Mark 12:18-44 :: “Loving God”

[Music] hi guys is it so good to be with you do me a favor let's turn together to the gospel of mark chapter 12 as we continue our study through the gospel of mark as you turn to mark chapter 12. there are great existential questions for example is there life after death what is the meaning of life can i know that god loves me can i know that i love god and i would submit to that the right answers to those questions provides clarity provides comfort provides contentment in this life and the life to come so let's discover jesus response to questions about the resurrection and the great commandments and discover the right answers to these great existential questions i'm going to begin reading at verse 18 of mark chapter 12 i'm going to ask you if you would to follow along silently then some sadducees who say there is no resurrection came to him and they asked him saying teacher moses wrote to us that if a man's brother dies and leaves his wife behind and leaves no children his brother should take his wife and raise up offspring for the brother now there were seven brothers the first took a wife and dying he left no offspring and the second took her and he died nor did he leave in the offspring and the third likewise so the seven had her and left no offspring last of all the woman died also therefore in the resurrection when they rise whose wife will she be for all seven had her as a wife let's pray father we trust that you've gathered us here to give us clarity to open our eyes to truth to open up our hearts to receive to open our ears to hear from you we pray lord that as you teach us that we would be transformed to be more like you and we ask this now in jesus name amen so as you're taking notes and i'd encourage you to take notes we're talking about the resurrection and the great commandments today the resurrection and the great commandments and really the objective that i believe god intends for us today is that we would live the great commandments and commission and that we would live the great commandments and commission so first the existential question is there life after death is there life after death and we see the question regarding the resurrection so just in context four days before the cross four days before the passover jesus entered into jerusalem what we describe as the triumphal entry for the very first time he received public worship as the messiah he then goes to the temple mount he cleansed purifies the temple of those who extorted worshippers selling sacrifices and exchange of roman coins for jewish coins for the temple tax later he was asked about his authority by the scribes the elders and the priests and responded to their question and then the pharisees asked him whether it was lawful to pay taxes to caesar so now we have a new group that's approaching with a question and these are the sadducees the sadducees are another sect of judaism they were materialists they don't believe in angels they don't believe in the resurrection they only accept the first five books of moses as being authoritative in other words they recognize the rest of the old testament scriptures as being instructive but not having the authority of the word of god and they ask him a question that flows out of deuteronomy 23 in god's dealing with the jewish people he wanted to create a system that would keep the land in the family's name and so in this system if a man marries a woman and he dies before a sun and heir or offspring are brought forth to continue the family name then the closest relatives would marry the widow to bring forth a son and continue the family name and so they pose this hypothetical to jesus and this crazy hypothetical that they posed beginning verse 18 to 23 is this there's a dude he's got seven brothers the oldest marries this woman he dies and has no son and then the second brother the third brother the fourth brother if you've ever seen the musical seven brides for seven brothers this is one bride for seven brothers it's it's a different take there's no children born of these relationships and they ask this question who's going to be the husband in the life afterwards and their purpose is to discredit jesus and every time the religious leaders the jewish religious leaders try to discredit jesus with a test with a question with a trap it always explodes on them as jesus just detonates the bomb and so here jesus responds beginning at verse 24 by affirming the resurrection but he says to them at verse 24 he says look you don't know the scriptures you're mistaken and you don't know the power of god so he brings three charges these guys are supposedly experts in the word of god he says you don't understand the word of god you're mistaken and you don't know the power of god and he goes on to explain beginning of verse 25 and 26 that there is going to be life after death that god is going to raise the dead but he says there's not going to be marriage in heaven now for some of you you're excited about that others of you are sorrowful and far be it for me to judge anyone the reason there's not going to be marriage in heaven is there's not going to be a need to populate this earth nor is there going to be a need to be a representation of jesus love for his church to those who know as well as those who don't know him and so there won't be marriage in heaven but he goes on to say that this isn't going to be an obstacle in other words you don't know the power of god it's not difficult for god to raise and transform and give us a resurrected body that is perfectly suited to spend eternity with him as you contemplate the idea of asking jesus questions i just want to affirm for you god is totally open to whatever questions you have god is not offended by your questions especially when they're sincere question when somebody says to me hey pastor bruce can god make a rock so big that he can't lift it i just say i don't know but i hope he can that he drops it on you um you know it's just like yeah so let me just encourage you the christian faith is reasoned and reasonable yes it is faith but it's just not a blind faith the evidence for the resurrection of jesus is evidence beyond a reasonable doubt the evidence is overwhelming and we've talked about that length and other occasions but i want you to understand the implication of what jesus is saying twice he's affirming look at verse 25 and 26 that the dead will rise also he meets them exactly where they are at in other words they only accept the first five books of the bible penned by moses as being authoritative and jesus speaks to them from exodus chapter three one of the books penned by moses it's the incident at the burning bush and a god explains to moses his identity i am the god of the patriarchs abraham isaac and jacob see what he says i am he didn't say i was he says i am he is affirming that they are still alive and so the sadducees are seeing from a text that they accept as being authoritative that god in fact has established the resurrection and so this is important for not only for you guys and for me to see this day but it was for them on that day for us to understand that god is going to meet us exactly where we are at as individuals the sadducees only accept these books as being authoritative and god speaks to them for me i grew up in the jewish tradition and i came to faith as a young adult by the time i came to faith i was already practicing law i was a trial attorney i worked in the da's office i knew what evidence looked like i knew what evidence beyond a reasonable doubt looked like as a standard of evidence and so for me that was my background and i could look at the prophetic evidence in the old testament where it's fulfilled by jesus in the new testament and i could reason and understand that this jesus was our people's foretold messiah that it had to be him it couldn't be anyone else and the evidence of his resurrection was beyond a reasonable doubt and then it was simply a question of whether i'd be willing to yield my life to him understanding that it was going to cause tension in my familial relationship perhaps it would cause tension in my professional relationship in my social relationship was it enough for me to know this is the truth and therefore i am going to yield my life to follow the truth now how god works in your life may be completely different for example you might hear someone's story and it might move you you might be inspired by their great love by their great courage by their kindness by their sacrifice and it has this velcro effect that moves you to want to know jesus so for example in the idea of fundamental sometimes i'm more mental occasionally i want to be fun sometimes i'm just duh but how it works for you god's going to meet you where you're at but i want you to see what's going on here as jesus affirms the resurrection consider the implications this is what paul was writing in first corinthians 15 he says i delivered to you that which was given by the prophets that jesus died according to the scriptures and he rose on the third day according to the scriptures so that the penalty of sin could be dealt with that through faith that's the good news we can be restored in relationship with god so he goes to talk about the resurrection of christ and then the implications for us as jesus followers because he was raised he's the first and the rest of us will be raised now before we go on and what feelings do you have about the thought of resurrected life in heaven for eternity with god what thoughts or feelings does that conjure up to to contemplate this idea what's described in revelation 21 isn't this life only better it's a whole different quality of life it's a life where there's no more pain no more sorrow no more death no more disease no more decay no more discouragement where we will see jesus like he is because we will be like him with bodies created to spend eternity with him now people ask questions i that i don't have all the answers to for example people say what's my resurrected body going to look like in other words there's a version of you that is in the photo album somewhere that is your favorite version of you you know and it's like i want to be like that version or maybe that version wasn't good enough you you want an enhanced version i want to be smaller hair bigger hair or or whatever it might be and you know i if if you had brown eyes you want blue eyes if you had blue eyes you want green eyes if you had green eyes you're just blessed right so you know what we do see is that the disciples were able to recognize jesus in his resurrected body we see that jesus in his resurrected body that he ate that's pretty exciting to me we we see this description of the marriage supper of the land this huge banquet and so we we have this understanding that we are going to recognize one another even though there won't be marriage in heaven and there won't be any pain the influence of any negative experience that will cloud our community of faith among many tribes many nations peoples from all over from whenever together forever amen now paul goes on to describe bless you to the corinthians and to us that there are moral implications of the resurrection for example paul goes to say he says look if there is no resurrection then we're the most sorrowful people imaginable we are gathering and giving up sunday morning and if there's no resurrection why are we doing that we should just eat drink be merry for tomorrow you die but he goes on to say if there is a resurrection and there is we now have a new purpose and a new meaning for life amen and so first and foremost we should just contemplate what the feelings are the thoughts the the fact that we're going to spend eternity with god should give us hope no matter what we're going through in this life that even if we're going through great physical affliction emotional affliction spiritual affliction hardship i don't undermine and i don't want to be insensitive to just how painful any of that is but i want to encourage you while it's going on as difficult as it is it's temporary and whether it's a season whether it's the duration of your life whether that's 80 years or 90 years or more compared to eternity it is nothing it cannot be compared with the glory which will be revealed and that should provide comfort for us that should provide clarity to us and that should provide contentment for us there is life after death and we can choose to spend it with god a second what's the meaning of life what's the meaning of life beginning at verse 28 then one of the scribes came and having heard them reasoning together perceiving that he had answered them well asked him which is the first commandment of all and jesus answered him the first of all commandments is hear o israel the lord our god the lord is one you shall love the lord you god with all your heart with all your soul with all your might and with all your strength this is the first commandment and the second like it is this you should love your neighbor as yourself there is no other commandment greater than these so the scribe said to him well said teacher you have spoken the truth for there is one god and there is no other but he and to love him with all the heart with all the understanding with all the soul with all the strength and to love one's neighbor as oneself is more than all the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices now jesus saw that he answered wisely he said you are not far from the kingdom of god but after that no one dared question him love god supremely and love neighbors as yourself the great commands so here we're told in verse 28 that a scribe or an expert in the old testament in the scriptures especially the law of moses approaches jesus he had heard jesus answer the question in regard to the resurrection and he was impressed by jesus answer and so he comes now sincerely asking which is the greatest commandment it's not intended as a trap it's not intended as a trick he honestly wants to know so the hebrew there's an understanding that there is 613 commandments in the old testament 365 or essentially shall not and then 248 are positive shall do this okay don't do this do those and so he's asking which is the greatest and we might expect that jesus would go to the ten commandments as the playbook for the answer but he doesn't his response begins in deuteronomy chapter 6. beginning at verse 4 and 5 is what is the premier prayer of judaism it's called the shema and shema is the first word of that prayer that's at verse 4. the hebrew word shaman is translating our english bibles here hear o israel the lord your god the lord is one yes there is no other true god there is one true and living god listen hear o israel god's people the lord your god he's the one and because of that at verse 5 moses continues and jesus affirms you shall love the lord with all your heart mind soul strength the whole person it is a sense of total devotion it is the heart the seat of the emotions it is the mind the the seat of the intellect the soul the spiritual being the strength the body where we would act out what we have learned we would apply these things with our hands and with our feet we should live these truths not only in our attitudes but in our actions we should love god supremely he should be our first love our foremost love amen and this is what jesus is is declaring is the greatest commandment but then he continues and it's not like this is the bonus answer the reason he's continuing is because it was a continuous answer that cannot be separated he says the second commandment is like it in other words these two cannot be split apart they are permanently joined forever and again jesus does not respond from exodus chapter 20 and the 10 commandments but here he responds from leviticus chapter 19 at verse 18. and you shall love your neighbor as yourself he's making clear to us the meaning of life is to be a follower of jesus who loves god supremely and loves neighbors as you love yourself these are the great commands he's going on to say in matthew's version matthew chapter 22 that all of the law and all of the prophets everything that god declared in the old testament if you were to distill it down to its very essence it's these two great commands love god first love neighbors like you love yourself repeat love god love neighbors repeat why are these two interconnected because it's easy to say i love god you prove it by loving others like you love yourself neighbors where you live where you work where you study where you play where you worship the scribe in hearing jesus response at verse 32 realize that jesus speaks truth he affirms jesus response he says yes god desires the knowledge of him knowing him an intimate relationship with him in other words the love of god and see this and mercy love towards others more than ritual more than sacrifice that that yes there's nothing wrong with ritual that is motivated out of love for god and love for others baptism is a ritual that symbolizes our identification with christ baptism doesn't make you saved baptism is something that people who are saved do in obedience to christ to make a public declaration that they've identified with jesus when you go under the water you are symbolizing that that old way of life is no longer dominating you and when you come up out of the water it is a symbol of your identification which is in a resurrected life in the newness of life you are making a public declaration in front of a community of faith that you have decided to follow jesus you have decided to live the great commandments to love god supremely and love your neighbor as you love yourself so the scribe realizes that jesus has given the right answer and he affirms it and here jesus responds to him at verse 34. you are not far from the kingdom of god see this with me don't miss this he's saying to describe you understand the master principle of the kingdom love god supremely love your neighbor as you love yourself what was missing he needed to recognize the king and yield to him and to do it if we were to consider what is the meaning of life if you don't have a biblical worldview you you might be left with nihilism that there is no meaning of life there's no purpose of life or you may grab for some philosophy to be kind to others he who dies with the most toys wins you might be then relegated to the idea if you don't have a true compass that the meaning of life is to advance and to be recognized to have fame to have popularity to have the most things the meaning of life is your political party the meaning of life is your sports team or some other philosophy because without a clear compass we're left just searching for meaning it's the pursuit of my pleasure hedonism the pursuit of my comfort the denial of self-pleasure asceticism or any other philosophy because we're all searching for what is the meaning of life so if you have a biblical worldview you you might try to look and say okay the meaning of life is to glorify god i think that's an acceptable answer the meaning of god is to know god and make him known great acceptable answer the meaning of god is to worship god in spirit and in truth great the meaning of life is to honor god by walking humbly doing right seeking mercy with others hosea 6 6 good but i would suggest to you and if you'll bear with me that is you look at all those answers and you imagine a target with a bullseye and then concentric circles around it i think all of those answers are right on the target if they're not in the bull's-eye they're in the first ring fair enough right and so if we were aiming for the bullseye and trying to figure out from what jesus said about the great commandments and the great commission at the end of his life as he ascended and commissioned his church if we took together the great commandments love god supremely and love your neighbor as you love yourself and the great commission make disciples of jesus teaching them to observe all things that jesus commanded baptizing them in the name of the father the name of the son the name of the holy spirit and lo i am with you always to the end of the age i would say we could be pretty confident that that's a bullseye amen and so the meaning of life is to be a follower of jesus who loves god supremely loves neighbors like they love themselves and makes other followers of jesus who do likewise amen the meaning of life is not binging content the meaning of life is not how many followers you have whether you see yourself as an influencer how many likes you got the meaning of life is not trying to create this social media imagery of your life my life is so awesome don't you want to have my life at least how it looks in pictures the meaning of life isn't simply being a good person being a mensch being kind being loving there's nothing wrong with those things but the meaning of life is to love god supremely love others like you love yourself to be a follower of jesus who wants to make other disciples who do likewise and when you discover that and you do that whether those disciples are a spouse a child a parent a friend someone you work with someone you worship with someone you engage in your community to take what you've learned and to share it with others you discover contentment you discover clarity and you are comforted because now you have purpose in your life sooner or later we all have to wrestle with the question what is life all about the sooner we get the right answer the better our lives will be as well as the lives of others that we influence amen so jesus has already answered these great existential questions is there life after death what's the meaning of life and then how do you know that you truly love god and so if you would take a look beginning at verse 35. jesus answered and said while he taught in the temple how is it that the scribes say that the christ is the son of david for david himself said by the holy spirit the lord said to my lord sit at my right hand till i make your enemies your footstool therefore david himself calls him lord how is he then his son and the common people heard him gladly first i give jesus his proper place i give jesus his proper place so look with me at verse 35 it says that he answered as he taught in the temple do you see another question that's posed of jesus no he's still answering the same question from the scribe that's critical to understand the story about the great commandments is such an important part of the biblical narrative that often we would separate it from its context to focus and drill down deeper but if we look at it in context there's a continuing narrative here that the pieces of this puzzle fit together so that we see the whole image and so at verse 35 he's continuing to answer the scribes question scribe understood the most important principle of the kingdom but there was still something missing before he could enter into the kingdom he had to recognize who the king is and yield to him and so he continues to teach he's quoting from psalm 110 penned by david he says how is it that david writes as inspired that my the lord speaking of god the father yahweh it's all cap's lower caps lord yahweh said to my lord speaking of the messiah sit here at my right hand till i make your enemies your footstool in other words jewish people we don't call our our children lord like in our culture we might generally speaking exalt children but from a jewish perspective a jewish parent never calls their child lord especially a jewish king there's something going on here jesus saying to his offspring lord in other words the scribes got it right they understood that messiah would be a descendant of jesus in fulfillment of god's promise in second samuel chapter 7 beginning at verse 14 that through david's line will come the eternal kingdom and the messiah but the messiah isn't simply david's son he's uniquely the son of god and because he is the son of god that makes him king of kings and lord of lords which then begs the question are you giving him his rightful place in your life is he lord over your personal life is he lord in your marriage is he lord in your family is in lord in the workplace is he lord in your community where you live is he lord in your calling what god's called you to do outside of the home and outside of the work to make him lord speaks of obedience in john chapter 14 at verse 15 john 14 15 jesus says if you love me or the greek can be translated since you love me you will keep my commandments you can know that you love god because you give him his proper place second you can know that you love god because you live to please god not to impress people at verse 38 then he said to them in his teaching in other words continuous teaching but where are the scribes who desire to go around in long robes love greetings in the marketplace the best seats in the synagogue and the best places at feast who devours devour widows houses and for a pretense make long prayers these will receive greater condemnation jesus's warning of the hypocrisy of the religious leaders the idea of wearing long robes of people who wore long robes were declaring look i don't do menial labor i don't clean toilets i don't take out trash and the religious leaders had this attitude that they were above doing menial service and just saying beware of that attitude he says they desire the best seat so in the synagogue on the platform typically would be two seats of honor and between in the center on the platform is a box referred to as the ark and inside the ark would be the scrolls of the old testament books remember people don't have the bible on their phone they don't have their bible on an ipad a matter of fact they don't have their own bible it's not like everybody showed up at the synagogue or the temple and rolled out scrolls and so they were kept in the synagogue and that was the seed of honor and and so the religious leaders were vying for those positions and said look at us we've arrived and then he said they make long pretense prayers they're not trying to talk to god they're using flowery language to try to impress people jesus at the beginning of his ministry and the sermon on the mount talked about this he said look don't do your religious ritual to impress people don't fast don't give don't pray to impress people instead look and live to please god and now at the end of his earthly ministry again he's warning of this hypocrisy are you living to impress people are you living to please god if you can say i'm living to please god then you know that you love god third i'm extravagant in my devotion beginning at verse 41. now jesus opposite the treasury and he saw how the people put money into the treasury and many who were rich put in much then one poor widow came and threw in two mites which make a quadrant he called his disciples to himself and he said to them assuredly i say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all those who have given to the treasury for they have all put in out of their abundance but she out of her poverty put in all that she had her whole livelihood jesus sat looking at the temple treasuries there at the temple mount concert and there's 13 boxes receptacles to receive the offering there's no online giving and and so similarly is we have a receptacle that you could place an offering in there were 13 large boxes with a trumpet-shaped opening and so people would put their offerings and these offerings the tithe and the offering went to maintain the place of worship it went to care for the poor and it also went to provide for those who dedicated their life to serving god and jesus says in verse 41 that he was watching to see how people if not how much they gave but what was their heart what was their intention were they seeking to draw attention to themselves or were they simply seeking to honor god and then a woman came after the verse 41 many wealthy people came who gave much this poor woman a widow came and just observes her and he says to the disciples he summons them there's something that's about to happen that he wants to reveal to them so that they understand and this woman puts in two mites a mite was the smallest coin in circulation in the empire it is less than one dollar u.s today and so this woman puts in these two coins and jesus says to the disciples who've been there with him this whole time did you see that she put in more than everybody and they're like marveling they'd watch the verse 41 here came the guy with the big check that was blown up like look how much i gave to god [Applause] people drawing attention himself and here comes this poor widow with pennies it just declares this woman gave more than all you know like how can that be and jesus explains they gave out of their abundance yes they gave much but it wasn't a sacrifice she had nothing and she gave all he's showing the extravagance of her devotion i remember when we first came back to doing services indoors and we weren't outdoors and online we were doing two services indoors and i remember being in this sanctuary just before a service started and we placed two receptacles for anyone who wanted to give because almost all of the giving had transitioned to online and i remember i'm talking with pastor roger and we're looking at the stage and behind me i hear the sound of loose change being placed in that offering receptacle and i said to roger i i just said it just so reminds me of the woman with the two mites that i have no idea who this is that's giving i don't have any idea if they have great resources or not but someone who is limited to perhaps having some pocket change and is declaring god i give you this to give extravagantly is a declaration of our love for god and because of how those resources are used it's a declaration of our love for others and also it is a declaration of confident trust that god is going to provide enough to care for our needs that we don't need to worry and so you can know that god loves you because you can look to the cross and you never have to doubt because god's given you his best that's an easy answer the more difficult question is do i know that i love god and yes you can know because you give him his proper place you're looking to grow in obedience to god you can say yes i'm living to impress god rather than trying to impress people and third i'm extravagant in my devotion what god is calling us is to resolve the existential questions about life after death yes there's life after death so let's make our life count in this life so that as many as possible would know him and follow him and grow as disciples who would make disciples who love god first and love their neighbors like themselves so that they too will spend eternity with god rather than separate from god for eternity that's our mission amen and whether there is a pandemic going on whether there's economic crisis going on whether there's political upheaval whether there is social upheaval that mission will not change and if you want to know where you're going to find contentment and clarity and comfort in your life it's in living the great commandments and the great commission let's do it let's pray father we thank you for the privilege it is to gather and worship you where you have promised to be in the midst of us i pray even now for those who are going to be baptized in moments in this service and the service that is going to follow father would you be pleased would you move by your spirit people that were planning on being baptized as well as those who came in not planning on being baptized but that you're calling to be baptized today and father i pray that as we support this huge decision that people are making today that they would experience your love they will experience your pleasure and they've experienced life with you in a new way from this day forward and we ask this now in jesus name amen [Music] you

Channel: Calvary Nexus

Views: 102

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Jesus, God, Bible, Book of Mark, gospel, resurrection, greatest commandments, life after death, meaning of life, Jesus is King, love God, love neighbors, make disciples, offering

Id: rC44h9nVtNg

Length: 43min 11sec (2591 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 25 2021