This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Welcome to day four of our look through Mark chapter 12 verses 35 to 40 today.
Remember yesterday we looked at those two great commandments, love God, love
your neighbor as yourself. If you're like me, those are two commandments that
every day of your life you have to think about.

Ask God's strength for. It's interesting right after they had asked Jesus this
question and he gave this answer that challenged all of them to their core. It
did the same thing to their hearts that it might do to your heart.

It silenced them. It quieted them because they realized how much need there was
for God in their lives to live this kind of way. In this quietness of everybody
else stopping the questions, Jesus started to ask questions.

First question he asked might sound a little strange to us but is very important
to them. Listen to what happened in verses 35 to 37. While Jesus was teaching in
the temple courts, he asked, "How is it that the teachers of the law say that
the Christ is the son of David?

David himself, speaking by the Holy Spirit, declared, 'The Lord said to my Lord,
sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet. ' David himself
calls him Lord. How then can he be his son?

" The large crowd listened to him with delight. Now for you and I today who are
not as up on the history of Israel and the ways of teaching in the days of
Jesus, these can sound like strange words. Jesus is talking about the Son of
David and Son of David was the most common term used for the coming Messiah.

The Son of David is coming. He's going to rescue us. Remember that Israel was
under Roman occupation so they said the Son of David is going to come and rescue
us from this Roman occupation.

But this title, the Son of David, did two things in people's minds. It maximized
the earthly impact of the Messiah and it minimized the eternal impact of the
Messiah. It maximized the earthly impact of the Messiah.

They thought of him like David had been in the Old Testament, a conquering king.
He's going to come and kill this Goliath of the Roman Empire and all of a sudden
Israel is going to be ushered into this new golden age. It maximized the earthly
political impact.

That's how they thought of the Messiah and it minimized the eternal impact. They
saw this is a true Son of David, a sequel to King David. Jesus is not a sequel.

The Messiah is not a sequel and so Jesus is asking a question here to point out
that maybe they've missed something in their thinking. Jesus dealt with both of
these misunderstandings when he said, "Now if the Son of David is just a son of
this king then why would David call him Lord? You wouldn't call your earthly son
a Lord.

" He's challenging their thinking but in challenging their thinking there is a
message. Don't lose hope and the message is this and you and I need to hear this
message sometimes in our lives. God is up to something that's bigger than you're
imagining.

They had it all imagined out what this Son of David was going to do. They didn't
understand that Jesus Christ, born of the line of David, was going to do so much
more. He wasn't going to throw out some earthly government, the Roman
government.

He was going to usher in an age of grace. He was going to die on a cross, not
live on a throne, die on a cross so that all of us can be forgiven. God was up
to something bigger than they could imagine.

I can do the same thing and you can too. We can maximize the earthly impact of
our Christian faith and minimize the eternal impact and miss the fact that God
is up to something bigger. If your faith recently has been disappointed, if it's
been something that you feel like it's not living up to my expectations, I want
to say this.

Maybe your expectations are too low. Maybe you've been expecting him to do some
small earthly thing when really God is up to doing something eternal in your
life and through your life. Jesus is asking questions and he's not finished.

After this question, he gives the people a warning. In verses 38 to 40, Jesus
says this, "As he taught, Jesus said, 'Watch out for the teachers of the law.
They like to walk around in flowing robes and be greeted in the marketplaces and
have most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets.

They devour widows' houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. Such men will be
punished most severely. " Now it's very easy as you and I read these verses to
be negative about the Pharisees.

In fact, it's sort of comfortable to focus on them and how bad they were. But
Jesus is teaching these things because he knows how this kind of influence can
make its way into my heart, into your heart, into all of our hearts. It's the
easiest thing in the world.

In fact, when you see people acting in this kind of way, it's so impressive. It
looks so glorious that we are attracted to it. We want to be like that person.

Jesus makes a list of these things that you and I can do in our lives and our
relationship with God that will in the end be punished most severely. Now as we
go through this list of what Jesus said, I don't want to think about the
Pharisees 2,000 years ago. I want to think about my life, about your life.

This is a great opportunity to self-evaluation. How am I doing in living out the
life that God wants for me? Am I living for that which is least important?

Here's the question. Am I living for that which is least important or am I
living for that which is most important? Here's a list of that which is least
important.

Jesus said the list includes what he called long robes. They would wear glorious
long robes so they would look more spiritually astute than the other Pharisees.
Jesus is really asking me the question.

He's asking you the question. How do you wear your Christianity? Do you wear it
in such a way as to impress others, others who might be impressed, and then hide
it when others are around who might not be impressed?

How do you wear your Christianity? Is it something to make yourself feel better
about yourself? Is that all your faith is?

Or is your faith all about what God has done for you, that he deeply and truly
loves you, but he also has a purpose and a plan for your life? And whatever
anybody else says about you, about the clothes that you're wearing, the faith
that you have, you know you can trust in him. How do you wear your Christianity?

And then Jesus said they like respectful greetings. They loved it when people
shouted out in the marketplace, "Oh look, it's a Pharisee. " And these
respectful rabbi teacher greetings, they love to hear those words.

Now in this I hear a question for my life, for your life, and that is about our
relationships. Are your relationships for show only? When you look at the
relationships that you have as a believer in Jesus Christ, as someone who's just
begun your faith or has been growing a long time in your faith, when you say, "I
love you," to another believer, maybe even to somebody in your family, is it for
show or is it real?

What's really going on in your heart? Everything that they said in the
marketplace was for show. They felt like a camera was on them every moment.

Do you feel that way? Even in your own family, maybe do you feel that way? Or
are you living out what God has put into your heart just freely, openly, because
of who he is?

He goes on and Jesus says the third part of this self-evaluation is they love
the chief seats. They want to sit at the head of the table because everybody
looks and says, "Wow, look, they're sitting at the head of the table. " So the
question I have to ask in my life is, and you should ask of your life is, "Why
do I lead?

Why do I do the things that God has called me to do? Is it so that people can
point at me and say, 'Look, he's a leader. Look, she's a leader.

Look, they're doing the things that God has called them to do. ' Is it so I can
get my picture in some paper or some magazine? Is it so somebody can notice me
or is it because I just love him?

And whether noticed or not, I know I've expressed my love for him. " Now,
sometimes your faith does get noticed, but when it does, you don't love that.
You hope that God uses that in some way to bring more glory to him.

And if you and I have that attitude, that means when it doesn't get noticed, I
don't need it to be noticed. I found that I'm either going to need others'
notice or I'm going to notice others' needs. I either need others' notice or I
notice others' needs.

And I don't want to be the person who's so focused on myself that I miss the
needs of the people around me. Why do you lead? Jesus goes on in this
evaluation.

He says, "They love the places of honor at banquets. " And the question I have
in that one for our lives is, are you a servant? They wanted to sit in places
that said they were the leader.

Are you willing to sit in places that say, "I am a servant. " It's hard to
serve. It's difficult to serve because people treat you like a servant when you
serve.

And I don't know about you. I don't always like being treated like a servant.
Oh, I would love to serve if people would treat me in great and high and honored
ways.

But how do you do when people treat you like a servant? You look to him who's
the servant of all and ask for his strength in a new, fresh way. Jesus goes on
and he gets very pointed in this evaluation.

He says that, "They devour widows' houses. " And the question I have to ask of
myself is, how do I treat those who are in need? They saw those who were in need
as an opportunity for them to advance their own monetary agenda, to advance
their own spiritual agenda, to advance their own political agenda.

They saw people in need as a way for them to get what they wanted. How do you
treat those who are in need, who maybe can't speak up for themselves? Do you use
them or do you love them?

And then one final thing Jesus talks about, he says, "They offer long prayers. "
So in this self-evaluation, I have to ask, how's my prayer life? How's my prayer
life when I'm all alone?

Is my prayer life something that I do for others to see my relationship with God
and be impressed? Or is my prayer life an expression on my relationship with God
wherever I am? Is it who I am or is it who I want people to think I am?

Is your prayer life who you really are or is it who you want people to think you
are? Jesus Christ, as we spend a few minutes talking to you, there's not one of
us as we go through this evaluation who does not see our own selfishness. We are
all human beings who struggle with selfishness and are in need of your grace.

But Jesus, through your teaching, through your example, through your power in
our lives, something different can happen. We don't have to live this kind of
life because as Jesus taught us, this kind of life, it's an empty life in the
end. In fact, it's a life that has only loss at the end.

Jesus, help us to live the life today that you have for us, a life of service, a
life of joy, a life of seeing other people's needs, a life of love, a life of
living out the relationship that you put into our hearts. Jesus, give us the
strength and the power to live that kind of life today. We pray this in your
name.

Amen. Make sure to be back tomorrow. We're going to look at a widow, two small
coins, and a life-changing truth.