Matthew 22, Part 4
Notes
Transcript
Coming out of last week, Jesus was asked questions by the Sadducees about the law in relationship to the resurrection if someone had multiple husbands. They wanted to know whose wife she would be in heaven after the resurrection. What they were trying to do was get their point across that the resurrection was an absurd concept that had some interesting implications when put along side the law. Jesus reminds them that they cannot think in human terms about what is spiritual. The resurrection in not an extension of THIS life, but is a new life where believers become a new being. Regardless of what questions were asked by the Pharisees, Sadducees, or the elders/leaders Jesus always answered their question and did so in a way that left them in awe…and more upset than ever. They had to stop Him, discredit Him, do SOMETHING that would keep the people from following through with proclaiming Him as the Messiah. In doing so, any rise up against the Roman authorities would be blamed on the Jewish leaders and they would lose their position, authority, and livelihood. They meet again, plotting against Jesus, but this time going in a different direction. In the upcoming passages, we see a lawyer ask Jesus WHAT is the greatest commandment in the Law?
What is the Greatest Commandment
What is the Greatest Commandment
34 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together.
35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him.
36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”
The Pharisees once again plot against Jesus. It appears that “they” could have been the Pharisees and the Sadducees. One of them was a lawyer - someone who was commonly called a Scribe - laymen who studied, taught, interpreted, and answered questions about the practical part of Jewish law. So, their focus was on the study and interpretation of law, like lawyers today.
There was something about this brilliant lawyer that the others did not know. Apparently, his heart had been touched by Christ. There are two indications of this. First, Mark tells us that the man was present when Christ was “reasoning together” with the Sadducees (Mk. 12:28),.
Mark 12:28 (ESV)
28 And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?”
He perceived “that [Christ] had answered them well.” Second, at the conclusion of his own discussion with Christ, Christ said to the man, “Thou art not far from the kingdom of God” (Mk. 12:34). This indicates that the lawyer had been in deep thought about Christ and was under conviction.
Mark 12:34 (ESV)
34 And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And after that no one dared to ask him any more questions.
Something about Christ struck a chord within this man. His heart was touched and stirred rather deeply. True, he was being put forward by the official body to challenge Christ; but personally, the spirit, the wisdom, the self-consciousness, the authority—something about Christ when He was answering the Sadducees—had stirred his heart to wonder and to want to search more into Christ.
Christ used the occasion to teach man the greatest provision and duty of human life: love. Love will provide for every need man has; therefore, love is the greatest duty of man.
Through the years, Jewish teachers had set up six hundred commandments. No person could keep them all, so the question was often asked and discussed: Which commandment or commandments must be absolutely obeyed? Which ones are important and which ones are not? Can the failure to obey some be condoned or not? Which commandments are heavy and which are light? If a person keeps the greatest of the precepts, can he be excused for his failure to keep others? This question was a deep philosophical question that had been argued for the ages. It once again points out that mankind cannot be sinless through the law, the law only points out the sins of mankind and shows how lost we really are.
10 For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.
While the Pharisees were trying to turn people against Jesus, their religion was driving people TO Him. There is no one magic law that could be followed to make them right in the eyes of God. So, Jesus answers the question that settles the debate.
The Greatest Commandment(s)
The Greatest Commandment(s)
37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
38 This is the great and first commandment.
39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
First and foremost, love God.
5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
Notice the word used to describe the relationship: YOUR.
Your heart, Your soul, Your might. It is a PERSONAL relationship that we have with God. Not impersonal, far out in space someplace, distant and removed. God is personal, ever so close, and we are to be personally involved with God on a face-to-face basis. Note another fact: the command is to “love the Lord thy God.” Loving God is an act that is alive and active, not dead and inactive. We are, therefore, to maintain a personal relationship with God that is alive and active.
Love God with all your being. Christ breaks our being into three parts: the heart, the soul, and the mind.
Heart: the seat of man’s affection and will (devotion). The heart attaches and focuses our will and devotion. The heart causes us to give either good things or bad things. The heart causes us to devote ourselves to either good or bad. Therefore, Christ says we are to love God “with all our heart.” We are to focus our heart, our affection, and our will (devotion) upon God. We are to love God supremely.
Soul (psuche): the seat of man’s breath and life or consciousness. The soul is the life of a man, the consciousness, the breath, the essence, the being of a man. The soul is the animal life of a man. The soul is the breath and consciousness that distinguishes man and other animals from vegetation. The world of vegetation lives and man and animals live, but there is a difference in their living. Man and animals are breathing and conscious beings. The essence of their being is breath and consciousness. They are living souls. This is clearly pointed out in the Hebrew language of Ge. 1:20: “Let the waters bring forth abundantly ‘living souls’ [nephesh] that hath life.” The “living souls” that God created were different from the vegetation He had just created. The “living souls” were creatures (fish) that breathed and possessed consciousness. Christ said we are to love God “with all our soul,” that is, with all our life, our breath, our consciousness. We are to love God with all the breath and consciousness, all the life and awareness, we have.
Mind: the seat of reasoning and understanding. God has given intellectual powers to man. Man thinks, reasons, and understands. Christ says that our minds and thoughts are to be centered upon God. We are to love God “with all our mind.”
Man is responsible to maintain a loving relationship with God. Very practically, loving God involves the very same factors that loving a person involves. It requires commitment and loyalty. True love does not allow lustful behavior with others. True love does not covet; it does not care for a carnal definition of love that allows fleshly acts and sensual relationships with others.
1) True love is commitment and loyalty to one another. This is very significant. The first commandment deals with commitment and loyalty. God strikes out at the very core of man’s carnal and fleshly behavior, at his tendency to define love in terms that allow him to satisfy his lust. God irrevocably says, “Thou shalt have no other gods” (Ex. 20:3). God demands our total commitment and loyalty.
3 “You shall have no other gods before me.
Let me ask this question - what are other “g”ods?
2) A loving relationship involves trust and respect for the person loved. It is loving the person just for who he is. So it is when we love God. We love God because of Himself, because He is who He is. We love Him because …He is the Creator and Sustainer of life, He is the Savior and Redeemer of our souls, and He is the Lord and Owner of our lives.
3)A loving relationship involves the giving and surrendering of oneself. The drive is to give oneself, to surrender oneself to the other, not to take and conquer. We are to so love God, to give and surrender ourselves to Him.
4) A loving relationship involves knowing and sharing. The desire is to know and to share, learning, growing, working, and serving ever so closely together. We are to know and share with God, learning, growing, working, and serving ever so closely with Him.
God demands that He be loved, and that command is given by Christ. Not only are we to focus on our love towards our Creator, but we are to also love others in the same way we love Christ.
The lawyer had not asked for the second greatest commandment, but the first commandment is abstract. It cannot be seen or understood standing by itself. There has to be a demonstration, an act, something done for love to be seen and understood. A profession of love without demonstration is empty. It is profession only. Love is not known without showing it. Love is an active experience, not inactive or dormant. That is what Christ is pointing out. Love for God acts. Love acts by showing and demonstrating itself. It is foolish for a man to say, “I love God,” and then be inactive and do nothing for God. If he truly loves God, he will demonstrate his love for God through his actions. Anyone who loves another person will do things for the loved one.
The primary thing God wants from us is genuine love for our neighbors, not religious rituals. Performing religious rituals can be beneficial, but it is not the first thing God wants. God wants us to make loving our neighbor the first order V 2, p 152 p 152 of our lives. Religious rituals, observances, ordinances, and laws are lifeless, unfeeling, and unresponsive. They are not helped by our doing them; we alone are helped. They make us feel good and religious, which is beneficial to our growth, but performing religious rituals is not what demonstrates our love for God. Loving our neighbor is what proves our love for God. A man may say he loves God, but if he hates and acts unkindly and spitefully toward his neighbor, everyone knows his religion is profession only.
When a man really sees the love of God for him, he cannot help but love God and share the love of God with his neighbors. It is the love of Christ for us, His death and sacrifice, that compels us to go and love all men everywhere.
Christ says that love includes and embraces all the commandments. In fact, the term the law and the prophets is a term often used to refer to all Scripture. What Christ really says is that all Scripture hangs on love for God and love for one’s neighbor. Christ actually paints a picture by using the word “hang.” He says that love for God is a hanger and love for neighbor is a hanger. Upon these two hangers hang all that God has ever said, whether commandments or revelation of truth or practice of ceremony and ritual. The sum and substance of all that God has said and done is love. And the sum and substance of all that God wants of man is love: love of God and love of neighbor. How much differently would our world look if we loved and was loved like Christ?
Who is Christ?
Who is Christ?
41 Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question,
42 saying, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “The son of David.”
43 He said to them, “How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying,
44 “ ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet” ’?
45 If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?”
46 And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.
It was still Tuesday of the Lord’s last week on earth. He had just been challenged four different times by four different opponents. He had met each group and questioner in a unique way. He had answered the questions and turned them around to teach a much needed truth. Christ had silenced those who opposed His claim to be the Messiah.
Now it was His turn; He questioned His opponents. But Christ did not stand against them as an opponent. Christ questioned them as men who were in error and needed to see the truth. He was reaching out to them in hope. He hoped that some would receive the truth of His Messiahship and accept Him as the Son of God. The spirit of His questioning is seen in the discussion He had with them. Note the question He asked: it is the all important question which He asks of every man: “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?”
He did not ask them what they thought of Him but what they thought about the Messiah. A man’s destiny is determined by what he thinks about the Messiah. Not only who you think He is, but what do they think about the Messiah. Whose son in He???
You see, their thoughts, their understanding, their beliefs on the Messiah truly caused them to think and be honest with themselves. He was trying to point them to the Savior by making THEM think of what they had already read and knew.
The Pharisees answered Jesus’ question by giving the common idea of man—the Messiah is the son of a man, the son of David. The Old Testament definitely said the Messiah was to come from the line of David. It was from such passages as these that the Messiah was known as “the Son of David.” They had a “working knowledge”, but it seems they lacked “personal knowledge” of who the Messiah was.
We do know that there were things the Messiah was to do: Free Israel from bondage, give victory over ALL enemies, bring peace to earth, and provide plenty for all. But their concept was blinded by human thinking - they were thinking in terms of military, political, institutional, and monetary power - they were looking for a simple human leader - they were looking for another David.
Jesus then quotes scripture and asked - How can the Messiah be both David’s Lord and Son? man’s concept of the Messiah as being only human is inadequate—totally inadequate. It is not enough to think in terms of earthly power, of national and political, military and institutional leadership. There is no way a mere man can bring perfect deliverance, leadership, and utopia to this earth. The Messiah is not only man, He is the Lord from heaven.
Jesus was claiming to be the Son of God Himself. Man’s concept has to go beyond the mere human and physical. Man’s idea has to stretch upward into God’s very own heart. God loves this earth; therefore, God sent His Son to earth, sacrificing Him in order to save the earth and all those within it.
Jesus’ question silenced His critics. A heart that is truly honest and a mind that is willing to study and think has to confess the truth. If either is missing, the honest heart or the thinking mind, then a man will turn from Christ and be silent. He will be silent in belief and act in unbelief.
Leadership Ministries Worldwide, Matthew: Chapters 16:13–28:20, vol. II, The Preacher’s Outline & Sermon Bible (Chattanooga, TN: Leadership Ministries Worldwide, 1996), 150-156.