THE TRIUMPH OF GOD IS BASED ON LOVE

Matthew 22:34-46

INTRODUCTION

How do we know who the friends and allies of George W. Bush are? Would we be able to identify his friends by any common characteristics? Would we be able to distinguish his friends and allies from his enemies? Obviously the Presidents friends and allies would share numerous political goals and values in common. We could distinguish between his friends and his enemies based upon political philosophy, how a person views Mr. Bush and his policies, and how much interaction the President has with the person. We all know that Al Gore is not his friend. We all know that Condeleza Rice, the National Security Advisor is one of his close friends and allies. We know this because Al Gore holds values and goals that are in direct contradiction to Presidents Bush’s goals and values. Condeleza Rice holds many of the political values and goals as President Bush. We know that Al Gore is not his friend and ally because he regularly criticizes President Bush and his policies. Condeleza Rice on the other hand regularly defends and approves of the President and his policies.

Can we do the same thing with God? Do we know who his friends are? Do his friends share any common characteristics? Can we distinguish between his friends and his enemies? Many in our culture would say that it is wrong to even ask the question of who are God’s friends. They would either claim that no human could possibly know whom God prefers or they would say that God has no favorites. Many would claim that God loves all humans and is going to finally bring all humans into a loving relationship with himself in heaven.

However, that is not what Jesus says. Jesus Christ came into the world to reveal who are the people of God. God does have favorites. His friends do share common characteristics. It is possible to distinguish between his friends and his enemies. In fact, the center of Jesus’ teaching and the core of his controversy with the religious teachers of his day was over this question, “Who are the true people of God?” From the beginning of his public ministry Jesus set forth the conditions for belonging to God’s kingdom. Listen to just two of the places Jesus describes who the people of God are. “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” The word “Blessed” means to be a person who has received God’s favor. The “poor in spirit” are the recipients of divine favor and they will inherit the kingdom of heaven. That means that all who are not “poor in spirit” are cursed by God and will not inherit the kingdom of heaven. “I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not inherit the kingdom of heaven.” Here again Jesus describes the conditions that must be met if entry into the kingdom of heaven is to be gained. Only those who possess a “righteousness” that is superior to that of the Jewish religious leaders will enter God’s kingdom.

The religious leaders have vigorously disagreed with Jesus and have made their own claims about who is a member of God’s kingdom. They have regularly criticized Jesus for not obeying their Sabbath regulations, their food regulations and their regulations governing personal associations. Jesus’ lack of concern for what they consider to be commands of God has led them to the conclusion that Jesus is the worst sort of religious deceiver. They are absolutely confident that they are God’s friends and Jesus is God’s enemy. Jesus’ life and his teaching fly in the face of what they are convinced are the characteristics and beliefs of those who are God’s friends. The controversy over who belongs to God’s kingdom is brought to a head in this conclusion to the conversation Jesus is having with the religious leaders gathered in the temple courts. Jesus gives the final answer to the question of how to tell who the friends of God are. By the end of this mornings question I aim for you to be able to answer the question, “Am I a member of God’s kingdom?”

MAIN POINT

God is living among and ruling over the people who…

I. Love God with their whole being (vv. 34-38 & 40)

None of us have ever experienced what Jesus is experiencing as recorded by Matthew in these two chapters. He is at the center of controversy and surrounded by enemies who are intent on destroying him. Many of the psalms describe this fact of Jesus’ whole life, which comes to a fever pitch here at the end of his life. Listen to this passage as a prayer of Jesus during this week, from Psalm17, written by king David, “Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings from the wicked who assail me, from my mortal enemies who surround me. They close up their callous hearts, and their mouths speak with arrogance. They have tracked me down, they now surround me, with eyes alert, to throw me to the ground. They are like a lion, hungry for prey, like a great lion crouching in cover.” This is a perfect description of Jesus’ situation. The religious leaders have surrounded him and like lions trying to take down a water buffalo they attack, one after the other. Now, in v. 34, after the failure of their young disciples and, most recently, the Sadducees, it is the Pharisees turn to try and bring him down. They hold a hasty conference and come up with a question they hope will trip him up.

The question they ask goes right to the heart of their disagreement with Jesus. They relentlessly accuse him of breaking the commands of God because of his disregard for their religious regulations. They believe that he will, by answering this question, reveal his disdain for God’s law and thus incur the wrath of the Jewish people. Jesus answers their question in two parts. First, quoting Deuteronomy 6:5 he says the greatest and first commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. Then he quotes Leviticus 19:18 as the second greatest commandment, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Then, he says in v. 40, “Upon these two depend the whole law and the prophets.” We’re going to talk about what it means to love God in a moment but first we need to understand what Jesus means by v. 40.

The phrase “the Law and the Prophets” is the Jewish way of saying the entire OT. When he says the first and greatest commandment is to love God with your whole being and the second is to love your neighbor as yourself he does not mean that these two are the first two commandments in a list of commandments. He is not suggesting that it is possible to arrange all of God’s commands in a list of importance with these two at the top. Neither is he saying that these are the only two commands that matter. He isn’t saying you can just ignore every other command God made and just concentrate on these two. Rather, what v. 40 tells us is that every word of the OT is related to these two commands in some way. Love for God is at the heart of the entire OT. The OT is given to show why God is the most attractive of all beings. It is given to show both the pleasures that come to all who love him and the misery that comes to all who refuse to love him. Every command and promise in the OT sets God at the center of the universe and shows that he alone is worthy of our love because he alone is set apart from creation and superior to everything in creation. Loving God is what we were made for and all true obedience to God is motivated by love for God.

The religious leaders made the condition of being the people of God obedience to rules and regulations. They talked much of duty and morality. They castigated people for not doing the right thing and prided themselves for doing what was right. Jesus’ complaint against them is the same as God’s complaint against humanity throughout the centuries. The problem isn’t first that we do the wrong thing. The first problem is that we love the wrong things. Jesus, like the entire OT, teaches that it is what a man loves that will determine what a man does. Men who love God will obey God. In fact, obedience to God’s laws is the delight of all who love God. When you get right down to it, why did Adam and Eve disobey God and eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? They loved being gods more than they loved God. They found themselves more attractive than God. They found being in charge of their own destinies more impressive than the God who made the heavens and the earth and them. This has been our problem ever since that first sin. All sin is a failure of love for God. All sin is motivated by love for something or someone other than God.

Jesus tells us that the only people who can consider themselves the people of God are those who are impressed with and attracted to God above all other persons and things. The people who delight to please God and be with God and long for God are the only people who can be considered the people of God. Every person in here knows what it is like to love something or someone. You know how it is when you love someone. Your mind is full of thoughts of them. You anticipate your next meeting with them. You plan ways that you can please them. You gladly deny yourself other pleasures in order to enjoy the pleasure of being with them. Displeasing them grieves you. Pleasing them pleases you.

Let me use an illustration I have used before and that I stole from John Piper. Generally I have not been very good at celebrating the big events in my relationship with Jane. But one year, on our tenth anniversary I did it right. I planned ahead. I ordered one of those yard signs put in our front yard that said “Happy 10 th Anniversary Jane” with balloons tied to it. Then I arranged for some good friends to come stay at our house with our three children at the time so we could go stay overnight in this old Victorian hotel in Red Wing, MN. I packed her suitcase and had everything prepared so she could leave the house without any worries. We ate an eight course meal at a French restaurant. The next day we spent going through all these little craft shops in Red Wing. We had a wonderful time. On our way back to LaCrosse Jane thanked me for my thoughtfulness and kindness. I told her, “Don’t mention it. I was just doing my duty. I heard this is what good husbands are supposed to do and I want to be a good husband, so I did my duty.” What’s wrong with saying that? What is wrong is that I wasn’t motivated by love for Jane but love for being a good husband. I love doing my duty, I don’t love Jane. I really didn’t and would never answer my wife in this way. The reason I went to all that trouble and spent all that money is because I love to be with my wife. It was a pleasure to do all that I did. I did not regret any of it. I delighted to do it all and mostly I delighted to be with her for that is what love does, it delights in the company of the other.

The illustration shows the two indispensable things that must be if love is happening. First, there must be an affection for the one loved. The heart must be attracted to the other person. There must be passion or at least the yearning for passion or there is no love. However, there must also be action. Words and feelings of love are meaningless without action. Love always acts. You cannot say, “I love God”, while having sex with your girlfriend or while watching a pornographic video. You cannot say, “I love God”, while yelling at your children. You cannot say, “I love God”, while worshipping a false god, like Allah or one of the Hindu deities. You cannot say, “I love God” and never pray, read the Bible or go to church. Therefore, love for God requires both affection and the action of obedience. The obedience arises from love. You can act without loving, but you cannot truly love God without acting. You were made for this purpose. This is the greatest thing you can ever do, love God. If the goal and purpose of your life is to love God, nothing can harm you. Your life will never be a waste. There is nothing that can happen to you that can prevent you from loving God. All the misery that is in our lives is due to the fact that our goal is to be happy here, our goal is not to love God. Is your heart full of passion for God that overflows in obedience to God? This is the first characteristic of all those who belong to God’s kingdom.

God is living among and ruling over the people who…

•  Love God with their whole being

•  And who…

II. Love others as they love themselves (vv. 39-40)

Jesus says there is second commandment that is like the first commandment, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” In what way is this second commandment like the first commandment? The second is like it in five ways: First, both are commands . These are not suggestions. There are no exception clauses like you don’t have to love God when you feel sick or you don’t have to love people who say bad things about you. These are both commands from God to you. Second, both are commands to love . Again, Jesus is dealing with first causes here. What you love matters more than anything else because what your heart finds attractive determines everything else about you. Third, the second is like the first in that it is a command to love persons . The first command is a command to love the greatest of all persons, the second is a command to love those persons who are made in his image. Fourth, the second is a command to love your neighbor as you love yourself . Just we are to love God with our whole being, with every part of us, so we are to love our neighbor with the same attentiveness and the same intensity that we love ourselves. Finally, the entire OT hangs on this command just like it hangs on the first command. In other words, every word of the OT is a description of what love for others looks like. It tells us what love does. Just like the OT describes how those who love God will obey God so it tells us how those who love people act towards others. It reveals the blessings that come to those who love others and warns of the misery that comes to those who refuse to love others.

Love for God and love for people always go together. As the apostle John says, if you say you love God but you hate your brother you are a liar. It is impossible to not love your brother whom you have seen and to love God whom you have not seen. It is not enough that we don’t feel any hatred in our hearts towards others. We must also take pleasure in pleasing others. Love is not merely refraining from harming others but is actively and gladly pursuing the good of others. That’s why Jesus adds we are to love our neighbor as “ourselves”. Please note that we are to love our neighbor, singular. It’s virtually impossible to love a group. The love that Jesus commands here is very personal. It is one to one. You and I are to pick out individual, particular people to love. He is not simply implying a general “good will” towards mankind.

Let me ask you something. How many of you have ever heard a teacher or pastor say something like this about this verse? “When Jesus says we are to love our neighbor as ourselves he means that we cannot love our neighbor unless we love ourselves. We must have a healthy self-esteem if we are ever going to be able to love others. In fact you cannot love others as you ought until you love yourself.” Raise your hand if you’ve ever heard someone say that. You need to know that is a lie. In fact, that line of reasoning is exactly the opposite of what Jesus says here. The assumption of this verse is that all human beings love themselves. The reason the person with low self-esteem feels so bad is because they are not being loved the way they want to be loved. Low self-esteem is how many of us respond to not being loved as we desire. They are sad because people do not love them, as they deserve. All of us believe that we deserve to be loved. Anger and sadness are two of the emotions we have when we are not loved as we demand.

So, what does it mean to love another person “as ourselves”? First , we love others as ourselves when we are as passionate about meeting the needs of others as we are about getting our own needs met. None of us is indifferent to whether or not we eat or sleep or have enough money or friends. We all desire to have our needs met. We are delighted when they are met and sad when they are not met. So we must be passionate about meeting the needs of others. Meeting the needs of others is to give us joy. It is not simply a matter of duty. Second , we all take the initiative to be sure our own needs are met. We are not passive when it comes to meeting our needs. So we must take the initiative to meet the needs of others. We are aware of our needs and desires all the time. We pay attention to our physical, social and emotional needs. We do not love others when we are indifferent to their concerns and desires. Thoughtfulness and planning are part of what it takes to love others. Third , we don’t get mad at ourselves when we have needs. We consider it legitimate to have needs. We don’t judge ourselves and criticize ourselves for having needs. So we must not judge or criticize others who have needs. Fourth , we all know that not every need we feel ought to be met. We do love ourselves by disciplining ourselves. We do not give in to every whim and desire because we know that not everything we want is good for us. We also know that some discomfort is actually necessary to a healthy and whole life. So we are discerning in the ways in which we love our neighbor.

There two reasons why love for others is the second commandment. First, God is supreme in his universe, not man. The ultimate purpose of all things is the glory, the supremacy of God. So if you make anything more important than love for God you are despising and dishonoring the greatest and best of all beings. Second, you cannot truly love others if you don’t first love God. The main reason is because if you don’t love God first, then your love for others will always be manipulative. You will only love others in order to get something from them. You will persist in love only as long as you are receiving adequate compensation for your love. Only if you love God can you love others without requiring any repayment of your love. The only people who can freely love others for their good are those who don’t need anything from the other in order to be happy. Is your heart full of passion for the good of others that overflows in acts of kindness without requiring repayment? This is the second characteristic of those who belong to God’s kingdom.

God is living among and ruling over the people who…

•  Love God with their whole being

•  Love others as they love themselves

•  And who…

III. Trust Jesus Christ with their whole life (vv. 41-46)

Jesus ends his conversation with these men by asking them a question of his own. He asks them, “Whose son is the Christ?” What Jesus does is take these men to the central question, the one they have been asking since John the Baptist appeared on the scene three years prior to this conversation. It is the question that has been behind the entire controversy with Jesus since his entry into Jerusalem two days prior to this with the crowds shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David.” The goal of the religious teachers has been to prove to the crowds what they are convinced of, Jesus is not the Messiah but a fraud. So Jesus takes the battle to them.

The Pharisees say that the Messiah is going to be the Son of David. In fact, there are dozens of statements in the OT that confirm that yes indeed the Messiah is going to be the Son of David. Jesus, the Pharisees and the crowds are all in agreement on this point. The Savior of the world will be one of David’s direct descendants. However, Jesus now asks them to consider something that David wrote about this son of his as it is recorded in Psalm 110:1. The main point that Jesus makes in quoting this verse is that David, under the direction and inspiration of the Holy Spirit, calls his son, his Lord. The Messiah is both the Son of David and the Lord of David. What Jesus wants to know is how can this be the case? How can the Messiah be both David’s son and David’s Lord? What Jesus is obviously referring to is the fact that the Messiah is both human and divine. He is both the Son of Man and the Son of God.

The effect upon the Pharisees is that they ask him no more questions. What happens here is this. They are certain that Jesus is not the Messiah and they have been trying to prove that he is not the Messiah. However, Jesus, by asking this question exposes the fact that they do not even know who the Messiah is. Their idea of the identity of the Messiah cannot handle all that the OT says about the Messiah. Their reading of the OT is selective reading. They only like the parts they think support their position and they ignore the rest. Jesus publicly exposes their inadequate understanding of the OT and therefore their fitness to judge whether or not he is the Messiah. How can they know he is not the Messiah when they don’t even know who the Messiah is? So he silences his critics but he does not extinguish their hatred which in two days will consume him.

There is another question I think we need to ask in order to get the whole point that Jesus is making here. :He not only is exposing the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. Why does Jesus ask this question right after his discussion of the two great commandments? How does this revelation of the human/divine nature of the Messiah relate to the two great commands?

First lets look at Psalm 110 and what it tells us about the person and work of the Messiah. Let me give you an expanded translation. David, the king of Israel, says, “Yahweh, the creator of the heavens and the earth and the promise keeping God of Israel says to the Messiah, my master who is also my son, ‘Sit at my right hand, the highest position of power and authority in heaven, until I place all of your enemies under your feet.’” There are several very stunning things here. First, notice that the Messiah who is human and therefore must be born into this world is going to be taken up into heaven for a period of time before he conquers all of his enemies and sets up God’s kingdom on earth. This verse contradicts the expectation of the majority of Jewish people that when the Messiah came he would immediately set up God’s kingdom on earth. This verse envisions a period of time when the Messiah is not on earth but in heaven waiting that final victory. Second, it poses the problem of how will the human Messiah leave the earth, be exalted to God’s right hand and then come back to put his feet on the necks of his enemies? Jesus has told the disciples repeatedly that he must go to Jerusalem and be betrayed and killed to fulfill the Scriptures. In just these two chapters he has quoted several passages that contain this same basic idea, the Messiah is rejected and he appears to be weak but then he becomes the king and he is chief cornerstone. Jesus is pointing, by quoting Psalm 110:1 to his exaltation by means of the cross. His challenge to the Pharisees is designed to reveal not only his divine/human nature but also that it will be by means of the cross that he will be exalted.

Jesus is giving the good news after delivering the bad news. I don’t know about you but to be told that God is commanding me to love him with my whole being and my neighbor as myself is not good news. It is not in me to love God or people. Commanding me, or any other sinner to love God and other people is like commanding a horse to love eating meat or like commanding a Chicago Cubs fan to love John Smoltz, the Atlanta Brave’s ace pitcher or like commanding me to love lima beans. I hate lima beans. I cannot love what I hate. Every human being is naturally God’s enemy and therefore has no ability to love God or other people because no one can love what they hate.

Jesus, the one who is God and Man comes to die upon the cross to do two things. First, he dies to satisfy God’s anger against all those who do not love him or others. (Tell about my angry heart while helping Joelle deliver papers.) Second, he dies to also purchase the promises of God. Chief among those promises is the promise of the new covenant. Jesus by his death gains the glory of sitting at God’s right hand from where he sends forth the Holy Spirit who gives new hearts to his people so that we love God and people. We become those who delight in pleasing God and people because God gives us his Holy Spirit for the sake of Jesus. We have a complete Savior who not only gains our pardon for our hatred of God and man but also gains for us new passions, a new heart that delights to love God by obeying his commands and to love our neighbor as ourselves.

Therefore, all those who are members of God’s kingdom are trusting in and waiting for Jesus Christ. All who belong to God’s kingdom rejoice in this Savior who died for our sins and who lives to give us new hearts of love for God and people.

God is living among and ruling over the people who…

•  Love God with their whole being

•  Love others as they love themselves

•  Trust Jesus Christ with their whole life

May God, out of his glorious riches, strengthen you in your inner person, by his Holy Spirit so that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.