage you to think about it in those terms. This wasn't playful banter. This wasn't, hey, I think we got a trick question for you. I think we could stump you. You know, this was, we want to kill Jesus. So what can we do? And they're trying and they're trying. And after they failed and failed and failed, Jesus says,

says in front of them all, but particularly addressing his disciples, he says, hey, disciples, beware, watch out, be on guard. And why? Is it because they might hurt the disciples? Well, perhaps there is an element of that. But I think that Jesus was warning them because of the potential for all of us to follow the pattern of these religious leaders.

G. Campbell Morgan says, the closing conflicts between the rulers of Jesus constitute, sorry, between the rulers and Jesus constitute the saddest revelation of the depravity of the human heart. It shows and reveals as you walk through these interactions, how depraved, how sinful, and how blind we can really be. Again, to read the scriptures, to know the scriptures, to honor the scriptures, to believe in God, to be deeply religious,

and yet can be completely opposed to the things of God and against what it is that God desires and working out a different agenda than what God is actually working out. One of the main things that Jesus highlights here of the scribes and the religious leaders is the pretense. They're pretending, Jesus says. In verse 47, he says, "...for a pretense they make long prayers."

They don't make long prayers because they have such great length of things to communicate with God. They have long prayers because they're pretending to know God. They're pretending to walk with God. Another quote here from G. Campbell Morgan, when a man is away from his wife and the journey is short, the letters are short. But the farther he is from his wife, the longer the letters become.

Some people must be a long way from God because their prayers are so long. A little bit humorous there. G. Campbell Morgan kind of, you know, lived in a different era where letter writing was, you know, much more prominent and needed. But at the same time, it illustrates the point well. Yeah, you're just going to the grocery store. You know, you might just send a couple words of text message to your spouse, right? You're going to be gone for...

A few days, a couple of weeks. Well, we need to have some phone calls now. You know, we need to be, have some conversations. There needs to be a lot more interaction as a result. And so he uses that to kind of illustrate these guys, they were far away from God. They didn't know God. It was for pretense. They were pretending to know God. They were pretending to love God and care about God. So for pretense, to put on a show, they made long prayers. Jesus says they desired to go around in long robes.

This was something that spoke of their status, their prestige. It was like, oh, wow, look at the long robes we have and how righteous we are and how wealthy we are demonstrated by how well-dressed I am. They desired the show. They were putting on the show. And Jesus says, here's the things that they love. They love greetings in the marketplaces.

You stop them on the street and say, oh, wow, man, that insight you gave the other day from the scriptures, oh, it was so good. Or, whoa, look at that robe that you're wearing. It's so long. That's amazing. I hope to have a long robe one day. Oh, greetings to you, scribe, Pharisee, rabbi, whatever it might be. That they love that attention. They love that interaction.

He says that they love the best seats in the synagogues. They love the position of honor. They love that status that they get from having that position and that role in the religious system and in the synagogue to be looked upon as the authority and to have that kind of reputation amongst the people. And Jesus says they also love the best places at feasts. They love that place of honor, that reputation.

Remember the few weeks back, maybe it was last week or the week before, Jesus was attending a feast and he begins to speak to people about, you know, hey, don't choose the best place. He was talking to these guys. They love the best places in the feast. They want that place of honor. They want to be recognized and known and popular and thought well of. Overall, you know, this pretense that the things that they love are

I mean, we understand how they're wrong, but that doesn't sound so bad. But then Jesus also says in verse 47 that they devour widows' houses. These are not just like innocent guys who just, you know, like to be popular. And now there's real wickedness within. There's a real issue with these who are pretending to know God. It's not a light thing to pretend to know God, to be far off and far away from God.

Because far away from God, we are corrupt and capable of the worst things, even devouring homes of the widows. It's interesting to note that in the very next chapter, in just a couple of verses, we'll read it tomorrow, Jesus sits and observes the widow giving her two little mites unto the Lord. She has hardly nothing, but what she has, she's giving it to the Lord.

Right before that, Jesus is observing. These are the guys who are devouring her home, who are taking advantage of her, taking advantage of those who are in a vulnerable position. And so they have these long prayers because they're pretending. They love the attention. They love the prestige and the esteem. They love the reputation. Jesus says, watch out.

And he says at the end of verse 47, these will receive greater condemnation. It's pretty heavy what Jesus says here. First of all, he's sharing there is levels and degrees of condemnation. There are those who will be condemned. There are those who will be condemned greater because of their pretending. Because of what they knew, but pretended they didn't know. Because of the way that they walked and the things that they sought after, even though they knew nothing.

better. Jesus here says, look, these guys will be accountable for their behavior, for their pretense, for what they knew in their minds, for what they knew in their hearts, but that they failed to respond to. Yes, they knew that Jesus was right. They knew that he had shown them from the scriptures that their ways and that their beliefs were wrong, but they were unwilling to change. They were unwilling to repent. Instead, they continued to pretend that

They knew God, that they loved God, that they walked with God. Meanwhile, their hearts were far from God. Thinking about this and taking it back to the beginning. So much is resolved when you start with believing in the resurrection. So much is resolved when you go back to the beginning, start from square one and know the scriptures and know the power of God. And then you understand what's at stake. The Sadducees who came to Jesus, they denied Jesus.

that there is a resurrection. And at the end of the passage, they still denied that there is a resurrection, even though Jesus had shown that there really was. From their own scriptures that they claimed to believe, but they didn't actually believe because they were just pretending. They were just pretending. And because they were just pretending, you can see that they're thinking, they're hoping there is no real condemnation. There is no real accountability. There is no real consequence for their behavior.

because they don't believe in the resurrection. Listen, there is going to be a resurrection. And one way or another, you are going to stand before God. I am going to stand before God one day and give account for my life. And you will give account for your life. And you will give account for what you knew and what you did. You will give account for when you pretended and when you were sincere. You will give account for, I will give account for

The realities, not the fake things that we can convince others, but God sees through all of that. And so, well, things will be set straight. If we, from the beginning, we start from square one with the understanding there is a resurrection. I will stand before God. I will give account to him for my life. But there's another aspect to this as well. And that is a stability, a confidence, a comfort, a rest that comes from believing in the resurrection.

I was thinking about it in the sense of, you know, old school sailors, how they would navigate by the stars because all the things around them are constantly changing. You can't navigate by those things. Those aren't fixed. But they would look up to the stars and, you know, be able to. They had instruments and stuff I don't even know and understand. But I know that they did that.

Because they were fixed and they were able to use those to direct them and guide them. And for us, I would encourage you to consider that resurrection is like that for us. It's a compass for us. It sets north again for us. As we're tossed by the waves, as the world around us, I mean, hey, over the past couple of months, our world has been turned upside down. And it's like normal is like nothing like what we always thought normal was. And

Maybe we're almost getting used to the new normal and then the normal is going to change again. And how do we navigate these seas that are shifting and changing and so different all the time? We need to find our compass. And the resurrection provides a really valuable star to fix our eyes on. There is going to be reward in eternity for those who are faithful to God. There is going to be justice in eternity forever.

for those who are unfaithful to God. There is going to be rest for the hearts and the souls of the saints in eternity. There's going to be glory in eternity. There's something for us to work towards, to look upon and to fix our eyes upon to keep us headed in the right direction.

When we don't know the scriptures and we don't know the power of God, we lose sight of eternity and we start wandering the waves and we get shipwrecked over here or off course over there. But when we fix our eyes back on the scriptures and the power of God, the truth of the resurrection, it can help us navigate these difficult times, these uncertainties, the things that we face.

Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15, if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable. If there is no resurrection, all of this is for nothing. It's meaningless. Why bother being diligent or righteous or seeking the Lord or any of that? It doesn't matter if there's no resurrection. We need to stop trying to fix things

in the sense of a permanent fix. We need to stop trying to find our ultimate fulfillment in the things of this life. We need to fix our eyes back on the stars that have been given for us to navigate by the scriptures, the power of God, the resurrection that is to come. Jesus told the religious leaders, you are mistaken not knowing the scriptures nor the power of God. And I would encourage you

As you see the example here of the religious leaders, let them cause you to beware, as Jesus instructed us. Beware. Pay attention. Watch out. We need to recenter ourselves back on the truth, back on the things that solidify a foundation and set a course that leads us into eternity. And it will help us navigate these rough waters and uncertainties. Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you for your word and the stability that you provide through the truth. I pray, God, that you would help us to believe you at your word, to receive what you say and to grasp hold of it, and then to live our lives by it, not just pretending, Lord, not just while it's convenient and it fits with our agenda. Lord, that our lives and our hearts, our directions and our decisions would be permanently aligned to yours. Lord, may we know you.

your scriptures, your power, and your promises. Help us, Lord, to know you and to walk with you. God, I pray as we continue on this week, Lord, that you would lead us by your spirit, shine those stars brightly before us, Lord, that we would see your scriptures, that we would remember your power, Lord, that we would grasp hold of your promise of eternity. And Lord, that you would, through that, direct us and show us how you want us to be,

As men, as women, as neighbors, as co-workers, as employees, as employers, show us, Lord, the life that you want us to live because of who you are and what you've declared. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of his word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.