"Do You Love Me?"

Thank everyone for their prayers and wishes for our family, while we were away last week! Also, give special thanks to Pastor Clyde for filling in and blessing everyone over the last week!

Remind the people of the Rodney Howard Brown meeting tonight at Trinity Tabernacle at 5:00 pm.

REMIND everyone of the 4th of July event and emphasize that this year is focused on unity and fellowship within the church body!

VBS starts this week, so please be praying for the kids and the workers! If you haven’t invited a child yet and there is one that you would like to invite or bring, please do so (it is for children ages 4-12)! It begins tomorrow night, here at the church and runs through Friday. It starts each night at 6 and goes until 8:30. (In light of this, there will be NO regular church service this Wednesday evening.)

Ask for Pam Tasca to come up and share her testimony with the church body!

Play video, “The Jesus Creed”

While we were on vacation last week, I sat and read a new book. (Of course, my wife read two books to my one!) Anyway, the point being, I read this book and as I was going through it, my thoughts began to gravitate towards one main thought process, which inevitably led me to today’s message.

The book that I read painted a picture about the reality of both who and what Jesus the Christ was and is and will always be.

And while reading this book, I found myself beginning to take a very long and hard introspective look into my life and my walk with the Lord God almighty and of how I approach Him!

And I began to pray and ask the Lord to reveal to me, through His Word and by His Holy Spirit, the truth of what a particular set of passages means for me and my life and my relationship with Him.

These passages are very common and we use them all of the time in churches and in relation to our walk with the Lord.

Now, before we actually look at the passages that I am referring to, I want to preface by saying a few things and also setting the stage for these particular passages.

Historically within the church, throughout the years and down through the generations, we have become very accustomed to doing certain things and saying certain things and acting a certain way within the “church” atmosphere and around the “church” people. What we would call being liturgical, right?

I know that growing up in the church environment that I was raised in, each service was highly structured and curtailed, so as to meet the expectations of the parishioners of that church and of that particular denomination!

In other words, there was an expectancy and a need for the familiar within each and every service.

The services were to start at a certain time, the music was to follow the same format and not to exceed the usual number of hymns per week, the preacher was to start with his message at around the same time and was, to a certain degree, to end the message at the usual time period.

And along with this comfortable and dependable schedule, people became familiar with reading and saying various verses of scripture and being taught that they were living their lives in accordance with these scriptures and were operating within the guidelines of these scriptures and doing everything right, as long as they verbalized that they were “saved” and that they believe in the Lord.

Basically,

And so, for most of my life, I lived somewhat within this way of thinking, that I had been brought up to believe.

And so, for most of my life, I lived somewhat within this model.

Kind of like: “I say that I am this”, and “I say that I believe that”. “I say the Bible tells me something and that I embrace it and accept it as true and therefore, I must be on the right path”, because I am affirming these things to be true!

Even if I didn’t completely understand what it was that I was saying, or believing, as long as I was verbalizing what everyone else was saying, then I must be OK in my walk with the Lord, because they seemed like they were OK in their walk with the Lord!

Which is why it is so detrimental for each and every one of us, to get into the Word of God for ourselves and read it and study it and let the living, breathing Word of God speak into our lives!

The Word of God will reveal things to you and for your life and your walk with the Lord, that you specifically need to know and focus on.

Because the Word of God is active and alive!

Does everyone kind of understand what I am saying?

I mean, if you have been around a church body for any length of time and of any denominational background, and you’ve gotten used to doing the same things in the services and going through the same motions in your personal life, you will begin to develop certain “feelings” or “thoughts” inside of your heart and mind about those actions, and you will eventually accept those thoughts and feelings as true and keep moving on.

And there is a particular scripture, that I have read and heard most of my life, that I have always acknowledged as being true and said that I was a believer of it and a follower of it, and yet never really even looked at the depth and truth and implication of what this passage was saying to me.

So, that being said, we are getting ready to look at the passage and the corresponding passages that go with it, that I’m referring to and as we do so, I am going to ask each one of you to pay close attention to these scriptures and perform a self examination as to how you are living out these passages in your own lives!

Because it is vitally important that you and I not just hear what these verses say and then affirm with an “amen” and move on, but rather, we must make sure that we are actively doing what the verses say to us and our walk with the Lord.

As the Bible tells us, “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.”

Now quickly, before we start reading these particular passages, let me set the stage as to where we are in the life and the timeline of Jesus the Christ and during His earthly ministry.

So, Jesus has just rode into Jerusalem on what we call His, “Triumphant entry”, or also known as, “Palm Sunday”, leading into today’s scripture.

He has also already entered into the temple area and again, driven out the greedy money changers.

His authority has been just openly challenged by the religious leaders within Jerusalem, who were still sore and very much unhappy with His walking into the temple area and driving out the commerce that was generating monies for them.

And so, in this particular passage today, we are well within what is called, the “Passion Week” of the Christ; that is, the last week of Jesus’ life, before His crucifixion.

And in this particular passage that we are starting with, which is found in three of the four gospels, we find the religious zealots, again, trying to set a trap for Jesus and cause Him to say, or do something, anything, that would openly condemn Him, and thus justify their desire to kill Him and silence the message that He was bringing. A message which was making them look bad before the people and also upsetting their lifestyle that they had become accustomed to.

And within the religious leaders of that day and time, you had factions, that opposed one another, because they held different beliefs that kept them from being unified as followers of the Lord.

There were the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Scribes and the Herodians.

These factions were rivals/opponents, when it came to their differences of belief in the Lord and His Law and how to teach in the synagogues.

Kind of like we have factions within the church world today, who refuse to unite as one body, because of differences in belief about the Word of God. Even though, “There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”

And yet, when it came to Jesus, these religious zealots had a common enemy found in Him and thus they were willing to work together, to rid themselves of this “trouble maker” and get back to “THEIR” way of worship and operating their laws.

And this is where we find Jesus in today’s passage; being harassed by the religious leaders and their proponents, in the hopes that Jesus would say, or do the wrong thing and fall into their trap!

In Matthew, Mark and Luke’s gospels, we find this situation taking place, but we will read of it today, within the gospel of Mark.

In , Jesus has just given a parable, the Parable of the Tenants, which was actually an indictment against the religious leaders and their rejection of Him as the Messiah and in doing so, the hornets nest was stirred and they were seething to get a hold of Him, but fear of the repercussions from the crowds who gathered to watch Jesus, caused them to regather and concoct a plan to ensnare Jesus!

So, the Pharisees band together with the group known as the Herodians, and they approach Jesus with the question about paying taxes to Caesar. Jesus calls them hypocrites and answers perfectly. so that they find no fault in His answers and they can’t accuse Him of treason before Rome!

When the Pharisees and their group fails at their attempts, then the Sadducees take a crack at Him in the hopes of tripping Hims up.

This group approaches Jesus with a question about marriage and using what is called the “levirate” marriage from (part of the Law of Moses), in conjunction with that of the issue of resurrection.

The Sadducees, believed that there is no resurrection from the dead. They also believed that only the first five books of the Law of Moses, or the Torah, were the correct and acceptable writings of God and that the rest of the writings of the prophets and teachings were inaccurate.

Jesus makes quick work of them and lets them know, even though they are considered religious leaders, that they don’t know they Scriptures and they don’t know the power of God!

Jesus makes quick work of them and lets them know, even though they are considered religious leaders, that they don’t know they Scriptures and they don’t know the power of God!

By virtue of the fact that they believed in the Law of Moses only and then claim to be believe that that there is no resurrection, they proved that they had not studied and learned what God was saying.

As Jesus said to them, “But now, as to whether the dead will be raised—haven’t you ever read about this in the writings of Moses, in the story of the burning bush? Long after Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had died, God said to Moses, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ So he is the God of the living, not the dead. You have made a serious error.”

In other words, Jesus is pointing out that God didn’t say, “I was the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob” (past tense), but rather, “I AM the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob” (present tense), meaning that these men still lived and thus there must be a resurrection!

So, they too are shot down miserably and walk away with their tails between their legs as failures in their attempts to discredit the Lord!

Now, we come the passage of the day, which is the next question that is posed to Jesus.

In , we read,

Mark 12:28 ESV

And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?”

Now before we read the all familiar answer that Jesus gives to the scribe, let me point out something about what is being asked here.

As I mentioned a moment ago, these factions within the Jewish religious community, (the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Herodians and the Scribes), differed in many ways. In order for them to come together and rid themselves of this “Jesus”, they had to have common ground that they agreed upon.

The Law of Moses, was that common ground. They all agreed that the Torah was truly of God and so, anyone who disputed the Law, was thus discrediting Moses, whom they revered as the greatest of the greats. Because the Torah said, “Inside the Tent of Meeting, the LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend”, and thus any man that had this level of rapport with God, must be the greatest of men!

So, if they asked Jesus about anything, pertaining to the Law and He went rogue on them, and gave an answer that was not in accordance with the Law, then we was discrediting the man, Moses, not to mention, discrediting God, Himself!

And when you consider that the oral teachings of the rabbis over the centuries, (the Mishna and the Gemara of the Talmud), that had been passed down, pertaining to the Law, had amassed into 613 commandments in the Law (248 things that you should do and 365 things that you shouldn’t do), the following question for Jesus, was seemingly the trap of all traps!

So, let me re-read the verse from that we just read, but I will read it this time, from Matthews gospel, says,

Matthew 22:34–35 ESV

But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him.

The scribe, this lawyer of the Law, was coming before Jesus, to again, TEST Him and try to trip Him up.

Had they truly known and believed in who they were speaking to, they would have instantly seen that they were going against the Torah, by testing Jesus, because the Torah read, “You shall not put the LORD your God to the test!”

Now comes Jesus’ response to the question, says,

Mark 12:29–31 ESV

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

Jesus didn’t just give them an answer, but His answer was one that was so very familiar to everyone who was within earshot of Him.

The answer that Jesus gave, was from , and it was part of a prayer that was and still is prayed this very day, by devout Jews, twice a day (morning and evening).

This prayer is called the “shema”. In Hebrew, shema, means, “hear” and it is the first word of the prayer, “Shema Yisrael (“Hear, O Israel”).

In fact, this particular passage in , has the instructions by God says that, “You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

Did you know, that even today, when you go into many Jewish houses, you will find what is called, the Mezuzah, hanging by the door.

The Mezuzah, is an ornate little box that contains a hand written version, in Hebrew, of , ““Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might”, which is what Jesus quoted to the Jewish leaders in this passage.

The point being, not only did Jesus’ answer ring as very familiar to the religious hypocrites, but also to every Jewish man and woman and child around Him, when He answered!

Jesus quoted this and then said, “On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

In other words, according to Jesus (the author of the Word of God, the living Logos), everything that was given as Law and the oracles of the prophets for the people, were summed up and fulfilled through these two commandments, and .

And it is here, that my mind began to really ponder on the depth of this declaration of Jesus.

When the commandment was given in , of, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (please note that Jesus added the word, “mind” to the list, as this was not in the original command. If you’re the author, you make amendments, AMEN?!)

Anyway, the word in Hebrew for “love” used here is, “ahab” and it implies ardent and vehement inclination of the mind, at the same time tenderness and fullness of affection.

This is likened to the Greek word used for love, of “agape”.

They are both volitional decision of the mind and not as an emotional response to a situation.

In other words, we are to decide, to make the conscious decision in our hearts and with our souls and with our minds and with all of our strength, to LOVE GOD!

The thing that has stuck in my mind, ever since I read that book this past week and went back and read and re-read the statements of Jesus and the original commandments given in the Old Testament, was “HOW?”

“How Lord, do I learn to love You this way?”

With all of my heart - the heart refers to, the inner part or middle of a thing … the inner man … personality … the seat of emotions … the seat of knowledge and wisdom … the seat of conscience and moral character, (according to Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old Testament Words).

The heart refers to our personality, character and our emotions.

And left on your own and to our own doing, our hearts are deceitful and wicked, according to .

Jeremiah 17:9 NLT

“The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?

As David prayed to God, after his sin of adultery and murder, he asked God, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.”

You see, God has made good on His promise to remove our old hearts of stone and replace them with hearts of flesh; that is a new/clean heart.

This comes by way of a right relationship with Jesus, the Son of God and His atoning blood!

So, I have learn to LOVE God with all of my inner man (emotions, knowledge, conscience, personality and character!)

Next, I have to love Him with all of my soul - the word for “soul” in Hebrew, is the word, “nephesh” and it always refers to LIFE. When God said, “For the life of the flesh is in the blood”, the word used there is “nephesh”, or the soul.

The soul of a man, is the life of man. It is always used this way in the Old Testament. says,

Genesis 2:7 KJV 1900

And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

The same thing here, God breathed the breath of life and Adam became a living, “nephesh”, LIFE/SOUL!

According to Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible, he says the phrase “with all your soul” in means “to be willing to give up the life to him, and to devote it all to his service; to live to him, and to be willing to die at his command.”

Our life, in its entirety, is be devoted to God and for God.

Then, I have to able to Love God with all of my might/strength - this word in the Hebrew, means to a complete degree on a scale of extent. In other words, might refers to totality.

To love God with your might, is with all that you can gather up and then some of yourself and use it to pour into your relationship with God and in loving Him!

And finally, Jesus added, with all of your mind - the mind, in the Greek, is known as the faculty of understanding … way of thinking and feeling” (Thayer’s Greek Lexicon). To say it another way, using the mind is an exercise in thinking and reasoning.

Your mind is where you make the volitional choices and decisions of what you will and will not do. And your mind the battleground between heaven and hell.

Thoughts that we allow to reside there, help to determine and influence us and what we will and will not do!

This is why Paul said, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

Basically, what is Jesus saying is required of us, in order to TRULY be able to LOVE God?

EVERYTHING!!!

As Christians, we are taught to, “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength”, but it is never driven home and ingrained as to just what exactly does that mean.

It’s like I said at the beginning, we say verses, we recite verses, we sing verses and say that we believe those verses, until we have convinced ourselves that we do!

But do you truly see what LOVING GOD means, per Jesus?!

I heard Dr. David Jeremiah telling of a man who was getting ready to go on a trip to a very prestigious place and a very important meeting. He realized that his suit had not been cleaned yet and he was pressed for time. His local dry cleaners couldn’t handle the rush order, and then he remembered that there was a place across town that advertised, “ONE HOUR DRY CLEANING”.

So, he loaded up the suit and drove across town to the place and as he was filling out his ticket for the suit, he stated, I will be back to pick it up, in a few hours.

To which the dry cleaning clerk responded, “Oh we can’t have it ready, until 3 days from now.”

The man said, your sign says, “ONE HOUR DRY CLEANING”!!!!

And to this, the clerk replied, “Oh, that’s just our name. We don’t really mean that!”

This is how far too many Christians appear. We have a sign that states, “LOVE”, but in reality, we don’t, or even can’t live up to the title!

And yes, the Spirit of almighty God has poured into a true Christian, and according to the Bible, “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”

Understand this, God’s word never contradicts itself. We, on our own could never truly love God the way that we wants us to. That is why we have His Holy Spirit within us, as believers.

But even then, we still have to make the volitional choice, with our minds, to listen to Holy Spirit and bend our hearts towards God and that relationship with Him, before we do anything, or anyone else.

IN CLOSING, MENTION: In , Jesus warned us,

Matthew 24:9–12 ESV

“Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake. And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.

Matthew 24:9–10 ESV

“Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake. And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another.

Compare this with the daunting warning that Jesus wrote an sent to the church, years later, in , where Jesus said, “But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.”

Jesus could have sent those letters to the 7 churches, in any order, but He chose to list the LOVELESS church first!