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Introduction:
If you have your bibles let me invite you to open with me to Mark 12:35-37.
Jesus has just been put through the ringer with the religious elite in the temple.
He has been challenged and questioned by the Pharisees, the Herodians, the Sadducees, and the Scribes.
Each group sought to trap him in his words in hopes of condemning him, humiliating him, and discrediting him.
but with every question and with every challenge, Jesus only proved his own wisdom and authority.
In fact, Jesus’ last interaction with the Scribes left everyone speechless.
Look at what Mark says in verse 34.
No one dared to ask Jesus any more questions…
but that did not mean that Jesus was done talking in the temple.
Now that he had brilliantly maneuvered all of their attacks…
Jesus went on the attack.
Verse 35 says that Jesus began teaching in the temple.
He had proved himself wiser then every religious authority in the temple and apparently he had an audience now wanting to hear more.
So now Jesus has the floor… and Jesus wants to ask a question of his own.
Lets read and then pray for understanding.
Lets Pray
It’s Jesus’ turn to ask the questions…
And Jesus makes one particular passage of Scripture the focus of his question.
But, the first thing I want you to notice is how Jesus references the Scripture.
Mark 12:36 (ESV)
David himself, in the Holy Spirit, declared,
Jesus aims to discuss Psalm 110.
But before he quotes the Psalm… Jesus affirms this truth…
That David wrote the Psalm according to the work of the God’s Spirit.
Jesus is not quoting this Psalm to challenge it… he is quoting it to bring clarity to Its meaning.
Truth #1 Jesus Affirmed God’s Inspiration of the Bible
If you are new to St. Rose Community Church, this is a great Sunday to attend because this point is foundational to who we are and everything we do.
We believe with our whole hearts that there is a Sovereign God ruling over all the universe and that this God is not a silent God.
He speaks.
Creation is a result of divine design spoken into existence.
Words were God’s idea.
Language was God’s idea.
Letters, and grammar, and punctuation, and Literature were God’s idea.
God chose to communicate to a fallen and sinful humanity through words.
God spoke to chosen individuals throughout history.
He spoke to them… and he led them to write down his words.
by the power of His Spirit, God’s people wrote down words on stones, and on parchments, and on papyrus.
And those words would contain meaning.
They would reveal God’s plan, his purposes, and his character.
The Bible is a collection of those words written by the physical hand of men, but inspired by the unfathomable mind of God.
Written words on a page, were God’s plan and it is a Good plan.
God inspired a book For our good And for his glory.
Men who were audibly commissioned by the resurrected Jesus confirm this truth In their own writings.
Maybe you are here and you are skeptical of this claim.
How do we really know what Peter is saying here is true?
How do we know the Scriptures are inspired by the Holy Spirit?
The answer to that question can be complex but let me answer most simply..
I believe the Bible to be inspired because Jesus believed the Old Testament to be inspired, and Jesus gave authority to his apostles to speak on his behalf..resulting in the New Testament.
Why do I believe the Bible… because I believe the testimony of Jesus..
Well why do I believe what Jesus says…
Because Jesus really, truly, historically, worked miracles recorded in the historical documents of the New Testament, he was really killed, and he really rose from the dead on the third day.
Well why do you believe that?
The eyewitness testimony of all his followers were consistent with one another and they all preached his resurrection even through being persecuted to the point of their own death.
I don’t just blindly believe in the truth of Christianity.
I see the legitimacy of its historical claims…
The story of the Bible makes sense of the story of our world better then any other worldview or religion in the history of the world…
but more than that… the same Holy Spirit that inspired David to write God’s Word… that Holy Spirit has worked a miracle in me to see the beauty of the Bible and to see the truth in what has been written.
I can’t unsee the truth I’ve seen in the Scriptures.
My believing is not a blind believing with no rational reason… but my believing is not a result of merely my reasoning.
my believing was and is still a miracle of God’s work in my life.
If you do not believe, I do encourage you to study to find answers…, but I also encourage you to pray for the miracle of faith.
At the very least…, i urge you to pick up this book and read it for yourself… and maybe ask someone to help you understand its claims.
Truth #1 Jesus Affirmed God’s Inspiration of the Bible
And if there is any chance that this book truly is inspired by an eternal God… you would be a fool to not read it for your self And seek to understand it.
But…, Just because the Bible is miraculously inspired by God and written with human hands… it does not mean that we do not have to think hard and study carefully to discern what the Scriptures mean..
God used human agents to write his words.
He used their knowledge of languages,
He used their experiences,
and he even used their penmanship to write these books…
and now God aims to use our reading, our thinking, our praying, and our careful study and meditation to help us actually understand.
We have to utilize all the natural gifts God has given us so as to reap the supernatural benefits of understanding God’s revelation to us.
There is a false dichotomy that is common in many Christian circles that separates spiritual things from physical and tangible things.
We want to think that the Spirit only operates in feelings, and mystery, and intangible impressions of mysterious thought… but thats a false dichotomy.
The Spirit uses tangible physical means to accomplish God’s work in us and through us.
He uses our study, and our thinking, and our praying.
He uses church members and their thinking, and study, and praying, and speaking.
if we want to lean into the work of the Spirit, we don’t clear our minds, we fill our minds, we don’t avoid deep study, we dive into it in prayerful reliance on the Spirit.
That’s exactly what Jesus wants his hearers to do in this context.
Jesus wants to bring this one passage before his hearers for deeper consideration
Jesus wants them to ask questions of a familiar text.
That section may still be very confusing to you and thats ok…, but lets think through it.
This is the question Jesus is asking.
“How can the scribes say that the Christ is the son of David?”
To understand the question you need to have some background.
It was commonly agreed upon in Judaism by this time that God was going to send a “Christ”
Another word for ”Christ” is the word ”Messiah”
More literally those two words simply mean anointed one or chosen one.
It was believed that the Christ would be the one to fulfill the promises of the Old Testament Scriptures.
The Christ would be the one to establish God’s unending Kingdom on Earth.
The Christ would be the promised son of King David who, according to God’s promise, this king would never be dethroned.
This promise can be found first in 2 Samuel 7 but it appears over and over again throughout the Old Testament.
Lets just listen to some important passages:
These passages caused the Jews to long for a future son of David to come as the Christ King over God’s eternal kingdom.
First, God made this promise to King David in 2 Samuel 7:12.
Later Isaiah would write these words under the inspiration of God’s Spirit.
Again, Isaiah writes this.
Again, the prophet Ezekiel recorded the words of God.
This is the Christ that everyone was waiting for.
They were waiting for a Son of David to take the throne and usher in a new world without all the pain, without all the suffering, and without all the brokenness.
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