2.14.18 3.30.2025 Matthew 22.15-40 The Heart of the Matter

Start:

     Entice: The balance between belief and behavior is always fragile. Particularly when the “experts” try and explain things or try to argue about them.  Jesus came to Jerusalem to worship and share in Passover. He clearly understood there were threats, and he fully expected to die for His redemptive cause. What he said and did there, the content of His teaching and the discipline of His behavior should be a constant reminder to us of how we should live in the world.

     Because of His standing and popularity there were questions. Some friendly some more combative.

Engage: I’m sure you have you been asked questions like those asked of Jesus. The words may have been different, but it happens to every Christian. If you try and live the life of a disciple someone along the way will ask you “Why?” or “How?” It may be as simple as “How tall was Goliath? or “What color was that whale?” Other questions will be more assertive others negative, and some will genuinely seek a deeper explanation of what you believe or how you behave. Jesus had been asked before. The circumstances in Matthew Chapter 22 sort of establish a precedent for how disciples must address the question when we are asked. I’m going to read a lot of text to establish the context for our discussion.

Matthew 22:15–33 ESV

15 Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle him in his words. 16 And they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone’s opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances. 17 Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” 18 But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why put me to the test, you hypocrites? 19 Show me the coin for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. 20 And Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” 21 They said, “Caesar’s.” Then he said to them, “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” 22 When they heard it, they marveled. And they left him and went away. 23 The same day Sadducees came to him, who say that there is no resurrection, and they asked him a question, 24 saying, “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies having no children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother.’ 25 Now there were seven brothers among us. The first married and died, and having no offspring left his wife to his brother. 26 So too the second and third, down to the seventh. 27 After them all, the woman died. 28 In the resurrection, therefore, of the seven, whose wife will she be? For they all had her.” 29 But Jesus answered them, “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God. 30 For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. 31 And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God: 32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living.” 33 And when the crowd heard it, they were astonished at his teaching.

     Expand: In Jerusalem Jesus finds Himself in a context of contention—even conflict.

He defends God’s Scripture as the source for spiritual authority.

              He describes the power of God, as something His adversaries misunderstood. 

                         And He defines the intent of God differently than His opponents. 

What does God want?

                  For us to be clever?

For us to be callus?

                                    For us to be contentious?

                                             For us to be consistent?

     Excite: What God wants and what Jesus affirms is that we must understand the priorities at the heart of all Scripture.

Matthew 22:34–40 ESV

34 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

Explore:

How we view God and how we treat people determines whether we have understood the message of Jesus.

Expand:

Body of Sermon: Jesus sums up God’s intent into three priorities…

 1 Faithful Devotion.

  1.1 What it assumes.

Truthfulness and authority of Scripture

  1.2 What it affirms.

Trustworthiness and authority of God.

The next priority is

  2 Focused Discipleship.

   2.1 Proper self-value.

   2.2 Universal love for others.

Some generalizations from what we know about Jesus’ life and teaching.

   Jesus’ definition of “neighbor”.

Everyone who is not me.

   Jesus’ example…

He treated everyone the same rather a Roman centurion or a gentile woman.

   Jesus’ extended teaching

The last principle we must share Jesus’

3 Fundamental Distinction.

Do the details matter? Yes. But they are not what we envision them to be!

We must clarify

 3.1 What is essential?

The authoritative voice of God, in the person of the Son clarifies what is necessary. It all is founded on loving God and His most exalted creation—humankind.

The Biblical testimony helps us to rightly know and use

 3.2 What is secondary?

This is why, even when derived from the OT, virtually all human systems of “religion” devolve into some form of legalism, or some kind of virtue-shaming. Rightly understanding who God is in Jesus Christ and accepting what He expects is the heart of Christian loving—and the benchmark for Christian living.

Shut Down

     Many people read or hear these words of Jesus and immediately think, “It can’t be that easy.” It can be and is. Making these words an ongoing reality and infusing them with power becomes possible when the ceremonial dimensions of the law, the social and political dimensions of the law, even the economic dimensions of the law are summed up in these two primary commandments. It made it so much easier for the law of sin and death to be nailed to the cross.

     Now our spiritual life is summed up in being like Jesus. That is what the NT means by discipleship. At whatever level of complexity, the Bible teaches us how to keep one of these two laws: helping us to love God fully and to love our neighbor lavishly.

     There is no higher calling than to put one hand into the nail-scared hand of God and the other into the hand of a neglected, forsaken, alienated, fallen human, keeping both commandments with a single gesture of love. That is the Gospel.