The Law, Scribes, And Jesus

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.