I invite you to turn in your Bibles this morning to the Gospel of Mark, the Gospel of Mark chapter 12. We're looking at verse 28 through 34, and you'll find that on page 1079 in your pew Bible, 1079. As I said, this is a text this morning and section that I think is a rather pressing section of Scripture, but so important that Jesus is going to the cross here, and people need to understand why. We're about to have that unfolded for us and look at everything that He went through. People need to know why He's doing this and appreciate that. So we have before this a very serious series of confrontations, And it really does help us to see what Jesus is after and how the importance of true faith, that we believe these things and look to him for life, is always the goal of these sermons and the good news that he's bringing to us. So this is Mark chapter 12, beginning at verse 28. 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? 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. And the scribe said to him, You're right, teacher. You have truly said that he is one and that there is no other besides him. And to love Him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength and to love one's neighbor as oneself is much more than all the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. When Jesus saw that He answered wisely, He said to him, You are not far from the kingdom of God. And after that, no one dared to ask Him any more questions. May the Lord bless this morning the hearing of His Word. Well, probably one of the most discouraging, great discouragements in Christian ministry is the problem of apathy. Apathy is a real problem, and the apathy of people who just seem little concerned about their eternal state. They don't think about it, they don't really worry about it, they don't have any much reflection about it whatsoever. Do people stop anymore and ask the questions, the important questions about life, about salvation, and what's going to happen after they die? Do they even think about these things? I've said before, you have a ticker in your chest, and one day that thing's going to stop. God put a ticker there, and then comes eternity. But the apathy to this is also strong today, really strong. I think about why. What has produced such apathy? Is it because people don't anymore believe that a judgment day is coming? Have we just sort of put that aside and said that's probably not going to happen? Do we believe anymore about a real place called hell? Do we ever hear about it? Or have people shrugged it off because now every memorial service we ever go to, we're assured everyone's in heaven hopping around and having fun? Is it that we just don't want to think about it? What is it? Why the apathy? I mean, we're dealing with eternal things where people are going forever. Or is it that we think that in the end, just the good people, the people in this world, that in the end, God's going to take care of it and make it all right. And those who live the good life, He's never going to condemn anyone who does that, who leads an obviously good and moral and upstanding life. I mean, fights for the right things in life. is that it? What causes the apathy? I'll take a zealous Christian who has a care, as we looked at last time, and wants to talk about truth and discuss truth, because at least in them, and maybe even has a little overzealous with the truth, at least in that person, they care enough about it, and there's somebody you can sort of calm down a little bit. But what about those who are just here for empty duty with no heart governed by apathy how do you light a fire under that how do you do that well that's our passage i believe this morning that helps us to think through those things uh jesus uh is heading now to the cross his time is is nearing where he's going to die and we are in the syria a section of mark where there are a barrage of attacks against Jesus. Serious attacks. They're ultimately going to kill him. They're going to murder him, the Son of God. But we're really learning here how hostile and difficult faith really is. That should be impressed upon us. How difficult faith really is. I get why Jesus had to say, it's a gift of God. This is the work of God that you believe because you're seeing firsthand right here how hard the human heart is, how much it'll battle against it, what it will do to discredit it, everything that we're being proposed and presented. Look at these people who should be believing and aren't believing. That's what we're really struck with in Mark. Look at the antagonism to the savior himself and so here we are uh the first round you remember came from the a sort of delegation all these groups had had had come together and they were now sending a delegation after delegation to sort of trap jesus and get jesus to confound jesus to confuse jesus the first one was to get him into a political fight and make him out to be an insurrectionist and rebellion a radical insurrectionist against Rome. The second round came from the Sadducees last time, remember, who wanted to make him look stupid for his views and rigid and strict. And the goal of ultimately making him compromise and tone down his views so that he didn't seem so marginalizing or however you want to characterize it, their ultimate goal was to ridicule him toward compromise. Hostile responses against Jesus. A whole pile of them here. Well, now we come to the third sort of approach that Mark presents to us. And then next time, Jesus poses his own question. We're done with questions after this. We're done with this. Jesus, after today, silences them. And we move on to now his question. Very important. But something beautiful happens in the midst of all these barrage of assaults. In fact, we sort of have the first little ray of light and hope here in somebody who comes to him in this series in Mark. We're getting an approach unlike the others in these religious groups. A response that leaves wide open the question at the very end of all of these delegations, which brings it to a conclusion, have you entered the kingdom? Have you entered the kingdom? that's really the sort of last impression after the end of these three assaults that we are left with here as Jesus leaves that question wide open so this morning as we look at Mark chapter 12 we're considering the scribe who comes to Jesus we're going to consider his question we're going to look at the responses that followed and then the encouragement and I state that encouragement that Jesus gives. We'll see, hopefully, by the end of this. In the last scene, the Sadducees had challenged him over the resurrection. They had found one little verse in the Old Testament in the Leverite laws, remember, that then they would use to present the most radical scenario they could come up with to stump him, to make him look dumb. Something in Leviticus 25 that they could pull out and present an example with and say, your view just can't hold up to this. Look how stupid your view is. Well, as he's sitting there disputing, and we looked at the importance of these disputes, a scribe comes up, most likely sent by the Pharisees and the scribes together who were tight. After he had defeated the Sadducees, the Pharisees surely were having a great celebration over that because they disagreed over the resurrection Jesus had put them in their place no doubt they sent to them now one of their best and wisest scribes he is now going to take his turn at Jesus he's going to get his shot scribes were experts in the law but as he's sitting there listening to these disputes you'll notice that he's sitting there listening and for a while he stay silent. That said, right at the beginning, that one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another. He sits there and he listens for a while. And the sense that you get is he's actually being won over by Jesus. He's kind of like the person who comes to church to pick it apart and say, that's why I don't want to come to church and runs off with something. He comes in antagonistically and all of a sudden is saying, whoa, there's something to this. I better listen up to this. And I've seen that, by the way, in the ministry. I've seen that happen. He saw that Jesus was answering them well. It got him. This man with no credentials, this backstreet rabbi, if you will, he's pretty sharp, you know. He's answering everyone really well. So after the dispute, he breaks into it and he begins to ask Jesus a question. And you'll notice that there. Seeing that he had answered them well, asked them, which commandment is the most important of all? I had to stand back and say, is he antagonistic in this question? Because we see nothing but antagonism, and I can't draw that conclusion at this point. There's no sense in this particular scenario of opposition to Jesus. The whole flow of it seems to tell us something different here, which makes the exchange have the sense of this is a genuinely sincere exchange that has now taken place. It's a sincere one. It's important to note because everything we've seen so far has been confrontation. But he's not coming at Jesus that way. He's wanting clarification. And that's a really important point to think about, isn't it? Notice how people have been coming to Jesus and how we could be coming to Jesus. You could be here today with an extremely hard heart, that there is no real desire to learn anything. There's no real desire to listen to what Jesus is saying to you from the Scriptures. You could be here with that kind of heart and that kind of approach, or you could have come here today with the kind of heart that sincerely wants to learn, that sincerely wants to listen, that takes these things to heart. You're a teachable person. That's very possible. I don't know which one you are, but we know those responses are prevalent throughout the Gospels, aren't they? He infuriated many of the religious leaders and people, but the tax collectors and the sinners, of course, really took it to heart. Well, they listened, and many of them were believing. So this is the sort of scene here, and I think what's most important is shown to us in the question itself. What makes this man stand out? Well, he comes with a question of priority. He comes with a question of priority. Jesus, if you were to break down the entire law and you were to boil it down into one commandment, what would you say is the first and the most important commandment? Well, that's a question worth answering, isn't it? Think of the question. The scribes and the Pharisees, you know, they had memorized 613 of these commandments. He doesn't want to talk about number 612 to catch him in a trap. It's really remarkable. I want to know about number one. He saw how wise Jesus was and says, Would you explain to me the importance of the entirety of the law by breaking it down for me and synthesizing it for me into something I could hold on to and something I can take with me that summarizes the whole thing? The scribes would often get together and argue about this. What makes this passage so striking is that those who before were coming to test Jesus, Let's just look about what they were asking. Look at what they were wanting Jesus to deal with. Look at their hair splitting. Trying to catch Jesus in politics. And then came an obscure Bible passage from Leviticus, again, that they use with the intention of saying, look at how stupid your view is. How do you square with the old Leverite laws and the resurrection? How does this scenario of a woman who had seven husbands and they all died, How's that going to work out in the resurrection? Which that has never happened and never going to be discussed. But they made it up. Extreme. This guy's coming with a pretty humble heart here. They were all over the map with their questions. And I thought to myself this week as I was reflecting on this passage and thinking about it, I think this is often how people approach the church. There could be a variety of things that really trouble you. What are the issues? What are the issues that are on your minds? Well, I don't like this, or I don't know about this, or why don't you do things this way, or where do you stand on this? But are they really the most important questions? Think about it. All Christianity is really a matter of priorities, isn't it? Always has been. Their approach was to analyze the Bible and find something they didn't like hair splitting so they could displace and reject what they knew they should hear and receive what could i say today i mean you know we've done some of this and i've considered i could go through a whole list of issues fancy dress organ discipline it could be anything if you have some question and something that is not a priority and that is you're using to hold out against the church you're not going to get one thing out of this today not one you will not take one thing out of this i heard a pastor this week in the pca say since nowhere in scripture style of music should be since since it's nowhere in scripture style of music should be lowest on the totem pole of reasons to choose a local church in which to worship, but it's number one for many, isn't it? Heart issues, heart issues. Priority issues. Whatever your basic frustration is, the questions that you come with, the questions by which you're here today, the things that are really on your mind are an indicator, not just of where you are, but an indicator of how you're going to receive an answer from the Lord. the matter of your priorities in Christianity is an indicator of your sincerity in Christianity. You get that? I need to say that again because it's so important to this particular passage. The matter of your priorities is an indicator of your sincerity in Christianity and to Jesus. The place of your priorities is an indicator of how sincere and real you're being with Jesus because insincerity in religion will never want to face the most pressing issues and questions of life. Insincerity in all of this will never want to be pressed and never face what's most important. Crucial. So look at how Jesus answers. Verse 29. 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's no other commandment greater than these. What an amazing moment. Love. I want to get to the heart of things. How many fights do we see in Christianity about love? I don't see that on the blogs very much. This was so familiar to Israel. This was known as the great Shema. Hebrew word for hear, hear, Shema. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Jesus takes this verse in Deuteronomy 6, verse 4 and combines it with Leviticus 19, 18. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord. I read the Ten Commandments this morning, and you all know those are divided, as we say, into the two tables, the love for God and love for neighbor. The first four, dealing with your relationship with the Lord, and the rest, dealing with your relationship to your neighbor. Very important here. He is summarizing from both those tables and helping us to understand. And at the beginning of every Jewish synagogue service, they would say the Shema. To this day, the practice is still observed. And Jesus summarizes this saying, look, all true religion, all your duties to be performed under the Lord may be summed up by love. Loving the Lord your God and loving your neighbor created in His image. When you do that, All the other 613 commandments that you're worried about will fall into place. Whoa. Now what you'll notice here is that there was no objection to this. This was something that flowed right out of the Scriptures. The Shema always held this important place. So they would say it and they would rehearse it. But the question is, is did they understand it? Here's what makes this particular section and this particular approach of this scribe, remarkable. Listen to what they're talking about. He hears Jesus and he's appreciating the beauty of the standard. Stay with me on this. It's so important to get what's happening here. We hear the law and we almost immediately say, and we do this constantly. We hear the law and we immediately say, well, the law shows us our sins. And that's absolutely true. That's the great purpose that Paul said of the law, isn't it? Show us our sins. But I don't think we do a very good job of creating a sense of the beauty of the commandment. So we leave people with the idea often that the law maybe is evil or that the law is an enemy. I don't believe we create a sense of the beauty of what's being commanded here and what the law is required of us. And therefore, because of that, we do not understand just exactly what God is commanding. We transfer to the essence of the commandment, not the weight of the commandment, the essence of the commandment, something that is cold and abstract and insincere, and you lose its beauty. It's a wonderful statement. It's a wonderful summary. Oh, how I love your law. This is wonderful. Listen to what he understands. In verse 32. And the scribe said to him, You're right, teacher. How did he say it? You're right, teacher. Yes. You have truly said that he's one and there's no other besides him. And to love him with all the heart, with all the understanding, and with all the strength, and to love one's neighbor as oneself is much more than all whole birth offerings and sacrifices. What a response. Well said. Here, here, excellent. I reflected on that and I thought, there's real understanding here, isn't there? This is truly amazing. He's really excited. It's as if he's saying, you're absolutely right, teacher. This is what the law is all about. love. Others aren't seeing this, but I see it. All the others we have been studying are merely concerned with the externals of the law. They're just worried about the externals of the law. Remember, Jesus hated that. He was constantly calling the Pharisees and the scribes hypocrites for this. But this guy's standing out is somewhat different. This is a special scribe who had a real remarkable understanding of the law. He recognized that the beautiful and the beauty of what's being commanded here is love from a pure heart. The command to love is not simply a duty. Well, we have to do this, right? Love. No. It's not what God ever wanted. no see it was something that shouldn't be missed here arising out of the fact that god is one israel knew what that meant that this god was not like the heathen gods of the nations he's not just an abstract principle he's he's not just one among all the other gods who have equal place the idols he's the one and only true god and when they said that they understood or at least should have understood that He had chosen Israel in a marvelous act of sovereign love and in covenant love and grace made that and made them His people. The true bond between God and man being love. Love. God loved them. And He was commanding them to enter into that love to enjoy him to love him what a privilege you get to love god there's nothing more shocking than the addition when he says excellent teacher you're absolutely correct god is one to love him with all the heart with all the understanding with all the soul with all the strength and to love one's neighbor as oneself is more than all the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices he deserves all worship and he deserves it all and in loving him above all and neighbor as oneself it's the highest duty that that we're called to do it's the most important thing we're called to do it's the most wonderful blessing to love god it's the one thing in life that has more value than everything else it's the purest act of devotion to have your whole being so directed to God that in everything you show, you love Him. Everything of who you are, all your desire, never a waste with all your understanding, never thinking corrupt thoughts, never doing anything that would trample His holiness, to love Him with all your soul, all the seed even of your emotions. He says with the mind, your entire minds are His, to be growing in perfect knowledge and giving your minds to know Him and to grow in Him. He says, all your strength, every ability that you're ever given, everything that you're given to do is not for you. It is to love God. That's why you're made. Every circumstance, in every possible way, with your entire being, to love God and love His people. Love your neighbor. Show forth your love, living by those side by side, having their place to you under the sun. Loving even the most unlovable. Loving not just hypocritically, but with words, but actually showing in sincerity acts of kindness and being involved with your brethren who are the most difficult to love. Love. You see, he didn't come to Jesus asking about paying taxes, did he? He didn't come about leverite laws of marriage, did he? This guy's remarkable. He's not doing tricky side issues and stuff that's just used as an excuse and cop out so he doesn't have to deal with real issues in his life. No, no, that's not him. He's not worried about how to apply the lesser commandments. He came to Jesus with the highest question and the single most important question that could have ever been asked by a scribe. Something's amazing here. Here's what I love about the enthusiasm of them. I know that the essence of this love must come from where? The heart. It's found in the heart. That's better than all the burnt offerings and the sacrifices. In other words, what good would it be to do all the burnt offerings and sacrifices if love is not coming from the heart. What good? We're supposed to have hearts that love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. You hear the words throughout the Scripture, something like 1 Samuel, has the Lord great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice. Well, the full summary of the law is what? Love, He gets it. What good is all that if there's no love. I mean, he really gets the law. This is a big moment. He gets the law. See how radically different he is from the others. Disinterested. Checked out. In it for themselves. No heart in it. I mean, he knew. This is a remarkable moment. I mean, I haven't seen this kind of understanding in the Scriptures of what just really is being commanded. We really should take time to think about this. Look what he's telling you to do. Here is somebody really different from all the other approaches. The most pressing issue on his mind is what does God require of us? And here's what he's getting. All, all, all, all. Me. Everything. Let me ask a question. Does that matter to you today? Seriously. If love doesn't really interest you, what other reasons would bring you here? Well, you'd fall into the class of the other people who had some knowledge of the Bible but were coming to Jesus for antagonistic reasons. Picking apart, picking, picking, picking, picking, picking. But if you're a sincere person, someone who really wants to know what Jesus is saying and after, who wants to be a genuine follower of Jesus and sees none of this as false, sees none of this as stupid, who really believes and says something's really happening here. I see it. Who really believes that Jesus is real. Who really believes that there's a lot of wisdom coming out of this. Then maybe you're a bit like this man. You understand. And you know that being here is all about love. You care about that, right? You know that God would hate it if you really don't have love in your hearts to be here and just go through the motions. You know God would hate that. You know God would hate an absent heart just going through ritual. It's all over the Bible. Because if it's really not about love, you would see no purpose in being here, right? You would just be going through the motions. That would be drawing near with a mouth whose heart is far from Him in worship. He already condemned that. But if it is about love, you'd want to be here all day long, right? You'd want every opportunity. I mean, that's Anna in the temple day and night. You understand you were made to love him? So you should love, right? Let me test you a bit. What if I stopped the sermon here? What if I did? Some of you'd feel guilty because you're not even where this guy is. The love of God really is not that important to you. Your heart is everywhere else but really here. But maybe I got you here this morning. Let's just say I really got you this morning and you're gripped to this and you're saying, man, I'm feeling the weight of this. I get what you're saying, pastor. You got me. He's right. This is about love. What if I ended the sermon here? How would you be? Jesus doesn't stop. Depending on where you are, what happens now will be the most discouraging encouragement you'll ever hear. Get that? I'll explain that. Look at verse 34. And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, you're not far from the kingdom of God. Huh? You're not far. When you hear that, what comes to your mind? Should that be taken positively? Seems positive. What if you were standing there, Jesus gives his teachings, you say, Lord, everything you've said is right. We're called to love you from the heart and our neighbor. We agree. And he looks and he says to you, you're not far. Feel good about that? I don't feel good about that. If this were a football field, it's a Super Bowl. You made it to first and goal, man. You're there. you're almost in anyone who hears this would say well he's come a long way but he's not in what's the last step what i love about him is he's the most sincere man i think i've come across in the scriptures outside of the kingdom here is a scribe sincerely sincere and and others are concerned to put jesus to the test and are bitter and have their own self-righteousness with all the wrong issues they haven't even started running they haven't even started down the field this guy's almost in the end zone so where does that put you are you close have you started running your nearness to the kingdom of god and entering that kingdom begins with an understanding not just intellectually what the requirement of the law is your nearness coincides with what you understand is required from your heart when you get here you can't leave unconcerned about love you're not running this will you'll you'll walk out and won't even matter to you but if you're close you're really thinking a lot about love what do you make of this the substance of the law is love that's he grasps that's the essence is he saved well he may become saved jesus leaves this whole thing wide open what's he missing to enter the kingdom the last step into the end zone requires what i can't make it I've been running my whole life. I get now what this is all about. Finally asking the most important questions. Finally taking this seriously. I now understand what you require. But there's a giant barrier to getting in that end zone. It's a wall I can't climb. That glory is unachievable. No matter how hard and how far I've run. Lord, would you carry me in? I made it this far, but I can't get there. Stop playing around with your life. You and I have not loved God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength one day in your life. Not one. And you never will until something happens. What are we waiting for? Get on your knees and cry for mercy, man. One pastor said his intellectual convictions needed to pass over the influence of his heart and life. And when God's law does transfer over to the heart, then there comes intense sorrow. Those are arrows far worse than the devil's because these come straight from God and they pierce to condemnation. That's where he hadn't come. This is why Paul says the law was a tutor to lead us to Christ. Wouldn't it be a tragedy if you lived your life almost entering the kingdom and never having entered? Churches today are full of those who have convictions about worship, who have convictions about the law, how the services should be, what our music should be like. And some use these things to stay far from the kingdom. Sad. Others are very sincere. They want to know, they want to understand. The commandment is to love has left them very near the kingdom. But hasn't Mark helped you to see those who enter this morning? If I only touch the hem of his garment, I'll be made whole. That was the woman with the flow of blood. It's the paralytic being carried to him who has no vocal faculties and has to be carried by his friends, And Jesus can look in his heart and see the burden and the sorrow and that he believes in his faith. It's the man who says, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. And when that is sincerely prayed and he hears and receives it, guess what happens? Well, one of the criminals who hanged there blasphemed him saying, if you're the Christ, save yourself and us. But the other answering rebuked him saying, do you not even fear God seeing you are under the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward for our deeds. We haven't loved our neighbor. We have been thieves. This man's done nothing. Then he said to Jesus, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And Jesus said to him, Assuredly, I say to you, Today you go into the end zone. Today you'll be with me in paradise. Lord, I'm guilty. Remember me. That's the sum and substance of true faith. And that's what Christ is after. The goal of the commandment is love from a pure heart, said Paul. Jesus says, I'll love in your place. I'll carry you over in that love. And once you've entered my kingdom, you know what's going to begin to happen? That love. From a born-again heart. Because it was always God's promise that He would circumcise the hearts of His people. That's being born again. To love the Lord their God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength, and their neighbor as themselves. Worship then becomes from the heart when it's done out of love. Your love for your neighbor comes from the heart when it's done out of love. For then, it's no longer about You. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we have failed in love. What a wonderful, beautiful commandment. Love. Pure love from the heart. Sincere love that our whole being and all of our faculties, everything, would be given to You. And Father, we have failed. And we ask for forgiveness for our sin. We can't run over. We can't cross over. Let no one remain content to be far or near to the kingdom. Let everyone here ask the sincere question of You. Lord, would You give me grace and help and pick me up and lift me into the kingdom in Your mercy? that then I would start to, having been saved because of the love of Christ, begin to taste what it is to love you and love our neighbor as ourselves, anticipating the fullness of that in the resurrection when it will be pure. Thank you, Father, for helping us today to understand this. And thank you for encouraging us and for confronting us where we need to be. Your intentions are so good toward us. May we stand in grace always and be thankful for the love you've given to us in Christ Jesus. In his name we pray, amen.