Love Like Jesus

INTRODUCTION

Last week — began talking about the core of New Vision — what kind of people we want to be regardless of the future.

Love like Jesus

Learn more about Jesus

Serve like heaven and hell are at stake

Going to dive into each of these in greater depth as we explore what this means for us practically as a church, and as believers.

Could really preach a full series on leg, but I’ve got one message.

Sort of feels like drinking from a fire hose.

Going to try and condense it down to feel more like an out of control water fountain.

Love Like Jesus

As we think about this concept — loving like Jesus — there’s so much we could say.

I would submit that Jesus summarizes and models his love in two primary aspects:

Love God

Love People

READ: Matthew 22:34-40

PRAY

Context

I always say when we’re interpreting Scripture, there are 3 keys: Context, Context, Context.

Where are we in the storyline of Scripture…

Jesus has entered Jerusalem for the the final week of his earthly ministry before he’s to be cruciied.

Enters Jerusalem, goes to the temple, and cleanses it.

He drives out all the money changers and merchants who had turned the temple into a marketplace.

Leaves the temple, and then some time later comes back.

We he comes back to the temple in Matthew 21, the religious leaders challenge him.

I’d be leery too — if someone came in here this morning, fashioned a whip, and drove us all out, I’d have some concerns if he showed up again next Sunday.

So when Jesus comes back, they start by challenging his authority.

What we see next through chapters 21-25 is basically a discourse between Jesus and the Pharisees.

They start by trying to trap him in his words to discredit him — they want to trip him up.

By the end of chapter 22, Jesus launches into a full-blown lecture against them.

He peels the paint off the wall in condemning them.

Here’s how bad it was — by the time we get to the end of Jesus’s lecture at the beginning of chapter 26, the Pharisees have moved from trying to trap him, to plotting to kill him.

The Story

It’s on the front end of this encounter that we find ourselves in Matthew 22.

The Pharisees are trying to trip Jesus up — they’re asking him questions hoping to trick him, so that they could discredit him based on his answers.

They ask him what seems like a simple question — which commandment is the greatest — the most important?

There’s layers to this question though…

The Pharisees had a rigid system of 613 laws. They ranked these laws in categories of “weighty” and “light”.

The weighty laws were things like “do not murder”, while light laws were things like tithing garden produce.

The idea was that while the religious elite would keep all the commands, they would focus their energy on keeping the weighty command — the important ones.

The OT (the Law) doesn’t actually “rank” these commands — solely a construct of the Pharisees, which means it’s totally relative.

Therefore, one of their favorite pastimes was debating which laws were to be concerned weighty vs. light.

This was a controversial subject! It would be like people today debating end-times theology, or any number of hot-button theological issues.

There’s going to be a wide variety of interpretations, and inevitably people get passionate.

So in their mind, no matter how Jesus answers, he’s going to alienate at least one group of people.

Notice though what they’re really asking — WHICH COMMANDMENTS CAN WE BREAK?

What’s the bare minimum we can do and still squeak by?

Jesus is going to answer them by boiling down all of their 613 laws to 2 commands that are essentially the backbone of the Christian life.

He tells them basically if you get these 2 right, you’ll be following all 613.

Both of them center on a single action: LOVE.

We’ll see that Jesus himself sets the example in embodying these two commands — to love God and to love people.

If we’re going to love like Jesus, this is what it boils down to.

LOVE GOD

The most important commandment.

We’re to love God with all our heart, soul, mind.

Heart: Emotions — affection.

Soul: Spiritual — non-tangible part of our being.

Mind: Thoughts.

BOTTOM LINE: He’s talking about the whole person — the totality of our being.

We’re to love God with every part of who we are.

Known as the Shema from Deuteronomy 6.

Devout Jews, like the Pharisees, would have repeated this multiple times a day.

Why? It was to constantly be at the forefront of their mind. It was to be engrained in them so they thought about it constantly.

We may not recite the Shema several times a day, but we do show our love for God through our actions.

Without question, we know that one of the primary ways we demonstrate a love for God is spend time with him.

Word/Prayer

Jesus himself modeled this for us through the NT.

He was constantly finding time to get alone with the Father in prayer.

If the Son of God made this a priority, we should as well.

I get it, we’re busy. It’s hard to make time.

This is how important this is: EVERYTHING ELSE, THE WAY WE LOVE PEOPLE, FLOWS FROM OUR LOVE FOR GOD.

I’m at my worst when I’m not spending time with the Father the way I need to.

I can’t truly love my family, or anyone else until I’m loving God and experiencing his love.

Our love for God has to be a top priority in our lives.

Jesus regularly made time to get alone with the Father.

MADE TIME.

Everyone’s busy — it’s a question of priorities.

Retreat with Lauren this week — not convenient, but we needed it.

In some ways, show me your calendar and I can show you your priorities.

I know parents who turned down travel ball because they play on Sundays.

Where does your love for God fall on your priorities list?

LOVE PEOPLE

The foundation of our faith is in a love for God. A natural outflow from that is loving people.

God’s heart is for people — this is why Jesus gives two commands when asked for one. The two are inseparable.

To illustrate this, I want to look at another passage that I believe shows this same interaction of Jesus from a different perspective.

REAAD: Luke 10:25-37

Notice here— this Pharisee essentially asks the same question, just worded differently….

“What must I do…” What’s the bare minimum for me to get by?

“Who’s my neighbor?” What’s the bare minimum?

Love the unlovable

Make it a priority — go out of our way

Do whatever it takes — short of sin.

CONCLUSION

22k people not in church.

Don’t know all their stories, but many of them have been left robbed, beaten, and left for dead.

Our job is to love them the way Jesus would — the way he loved US.

Sin left us like the man in the story.