Can You See Me?

Matthew22

Matthew 22:34–40 NKJV

But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” Jesus said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

Matthew 22:34–40 NKJV

But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” Jesus said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

Introduction

Introduction

Several years ago, I was driving home

Illustration

One day while driving home from work I approached a car as we were stopping at a red light. As we stopped me being the nosey person I am, I read the bumper sticker in front of me. It read “ I love your God, I like your Christ, I don’t like your Christians, they are so unlike your Christ.” I was mind-blown by what I read . . .

If you are not familiar with this bumpersticker, it is actually an adaption from a quote by Gandhi . . .

“I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” - Mhatma Gandhi

The reality is all across this nation at this hour there are churches everywhere opening their doors, singing songs, and doing all the church things. But, once the music stops, once the service ends, all too often we look nothing like the God we just celebrated.

The church should be the one place love resides and exudes.

The church should be the one place were everyone is accepted and cared for

The church should be the one place that seeks to meets the needs of others

The church should be the place where you enter broken and leave whole. . .

Unfortunately, the church as become:

a place where we parcel love and conditionally accept

a place where we build bigger buildings and ignore the need of community

a place where you can enter broken and leave rejected. . .

Don’t get me wrong I love the church, my wife will tell you I live and breathe this stuff - but to love the church is to also tell the truth about her. And, the truth all too often she allows people to leave wondering -

Can You See Me??

As we come to our text, we approach a scriptural scene that is near scandalous. We are spiritually eavesdropping on the Pharisees and Sadducees trying their best to set our Savior up.

Here we have the Pharisees who can best be described

Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible Pharisees

as greedy, hypocritical, lacking in a sense of justice, overly concerned with fulfilling the literal details of the Law, and insensitive to the spiritual significance of the OT

The Pharisees were watching the Sadducees try to set Jesus up with questions about the resurrection. The Sadducees tried throwing moral argument before the Majesty of God. . .

Let me pause right here . . .

Isn’t interesting how people will try to use their moral argument to overtalk the Truth of God and yet call themselves Christian??

But check this the Sadducees were a group who:

actions and beliefs were derived more from there concern for power and wealth than God

were

they only believed in the first five books of the OT

and they didn’t believe in the afterlife or the resurrection

So, you’ve got two groups of church folk watching each other try challenge truth.

As we near verse 34, Jesus had just shut the Sadducees down when they tried to challenge Him about the resurrection. So, the Pharisees were excited and now they had to go plot and make their move.

Matthew 22:34 NKJV

But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together.

Matthew 22:34–36 NKJV

But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”

Matthew 22:34-35

They were asking Him a question hoping to set Him up but instead led the Lord to reveal for them and us today the solution to the earlier question - Can you see me? Then answer becomes yes, because we will discover that to love God is to love humanity

Read

Matthew 22:37–38 NKJV

Jesus said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment.

The first thing we discover is:

1. It begins with ME

Verse 37 exposes the initial investment in being a true worshipper. It begins with us. To understand the greatest or any command of God, we have to understand love . . . God’s way.

We have to love God with all of our passion, prayer and intelligence. . .

Text says you shall love the Lord your God

Love here in the Greek means to take pleasure in, have great affection for, have loyalty towards

God has to be our passion

Take pleasure in who he is.

God becomes our passion when get to know who He is

300 Quotations for Preachers Not Hasty Reading, but Meditating

It is not he that reads most, but he that meditates most, that will prove the choicest, sweetest, wisest, and strongest Christian.

THOMAS BROOKS

Our being must be present

the Greek word for heart points to our entire being invested in the Love of God

emotions, volitions

the Greek word for heart points to our thoughts, volition, our emotions

the very inner self has to be engaged in God

Our Worship must be priority

The Soul . . .

The soul is defined as the immaterial part of a person that is the catalyst for life. The inner self . . . the site of all the psychological faculties - heart, mind, conscience

We have to be willing to engage our soul and relinquish our way to His way

That’s why the Psalmist said in Psalm 51:10

Psalm 51:10 NKJV

Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Our intellect and inspiration must intersect

The Greek word for mind refers to our thought, intention, purpose and intelligence

To love God with our mind is to represent His way of thinking

300 Quotations for Preachers The Effect of God Illuminating the Mind

Faith is the effect of God illuminating the mind and sealing the heart, and it is his mere gift.

God wants to illuminate our minds / intellect to feed our faith

Philippians 2:5 NKJV

Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,

2. Our vertical worship has horizontal consequences

Matthew 22:3

Matthew 22:39 NKJV

And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’

Jesus is again laying the foundation that loving or worshipping God isn’t just about following the letter of the law but, its about embracing a precept of love

Love Lives Beyond Me

We love God first and avail ourselves to express love toward others out of that love - the love of God

What God did in me, I desire to see in others

When I’ve been blessed I want to see others blessed

When I’ve been healed, I want to see others healed

When I’ve been delivered, I want to see others delivered

So, then there is the question . . . who is my neighbor then????? I’m glad you asked

In the Greek, the word neighbor refers a person who lives or is located nearby

a further definition in the Greek reveals that a neighbor is a countryman, kinsman anyone I can see

Tell story of Me and Abrielle in the airport and Witt helped us out

God is the first object of our love: Its next office is, to bear the defects of others. And we should begin the practice of this amidst our own household.

Ritzema, E. (Ed.). (2012). 300 Quotations for Preachers. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.

God is the first object of our love: Its next office is, to bear the defects of others. . . John Wesley

Ritzema, E. (Ed.). (2012). 300 Quotations for Preachers. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.

- John Wesley

Ritzema, E. (Ed.). (2012). 300 Quotations for Preachers. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.

Love Makes Things Better

The love in me ought to transform the world around me

I see difference as God’s divine design and not deficiency

Ephesians 2:10 NKJV

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

We were all created by God and designed by the intricate Hand of God

Racism is a total disrespect for the creative genius of God

Misogyny is a slap in God face

not caring for the poor breaks God’s heart

1. It Begins with Us, 2. Our vertical worship has horizontal consequences - lastly

3. When we See Him we’re Empowered to See Others

The Bible Guide The Third Question: Which Is the Greatest Commandment?

All the other commandments depend on these two. They are also the heart of the message of the prophets.

Love is expressed in action. We show our love for God by obeying his law. We show our love for our neighbours by treating them as we would like to be treated ourselves.

When we obey God’s law we start to turn the world upside down

Matthew 25:44–45 NKJV

“Then they also will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’ Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’

We See others when we confront their pain

Care for the least of these

Feed the hungry

Begin to love humanity

We See others when we celebrate Gods power in their lives