The Jews were waiting for the Messiah (who is the Christ) to liberate them from foreign power. However, they never believed this Christ would be God Himself. As we can realize when they called Christ ‘the Son of David’, Christ was just a man to them. Jesus broke their prejudices with the Psalms of David.
This is what David wrote: ‘The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.”’ The words ‘The Lord said to my Lord’ mean ‘God said to Christ’. When David spoke about Christ, he called Him ‘Lord’ - which is the same way he spoke about God. This tells us that Christ is not only man, but He is the One who God will place at His right hand. In other words, He is equal to God. Some say David made a blunder when he wrote this, but the Lord emphasized that David said this while he was inspired by the Holy Spirit.
The Jewish leaders denied this to the end, but Jesus is the Christ. He is God’s Son and He is equal to God at the same time. When He came to the earth as a frail man, it was to save repentant sinners, establish them to become the church and be with them, and guide them into the Father’s house. Even so, the Jews considered it a weakness that He came as a man and they disdained Him. The unfortunate thing is that this happens in the church even today.
Many consider that life at church is just a gathering of people and do not acknowledge God is with them. Since they think visible things are reality, they see life at church as only religious activity. They think God exists somewhere separate from their lives and think He would never be concerned about petty human beings. He not only shed blood for us, but He wants to protect us to the end. But they despise His will.
They cannot see God at work in the church and they judge it by worldly standards. They think they will clearly be saved if they simply hold to their identities as Christians. But this is no different to trying to be saved by your own righteousness. Because these people cannot see God’s righteousness filling the church, they assert their own righteousness and even cause trouble for the church.
The church has many weaknesses if you look at it by worldly standards. But these weaknesses are the chance for sinners to accept God’s grace. Whenever we worship and pray, praise and give offerings, and preach and teach in the church - the Lord is with us and guides us. Let’s give up those judgmental glances which belong to our old selves. Let’s acknowledge the Lord who works through the church. Let’s not despise the Lord’s consideration and kindness, but humbly serve Him as He guides us by the church.
(Lord’s Day Service on December 5, 2021)
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