Sermon Tone Analysis

Context

Where we pick up today in the gospel of Luke, Jesus’ ministry on earth was in full swing.

He had a reputation and He had a following.

There were the 12 disciples of course, but there were others who were committed to Him and His mission.

There were also those who hated Jesus, and wanted to see Him and His ministry destroyed.

I suppose that’s much like today.

But when we get to Luke 10, Jesus organizes a mission team and sends them into every town and place where He Himself was about to go.

He sent 72 people in teams of 2 into places that had tremendous need, but not many to address those needs.

Luke lets us know what happens when the 72-person team returns:

And Jesus shares in the of the people and expresses His joy in a prayer:

But following this assertion that the wise lack understanding, we come to an illustration of such a lack of understanding.

One supposed wise expert in the law of God (referred to as a lawyer) came to Jesus to ask what is probably the most basic religious question anyone can ask.

If anyone is going to consider God and who He is and what He means to us, the question the lawyer asks is the most important one.

He ends up asking 2 questions and these 2 questions are really connected, and based on the fact that the lawyer’s 2 questions are connected makes clear that Jesus’ response to these 2 questions are connected as well.

I want us to know that the 2 questions we will see in this text and the 2 answers address the most fundamental concerns of all our lives.

So let’s go there now to see this.

Introduction

The pseudo-scientific formula that explains most human bonding is basically time + affection + togetherness = relationship.

Perhaps more than anything in our life times, COVID 19 has challenged our ability to maintain these components of healthy relationships.

Now, we know that people are different.

Some love to be around people often, and some prefer to not be around people often.

Regardless of where we fall on that spectrum, all of us need to be around people sometimes.

And more fundamental to that is that we all need to have meaningful relationships.

But there’s a reason that studies are conducted, articles are written, books are published and seminars are conducted that center on developing and maintaining healthy, meaningful relationships.

It’s because relationships are important and having healthy and meaningful relationships is difficult.

If we’re all being honest, we all want relationships with others, but we often have trouble with them.

Why are relationships so difficult?

Personalities, different experiences and backgrounds, give and take and how that works, communication breakdowns.... all of this makes maintaining relationships difficult.

There is something however, that I want to suggest we can’t do.

We can’t, although it is quite common to do so, never the less we can’t separate the health of our relationship with God from the health of our relationships with people.

It seems to me that we have a tendency to underestimate the impact on our relationship with God has on our relationships with people.

Atheists reject God’s existence with God all together.

That view of God will have profound implications on how they relate to others.

Christians strive to live for the glory of God.

This way of life has profound implications on how they relate to others.

A great deal of talk in our culture today is centered on getting along with one another, but much of it seeks to marginalize or ignore the God factor in our experience.

FCF: We cannot separate our relationship with God and our relationships with others.

Those relationships are not the same thing, but they have significant impact on one another, and the more we try to live as if they don’t the more strife we can expect to experience.

Main Idea

The same change that God makes in us for us to have a right relationship with Him is the same change that enables us to have a right relationship with others.

What happens in us when God changes us?

We have a relationship with God (25-28)

AQ: What changes in us when we have a relationship with God?

We no longer believe we can merit eternal life (25)

The lawyer’s question

eternal life means entering the kingdom of God

Jesus’s answer to him included the need for him to sell all his possessions, and and we’ll see the ruler’s response here, but notice how Jesus describes eternal life:

So again, eternal life and being in the Kingdom of God are the same thing.

So the lawyer, in our text, is asking Jesus what he must do to get into heaven after he dies.

How can he come to have that assurance that he will go to heaven when he dies?

He wants to know how he can inherit eternal life which is a way of saying possessing the legal right to heaven.

But do you see the problem with this question?

We can learn allot about people by listening to the questions they ask.

For example, if I asked you how long you thought it would take me before I was able to jump high enough to jump up on this stage from the floor.

Now you may have doubts that I would ever be able to do that, but what do you now about me based on that question?

That I think, after some practice, that it is entirely possible for me to jump from the floor to the stage.

The lawyer (again, expert in the law) asks what he must do to inherit eternal life.

What the gospel makes clear is that we cannot do anything to get to heaven.

Now it does seem that this question was a common question in first century Judaism, and it’s not difficult to imagine that Jesus would receive such a question, but remember the lawyer’s intentions were not so pure here.

There was an effort underway to discredit Jesus, and His enemies would often ask questions to back Him into a corner in attempt to make Him look ridiculous.

It never worked, so they took the tactic of false accusations and seeing that He be put to death, but that didn’t work either.

When we come into a real relationship with God that is free from hidden agendas, and we see that only Jesus and what He has done can provide us the way to have an assurance of heaven, we will see that we cannot do anything to have that assurance.

Jesus has done it.

One more thing I think we see here that changes in us when we have a relationship with God

We believe God’s Word defines the terms of eternal life (26)

To answer the lawyer’s question Jesus asks him 2 questions.

What is written in the law?

How do you read it?

Now, what these 2 questions reveals is that Jesus thought the answer to the lawyer’s question (what must I do to inherit eternal life?) could be found in the word of God.

And this is what I want us to see here.

The word of God is the authoritative entity here.

Jesus pointed the lawyer back to this source to obtain the answer to his question.

It is not up to us to figure this out.

But another way to say that is we do not make our own way to heaven.

It may seem right to us that by striving to live a good life will result in us going to heaven.

It may seem right to us that being good citizens, spouses, parents, friends employees entitles us to heaven.

Or perhaps some may think that God is unnecessary and all that matters is the here and now.

That the idea of life after this life on earth is a myth.

And what these 2 ideas have in common is that the person is the authority and not God.

What Jesus makes clear in v. 26 is that God’s word is authoritative, and when it comes to the terms of eternal life, we find them in the Bible.

The gospel message itself is one that is in accordance with the Scriptures.

So what we proclaim to you here today is not a man centered message, but one that is Jesus-centered.

The Bible does that, so we do that.

One more thing I think is made clear here that changes in us when we have a relationship with God.

We believe perfect obedience to the law of God is required to possess eternal life (27-28)

Now, you might think that I am now contradicting what we said earlier, that we cannot do anything to inherit eternal life.

But notice what Jesus says is correct: you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.

So the lawyer asks what he must do to have eternal life.

Jesus asks him what the word of God says.

The lawyer then quotes the word of God.

He actually quotes

And part of

Leviticus 19:18 (ESV)

You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.

And then Jesus responds to that answer in v. 28: You have answered correctly; do this and you will live.

I want us to know something about how v. 27 literally reads.

In our bibles it reads that we are to love God with all our hearts, with all our souls, with all our strength and with all our minds.

The word with is the same word every time it is used in v. 27 except the first time.

So when it says with all your heart, it really says from all your heart..

Now we might not think that’s such a big deal at first, but why use that word, from, but then use with in the rest of the verse?