A group of Sadducees had come to Christ Jesus with a question about life beyond physical death. That is both interesting and confusing, because the Sadducees didn’t believe in life after death. As Acts 23:8tells us, “the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit.” Obviously their question about the family with the seven sons and one wife was designed with their own predilection in mind. They didn’t believe in Heaven, and they hoped to trap Christ in some unanswerable conundrum. But of course they failed.
“The Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit: but the Pharisees confess both.” While believing in Heaven and the human spirit’s continuance after death, the Pharisee’s primary hope was a continued life on earth, under the rule of the Messiah. And they believed that their position in that future Kingdom would be based on their disciplined relationship to the law. So we aren’t surprised that these Pharisee’s came to Christ with legal questions. “Master, which is the great (or greatest) commandment in the law? “Above all the laws of God or Moses, which is essential for entrance into the Millennial Kingdom?” And once again Jesus gives an unassailable answer.
Then speaking, not just to the man who posed the question, but to the whole group who followed him to witness Jesus’ confusion, the Lord posed His own query. “What think ye of Christ? Whose son is he?”The Lord Jesus doesn’t ask questions just to fill some dead air-time. He isn’t interested in magnifying His position or intellect over that of His opponents.
Why did Jesus ask this question?
Notice that He did not ask, “Do you men believe the scriptures which declare that the Messiah will come?” These were Pharisees, not Sadducees, so of course they believed in the Messiah. But that question would have been somewhat like what we might pose to most religious people in our country today – “do you believe in Jesus?” I know a Mormon family, who has a large picture of Jesus hanging on their wall. It is the common picture of the man with long hair with western European facial features. I can’t remember if it pictures Christ with blond hair and blue eyes – that is certainly a rendition that I see quite often. But that painting is no less accurate than the theological Jesus which the Mormons accept. Their Christ was a man who attained godhood, just as they might attain godhood themselves. Their Christ is a good brother of Lucifer, the black sheep of Jehovah’s family. The Christ of the Mormon is not the Christ of Word of God. As I have told you there is a Roman Catholic couple living two doors east of us. I have knocked on his door, but I haven’t been invited into his house, so I don’t know if he has the same picture of Jesus on his wall as the Mormon, but I wouldn’t be surprised. I do know that in his front yard and in a niche visible through the front window are three statues of Mary. Does the Roman Catholic believe in Christ? He would say so. But that man’s Christ is somehowinferior to, and dependent upon, Mary, His earthly mother. Does the Jehovah’s Witness believe in Jesus? Does the Seventh Day Adventist? Certainly! In witnessing to the Methodist, Episcopalian, and Presbyterian, it would be good to establish if they are talking about the same Christ that you are, because that is not a given.
Jesus’ question to the Pharisees boiled down to the nature of THEIR Messiah – their Christ. Are you talking about the Messiah of God – the Messiah of the Bible – or do you have your own definition? Is Christ the Son of God, or merely the son of David? Is He God or man – divine or human? Is His kingdom spiritual or temporal – earthly or heavenly?
“They say unto him, The son of David.”
Although Jesus didn’t praise them for their answer, I give them credit for accuracy – so far. The Lord didn’t deny what they said, because it was true – Christ was to be the son of King David. And the Lord Jesuswas a descendant of Israel’s King David. But Christ wasn’t pointing to Himself and speaking in the third person (second person of the Trinity). This was a theological question about the doctrine of Christ which those men held. I won’t spend long on this point because we addressed it just two years ago. And besides, it is so obvious as to be impossible to deny.
In II Samuel 7 God made a promise to King David – a one-sided covenant was established. It is later reiterated and summarized in I Chronicles 17:11-14 and II Chronicles 6:16. God unconditionally promised that the Messiah would come from the lineage of David and the tribe of Judah, and that He would establish a kingdom which would endure forever. It was unconditional because God did not place any responsibility on David for its fulfillment. The guarantee of the promise rested solely on God’s faithfulness. In the Davidic Covenant, God reaffirmed and developed the promise of the land which He made in the first two covenants with Israel – the Abrahamic and Mosaic. Then God promised thatDavid’s descendant or “seed” would succeed him as King of Israel and that David’s throne would be established forever. The promise declared that David’s “house,” “kingdom” and “throne” would be established forever. It emphasized the authority of the king’s rule “forever,” declaring the eternal and unconditional nature of this promise to David and Israel. The writings of the rabbis of the Pharisees indicate they had no problem taking this promise of God literally.
As I say, Jesus’ question was not about Him personally – it was about the nature of the Messiah.However, I can’t go on without pointing out that Jesus is that Messiah, and the son of David. The first of seventeen references to “the Son of David” in the New Testament is found in Matthew 1:1. Matthew describes his gospel as “The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” Then he goes on to give us the genealogical lineage which runs up to Joseph and Mary. InLuke 3 we have a similar genealogy which runs backward from Jesus to Adam, through the person of David, the son of Jesse, the son of Obed, the son of Boaz and Ruth. There is no doubt but that Jesus carried royal blood in His veins, though both sides of his family. This human descent from David comes up again from time to time in the Bible. For example, there is Paul’s record in Romans 1 – “Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David, according to the flesh.”
Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.
These Pharisees correctly answered that the Messiah was to be a direct descendant of King David. But probably the majority of this little group failed to realize that Christ would be much more than that.So Jesus reached back to Psalm 110, asking those great scholars for their interpretation of verse 1.“He saith unto them, How then doth David in spirit call him Lord, saying, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool? If David then call him Lord, how is he his son?”
The scholars of the Pharisees agreed that Psalm 110 was a Messianic Psalm – a revelation about Christ. David composing under the explicit directions of the Holy Spirit stated that Jehovah spoke to the Messiah.That Messiah was invited to sit at God’s right hand – that is at the Father’s right hand. The time of the subjugation of the wicked had not yet arrived, but it would eventually. The destruction of the wicked would come out of Zion, striking down the Kings of the earth in the day of God’s wrath. And that Messiah, as reiterated in the Book of Hebrews, was a very special kind of priest – after the order of Melchizedek. These Jews took Psalm 110 at face value, but they failed to focus on, and answer, a few words in the first verse – Jehovah spoke to David’s Lord and said sit here until I make thine enemies the footstool. Clearly, David called this Messiah his Lord. Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, David called his future son, his Lord – his Master. Those Pharisees didn’t have an explanation, but we do. Jesus Christ was physically born through the family of David, but His actual Father is Jehovah.
There are not many Old Testament scriptures which call the Messiah “God’s Son.” But along with the New Testament scriptures – there are certainly enough to convince me. The much-beloved Second Psalm teaches that God has a Son and that He is divine. “Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel. Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.”
This Psalm weaves “the LORD, Jehovah” together with “the Son.” It links the worship and service of the one with the other. And as is declared in the New Testament, “The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand,” including judgment.
John 5 records an important conversation between Christ and the Jews. The Lord Jesus had just healed a crippled man and then ordered him to do something which the Jews thought was contrary to the Sabbath law. “Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God. Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth: and he will shew him greater works than these, that ye may marvel. For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will. For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son: That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.”
That Christ is the Son of God, doesn’t have anything to do with Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem. That is the son of David aspect in this equation. But just as this question ties together the son of David with the Son of God, so do a few Old Testament scriptures. Not the least of which is Isaiah 9:6. And I will close with that verse – “For unto us a child is born (the son of David), unto us a son is given (the son of God): and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.”
Those Pharisees couldn’t recognize the Son of David – the Son of God. And as a result those men are in Hell today. But there is still time for you. Bow your knee and confess that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God. And humbly trust in Him for deliverance from your sin.