Sermon

The First Great Commandment (The Last Week of Jesus, Part 5) - Frank Brancato

Church of Christ - Bakersfield, Ca

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  1. After the Pharisees saw Jesus successfully well, really

  2. embarrassed to Sadducees concerning the resurrection,

  3. they weren't finished. You know, what's interesting is

  4. the Pharisees and the Sadducees did not get along the Pharisees.

  5. Didn't believed in the resurrection while the Sadducees

  6. did not and there was a division or a sect among them, but on

  7. this occasion as they come to challenge Jesus.

  8. They team up. And they joined forces and

  9. Jesus. Now embarrasses, their question

  10. about the resurrection to the Sadducees.

  11. So the Pharisees send somebody else.

  12. They sent a scribe, scribes were copyists of the law and

  13. therefore, they knew the very minute details of it.

  14. In fact, they had a reputation too many considered scribes to

  15. be authorities in the Torah, or the pentateuch, or the first

  16. five books of the law or as the Sadducees referred to it.

  17. Those books of Moses and we're talking about Matthew combat,

  18. Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers and Deuteronomy they were

  19. considered to be X experts. But in Matthew's account in

  20. Matthew chapter 22, the Bible says that this man was a lawyer.

    Matthew 22 chapter mention

  21. I read a number of Scholars that said that he was perhaps called

  22. a lawyer because he was well known for his interpretations of

  23. the law JW McGarvey said this. Is he sent a man?

  24. Like this would be suitable to ask the question because this

  25. would be a man that was qualified to judge the answer.

  26. Now, I don't know what you think about when you think about

  27. lawyers, but lawyers in the days of Israel were not the same kind

  28. of lawyers and attorneys that we have today.

  29. Living under the law of Moses in United, both civil and religious

  30. matters. In fact Israel is a Theocratic

  31. state or We put a theocracy what in the world is that just a big

  32. fancy word for meeting this that priest would rule in the name of

  33. God. So what you have is you have

  34. civil and religious put together in Israel and that would be the

  35. case in this Theocratic state with the exception of when Rome

  36. would intervene with its laws. And so really, we have a

  37. combination of both secular and religious Affairs and it was

  38. Guided by God's word now, religion and politics.

  39. Therefore were one. So I like what brought us says

  40. about this man picture this man, he was a scribe, a copy of the

  41. law. Not just some run-of-the-mill

  42. guy though. This guy was considered an

  43. expert called him, a lawyer brought a said this.

  44. It might be appropriate to view this man.

  45. That approaches Jesus as half lawyer, and half the illusion.

  46. Now, I have to say before we go any further.

  47. The questions that are asked of Jesus.

  48. We're questions that we're trying to get the people to turn

  49. on Jesus. You know, the Pharisees hated

  50. Jesus. You know, there were things

  51. about Jesus, they absolutely hated Jesus, the prince of

  52. peace, bringing salvation to the world.

  53. In the last three years of his life.

  54. There were two things that they absolutely hated about Jesus.

  55. Number one is because he said, I am the Son of God.

  56. That's number one, number two, because of the way he dealt with

  57. the Sabbath. So the Pharisees and all of the

  58. religious leaders, or juice plural, they hated Jesus.

  59. So the questions were all About eight.

  60. But then the Scribe comes and it seems as though the questions

  61. are not quite so difficult or the questions are not quite so

  62. harsh. It almost seems like he is

  63. coming with a friendly tone of it.

  64. Now to appreciate the question this man comes and he says

  65. teacher which is the greatest commandment in the law.

  66. Now I think it's important to remember a couple things about

  67. this. Little bit of History here to

  68. understand Judaism in the Lord's Day.

  69. Among the Jews that were rabbis. And rabbis, by the way, a rabbi

  70. was simply a scholar or a teacher.

  71. In fact, there were times when they called Jesus Rabbi member

  72. those passages. They said Rabbi tell us this,

  73. you know why? They were calling him a

  74. scholarly teacher. Well, rabbis would get together

  75. under the law of Moses and they would discuss and they would

  76. debate. What is the greatest commandment

  77. of all? In other words let's come up

  78. with some kind of hierarchy. What the most important things

  79. of God are all the way down to the least and important things

  80. and they would do that. Here's a question though right

  81. here teacher, which is the great commandment, what they would do

  82. is rabbis devoted themselves as one scholar said, get this to

  83. hair-splitting legalism, And debating over.

  84. What was the greatest? Let's be said this.

  85. Some think that each particular law is to be judged as to the

  86. severity of the penalty attached.

  87. For example, for example, the Sabbath, you know, it's very

  88. interesting about the Sabbath We're discussing this in a

  89. private Bible study. Just the other day, we're

  90. talking about the Sabbath and Jesus the way Jesus handled the

  91. Sabbath. You know what Jesus did about

  92. the Sabbath. He did anything, he wanted to do

  93. with his Seth, you know why? Because he was Lord of the

  94. Sabbath. Jesus said I Am Lord even of the

  95. Sabbath. He said, I'm greater than the

  96. Sabbath. So Jesus did whatever he wanted

  97. on the Sabbath, but some of the Jews thought.

  98. Wait a minute, their greatest Commandments are the Sabbath

  99. because the severity of the penalty of not keeping it.

  100. And they were be discussions about that.

  101. Still others though would say this circumcision was greater

  102. fasting tithing or even ceremonial Washings.

  103. They were more important now. I love what Jesus does in

  104. Matthew chapter 23. In Matthew chapter 23, Jesus is

    Matthew 23 chapter mention Matthew 23 chapter mention

  105. going to address the debate and he's going to show that all of

  106. God's laws are important. Especially those dealing with

  107. mercy and Justice. Look at this passage here.

  108. Matthew 23 and 23, he says to them woe to you scribes and

  109. Pharisees and he calls them Hypocrites.

  110. He said for you pay tithes of MIT and and, and anise, and

  111. cumin. And have neglected, the

  112. weightier Matters of the law. What are the weightier matters

  113. of the law? Jesus said, you neglected

  114. Justice, you neglected mercy and you neglected Faith.

  115. Now he wasn't saying you should have just done those and only

  116. those. He said, you should have done it

  117. all. In fact, you have neglected, the

  118. weightier matters, what you should have done, is you've

  119. should have taken heed, the Justice, mercy and faith.

  120. Without leaving the others undone.

  121. So in the great debate among rabbis under the great debate of

  122. what was the most important at all, that Jesus told them in

  123. Matthew 23, it's all important. All of it is, you should have

  124. kept it all Now. Is there a command that pleases

  125. God? More than others.

  126. Is there such a command you know really I don't think we can

  127. answer that question with a yes or no.

  128. I think it really has to do with motive.

  129. In other words, the motive of an individual asking the question

  130. determines, whether it is a legitimate question or not.

  131. Consider the following. If a person is attempting to

  132. limit obedience based upon a hierarchy.

  133. In other words, what is the minimum that's required of me?

  134. And I'll just do them what's really required and nothing

  135. else. There's a problem in your

  136. spiritual life. You know what that's called.

  137. It's called The God in the Box syndrome.

  138. In other words, it's called, what is required.

  139. What do I really have to do? You know, when somebody actually

  140. says those words, what do I have to do?

  141. Even the mindset is not right. Even the mindset, if a person

  142. wants to ask what is required to do the bare minimum, there's

  143. something wrong with his spiritual life, so it does come

  144. down to motive. However, if a person asks a

  145. question, this question over, what's required for the purpose

  146. of Understanding God's overall will so that they can serve him

  147. better. Then the question is legitimate.

  148. It is profitable and it is pure. All right.

  149. Let's go back to the law of Moses.

  150. Let's go back to the days of the scribes.

  151. The scribes, by the way have come up with 613 separate laws

  152. of the 613. 248 were positive and 365 representing every day

  153. of the year. 365 were - all kinds of stuff.

  154. And by the way, under Jewish rabbinic tradition, under the

  155. codification of rabbinic tradition, there were far more

  156. things, they came up with and God ever said, They came up with

  157. all manner of things. In fact, you know when the Bible

  158. talks about on the Sabbath you couldn't work on the Sabbath.

  159. Couldn't do any servile work on the Sabbath?

  160. You know what they did. The Jews came up with 39 other

  161. things that you couldn't do specifically on the Sabbath

  162. under the codification of rabbinic tradition.

  163. And one of which is you couldn't carry your bed and that's why

  164. Jesus when he healed that man. He took a shot right at their

  165. rabbinic tradition and he said, take up thy bed and walk.

  166. All the And all manner of loss. Separate logs, all kinds of

  167. things. John MacArthur said this.

  168. He said the 613 laws were because interesting.

  169. There are 613 separate individual letters in the Hebrew

  170. text in the decalogue, or the ten commandments.

  171. So, they came up with 613 specific laws.

  172. Let's go to Mark's account. Let's go to Mark's account and

  173. chapter 12 and verse 29. Here Jesus is going to quote

  174. something that's found in Deuteronomy chapter 6 and Verses

    Deuteronomy 6 chapter mention

  175. 4 and 5, you know, the Lord was just so brilliant.

  176. This was a great confession of their faith.

  177. In fact, what I'm going to show you was quoted by Jews every

  178. morning and every evening. And even today, I read this last

  179. week, Pious Jews even today. What Jesus quoted from

  180. Deuteronomy 6 4, & 5. They cite them self every day in

  181. the morning and also in the evening even Pious Jews today.

  182. Jesus going to answer the question but he's going also,

  183. preached, the sermon here and here it goes.

  184. He said this, he said hear o Israel, the Lord Our God.

  185. The Lord is one. And by the way, this is called

  186. this confession is called the Shema and what the Jews would do

  187. is they would cite these words every morning and every evening

  188. it is called the Shema. Because it because of the word

  189. here, another words in Hebrew the Shema because it says hero.

  190. Oh Israel. Very important words to the

  191. Jews. Now it was recited, you know, if

  192. they believed, they believed that if a Jew would recite the

  193. Shema twice a day. It would be passport.

  194. It was their literal passport into Paradise where Abraham's

  195. bosom is described in, Luke 16. In other words, they thought

  196. listen, this is our passport, they recited the twice a day.

  197. Now, there's more. this Shima here in this passage and

  198. Deuteronomy was one of four passages that were copied and

  199. they were put on small pieces of parchment and placed in

  200. phylacteries, Now you've heard you've heard us.

  201. Talk about phylacteries know when Jesus was criticizing them

  202. and condemning them. He said you broaden your

  203. phylacteries and the purpose was to be seen of men.

  204. What they would do is is really interesting.

  205. I think they would take Parks mix a little parchments and they

  206. would write passages of scripture for different passages

  207. that was one. You know what they would do?

  208. The men would take the parchments and a put it in a

  209. Factory, a phylacteries a pouch, John MacArthur said it's like a

  210. little box and you know what they would do, they would bind

  211. the Box on the left arm, the men would at the time of prayer and

  212. you know, what else they would do?

  213. They bind it on the forehead, they walk around like a bunch of

  214. box heads with it on their forehead.

  215. And I want you to get this picture, please.

  216. Jesus is speaking to Pharisees that.

  217. No doubt stood before him with the boxes on their head.

  218. They miss the whole point. Ever wonder why they did that?

  219. You ever wonder why they did that?

  220. Why did they bind those? Phylacteries, well, they did it

  221. because of their literal interpretation of Deuteronomy

    Deuteronomy 11 chapter mention

  222. chapter 11 and verse 18, in Deuteronomy, 11 and 18.

  223. The Bible says, therefore you shall lay up these words of mine

  224. in your heart and in your soul and what and bind them as a sign

  225. on your hand. Left arm time prayer for the man

  226. and they shall I'll be as frontlets frontlets between your

  227. eyes, put it on the forehead. You know, what that really

  228. means? That really means what it means

  229. to us, too. And the Bible talks about in the

  230. Old Testament about raising, your children, talks about doing

  231. this, talk about binding, the word of God on their foreheads

  232. as frontlets between their eyes or before their eyes.

  233. You know what that means? That is very simple.

  234. It simply means when you bind it on your hand, it is a symbolic

  235. gesture. Not literally what you're saying

  236. is what the word of God is saying is everything you do with

  237. your hands, your deed, your actions Have to be with

  238. scriptures in mind. and everything that you see you view

  239. through the I've scripture when you make all your decisions,

  240. That's what that means. You know, perception.

  241. Is some people say, perception is reality.

  242. That's not true. It is sort of but let me modify

  243. it perception. Is your reality?

  244. So what your perception is your reality?

  245. Everybody can have all manner of perceptions.

  246. Right, your reality. So what do you got to do?

  247. What do we have to do to have the right reality?

  248. We have to bind the word of God on our foreheads as it were, and

  249. let the word of God be as frontlets between our eyes, and

  250. make our decisions with the scriptures in mind.

  251. Well, they understood the passages.

  252. They understood and they agreed with what Jesus quoted

  253. obviously. But the Pharisees overlooked,

  254. the essence of the passage. They failed to understand the

  255. application of it. No doubt.

  256. No wonder why Jesus says about the Pharisees, what they say do

  257. it, why they know the law. But what they do not do that

  258. because they say and they do not same as here.

  259. They knew the passage probably quoted verbatim every single

  260. time probably standing there with eloquent speech, and all of

  261. that and masterfully, quote, the word of God, and miss the hook,

  262. excuse me, and miss the whole point.

  263. You know what the point was? They missed the essence of the

  264. passage which was this. True.

  265. Inner commitment to God is Not mindless formalism of dry

  266. tradition, under the Old Law. It's about a heart that's in

  267. tune, with its creator. Now, here's the answer to the

  268. scribes. In verse 30 of Mark chapter 12,

    Mark 12 chapter mention

  269. here's the answer. So the question was, what's the

  270. first commandment? And you shall love the Lord,

  271. your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all

  272. your mind, with all your strength.

  273. This is the first commandment. Now, interesting about the word

  274. love, and I realize that sometimes people have a

  275. misunderstanding about love and sometimes we think love is just

  276. what you feel. This word love doesn't even mean

  277. that at all this word Love Actually refers to an act of

  278. will that is born, get this, not a feeling of intelligence and

  279. purpose. In other words, the love that

  280. you have for God is a choice. And it's a choice that is based

  281. on intelligence and purpose. And it's an active will not an

  282. act of feeling. Just a little side note, this

  283. free those side note, you know when people talk about falling

  284. in love and they can't really help, they just fell in love and

  285. then one day they break up. I just fell out of love.

  286. Ivan preached on that sermon about 15 years, but I'll tell

  287. you. That's really crazy.

  288. When you think about that following in falling out, just

  289. do right in fell out. Do you know that love is a

  290. choice? It always is a choice.

  291. Person might have a feeling of infatuation, but that's not

  292. love. Real love that you need for the

  293. rest of your life. In your relationships, in your

  294. marriage, in your spiritual life, it is the kind of love.

  295. That is an act of will And it's, when I say I choose to love you

  296. for the rest of my life. I choose that.

  297. You say that to your spouse. You say that to your God, they

  298. failed to understand the concept of that.

  299. Jesus says, here's the command. Here it is.

  300. You got to love your God with all your heart will and soul.

  301. Now interesting, obviously, this is agape love.

  302. An agape love. Can truly be described only

  303. agape. Love.

  304. Can truly be described by the phrases heart, soul and mind.

  305. Let's talk about what heart means. yeah, I know we speak of

  306. the heart often and we should but Heart In.

  307. This passage means this. What is it?

  308. What is art? Heart is the main source of man

  309. stops his words and his deeds, it is one's inner personal

  310. being. It is the center of our

  311. physical, emotional, and spiritual life, it is even the

  312. center of our personality. As Terry osberg talked about his

  313. heart. That's it, that's your

  314. personality. That's what you are.

  315. You've heard me say, you are what you are.

  316. Sometimes it sounds harsh but really is really is true.

  317. No doubt. That's what Jesus meant when he

  318. said, where your treasure is, that's where your heart will

  319. also be. Main source of man's thoughts is

  320. the heart. All right, the center of one

  321. spirituality and Percy at personality, it's not left to

  322. emotion for chance. it's the kind of love that has a

  323. Readiness to do anything that God requires That's what it

  324. means to love God, with all your heart.

  325. What About Your Soul? You know, the works sold their,

  326. let's be said refers to the life that animates the body.

  327. Now, usually, in scripture, the word Soul refers to a

  328. combination of spirit and body or ones lat.

  329. So to love God with all One Soul means this, we just sum it up

  330. like this. It means this be ready to

  331. sacrifice your life for God if faithfulness to God demands it.

  332. That's what that means. That's how you love God with all

  333. your soul. And I'm so thankful.

  334. So, glad that Alan Bailey priest it, right?

  335. Not because I appreciate that way because it is right in

  336. Revelation, 1 and 10, when Jesus said, but be thou faithful unto

  337. death and I will give you a crown of life.

  338. It means not only it includes, but not only until your life is

  339. over or all of your life until you die.

  340. But it It actually means even if it means your death, Jesus was

  341. writing to people that were being persecuted, so harshly and

  342. badly. That some of them were going to

  343. lose their life. You know what?

  344. Jesus said you'd be faithful even if it cost you your life,

  345. you know what that is. That's loving God, with all your

  346. soul. You can do anything. if you have

  347. to, Your faithfulness requires it.

  348. All right now, wait a minute now.

  349. Try to put this together. My head, talk about the heart.

  350. We know the heart's not feeling we know the heart has something

  351. to do with your thinking your mind.

  352. So why is mind listed separately?

  353. What's mine mean? What does it mean with all of

  354. your mind will remember this? The heart is the source of man's

  355. thoughts. The mind is not only the seat of

  356. intellectual life, but it's also the seat of our disposition and

  357. our attitude. don't you see they go together because this your

  358. attitude is the aroma of your heart which is your inner being

  359. It is the aroma of your inner being they go together.

  360. Have you ever stopped to consider how important your

  361. attitude is? I'm going to tell you something.

  362. Attitude is so important. Did you know this?

  363. Now I'm going to tell you one of the hardest things in the world,

  364. the beat is cancer. It's a tough one.

  365. It's a tough one. And some people succumb to it

  366. and do and don't make it. It's a hard hard battle,

  367. fortunately, they've making great strides and people have

  368. our beating it today. That's wonderful.

  369. I'm very thankful. That I happen to be the

  370. recipient of that good stuff. but I'ma tell you something,

  371. when you talk about things in life about attitude, did you

  372. know that your attitude even though you're taking the

  373. medicine, even though you're praying to God and all the

  374. things involved, it has been proven that a person with a

  375. positive attitude has a far, better chance to beat that

  376. terrible disease then if they have a rotten one, in other

  377. words, if you got a rotten one, can cost you your life, can you

  378. imagine having a rotten spiritual attitude?

  379. What's that going to do? Ruin your spiritual life.

  380. And the way you have to do and what you got to do, you got to

  381. get rid of your rotten attitude, I'm saying you as in general not

  382. talking about anybody in particular, you got to get rid

  383. of your rotten spiritual attitude so you don't die

  384. spiritually. Attitudes.

  385. Everything you go. It is.

  386. It's the mind again, it's a choice and it is a reflection of

  387. our inner being so. Partial dedication, folks is no

  388. dedication at all. In these passages, we find this

  389. that we are to love God with all of our faculties strength.

  390. By the way, is spiritual strength, not physical,

  391. strength, spiritual strength. And incidentally, did you know

  392. that the greatest act of strength?

  393. Length is submission. I'm going to tell you, people

  394. don't like to do this in the world.

  395. They don't like to submit to anything.

  396. They want to be strong on the outside and determine what

  397. they're going to do and who they're going to obey and all

  398. that. But I'ma tell you right now, the

  399. greatest act of strength is willful submission.

  400. Now, that's every Christian to God, Your stuff to consider how

  401. great and how strong are Christian.

  402. Wives are When they have made the choice to willfully submit

  403. to their husbands as an act of strength.

  404. Pretty amazing. But that's every Christian to

  405. folks. You know what the Lord is

  406. saying? Here, you got to love God with

  407. all your faculties, what are they?

  408. Your heart, your soul your mind and your strength.

  409. With all of that. Not partial dedication, Mark 12

  410. and 30. This is the first commandment

  411. Jesus sums up what he said. He sums up the answer.

  412. To the question is that this is the first commandment.

  413. But in response to describes question of what's the first or

  414. the greatest Jesus. Now is going to add something.

  415. I love this. Jesus is now going to add

  416. something, he's going to preach another sermon, he's going to

  417. bring it on down. It's going to make so much

  418. sense. You've heard me say this before.

  419. It is true that some of the things that Jesus priests were

  420. some of the most profound things in all of the Bible and yet he

  421. being the master, he could preach it in such a way that was

  422. so simple that even a child. Could understand.

  423. You know, what Jesus says about. Loving God, they got it.

  424. Then he said this is the first commandment, they got it.

  425. But you know what else? Now he's going to go to

  426. Leviticus 19 and 18 and this is what he's going to say.

  427. It's found in verse 31 of Mark 12 and the second is like this,

  428. you shall love your neighbor as your self.

  429. Did you see that? You should love your neighbor.

  430. As yourself, you know what that means?

  431. That means you have to love yourself.

  432. You know what that means? Hating yourself.

  433. Is a sin? When you come into the world,

  434. did you not know you've been given the quality of loving

  435. yourself? And if I'm not telling the truth

  436. right here, then why did he say? You got to love your neighbor as

  437. yourself. If it's alright to hate yourself

  438. and we know we can't hate I want to add something else too.

  439. I don't care who you are. I don't care who you are and I

  440. don't care what your background is.

  441. You've made mistakes. And so have I, and sometimes our

  442. mistakes shame us. Okay.

  443. Okay. Make it right?

  444. And be forgiven. Okay.

  445. If God can forgive you like it never happened.

  446. Why can't we forgive our self? We don't hate ourselves, folks.

  447. We love ourself. That is scriptural.

  448. In fact, Jesus says In this passage in this commandment from

  449. Leviticus, Jesus is saying that the standard in which you

  450. measure love for your neighbor is the same one that's on par

  451. with loving yourself. Again, if you can hate yourself,

  452. you can hate your neighbor. Can't do it.

  453. Now. Here's kind of the problem,

  454. though. You might wonder what who is my

  455. neighbor. You never went Jesus.

  456. Dealt with the lawyer one time. I'm not going to go very deep

  457. into this, but really quickly. He dealt with the lawyer one

  458. time. And Jesus tells the lawyer that

  459. there was a man that fell among Thieves on the Jericho Road.

  460. We know the whole thing fast forward, a priest went by and

  461. passed on the other side. A worshiper of God.

  462. He did nothing a levite, a worker in the temple.

  463. You know what? He did, he come over, took a

  464. look and then he passed by on the other side.

  465. But then there was a man. And he didn't know this man at

  466. all. He was a Samaritan.

  467. And the Jews looked down upon the Samaritans, the combination

  468. of a Jew and a gentile. They hated their guts.

  469. He comes on the scene. He sees this man, he fixes his

  470. wounds. He puts him on his Beast, he

  471. takes him to the end. He tells the head of the end

  472. there. He tells the man here, here's

  473. money, right here, out of my pouch, and if it's not enough to

  474. cover his expenses while he recovers and recuperates, when I

  475. come back, I'll pay it Jesus turns to the lawyer much like

  476. this guy right here, he turns to the lawyer and he said, let me

  477. ask you this because the man had said, well, who's my neighbor

  478. Again, God In The Box. Give me the bare minimum.

  479. I'm going to love him and I don't have to love him, so if I

  480. don't have to love him, I'm not. Jesus says, let me ask you this,

  481. which one was neighborly to the man.

  482. And the lawyer said, the one that showed him Mercy.

  483. The definition of neighbor in the dictionary.

  484. You don't. It is a night dweller.

  485. Meaning you live next to somebody by live next to Terry.

  486. Terry is my neighbor. It's not the word neighbor here,

  487. folks. The word neighbor here is

  488. referring to anybody. Anybody who providentially is

  489. brought your way. And we have to treat them with

  490. love as we love our self. Now upon reflection one.

  491. Observes this McMillan said, this one observes that the first

  492. commandment, in fact, includes the second because you can't

  493. love God without loving your fellow.

  494. Man, they go hand in hand. In fact, these two passages,

  495. that Jesus quotes are actually the essence of the two tables of

  496. the decalogue, or the 10 commandments for Ample.

  497. The first four Commandments regulate man's relationship to

  498. God. In fact, there are practical

  499. summary of what it means to love God.

  500. That's the first four Commandments the last six of the

  501. Ten Commandments regulates man's relationship to his fellow man.

  502. In other words, a practical summary of what it means to love

  503. your neighbor. Jesus adds this he said, here's

  504. your answer. Here's the first commandment.

  505. Here's the great. Commandment in the law.

  506. I'm going to add this though. Got to love your neighbor as

  507. yourself. Ourselves, you know why they go

  508. hand-in-hand. You know why they're both the

  509. same. One.

  510. Includes the other. In fact Jesus said this.

  511. There is no other commandment greater than these.

  512. Mark chapter 12. 32 and 33. Here's the response.

    Mark 12 chapter mention

  513. I'm almost finished. So the scribes said to him well

  514. said teacher. You have spoken, the truth for

  515. there is one God and there is no other.

  516. But he, and to love him with all the heart, with all the

  517. understanding, with all the soul, with all the strength and

  518. to love ones neighbor, as oneself is more than all the

  519. whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.

  520. Now, you know what Jesus said after this, he said in Mark 12

  521. and 34, Jesus saw that he answered wisely.

  522. Hey. now, the word wisely means sensibly, or in intelligently

  523. when Jesus saw that, the man answered intelligently In that

  524. response to Jesus. He was showing spiritual insight

  525. and intelligence by seeing that moral responsibilities were far

  526. more important than ceremonial observances of the Old Law.

  527. Again, remember that? Remember the weightier matters?

  528. They neglected, the weightier matters.

  529. They did all home and they did all kinds of stuff neglected.

  530. The weightier matters. And Jesus says this.

  531. He says to this man. You are not far from the kingdom

  532. of God. Remember in a theocracy, by the

  533. way, which is a system of government, where priests ruled

  534. the name of God, under the, under the Old Law, in this

  535. theocracy people that were described as being far off.

  536. They were either exiled Jews according to Isaiah 57, or they

  537. were Gentiles. So you could be in proximity,

  538. you can be distant from the kingdom, I guess you could say

  539. and it would be described in miles or ceremonial stuff.

  540. Observances. But not the New Kingdom.

  541. Don't you see the new kingdom is all about and the distance is

  542. not measured by Miles, its measured by your spiritual

  543. condition. Jesus says that in this manner,

  544. this man answered wisely, intellectually intelligently.

  545. And Jesus says, you're not that far away.

  546. You're not that far away. in other words, intellectual you're

  547. qualified or almost qualified for admission to the kingdom and

  548. then in verse 34 At the end of the verse but after that no one

  549. dared, question him. Remember the question seems as I

  550. mentioned a little bit ago, the question of the Scribe, seems

  551. kind of friendly. But listen, there's no

  552. friendliness going on here at all.

  553. None at all, you know, when Jesus came into Jerusalem, all

  554. those, the hated Jesus. Remember how many people their

  555. loved Jesus, at least of, as of, then the multitudes and them and

  556. all of that, that would turn on Jesus later.

  557. They love Jesus. So you know what, the religious

  558. leaders said we got to do, we've got to try to turn the people

  559. against Jesus because we want to kill it.

  560. So it sounds as though it's kind of nice polite friendly

  561. questioning from The Scribe but none of it was friendly, it was

  562. captious. It was hostile with the

  563. intention of into snaring. Jesus to destroy his credibility

  564. with the multitudes. And after Jesus masterfully

  565. answers everyone at all backfired.

  566. He answered the Pharisees, he answered the herodians, he

  567. answered the Sadducees and now just straightened out the

  568. Scribe. And the Bible says this.

  569. Oh, after all. That they didn't estimate other

  570. thing. Have you ever heard the phrase?

  571. Or the term, or this little rule of thumb?

  572. When a lawyer in a court of law? I've heard this, my whole life,

  573. a lawyer is never supposed to ask a question that he doesn't

  574. already know the answer. So if you are, you got somebody

  575. on the stand, you ask him a question.

  576. You know, what to look foolish? And prove, the other guys case.

  577. So you better know what the answer is.

  578. Can you imagine how it was with Jesus?

  579. You got the Pharisees, you got the herodians, you get the

  580. Sadducees, you got the scribes. You got a man?

  581. That was a lawyer. They think they got him dead to

  582. rights. He answers every one of them and

  583. you know what happened? They said oh we're going to

  584. know. That's another thing.

  585. We just took a weapon, we better not ask him one more thing.

  586. But in closing, the Lord's not done.

  587. He answered the question and then now he's going to ask a

  588. question. He says to them.

  589. He says what do you think of Christ?

  590. He said whose son is he? You know, they said, oh, he's

  591. the son of David. You know, the son of David was a

  592. time for the Messiah, the Jews believed in the Messiah, they

  593. just rejected the one that they got.

  594. They rejected the one that they got, they knew about the word

  595. Christ. The Christ, they knew about the

  596. word Messiah, they knew all about that.

  597. They knew about son of David. They knew what that represented,

  598. they just recognized, or didn't recognize Jesus as the Messiah.

  599. Jesus asked him this? What do you think of Christ?

  600. Whose son? Is he?

  601. And they said, oh, he's the son of David.

  602. And then Jesus said this, how could David being in spirit,

  603. meaning, dead, Call his son, Lord.

  604. Can't you just see him stand there?

  605. Like penguins is staring? Saying nothing.

  606. It says they couldn't even answer.

  607. Jesus kind of got a little shot in there.

  608. Dan. This is what happened on this

  609. Tuesday in the day of questions. Now, the questions are over

  610. with, but I'll tell you what. The Lord is not done.

  611. Oh, there's a sermon coming. There is a sermon coming.

  612. And he's going to rebuke them and I'll tell you, you could

  613. just see the Hostile Mobs turning on him little by little

  614. little by little, as we press toward Friday.

  615. And remember this Tuesday, there's more written and

  616. described and put down and recorded on Tuesday than any

  617. other day except for Friday in the last week in the life of

  618. Jesus. We thank you for listening to

  619. our podcast, put on by the Church of Christ at 22:15 plans.

  620. Road in Bakersfield, if you would like any additional

  621. information or you would like to receive a free Bible

  622. correspondence, course by mail. Please email us at info at True

  623. Church of Christ Bakersfield.com.

  624. Our service times are on Sundays at 10:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. and

  625. Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m. Please make plans to join us.

  626. We would love for you to be our honored guest.