Sermon Tone Analysis

Text: Mark 12:28-34

Theme: The deep and profound truths are not necessarily the most complex.

Date: 07/09/2017 File Name: GospelOfMark34.wpd

ID Number:

What is the top priority in your life?

Have you given it much thought?

Undoubtedly the scribe in our passage today had given that issue serious consideration.

But there is evidence here that while he understood it intellectually, he had never experienced it for himself.

He knew about God, but it wasn't enough.

It didn't get him into the Kingdom.

It simply brought him close.

You see, we may know about God, but being close to the Kingdom is not enough.

We must enter the Kingdom by making our top priority loving God fully.

To fall short of experiencing a full love for our Lord is to fall short of the Kingdom.

I. PRIORITY #1 – LOVE GOD

1. Jesus had been engaged with the various religious leaders as they put question after question to Him, attempting to trick Him into a wrong answer

ILLUS.

For the Jewish religious leaders, Jesus cleansing the Temple was simply the last straw.

This man was dangerous and he had to go.

As a result several Jewish factions had put aside their differences to present a united front against Jesus.

Pharisees, Sadducees, Herodians, scribes had spent days putting question after question to Jesus in an attempt to trip him up, and make him look stupid in front of his disciples and the throngs who hung on every word he said.

a. over and over, Jesus had baffled Israel’s greatest religious minds with a dazzling display of knowledge and wisdom

2. in tonight’s passage we discover a scribe who had been sincerely impressed with Jesus' answers

“One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating.

Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, ... ” (Mark 12:28, NIV84)

ILLUS.

Mark refers to the man as a teacher of the law.

This meant he was a Jewish Scribe.

These were the men who made hand-witten copies of the Jewish Bible before the invention of automatic printing.

It was painstaking and meticulous work.

They had rigid copying rules they had to follow, one being they must say each word aloud while they were writing.

Consequently many of these men knew the entire Torah by heart.

Because they knew the scriptures so well these men were distinguished professionals who would exercise functions which today could be associated with lawyers, and judges.

a. this teacher of the law comes to Jesus and puts a very important question to Him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”

b. here was a man truly interested in cutting through all the word games and getting to the real meat of the issue

c. he was asking Jesus to explain, in a nutshell, the bottom line of what it meant to follow God

2. in His reply to the Scribe, Jesus quotes two well-known passages of Old Testament Scripture

a. one concerns itself with love for God

b. the other with love for your neighbor

A. THE GREAT COMMANDMENTS

1. these two commandments speak of the top priorities of relational love

a. Jesus says that all the law and the prophets boiled down to these great commandments

1) everything else in the Bible feeds off of these two priorities

ILLUS.

As Christians, we have two-thousand years of New Testament authority to fall back on.

Any believer who regularly reads their bible would be able to answer that question should it be put to them.

"Of all the commandments, which is the most important?"

That’s a no-brainer ... it’s to love God with all our hears, soul, mind and strength, and our neighbor as our self.

VBS kids can tell you that!

But in Jesus day, it was a more complicated question.

It was a much discussed and debated question among the rabbis and teachers of the law.

In their study of the Torah, they had found 613 laws that God had given them to obey.

248 were considered “positive laws” — the “thou shalt do” laws — and 365 were considered “negative laws” — the “thou shalt not do” laws.

They further divided them into “heavy laws” which were absolutely binding, and “light laws” which were less binding.

Even Jesus recognized the distinctions.

“ “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!

You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cummin.

But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness.

You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.”

(Matthew 23:23, NIV84).

But here’s the problem: The rabbis were never able to arrive at a consensus as to which laws were “heavey” and which were “light.”

2) the Scribe who asks the question is attempting to reduce the entire law into one all-encompassing principle or statement that he could accomplish in order to have eternal life

3) I have a feeling that when he asked the question it got deathly still as all eyes turned to Jesus

2. Jesus, as usual, does not disappoint

a. priority #1: "And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength."

b. priority #2: “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself”

c. in Matthews account of this event Jesus adds these words, “All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments” (Matthew 22:40)

1) that’s astounding!

... all other commandments are summed up and/or contained in these

3. ignoring these priorities is why many churches are dead and dry, and why so many believers are listless and apathetic toward spiritual things

a. in so much of American Christianity the faith has come down to “what do I get out of it?”

1) does it build my self-esteem ... does it fix my broken relationships ... does it ease my burdened conscience ... does it get me the stuff I’m so desperate for?

2) in much of American Christianity God has simply become a means to an end ... “God, if I worship you, if I obey your bible (at least the parts I agree with) what are you going to do for me?”

b. we find an illustration of this problem in the book of Revelation

1) there, Jesus speaks to the church in Ephesus and says,

“I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance.

I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false.

3 You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.

4 Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love.

5 Remember the height from which you have fallen!

Repent and do the things you did at first.

If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.”

(Revelation 2:2–5, NIV84)

4. without loving God and loving others all that we do becomes meaningless

B. DEVELOPING A LOVE AFFAIR WITH GOD

1. how do we flesh out our love relationship with God

a. Jesus gives us four ways

2. 1st – love the Lord your God with all your heart

a. the heart was considered the core of a person’s identity — the source of our thoughts, words and actions

1) love for God must flow from the deepest part of a person’s being

2) i.e. it’s not merely a surface kind of devotion

b. to love the Lord with all your heart means to love Him with pure devotion

c. it's not enough to give Christ a place in our hearts

d. we are called to love Him with all of our heart

3. 2nd – love the Lord your God with all your soul

a. the soul speaks of our emotions

b. to love God with all our soul means that our love for God ought to be full of passion

ILLUS.

There are certain hymns – particularly hymns that deal with redemption – that I can rarely sing without getting choked up.

Hymns like Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, and In Christ Alone, (My hope is found) will almost always bring a tear.