Luke 20:41

Jesus was speaking to some of the religious leaders who are called scribes. During His life Jesus spoke to the common people and He also spoke to the religious leaders. Usually when Jesus spoke to religious leaders, He spoke to people who were self-righteous, who were ignorant of the truth about God and the Messiah, and who opposed themselves to the teachings of Jesus. The world is often not what it appears to be. Those who should be the closest to God, the religious leaders, are often the furthest away from Him. The Bible says in Luke 20:41-44, “And he said unto them, How say they that Christ is David’s son? And David himself said in the book of Psalms, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool. David therefore called him Lord, how is he then his son?”

The question that Jesus asked the scribes is actually a simple one for us. We understand very well the relationship of David to the Messiah. We understand that the Messiah was a descendant of David and therefore his son in that sense, and we understand that the Messiah was David’s Lord because the Messiah is everyone’s Lord. Of course, the scribes and the other religious leaders understood very little about the Messiah. If they had understood, they would have recognized that Jesus was the Messiah. The same is true today. Many people who are supposed to be religious just do not understand things about Jesus that can only be spiritually discerned.

Concerning Jesus Luke 20:42-43 tells clearly what He is doing right now. It says, “The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, Till I make thine enemies thy footstool.” Notice that two lords are mentioned. “The Lord said unto my Lord.” The first Lord is God the Father. The second Lord is the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. God the Father and God the Son are given the same title because they are both divine. They are also given the same power and authority. Right now Jesus sits in the place of divine authority at the throne of God. That’s because He is God. He is God the Son.

Jesus is in the place of authority now, and later He will be in the place of victory. There is no doubt about the final outcome in the spiritual conflict that rages in the world. The Father has promised the Son, “I will make thine enemies thy footstool.” There are enemies to the name of Christ. There are the spiritual enemies, the evil spirits who work along with the devil to oppose the will of God. There is the pride of sinful man who naturally resists and opposes the will of God. And there are the deceivers and the liars and the false teachers who oppose the truth which is in Christ Jesus. The day will come when they will all be conquered and placed under the feet of Christ. “Every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Notice the method that Jesus so often used to teach. Instead of giving information, sometimes He asked questions. That’s a method of teaching that we now call the Socratic method. If you are a teacher, why is it sometimes better to ask questions than to simply give out information? For one thing the purpose of a teacher is to get people to think. No one’s education is complete unless they have learned to think for themselves. When someone is led to the answer through the asking of questions, they are more likely to truly learn the answer than they would be if they were simply given information. With the questions that Jesus asked, He was attempting to help the religious people understand the true nature and identity of the Christ. It is a very important question. Who is the Christ? Do you know who He is and do you know Him? It’s a spiritual question and the answer is spiritually discerned. In order to know it, you must be born again through faith in Christ.

The scribes did not know it. They did not know who Christ was because they had a spiritual problem. The Bible says in Luke 20:45-47, “Then in the audience of all the people he said unto his disciples, Beware of the scribes, which desire to walk in long robes, and love greetings in the markets, and the highest seats in the synagogues, and the chief rooms at feasts; Which devour widow’s houses, and for a show make long prayers: the same shall receive greater damnation.”

We live in a world that can be dangerous at times. There are violent criminals. There are terrorists. There are wars and rumors of wars. But Jesus did not tell His disciples to beware of these things. He told them to beware of the scribes. Elsewhere in the gospels Jesus said to “beware of the leaven of the Pharisees” and to “beware of false prophets.” We who are believers in Jesus must beware of scribes and Pharisees and false prophets. There are modern-day equivalents to these people. You find them in the ranks of the religious leaders. And in our complicated and confused and mixed-up world you will probably find some of these individuals in almost every religious organization. They are opponents to the cause of Christ. Some of them are false teachers and some of them actually claim to believe the true doctrines, but none of them are spiritual.

These unspiritual religious leaders became mixed in with true believers at a very early age in the history of Christianity. In Revelation 2:6 Jesus said to the church at Ephesus, “Thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.” The word “Nicolaitan” in Greek means “ruler of the people”, or “controller of the people.” More than anything else, all the members of a church should be equals: equal in status, equal as sinners saved by grace, equal as the children of God. Of course, they will have different gifts and callings; but no one should “lord it over” anyone else. Many times the work of God has been hindered by these “control freaks.” In the book of Revelation Jesus called them “nicolaitans.” Here in Luke chapter 20 Jesus told his disciples to “beware of the scribes.”

One would hope that only a spiritual person with a close walk with God and with a definite calling would become a “religious” leader. But unfortunately that is not what always happens. Why is it that people like this sometimes get into religion to make a profession out of it? Jesus gave us the answer as to why they do it. Jesus said that “they desire to walk in long robes, and love greetings in the markets, and the highest seats in the synagogues, and the chief rooms at feasts; Which devour widow’s houses.” Some people become religious leaders for the sake of personal advantage and privilege, and to use their position to take advantage of others from a financial standpoint. You might think that such a thing could not happen. Surely someone would not enter the pastorate as an outlet for their own personal ambition. Surely someone will not become involved in religion so that they can profit financially from it. Jesus said that it will happen. And Jesus said, “Beware of the scribes.”

Notice that one of the unethical and unspiritual attributes of these false religious leaders is described by Jesus when He said that they “for a show make long prayers.” Prayer is a good thing only if it is a genuine prayer. In order for a prayer to be genuine it must be made to the Father in the name of the Son or it must be made to the Son Himself. But prayer can also be undesirable if it is made for the wrong reasons. False religious people pray out loud in order to be heard and seen of men. They are not really praying to God. They are praying so that human beings will hear their prayers.

As much damage as these unspiritual religious leaders have done and will continue to do, Jesus made it very clear what their final destiny will be. Jesus said that they “shall receive greater damnation.” Just like all those who oppose the work of Christ, their final end is certain. There will be no escape from their judgment and condemnation. Notice also that Jesus said that these shall receive "greater" condemnation. Just like in heaven some people will receive greater rewards than others, evidently in hell some people will receive greater punishments than others. Some of the greatest punishments will be reserved for the false religious leaders. The greatest work in the world is the teaching of the truth. Therefore, the greatest evil in the world is both teaching untruth and the hindering of the teaching of truth. The unspiritual religious leaders do great damage to the souls of mankind, and thereby they heap great condemnation upon their own soul.

The Bible says in Luke 21:1-4, “And he looked up, and saw the rich men casting their gifts into the treasury. And he saw also a certain poor widow casting in thither two mites. And he said, Of a truth I say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast in more than they all: For all these have of their abundance cast in unto the offerings of God: but she of her penury hath cast in all the living that she had.” Jesus had just finished exposing the hypocrisy of some unspiritual religious leaders who use religion as a means to gain attention to themselves. Some rich people who are involved in religion have a very similar selfish motivation. They sometimes use their money to gain attention to themselves in religious organizations. Man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart.

Jesus made it very clear in this example with the widow that it is not how much money you give, but it is what percentage of money that you give that God takes note of. Some people emphasize the giving of a tithe, which is ten percent. In this passage Jesus praised the widow not for how much she gave, but for the fact that she gave one hundred percent of her money. Some churches give great honor to rich people simply because of how much money they have given. In fact they may have given very little as far as God is concerned. They may have given a very small percentage of their wealth, and therefore in God’s eyes they have not really given much at all. If God does not put them in a place of honor because of what they have given, then why should you?

The Bible says in Luke 21:5-6, “And as some spake of the temple, how it was adorned with goodly stones and gifts, he said, As for these things which you behold, the days will come, in the which there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.” There they stood near the temple. There was the crowd of people. There was Jesus dressed in His simple robe, yet as the center of attention with His great commanding presence. And there was Herod’s temple, the building that dominated Jerusalem. The building that more than any other symbolized the center of the Jewish religion. If there ever had been a building that was a part of religion that human beings could honor and greatly value, surely it was the temple in Jerusalem.

The people in this crowd were greatly impressed with the temple. But Jesus was not impressed. Jesus knew that the temple would soon be destroyed by the Roman legions. Besides, the idea that a building, a structure made by man, could be the center of the worship of God was not something that Jesus emphasized in His teachings. Jesus brought a new emphasis by teaching that the center of the worship of God is in the heart of man. There is no place that is more holy than any other place. There is no geographical location or physical structure where a person must be in order to fully and properly worship God.

This teaching was never made more clear than in the gospel of John when Jesus was speaking to the Samaritan woman at the well. The Bible says in John 4:19-24, “The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and you say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour is coming, when you shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship you know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.”

There is no place that is more holy than any other place. Many people make the same mistake today that the people back in Jerusalem during the time of Christ were making. God can be worshipped anywhere. You do not have to be in a church building to worship God. A church building has a very practical value in that believers can meet together and be protected from the sun and the wind and the rain when so doing. The church is not a building. The church is the people. The building is simply the meeting place of the church. There are a lot of churches who might want to change the signs in front of their buildings. Perhaps a sign should not say, “First Baptist Church.” That causes people to think that the building is the church. Perhaps the sign should say, “Meeting Place of the First Baptist Church.” Buildings might be destroyed, but the church will abide forever. “The gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”

Hopefully, you are a part of the one true church, the church that you can become a member of only through Jesus. If you are, then you have learned that it’s not in a certain place or a certain building where the true worship of God takes place. It is just like Jesus said, “God is a spirit, and they that worship God must worship him in spirit and in truth.”

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