The Great Commandment

Well, we are wrapping up our Basics Series this week. Of course you understand that these things we’ve been talking about are a very short list of what is probably a pretty long list, right? But my hope has been that with what we’ve been talking about we are giving ourselves a platform, or foundation, to build upon.

Everything we’ve been talking about so far is meant to be a tool to further our lives, better our lives. We talked last week about the fact that Jesus said in John 10:10, / / The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.

When Jesus says this he is explaining a parable, a story, that he’s just shared with the people, and they didn’t quite understand what he was saying, so he’s explaining further. In vs 1-5 of John 10, Jesus talks about how sheep interact with their true shepherd. He says If anyone tries to sneak over the wall and not go through the gate, that person is a thief and a robber. The shepherd stays at the gate, enters through gate, and guards the gate. In fact, shepherds would actually lay down in the gateway and that is where they would sleep, to ensure the sheep wouldn’t get out, and predators and thieves wouldn’t come in.

Now, to let you in on a little secret. Jesus isn’t talking about sheep. And he isn’t talking about thieves.

What he’s really talking about is those who recognize that He is the Messiah, the Son of God sent to lead the people to life. And he says in vs 8, explaining what he’s just said, / / “All who came before me were thieves and robbers.” And then in vs 10 he says, / / ”The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy.”

He’s saying all who came before him were NOT him. Meaning, those who claimed to be sent from God as the Messiah, were not. He is. And others may come, but they are not him. Only He is. There is one Son of God. One Jesus. One God. On Spirit. And Jesus is saying, don’t be fooled by anyone else. Not anyone who’s come before me, and not anyone who’s going to come after me.

What does he say in John 14:6, / / “I am the way the truth and the life, No one comes to the father except through me.”

So, why does Jesus tell this parable about sheep and a shepherd?

He says in vs 4-5, / / “After he has gathered his own flock, he walks ahead of them, and they follow him because they know his voice. They won’t follow a stranger; they will run from him because they don’t know his voice.”

Many interpret the thief to be satan, the devil, our adversary. And although that’s not wrong. What Jesus is saying here, is anyone who is saying anything but follow Jesus, is the thief, because they are trying to lead you AWAY from Him, and He is the only way to life.

He gathers us together in His love.

He walks ahead of us, and leads us.

We follow, because the more we learn of him the more we know his voice.

That’s what this series has been about. The gathering of Jesus, how he leads us, and that we choose to follow after him. And he says in there, “They won’t follow a stranger; they will run from him because they don’t know his voice.”

If I can give you one HUGE encouragement today, it is to get to know Jesus more than anyone in your life, because when anyone comes to you and says anything, whether it’s a co-worker, whether it’s a friend, a leader, or a spirit, a demon, the devil himself, you will know. / / If it doesn’t sound like Jesus, it’s just given itself away…

...And you run like crazy and you don’t look back. Don’t wait around to see if it gets better. Don’t wait and see if it gets nicer. It’s like sitting there watching a movie you know you shouldn’t be watching and you are like, “well, maybe it will get better ...” No, turn that thing off. If the voice speaking to you in your life doesn’t sound like Jesus, or isn’t pointing to Jesus, because it knows that it’s not Jesus but Jesus is the only answer, don’t wait around for a moment. You march on out of there. Why? Because the only thing that voice is trying to do is steal, kill and destroy. It’s no friend.

All these Basics. The bible, prayer, communion, baptism, generosity, they are all a choice to follow after Him. We’ve said it a few times, his leaving instructions were, / / …go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you.

There are going to be lots of things, lots of people, lots of scenarios that are going to try and get your attention, try to vie for your focus. And all that will produce is robbery, death and destruction. Don’t be distracted from following after the true shepherd, Jesus Christ. Don’t be distracted from following what HE teaches.

This is why the Basics are so important. This is getting to know Jesus. This is getting to know His commands, as he said in Matthew 28. This is why the first Basic in our series was the Bible. It has to start with what Jesus taught.

So, with that in mind we’re going to listen to something Jesus said on multiple occasions as something that sets his followers apart from anyone else in the whole world.

Remember how I said last week, when Paul knew that his end was coming, we know that what someone says in those last words before they die are really important, aren’t they? Well, this happens with Jesus too, every time he would talk about his upcoming betrayal and crucifixion he would say something really important.

In John 13:31-35, / / Jesus said, “The time has come for the Son of Man to enter into his glory, and God will be glorified because of him. And since God receives glory because of the Son, he will give his own glory to the Son, and he will do so at once. Dear children, I will be with you only a little longer. And as I told the Jewish leaders, you will search for me, but you can’t come where I am going. So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.

To wrap up our series on the Basics of our Christian Faith, today, how appropriate that it’s Valentine’s day, we’re talking about / / Love!

Jesus, after saying he’s going to die soon, says, This is the most important part. Love each other! He’s not saying this as a suggestion. He’s not saying I would prefer you did it this way. He says a new commandment.

Now, I find that interesting, because, basically, he’s giving them what he’s already defined as the most important commandment, anyways, it’s always been the most important commandment.

There was this moment, Jesus is approached by a group of Pharisees, and they send one of them, a super smart one that the bible says was an expert in religious law, to ask Jesus a question. If you don’t know, the Pharisees were this group of Jews that were totally by the book, by the letter, down to every single dot, they followed the law of Moses.

Now, today, most people probably know about the 10 commandments. They might not know them, they probably don’t know them these days, but they might know that there’s a thing called the 10 commandments. Well, the Pharisees followed a list of 613 commandments, that they had drawn from the books of the Torah, or what we call the Pentateuch, which are the first 5 books of the bible, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers & Deuteronomy. 613 rules they were determined to keep!

So, Jesus has these Pharisees come to him and they have one of them ask Jesus a question. It’s in Matthew 22:35-40 and it says, / / One of them, an expert in religious law, tried to trap him with this question: “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?”

These Pharisees were always trying to determine an order for their 613 laws. They had even categorized them as negative and positive commandments. The Positive commandments were things you had to do, and the negative were things you were Not supposed to do. So, Exodus 20:2 says, / / I am God, your Lord. This is the first Positive commandment, to recognize that there is a God. And it’s followed by the next verse, Exodus 20:3, which says, / / You shall have no other gods before Me. That’s a negative commandment because it’s a do not. Do NOT have any other gods.

So, they have taken all these laws and commandments into 613 of them, and they place 365 of them as negative or commands to NOT do something, and 248 as positive, or commands to DO something. And so they ask Jesus, You tell us which is the most important. They don’t know. No one has actually declared a most important, it’s been debated. Some religious leaders tried to distinguish if the laws were major or minor laws and some taught that all laws were equally binding and that it was dangerous to make distinctions, so this question, “which is the greatest” is bate to see what he will answer. Whose side is Jesus going to take, and what kind of division can they cause through his answer that will ultimately get him in trouble. And Jesus answers in a way that supports none of them directly, and maybe all of them individually.

Matthew 22:37-40, / / Jesus replied, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.

In the book of Mark, there is a parallel account of this scripture, and it ends with, / / And after that no one dared to ask him any more questions.

Jesus had answered so well that the challenge was completely shut down and no other questions were asked.

Alright, so, what have we seen here? What has Jesus said that we can pull into our Basics series? What foundational truth is he laying out here for us?

/ / Love God // Love People

Every Sunday we have our slide up at the beginning of service that simply says, Welcome to Cutler Bay Worship Center, and underneath that it has our mission statement, “Loving God // Loving People”. That is what we are about. / / Loving God // Loving People.

And the reason it’s written that way, and I didn’t even think of this when I originally wrote it, but God highlighted it to me later, is that it’s both an invitation, and a declaration.

We are invited by saying, We LOVE God, and we LOVE people....

But we are also saying, “HE is a LOVING God, and WE are LOVING People”

One is the action of love, the other is the character trait we want to live by, and we can do so BECAUSE it’s the character trait that HE lives by.

And this isn’t separated into two tasks, but listen to how Jesus says it, “A second is equally important”, meaning he’s not distinguishing between the first and second. They have the same level of importance.

And I think what really settles the matter for them, and why they won’t ask him any other questions, is the statement he follows it all up with. The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments. They only asked him about the law, now he’s bringing in all the prophets as well. Basically what he’s saying is this.

/ / Everything God has ever said to us, relies, depends, and is based on these two things. Love God, and Love your neighbor.

In Luke 10, another religious leader, an expert in the law, comes to Jesus and they get talking about this great commandment, and the bible says, / / The man wanted to justify his actions, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

Interesting question isn’t it. When we’re told to love, our response is, “Ya, sure but who?” and what I think we really are asking is “right, but who do I NOT have to love?”

I just need to love the people who think like me, right? The ones who act like me, believe like me, worship like me? That’s who you mean, right?

And Jesus responds by telling him a story. It’s the story we call The Good Samaritan. If you don’t know it, it’s in Luke 10:30-37, and it says this,

/ / “A Jewish man was traveling from Jerusalem down to Jericho, and he was attacked by bandits. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him up, and left him half dead beside the road.

“By chance a priest came along. But when he saw the man lying there, he crossed to the other side of the road and passed him by. A temple assistant walked over and looked at him lying there, but he also passed by on the other side.

“Then a despised Samaritan came along, and when he saw the man, he felt compassion for him. Going over to him, the Samaritan soothed his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them. Then he put the man on his own donkey and took him to an inn, where he took care of him. The next day he handed the innkeeper two silver coins, telling him, ‘Take care of this man. If his bill runs higher than this, I’ll pay you the next time I’m here.’

“Now which of these three would you say was a neighbor to the man who was attacked by bandits?” Jesus asked.

The man replied, “The one who showed him mercy.”

Then Jesus said, “Yes, now go and do the same.”

The greatest commandment is to love God and to love our neighbor, and we don’t get to distinguish between who our neighbor is and who they aren’t. The NLT says “A despised Samaritan” came along… that’s an understatement. Jews didn’t talk to Samaritans, Samaritans didn’t talk to Jews. They kept their distance, they hated each other. So, for Jesus to tell this story and say that two Jewish people, not even regular, but devoutly religious, a priest and a temple assistant, BOTH passed by their fellow Jewish traveler, but the Samaritan, the one why they can’t stand stopped and helped him is such a glaringly obvious definition of neighbor, there’s no denying it. You don’t get to differentiate. Your neighbor is everyone.

So, why does Jesus, before he dies, tell the disciples that he’s giving them a NEW commandment, to love one another. Isn’t that already the great commandment?

Here’s what I think when I read this.

Jesus is Emmanuel, God With Us. and the Old Testament Law from Deuteronomy 6:4-6 was, / / “Listen, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today.” The onus was on our commitment to God’s great command.

But, in John 13 Jesus says, / / “Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.”

That is an absolute game changer right there. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.

This is what we’re called to. I said earlier, not only do we say that WE Love God, but that HE is a loving God.

1 John 4:19 says, / / We love each other because he love us FIRST.

It’s on our shirts, it’s on the back of my truck, / / GOD loves YOU. That’s the first and absolutely the most important part. We receive His love, that’s what transforms our lives, and gives us the ability to truly love others.

/ / Receive God’s love

Love God

Love people

Then he says, Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.

How we love shows what we’re really made of.

How we love shows what we really believe.

How we love shows who we really follow.

I think that sums all of this up pretty nicely. Being a disciple is learning, we’ve talked about that lately, it’s being a student, a follower of Jesus and His teaching. And His teaching is to love one another. Again, learning isn’t enough, if we don’t apply what we learn than what we learn will not benefit us.

So, Jesus teaches us to love, but not just teaches, but shows us how to love by loving us! We learn about his love, we receive his love, in turn we know how to love those around us.

Love is not always easy, is it? If you read through 1 Corinthians 13 on what love is, it’s a pretty difficult list to follow. And the Life of Jesus defines for us what love is. His sacrifice. His pursuit of us. His display of love. So often in the gospels it says, And having compassion on them, he healed their sick. Love is action. Love is commitment. Love is sacrifice. Remember a couple weeks ago we read Romans 5:8, / / But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ o die for us while we were still sinners.

Jesus says in John 15, repeating what we’ve read this morning, / / “This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you. There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command.

And repeats it again a few verses later, / / “This is my command: Love each other.”

You are my friends if you do what I command....This is my command: Love each other.

My life, your life, our lives, should exemplify love on every level at every turn on every occasion. This is how the world will know we follow Jesus. That we love each other. If we’re doing anything else, the world won’t see us as the followers of Jesus when they look at us.

Why does that matter? Why should the world be looking at us? Like, can’t we just be christians and not worry about what the world things? Except....we love, because he loved us first, and that love, is not just for us, but it’s for everyone. So, seeing that we have learned how to love each other because we have been introduced to the greatest of loves, is the opportunity for someone else to encounter that same love and have their lives transformed.

When the world doesn’t see love in the church, what do they see?

They may see us as the manufacturers of rules.

They may see us as those who judge and condemn sinners.

They may see us as people who think we are morally superior.

But, when we choose love. Always choosing love. Never choosing anything else, but always love. when they see us, they’ll say, “wow, that looks like Jesus...” And when that happens, the invitation to lead someone to His love happens.

I want to invite you to respond to this this morning. Because it is impossible to do this without first understanding and receiving His love for us. Oh sure we can try and be good christians, we can try and follow the rules, the 10 commandments, or maybe all 613 rules of the old testament. But the reality is that if we’re trying to be good we’re going about it the wrong way.

The command isn’t, “make yourself love people.” The command is, “Just as I have loved you, love each other.”

The first and most important thing we need is the love of God for ourselves, so that we have the love of God for others.

So, I want to invite you to respond to that this morning. To respond to the invitation of Jesus to experience HIS love.