18 Sep Mark 30: The most important commandment

Mark 12:18-34

Marriage at the Resurrection.

18 Then the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. 19 “Teacher,” they said, “Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. 20 Now there were seven brothers. The first one married and died without leaving any children. 21 The second one married the widow, but he also died, leaving no child. It was the same with the third. 22 In fact, none of the seven left any children. Last of all, the woman died too. 23 At the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?”

24 Jesus replied, “Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God? 25 When the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. 26 Now about the dead rising—have you not read in the Book of Moses, in the account of the burning bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? 27 He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are badly mistaken!”

The Greatest Commandment

28 One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”

29 “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

32 “Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. 33 To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

34 When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions.

Introduction

Church, we always ask a lot of questions to our pastors; either Ps Sem or Ps Yosia. If we ask bible questions, it is fine but so often we ask a lot of hard questions about life. Is it wrong? No, nothing wrong with that. The problem is sometimes we treat our pastor like a fortune teller. “Pastor, do you think she is the one from God? Do you think this job is the best job for me? Do you think this share will give me profit in the future?” Church, let us remember, they are our pastors; not fortune tellers.

These are some common questions; Is it sin to drink? Is it sin to have a tattoo? Is it sin to go clubbing? Is it a sin to play games? The Bible is very clear in some topics such as is it sin to be drunk? Yes, it is and the Bible is very clear with that. Is it sin to have sex outside marriage? Yes, it is sin, and it is very clear in the Bible. But there are a lot of other topics that the Bible does not say in obvious way like drunk or sexual immoral. The Bible may not say it in a clear and obvious way, but it does not mean that the Bible has no answer for those questions. That is what we want to learn today. How can we answer our life questions? Or how can we help other people to answer their questions? I will divide this sermon into 3main points; first one is what to avoid: Biblical Ignorance, second one is biblical principle: the greatest commandment and last one is the greatest love.

1. BIBLICAL IGNORANCE

Are you blessed with this Mark series? I have to say that I do really enjoy this series. Learn the Gospel from Mark from start to this point. There are a lot of benefits to doing this. Firstly, we are faithful to the word of God. We do not always pick and choose the topic. We study what God wants us to learn. We just learned about divorce few weeks ago. By doing this, we minimise the error of reading the scripture out of context. Another benefit is to help us also learn how to read the Bible within the context and correctly. I believe that most of you sometimes ask this question “what does this verse mean?”.

When we talk about Biblical ignorance, we are not only talking about people who do not want to read the Bible at all. We also talk about people who are too lazy to know and understand the Bible. This is what I mean. We still read the Bible but there is no willingness for us to understand it. We read the Bible for the sake of ticking the box every day. We completely rely on our beloved pastor to interpret the Bible for us every Sunday. Or some of us just read some selective inspirational passages and ignore the rest of the Bible. They forgot that the Bible is actually the revelation from their creator.

Biblical ignorance is real problem for Christian. One of good example is few years ago, there is book called The da Vinci Code then they also create the movie. This book challenged the Bible with all different religious ideas.  Many Christians questioned their faith and the Bible because of this book. Why? Because many Christians are just churchgoers, and they never actually study the Bible.  This is what we want to learn in the next few verses from a group religious leader called Sadducees.

18 Then the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. Who is the Sadducees? They are different to Pharisees. Both are religious leaders, but they have different beliefs. One of obvious difference is Sadducees only believe the first five books of Moses, which Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy which are normally called Torah. They didn’t believe any scripture beyond these 5 books. They considered other books as additional information. Another distinct belief is they did not believe on resurrection. That is the reason why the Sadducees asked this question – 19 “Teacher,” they said, “Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. 20 Now there were seven brothers. The first one married and died without leaving any children. 21 The second one married the widow, but he also died, leaving no child. It was the same with the third. 22 In fact, none of the seven left any children. Last of all, the woman died too. 23 At the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?”

Again, this question is not a question because they want to know the answer, but they are sceptical about Jesus’ teaching. You know what in this topic Jesus is on the same side as Pharisee. Jesus and Pharisee believe in resurrection. The Sadducees wanted to humiliate Jesus plus they also want to show off their knowledge. What they did was they quoted Deuteronomy 25:5; 5 “If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the dead man shall not be married outside the family to a stranger. Her husband’s brother shall go in to her and take her as his wife and perform the duty of a husband’s brother to her. They asked the question and hoped Jesus could not answer and He looked silly. They created the scenario. They imagined there were 7 brothers. First one married a woman and then died. Based on Deuteronomy 25:5, the next brother married the widow. Then the second brother died so that the third one needed to marry the widow. It was the same on the fourth one. Man, what kind of woman she is. She needs to attend a Marriage seminar next time. It was the same with fifth and sixth and seventh brothers. After all the brothers died, the woman died too. Their question is “at the resurrection whose wife she will be because all brothers married to her”. I could imagine these Sadducees were so proud of their question and thinking – “Jesus would have no clue and look stupid in front of many people”. Here’s how Jesus answers these sceptics.

24 Jesus replied, “Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God? 25 When the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. 26 Now about the dead rising—have you not read in the Book of Moses, in the account of the burning bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? 27 He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are badly mistaken!”

Jesus started with this “you are in error, guys!”. Jesus basically said to them – “you are wrong! You do not get it!”. That was really slap on their face because they should be the expert of the scripture. Jesus did not stop there. Jesus says, “here is why you are wrong, firstly, you do not know the scripture and secondly, you do not believe the power of God”.

The first reason why they get in wrong with resurrection is because “They do not know the scripture”. I loved how Jesus counterattack these people. Jesus knows that they claimed themselves as expert of scripture specialised in first 5 books of Moses. When they asked that question to Jesus, the Sadducees basically says to Jesus; in these 5 books of Moses, there is nothing can prove that the resurrection is true. Jesus used this to answer their question in verse 26-   have you not read in the Book of Moses, in the account of the burning bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? 27 He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are badly mistaken!” Jesus quoted from one of the 5 books of Moses which is in Exodus 3:6. Jesus reminded them about the moment when Moses encountered burning bush. In here, God said that ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’. God did not say ‘I was’ – past tense. God did not say that I used to be their God. God did not say that I was their God when they were still alive. God said ‘I am’ – present tense. It means that they continue to live. When Abraham, Isaac and Jacob died, death is not the end. They are still present with God or resurrected. They confessed as an expert of scripture, but they are wrong in their interpretation of God’s Word.

When we talk about being sceptical, our focus always on people outside church such as how the world critics us. However, we can learn from this passage that people who read the Bible can be sceptics at the same time. Some people came to God and read the Bible with a hidden agenda. They came to the Bible with their set of beliefs. They make the Bible fit their understanding. They make the Bible fit what we want to believe. They ignore the context. They put their belief and understanding above God’s Word.

The second reason they get wrong with resurrection is because they do not know the power of God. Why did Jesus say that? The Sadducees not only do not believe in resurrection. They also do not believe in angel, heaven, hell, and other supernatural things in the Bible. I must clarify the word ‘supernatural’. It must be within the context of the Bible. We cannot say any supernatural is good. But in this passage, the Sadducees did not believe what was written in the Bible. They don’t believe in resurrection, angels and hell because those things do not fit into their understanding, and they set limits on what God can do. They put God in the box.

We have to realise the implication of this Biblical ignorance. It is not just temporary but eternal. The Sadducees do not believe in resurrection, heaven and hell. It means that they do not believe in eternal reward and eternal punishment. If that is the case, why they need the Messiah. When life on this earth is over, that was it. Therefore, they pursue all the worldly things such as wealth, money and position.

Church, the Bible should be the drive for our life and not the other way around. So often, we try to fit the Bible to our understanding, Therefore, we see people misuse or abuse the scripture to justify their wrongdoings. It is hard to make a decision that is aligned with God’s will when we completely ignore reading the Bible.

2. THE GREATEST COMMANDMENT

I am not a very very smart student. I am average. I am not the type of student who always says “the test was so hard. I think I am going to fail this subject” then the result shows either Distinction or HD. When I say I can’t do the final exam and I was going to fail, it is a real danger. Somehow, my brain capacity is like a small size of USB; maybe one GB. It means in the final exam, studying from chapter 1 then moving to chapter 2. As I reached chapter 5, I forgot what I learned in chapter 1. It is gone. What I did to help myself, I summarised all important points in every chapter and re-read them again and again. For me, summarising those 10-15 chapters was not too hard. There is one person who summarises better than me. His name is Jesus.

28 One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”

29 “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

What Jesus did in here was summarise not only 10 Commandments but all the commandments in the scripture, which is around 600. It means this thing must be very important. The first thing we should take notice in here that it is very important commandment that we should not take lightly. It is the theme of everything we do as Christian; first, 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’. 

Jesus says no commandments are greater than these. We need to understand and not take it lightly. It is the main theme in everything we do as Christian. One of them, which we just learned before, is reading the Bible. Reading the Bible is about loving God and loving others. So often, the reason we read the Bible is just about us. We read the Bible for Him and His glory. We do ministry for Him. And we really think everything in Christianity is centred around these great commandments. Why do we sin? Because we fail to love God. Why do we pursue holiness and Christlikeness? Because we love God.

Secondly, there is a difference in weight between these two commandments. Jesus clearly says the most important one is to love God and the second is to love your neighbours. It is important to note that. Just imagine you get the instruction to make a good cup of coffee. The main purpose is to make a good cup of coffee. The instructions are like this. First, put your coffee beans in the grinder. Second, turn on the grinder. Can you do the second step without the first step? Yes, you can do that. But you miss the main purpose why you follow the instruction. If we just follow the second commandment, we can still do it, but we will miss the purpose. We ended up falling into legalism. The result is we will become the church who just focuses on fixing how people look and behave in society and our pastors become the police who keep adding the rules. Let me be clear that I am not saying good behaviour is not important. This is what Jesus says in the Book of Matthew; “A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.” Matthew 7:18-20. Your good behaviour is a by-product of your relationship with God. This is why Jesus says that the greatest commandment of all is to love the Lord your God. He didn’t say that the greatest commandment is to do good to others or help other people or give offerings to the church or read the Bible. All those things are the fruit of your love to God, your relationship with God. If we don’t love God first and jump straight to love others, we will not be able to sustain that for a long time. We will be tired and frustrated. This is the reason why we keep preaching the Gospel week in week out. We do not try to create rules after rules just for sake we look good from outside.

Have you ever heard the world attacks us as Christian regarding love for others? They know the teaching about love for others in the Bible. They attacked us why we have to be against LGBT and called it sin. Why can’t we just love them genuinely? Yes, we love them, but it doesn’t mean that we justify their wrongdoings. Yes, we need to love others but first we must love God. Therefore, we cannot just close our eyes for their sins.

Thirdly, another thing we need to remember is these two commandments are inseparable. You cannot pick one over the other. If you love God, it must (not should) produce in loving others. We don’t want to be Christian that only love the doctrine but do not want to share the love with others. Let’s always remember these two great commandments in everything we do. When we read the Bible, remember that this daily Bible reading is not about me but God. When we plan church programs, we consider how this plan can be used to love God and love others. When we get a new property, how can we use God’s blessing to glorify God and love others? That’s the main purpose of the church. That’s the main purpose of the community. That’s the main purpose of MC. It’s to love God and love people.

3. THE GREATEST LOVE

What does it mean to love God with our soul, mind and strength? What does it mean to love others like ourselves? It’s important to know the depth of these commandments. To love God with our soul, mind and strength means that we are willing to give up everything for Him. It means that everything that we do is for His Glory like your work, your meeting, your ministry, your study, your parenting, your marriage, and your relationship. This first commandment demands us to never put anything or anyone before God in our life. Yes, never. How many times we are more excited about our job or money than God. How many times are we more excited in our new relationship, marriage, family or even ministry than God? I have failed in this first commandment. I believe all of us also failed.

The same thing on the second commandment: we should never lie to other people or hide our mistakes or exaggerate for our own benefit? We should never feel jealous of other people’s position or achievements. Our heart is selfish. Instead of loving them, many times we got frustrated with them. That’s our human heart. Again we failed in the second commandment. The standard of God is perfection in those commandments. God demands perfection because He is Holy. If we have to face this demand by our strength, the result for all of us is only one which is hopelessness because we have the debt of unrighteousness that we can not pay. therefore, we need a saviour.

We don’t need ‘saviour’ who just gives good teachings. We need a saviour who lives a perfect life and perfect obedience. Jesus is the only one who can say he loves God with all of his strength, mind and soul. How do we know? Because Jesus obeys God the Father to the point of death. He died at the cross because of his complete, perfect and whole love for God the Father. And, He is the only one who can say he loves others like he loves himself. Because at the cross, He died for you and me. At the cross is the completion of His obedience which becomes the basis of our justification and forgiveness.

34 When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” Jesus closed with this statement – “you are not far from the Kingdom of God”. It seems this statement is a compliment statement from Jesus. But this statement is a warning statement. We normally use this kind of statement as a good thing. We used this phrase “you are not far” a lot for our beloved pastor. He gets lost easily. We often used this phrase “ok you are not that far now”. It is a good statement. But in the context of Kingdom of God, it doesn’t matter whether you are far or you’re close. Both options mean that you are outside the kingdom of God. Jesus warned them that yes, they are so close to the Kingdom of God but they are not in the kingdom of God. It doesn’t matter whether you are on the doorstep, or you are 5mm from the Kingdom of God. This man may be just a few metres away from someone who can bring him to enter the Kingdom of God, but he rejected Him. It can happen to all of us. We may read the Bible every day, fast, pray or join MC but we do not Christ. We may use the name of Jesus many times, but we only treat Him as just a good teacher or a good magician who can fix all your problems and give you whatever you want. However, you have never looked at Him as your saviour who saves you from eternal punishment. Jesus left heaven to come and pursue us so that we can enter the kingdom of God. Ps Tim Keller says “there are a number of reasons why I would die for my kids. But there is absolutely no reason why Jesus should have died for you and me except for His great love and mercy. He accepts us on His own terms – terms that include death and resurrection. He didn’t come for the righteous but for the sinner. The question for all of us now is how close you to the Kingdom of God are. Are you just close to the Kingdom of God? Have you by faith in Jesus Christ entered the Kingdom of God?

Love God above everything else. That’s the most important commandment. If you put God in the right place, all good fruits are automatically produced in your life such as relationships, parenting, and marriage. Guess what, if God is not in the right place, who would we replace in that place? Myself! Made everything about me. If I failed to love Ellis as my wife, the main problem is not her. The main problem is I have not loved God as I should. Not only that, but I also put myself in God’s place.

Church do not separate your life between secular and religious, Sunday and rest of days. Whatever you do, do it as if for the Lord. Before you do anything or make decisions, ask these questions; whether it will glorify God or not, whether it causes stumbling to other people or not. Our decision shouldn’t be a stumbling block to others but should be edifying others.

Discussion questions:

1. What struck you the most from this sermon?
2. Why do you think Biblical ignorance is very dangerous?
3. What does it mean to love God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength? Give some daily life examples.
4. What does it mean to love your neighbour as yourself? Give some daily life examples.
5. How does the gospel enable us to obey the most important commandment?