The Messiah's Two Core Values Series

The Messiah's Two Core Value's

Text: Matt. 22:34-40

Introduction

1. Illustration: Here are some questions you can ask to zero in on your core values.

a. If I knew that tomorrow would be the last full day of my life, how would I spend the day?

b. At the end of my life, what do I want to look back and say I’ve accomplished?

c. If a list of adjectives were compiled to describe my life, what words would I like on that list?

d. If I were to die tomorrow, what would I want people to remember as my most important achievement?

e. Am I investing myself in those things that matter to me?

f. Is there any person or cause I would be willing to die for?

g. What is vitally important to me, what has some importance, and what is a complete waste to me?

h. If I were to write a letter to my children about what was most important in my life, what would I tell them?

i. If only a single word could be written on my tombstone, what would that word be?

2. According to Jesus, there are only two core values that really matter...

a. Love God

b. Love People

3. Let's stand as we read Matt. 22:34-40.

Proposition: When we stand before God on two things about us will matter: did we love God and did we love people.

Transition: Jesus said our first core value should be to...

I. Core Value # 1: Love God (34-37).

A. You Must Love the Lord

1. Well one thing you got to say about the Pharisees, they may be a bunch of Bozo's but at least they are a persistent bunch of Bozo's.

a. They had tried numerous times to try and trick Jesus into saying something they could use to arrest him.

b. Then they watched their enemies the Sadducees try and fail miserably.

c. But they were not about to let things rest and they decide to go after Jesus one more time.

2. However, this time they take a different approach. Matthew tells us, "But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees with his reply, they met together to question him again."

a. When Jesus answered the absurd question about the seven brothers by showing that even Moses taught the resurrection, He had put the Sadducees to silence.

b. The verb translated "silenced" literally means to muzzle, to forcefully restrict the opening of the mouth.

c. The Sadducees were verbally incapacitated by the Lord, rendered utterly speechless.

d. The Pharisees doubtlessly had mixed feelings when they heard the news.

e. They must have been pleased that the Sadducees had been proved wrong about Moses not teaching resurrection.

f. But that feeling was far outweighed by a sense of dismay and frustration at still another failure to discredit their common enemy, Jesus (MacArthur New Testament Commentary – Matthew 16-23).

g. Yet they couldn't just quit. They had to do something about Jesus.

h. So they devise a better plan.

3. We are told "One of them, an expert in religious law, tried to trap him with this question..."

a. After seeing how Jesus had easily handled the Sadducees the Pharisees were not going to send a novice.

b. Instead they chose a lawyer, not in the modern sense of defending someone in trouble with authorities, but in the sense of an expert in the Law of Moses.

c. He was probably the most learned and astute expert on scriptural and rabbinical law in their ranks, and if anyone would be a match for Jesus, they thought, this man would be (MacArthur New Testament Commentary – Matthew 16-23).

4. So this lawyer asks Jesus this question, “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?”

a. Some Pharisees ask a question they had probably practiced before, since their own teachers debated among themselves which commandment was the greatest.

b. Although all commandments were equally weighty in one sense, rabbis had to distinguish between "light" and "heavy" commandments in practice (Keener, 329).

c. Judaism taught that there were 613 commandments in the Law, one for each of the letters in the Ten Commandments.

d. These 613 commandments consisted of 248 positive commands and 365 negative commands.

e. They were divided into major and minor commands, or more and less important (Horton, 485).

f. Although the scribes and Pharisees considered the whole Old Testament to be authoritative, and not just the five books of Moses as did the Sadducees, they nevertheless considered Moses to be the supreme human figure in Scripture.

g. Moses had spoken with God face to face, was the humblest man on earth, and had taken the engraved tablets of the law directly from the hand of God, as it were.