11/1/20 Mark 12:28-34 “Standing from a Wheel Chair!”

30 Oct 11/1/20 Mark 12:28-34 “Standing from a Wheel Chair!”

11/1/20     Mark 12:28-34        “Standing from a Wheel Chair!”

Sometimes being a pastor has all sorts of different unscheduled events.  This doesn’t happen much anymore but I used to get phone calls with all sorts of questions.  One time I had a fellow talk for 45 minutes trying to ask me one little question.  Another time I received a phone call from a person from the area where we served.  She wanted to know if I would marry her on Tuesday, the next day.  The only complication was that the soon to be husband was in the hospital dying from cancer.  It is a long story and a tender story and I will not go into it today.  I will always remember all the weddings that I have done and just how beautiful and special they were.  But this wedding will be remembered as extra special because of the conditions of doing it in an intensive care unit.  It all went well and I praise the Lord for how He works and the grace He extends to everyone.  Today we have a very special reading as Jesus tells us what the greatest commandment is.  Let’s see if this has any bearings on our lives today.

I have read about this demonstration in several places.  Suppose that I had a pail up here and I filled it with rocks so that I could put no more rocks in the pail.  Would it be full?  I think that most people would say yes.  Now suppose that I took some small pebbles and poured them in so that they filled the spaces around the rocks until the pail could hold no more big rocks or small pebbles.  Would the pail be full?  Now many of you would say that it is probably not.  So, then I take some fine sand and pour into the pail and it fills in around the rocks and pebbles.  Would the pail be full?  Probably not.  I could still fill it with water and then it would finally be full.

Now if I did this again, only I started with the water and sand, I wouldn’t be able to get the rocks and pebbles into the pail as there would be no room.  There is a moral to this demonstration and it is this.  When we are busy filling up our lives, it is important that we start with the big stuff and then we will have room for the small stuff.  If we only fill our lives with the small things, then we don’t have room for the big things that we need.  Jesus Christ is one of the big things that we need in our lives first so that we can handle all the lesser things that come along.  Jesus Christ is the most important entity you will ever have in your life.

As we begin, we have one of the teachers asking a question.  Many versions of the Bible will call these teachers scribes.  These were the scholars of the time.  They studied the Scriptures and people came to them for their knowledge.  They were involved in the plan to kill Jesus.  These are not to be confused with the Pharisees who were basically the religious conservatives of the time.  These people tried to follow the Law as closely as possible.

There were many other religious groups of the time also.  There were the zealots who believed that Rome should have nothing to do with their affairs and the Jews shouldn’t have anything to do with the Romans either.  This group would use violence to get what they wanted done and they led many uprisings of the time.  We also have the Herodians who thought just the opposite.  They thought that it was ok to have the Romans.  We also had the Sadducees who were the liberals and only believed in the first five books of their Bible.  They were pro Rome and thought that doing business in the Temple was ok.  The last religious group is the Essenes.  They more or less thought that you had to get away or isolate yourself in order to be in touch with God.

With all of these different religious ideas along with different political ideas, there was a lot of trouble.  There was fighting back and forth all the time.  The zealots were probably the main reason that Jerusalem was destroyed.  And the scribes or the teachers were in the middle of all of the conflict giving their expert advice.  It seems that the experts then were no better than what we have today.  It is no wonder that there was so much turmoil in the ancient world.

I would like us to look at our modern world from this same view.  We have our teachers or scribes today.  They are on the secular campuses and they are on the religious campuses.  These are the people who are trying to tell us that the Bible is a myth.  These are the people who are trying to tell us that most of the miracles and great things of the Bible never happened.  We have done ourselves a great disservice by allowing these people to dictate to us.  Many of them write our Bibles and Bible studies.  This is why we have to be so careful when we run across new material.  Often times our modern scribes do not believe in the Bible or God so their so-called scholarly views are really too biased to be of any use.  This comes back to the question, “If you don’t believe this part of the Bible, then what else don’t you believe in the Bible?”

We also have zealots today who are just as violent as they were in the ancient times.  We only have to look at the violent attacks and murders that we have had near our abortion clinics.  We have groups of people who call themselves militia who go into remote areas and practice for the time when they can over throw the government in the name of God.  We also have so called religious groups throughout the world who rape and kill people in the name of God.  We have zealots in all areas of life and not in just the religious arena.  It is no wonder that we are always on the verge of war someplace.

Even though we are not a conquered people any more, I think that we still have Herodians.  I think that these are the people who worship the government.  I think that most of our Senators and Representatives believe that our government is the greatest thing that has ever been invented and we had better leave God totally out of it.  Look at the mess these people have gotten us into with their backwards ideology.  They want to make sure that God is not in their government and that the government tries to control our churches by what we can and cannot say.  It is our duty to show them that we need God in every phase of our lives including our government.  God belongs everywhere and who do we think that we are to say that He can’t be here or there.  And we also need our government to stay out of our churches.  During this COVID thing, various governments think it is their duty to shut down churches.  I say they are wrong.  Churches should always be open. This is what separation of church and state means and not the crazy definition we presently use.

We also have the Sadducees who think that they can pick and choose the parts of the Bible that they like.  The whole Bible is obviously not for them so they will leave out this or that chapter.  We have so-called Christian religions in this country that have based their entire doctrine on a Bible that they have rewritten.  We even see Sadducees in our main line religions trying to tell us the same thing.

We also have our Pharisees who are almost the opposite.  As a matter of fact, we have all of these different groups alive and well, very well in our modern world.  I’m going to stop describing them now because it is a little too depressing.  Our world is a mess which is controlled by groups that are very similar to the ancient groups.  As my dad would say, “nuff sed.”

So, what is the greatest commandment?  There are something like 613 laws in the Old Testament.  This scribe/teacher wanted to know which was most important.  All of these 613 laws could be summed up in the 10 Commandments.  All of the 10 Commandments could be summed up in what Jesus is saying here.  This is just like our rock illustration in the beginning today.  We had to put the big rocks in first so the rest would fit.  We also have to start with the two greatest commandments and then all the rest will fit.  As a matter of fact, if we tried to sum up the whole Bible, we could do it like this.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.  Then love your neighbor as yourself.

In the ancient world there were few people who followed God.  Even the ones who tried to follow God turned out to have a real warped version that they followed as I have just pointed out with the Pharisees, Sadducees and so on.  Everyone was looking out for their own skin.  And this is pretty much the world we live in today also.  We see it everywhere especially during this election.

Now let us look at what happened to this teacher/scribe.  Chances are that this person was not what we would call a friend of Jesus or a follower.  He was probably trying to trap Jesus again into saying something that they could use against him as they were trying to get rid of Jesus.  This is something like the press is trying to do to President Trump every time they see him.  But look how Jesus answers.  The scribe/teacher tells him that He is right.  He is absolutely right.  He is not only absolutely right but to follow these two commandments is far more important than burnt offerings or sacrifices. Now that is going to ruffle some feathers!

There is a little nuance here that we really have to see.  This teacher would have been steeped in tradition.  He knew the laws and he would have kept the laws as best that he could.  He would have known that sacrifices and burnt offerings were an integral part of forgiveness.  He would have made sure that these things were done and done correctly.  But the scribe is saying here that Jesus is so right that what he says takes precedence over all sacrifices.

It is really hard to understand the teachers and the hierarchy of the Jewish faith back in those days.  It tells us several places in the Bible that they knew that they were to love God with all their hearts and love their neighbors.  They knew that the way to salvation was through faith.  That is pretty hard to believe by the way that they acted.  The trouble was that they believed that faith was maintained by following the law.  This was the way of faith.  This is why Jesus tells this teacher that he is not far from the kingdom of God.  He is close, very close.  He knew the way to heaven but he was just a on the wrong track.  All he would have had to do is to acknowledge Jesus and he could have had salvation right on the spot.  He had been listening to Jesus and he had all the evidence needed, but he does not decide to accept Him.  And no one dared to ask Jesus any more questions.

This is about where we are today for many folks.  People have all the evidence they need.  The Bible gives us all kinds of evidence of who Jesus really is.  As a matter of fact, I think that Jesus could come back today and perform miracles just like he did in the Bible and people would still reject Him.  Today we have the luxury of being able to buy magazines that tell us of the miracles that Jesus does today but we choose to make up other reasons as to why these things happened.  Last week we talked of healings that happen every day.  There are also other miracles happening on a daily basis.

The evidence is all there.  It is all here in the Bible as we read of time after time when God has done something that only God can do and there is no way to explain it other than God did it.  If you are wondering which way to go today, then step forward and declare that Jesus is exactly who He said he is.  Love the Lord God, love Jesus with all you heart and might and soul.  Accept Jesus and begin a new life that will be the best way to live that you can ever have.

I have seen people come to Christ.  I have seen the great and wonderful changes that He causes.  I have seen people love Jesus with all their might but here is a little story to help bring home the point from Steven Grant.  Try to picture this if you can.

This was one of the last times this man was able to come to church.  He was in a wheelchair, stooped over, head bowed and his body racked with Parkinson’s.  Speech was very difficult and he really lacked the ability to control his arms and legs.  As the congregation was singing about the greatness of God, this man placed his hands on the arms of his chair.  Slowly he lifted himself out of that wheelchair.  He couldn’t speak or sing any more but he was determined to stand and worship our Lord Jesus Christ.  This is what it means to love the Lord with all of your strength.

Today we are going to be taking Holy Communion.  (Today I ask that you go into a special time of prayer.)  This is a sacred time for you.  It is a time when you can sit back and reflect on your life with God.  I would like to remind everyone here that there is nothing that you cannot ask God.  God will listen to you no matter what you bring to Him.  So, I would like you to ask for ways to help you to love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, mind and strength.  Please do this in your quiet time and see what God tells you to do.  Because God loves you so much, He will talk to you.  He will listen.  He will answer.  Let’s go to Him now in prayer. And thank you Jesus for first loving us.  Let’s pray.