Jesus' Baton
Notes
Transcript
Teach these words
Teach these words
Jesus was asked what is the greatest commandment
28 One of the scribes approached. When he heard them debating and saw that Jesus answered them well, he asked him, “Which command is the most important of all?” 29 Jesus answered, “The most important is Listen, O Israel! The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. 31 The second is, Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other command greater than these.”
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Now Jesus could have said they are all equally important or something similar, but He didn’t. He actually gave a specific and succinct answer. In Matthew he summed it up by saying
40 All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands.”
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So if Jesus said this is the most important command that God has given us, then how do you think we should respond? Shouldn’t we do everything we can to remember it, and to actually do it? Shouldn’t we also do everything we can to make sure that it always gets passed on from generation to generation? Because if it’s the most important command for us, and it seems to be a very general and universal command, wouldn’t it be safe to say that it is going to be the most important command for every generation of people everywhere on the planet after us as well? Jesus didn’t make up that command for the first time. He was asked what command that God had already given them was the most important to obey. So Jesus quoted a command that had already been given to them. Let’s go back and look at it in Deuteronomy chapter 6.
4 “Listen, Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. 6 These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart. 7 Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Bind them as a sign on your hand and let them be a symbol on your forehead. 9 Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your city gates.
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You see when God gave them this command He also immediately said, and don’t just love me with all of your heart and soul and strength but teach the next generation to love me with all of their heart and soul and strength as well. Because I didn’t just create you to have a relationship with just you forever. I made them because I want to spend eternity as their father forever as well. I want to spend the rest of my life with them, just as much as I want to spend the rest of my life with you.
Now God gave this command to the Israelites through Moses — Conquest — Period of Judges — Israel asks for king, Saul, David, Solomon, Kingdom splits Israel and Judah, Israel goes into exile by Assyria, while they are in exile and before Judah is exiled by Babylon, Josiah becomes king. Israel and Judah have had lots of kings and most of them have been very unfaithful
1 Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. 2 He did what was right in the Lord’s sight and walked in the ways of his ancestor David; he did not turn aside to the right or the left.
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And now we are going to see a large reason as to why the kings and the people in general did not love God with all of their hearts, souls, minds, and strength.
8 In the eighteenth year of his reign, in order to cleanse the land and the temple, Josiah sent Shaphan son of Azaliah, along with Maaseiah the governor of the city and the court historian Joah son of Joahaz, to repair the temple of the Lord his God. 9 So they went to the high priest Hilkiah and gave him the silver brought into God’s temple. The Levites and the doorkeepers had collected it from Manasseh, Ephraim, and from the entire remnant of Israel, and from all Judah, Benjamin, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 10 They gave it to those doing the work—those who oversaw the Lord’s temple. They gave it to the workmen who were working in the Lord’s temple, to repair and restore the temple; 11 they gave it to the carpenters and builders and also used it to buy quarried stone and timbers—for joining and making beams—for the buildings that Judah’s kings had destroyed. 12 The men were doing the work with integrity. Their overseers were Jahath and Obadiah, Levites from the Merarites, and Zechariah and Meshullam from the Kohathites as supervisors. The Levites were all skilled with musical instruments. 13 They were also over the porters and were supervising all those doing the work task by task. Some of the Levites were secretaries, officers, and gatekeepers. 14 When they brought out the silver that had been deposited in the Lord’s temple, the priest Hilkiah found the book of the law of the Lord written by the hand of Moses. 15 Consequently, Hilkiah told the court secretary Shaphan, “I have found the book of the law in the Lord’s temple,” and he gave the book to Shaphan. 16 Shaphan took the book to the king, and also reported, “Your servants are doing all that was placed in their hands. 17 They have emptied out the silver that was found in the Lord’s temple and have given it to the overseers and to those doing the work.” 18 Then the court secretary Shaphan told the king, “The priest Hilkiah gave me a book,” and Shaphan read from it in the presence of the king. 19 When the king heard the words of the law, he tore his clothes. 20 Then he commanded Hilkiah, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Abdon son of Micah, the court secretary Shaphan, and the king’s servant Asaiah, 21 “Go and inquire of the Lord for me and for those remaining in Israel and Judah, concerning the words of the book that was found. For great is the Lord’s wrath that is poured out on us because our ancestors have not kept the word of the Lord in order to do everything written in this book.”
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Imagine the scene. Josiah becomes king at 8, and at 26 he decides to repair the temple, and they FOUND the book of the law that Moses himself had written. And when the priest gave the word of God to Shaphan, the secretary, he obviously had no idea how important it was. he gave a report on the progress of the work first and then said, oh and the priest found a book that he wanted me to read to you… This is what happens when we fail, first to love the lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength and secondly, when we fail to pass it on to the next generation.
Paul gave similar instructions to Timothy in the New Testament.
1 You, therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. 2 What you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, commit to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.
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And these are very similar instructions that Jesus had given the church.
18 Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
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We must pass our love for God on to the next Generation.
BATON — We can’t afford to fumble the handoff.
The reason there is a next generation is because God wants to spend the rest of His life with them.
9 The Lord does not delay his promise, as some understand delay, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance.
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we don’t know when God is coming back, but we know that his delay in coming is for the purpose of bringing another generation of sons and daughters into existence so that they can choose to love Him with all of their heart, soul, mind, and strength, for all of eternity. But that will only happen if we successfully make the handoff.