Wednesday, April 8th, 2020

Hey Church of the Grove, it's Tyler, and welcome to uh day three of our Holy Week devotionals.

Uh Monday you heard from Pastor Rush.

Yesterday you heard from Dylan.

And uh today we're gonna go over a few verses at the end of Luke chapter 20 and at the beginning of Luke chapter 22, and uh we're picking up in one of the coolest parts of Jesus' last days on earth.

Luke 20 · chapter mention Luke 22 · chapter mention

Um basically when uh he's being questioned by the scribes and the Pharisees, the religious leaders, they're asking him questions, and um by one he just kind of knocks all the questions down, and so he's just given the parable of the wicked tenets, um, the story that Jesus tells of the parable of the wicked tenets, and right at the very end of the chapter, um he demonstrates his authority by saying, Hey, I'm not the son of David, I'm the son of God.

And so if you read with me, Luke chapter 20, verse 41 says, and he said to them, again, he's talking to the Pharisees and the scribes, how can they say that the Christ is the son of David?

Luke 20:41

Now David himself said in the book of Psalms, the Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool.

So he literally quotes Scripture, he quotes the Psalms back to the Pharisees and the religious leaders that are kind of trying to one-up him as they question his authority.

Pastor Russ talked about on Monday that they had questioned Jesus' authority with the intent of using that uh as the means to kill him, as the reason why he was tried and killed.

They wanted to challenge his authority and say, this man is a blasphemer, this man is a liar, and so that's the reason that they ultimately used to kill Jesus.

But when we look at what David wrote, again, this is generations before Jesus was born, and he said, The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand.

Now, the Lord obviously uh in my Bible, this is a New King James Bible, but the first Lord is in all capital letters, which means God the Father, Yahweh.

Um, the Jews wrote Lord in all capital letters to signify that that was God the Father.

So the Lord, God the Father, said to my Lord, which in this case would be Jesus.

So David is calling Jesus his Lord.

How is that possible?

Because Jesus is not even born yet.

It was it was prophesied hundreds of years before Jesus was born, that he would be the Son of God, that he would be the King of Kings, and that he would be the Lord of Lords.

And so David is writing about Jesus' lordship hundreds of years before Jesus ever took a breath uh in a in a human body and flesh.

And I think that's so cool how we can look at the Old Testament and everything points forward to Jesus' life and his death and his resurrection, uh, which we're gonna celebrate on Easter Sunday.

And so verse 43 says, Till I make your enemies your footstool, and then he goes back to the conversation in verse 44 and says, Therefore David calls him Lord, how is he then his son?

And so he's saying, Hey, if David reveres me enough to call me Lord, how can I then be uh his son?

And so he's re-establishing his authority and he's re-establishing his title as the Son of God.

Verse 45, then in the hearing of all the people, he said to his disciples, Beware of the scribes who desire to go around in long robes, love greetings in the marketplaces, the best seats in the f in the synagogues, and the best places at feasts, who devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayers.

These will receive greater com uh greater condemnation.

And so basically what he's saying about the Pharisees and the scribes is that they're they're uber uh legalistic.

They walk around with their chest puffed out, uh they say long prayers, they sit in the highest places at the at the feast, you know, they they really think very highly of themselves.

And Jesus says, you know, if we have leaders like that and we're puffed up with pride, they'll receive the greater condemnation uh when Jesus returns in all his glory.

And so he's really uh condemning in a huge way the attitudes of the scribes and the Pharisees and the very legalistic religious leaders of the day.

And then so uh we're gonna conclude this morning with uh the first few verses in Luke chapter 22.

Luke 22 · chapter mention

And it says, Now the feast of unleavened bread drew near, which is called Passover, and the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might kill him, for they feared the people.

So they knew Jesus was ministering, they knew Jesus had a powerful following, and they feared uh the people that Jesus was reaching.

And then I verse 3 has always amazed me every time I've ever read it.

Uh verse 3 says, Then Satan entered Judas Iscariot, who was numbered among the twelve, so he went his way and conferred with the chief priests and captains how he might betray him to them.

And they were glad and agreed to give him money, so he promised and sought opportunity to betray him, to the to betray him to them in the absence of the multitude.

And so Judas had Satan enter into his spirit and he began to plot how he was going to help uh the religious leaders uh try to kill Jesus, and then we know what happens.

Uh he betrayed Jesus with a kiss and he led uh the guards right to Jesus, and Jesus was captured and tortured and beaten and then killed.

Um, but that's not how the story ends, right?

The story ends with Jesus rising in victory, defeating death, uh, defeating the grave on Easter, which we're gonna celebrate on Sunday.

And so um this is one of my favorite weeks of the year, Holy Week, as we recount the last hours and the last week of Jesus' life, and it was full of turmoil and it was full of chaos and it was full of pain and suffering.

Uh, but at the end, God made a way and God uh won the victory.

And uh we can see a victory too through Jesus if we have a relationship with him.

And I think a lot of us uh as we go through this coronavirus pandemic, uh, we're kind of in the middle of that uh dark time.

We're kind of in the middle of that time of suffering.

But I can promise you, at the end, uh just as on Easter Sunday, at the end, there will be joy, uh, the sun will rise, and there will be victory in Jesus.

And so um that's what I want to kind of uh get you to latch on to today as we go forward in this holy week, as we look toward Good Friday.

I just want you to latch on to the fact that Jesus quoted scripture back to the people who were persecuting him.

And so, man, the only way we can do that is we have to memorize scripture, we have to know our word, we have to know what's in the word, we have to know the promises of God, so that when we're attacked by the enemy, we can quote scripture out loud to him and say, uh, get behind me, Satan, because Jesus has won the victory.

And so David uh called Jesus Lord, and we can too if we have a personal relationship with him, and um, due to his death and resurrection, we have a way to the Father.

And so that's the good news this morning.

That's the good news that we're gonna celebrate on Sunday.

And I hope you'll join us for our Good Friday service at 7 p.m.

And I hope you'll join us again on Easter Sunday as we celebrate the resurrection of the risen Lord.

Uh, have a good rest of your week.

Thank you, and God bless.