David’s Son & David’s Lord | Matthew 22:41-46

Scripture

• Matthew 22:41–46

About this sermon

Introduction: If you have the wrong Jesus — you’re lost. It is true to say that all of us have grown in our understanding of the Son of God POST-SALVATION. We did not know everything about our God and our Savior on the day that we were saved. We have all grown in our understanding of Christ as we have grown in our knowledge of God’s Word. But there is a bare minimum that someone must understand about Jesus if it can be said of them that they have saving faith. When God saves a sinner, He makes His Son known to them. They are saved as they place their faith IN THE REAL JESUS. In the living Christ whom God has made known. Paul warns that there are false Christs. Make sure that your Jesus is the one who really exists. ESV 2 Corinthians 11:4 For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough. WHAT IS THAT BARE MINIMUM KNOWLEDGE? To be saved one must understand that Jesus was and is the Son of God. God is one, He has eternally existed in three persons and Jesus was the eternal Son of God come to earth. Born of a virgin, conceived by the Holy Spirit, Immanuel — God with us. Jesus is God, Jesus is Lord. To be saved one must understand that Jesus was and is truly human. That the eternal Son took to Himself an additional nature — a true human nature without sin — in order to save sinful human beings. He became a man to save men. ESV 1 John 4:2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. ESV 2 John 1:7 For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist. ESV John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. And to be saved I must understand that He did everything necessary TO SAVE MEN. Jesus lived and died and was raised to provide everything necessary for our salvation so that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. We are not saved by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to God’s mercy (Titus 3:5) — a mercy found in the Savior Himself. His death paid for our sins; His righteousness is our acceptance with God. ESV Galatians 5:1 For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. 2 Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. 3 I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. 4 You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. Take away any of those three elements (Son of God, Son of Man, the Savior), and you are still lost and in your sins. A partial Jesus, a false Jesus, — false in terms of His person or false in terms of His mission — will never save you. And this Jesus has been presented to us on the pages of Scripture — Old Testament and New. If you are to receive Him by faith, then you must believe God’s testimony regarding His Son (1 John 5:8-11). To reject the true humanity of Jesus will damn you. To reject the true divinity of Jesus will damn you. To reject the necessity of Christ’s offering for sinners will damn you. To reject the sufficiency of Christ’s offering for sinners will damn you. To reject these truths in their personal application to your own life will damn you. A partial Jesus, or a Jesus never encountered personally, will never save you. SO THAT, THERE IS NOTHING MORE MERCIFUL THAT CHRIST CAN DO FOR SINNERS THAN TO BRING THEM TO THE POINT WHERE THEY MUST RECOGNIZE AND ACKNOWLEDGE AN INADEQUATE VIEW OF HIM. If your view of Jesus is a view of Jesus that will damn you, it is God’s kindness that makes that known to you while you still can turn from your sins and embrace the true Jesus. TO STATE IT POSITIVELY, IT IS MERCY FOR CHRIST TO BRING MEN FACE TO FACE WITH THE WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT HIM. That is what we see in our verses this morning. Jesus — in great mercy — moves from answering questions to asking questions. The questions He asks have to do with the way that the Pharisees (and most of the Jews) thought about the Messiah. And what those questions expose is that their understanding of Messiah is insufficient. We’ll examine this under four headings. • A DIAGNOSTIC QUESTION (vs.41-42a) Our Lord has answered three questions that were intended to entrap Him.