Do This and You Will Live
Jesus as Teacher • Sermon • Submitted
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What Shall I Do to Inherit Eternal Life?
What Shall I Do to Inherit Eternal Life?
Our introduction today is simply the question that an individual asks. Most weeks in our discussions on Sunday, we have started with some question that Jesus our teacher has answered. The scribe seeks to test Jesus but Jesus the teacher turns it around and tests the student. We are the student as well in this narrative, how will we respond.
And a lawyer stood up and put Him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”
And He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How does it read to you?”
And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.”
And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.”
Luke 10:
And He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How does it read to you?”
Two references from OT
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
‘You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the Lord.
And He said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this and you will live.”
Leviticus
we will get to the parable in a few minutes
Why does being obedient to God and “loving” my neighbor mean I will live?
Why does being obedient to God and “loving” my neighbor mean I will live?
Why does being obedient to God and “loving” my neighbor mean I will live?
Jesus has said for the man to “do” the law and he will live
Why does being obedient to God and “loving” my neighbor mean I will live?
Deuteronomy 6:5
What does it mean to live?
“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.
“Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.”
John
this verse says the same thing only negatively
according to 5:24 - life means eternal life (in fact this is almost always what it means) and not dying in your sins
so life = eternal life
Eternal Life is given those who place their faith/trust in Jesus
faith = eternal life
no faith = die in your sins
“Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he will never see death.”
What is clarified here is that faith means keeping Jesus’ word (keeping Jesus’ word is what faithing is)
so OBEDIENCE = Faith
“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.
“Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.”
John 8:
OBEDIENCE = LOVE
To faith or trust in someone - in this case Jesus is to be obedient to them
so if we “faith” in God we do the 10 commandments in faith, out of trust, in love
this is why obedience = faith = love
Love = an action for someone else over or against yourself
“Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.
john 15
God defines love as sacrificing ones own life for the sake of another, i.e. being obedient to someone other than yourself - be that God or you!
Remember God asks the man what was the “law” was and the man said that the whole law was loving God and others?
Let’s take these things one at the time
Loving God
Loving God
if all that is to be understood as I described it then 10:27 means that the law is done by obeying the lord with all my heart, all my soul, all my strength and all my mind
Why does being obedient to God and “loving” my neighbor mean I will live?
What would it mean to obey God with my...
mind - learn his ways, train my mind to think like Him, have disciplined thoughts, etc.
strength - give full effort to my obedience
heart/soul - in my whole person, feelings, will, attitude, affections
And He said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this and you will live.”
disobedience is unbelief then
Life = Eternal Life
Great Answer - now do it!
OBEDIENCE = LOVE
the scribe knew this answer, but was he doing it?
But wishing to justify himself, he said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
some of us knew this as well, are you doing it?
lets move on to the neighbor part
But wishing to justify himself, he said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
desiring to justify
desiring to make sure he was doing this right he sought affirmation from Jesus about his conduct.
Parable of Good Samaritan
Jesus replied and said, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among robbers, and they stripped him and beat him, and went away leaving him half dead. “And by chance a priest was going down on that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. “Likewise a Levite also, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. “But a Samaritan, who was on a journey, came upon him; and when he saw him, he felt compassion, and came to him and bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them; and he put him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn and took care of him. “On the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I return I will repay you.’ “Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers’ hands?” And he said, “The one who showed mercy toward him.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do the same.”
Luke 10:
with the language Jesus uses, being a neighbor is loving your neighbor. Being a friend is loving your friend
Deuteronomy
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
“which of there three proved to be a neighbor to the man.” is how the Jesus asked the question.
‘Everyone who eats it will bear his iniquity, for he has profaned the holy thing of the Lord; and that person shall be cut off from his people.
the scribe answered - “the one who showed him mercy.” We can translate, the one who showed love.
To show mercy is to show love. The one who shows mercy, gives to another over and against what the could give them. Here something rather than nothing. In the cases of mercy - nothing instead of something or less instead of more
mercy - compassion or forgiveness shown toward someone whom it is within one's power to punish or harm or withhold (I added last part)
so let’s connect this last part helps us out
helps us out
Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ.
Quick Reminder: 1st part of whole law is obey me - 2nd part is I want you to love others
this verse is saying that to love others is to bear their burdens
so again obey what I say, what I say is love others. You obey me by loving others. If you don’t love others, you aren’t obeying me. If you aren’t obeying me then you don’t love me. If you don’t love me then you don’t have any faith in me, if you don’t have any faith in me then you don’t believe me and if you don’t believe in me than you will die in your sins and you will not have eternal life!
Last part...
So if bearing one’s another’s burdens is how live an “eternal life, ” then how do we do that? Remember - “DO THIS AND YOUR WILL LIVE” AND “GO AND DO THE SAME”
**Picture of people around a person representing those in the audience**
I want to look at three more verses and then we will let you discuss and respond
Therefore, laying aside falsehood, speak truth each one of you with his neighbor, for we are members of one another.
Laying aside falsehood means being authentic with one another. We must deal in reality. If you are in dealing with sin and unbelief how can I help you unless I know
Why would you let me know what was going on unless I felt like you could help me and I thought you wanted to help me
but sometimes we are hardened by the deceitfulness of sin and we don’t know what we are doing is wrong - this is where truth is necessary to encourage me to do that which is good for me and not what isn’t
But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
This speaking truth in or encouraging one another in often comes after confessing sin to one another.
Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.
Ephesians
Our sin thrives in darkness and solitude. Our sin thrives when we live out of arms reach of safe people who love us and who are equipped to bear the burdens that we are struggling with
Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
Hebrews
Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.
**Picture of people around a person representing those in the audience**
the picture that the author of Hebrews paints is of a gathering of people around you who love you and are there ready and equipped to bear your burdens, speak truth to you, be available for confession and encourage you right after
having those “witnesses” allows you to lay aside every encumbrance or impediment and the sin that so easily ensnares us on the journey so that we may run the race together able to endure to the end
Do you have a great cloud of witnesses surrounding you? Do you have a cloud? How about one witness?
(could make the point by taking the people around the center person away or adding them back)
(1) It matters who the witnesses are?
(2) It matters how many that you have?
God did not intend for me to be Holy by myself for myself, and Jesus is trying to communicate the truth that we need one another by commanding us to love one another and so fulfill what he wants
To carry out neighbor love you have to have a neighbor love you.
to confess to someone there has to be someone that you feel like you can confess to
to encourage someone you have to have someone encouraging you
to speak truth to someone you have to speak truth to you
to be surrounded by witnesses someone has to have been witnessed to
If I asked you to fill out this chart with people in your life that provided this to you how many people could you put down - these are not good time charlie’s these are lovers of your soul.
Jesus is one of these people - he will speak truth to you, he will encourage you, you can confess to him
Katie is one of these people for some of you
I am one of one of these people for some of you
If you don’t have anyone write down those three
which is better to be on everyone’s list or to have everyone on yours? it is not either or it is both and
that is what Jesus means by eternal life - that is what eternal type of life looks like. This is a life that you need to start living, and Jesus says that it is a life that will not stop even though we die
if you do this you will live and so will everyone else
Raise your hand if you want a greater cloud of witnesses and if you want to be a witness for more people in our family!