The law, Scribes, and Jesus
Mark 12:28-34
Nothing will drive us to prayer like sensing a need and knowing that God is the only one who can fix it-
Church let’s pray-
Prayer-
Good morning Jesus! We have come with a heart filled with excitement, we have come with a heart of expectation…okay Jesus that is what we are suppose to say and that is how we are suppose to feel. I come this morning Lord needing you to fill me with excitement and you Lord to fill me with a heart of expectation. For it is you Lord that we need this morning. We come as we look at your word containing your greatest commandments- Love the Lord your God and loving your neighbor. Help us to obey and live out these commandments in the fullness of your Spirit working in us and through us.
In Jesus name! Amen!
If you would turn to Mark 12, it is where we will study the word of the Lord together.
Familiar verse, tied to a parable, tied directly to the Old Testament.
Jesus talking with so called experts and they are trying to back Jesus in a corner-
Nobody puts Jesus in the corner!
Mark 12:28-34 Read from Bible
It is paralleled with Luke 10 (Will end there in a minute) where an expert in the law was debating Jesus who stood up to him and asked- “What must I do to inherit the kingdom of God.”
He is asking Jesus- the things that you are telling us- what must I do to receive it?
Jesus responds –“What does the scripture say”?
The scripture says “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind… and love your neighbor as yourself.
The background happens when Jesus ministry started- Mark 11- The teachers of the law, the Scribes, the Sadducees, the Pharisees, all those Religious people that opposed Jesus, all wanted Jesus to stumble and fall when it came to ministry to the Jews.
They were the enlightened ones (not Jesus), they were to have the final say when it came to what the Jews should do and how they act (not Jesus) and now here comes Jesus teaching and preaching and changing authority and swaying people to hear what His ‘Father in heaven has declared as the word of truth-
“By what authority are you doing these things”? “Who gave you authority to do these things”- in there twisted minds, they thought because they did not give the okay to Jesus to speak - why was he doing this. (sound familiar)?
He knew he was being trapped, anyway he answered they would attempt to trap him.
They again try to trap him in his own words about the government and paying taxes.
Mark 12-The power of Rome Vs Jesus
Jesus says-Why are you trying to trap me? Bring me a denarius and let me look at it.
Who portrait is on this coin? Caesar… then give to Caesar what is Caesars and give to God what is God’s.
So two questions are asked
How do you love God with all your being?
How do you love your neighbor as yourself?
Question-
How do you love God with your whole being? Is that possible?
Yes! Empathic yes! With the Lord’s help.
Scripture says the Lord works in our heart, soul, and minds
Heart- it is a heart thing
Everything begins with the heart- our heart is where we are invited to let Jesus come in to begin a relationship with him.
We may feel that the heart is only a place of emotion. But it is so much more.
It is a place where many people have been hurt, broken, many people have a piece of the heart missing, and the heart is in need of repair.
Our heart is where we store our emotions, intentions. It is a place the bible says on its own is wicked and selfish. A place of deception and confusion without God.
Before the fall of man the heart was created by God to love God wholly and absolute.
Today after the fall, our heart is need of change, it must again return back to the Lord.
I do not know where your heart is, I do know that God desires to have your heart.
The Prevenient Grace of God came for us while we were yet sinners and He is desiring to take up residency in our hearts.
You have to understand that if God did not want a relationship with us, we could never find God on our own.
If God plays hide and seek, He is the winner, we would never find Him.
Where our hearts have grow cold and hard, Jesus says calling upon his name, confessing him as lord of our lives, and believing that he died for your sins and was resurrected changes a stone heart into a heart for God.
Ezekiel 36:26
“And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.”
Mark 7:21-23
“For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance, and folly.”
Acceptable change of heart
Romans 10:10
“For it is with your heart that you believe and are justifies, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.”
Jeremiah 29:13
“You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.”
Philippians 4:7
“And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.’
Proverbs 21:2
‘Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the heart.”
Psalm 34:18
“The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.”
II. Our soul
Our soul is made up of our mind, emotion and will. It is a large part of our heart and who we are.
It is one reason that we cannot fool God about where we are at spiritually because he knows what we are feeling and what we are thinking.
When our hearts have turned to him, our feelings, our emotions, our thoughts, our decisions become His.
This is where he does transforming work in us. In our heart, soul, and mind.
We cannot let anything of the world overshadow the love of God that is in our heart and soul.
Passion fuels us one way or the other. We will let the world lead or God lead.
We were created with passion and each of us has a passion for something.
Nothing matters to God more than having your whole heart- if you are going to follow me- you are going to have to follow me with your whole heart.
Today, it is acceptable to be passionate about anything except the Lord.
Movies, cars, food, restaurants, fashion, pleasures, sports, people, money.
Save this cause or that cause- They are all great things but the number one passion has to belong to the Lord.
Listen to this verse from Deuteronomy 6:4-5 that describes how we must keep our passion centered on the Lord.
“Hear O Israel: The Lord our God, our Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the door frames of your house and on your gates.”
Do you think as believers we are called to have passion for the things of God? Yes.
There should be no doubt that each of us should be spreading the word and holding the word close to every part of our lives?
Spirit
As a believer, we are filled with the Spirit of God living inside of us and directing our lives.
We are to be living a life of fulfillment and victory in Jesus!
We cannot do that in ourselves and some are failing badly because we are trying to do it without the Spirit of God helping us and guiding us.
Our spirit is the innermost part of our being and is where Jesus wants to make contact with us and dwell within us.
When we accepted Jesus, it is where His spirit was invited into our lives and His presence became important in our lives.
We have to be passionate that we do not let the world crowd out Jesus!
We do not let circumstances and situations beyond our control move Jesus out of Lordship in our lives.
Lastly, loving God with our whole beings takes God’s help,
The only way that we will love others as much as we love ourselves takes the Lord also.
Going back to the text and paralleling with Luke 10, we get our answer.
Loving God with your whole heart, soul, and mind-
For a Jew that was not a problem- they determined and put into a regiment of disciplines of keeping God first in their lives.
The problem really came when asked to love others as you love yourself.
You see when Jesus put these two commandments together- no other teacher of the law did that- he exposed a problem with the faith and love of the Jews.
They could love God and they could love others as long as they were Jewish.-
Luke 10, a familiar verse of the Good Samaritan-
The Priest went across the Street.
The Levite went against the street because they would be unclean for their religious service.
The fact that a Samaritan which was hated by the Jews was the one that stopped and help a Jew and bandaged up his wounds and provided for him was a God thing!
We need more God moments!
It also exposed that most love those that are close to them, those they are like, but do not extend love of God to those that are different.
The Samaritan broke that cycle of hate and looked at the person and the need.
Can you love your neighbor if you look at him as an enemy?
Can you love them even if they are on opposite sides of faith?
Can you love them if they are culturally different?
In the original text… love your neighbor as yourself has to do only with a fellow Jew. It would not have included the Gentiles, those Samaritans, which was acceptable to hate
Jesus put the two together and quoted it without limitations and without boundaries.
He put them together – he took the old law and put new meaning to it!
How do you not love people when the spirit of God dwells inside of you?
You look at them through your own eyes instead of the eyes of Jesus.
You look at them not with a heart of gratitude for what Jesus did for you but with a heart that thinks that you are better than others.
You look at them for what they can do for you instead of what can you do for them.
Love your neighbor as yourself… some love themselves pretty much!
Because all they think of is themselves- Jesus says that if you are going to love your neighbor, it will because you are grateful for what Christ did for you and you want to do that for others.
You cannot love Jesus and not want to be a witness and a servant… Isaiah 43:10
“You are my witnesses, declares the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he, before me no god was formed.”
You cannot love Jesus and not be obedient…John 14:15
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”
You cannot love Jesus and not be sold out and passionate for the things of God
You cannot love Jesus and hate your enemies.
Even now when things seem to be so critical- it does not change the love of God and how we treat others- we don’t have to agree. But we must show the love of Christ!
“But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven."
We are going to pray-
These are going to be challenging times for everyone-
We must show the love of Christ
We have to lay down fear-
We have to lay down pride and a haughty spirit of which side of the track you are on.
For some, we have to lay down hated, because that what has always been presented to us.
Prayer-
This world needs to see Jesus! No matter what they need to see Jesus in us. We do not have to change our values and our beliefs but maybe we need to lay down our feelings and let Jesus shine through.
Help us to do that Jesus because we cannot do that on our won. May your Spirit fill us to overflowing that less of us and more of you is what is need now and let Jesus shine in the dark areas of life.
I believe that you have never and will never give up on your remnant of believers that faithful serve you and love you. Now more than ever, let us shine for you. In Jesus name! Amen.
