Good morning, church. My name is Ricky. If I have not met you, I'm one of the pastors here at the church. And man, I just want to say, don't miss next Sunday. I wish we could tell you what the surprise is.
We're trying to keep it a surprise. I think you're going to love it, especially if you're a member. I think it's going to be a really— I think it's going to be a moment where we mark what we've been through together and look forward together. And if you're new, I think it'll give you a wonderful picture into what our life is as a church. So, hope you can make it.
And did we mention there will be donuts? So, I know what motivates you people. Mark 12.
Here's what I want to invite you to do. Imagine you spend your entire life, your personal life, your professional life, looking for something in particular. This is a position that many book editors find themselves in when they receive manuscripts from authors. They become editors because they love reading, they're skilled at it, they can vet out, yeah, this is going to sell, this is not going to sell. But notably, they've made some major failures over the years.
Imagine this, the book Gone with the Wind, which is probably one of the best-selling books in all history in the United States, that work by Margaret Thich Nhat Hanh was rejected 38 times. By publishers. If I was Margaret, I think 37 would have been my max, but she kept going 38 times. 39th was the charm. Agatha Christie, probably the greatest-selling mystery novelist of the 20th century, tried to publish anything anywhere for 4 straight years and saw no success at all.
Or J.K. Rowling, author of a best-selling— probably the best-selling children's book series of all time, was rejected 12 times, and the 12th was told to go get a day job. And then, even when editors finally land on a work, sometimes they miss the point of the work itself. For example, H.G. Wells, the author of War of the Worlds and a bunch of other science fiction classics, this— the editor that received the manuscript made this note: "An endless nightmare. I think my verdict would be don't read that horrible book." H.G.
Wells is like, "Can you give me some feedback?" He's like, "Yeah, my feedback is don't read it." Or Herman Melville, maybe you had to slug through that in high school English, the book about Moby Dick, the great white whale. Melville's editor commented this, "Does it have to be a whale?" Or my personal favorite, F. Scott Fitzgerald, One of the editors reading the manuscript, The Great Gatsby, commented this: "You'd have a decent book if you'd get rid of that Gatsby." Which is, you know, it's in the title, so, you know, it's going to be tough, right? These editors, skilled at what they do, still missed the point, right? They still missed the work. Can you imagine being one of the editors that passed on one of these manuscripts thinking, "Yeah, nobody's going to read that." Probably regretted it for life.
The scribes who are featured here were the most learned people in all of Israel when it came to the law. They were professional experts who had their religious life, their vocational life, their personal life all wrapped up in knowing the Old Testament. As Vince talked about last week, these are people that could tell you which scroll, which manuscript, which, you know, say, 5th line over "Uh, what word is that?" They would be able to tell you that. They had an encyclopedic knowledge of the laws and histories of the Old Testament.
And yet, we have seen throughout the Gospel of Mark that these people, the most skilled people, still missed the Messiah foretold by the Old Testament. How did that happen? How could they get it so utterly wrong?
And in fact, in this section, I think verses 35 to 38, 37 are Jesus' final appeal to the scribes not to miss him in the Old Testament. And then verses 38 to 40 are a final warning as to why they were missing Jesus as they read the Old Testament.
But I think we have to acknowledge up front that this isn't just a problem for the scribes. It's not a group session where we're like, "Yeah, the scribes are the worst." No, there is more of us in the scribes than we want to admit, because for many of us, we can We can read the Scriptures, we can look at the Bible, and yet still utterly miss the point that the Scriptures all point to. So we're going to ask two questions today. The first one is, what are they waiting for? What were they supposed to see in the Old Testament?
6 · Transitions to the first major question by re-establishing the scribes' expertise (with humor) and setting up Jesus' confrontation with them on their own interpretive ground
So first question, what are they waiting for? Now remember, these scribes knew every law, every Psalm, every line, every king, every genealogy. Yes, even the genealogies that you and I probably skip in our Bible reading plan.
You know, when that comes up, we're like, "Yeah, somebody, somebody, somebody, somebody, blah, blah, blah. I can't even say these names. We're moving on." Right? They were like, "No, no, no. I remember the third descendant of Shem." You're like, "Good for you." Right?
These are those people. But these people were not interpreting the Scriptures correctly. In fact, Jesus moves on to their turf. Remember, these are the biggest experts. He says, "Okay, experts, let me ask you a question." 'What about that?' And exposes that they actually don't know anything about the Old Testament, 'cause they're missing the whole point of the Old Testament.
7 · Provides historical-contextual exposition of Psalm 110 and the Davidic Covenant, then reads the full psalm while inviting the listener into first-century Jewish longing for political deliverance—establishing what the scribes expected to see
Now, we gotta get into Psalm 110, which is the psalm quoted here, for just a second. In this psalm, David is singing and speaking prophetically of his descendant or descendants. David received a promise from the Lord, the Davidic Covenant in 2 Samuel 7, the promise that somebody from David's line would sit on the throne of Israel forever. So David, in a sense, is writing about the future when he's gone, but one of his descendants will come and continue to carry on and fulfill that promise. Now, remember the situation of the Jewish people in the first century.
They had, over the past centuries, been conquered by Assyria, by Babylon. They were now under the rule of a false puppet king, Herod, and oppressed and, you know, taxed, as we talked about earlier this year, by Rome and by Caesar. Everything around them meant that their homeland was under foreign occupation. And so when they would read Psalm 110, it may have been a favorite psalm for them. They may have longed for David's— the promise to David to be fulfilled, longed for a king kind of like David to come.
Because listen to this Psalm. I'm going to read Psalm 110. Imagine you're a Jewish person in the first century and what you would feel and think about this. Psalm 110:1, "The Lord says to my Lord, 'Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.' The Lord sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter. Rule in the midst of your enemies.
Your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power in holy garments. From the womb of the morning, The dew of your youth will be yours. The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind. You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. The Lord is at your right hand.
He will shatter kings on the day of his wrath. He will execute judgment among the nations, filling them with corpses. He will shatter chiefs over the wide earth. He will drink from the brook by the way, and therefore he will lift up his head. And if you were in the synagogue where this is the passage being read, you would probably be saying, "Amen!
Man, I cannot wait for the king like David, maybe he's not exactly like David, but anything like David, to come and throw off this Roman occupation and depose Herod. We could finally have our homeland back again. Amen! Let's sing Psalm 110 again." Right? And they weren't— they were thinking, "Hey, David is the greatest king ever.
He won." against his enemies all around. We're not even asking for a David, we're just asking for somebody kind of like that. Somebody to bring some freedom, a shadow of David.
8 · Introduces Jesus' grammatical-theological move in the text—showing that David calls his descendant 'Lord,' meaning the descendant is superior to David, not merely similar to him
But they missed the point of the psalm, missed one of the key elements of the psalm. Now Jesus does something that to us seems like a, almost like a grammar nerd move.
Where he asks them, well, this Psalm 110, why does David call his descendant his Lord? Right? Meaning the descendant is greater than David. It's not as though David's great and his descendant's kind of great like him. It's, here's David.
Think of it this way. They thought that the descendant in Psalm 110 would be a king kind of like David, and David's shadow would be seen in this future king. Jesus is saying, no, no, no, you're reading the psalm wrong. In fact, the descendant is the one who's casting a shadow on David. David is a shadow of someone else, not the other way around.
9 · Cites commentary to support the exegetical point that the descendant is both David's son (junior in age) and David's Lord (senior in rank)
Commentator, uh, uh, Mool says this: although he is his son by descent and therefore his junior in age, he's also in some mysterious way superior to David and therefore senior in rank.
10 · Layers additional commentary from Wessel and Wesley to drive home that the Messiah's identity is divine, not merely Davidic—he is the Son of God
Wessel takes this a bit further. He says the Messiah is indeed to be descended from David, but He has a more exalted role than that of a successor to David. And Wesley summarizes, he is, this descendant is the Son of God. God is at his right hand. His relationship could not be closer.
11 · States the central theological indictment: the scribes' problem was not that their expectations were too big for God to fulfill, but that they were too small—they wanted political deliverance when God was offering cosmic redemption
One of the problems Jesus is pointing out with their view of the Old Testament is they were looking not for somebody too big, but somebody too small. They were thinking, "Okay, what we really need is somebody to get rid of the Romans. We need somebody to get rid of this taxation. Somebody to get rid of, you know, all of these laws and burdens that are oppressing us." And all the Americans are like, "Yeah, yeah, come on, man. We threw the tea in.
Come on, let's go." And yet, Jesus is saying, "No, no, no, you're thinking too small. This is about something far greater. This is about something far bigger." than getting rid of the Roman occupation.
12 · Applies the theological principle directly to contemporary longings—relationship status, restored relationships, financial security—pressing the question: are we settling for smaller hopes when God offers something far greater?
Ask yourself, friend, what if the thing that you're waiting for in life is not too big for God, but instead too small? Couple examples.
Say you're single and waiting for that relationship status on Facebook to update finally, finally to in a relationship, right? And finally, when you go to your extended family and they ask you for the millionth time, so is there anyone in your life? You know, you're like, you can finally say, "Yes, there is, Auntie, stop asking me," you know. Maybe that's what you're waiting for. Maybe you're waiting for a relationship to be restored.
Maybe a spouse, you long for them to come back. Maybe a wayward child, you long for to come back. Maybe you're waiting for financial safety, financial security, financial abundance. But this is what the question that should be asked here. What if what we're waiting for is not too big for God, but too small that God intends something far bigger, far greater than what we imagine.
13 · Transitions from Psalm 110 to a canonical reading of the entire Old Testament, introducing Goldsworthy's framework (God's people in God's place under God's rule) and applying it to Genesis 1 to show the original created order humanity longs for
Now, in this psalm, in the way that Jesus interprets the psalm, we see that Jesus is actually beginning to give a paradigm for how to read the entire Old Testament with new eyes as pointing to him. Jesus is not putting something back into the text, He is saying, "All the text all along has been pointing forward to me." Now, we could do an entire sermon or entire sermon series on this, but I want to give you just a few pointers so that you can for yourself see, "Oh, the Old Testament really does point to Jesus." Because here's what happens. Often with Christians, when we ask the question, "Well, does the Old Testament point forward to Jesus?" we go to a few specific prophecies. And everybody knows, like, well, Christmastime, It says he's going to be born in Bethlehem, like directly, so we know that. And then Easter time, we're like, well, Isaiah 53, he's the Lamb of God, so we know that.
Right? But the specific predictive prophecies about the Messiah are kind of minuscule against the whole scope of the Old Testament. So is that true? Is the Old Testament mostly about other stuff, peppered in every once in a long while with a hint to the Messiah? Or is the Old Testament The entirety of it pointing forward to the Messiah.
That's what we're going to do right now. I want to give you a paradigm for this. I'm going to give you one specific way to read this. There's a number of ways to do this. I'd recommend an author, Graham Goldsworthy, who I'm drawing from a lot here.
Or if you want to just have daily help, I would pick up an ESV Gospel Transformation Bible, which shows you the story of Jesus throughout the Old Testament especially well. So here's how Goldsworthy summarizes the story of the entire Bible and how it points to Jesus. He says the story of the Bible is the story of God's people in God's place under God's rule. That's what you see when the Bible opens, right? Genesis 1, what do we see?
A land of fullness and joy and goodness, and it's God's people with a special relationship to God in God's place, this unspoiled, perfect place under God's rule with his His commandments. And that's what we long for, right? That's the longing of every human heart.
14 · Traces the Fall narrative through the Goldsworthy framework—humanity rejected God's rule, lost God's place, and broke relationship with God—then introduces the protoevangelium (Genesis 3:15) as the first hint of restoration
But quickly, what happens? Beginning of Genesis, it's broken. And why does it get broken? Because humanity says, "I don't like the third one. What if I was in charge instead?" That's what the serpent tempts them with. He's like, "Oh, God knows you don't want to eat this fruit because if you do, you will be like God." And so they say, "Okay, we don't want God's rule." And God says, "Well then, You're not going to be in God's place. They're cast out of the garden.
Their relationship with God is shattered. And so the question hanging over Genesis is, can it be restored? Can somehow God's people go back to God's place under God's rule? And there's a glimmer in Genesis 3 of this, right? Talking about the serpent, God says the serpent is going to continue to— evil and the serpent are going to continue to dog humanity.
But one day a descendant of Adam will come and he will crush the head of the serpent, which is kind of a foretaste of like, oh, we're going to crush the head of the serpent, that maybe someday we'll be able to get back to the garden.
15 · Traces the Abrahamic narrative, emphasizing God's initiative in creating a people and promise of land, while highlighting Abraham's moral failures as evidence that he cannot be the ultimate fulfillment
So fast forward a bit, right? What God does is he takes a pagan named Abraham who wasn't God's person and says, I'm going to make a family out of you. You, you are going to, are going to be the father of a nation of my people. And I'm going to give you a place and you're going to live under my rules.
And yet Abraham is pretty up and down, right? And for a guy that's like the founder of a great religion, not the best guy at times. Example 1, he multiple times told scary guys that his wife was his sister so they wouldn't beat him up, right? Not the guy you pick to start your religion. Why are all the flaws, as we'll see, in the Old Testament so obvious?
Most religions, here's what they do, they try to cover up all the flaws of their religious leaders. Like Abraham was the best, he never had anything wrong with him, right? And yet the Old Testament's like, yeah, he's not the best. Remember the wife thing? Not good, right?
16 · Traces the Exodus and giving of the Law through the framework—God delivers his people, gives them his law to show what life under his rule looks like, but they immediately fail, necessitating the sacrificial system which reveals both the problem (endless sin) and the need for a better sacrifice
And so Abraham, this promise is given to him, but God's people end up in Egypt under bondage. And yet God comes to Moses and says, listen, I am gonna redeem my people. I'm gonna save my people from Egypt. And what we're gonna do is we're gonna take you to a promised land. And that's what happens, right?
God frees his people from Egypt, he brings them out, he says you're going to a promised land, but then what does he do? He gives them the law. So if you ever struggled through that part of the Bible, you're like, what is with all the laws? The laws are there to show what it's like for humanity to live under the rule and reign of God. There's just one problem.
You think, okay, we get the laws, we'll keep the laws, what's the big deal? I'm going to the promised land. Nope, they get the laws and promptly fail. Remember Moses comes down from Mount Sinai with the Ten Commandments, and as he's coming down, waiting for people who should be clapping and saying, "Yeah, we can't wait to keep God's laws," they're worshiping an idol instead, right? Not looking good.
So what you see in all these laws is the standard of what it takes to live in relationship with God under God's rule, but they don't do it. But the law contains something else. The law contains a system of sacrifices. So the pattern is this: when you sin, you must die. So instead, for your sins, you can offer a blameless and spotless animal in your place so that the relationship with God can be restored.
And you think, "Okay, good. We probably only need like 5 or 6 animals, right? I'm only going to sin 5 or 6 times." No, right? They never stop offering sacrifices at the temple because God's people never stop sinning.
17 · Traces the conquest and Judges period—God's people finally in God's place but repeatedly rejecting God's rule, creating a downward spiral that sets up the need for a king
So the story continues into Joshua, they eventually come into the Promised Land and you think, perfect, now we've got it. God's people, God's place, under God's rule. They got the laws, they learned their lessons, and it doesn't go well. The book of Judges is this downward spiral where God's people keep throwing off his rule and keep being conquered by nations and keep breaking their relationship with God. And God says judges to help them, and then they break it again. And that's what gets you to David.
18 · Traces David's rise and fall—initially appearing as the long-awaited deliverer (heart after God, victorious king) but ultimately failing through adultery and murder, revealing the need for a better David
Now, David is an interesting figure in the Old Testament. He'd probably be like, One of the towering figures of the entire Old Testament. In David, there's an interesting thing that happens. You finally find a guy who seems, unlike Saul, his predecessor— Saul was big and strong and not incredibly smart, so imagine he's the Gaston of the Old Testament. Doesn't go well with him in charge.
And in contrast to him, David is smaller, younger, the youngest of all the boys, the musician. And yet, God exalts him to the place of kingship. And this man has a heart after God. And so you think, "This is it. This is the serpent crusher.
This is the garden bringer." Right? He's going to bring the garden. And he just keeps going up and up and up. And then, at the pinnacle of his power and height and strength, lust leads him astray. And his own sinful heart leads him astray.
And he ends up not only committing adultery, but then committing murder to cover it up. Again, other religions, they're not showing this stuff to everybody. They're like, "Oh, we're going to try to hide that." The Bible is like, "No, look at it." Why? Because in David we see we long for a king like him that won't fail. If only there were a king like David that would not fail, that could lead us back to God's place and back under God's rule.
19 · Rapidly traces the rest of Israel's monarchy through exile and return—a series of failed kings, prophetic warnings unheeded, and a post-exilic return that is still under foreign occupation, leaving all three elements of the framework broken
And so the rest of the kings of the Old Testament are these up and down, but mostly down, collection of rulers who their hearts are far from God and they're judged. And maybe one guy is okay and you think, oh, this is maybe— nope, nope, nope, back down. So God's people end up going into exile and all of these prophets then come onto the scene. And the prophets warn people, if you don't obey God, you're gonna go into exile. Don't do it, don't do it.
Live under God's rule, live under God's rule. Being in God's place is what you want. Being restored into relationship with God is what he offers. And yet God's people don't do it. And they're taken away into exile.
And then the last group of prophets is when they return, God's people living under God's place, but it's a broken place. It's a place where they're under the thumb of a foreign leader. The rule of God is hit or miss.
20 · Culminates the canonical reading by showing that the Old Testament ends with a threefold longing (prophet, priest, king) that Jesus claims to fulfill—he is the answer to the entire Old Testament narrative arc
And there's, the Old Testament ends with this longing, if only there were a prophet that could point the way to be right with God again. If only there were a king who would bring the kingdom of God again. If only there were a priest who could ultimately and eternally restore a relationship with God again. Which is why Jesus picks Psalm 110. Do you see what he's doing with Psalm 110? He's not just talking about Psalm 110, he's talking about all of this. He's saying, do you not see Do you not see that every page of the Old Testament is crying out for a way to be right with God?
Every page of the Old Testament is crying out for the kingdom of God. Every page of the Old Testament is crying out to be restored to that garden we were made for. And I am that king. You're looking for somebody to cast off Roman rule. I have come to bring humanity back to the garden.
21 · Rhythmic proclamation of Jesus as the 'true and better' fulfillment of every major Old Testament figure—Adam, Moses, the judges, David, Solomon, the priests, the prophets—bringing the canonical reading to a Christological climax
They missed it. They were looking for something too small. And Jesus says, "Lift your eyes." In a sense, he's holding out his arms to the scribes and saying, "I am the true and better Adam who rules creation. I am the true and better Moses who mediates between God and his people. I am the true and better judge who rescues and frees.
I am the true and better David whose heart is inclined toward the Lord." I am the true and better Solomon who with wisdom rules and reigns. I am the true and better priest who makes a sacrifice for God's people to be restored to him. I am the true and better prophet calling God's people back to him. I am the truer and better Messiah than you know to look for. Do you see what he's doing?
He's calling God's people back to him.
22 · Transitions from the canonical reading back to contemporary application, acknowledging that what now seems obvious was not clear to those living before Christ's revelation
Now, Okay, that whole detour into the Old Testament, what does that mean for us? You think, okay, well, yeah, now it's obvious, duh, right? Wasn't obvious at the time, but it seems like, yeah, that does all seem to point to Jesus.
23 · Applies the 'God's people' element of the framework to contemporary relational longings—the search for full acceptance in human relationships ultimately points to the deeper need for relationship with God
Ask yourself this: Do we see the story of God's people in our own stories?
Because this, the story of God's people, is in a sense also the story of humanity. Humanity longs to be God's people. We were created for this relationship with God where we're fully known and fully loved and unashamed, right? We long to be in a relationship like that. That's the relationship we were made for.
And the best of our human relationships are only pointers to that ultimate relationship with God that we were made for. And humanity, cut off from that, tries to find that relationship in all kinds of other places. Maybe you struggle with finding the approval of a boyfriend or girlfriend. Maybe you long for the approval of a parent that won't give it to you. Maybe you long for restoration with a son or daughter, right?
Those things are real, those things are good, but underneath that longing is a deeper longing for a heavenly Father; a longing that you were made for.
24 · Applies the 'God's place' element of the framework to contemporary experience of brokenness—recent global crises reveal that we know instinctively this world is not right and we long for the garden we were made for
Look, we also long to be in God's place. Everything around us cries out, "This world is not right." Right? Just live through the last 18 months, right? Where we've seen devastation and war and pandemic and conflict and political strife and death.
And all of it cries out for what? All of it we see, it makes us go, "This is not right. We are not meant to live here." Because there's the dream of the garden still lives in our hearts. Because we're born longing for that garden. That we've been cast out of because of our rebellion.
We long for that.
25 · Applies the 'God's rule' element of the framework to contemporary cries for justice—humanity's repeated failure to achieve perfect justice reveals the longing for a truly just ruler uncorrupted by human brokenness
And last, we long, even though we don't always know it, we long to be under God's rule. Look, the cry for justice has been heard across the world these last few years. We want justice for this, justice for that, justice for this, right? And that is, in many ways, a good cry.
But true justice cannot be perfectly implemented through humanity because, by definition, humanity turned away from God There'll be glimmers of justice, but a lot of glimmers of injustice. Even our best attempts to bring justice end up being unjust in some way, right? And so what we long for is, I wish there was somebody that would be in charge that would be just, that would rule rightly, that wouldn't be corrupted, that wouldn't be beholden to these special interests or this or that. I wish there was somebody who was pure and undefiled by all the political process. I wish there was somebody who could just come and make things right.
Do things right. That's what we long for.
And yet we so often miss where to find it.
26 · Contemporary cultural illustration of Jeff Bezos's quest for eternal life used to show that even the world's richest person cannot find what only Christ offers—and yet he looks everywhere except to Jesus, just like the scribes
Recently I saw that Jeff Bezos— the first service didn't know— is Jeff Bezos still the richest guy or did Musk pass him or did he re-pass Musk? Come on, Bethel would probably know this. Is Bezos the top guy now? Bezos, right?
Okay, thanks, Robert. Okay, so Bezos, the richest man in the world, just establishing that. I saw an article, the headline was, "Bezos begins multi-million or billion-dollar quest to find eternal life." And what he's trying to do is figure out why our cells break down, essentially, why as human beings we die, and reverse it so we can live forever. Specifically, I think so he can live forever, but sure.
And so there's this headline, you know, "Bezos begins multi-billion-dollar search for the for eternal life, and I saw this Christian pastor on Twitter retweet that article with this line over the top of it: "Who wants to tell him?" Right? Right, business with his billions is like, "Man, I'm dying. I mean, despite all the workouts and protein shakes or whatever, I still am going to die. Where can I find this? Where can I look for eternal life?" And the Christians are like, "Excuse me, sir?" Right?
That's what the scribes are like. That's what the people of God are like. That's what we're like, guys. We're like, "Oh, if only I could find a place where I could experience peace. If only I could really know love of somebody, kind of a love that knows me and still loves me anyway.
If only I could find a hope for tomorrow. If only I could find these things." And meanwhile, Jesus has got his hand up over here. "I think I know where you can find that, friend." That is what they should have been looking for. Where do you look, friend?
27 · Transitions to the sermon's second major question—explaining not just what the scribes missed but why they missed it
Second question today: Why did they miss it? If this is so obvious, why did they miss it?
28 · Reads Mark 12:38-40, Jesus' indictment of the scribes—their pursuit of honor, exploitation of the vulnerable, and religious pretense—setting up the explanation for why they missed Jesus
Look at verse 38. In his teachings, 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 synagogue and the places of honor at feasts, who devour widows' houses and for a pretense make long prayers." they will receive the greater condemnation.
29 · States the central diagnostic claim for why the scribes missed Jesus: they were too busy building their own kingdoms to recognize or receive his
Why did the scribes miss Jesus? I think we find out in this passage. They miss Jesus, they couldn't see the King and His kingdom because they wanted to be the kings of their own kingdom and bring their own kingdom to bear on the world around them.
30 · Unpacks the threefold distortion of the scribes' kingdom-building through the Goldsworthy framework: God's people became 'their people' to exploit; God's place became their place where they sought honor; God's rule became their rules which they manipulated for their advantage
Think about it. God's people, who are supposed to be God's people, made for relationship with God, all of a sudden become their people. They're mistreating and exploiting these people. They're preying on widows. That reference is probably something like, you know, imagine them going to somebody's house and they're a widow. They don't have a protector, a husband, a father there. And so he's saying, oh, look at these nice dinnerware plates. You know, it would really be good for you to give those to the Lord. And if, you know, if you do want to give them to the Lord, you could just give them to us.
Since we're serving the Lord, we'll use them in our work, right? "Well, this is a lovely ottoman you have there. I bet the Lord would love this ottoman," right? They're just manipulating these widows instead of God's people to become, "No, these are my people. I'm going to take what I want from these people," right?
They want people to give them what they want for their own use. God's place becomes their place. They wanted the best seats in the house. They wanted to be honored by everyone. They wore their extra-long, extra-fancy robes out in the marketplace just in case somebody happened to see them and say, "Oh, kids, look at Scribe So-and-So.
What a godly man. He spends all of his time studying the Scriptures." And they would go, "Oh, it's too much. You know, you're too kind, friend. I really—" But then they know, you know, "I'm going to come back to the market tomorrow at the same time because they'll probably be here and probably give me another ego boost." right? This is— they're not concerned with God's people being restored to God's place.
They're like, no, no, I'm fine with this being my place. I want to be known. I want to be honored in this community. And even God's rules— they were experts in God's rules, but they also added their own rules. They imposed extra laws on the people.
They were the arbiters of you can do this, you can't do that. And usually this is what happened: usually they emphasized the laws they were great at keeping, and other people weren't. And didn't do a whole lot with, like, the envy stuff. They said, "Oh, yeah, yeah, when you— if you have a sprig of, you know, coming out in your garden, you better tithe on that." Meanwhile, they're, like, ignoring whole sections of justice and laws in the Old Testament, right? This is what's happening.
31 · Escalates from 'cannot see' to 'actively reject'—the scribes recognized that Jesus' kingdom threatened their own, and since the two cannot coexist, they chose to oppose him rather than surrender
The people here, the scribes here, they are so concerned with their own kingdom that they don't see Jesus' kingdom. Or maybe it's not that. Maybe it's not that they can't see Jesus' kingdom. They see Jesus' kingdom but reject it because this is the truth, friends. Their kingdom and Jesus' kingdom cannot coexist.
They can't keep their kingdom and still follow Jesus. And so when Jesus comes, all of a sudden they're pushing back on him. When he begins to win acclaim and honor from the people, All of a sudden they're like, hey, hey, don't listen to this guy. Why? Because he's threatening their kingdom.
When people begin to go after Jesus, ah, don't go over there, follow us, stay in my kingdom, right? This is what they're concerned about.
32 · Historical illustration from the 1966 Texas Western basketball team showing that the scouts' problem was not inability to see great players but unwillingness to see them because of racist commitments—parallel to how we see but reject Jesus' kingdom when it threatens ours
You know, if you're here for like 6 months, I'm gonna every 6 months or so talk about the 1966 Texas Western players that won the NCAA championship. It's a requirement, it's one of our bylaws. By law, I need to bring it up and mention that I went to the University of Texas at El Paso. Also mention that we're 5-1 in football, which is a miracle, and Jesus may return quickly. So I'm going to finish this sermon. But the 1966 Miners, here's an interesting thing about them. I remember growing up thinking, like, these players are so great. I remember watching old video of them.
These are awesome players. Why didn't anybody else have them on their team? Right? El Paso is way out of the way. It's not a major basketball school, how did this upstart school end up, you know, with these players winning the NCAA championship?
And there were scouts all over America looking for good basketball players, right? Except many of these players, those scouts did not want to see, because these players were black in 1965. So it wasn't that the scouts didn't see them, It was that the scouts chose not to see them. Right? That's how they ended up in the middle of nowhere playing NCAA basketball.
And in the same way, we do the same thing. Right? We see Jesus' kingdom, and it's not that we can't see it, it's that we're like, no, I don't like that. That threatens my kingdom. Right?
I don't like what that could be.
33 · Direct application pressing the congregation to identify where they are building their own kingdoms—in relationships, marriage, work, home—and therefore resisting Jesus' kingdom
We miss Jesus because we are so busy building our own kingdoms that we cannot receive and rejoice in the kingdom of Christ. So let me just ask you, friend, where do you say, no, that person's not God's, that's mine. I want them. I want them to give me what I want. It could be in a relationship, it could be in marriage, it could be in any number of arenas in your life. But you're like, no, no, no, those people, they're mine. I get what I want from them. Where do you say, no, no, no, this is my place, this is my kingdom, it's going to be my rules or the highway. Maybe it's at work, maybe it's in the home, maybe it's in your marriage.
You're like, no, no, no, I'm not gonna listen to you, I'm in charge here.
Where does Jesus' kingdom threaten your kingdom?
34 · Steps outside the expositional flow to directly shepherd the congregation about ecclesial drift—warning against both moralistic legalism (building kingdoms of works) and therapeutic self-help (building kingdoms of self), calling the church to stay centered on Christ
Let me, I'm gonna make a quick excursus here and talk about the church as a whole. Because one of the most terrifying things about this passage is that these religious leaders, these scribes, spent all day, every day immersed in the scriptures. And so we cannot, as a church, assume that we will never drift into what they've drifted into. And often when we begin to drift, it happens in one or two ways, okay?
The first way we begin to drift as a church is when we become a church that emphasizes what you must do, what you must do better at next week, more than we emphasize what Jesus has done. We begin to drift into legalism and moralism, and what a church begins to sound like is it could still be preaching the Bible, But what it sounds like is there's not much grace, there's not much Jesus, there's a whole lot of you people need to, like, straighten up. And we take that and we tell our kids, you kids need to straighten up. We tell the world out there, you people are filthy, you need to straighten up. You need to fly right like us, you need to be good like us.
And when you're good like us, then God will love you.
This is what happens. We drift into moralism and legalism, begin to, build our own kingdom, maybe even using Bible verses, but essentially what we're building a kingdom of is our own works, how great we are. Or the second way we can begin to drift is to go the opposite way, right? We don't preach a lot of laws, we don't tell people what they should or shouldn't do, we just, as a church, begin to say, we just want to make you feel great about yourself. We even teach verses from the Bible and say, you know what, the whole point of the Bible, the whole point of God is he's there to give you what you want.
You need to dream big dreams and God's going to give you those big dreams. And what are we telling people? We're telling them, "God really exists to just build your kingdom. Aren't you the best? Aren't you the most amazing person who ever lived?" Now, look, is it true that God fearfully and wonderfully made all of us?
Yes. Amen. Is it true that God has a future and a hope for us? Yes. But it is in his kingdom, not ours.
All of the good promises of God are aimed at his kingdom, not ours. So church, may we, and this is where I'm asking all of you for help as members, may we never drift to the right into moralism and legalism or to the left into how-great-you-are-ism.
May we stay centered week after week, year after year in our lives, centered on Jesus and what he has done.
35 · Transitions from diagnosis to gospel by acknowledging universal guilt (we all build our own kingdoms) and re-raising the Old Testament's central question: how can rebels be restored to God?
Now, this is where we do get to return to to Jesus because the good news is this. If we examined our own lives and we asked the question, "Is there anywhere in my life that I'm trying to build my kingdom instead of Jesus' kingdom?" The answer, let me just give it to you, for everybody would be yes. We could do a show of hands, but I think I know how it's going to go. So the question then, the tension in it is the same as in the Old Testament.
How then can God's people who have turned away from God be restored to God? How then can— God— people who've been exiled from God's presence rightly be restored to God's presence? How can those who've rejected God's rule be restored to God's kingdom? How can that happen?
36 · States the gospel answer: Jesus came to solve the very problem the Old Testament raised—restoring God's people to God's place under God's rule
That is why Jesus came. That is the good news of the gospel. Jesus standing there in front of these people, pleading with them to see him in the Old Testament. He also stands today pleading with us to see him.
37 · Expounds the gospel through Psalm 110's dual office—Jesus is not only the King who brings justice but also the Priest who offers himself as the final sacrifice, solving the problem that we are the rebels who deserve judgment
Look, church, we long for that king of Psalm 110. We long for him to come and bring justice and execute enemies and make every unrighteous thing be purged from our presence. But the problem is this: we would be one of those things purged from his presence. If he came with justice, if he came with the sword to cast out anybody who had ever rebelled against him, we would all end up in the rebel camp. But in Psalm 110, there is this reference that is utterly astounding. In the letter to the Hebrews, there's an entire chapter on this where it says that this king would not just be a king, he would be a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek. What is the function of a priest?
The priest went between man and God offering sacrifices to restore the relationship. This Jesus, though, did not come to offer another bull, another goat, another bird, or whatever. He came to offer himself as a sacrifice, as the final sacrifice. And Hebrews has this glorious picture that every priest— every high priest stands daily at his service. He can never sit down.
He's always offering another sacrifice. But then comes Jesus, the great high priest, and he offers once and for all his sacrifice, and then he sits down because it's done. That is who Jesus is: King and Priest.
38 · Reads Hebrews 7:23-25 as the culminating exposition—Jesus saves 'to the uttermost' because his priesthood is permanent and his intercession eternal
Hebrews. I got to read you this one section of Hebrews because I just think this is what we're all about. Hebrews 7:23, in the section about Melchizedek and Jesus as the high priest, says this: "The former priests were many in number because they were prevented by death from continuing in office. But he," meaning Jesus, "holds his priesthood permanently because he continues forever. And this is it, church.
Hear this: Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.
39 · Direct evangelistic appeal to non-Christians: Christ is the doorway to everything you long for—but receiving his kingdom requires surrendering your own
What we most long for, church, is God's people in God's place under God's rule. The way we get there, the doorway through which we get there, That is Jesus Christ. So with that, I want to just make an appeal to you, friend. If you are not a Christian today, maybe you walked in just curious about the Bible, curious about, you know, what are churches up to these days. Maybe a friend dragged you.
I'm sorry. You should make them buy you coffee or something afterwards. But I hope you're seeing, man, we're not here to say, "Hey, we're great people. Be good like us." We're here to rejoice. That the thing we long for and could never achieve has been handed to us in the person of Jesus Christ.
And we're telling you, you can receive it as well. You long for a relationship with God. You long to be in God's place far away from this broken world. You long to live under God's rule and be protected where justice reigns. And the way to get there is through Jesus.
There is no one he cannot bring into the kingdom of God through him. Believe in him as king, but it means this: you got to take your crown off. You got to leave your kingdom behind. You got to come to the kingdom of Jesus. It is what you've always longed for.
40 · Extended personal story about childhood basketball—spending a season seeking approval from coach and crowd while his father's unconditional approval was freely given—illustrating the sermon's central problem of looking for ultimate satisfaction in the wrong place
Let me end with this. When I was a kid, I played basketball at the YMCA, and that— it was not a, you know, wasn't the best, most quality basketball, but it was great. I loved it. And growing up, you know, from ages, I don't know, 9, 8, 9, 10, I was good because I was tall-ish for my age. Right?
So I like grew early. And then about 12, I noticed something, which is that everyone kept growing except for me. Right? So I started out as like a center at age 9 or 10, and then became a forward, and then became a guard, then became a small guard. Right?
And so I, it didn't go well. And so I watch everybody continue to grow. And I remember this one year, we had a really good coach, he was real intense. And the team was really good and we won a ton of games. And I really wanted this coach's approval 'cause he played like in college or in the NBA or something like that.
And a bunch of the kids were really good and I thought if I could be good enough for these kids, for this team, I could really be something. And so I remember, you know, somebody would hit a shot at the last minute and every, the crowd would erupt and I just in my heart thought, man, Someday, someday that's going to happen for me. Spoiler, it didn't. So we end up at the end of the season at Peter Piper Pizza, as all El Paso youth sports teams do. It's also a law in the city charter.
All youth celebrations happen at Peter Piper. And at the celebration at the end of the year, the coach began to hand out awards. And he started with the real clear objective awards, like best, like highest scorer, most points per game, you know, best free throw percentage. And he's handing these awards out to kids on the team. And I began to observe that the awards go from objective to subjective.
Here's what I mean. All of a sudden it's like best defense, you know, that's a little subjective, but sure, you know, no real numbers behind that, but yeah, I could see that. Begins to drift further and further. And then finally he calls my name up. And I win the award for most tenacious, which essentially means he doesn't do much, but he tries.
And he keeps trying, right? That was the award. And so I remember, no joke, guys, I remember like feeling shame as I went forward to get the award. And beginning the applause, like highest score, all the parents and kids, they're like, yeah! "Come on, Randy!" Yeah, you know.
And then it gets a little bit lighter as we go on. And for me, the most tenacious, it has devolved into like a golf clap. Like, "Oh, no, but that is good too. It's, you know, great job." And their faces change. And I just am thinking like, this is the worst.
And so I remember having this moment where I realized, man, like, I spent this whole season trying to get the approval of this coach and of these players and of, you know, the big crowd. At the game, and I failed. I remember turning and walking back, and as I'm walking back, I saw my dad. And my dad is there, and he's just beaming.
Beaming like I won the MVP award. And as we walked out, he just said, he said something like, "Mijo, I am so proud of you. This is the award that if I could pick any award for you to win, I'd want you to win this one." because you never gave up. And I just remember feeling, it's funny, looking back, I didn't understand all that was going on in my heart, but I remember those feelings, and this is what I was experiencing.
I spent my whole season trying to win the approval of all of these other people when the one person who loved me most and who I loved most was freely giving it. I was looking in the wrong place. I still have the Most Tenacious Award in my box upstairs. I think because, you know, remember the season, but mostly to remember my dad.
41 · Applies the personal illustration to the gospel—we search everywhere for what our heavenly Father freely gives in Christ, echoing Romans 8:32
Church, in the same way, we can look all over the world for approval, for love, for peace, for joy, for hope, when our heavenly Father is standing right there saying, I will give it freely. How will I not give it freely? I gave you my Son, and if I gave you my Son, how much more will I not also with him give all things?
42 · Transitions the congregation from sermon to closing prayer
Would you stand and let's pray.
43 · Closing pastoral prayer addressing specific pastoral concerns sensed in the congregation—those frustrated by failed kingdom-building, those feeling unloved or ashamed—and calling the church to surrender their kingdoms joyfully to Christ
Oh, Heavenly Father, Lord, I pray that as we end, You would help us to be honest about areas in our lives and areas of our hearts where we've gone after other things, where we've tried to build our kingdom and then been so frustrated when the kingdom keeps crumbling. Lord, I have the sense that there are some here that they are so frustrated because they've tried to rebuild their kingdom 3 or 4 times and it just keeps falling down. And they feel hopeless. They've tried to rebuild their life multiple times. It keeps falling down and they feel hopeless.
And, Lord, I pray that you would speak hope into their hearts through Jesus and that you would in Christ give them a far better kingdom to build that will not be shaken and can never be taken away. And, Lord, I also especially pray for anyone here, any brother or sister who came in today Feeling unloved.
Just the sense I have, God, is there may be somebody here that just feels a deep shame, that they don't like to be around people or be around certain people because they are ashamed of who they are, of their life. Lord, I pray that right now you would send your Spirit to minister to them. That in Christ they would find a Savior who covers their shame, a Savior who covers their sin, a Savior who loves them, a Savior who knows them and does not turn away from them but moves toward them, a Savior who brings them to a better place.
I pray that they would feel the love of God poured into their heart, into their mind, into their soul in Christ Jesus. Right now. And, Lord, help all of us, help all of us as we sing, surrender our kingdoms and rejoice. God, our surrendering of our kingdoms should not be a hard thing when we see the King and the kingdom that we are surrendering to. You're a far better King than us.
You're a far better King than we could imagine. Your kingdom is far greater, far more eternal, far more unshakable, far more amazing amazing than we can imagine. So I pray that as we end, God, we would sing joyfully as we welcome you as King into our hearts and long for your kingdom. Amen.