Well, I invite you to turn to Matthew chapter 22 this morning in those Bibles that are in front of you. We're working through the gospel of Matthew, and we are today going to conclude this section, a major ending here in earthly ministry and emphases are very important here. Page 984, we're looking at verses 34 through 46. Let's give our attention to the word of the Lord, beginning at verse 34.
"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. Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law. And he said to him, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets. Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, saying, what do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he? They said to him, the son of David. He said to them, how is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying, "The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet"? If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son? And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.
There is the reading of God's word.
Well, this morning we end a major section in Matthew. I titled the message last time "Last Arguments Against Jesus," and that's exactly what these are. These are a barrage of last attacks against him before they will hand him over to the Romans. We are at the end here of his earthly ministry, and he is about to go to the cross. And the next chapter, he is about to pronounce seven woes on Israel for their unbelief. So Israel has always provided us a sort of template and model, as Paul says in Romans, for us to see what not to do (1 Corinthians 10). Things are moving Things are moving to the cross. And Jesus is now pressing: What do we get from Jesus? What sort of emphases right before he goes to the cross? That seems to me a very important question to ask and to think about.
And it really all comes down to this basic point today: that Jesus has taken everything away from them and from us. There is no justifiable reason for unbelief in him. There's none. That's what the gospels show us. All of it's been addressed. All of it's been countered. All of it's been answered. And what we have this morning, then, is sort of the capstone to all of the dialogues in Matthew and the heart of what I believe Matthew wants us to leave us with before these judgments are pronounced at the end of his earthly ministry.
Whatever things here are shown before the end that we will have some parables and teachings on the end times that are coming here in Matthew chapter 24 but this is of immense importance. You'll notice that great, shocking statement at the end of this: "This was it. Nobody dared ask him another question." So this is a big moment. And you'll remember the very important statement that was made at the beginning of Matthew: of what jesus taught them unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven." I think we have captured why their righteousness did not attain to the righteousness that will enter the kingdom of heaven.
Indeed, there's a what we call an imputed righteousness that we need. Matthew is not so much focused on the imputed righteousness here, but the character quality of people who are coming to him and that it far surpasses the legalism and the rules of the Pharisees? So What must surpass the righteousness of the Pharisees? What must surpass the righteousness of the Pharisees? And the point I think today we have here is that you cannot love God and claim to love God if you hate his Son. You cannot claim to be a follower of God if you reject his Son. You cannot be a follower of God if you have no faith in his Son. This is what we see here as Jesus is refused.
I want to look at this with you today by considering their last question, and then Jesus's last question, and then the final impression it is intended to have on all of us. That's the basic breakdown of this. We have two last questions here and a final impression.
Now, the context is important. You will remember that Jesus gave, preceding this, three parables. I mean, yeah, three parables that were directly given an aim toward their unbelief in him. So he gave the first parable of two sons. And one son said the owner of the vineyard said, "Go work for me." And he says, "I will go." will not go. And then he changed his mind, and then he went into the vineyard. And the other son said he would go into the vineyard, but did not go into the vineyard. And then he gave another parable of the vineyard and owner. And by the end of that parable, this good owner of this vineyard had sent servants to the workers, but they ended up killing his son. And then in the third parable, this great king throws a banquet for his son. But they wouldn't come. They wouldn't come.
Now, what we had in response to this then, and this is how Matthew has structured this, are barrage of three attacks in response to the three parables. And the first one was political: remember, "Paying taxes to Caesar." They tried to catch Jesus in a political trap of the day with the politics of the day. That's what everyone does today. The second one was theological over the resurrection and the Sadducees that we looked at last time. And now this one today is moral, about the law of God. And it ends today concluding it all with Jesus asking an all-important question that puts an end to all of it.
So we have a huge moment in the Gospels, and here comes the final of the three tests. Here it is, verse 34: "Now, when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they were not friends, remember? They gathered together." Defeating the Sadducees was no celebration for the Pharisees, though, because their common enemy was Jesus. And what you have described here is a sort of informal trial that they gather together with and their last attempt to conquer Jesus, to expose him, to ridicule him before the people and before they hand him over to the Romans.
And the figure that arises out of this last attack is a great figure. He's an interesting figure. He's a great lawyer. What do you think of lawyers? They're interesting people, aren't they? Do we have any lawyers here? I don't. He's their clearly their best and their brightest. Matthew uses a unique word, really, here: a law expert. It's the only place it's kind of used in the Gospels this way. Mark and Luke do something a little different. But you can imagine they're a little mini council here, and they say, "What can we do to trap Jesus? What can we do to catch him in a trap?" And so they say, "You're up." The law expert is up. And so he comes to Jesus, sent out by the Pharisees, and he asks the question.
"Teacher," notice this here in verse 35: "And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him." This is not a positive test. Keep that in mind. "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?"
Now that's a very important question, isn't it? But I thought to myself, "Did they think they were going to get him with this?" I was kind of stuck. They knew the answer, and they knew Jesus knew the answer. They had 613 commandments they memorized. I mean, these were fun guys to hang out with. They knew all the answers. They sat around and debated the law, and they would they would scruple with the law And they would argue about the law all day long and here It seems they raised something That's really easy right it seems really easy that's what Jesus answers. Notice he answers: "And he said to them, verse 37 you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first, the great and first commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets
Now, at the beginning of what you call synagogue worship i've been reading on this I was reading on it preparation for ligonier so I read vitringa on the synagogue. And i learned all these things about the early church patterned its worship. off the synagogue, And the synagogue, was very important. Their worship. And often the Pharisees are mentioned in the synagogue worshiping. And you will notice here that at the beginning of the synagogue, they had a formula they would all say. They would all get together and worship, and they would say the Shema. The Shema. And to this day, it's still practiced by the Jews. This was no unfamiliar practice in Israel.
The Shema is the Hebrew word for "hear." "Hear, O Israel. Hear, O Israel." And Jesus, of course, takes that together with Deuteronomy 6:4. Deuteronomy 6:4 combines it with Leviticus 19:18, which is "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." "Hear, O Israel, you shall love the Lord your God, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself." And Jesus summarizes, right? That's the summary of the law. That's the great commandment. Love God. Love God. That's the essence of all true religion. Your duties to be performed are summed up: of loving the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind, and your neighbor as yourself. And when you do that, all your 613 commandments will fall into place. It's a wonderful commandment. It's the highest duty. It's our highest duty. It is the law. It's a great commandment that God gives to us: to love God. It's the one thing in life that has more value than anything else. It's the purest act of devotion. It's to have your whole being so directed to God that in everything, everything that you do, you love him, right?
With all your heart. You know what the heart is? Not the beating thing in you. The center of all your existence, all your faculties, all your emotions. Love him. All your desire. Never wasting an hour of your life, never thinking a corrupt thought. You show love to God with all of who you are, the seat of your emotions, with the mind your mind matters. Our entire minds are his. He made them. You're to be growing in the knowledge of the Lord, and it includes your heart and your mind and your attitude, and and showing forth love in all ways to him heart soul, your whole existence. Your mind, and elsewhere, strength. Every bit of who you are all the strength that you have. And then those people sitting next to you your neighbor you are to love them as yourself. That is quite a requirement, isn't it? Do you do that? Do you think Pastor Gordon does that? You think that highly of me? I want to do that. I want to love the unlovable. I want to love just not hypocritically people I want to do that with not just with words, but in every way to love them as I'm called to love them.
Every time they got in the synagogue, they would um say the Shema. The Shema would be repeated in the morning and sometime during the first quarter of the day, in the evening, and then it might be repeated anytime before daybreak. Shema was always being said, always being said.
The Kaddish, this was the most ancient of synagogue prayers. And this is what it sounded like. And this is love, right? "May his great name be extolled and hallowed in the world which he created according to his will. May he cause his kingdom to come. May his redemption flourish. May his Messiah speedily come; synagogue worship may he come may he deliver his people in your life and in your days and in the time of the whole house of Israel, and that quickly. And you say amen, amen, amen, amen. Let his great name be blessed forever and ever. Let his name be celebrated, his memory extolled through all generations. Let the name of the Holy Blessed God be celebrated, praised, adorned, exalted, extolled, and preached far above every benediction in him. Praise and thanks to the king." They said this, the Kaddish. And at the end of the Kaddish, the people would answer, "Amen, let his great name be blessed forever and ever." The legate would say, "Bless ye the blessed of God," the people blessed be, the blessed Lord forever into everlasting. The Shema with its eulogies is recited by the legate in a loud voice, and the people answering amen. That was worship. A little different than today's worship, huh? Depends.
Now, do you think they paused and asked, "Do we do that? And who are we loving?" They thought they did.
Now, why would they come to Jesus and ask this then, right? I mean, that's where I'm stuck. Well, not really, but I was. The section just ends. None of the other Gospels do this. Mark gives me some context to work with. Mark says, "Amen, well said, teacher. To love the Lord is to fulfill the law and the prophets." Luke gives us the connection with the parable of the Good Samaritan. Matthew gives us nothing. Boom, ends. How do you preach that? What's going on here? The discipline of the pastor is not to try to sort of synchronize all the Gospels at this point. The discipline of the pastor is to think about why is Matthew doing what he's doing. What's happening here?
This is a little thought experiment with you for a minute. I'm going to try to help you with this. I have many laws in the Gordon household for my kids: make your beds, pick up your clothes, clean this, clean that. Let's just say from the beginning I said there's one great commandment in the Gordon household. It's the Gordon Shema here. "Hear, oh, Gordon children. Hear, oh, Pastor Gordon's great commandment. Clean the kitchen after dinner. That's my great commandment in the Gordon household." Let's just say that's the great commandment in the Gordon household. But I walk in the kitchen, and there it is, all again. Last night's chicken still on the plate in the morning. You think I might be making a point here right now with my own family, my own kids? You guys should laugh at that.
Let's say I'm really frustrated with my children, and I say, "Children, come here. Come here. meeting. Gordon meeting. We're going to recite the Gordon Shema. What is the greatest commandment in the Gordon household?" Do they not know it? Oh, they know it. Of course they know it. But why would I ask that? Why would I want them to say it? I want them to say it. I want them to repeat it. Why? Because the kitchen's a mess again. There's hardened food stuck to the plates. "Children, come here. Great Shema. I want you to say it. Say it out loud. Hear, O children, the commandment of the Gordon household. You shall what? Clean the kitchen." And hopefully in their recitation of it, I will get them to realize how bad they have been at the chief commandment, right? That's the effect. "What is the great commandment, Jesus? What is the great commandment, Jesus? Have you done it?" See, these are attacks. This is the third attack. "Have you done it?" Nothing else needs to be said after this because he hasn't loved the Lord his God. Mic drop. Got him. That's the effect. "Have you honored God in the most important commandment? Have you loved your neighbor?" No. They said, "You're a blasphemer."
And you see, Matthew at this point does something that none of the other Gospels do. The dialogue's not over, and he gives us a clue to that. If you look at verse 41: "Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, so Jesus asked them a question." But if you look back in 34, "When the Pharisees had gathered together," Matthew wants you to link these two. Pharisees gather together; while the Pharisees are still gathered together. So there's the tie. There's the connection. He doesn't want you to separate what is about to happen. It's an interpretive clue. They thought they had just condemned him, and now Jesus has a question of his own.
All the multitudes are around him, and whatever question they are now going to get from Jesus is probably one of the biggest moments in the Gospel of Matthew because it ends up silencing them forever against him. This utterly shuts them down.
Well, here comes the question of all questions, after the moment on loving God. Jesus asks them a question: "What do you think about the Christ? What do "You think about the Christ? Whose son is he? You say it." you see? you say it. and they reply that's easy do you think you got us with that? The son of David." The scribes everywhere taught, and the Pharisees, that the coming Christ, the Messiah, is the son of David. He would come from David's line, right? It's absolutely true. They got it right. Everyone believed that when the Messiah would come, he would come from the lineage of King David.
But here's their dilemma. Here's their dilemma. Do they understand what David believed about who he is? And so he said to them, "How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord?" That's why we sang Psalm 110. David said, by the Spirit, "Remember Psalm 110? The Lord said to my Lord, sit in my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. Psalm 110, probably the most quoted Psalm in the whole New Testament. Do you know that is the most quoted? And maybe in the whole Bible, it's a big Psalm with a big message.
You will notice, uh, if you went back to Psalm 110 and you'll notice here uh well the Greek doesn't capture it but you went back to the Hebrew and you looked at it, the first "Lord" is all caps. The second is lowercase. That two different names of God are being communicated there. The "Lord said to my Lord," and the Psalm reads, "The Lord" (all caps, holy name Yahweh) "said to my Lord" (holy name Adonai). So the Lord said to my Lord. The Lord said to my Lord. Sit until all your enemies are ruled. David is speaking. Yahweh said to my Lord, Adonai. God is speaking to the Messiah, who is my Lord.
So Jesus observes this, and he says, "Did you notice that? Did you never catch that? That the Spirit inspired David, saying that his son was also his Lord? That would mean David knew him. That would mean David worshipped him. That would mean David prayed to him. That would mean that this is a very special person." And what just happened? They had to confess that David's son is God's Son. So David calls him Lord. "How is he then his son?" says Jesus. And they came face to face with the most important question of their lives and maybe the most important question of your life: "Whose son is this? Who are we dealing with today? Who did we come up to worship today? This name that everyone claims, this name that is known throughout all the earth to this day."
Now, keep in mind what infuriated them about Jesus is that people were calling him the son of David. Remember, he said in the temple, the children were doing this. Blind Bartimaeus would do this. And the two blind men: "Son of David. Jesus is the son of David. Son of David," said the blind men, "have mercy on us." They saw him. They saw him. They hated him for taking that designation. They wanted to destroy him for taking that designation because he was receiving all praise as the Messiah whom David said was his Lord. But they better be careful. They better not get this wrong. For David himself understood that the Messiah was his Lord, and think carefully: if you're rejecting me, you're rejecting David's Lord. The implications of that are just huge.
Let me draw the conclusion: The Messiah was just not a mere man. The Messiah was truly God. And that's who came to us. Understand this? That's who was sent to us. The one through whom everything was made. And they want to kill him.
Just before he goes to the cross, they will deliver him over. And remember at the crucifixion, the high priest asked this question: "Are you the Christ, the son of the blessed?" Here's Jesus' answer: "I am. And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the power and coming on the clouds of heaven." What a claim. "Do you know who you're dealing with? Who has come to us? Who you're worshiping?"
He just forced them to deal with the most impressing issue of their lives, and he turned it on them and he said, "How are you treating me, your neighbor? How are you loving God? Who are they hating? You see this, the connection now? Who are you refusing in your life? Who are you rejecting in your life? Their hatred of him as the Messiah is hatred of God. And that's deadly."
"What is the greatest commandment? Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. That's him. That's the most important issue. You see what unbelief is? It's rejection and hatred of God himself to do what you want to "Do And live your own life. And then you have to ask the all-encompassing question of this text. Do you really love him? Have you? And the answer is no. I haven't. I've done all kinds of things against him in my life. "Yeah, pastor, I've lived rather rebellious in the course of my life."
The great commandment, the great requirement, is to love God. Then it has everything to do with responding to him as David did. David was a man after what? His own heart. Bowing, believing by faith. Submitting to him, following him, believing him as Lord.
What did they quote in the Shema? They left one little phrase that we didn't get usually explained here. "You shall love the Lord your God and your neighbor as yourself." Do you know what it followed up with? "I am the Lord." They missed him.
And I think this gets to Matthew, what Matthew's been driving home for us. Israel missed the whole intention of the law in putting them on their knees and confessing their sins and turning to him in faith, that then true love might spring out of that heart for him.
The Psalms, to close this out today, say things that are so beautiful, beloved. "I love the Lord." We're going to sing this in a minute. "I love the Lord, for he has heard my voice." (Psalm 18) "I love you, O Lord. I love you, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock and my deliverer, my God, my rock in whom I take refuge." (New Testament) "Henceforth, there is a laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award me on that day. And not only me, but to all who have loved him. Love disappearing. Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor entered in the heart of man the things that God has prepared for those who love him. We love him. We love him."
And that's the question today. When you've been delivered and you've been justified by faith, you love him. You follow him. You believe him. You trust him as your good shepherd. And Psalm 110 celebrates this great victory over the lives of rebellious hearts. "Do we know whom God has sent to us? Why would you not believe in him and be saved? This is great news today. Come to me," said Jesus, "all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest for your souls. You'll have rest, peace, joy, and the promise of eternal life. Think of what he's done for you today who believe the gospel."
Dear Reformed brothers and sisters, we don't say this very often. I think we should think about this. Listen to me. You may say it. You may say it today: "I love you, Lord." You ever say it in your prayers? You ever tell him you love him? He's given you that ability. Now you can say the Shema with understanding. Not just to say it, just to say it and not even know him. "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and your neighbor as yourself. Say it with understanding. Jesus, you're my Lord. I believe you. I turn from my sin. I come to you." Yes, by faith he gives you an imputed righteousness by which we are justified, but the righteousness he's talking about here in Matthew is a righteousness that exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees in sanctification, and it's a beginning to love him. That's what Matthew tells us. It's a beginning in our love for him. When from the heart you can say this, for his marvelous salvation, all he's done for you then you know your righteousness has exceeded that of the scribes and the Pharisees, and you've entered the kingdom of heaven.
This is our Lord. This is our King. Of course, we didn't first love him. He first loved us. And that's why this love is possible. But how wonderful is it today to know we love him. We know him. He saved us. Has anyone not come today? Come to him. He's the Savior of the world. He's the one sent from heaven to save us from all of our sins. What a King. What a God we can come to and love.
Amen. Lord, thank you for hearing us today and our cries to you. And we see who was sent to us. And we celebrate what you have done in our lives to open our hearts and minds. It grieves us, O Lord, that there are people who don't believe in the only name given by which people can be saved. There is no other name. There is no other way. So, Lord, may the peoples come. May they see the Son of God for who he is. May we bow before the Lord, and may we begin in this life, having been justified by faith, to love the Lord our God, as we long for the day in glory when there's no more sin, when we will love in perfection. Thank you for encouraging us. And we pray, Lord, for all those who do not believe that the gospel would sound out, that you would soften hearts and save, that they would see who was sent to us from heaven to save us from all of our sins. In Jesus' name, amen.