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All the Law & Prophets: Sermon · Beyond the Sermon

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You're listening to Beyond the Sermon, the podcast the First
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Methodist Church in Collingswood, NJ.
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On this podcast, the goal is not just to share our sermons, but
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to go beyond the sermon and talk about what we're learning and
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what God is doing in us and in our community.
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This fall, we're living in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke
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and John. And learning how to live.
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From our model Jesus. This sermon is part of our
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series The Gospels. You can find out more
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information about our church at fumccollingswood.org.
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Thanks for listening. Today's Scripture comes from the
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Gospel of Matthew chapter 22, verses 34 through 40.
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But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the
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Sadducees with his reply, they met together to question Him
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again. One of them, an expert in
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religious law, tried to trap him with this question.
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Teacher, which is the most important commandment of the law
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of Moses? Jesus replied, You must love the
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Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all
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your mind. This is the first and greatest
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commandment. A second is equally important.
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Love your neighbor as yourself. The entire law and all the
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demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.
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This is a reading of the word of the Lord.
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All right, well, as they're heading out as, as I've been
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reading through the Gospels with our fall reading plan, something
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has stuck out to me, something that I don't know if it has
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struck me in quite the same way before.
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You see, as a follower of the way of Jesus, I've think I've
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tended to focus on the interactions between Jesus and
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his followers, right? Like in particular the ones we
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know as the 12 disciples or the 12 apostles, the ones Jesus
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invited into that formal apprenticeship relationship,
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right? There's a lot that we can learn
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about following Jesus through those stories.
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But what has stood out to me this time, as we've been reading
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our way through Matthew, are all the stories of people who only
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had one single recorded story, right?
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One single interaction with Jesus that was recorded there.
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There may have been others. Most likely they'd been in the
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crowds at different points as Jesus was teaching and doing
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miracles. But as far as what is recorded
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in Scripture, there's only one interaction.
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And it's led me to thinking, if I had one shot with Jesus, what
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would it be? Would I ask him a question?
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Would I ask him to do something? Have you ever thought about it?
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If you had one chance to stand before Jesus, what question
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would you ask him? Would you ask him something
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about your future? Something about the way
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something happened in your past? Would it be a deep theological
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question, like Jesus? What did you really mean about
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predestination? If you're in Sunday school, all
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that that hits. Would it be something deeply
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personal? Would you ask for the next
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Powerball number? Right.
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Or, or, or maybe it wouldn't be a question you'd ask at all.
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Maybe. Maybe there's a miracle, a
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healing you'd seek from it, maybe for yourself, for someone
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you love. It's interesting to think about,
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isn't it? Would I come like the rich young
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ruler asking what do I need to do to be saved?
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Would I come like Gyrus, begging for the life of my sick child?
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Maybe I would come like one of those four friends who, in their
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own faith, brought their paralyzed friend to Jesus and
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saw him healed. Or maybe it'd be more like that
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one woman who who just tried to sneak a touch of Jesus robe
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instead of getting right face to face with Jesus.
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Hopefully, hopefully I wouldn't come like the Pharisees and the
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Sadducees, right? They they came to Jesus
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repeatedly trying to trip him up with their questions.
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Like when the Pharisees asked if it was lawful to pay taxes to
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Caesar, right? Or when the Sadducees asked
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which brother would be married to a woman in the resurrection
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if seven men ended up marrying the same woman.
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All these questions trying to trick Jesus and trap him.
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That's where we find ourselves this week in our reading.
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We're in Matthew's version of Holy Week, everything that
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happened between Jesus's triumphal entry in chapter 21
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and the resurrection in chapter 28.
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And just as a little side note, if if you wish, now that you had
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started reading Matthew along with us, but for whatever reason
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you didn't and now you feel a little left behind or left out
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or anything like that, tomorrow is a reset.
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OK, tomorrow's a reset. Monday morning we start reading
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Mark's Gospel right, right from chapter 1.
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So if you want to jump in, it's a great time.
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Over the next 61 days, we'll read Mark and Luke and John, or
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we'll listen to them however you engage with Scripture best.
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Anyway, we find ourselves here in Holy Week.
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This is Jesus's final visit to Jerusalem, which as we read
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today, doesn't end with his burial and death, but with his
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resurrection and ascension into heaven.
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And it's during this time in Jerusalem when Jesus clears the
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temple of those who have been abusing and extorting those who
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came to worship. That's happening.
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All these things are are taking place.
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And Jesus's relationship with these religious leaders, it kind
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of reaches a point of no return, right?
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It's not that Jesus still didn't want them to repent and turn and
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have their eyes open, but they set their hearts against Jesus
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and they began plotting ways to arrest Jesus and even have him
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killed. So it's during this time of
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growing tension that that the, the Pharisees, the scribes, the
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Sadducees are all groups we hear about through the Gospels.
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They attempted to get Jesus to say something that would be
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worthy of arresting him for, right?
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These three groups, they, they didn't really have anything in
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common with one another except that they wanted power and
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influence in Israel and they hated Jesus for upsetting the
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balance. So in one of these interactions,
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some of these Pharisees, one of these groups, they come trying
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to score a point against Jesus. They're trying to trap Jesus
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into elevating one of the 613 Old Testament laws over the
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other 613. It's a lot of laws, but they're
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hoping that they can get Jesus to say something publicly that
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they deemed blasphemous so they can have a reason to arrest him
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without causing the crowds who are following Jesus to riot.
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The issue was these Pharisees knew the Scriptures.
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They knew them frontwards, backwards.
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They they had memorized them. They knew all of those laws.
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They knew the scriptures, but they had missed the heart of
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God. They knew the law of Moses, but
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they didn't understand what it was meant to point to.
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They thought the whole point was actions and behaviors.
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When God was really interested in changed hearts.
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It wasn't about people earning God's favor through their
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behavior. It was about God having a people
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who reflected His character, His heart to the world.
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When someone's actions and words don't line up with their heart,
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as Jesus said was often the case here with the Pharisees.
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That's that's a form of what we call hypocrisy, right?
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And some of other Jesus, other teachings that we read this
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week. He calls out those Pharisees
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very clearly for doing all these things that they're doing, not
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because their hearts had been changed, but for show, for
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appearance. It was performative, right?
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Because their hearts were still far from God.
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Friends, let me just say here this morning, with all the love
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in the world, this isn't just a Pharisee problem, right?
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It's still quite possible to know the Bible and to know it
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well and to miss the heart of God.
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It's still possible to focus on saying and doing all the right
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things and not let Jesus change our hearts.
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Anyway, back to our our our story this morning.
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How did Jesus answer these Pharisees?
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They came asking him which was the most important commandment
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that Moses gave to us. And I'd imagine they, they were
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probably expecting one of the big 10, right?
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The big 10, like you shall have no other gods before me or you
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shall not make a graven image of the Lord your God.
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You know those ones that God wrote on the stone with his own
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finger? They, they seem pretty
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important, right? But he doesn't.
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That's not Jesus's answer. And in a pretty stunning move,
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Jesus quotes from the Shema. If you don't know what the Shema
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is, that's OK. The Shema was basically a creed
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that the people, the Jewish people recited daily, twice a
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day even. It comes from Deuteronomy
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chapter 6 and it says, listen, O Israel, the Lord our God, the
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Lord alone, you must love the Lord your God with all your
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heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength, right?
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That's what Deuteronomy says, but the the gospel writers
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record that Jesus said it a little differently than
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Deuteronomy did. In Matthew, Jesus says you must
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love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul
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and not your strength, but this time with all your mind.
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Mark and Luke put it this way. They say you must love the Lord
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your God with all your heart, with all your soul, all your
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strength and all your mind. All right, we don't really have
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to get caught up in in those differences between them.
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It's good to acknowledge them. But, but remember, these are
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these stories are based on eyewitness accounts which were
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written down 3040, fifty years after the events took place.
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It's OK that they're a little different.
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That doesn't have to shake our faith.
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The important thing is what Jesus is saying here, right?
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And Jesus is saying that the most important thing is to love
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God with everything you are, everything you are.
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It's not enough just to love God with our hearts or with our
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minds. It's not just about emotions or
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affections or intellectual ascent.
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It's also with our bodies, with our actions, with our souls,
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right our our personalities, our wills.
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It's everything with all your heart, all your soul, all your
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mind and all your strength. Did did Jesus leave anything
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out? I don't think so.
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I can't think of anything. And what all of these gospels
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agreed on, whether they put all four or just three of them, what
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they all agree on is that this is how we're to love God.
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And I think when the Pharisees asked their question, they were
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probably expecting an action commandment, right?
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Something related to behavior or obedience.
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But for Jesus, it's about love. It's a relational word, a
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relational command. It's a word that speaks to the
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orientation of our hearts and our lives oriented toward one
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another, right, rather than being oriented inward toward
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ourselves. And Jesus pushes it even a
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little further, right? He's just the primary way that
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we express our whole being. Love for God is in the way we
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love our neighbors, the people all around us.
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It's in our relationships with one another that our
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relationship with God is actually lived out.
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In fact, we can't say that we love God while we hate our
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brother. That's what first John tells us.
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It's not possible loving God with everything in US, which
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which is our response to the love that God has poured out for
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us. It must change our relationships
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with those around us. It has to or we haven't really
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experienced it. If we are followers of the way
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of Jesus, we have been called to be loved into a people of love,
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right? Paul picks up this same idea in
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in his first letter to the church in Corinth in the midst
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of a conversation all about spiritual gifts and how we build
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up the body in chapters 12 to 14, Paul says earnestly desire
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the most helpful gifts. But now let me show you a way of
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life that is best of all. And that's when he goes into
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that famous First Corinthians 13 love chapter, right?
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Which describes the kind of love that God has shown to us and
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which we're to show to each other.
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Love is patient, love is kind. All those things.
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We're not going to get into all those today.
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But it ends with the line he's talking about loving.
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He says three things will last forever, faith, hope and love
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and the greatest of these is love.
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Just like Jesus said, the the greatest commandments, it's to
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love God, to love your neighbor. Ask yourself the greatest of
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these things, Faith open. It's love.
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You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your
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soul, all your mind, and all your strength and your neighbor
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as yourself. This is the most important
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commandment. Whatever else God calls us to
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do, it's never less than this. It's never less than love.
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Jesus said that this is the most important commandment because
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everything else it commanded in the law and in the prophets, our
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Old Testament, right? It all hangs on love.
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It's all supposed to point to love or none of it matters.
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God is looking to form us into integrated beings of love,
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right? Where where our words and our
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actions flow in unison out of a transformed heart.
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This is the opposite of the Pharisees hypocrisy, right?
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It's integrity, it's love, it's wholeheartedness.
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And in Jeremiah 29, God told his people, if you look for me
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wholeheartedly, you'll find me. If you look for me
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wholeheartedly with everything you are, you'll find me.
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Imagine a young man who decides to take a bold step, ask out a
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girl that he thinks is just the most beautiful and wonderful
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girl he's ever met, right? And when he does, he goes up to
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her. He says, I want to go out with
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you and I will love you with everything that I am except my
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mind. In my mind I'm going to think
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about other girls or he says I will love you with all that I am
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except for my strength. You're going to have to be OK
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sharing my body. It would never work right?
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It wouldn't even be good, would it?
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There's an exclusivity that's required there.
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You can't love God with all your heart, mind, and strength, but
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not your soul. You can't love God with all your
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heart, soul and strength, but not your mind.
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He wants all of you, and He wants to transform all of you
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into the person that He meant for you to be when He first
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thought of you. Are you looking for God?
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Are you seeking for God? Does he seem distant or maybe
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hidden? Might be worth asking God, where
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are those areas where I'm not loving you with all that I am?
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Where where I'm holding something back?
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I'm not loving you with all my heart or all my soul or all my
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mind or all my strength. Is there any part, God of my
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being that isn't unified around my love for you?
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He wants to show us those things.
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He doesn't want us to be disintegrated, right?
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He doesn't want us falling into pieces.
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He wants to unify us. He he wants us to find him, but
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He doesn't want to be. Just one more thing, one more
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option, one more hobby. He doesn't want to be one thing
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among the many. He wants to be everything.
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He wants your heart, all of you. Maybe you've been trying to love
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God with all that you are. It's just that those difficult
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people that you're having a hard time loving are getting in the
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way, right? Love would be a whole lot easier
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without the people, wouldn't it? It's not possible.
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Jesus said there is no loving God without loving your
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neighbor. Maybe this morning you need to
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ask God to fill you with His love, to fill you to overflowing
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with the love that He's poured out for you, so that you can let
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go of that hate, so you can let go of that anger or that
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indifference which is dividing your heart.
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Maybe you need to confess the difficulty you feel in loving
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certain people and ask God to work in you, to form you into
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that person of love. Because friends, this is not
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just important, it's most important.
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This is command one and command 1A, right?
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Would you let God bring healing and wholeness into your heart so
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that you can love Him with all that you are and your neighbor
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as yourself? It's not something we can do on
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our own, but it's also not something God's going to do
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without us. He longs to give you a
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singleness of heart like he promised through the words of
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the prophet Ezekiel. When he said, I, this is God
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speaking through the prophet, He said, I will give them a
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singleness of heart and put a new spirit within them.
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I will take away their Stony stubborn heart and give them a
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tender responsive heart so they will obey my decrees and
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regulations. Then, then they will truly be my
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people and I will be their God. He wants to take away that
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Stony, stubborn, self focused heart.
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He wants to give you a new heart and fill you with life.
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Put a new spirit within you, His very own spirit.
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He's not asking you to to to find love somewhere deep down
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inside you and bring it up and pull yourselves up to love
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better. He wants to give you a new
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heart, His new spirit, so He can fill you with His love, so you
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can love Him with a singleness of heart and show that love to
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the world through the way you love them.
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That's the invitation not just to add one more thing to your
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already busy lives, but to make God your everything.
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Would you pray with me this morning?
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Father, we're so grateful that you know how to do heart
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surgery, that you are able to to, to take a Stony, stubborn
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heart like I have, and you can replace it with a heart that's
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like yours. Thank you.
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Thank you for the love that you have poured out on us, the love
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that that you give to us before you ever ask for any love in
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return. But God, would you help us?
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Would you give us a singleness of heart?
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Would you make us into wholehearted people that aren't
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divided in any way, but who look to you to be everything?
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God, we want you to be magnified in our lives.
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We can't do it on our own, so we believe that you can.
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So even in these next few moments, God, would you shine a
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light into our hearts? God, would you show us anywhere
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in our hearts and our souls, in our minds, in our bodies, that
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we're holding back from you? And would you give us a courage
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to let go, to offer it back to you, Father, knowing that you
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want good for us? You want to take it, transform
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it. You want to take it and wash it
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and heal it and make it look like your heart?
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Would you shine that light in our heart and show us?
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Is there any person or or group of people?
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But I'm having a hard time loving right now.
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Would you help me confess that to you?
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Would you help me repent of that?
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And would you, would you fill me with your love for that person?
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Give me your eyes to see them? Would you help me to see them as
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someone who still needs to come to know you?
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Someone who you died to set free.