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[0:00] Mark is just unveiling this good news with every paragraph.! Jesus and his disciples just came to Jerusalem.

[0:14] ! Technical difficulties.

[0:32] Yeah, there it is. And so what's interesting is we know what's in store for Jesus. Because we've read the story, we've heard the story, we know all about it.

[0:44] They don't know. Disciples don't know. The Jewish leaders, they know they hate him, they know they want to try to get rid of him, but they really don't know how as yet. I think they're going to work that out in the next day or two.

[0:57] Jesus had a pretty good idea of what was going on. But no one else knew. And so as you read this, you've got to kind of think about it like that. This is happening before our eyes, and it's new.

[1:11] And they're trying to figure out, the leaders are trying to figure out who Jesus is. And so that's kind of the heart behind the question. They're trying to trap him, trying to find a justification to destroy him, basically.

[1:24] But they're also trying to learn who he is. So Pastor John Hopkins did an awesome job just leading us through the questions that people asked. So you had the Jewish leaders in the middle of Chapter 11, by what authority are you doing these things?

[1:39] Okay. And he addressed that in his way, awesome way. Chapter 12, verse 13, they sent the Pharisees, the Herodians, and they asked him about paying taxes to Caesar.

[1:51] All right. What about this kind of thing? After that, the Sadducees, you know, they don't believe in the resurrection. So they were asking him, they kind of posed a story. You've got seven brothers, and one married to a woman.

[2:05] He dies. She marries the next one on down the line. Whose wife is she in heaven? And so they were trying to get him with that question. Then you had the one scribe.

[2:15] He asked, which commandment is the most important? So he had all these questions coming at him. And they're trying to understand who he is, and they're also trying to trap him.

[2:27] And the section ends with this. After that, no one dared to ask him any more questions. So he bested them, so to speak. All right.

[2:38] Nobody dared to ask any more questions. So we're going to start in Chapter 12, verse 35. And Jesus has a question for them. And so just to give you a little background, you remember back in Chapter 2, Jesus says, you can't put new wine in old wineskins.

[2:57] What was he saying? He was talking about the new covenant. The new covenant is not compatible with the old covenant, so to speak. So he's talking about the new covenant, new wine, new wineskins.

[3:11] Jesus is going to reference a common understanding that they had at the time. The understanding is that the Messiah being referred to as the son of David.

[3:25] Okay. The son of David. The Messiah is the son of David. Not inaccurate, but not the full story. This actually started back in 2 Samuel, like Chapter 7.

[3:43] You remember when the prophet Nathan, he was talking to David, and he says, I will raise up, this is God talking, I will raise up your offspring after you, your offspring, David, and I will establish his kingdom.

[3:57] Okay. So the Davidic kingdom, so to speak. And, of course, everyone's thinking, okay, we've got David coming back, or we've got his offspring.

[4:08] This is going to be good, because look what David did. And so, again, like Pastor John was talking about, they were expecting this triumphant king, and that's what they're looking for.

[4:19] And even though he's been talking to the disciples, telling them that he's got to die and different things, they're still looking at that. And Jesus is about to challenge this simplistic and incomplete understanding of who the Messiah is.

[4:34] One scholar put it this way. He said, after a day of questions comes the question of the day. So, this is actually a fairly short section, but only six verses.

[4:47] Let's go ahead and read it together. And I'm still not working here for some reason. Oh, there it goes. Did I do that or did you? All right. I might have to lean on you then. Let's read it.

[5:00] Okay. Mark 12, 35 through 40. And as Jesus taught in the temple, he said, How can the scribes say that the Christ is the son of David? David himself, in the Holy Spirit, declared, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.

[5:20] David himself calls him Lord. So how is he his son? And the great throng heard him gladly. And in his teaching, he said, Beware of the scribes who like to walk around in long robes and like greetings in the marketplaces and have the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, who devour widows' houses and for a pretense make long prayers.

[5:50] They will receive the greater condemnation. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, we thank you so much that you are here with us, God.

[6:03] I just sense your presence, Lord. I just see it on the faces, Lord. I feel it in the music, Lord. Thank you so much that you're here, that you live in us. We thank you for your word, the power of your word, God.

[6:16] Thank you that you've given us your love letter, your instruction manual, your wisdom, God. Help us to gain from your book of wisdom.

[6:29] I pray that you would speak to us today, God, through your word, through me. Speak to us. Help us to be different, Lord. Help us to be more like you as a result of today.

[6:42] God, speak to us. I pray this for the other churches in town and really across the world. I pray that you would speak to your people, that you'd strengthen your people, that you'd change your people with your word, God.

[6:56] In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. So, he is teaching in the temple.

[7:06] I know some of your translations say the temple courts. Temple courts, of course, is where the cleansing of the temple happened. That's the big area. Could you advance it?

[7:19] So, kind of an image of the temple. Nope, I guess I was supposed to do that one. so I showed this one last time that big open area there that's the temple courts but the temple itself is up in the kind of middle in front of the holy place and that's also it's hard to tell how large this is but those pillars are three feet in diameter this place is huge and even that is a very huge room and that's where they were next slide so this was actually the so he's in the temple it's the religious center for Israel it's the seat of authority of the Sanhedrin so he's talking with the religious elite so to speak of the Jewish of Judaism and it has all the religious Jews Jewish men can go on there just the men and he's addressing the scribes so the scribes were essentially the intellectual and religious Judaism okay they weren't just merely people that would translate the Bible or I mean rewrite the Bible write manuscripts but they actually were the ones to come to they knew the law they knew the scriptures they were kind of like lawyers or even judges today with regard to the legal system so they were the elite all right so how can the scribes say that the Christ is the son of David

[8:58] David himself in the Holy Spirit declares I just want to stop there why did Jesus say David in the Holy Spirit declares why did he say in the Holy Spirit why do you think he said that what he was trying to do was he's trying to establish the authority of the scriptures of the word of God this is from God what I'm about to quote what I'm about to reference this is from God you're going to be hearing the word of God here all right he's establishing that inspiration and authority of the scriptures this is from God and I love it when the scriptures do that does that when they kind of the scriptures reference other scriptures and talk about it being the word of God being the scriptures I just have a couple examples that I like to share next slide so this is from 1st Timothy 5 and so he's talking about the elders who direct the affairs hit the next slide again this isn't going to work as well without my automatic but anyway so what does he say the scriptures because this is this is of course

[10:04] Timothy we were blessed to go through 1st Timothy before we went through Mark and I got to preach on this section and it was awesome but so Jesus is talking about the elders and he's he's kind of justifying why they're worthy of a double honor and he says the scripture says and he quotes from I believe it's Leviticus and then the one where he says the worker deserves his wages he literally so this is this is Paul writing to Timothy literally quoting Jesus from Matthew or or Luke he's he's quoting something from you know from the New Testament so to speak kind of interesting to see that next slide I like this example this is from 2nd Peter 3 and so in here Peter of course was one of the followers of Jesus right and he's referring to Paul's writings Paul came later Paul didn't actually get on the scene until you know got saved in Acts chapter 9 and so

[11:04] Peter's referring to Paul he's referring to his letters next slide and so it says Paul he says the beloved brother Paul also wrote to you as he does in all his letters next slide this is interesting it says it says they are some there are some things in them that are hard to understand which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction as they do the other scriptures so thereby he's establishing the apostle Paul's writings letters as the scriptures as they do the other scriptures I just find that interesting kind of a little side note there all right next slide so David himself in the Holy Spirit declared the Lord said to my Lord sit in my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet so Jesus here is quoting from Psalm 110 so why didn't he just say in Psalm 110 it says this how come he didn't how come he didn't say that well the the numbers of the chapters actually didn't show up until the 13th century they didn't have you know

[12:15] Psalm 1 they had the songs but they didn't have numbers or anything 13th century they actually didn't make it into publishing until the 14th century but somebody developed it in the 13th century and then the verses themselves they didn't come about until the 15th century the Old Testament they added the verses in the 15th century New Testament 16th century so by the way Psalm 110 it's the most quoted Old Testament passage in the New Testament it's the most quoted Old Testament passage 33 times it's quoted all right you're learning all kinds of useless trivia about the Bible today aren't you just a few side notes I find that interesting anyway all right okay so Psalm 110 the Lord said to my Lord sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet quite a passage you can see why this is so frequently quoted in the

[13:21] New Testament because it it says a lot doesn't it so the Lord that first one where it says the Lord that's Yahweh that's Jehovah that's the Lord God said to my Lord my Lord the word is Adonai or master or king my king my master my Lord it's understood to mean God said to the Messiah King I think we all understand that because it's quoted so much so he's saying the Lord God said to my Lord the Messiah king and here's Jesus' question next slide so he asks a question in 35 and then 37 the verses in between how can the scribes say that the Christ is the son of David David himself calls him Lord so how is he his son you know just kind of kind of blown away a little bit with that question I mean he's kind of questioning that and they're like well

[14:25] I don't know what Jesus is doing is he's pointing out that there's a whole lot more to this Messiah than simply his lineage or his connection with David and there's a whole lot more to him than the triumphant king that you're expecting you recall earlier when Jesus was talking to the Sadducees you remember what he said he said God is the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob he's the God of the living of course David is alive referring to David being alive the Davidic kingdom is still not enough David of course is the author of Psalm 110 he calls the Messiah Lord how can he be David's son that's kind of the big question again they're waiting for the triumphant king and Jesus flips the script on him flips the script the Messiah is not simply

[15:26] David's son it's not just David's son or David's relative he is in fact the son of God the Messiah is the son of God and of course we all know that that's not news to us but at the time this was significant and then I like how that section ends and the great throng heard him gladly another translation says the large crowd enjoyed listening to him so again it's a large crowd in that temple they enjoyed listening to him all right next section next slide okay now Jesus turns to the large crowd in the temple okay he was talking to the scribes now he's talking to the large crowd in the temple the scribes were again an intellectual religious elite he refers to their robes what does he say beware the scribes who like to walk around in long robes and like readings in the marketplace they had these long robes that they wore they were made of wool or linen and they were they distended of wealth and eminence and they expected the greetings they expected the greetings and then they also sat in the most important places in the synagogue so they sat up front it would be like if the chairs were up here they sat there so everyone looked at them everyone could see them most important places places of honor at feasts you know that's where they sat more than this desire to impress though they were greedy they were greedy individuals they took advantage of people's generosity for their own gain you know what does he say there they devour devour widows houses okay and what he's kind of I think what Mark and what

[17:28] Jesus what they're kind of pointing to historically about 100 years before Jesus there was a story of a scribe that kind of took advantage of a woman her name was Fulvia and he was exiled because of it so he succeeded in persuading her high standing woman to give a big gift to the temple in Jerusalem and then the money was embezzled and so this happened 100 years before that we've said before that the gospel of Mark was written primarily to a Roman audience you know Matthew to a Jewish audience Luke to a Greek audience and so the Romans would be very well aware of this and so it kind of calls that to attention when he says when he says that they devour widows houses because this was kind of fresh in their minds you might say all right so incidentally the next section that pastor john is going to be covering is it's about the widows offering the widow's might you know and it's in stark contrast to what we're reading right now about the scribes so the scribes they devour widows houses and then the next section john is going to be covering he's going to talk about the widow giving all so I just want to point that out you can look for that next week yeah all right so he ends this section with they will receive the greater condemnation to recall

[19:07] Jesus addressing hypocrisy back in mark 7 pastor tim shared on this way back in may you know part where jesus says this people honors me with their lips but their heart is far away from me you know and pastor tim likes to talk about how hypocrisy is when the backstage life does not match the front stage life kind of thing hypocrisy all right well here we're talking about hypocrisy but we're talking about something even worse we're talking about using religion for self for greed and actually harming others so it's even worse brings an even sterner rebuke the original greek here it says abundant judgment i'm not sure what that is abundant judgment but i think you can imagine so that's what we're talking about that describes the situation next slide i'd like to go back to verse 36 david himself in the holy spirit and i like how jesus says that david himself in the holy spirit just want to point out that the holy spirit operated differently in the old covenant under the old covenant than he does under the new covenant all right in the old covenant under the old covenant the holy spirit's influence was temporary all right he would he would come upon david and he would be you know david would be his guy he'd be god's guy you know it says that it was by the spirit by the spirit's influence he usually says the spirit comes upon in the old covenant but it's a temporary influence all right that's why david prays in psalm 51 you remember that after he was confronted by nathan about his sin of adultery and murder remember he was confronted and then he he creates psalm 51 you know created me a clean heart you know i almost like to sing this song created me a clean clean heart and then he says take not thy holy spirit from me that was a real thing in the old covenant take not thy holy spirit from me because it because again the holy spirit's influence was temporary under the new covenant bible says we're sealed things are different all right next verse so pastor tim covered this about a month and a half ago i think it was this verse jeremiah 31 okay so jeremiah god is is talking about the coming covenant what's to come what's what's to expect and the yellow part there he says i will put my law within them and i will write it on their hearts and i will be their god and they shall be my people all right next next slide ezekiel 36 he says it a different way he says and i will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules i will put my spirit within you next slide you're familiar with this verse from ephesians you know what does he say when you believed when you believed you were marked in him with a seal the promised holy spirit who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance so under the new covenant we've been sealed with the holy spirit he lives in us and he permanently lives in us i shouldn't say permanently because when we enter glory that probably changes i haven't researched that

[23:07] anyway but he's in us all right so who is the holy spirit again i know where this kind of maybe basic stuff this isn't going to be exhaustive but just briefly the holy spirit is not a force the holy spirit is not the force okay the spirit is not an it sometimes you hear people refer to the spirit as an it you know the spirit is a person he is a person he is god god the father god the son god the holy spirit he's god he's god and he lives inside us if we believed it says upon believing you are marked in him he lives inside us so what is the holy spirit's goal in our lives why does he live inside us there's probably a long answer to that but just briefly just want to share a couple of things so

[24:15] Jesus when he was at the last supper of course it was his last night last conversation with his disciples he kind of filling them in on things getting them ready you know I'm going to a place to prepare a home you know that kind of thing and then he tells them about the coming spirit the helper the holy spirit and this was again kind of kind of news to him so to speak and I'm just going to read through from John chapter 14 15 and 16 there's a number of references I'm going to just read through a couple of them here real quick I do not leave you as orphans I will come to you okay Jesus says this to his disciples maybe I should quit I will ask the father and he will send another helper the spirit of truth okay Jesus is assuring his disciples he's kind of filling him getting them ready I will send the spirit of truth he says unless I go away the helper will not come I know pastor John alluded to this

[25:20] I think the other week unless I go away the helper will not come he dwells with you and will be in you isn't that interesting he dwells with you old covenant and will be in you new covenant the spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you says he will testify about me he will testify about me he will teach you all things he will guide you into all truth okay so all that is in John 14 15 16 now right in the middle of that am I going in and out here uh oh um John 15 of course is the is the whole chapter about I am the vine you are the branches okay about the Holy Spirit in there and uh next slide

[26:22] I just want to share this verse so in there he says you know he's bringing me a mic you take it over take over hello we got it all right can you hear me now now I can float around well I could before anyway all right sorry about that gotta love technology if you abide in me and my words abide in you ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you by this my father is glorified that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciple right in the middle of all that about the Holy Spirit is the section on abide in me you know I am the vine you are the branches abide in me all right and he's there he's there to help us so I think it's important to recognize that but the goal here is is the goal of the Holy

[27:30] Spirit is that we bear fruit okay we're familiar with Galatians 5 where it says the fruit of the Spirit is love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness self-control the fruit of the Spirit is all those things it's from the Holy Spirit that that comes that's manifest in our lives it's through the Spirit fruit another way that fruit is is that comes about is through our good works you know it says in Ephesians 2 it says he created us you know where his workmanship created in Christ to do good works which he prepared in advance for us to do again that only comes through the power of the Holy Spirit it's through the power of the Holy Spirit and I tell you this truth this reality really changes everything for us it's not about me trying to live a good life it's not about me trying to be a good

[28:35] Christian trying to do these things and these things because life is hard and the Christian life is hard the Christian life is impossible it's impossible to do all those things but on our own it's impossible because we've got God living in us God empowers us to do them through the Holy Spirit amen we can only do it through God's help and God works on us he changes us the Holy Spirit gives us gifts and we're learning about that in our walking with Jesus 201!

[29:13] class where the gifts of the Spirit and he works through us and I just want to share a little story about my wife Kathy she's surprised so Kathy used to work for Mary's in maternity home and it was kind of cool because as they got to know Kathy they got to see Christ inside her it was kind of cool so of course Mary's in maternity home they provide for crisis pregnancies so these young ladies that find themselves pregnant they have a place to go where they can live where they can learn how to manage money learn how to run a household learn how to care for their babies and so they do that and Kathy was on staff there for a while and the staff members and the management they would kind of every once in a while they would observe certain things about Kathy and I remember these adjectives that came up one of them was you're so gentle you are just so gentle you know and

[30:19] Kathy would like she's like you know whatever you know and then they would say and then I think another one came up as they were talking about how you were what was the other one you're not going to say gentle and kind you're so kind you know how can you do!

[30:37] you know how can you the upbringings and the backgrounds that they have some very difficult and Kathy just the Lord was able to use her to love these girls and it's really awesome and then they talked about how cheerful she was that was another one you're so cheerful that's the Holy Spirit Kathy has the gift of mercy and so what they were seeing really was God working through her they weren't seeing Kathy they were a couple weeks ago Pastor John Hopkins had some tools that we could use I guess we'll call them tools as we you know because this doesn't happen automatically you know it's as we get to know God as we get to know him we get to know him through reading his word all right studying his word a regular diet of the word of

[31:39] God personally we need to do that hit the next slide we'll just go through these quickly use your brain you know God's given us a brain to learn about God to study and use your brain read books listen to teachings but read the word primarily read the word be in community it's great that we come on Sunday morning look for other opportunities as well where you can actually get to know one another and speak into we all have brains and those brains can help the rest of us as well and then of course the last one is trust the spirit which is what I'm talking about over all this it's about the Holy Spirit because remember he speaks to us in the word he interprets he teaches us he's the one that speaks to us that helps us to understand that helps our brains to work and the fact that he lives in each teach me to challenge me and

[32:45] God can use me to challenge you as well so we'll just I don't know if we call tools resources gifts these are gifts from God use them and through the power of the Holy Spirit we can be fruitful people ask him to help trust him to help the Holy Spirit let's pray Lord Jesus we thank you so much!

[33:11]  for your power and love and mercy and grace we thank you that you live inside us just just amazing to think of that that you live inside us and that you are building in us Lord you are building your character in us as we get to know you as we're in your word as we're thinking through things as we're meeting together talking with one another God help us to trust your spirit help us to be in your word help us to use our heads use our brains help us to be in community Lord use us to bear fruit Lord it's a hurting world it's a hurting world there's so many hurts so much pain so much brokenness Lord but you have the answers and because of that we have the answers Lord use us to change the world in Jesus name Amen God