(Slide 1) If you could ask Jesus one question what would it be? If you were able to have 10 minutes face-to-face with Jesus, alone, what would you ask Him?
In the Gospel accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John there were many people who asked Jesus questions. But there were two men who asked Jesus two important questions and the questions are very much related to one another and one underscores our next stepping stone to faith that we examine this morning – the stepping stone of love. Not only are the two questions related, the two men who asked them had much in common: power, influence, culture, and wealth.
The first question was asked by a very learned man who was probably wealthy to some degree. The second question was asked by a very wealthy man who had great religious knowledge and practice.
The first question is found Mark 12:28-34.
‘One of the teachers of religious law was standing there listening to the discussion. He realized that Jesus had answered well, so he asked, (Slide 2) “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”
Jesus replied, “The most important commandment is this: ‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’ The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.”
The teacher of religious law replied, “Well said, Teacher. You have spoken the truth by saying that there is only one God and no other. And I know it is important to love him with all my heart and all my understanding and all my strength, and to love my neighbors as myself. This is more important than to offer all of the burnt offerings and sacrifices required in the law.”
Realizing this man’s understanding, Jesus said to him, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God.” And after that, no one dared to ask him any more questions.
To love God is the most important commandment. Jesus makes that very clear.
In talking about love, we can talk for a while about this major subject. I did a search of the word ‘love’ in the Bible software that I use and it identified over 600 Bible verses!
(Slide 3) I did an internet search of the word ‘love’ on two major sites, Google and Yahoo. (Slide 3a) The Google search revealed this number 1,900,000,000 – how much is that? It is 1.9 billion entries! (Slide 3b) The Yahoo search revealed this number 3,560,000,000 – how much is that? 3.6 billion entries!
Love is a major issue (and a major search topic) for us humans! And I would remind us this morning that the there are two key verses in the Bible, in addition to Jesus’ statement in verse 29, that remind us of the strategic centrality of love in the heart and character of God and thus our faith:
(Slide 4)
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
I John 4:8 But anyone who does not love does not know God—for God is love.
Without love what good are we? Without love what good is God? Without love why bother with faith and church? Without love why care?
Last week I referred to the writing of James Stalker, a pastor/preacher of another generation, in regards to the stepping stone of humility and the stumbling block of pride. He also has some things to say about love and another stumbling block – greed.
After writing about the various aspects of human love, he makes a very penetrating point regarding the love of God that we need to seriously consider and reflect upon. ‘The essential question is not,’ he says, ‘how love began, but whether it is growing.’ (Slide 5)
Let’s think about this for a moment… How is your love for your spouse these days? Is your love for him/her stronger and deeper than when you first met and married?
What about love for your kids? In spite of what has happened (or not happened) is your caring and respect for them stronger and deeper than it was a year ago?
What about your love for God? Is more alive and rooted than it was the day you first believed?
What about your love for this church? Do you care more for those who sit in front and behind you than you did when you first came here? Do you care about the condition of their souls? Do you care about the condition of those who visit or those who have left and you know they don’t go anywhere?
God is love. God loves us deeply and profoundly. Love is a vital and necessary foundational piece to our faith and life.
The man who asked the question, ‘What is the greatest commandment?’ may have had mixed motives when he asked it and yet when he responded to Jesus’ answer, he indicated a potential for the right kind of a relationship with God, the kind of relationship Jesus was looking for and the kind that He would enable with His death and resurrection. But the key word here is ‘potential.’
We have had it said of us and we have said it of others, especially younger people, ‘s/he has great potential.’ I think we have potential throughout our lives not just when we are younger.
I believe that one of the revolutions taking place today is that, despite the economic slowdown, social security concerns, and health care challenges, adults are doing some amazing things in the second half of life. (Just read AARP magazine!) Potential is not just a word that describes younger people it is applicable to all of us because we are created in God’s image.
Are we using our potential, our God-given potential, to serve God no matter what age we are? Jesus had some things to say about that in, for example, the parable of the three servants in Matthew 25. If we love Jesus then one of the ways we show that love is by developing, with the help and power of the Holy Spirit, what we have been given to develop.
Now there is one other thing that I want us to examine in this passage before we move to examine a very large stumbling block to love. In fact, it ties in to the second passage.
Notice that Jesus begins His answer to the question of what is the greatest commandment with a very historical statement, ‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord.
I think that we tend to skip over this statement and focus on the love part. But this statement, mentioned, in two other places, Deuteronomy 6:4 and 9:1, was an ancient call that would have caused the questioner and the audience to ‘sit up and listen.’ It is a ‘listen to what I have to say’ statement and it is a reminder that there is only one God and no other. And this one God is the God that is to be loved and worship above everything and everyone else. Nothing can supersede this love if we are claiming to follow God.
But as we know, there are many competitors to our love for God. In fact, as we examine each of the stumbling blocks we must remember that they are all competition to love. This is the situation that the second person who asks Jesus a very important question has to contend with.
The second question is recorded in what we now call Matthew 19:16-26
During Lent we spent some time with this text and I want to read it again but with our focus in a different direction. Now to help us focus our focus, I want us to think about the motives and priorities of the man who seeks a personally satisfactory answer to his one question (Slide 6) “Teacher, what good things must I do to have eternal life?”
‘Someone came to Jesus with this question: “Teacher, what good things must I do to have eternal life?” “Why ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “Only God is good. But to answer your question, you can receive eternal life if you keep the commandments.” “Which ones?” the man asked.
And Jesus replied: “‘Do not murder. Do not commit adultery. Do not steal. Do not testify falsely. Honor your father and mother. Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
“I’ve obeyed all these commandments,” the young man replied. “What else must I do?” Jesus told him, “If you want to be perfect, go and sell all you have and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
But when the young man heard this, he went sadly away because he had many possessions.
Then Jesus said to his disciples, “I tell you the truth, it is very hard for a rich person to get into the Kingdom of Heaven. I say it again—it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God!”
The disciples were astounded. “Then who in the world can be saved?” they asked. Jesus looked at them intently and said, “Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But with God everything is possible.’
There is a major stumbling block here that tripped up this very good man. Notice his responses to Jesus’ queries and to his response to Jesus’ queries back again: (Slide 7)
‘I’ve obeyed all… What else must I do?’
If you want to be perfect… go sell all you have and give to the poor…then come and follow me.
This man was a good man. He was religiously devout. He was focused on doing ‘good things.’ In fact this focus on doing good things was what prompted the question.
‘Teacher, what good things must I do to have eternal life?’
Jesus’ response is very pointed when you stop to really consider what He said, ‘why ask me about what is good?’ ‘Only God is good.’
The man is focused on actions that will give him eternal life. Jesus is focused on the character quality of ‘good’ and says that only God is ‘good.’
But, as Jesus goes on to say, ‘to answer your question, you can receive eternal life if you keep the commandments.’ And in response to which commandments he needed to keep, Jesus indicates six commandments, all of which are part of what we call the Ten Commandments today. Hum, there are Ten Commandments and Jesus notes six of them. Don’t you think that He would state all of them? Hum…Which four are missing?
Here all are quoting from Exodus 20:
Do not worship any other gods besides me.
Do not make idols of any kind, whether in the shape of birds or animals or fish.
Do not misuse the name of the Lord your God.
Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.
Honor your father and mother.
Do not murder.
Do not commit adultery.
Do not steal.
Do not testify falsely against your neighbor.
Do not covet your neighbor’s house.
One of the sources I consulted this week indicated that these six commandments were ones focused on God-honoring relationships with others. But what is left out of Jesus’ list?
Do not worship any other gods besides me.
Do make idols of any kind.
Do not covet your neighbor’s house.
Observe the Sabbath day…
Two of these deal with idolatry, one with observing the Sabbath, and one… with possessions.
Three of the four not mentioned by Jesus also deal with the issue of what we worship and desire. Anything and everything can become an idol, a substitute for God and when you add the last commandment to the mix, regarding possessions and things of wealth, one word comes to my mind – GREED! (Slide 8)
2 Timothy 6:10: For the love of money is at the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.
Donald Capps has defined greed in three ways. The first way he defines greed is avariciousness which ‘stresses greed for money or riches, and often implies miserliness’ (or stinginess).
The second way is acquisitiveness, ‘which suggests’ notes Capps, ‘an excessive effort in acquiring or accumulating wealth or material possessions.’ The third way is ‘covetousness’ which ‘implies greed for something that another person rightfully possesses.’
Now, is there anything wrong with saving money and not engaging in frivolous spending? No. In fact, many of us would probably feel better about finances these days if we did save more and spend less given prices today. But, when we hold back from legitimately helping others and even hold back from what is rightfully the Lord’s, are we doing what is right?
Is there anything wrong with having things, like clothes, cars, furniture, etc? No! We need some of those things. But how much is too much?
Is it wrong to say to some one, ‘nice car,’ ‘nice promotion,’ or ‘nice house?’ No! But, when jealousy or envy enters our heart, are we endanger of crossing a line?
In Colossians 3:5 we read ‘Don’t be greedy for the good things of this life, for that is idolatry.’ Greed is the worship of things and money that, as we are all too aware, can, and has, crowded out legitimate needs and enjoyments; crowded out family; and crowded out God.
Jesus’ questioner had a problem here and Jesus knew it and He went straight to the heart of the matter. , “If you want to be perfect, go and sell all you have and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
The man wanted to be perfect, he want to do the right things to be acceptable to God. But he had a problem and it was his desire for wealth, probably at any cost, that was the problem. He loved his money and his possessions and it was keeping him from fully experiencing God’s grace and power in his life.
Jesus’ prescription is radical and hard and life changing: sell it all, give the proceeds to the poor, then you will have treasure in heaven, then come and follow me.
Jesus said several things about treasure in heaven; He said a lot about money; and He said a lot about the problem of following God verses following money. In Matthew 6:24 Jesus said, “No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.’
The young man was a good man, many would say, but he loved his money and his possessions more than he loved God. This brings us toward our conclusion this morning and the challenge of how to love God and use our wealth in the right way.
How do you see money? Is it a necessary evil? Is it a pain in the neck? Is it an addiction?
Jesus said something very interesting in Luke 16:9, ‘I tell you, use your worldly resources to benefit others and make friends. In this way, your generosity stores up a reward for you in heaven.’ Now He says this in the context of telling another parable or story about a very shrewd manager who turned a serious business situation into a personal win. Jesus then goes on to make the point with verse 9 of using our ‘worldly resources’ (our money and our possessions) as investments in people and more important as investments in God’s kingdom.
It is a very, very good suggestion.
We cannot live with out money. It is the way that we ‘do business’ and provide for our legitimate needs and those we are responsible for at home and at work. It is also one of the ways that we do God’s work here on earth.
The problem is our inner attitude toward money and this is where love and greed come in contact with one another. Greed is about love of money and possession to the exclusion of everything (and everyone) else. It is a big stumbling block.
We cannot serve God and money. It is one or the other. Put another way, ‘we cannot worship God and money.’ There is only one place in our heart for one or the other.
I conclude with some very helpful and insightful comments from James Stalker. He calls them ‘three convictions’ that need to be ‘sunk deeply in our minds.’
(Slide 9) The first conviction is ‘there are things that are better than money.’ He names ‘good health, a cultivated intelligence, a clear conscience, and a sympathetic heart.’ He goes on to say, ‘There are some things that we can do without, and one of these is wealth. But there are some things we cannot do without, such as a clean conscience and a useful life, and if we choose between the money and these, we forgo the money.’
(Slide 9a) The second conviction is ‘Money is not an end in itself, but only to a means to an end.’ He notes, ‘Ought it not to put new energy into our fingers and help us to sing as we toil, when we reflect that we are earning money to assist the cause for which the Savior died?’
(Slide 9b) The third and final principle that Stalker would have us fix in our hearts is ‘it cannot be kept forever.’ He concludes his remarks about greed by contrasting the legacy of a good life with one that was motivated by avarice or greed and his final sentence gives us perspective that we need to seriously reflect upon this morning. ‘The influence, on the other hand, of a benevolent and useful life goes on after death and reproduces itself in those whom it awakens to aspiration and imitation.’
What are you in love with? How you answer that question determines the course and direction of your life. We can love people, our pets, our jobs, our country, and our friends, but there is only place in our hearts and souls for one key love and Jesus said, it is either God or money.
As we go to prayer, each of us must this morning let the Holy Spirit look honestly and seriously into our hearts and souls and we must listen to Him on this matter.
I believe that the Holy Spirit is already speaking to us about our love and our greed. What is He saying to you this morning?
What changes do you need to make? Maybe you need to start investing your money and your wealth in God’s kingdom. Determine to do that today.
Maybe you battle with accumulation of possessions. Ask your self this question, ‘With all that I have collected, do I want to have my family burdened with getting rid of it after my funeral?’ I also would have you ask yourself, ‘What am I trying to compensate for with all of this collecting?’
Finally, I think that we need to really ask ourselves, ‘Am I content with what I have and own? Do I really need another ___________?’
I pray God’s blessing you on this day and week. Let us pray….
Sources: James Stalker, ‘The Seven Deadly Sins’ and ‘The Seven Cardinal Virtues.’ Navpress Edition 1998; Donald Capps, ‘Deadly Sins and Saving Virtues.’ Wipf and Stock Publishers, 1987.
