The Gospel According to Luke: Whose son?

Nov 09, 2026

Devotional

Day 1: When David Calls Messiah “Lord”

The religious leaders expected a Messiah bound by earthly lineage and political power, but Jesus redirects them to Psalm 110. David’s own words reveal the Messiah as more than a descendant—he is David’s sovereign Lord, seated at God’s right hand. This redefines authority: the Messiah’s reign transcends bloodlines, thrones, and human imagination. His lordship demands more than admiration; it requires surrender to divine supremacy. To call Jesus “Lord” is to acknowledge his eternal reign over every power, past and future. [42:43]

The Lord says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.” (Psalm 110:1, ESV)

Reflection: Where have you reduced Jesus to a comfortable figure rather than sovereign Lord? How might recognizing his eternal authority reshape your priorities today?

Day 2: A Priest Forever in the Line of Melchizedek

Jesus’ priesthood shatters expectations. Unlike Israel’s system separating kings and priests, he fulfills both roles eternally, mirroring Melchizedek—a king-priest who blessed Abraham. This mystery reveals Jesus’ unmatched sufficiency: he intercedes for us while ruling over us. His priesthood isn’t temporary or tribal; it spans time and nations. In him, every barrier between humanity and God crumbles, offering access to the Father that no earthly system could provide. [55:05]

And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. (He was priest of God Most High.) And he blessed him and said, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth.” (Genesis 14:18–19, ESV)

Reflection: What areas of your life feel disconnected from God’s presence? How does Jesus’ dual role as king and priest assure you of his nearness?

Day 3: God’s Promises Outlive Your Doubts

Centuries of waiting distorted Israel’s vision, yet God’s faithfulness remained unshaken. Jesus’ arrival as Messiah—greater than David, older than Melchizedek—proves that God’s promises outlast human skepticism. When delays tempt us to doubt, his track record demands trust. His timing isn’t failure; it’s perfection. The Messiah’s unexpected nature—crucified yet victorious, divine yet human—confirms that God’s plans exceed our narrow frameworks. [01:03:07]

God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it? (Numbers 23:19, ESV)

Reflection: What unanswered prayer or delayed hope makes you question God’s faithfulness? How might his past faithfulness anchor you in this season?

Day 4: The Danger of a Diminished Christ

The religious experts studied Scripture yet missed its heart: Messiah’s divinity. Today, we risk similar error by molding Jesus into a therapist, activist, or mascot for our causes. A domesticated Christ cannot save. The true Messiah disrupts—he is both wounded healer and conquering king, demanding full allegiance. To shrink him is to forfeit his power. His lordship leaves no room for negotiation. [01:06:04]

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. (Hebrews 10:23, ESV)

Reflection: What cultural or personal biases might distort your view of Jesus? Where do you need to surrender your preferences to his true identity?

Day 5: Messiah Isn’t a Title—He’s a Revolution

Peter’s Pentecost sermon crystallizes it: the crucified Jesus is both Lord and Messiah. This truth upends everything. Political systems, religious rituals, and personal ambitions bow to his reign. Accepting him as Messiah means joining an eternal revolution—one where love defeats oppression, sacrifice overthrows power, and resurrection rewrites every ending. His lordship isn’t theoretical; it’s the axis on which history turns. [01:02:31]

Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. (Acts 2:36, ESV)

Reflection: What part of your life still resists Christ’s revolutionary lordship? How will you actively align it with his kingdom this week?

Sermon Summary

Luke keeps bringing the identity of Jesus into focus. Jesus enters Jerusalem as king, cleanses the temple as priest, identifies himself as the Son of God, and stands as the cornerstone rejected by the builders. Now Jesus presses a question that exposes an incomplete understanding of the Messiah: How can David call his own son Lord?

The promise to David gave Israel good reason to expect a coming king from David’s family. God would establish his kingdom forever. But the people’s expectations had become too small. They wanted a ruler who would defeat their enemies, throw off foreign powers, and bring back the glory days. The Messiah would be David’s son, but he would be far more than another David.

Psalm 110 makes that clear. David calls the coming Messiah his Lord, his master. This descendant is greater than David himself. God gives him the place at his right hand, a position of honor, glory, and power far above any earthly throne. The same psalm declares that the Messiah is also a priest forever according to the pattern of Melchizedek. Unlike the ordinary arrangement of kings from Judah and priests from Levi, this Messiah holds both roles. Jesus is king forever and priest forever. He is Messiah and Lord.

God’s faithfulness gives discouraged believers solid ground for hope. The promised Savior came, and he was far greater than the people imagined. Limited expectations do not set the limits of God’s promises.

Yet that good news carries a serious challenge. Religious knowledge does not prevent people from misunderstanding Jesus. Believers can still select the parts of Scripture that feel comfortable and shape a version of Jesus that affirms their values, politics, and desires. Christ is not an image made in their likeness. His identity as Messiah and Lord must shape how they live, what they value, and how they treat people.

Key Takeaways

1. David’s Son Is Also His Lord. The expectation of a son of David was not wrong, but it was incomplete. David himself calls the Messiah his master, so another earthly king cannot exhaust the promise. Faith must allow Scripture to enlarge an understanding of Christ rather than force Christ into familiar expectations. [50:30]
2. Christ Holds Both Offices Forever. Psalm 110 joins what Israel’s ordinary tribal arrangement kept separate: kingship and priesthood. Melchizedek provides the pattern for a Messiah who is both king and priest forever. Jesus cannot be reduced to a political ruler, because the promised Messiah holds both roles rather than fitting just one familiar category. [1:00:09]
3. God’s Faithfulness Gives Discouraged Believers Hope. The coming of Jesus shows that God kept the promise made across generations. Pain, uncertainty, and unmet expectations can narrow a believer’s view until God’s purposes seem absent. Hope rests on the faithfulness of the one who promised, not on the believer’s ability to see everything God is doing. [1:03:34]
4. A Comfortable Jesus Is Too Small. Even people who had studied Scripture throughout their lives misunderstood the Messiah. Christians face a similar danger when they favor only the passages that affirm their politics, values, or preferred way of life. Recognizing Jesus as Lord means allowing his revealed identity to challenge those preferences rather than making him into a manageable likeness of themselves. [1:06:25]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[32:06] - Prayer for Government Leaders
[33:22] - Jesus in Jerusalem Before the Cross
[37:21] - An Important Misunderstanding About the Messiah
[38:54] - King, Priest, Son, and Cornerstone
[42:09] - Jesus Questions the Title Son of David
[43:38] - God’s Promise of David’s Lasting Kingdom
[47:13] - Psalm 110 and David’s Lord
[53:01] - The Messiah at God’s Right Hand
[54:47] - A Priest Forever Like Melchizedek
[1:01:43] - Peter Declares Jesus Lord and Messiah
[1:02:31] - God Is Faithful to His Promises
[1:04:56] - The Danger of Making Jesus Too Small
[1:08:41] - Responding to Messiah and Lord

Bible Study Guide

Bible Reading

Luke 20:41-44
“But he said to them, "How can they say that the Christ is David's son? For David himself says in the Book of Psalms, 'The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.' David thus calls him Lord, so how is he his son?” [31:21]

Psalm 110:1
“The LORD says to my Lord: "Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.” [31:24]

Psalm 110:4
“The LORD has sworn and will not change his mind, "You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.” [54:59]

Observation questions

In Luke 20:41–44, what tension does Jesus point out between the Messiah being David’s descendant and David calling him Lord? [50:31]
What did the people expect the Messiah to do for their nation, and how did those expectations fall short of the picture in Psalm 110? [54:07]
In Psalm 110:1, what position does God give the Messiah, and what does God promise to do about his enemies? [53:18]
What additional role does Psalm 110:4 give the Messiah? How does the reference to Melchizedek connect kingship and priesthood? [01:00:03]

Interpretation questions

Why does David calling the Messiah his Lord show that the Messiah must be more than another earthly king from David’s family? [51:06]
How does the Messiah’s place at God’s right hand challenge the idea that his greatest purpose is to restore a nation’s political power? [53:32]
Why does it matter that Jesus is both king forever and priest forever, rather than fitting only one of those roles? What would be missing from an understanding of Jesus that recognized only his kingship? [55:19]
How can someone know Scripture well and still misunderstand Jesus? What is the difference between allowing Scripture to shape a person’s expectations and using Scripture to defend expectations already held? [01:06:30]

Application questions

When has reading Scripture challenged an assumption you held about Jesus? How did you respond, and what helped you become willing to reconsider? [01:05:03]
Are there parts of Jesus’ identity or commands that you tend to overlook because they make you uncomfortable? What might help you give those parts of Scripture more honest attention? [01:06:30]
Where might your politics, personal values, or hopes for the future be shaping your picture of Jesus more than Scripture does? How could you invite someone you trust to help you examine that gently and honestly? [01:06:49]
Where are you discouraged because God has not acted in the way or timing you hoped? How might his faithfulness in sending Jesus help you trust him without assuming he has promised your preferred outcome? [01:03:34]
Jesus is Lord over how his people live, what they value, and how they treat others. Think of a recent difficult interaction: what might recognizing his authority change about your next conversation with that person? [01:09:17]
What is one decision you face this week in which Jesus’ authority needs to carry more weight than your own comfort or preferences? What could a faithful next step look like? [01:09:11]

Sermon Clips

44s

#GodKeepsHisPromises

“The good news is this, I think that we can look and see that god is faithful to his promises. That god is faithful to his promises from the time of the prophets to the time before that of David all the way back to Genesis. There is a promise that God made that all things will be made right, that I will send a messiah, that I will send a savior. And I want us to see that in Jesus, God has fulfilled his promise.”

47s

#JesusIsMore

“I think more than that, sometimes we tend to make Jesus into our own kind of personalized version of him. We take, like, the religious leaders in that day, the passages, maybe that makes sense to us. The passages that we like, the passages that crafted Jesus that we're like, oh, I can handle that. I'm comfortable with that. And we turn Jesus into an image of in our likeness. Things that we can hold and things that we can be okay with things that affirm how we live and our values and our politics and what we want out of life and I would just say, Christian, let us that not let that not be true of us.”

31s

#JesusIsLord

“They thought he would be a son of David only. Right? They they thought he would be a worldly leader and a political ruler, a military general, but that only. And Jesus highlights the truth that the Messiah is more than they can imagine, right? That he is master of all, lord of all, even of King David, right, that he is a priest forever, that he sits at the right hand of God. And I would just say, oh, church, that we would not think too little of Jesus.”

31s

#TrustGodsPlan

“And he's far greater than what you could imagine. And I think that is so true of God's promises. Sometimes we can get so discouraged when we we want God to act and we don't see it, when we we have these expectations from God and they fall short. And we don't even understand because we can only see this far that God has so much better plan for us. God is faithful to keep his promises.”

28s

#JesusTheMessiah

“Friends, Jesus is the Messiah. The one that was prophesied over and over and over in the Old Testament. He is, as we said, he's master, Adonai, lord, even of king David. He is priest forever. He's king forever. He's priest forever. He will. In fact, he is at this time sitting at the right hand of god in glory. Jesus is messiah lord.”

38s

#KingdomAboveAll

“Sitting at the right hand of god in glory is far more than sitting on any earthly throne, even like David or even like that of Caesar at the time. The right hand was a place of honor and prestige and power. And David is saying that the Messiah is going to be sitting at the glory... In glory at the right hand of God Almighty. So, again, this is higher than any human ruler, and yet this is what David himself is saying about the Messiah. So Jesus is kind of cutting right to the heart of what they believe that they were waiting for.”

49s

#SeeJesusClearly

“I thank you that you fulfilled your promise of sending your son, that the Messiah came, and I thank you. And maybe we shouldn't be surprised, but, god, thank you that he was so much greater than what they could even imagine. Frankly, god, he's so much greater than we can even wrap our minds around still. God, forgive me when I try to make Jesus something that's comfortable for me. And not fully recognize him for who he is.”

55s

#FaithfulAndTrue

“And so if I was to wrap this up and just say, hey, what is one kind of main truth that we can take home this week? It's this, it's both that good news and the challenge. First, take heart that god is faithful to his promises. And if you are discouraged in life, if you're discouraged in faith, take heart that God fulfills his promise. And then just this challenge to understand that he sent his son, Jesus, to be Messiah and Lord. And that should change how we look at him and how we respond and how we live and what we value and how we treat people and everything else that lives.”

Ask a question about this sermon

Soma Christian Church This sermon · AI assistant

How does Psalm 110 redefine the promised Messiah?

What makes Jesus both king and priest forever?

Why can God’s promises exceed human expectations?