Transcription downloaded from https://sermons.tristatechurch.com/sermons/82340/trust-the-holy-spirit/.

Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions.
Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt.


[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. But the temple itself is up in the kind of middle in front of the holy place.

[7:35] And that's also, I mean, 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.

[7:47] Next slide. So this was actually the, so he's in the temple. He's in the temple. It's the religious center for Israel.

[7:59] 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, you know, all the religious Jews.

[8:13] It's Jewish men. You can go on there. Just the men. And he's addressing the scribes. So the scribes were essentially the intellectual and religious Judaism.

[8:23] 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.

[8:35] 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.

[8:54] So how can the scribes say that the Christ is the son of David? David himself in the Holy Spirit declares. I just want to stop there. Why did Jesus say David in the Holy Spirit declares?

[9:08] 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.

[9:19] 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.

[9:31] 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.

[9:42] I just have a couple examples that I like to share. Next slide. So this is from 1 Timothy 5. And so he's talking about the elders who direct the affairs.

[9:54] Hit the next slide again. This isn't going to work as well without my automatic, but anyway. Anyway, so what does he say? The scriptures, because this is, of course, Timothy.

[10:05] And we were blessed to go through 1 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 kind of justifying why they're worthy of a double honor.

[10:19] 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 Paul writing to Timothy, literally quoting Jesus from Matthew or Luke.

[10:35] 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 2 Peter 3.

[10:48] 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, he got saved in Acts chapter 9.

[11:04] And so 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.

[11:16] Next slide. This is interesting. It says, 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.

[11:32] 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.

[11:44] 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.

[11:57] 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 say that? Well, the numbers of the chapters actually didn't show up until the 13th century.

[12:13] They didn't have, you know, Psalm 11. They had the Psalms, 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.

[12:27] 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.

[12:38] So, by the way, Psalm 110, it's the most quoted Old Testament passage in the New Testament.

[12:49] 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.

[13:01] I find that interesting. Anyway. All right. 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.

[13:16] Quite a passage. You can see why this is so frequently quoted in the New Testament because 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.

[13:36] 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.

[13:47] 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.

[13:58] 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?

[14:11] David himself calls him Lord. So, how is he his son? You know, just kind of blown away a little bit with that question. I mean, he's kind of questioning that.

[14:22] And they're like, well, 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.

[14:39] 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.

[14:53] Do 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. He's referring to David being alive. The Davidic kingdom is still not enough.

[15:07] 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.

[15:20] And Jesus flips the script on him. Flips the script. The Messiah is not simply David's son. It's not just David's son or David's relative. He is, in fact, the son of God.

[15:33] 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.

[15:46] 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.

[15:57] All right. Next section. Next slide. Okay. All right. Now Jesus turns to the large crowd in the temple.

[16:11] 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.

[16:22] What does he say? Beware the scribes who like to walk around in long robes and like greetings in the marketplace. They had these long robes that they wore. They were made of wool or linen.

[16:35] And they were, they distended men 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.

[16:50] 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.

[17:02] You know, that's where they sat. More than this desire to impress, though, they were greedy. They were greedy individuals.

[17:13] They took advantage of people's generosity for their own gain. You know, what does he say there? They devour widows' houses. Okay.

[17:26] And what he's kind of, I think what Mark and what 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.

[17:39] 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.

[17:52] 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.

[18:05] 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 that they devour widows' houses.

[18:22] 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, it's about the widow's offering, the widow's might, you know.

[18:40] 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 that John is going to be covering is going to talk about the widow giving all.

[18:52] So I just want to just 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.

[19:06] Recall 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.

[19:23] 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.

[19:34] 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.

[19:49] 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.

[20:02] So that's what we're talking about that describes the situation. Next slide. I'd like to go back to verse 36.

[20:14] David himself in the Holy Spirit, and I like how Jesus says that, David himself in the Holy Spirit. I 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.

[20:34] All right. In the Old Covenant, under the Old Covenant, the Holy Spirit's influence was temporary. All right. He would come upon David, and he would be, you know, David would be his guy.

[20:48] 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.

[21:04] 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 creates Psalm 51.

[21:18] You know, created me a clean heart. You know, I almost like to sing this song. Created me a clean heart. And then he says, take not thy Holy Spirit from me.

[21:28] That was a real thing in the Old Covenant. Take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Because, again, the Holy Spirit's influence was temporary. Under the New Covenant, the Bible says we're sealed.

[21:42] 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.

[21:54] Okay, so Jeremiah, God is talking about the coming covenant. What's to come? 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.

[22:07] And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. All right. 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.

[22:28] I will put my spirit within you. Next slide. You're familiar with this verse from Ephesians. You know, what does he say?

[22:40] 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.

[22:52] 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.

[23:06] I haven't researched that. Anyway. But he's in us. All right. So who is the Holy Spirit? Again, I know where this kind of maybe basic stuff.

[23:19] 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.

[23:32] 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.

[23:45] He's God. He's God and he lives inside us if we believed. It says, upon believing, you were marked in him. He lives inside us. So what is the Holy Spirit's goal in our lives?

[24:00] Why does he live inside us? I mean, there's probably a long answer to that. But just briefly, I just want to share a couple of things. So Jesus, when he was at the last supper, of course, it was his last night, the last conversation with his disciples.

[24:24] 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.

[24:36] And this was, again, 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.

[24:49] 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.

[25:07] Okay, Jesus is assuring his disciples. He's kind of filling them, getting them ready. I will send the Spirit of Truth. He says, unless I go away, the helper will not come.

[25:18] I know Pastor John alluded to this, I think, the other week. Unless I go away, the helper will not come. He dwells with you and will be in you.

[25:30] 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.

[25:44] It says, he will testify about me. It's on my Holy Spirit. He will testify about me. He will teach you all things. He will guide you into all truth.

[25:57] Okay, so all that is in John 14, 15, 16. Now, right in the middle of that, John 15, am I going in and out here?

[26:10] Uh-oh. John 15, of course, is the whole chapter about I am the vine, you are the branches. Okay, and about the Holy Spirit in there. And next slide.

[26:23] I just want to share this verse. So, in there, he says, you know, he's bringing me up. I'm putting mic. You take it over.

[26:36] Take over. Hello. We got it. All right. Can you hear me now?

[26:49] Now I can float around. Well, I could before. Anyway. All right. Sorry about that. Got to love technology. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

[27:05] 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.

[27:20] 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, the goal of the Holy Spirit is that we bear fruit.

[27:35] 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.

[27:47] 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, that comes about is through our good works.

[28:05] 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.

[28:16] 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.

[28:29] It's not about me trying to live a good life. It's not about me trying to be a good Christian, trying to do these things and these things. Because life is hard and the Christian life is hard.

[28:41] 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.

[28:57] Amen. We can only do it through God's help. And God works on us. He changes us.

[29:08] The Holy Spirit gives us gifts. And we're learning about that in our Walking with Jesus 201 class. We're the gifts of the Spirit. And he works through us. And I just want to share a little story about my wife, Kathy.

[29:22] She's surprised. So Kathy used to work for Mary's Inn Maternity Home. And it was kind of cool because as they got to know Kathy, they got to see Christ inside her.

[29:37] It was kind of cool. So, of course, Mary's Inn 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.

[30:00] 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'd observe certain things about Kathy. And I remember these adjectives that came up.

[30:14] One of them was, you're so gentle. You are just so gentle. You know, and Kathy would like, she's like, oh, 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?

[30:28] You're not going to say, gentle and kind. You're so kind. You know, how can you do that? You know, how can you be this way?

[30:39] Because, you guys, some of these situations are horrific. And some of these girls, just the way they, 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.

[30:52] And it was really awesome. And then they talked about how cheerful she was. That was another one. You're so cheerful. And that's the Holy Spirit. Kathy has the gift of mercy. And so what they were seeing, really, was God working through her.

[31:07] They weren't seeing Kathy. They were seeing God working through her. And that's how the Holy Spirit works. It's awesome. All right. So a couple weeks ago, Pastor John Hopkins had some tools that we could use.

[31:23] I guess we'll call them tools. Because this doesn't happen automatically. It's as we get to know God. As we get to know him. We get to know him through reading his word.

[31:36] All right. Studying his word. A regular diet of the word of God. Personally. We need to do that. Hit the next slide. We'll just go through these quickly. Use your brain.

[31:48] You know. God's given us a brain to learn about God. To study. And, you know, use your brain. Read books. Listen to teachings. But read the word.

[32:00] 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 each other's lives.

[32:12] Again, we all have brains. And those brains can help the rest of us as well. And then, of course, the last one is a trust the spirit, which is what I'm talking about.

[32:23] 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.

[32:36] And then the fact that he lives in each of you, God can use you to encourage me, to teach me, to challenge me. And God can use me to challenge you as well.

[32:47] So we'll just, I don't know if we call it tools, resources, gifts. These are gifts from God. Use them. And through the power of the Holy Spirit, we can be fruitful.

[32:59] 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 for your power and love and mercy and grace.

[33:16] We thank you that you live inside us. 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.

[33:40] 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.

[33:50] 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.

[34:02] And because of that, we have the answers, Lord. Use us to change the world. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Thank you.