Services | The Greatest Commandments and the Greatest Contribution

Bulletin

Hymn # 430 “The Old Ruged Cross”
SCRIPTURE READING – Galatians 4:4 - 7

Giving of Selves and Our Offerings
OFFERTORY PRAYER
OFFERTORY MUSIC – Pru Hungate

Praise and Worship
“The Battle Belongs”
“Good Grace”
“Behold the Lamb”

Proclamation of the Word
Message by Pastor Joe
“The Greatest Commandments and the Greatest Contribution”

“Who You Say I Am”


Sermon Notes
Mark 12:28 A scribe asks Jesus which commandment is the greatest (foremost)
Mark 12:29 – 31 Jesus answers the question
Mark 12:32 & 33 The scribe agrees
Mark 12:34 Jesus tells the scribe he is not far from the kingdom of God – the questions stopped
Mark 12:35 – 37 Jesus asks “how can the Christ be the son of David, when David calls him “My Lord”
Mark 12:38 – 40 Jesus warns of the hypocrisy of the religious leaders
Mark 12:41 – 44 Jesus says a widow contributed a cent and He says that contribution was greater than the rest combined

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Scritpures

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Transcript of Service

Jesus had been subject to a number of questions that people are asking, not for information, but to try to trap him. A scribe, which is basically a religious lawyer, asked what I believe was an earnest question of Jesus. What was the greatest, the foremost commandment? But Jesus had 613 to choose from. But he limited to just one, he gave him two of the greatest commandments. Interestingly, they weren't any part of the Ten Commandments. Let's take a look at what Jesus says are the greatest commandments. We had seen in the previous messages that there were those who came to ask Jesus questions, not to gain information or the correct answer, but they seek to trap him so that they might cause him difficulty or even as their ultimate goal was to kill him. But finally, we've come to a person who I believe is actually asking a sincere question. And maybe I view it that way because there was once a challenge many years ago from someone I knew who said that there was never a place in the scriptures Where lawyers were ever talked about in a positive way, it was always the negative way. This was the only passage of scripture I could find that didn't talk about lawyers in a negative way.

And so if you have your Bibles, and you should, turn to the gospel of Mark, chapter 12. We're going to start with verse 28. And it says one of the scribes, now a scribe was, if you will, a religious attorney. He would help to interpret the law and whatever the Pharisees would kind of set things, but when there'd be a discussion about what was meant by this passage or what was meant by this argument by a rabbi, the scribes would be the ones who would flush it out and give the if you will, the legal sense.

And so one of these scribes, these lawyers, came and heard them arguing and recognizing that he, being Jesus, had answered them well. So he's saying, I'm listening to the arguments. I have a closed mind. And Jesus is actually responding to these most difficult questions and these questions that are meant not to gain information, but to gain condemnation. And so he said, Jesus is handling it well. And so he says, so he asked him, what commandment is the foremost of all? Which is the greatest commandment? And if you will, Jesus has 613 options, because there's 613 commandments in the scriptures. 365 of them were negative. Thou shalt not. 248 of them were positive, thou shalt. And so Jesus has the opportunity of 613 various possible commandments to answer. Now, probably most of us, if we were to ask that question, would probably look at one of the Ten Commandments, because they're one of the Ten Commandments. So we always oftentimes think, okay, well, God set that law and whatever, so they must be the most important. And so we might say, to worship God and Him only, or remember the Sabbath. And that seems to be a big one in the current day, is arguing about which Sabbath and what we should do about it and whatever. And so you might think that Jesus would pick one of the big 10, but He doesn't. And so Jesus answered, The foremost is, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. Jesus says, This is the foremost. This is the greatest commandment of all. Because if you will, and He's going to say, This commandment helps us to follow the other commandments. We do or don't do certain things because we love God. And if we don't love God, then we might do things or not do things based on that fact. And so Jesus is saying the love of God causes us to want to do the other commandments.

So that is why this is the foremost. Now, to kind of use it in a human aspect, when you love your spouse or whatever, You do things for him or her because you love them. Now, certainly there are those who do things out of obligation. Well, I'm the husband and therefore I must do this. But then you're doing it out of obligation and not love, but in a proper relationship where the spouses love each other, then you don't, you do things because of that love. And you don't say, well, I did this, how come you didn't do that? We love God, whether He answers another prayer request or not, because He's worthy of our love, because He first loved us. And so Jesus is saying, this is the great one. This is the one that will cause you to do the others. Again, and it's a commandment that is something that is, if you will, positive in the sense of, you know, you can say, well, Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy. So you say, well, I don't want to do it, but I'll sit here at home and do nothing because that's what I'm supposed to do. But you cannot like it. You can do whatever. But loving the Lord means that you have to love Him not partially, but fully. You know, as I often say, that I have been faithful to the Lord several times. but His faithful to me has been constant and always. And His love for me has been constant and always. And so how can I not love Him with all my heart, all that I am, with all my soul? Because let's face it, there's going to come a time when my soul is going to see those nail-scarred hands. and remind me that the reason I am in heaven is because of those nail-scarred hands. And with all my mind, I'm not looking for a way out. I'm not looking for, well, loving the Lord means this or that, but it may not mean something else. Know that I love Him with my mind. I'm not looking for exceptions. And with all my strength.

Every day, I take one step forward and another step forward. and my strength of loving Him. So Jesus is saying we're to love God kind of partially. We are to love God fully. That's the great foremost commandment. But He's gonna give a second one 'cause the scribe said, Give me the number one. And Jesus gave him the number one, but Jesus is gonna give him a second one as well. He says, And the second is this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these. So he goes, number one commandment, love the Lord your God. The #2 commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself. And he goes, these are it. You can argue about whether you worship on Saturday or Sunday. You can worship whether you're supposed to eat bacon or not. You can argue all these things. But the two things that are without argument, the two things that are foremost, is the loving God and loving those next to you. Now, as I constantly tell you, this is a great commandment to me, because it doesn't say love your neighbor. It says love your neighbor as yourself.

Well, I love me a lot. I take me wherever I go. I think what I think is awesome and great and well-reasoned and wise. I think my jokes are funny. I think I'm a person that is you should want to be around. Now, I don't necessarily want to be around you, but you should want to be around me because I'm that awesome. Therefore, the Lord now says, I got to love you that way. I got to love you the way I love me. I want to tell you two true stories. One, that I was involved in and one that I observed on a video. Several years ago, maybe decades ago, we had a gentleman that attended our church who had a terminal health problem. It wasn't like cancer or something. It was his arteries and veins were weakening. The walls were, and there would come a time when they would burst. Well, it was a Christmas time, and one of his daughters and two grandchildren came to be with him for the holidays. And he got up because he felt something wet on his bed and went to the bathroom to see what was going on. And blood was spurting out of his body. Because of the loss of blood, he lost his standing, and he fell into the hallway. Well, his family became horrified and terrified what had happened and contacted me.

And I got there before the paramedics. And I got down on the floor and talked to him. and tried to comfort him. And I didn't do that because I loved him. I did it because I was human. The idea of having a person dying alone, being alone on this side of eternity, just seemed to me to be not an appropriate thing. So I sat on that carpet and tried to comfort him as much as I could. And the paramedics came in, took him away, and he died. And I will tell you about two people who did love. My son came over and cut up and tore out that blood-soaked carpet so that the family would not have to trek through it. And he disposed of it. My wife came and washed the blood off of the walls of the bathroom and other places, not off of anything else, so that the family would no longer be subject to that terrifying sight. They demonstrated love. I didn't. I was simply human. Second story.

There was a young 20-something young lady who got on a public transportation and sat on a seat. And a man behind her jumped up and stabbed her several times in the neck. And then he walked past her, and as he walked past her, she looked at him in terror. And as he walked past, the other people on this transportation being run, moved away from him. Now, I don't fault these people for being fearful of the gentleman. Most of us are not trained how to disarm a man with a knife. But what I will tell you was not human, was their response. As she was bleeding out, no one came to her attention. They walked off of that train. They didn't even call the cops. Now the scriptures tell us in the last days, the love of many will wax cold. I kind of thought that meant almost like not necessarily an intention of harm, but just kind of indifference. Seeing how our culture has decayed. Biblical hate is to see someone in need and do nothing. Now, we can't feed all of the hungry. There are lots of things that are beyond our capability.

But simply moving over to the seat that she was on and holding her hand, or at least trying to maybe put your hand on her neck to prevent further bleeding, was hateful and inhuman. The love of many will wax cold. People today celebrate the death of other people. It's kind of beyond, but it's the exact opposite of these two great commandments. Sometimes we do things not because we love God or not because we love each other, but because it's the right thing to do. And there are other times when we have to get up when we don't want to, help someone in need because they need it, as my son and my wife had done. to prevent further psychological harm to the family, to the grandchildren, and to whatever, because they were hysterical. So I want to speak to those who are listening or watching. I want to encourage you, if you're not sure that there's a God or pretty sure there's not one, I'm going to ask you to go to a Bible-believing church that loves people and hang around them for a while. And you will discover the love of God. And you will discover before you love Him, before you even acknowledge Him, He loved you and gave Himself up for you. He did more and get off of a bench and walk away. He died for us because he loved us.

Now Jesus is going to later record it in the Gospel of John to give a third commandment. That third commandment is that we are to love one another as he loved us. That's more than my love for me. I don't love me that much, but Jesus says, this is the commandment I'm giving to you, that you love the body the way I love the body and died in shame and hatred and vitriol. Because my love for you was greater than my concern for what people think of me. And we need to love one another more than what the world thinks. Because the Scriptures tell us that the world will know that we believe in Him because we love one another. It doesn't say because we build great buildings. It doesn't say because we have massive attendance. It doesn't say that the world knows our name. It says they will know that we are believers, that we love one another, that we do these two great commandments, that I love you because he loved me and I love God.

Not as much I love God, but not as fully and completely as I want to. But God help me to do so more. And I can risk loving you whether you love me or not. because I'm secure in his love. So you can reject me. You can hate me even though I'm trying to show you love. Because that's what Jesus experienced. He loved me anyway. So I want to replicate his love. The scribe said to him, Right, teacher. You have truly stated that he is one and there is no one else besides him. And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength and to love one's neighbor as himself is much more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices. He understood because even the scripture says that God seeks that true worship, not offerings of sacrifices. So the scribe not only knew the law, he applied the law and saw what it was and said, Jesus is right, which is kind of unique. Everybody else, when they asked him questions, either ignored his responses other than being amazed or tried to figure out what else to ask him. He goes, teacher, you're right. Teacher, you're right. And when Jesus saw that he had answered intelligently, he said to him, you are not far off from the kingdom of God. You see, a positive statement about a lawyer. But here's the thing. That scribe should have then said, what more do I need to get into the kingdom of God? It's not just good enough to be near it. It's not good enough to know about it. We need to enter into the kingdom of God, not simply being not far off. And after that, no one would venture to ask Him any more questions. Whether they asked it to seek to trap Him or they asked it in sincerity, Jesus gave them answers that were true and accurate. And Jesus began to say as He taught in the temple,

How is it that the scribe say that the Christ is the Son of David. David himself said in the Holy Spirit, The Lord said to my Lord, 'Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies beneath your feet.' David himself calls him Lord. So in what sense is he is the Son? And the large crowd enjoyed listening to him. Notice we don't have any recording of their answer to the question. They've been asking Jesus questions. Now Jesus says, well, wait a minute. You would have heard when a young blind man, Bartimaeus, when I passed him by, he called me Son of David. But if I am the Messiah, David called the Messiah greater than he because he calls him Lord. Jesus is trying to say, guys, know what the scripture says. The scriptures are saying the Messiah is Lord. Not just a son, but is Lord, and he's even Lord of David. And in his teachings, he was saying, beware of the scribes who like to walk around in long robes and like respectful greetings in the marketplace. and the chief seats in the synagogue and the places of honor at banquets.

He's going, religious people, they want to be notified. And unfortunately, still today, you will find people who have attended church for many years, and they're upset because no one recognizes that they've been there or what they're doing or whatever. If you're doing whatever you're doing as ministry, For recognition, first, you're going to be sadly disappointed. And second, you're doing it for the wrong reason. I suggest you go back to commandment #1, because you love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul, and all your strength. And because you love your neighbor as yourself. That's why we do what we do. Or at least that's why we shouldn't be doing what we should be doing. But instead of seeking these things and having to be talked about in positive things, then they do some negative things. Who devour widows' houses and for a parent's sake offer long prayers. These will receive greater condemnation. Jesus says, there are great commandments. The foremost commandments is to love God and love your neighbor. but there's also greater condemnation. To pretend to be a hypocrite that you're religious, but offer no love of God or to fellow people.

So there's great commandments, great condemnation, but there's also great contribution. And he sat down opposite the Treasury and began observing how the people were putting money into the Treasury, and many rich people were putting in large sums. Now, how is it that you know that the rich people are rich people? Because they usually dress like rich people. They have their Rolexes and their nice togas that are scarlet and whatever. And then they have their offering, which I'm sure was like big money bags. so that you know when I'm making this offering, I'm getting recognition that I'm giving big times. I'm important because this place couldn't be here without my contribution. And so everyone is aware of just how wonderful and rich these people are and how we should be grateful for their contribution. But Jesus does something very Jesus-like. A poor widow came. Now, obviously, two things. She was poor. Why?

Because she was probably dressed that way. Her clothing was probably tattered. Probably didn't go to the sale at Macy's. She just had what she had. And she was a widow, which means in that time, she had no visible means of support. a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins. Today, we have copper pennies. And there are so little values the government is talking about no longer making them, because they cost more to make than they're worth. And so even then, it wasn't silver, it wasn't gold, it wasn't platinum, it was too small copper coins. coins, which amount to about a cent. Lots of money, a penny. And calling his disciples to him, he said to them, Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the contributors to the treasury.

Now I want you to say, he didn't say she put in as much as they did. He said, I don't, you take all the amount of money that was given today. And I'll make up a figure. $100,000 was contributed today in the Treasury. Jesus says that one cent was more than $100,000. You see, Jesus's economy is different than ours. We think if you have great sums of money or you do great deeds, that somehow you should be greatly rewarded. And Jesus is saying, This woman, gave more than everybody else total. Why? For they all put it out of their surplus. But she, out of her poverty, put in all that she owned, all that she had to live on. That penny was all, she gave it all. And as the hymn says, an all to him I owe. So there are two aspects that I want to emphasize. Aspect #1, it doesn't matter how rich or poor you are, or how young or old you are. What are you contributing to God? God's saying, if you don't contribute at all, it's not worth as much as you think so. You may think your large gift is significant, and God is saying, not so much.

And it also doesn't matter how young or old you are. Today is the day to decide to live for the Lord, to give Him all that we are. Now, that decision may come when you're 27 or 97 or 17 or 137. Whatever life you have left, God is not saying, Well, that's too puny. I'm not interested. You could hardly get up out of the morning but there is still something that you contribute to God. Or you may have a full and rich life ahead of you. There was a young man in our church, again, many years ago. I won't use his name. I will use a word that kind of fall out of disfavor. He had a lot of disabilities. He had some mental difficulties. He wasn't as bright as many people. It was kind of embarrassing in a sense of he would be here, and when we would have a fellowship, he would always be the first one in the line to get food and whatever. He would bring us two or three Bibles, but he would be at every single service. And eventually I matured enough to understand that he was my challenge from God.

Because if he was faithful in his disabilities, how could I not be faithful in my supposed abilities? I look back and I kind of thank God for his presence here. because it challenged me not only to look at him differently, but to look at me differently.

So I encourage you, whether you think you have great talent or two copper coins, whether you have a long life expectancy or only a few days, live their life as an offering to God. And maybe present yourself as an offering to each other because you love God.

It's all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind because He's worthy of it. Because God loved us. I love you.

And all God's people say.

J
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