Sermon in Rockford 07.10.2012

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, let us thank and pray.

Righteous God, dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for your goodness, which you have distilled upon us all our lifetimes. We thank you for the blessings of this time and this day. But above all, we thank you for the blessings invisible, those that you have granted us—the living faith. You have given us the hope of heaven and peace into our hearts.

Dear God, we thank you that you have allowed us, given us strength and health, and a chance to come to hear your word. And we hope and pray that you would bless our gathering.

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.

This Sunday speaks of the double commandment of love, which our text speaks about. And it is recorded in the Gospel of Mark, chapter 12. We read from verses 28 to 34 in Jesus' name.

And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceived that he had answered them well, asked him, "Which is the first commandment of all?"

And Jesus answered him, "The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. This is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than this."

And the scribe said unto him, "Well, Master, thou hast said the truth. For there is one God, and there is none other but he. And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength. And to love his neighbor as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices."

And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, he said unto him, "Thou art not far from the kingdom of God."

And no man after that durst ask him any question. Amen.

We are in our text coming close to the end of Jesus' public ministry, which also meant close to his death on the cross. And I think we could say that when the close came closer and closer, his teaching became clearer and brighter.

Right before our text, Jesus talked many things, answered many questions. As our text began saying that, "And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him," that is, Jesus.

So, this man was a scribe, which means he knew the writings. That was the contents of his life, was to study the Bible. And he knew his Bible. To be a scribe meant that you know your Bible pretty much by heart.

And he came from those people to whom Jesus had answered, and he heard them reasoning together.

Well, there's one word that we want to stop for a moment: Reasoning. These men who came to talk to Jesus heard those men to whom Jesus had answered reasoning together. And that's a problem or dilemma.

Of course, our understanding and human reason, wisdom, we could say, our knowledge is a gift. Of course it is. We all need it. We appreciate it. We're thankful for the gift of understanding. And I guess, we possibly all would wish that we would have some more. We're not against understanding. To understand matters is not a questionable matter.

But, well, what makes it difficult is that there are things, there are matters in this life which cannot be understood or explained by human understanding. All Bible says and speaks of the peace of God that surpasses all human understanding. Nobody can explain the peace of God. It's so high.

And the Bible speaks very much, very clearly, especially in 1 Corinthians, those beginning chapters. Oh, how clearly they speak of the limits of human understanding.

And still, it seems that there are people who would demand to understand everything. That they don't want to believe if they cannot understand, if they cannot explain or be explained.

Faith is different from understanding. And God has seen it fit that way. And no one should challenge God even with this.

So, it is our lot that we have to believe without understanding. And sometimes we have to believe against our human understanding. Against our human understanding.

And now, these men heard them reasoning together. And he thought that Jesus had answered them well. And these men came to ask a question of Jesus.

That he made the question with a sincere mind and heart. Why do I say so? One is that Jesus answered him immediately. And secondly, these men gave a confess to Jesus that that was a good answer.

He didn't fight against him. He didn't want or try to tie him with words as happened before.

There, if you read Mark 12, first, Jesus spoke of the evil husbandman and it says that they sought after this parable or the story, they sought to lay hold on him but feared the people for they knew that he had spoken the parable against them.

The listeners realized, they understood it. And I would say their conscience joined with that, that this parable was against you.

And they hated Jesus and they would have wanted to take him captive but they couldn't, they didn't dare. And so they left him and went their way.

And then came the Pharisees to catch him in his words.

So we see that towards the end of Jesus' life, this opposition grew stronger and stronger. And they wanted to prove that he's wrong.

Why? I think because more and more people believed on him. He did the miracles.

You remember when Jesus awakened Lazarus from the death and everybody knew that he had died. His sisters said when Jesus asked to open the grave, they said he stinks already.

They knew and in that climate it happened so quick that the order that came out from the tomb although it was sealed as good as possible. But they were natural stones that were used. It leaked and they knew that he is dead.

And Jesus awakened Lazarus. And those high priests said that if he can continue like this, the whole world will believe on him. And the Romans will come and take away our land from us.

And they wanted to kill Jesus.

So we see that this situation grew clearer and clearer.

And this man asked Jesus, "Which is the first commandment about?"

And Jesus answered him immediately.

So there are two kinds of questions that we face, even today. There are insincere and there are sincere questions.

And now we hear Jesus speak what is the greatest of all commandments.

And we all understand that according to the Bible, in order to be able to make it to heaven, we must please God.

It's not enough if we please men. We must please God. Because God is the judge. No one can use any other judge and the last day but God.

There are people, it says, who are frightened and very surprised, unhappy. It's almost impossible for them to believe that they are not being accepted into heaven.

As Jesus says in Matthew 7, when people said, "Lord, Lord, didn't we prophesy in your name? Didn't we do many mighty works in your name?"

They are astonished at how can it be that we are being rejected. This is not real. This is not right.

And they hear Jesus' words, "I never knew you. I never knew you."

As it says in the other portion where Jesus speaks of the parable of ten virgins. When those foolish virgins come and they hear said, "Verily I say unto you, I know you not."

So, to be able to be accepted, we must please God. And now, we must follow His commandments. We must follow His will.

So, this question is a very good question. What is the greatest of all commandments?

And now Jesus gives this dual commandment of love.

And the first of the commandments is, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. And you shall, you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength."

These four: with all the heart, with all the soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.

Heart, what might those four matters mean?

I very clearly understand how little I understand, how little I see. And if God doesn't open this unto us and you, I cannot open it.

With all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, it speaks to me about sincerity, about simple not doubting, not being wise, but it speaks to me of that one picture that Jesus showed when the disciples asked who is greatest. He took and set before them a child.

A child. We have children here in the congregation. And you children, you are our examples of believing.

Believe. You children know how to believe. You are our teachers in many ways.

Your parents teach us of God. Your parents and your Sunday school teachers teach you about faith. But you teach us how to trust and how to believe.

How to be simple, sincere, open, not complicated, not tight in all kinds of thoughts and ifs and buts. You just believe and that's good. We want to believe like you do.

With all our heart feeling towards God from our hearts and with all our soul with all that we have all that is in us and with all our mind what is in our mind there's our wisdom there's our understanding so we are to submit even our understanding under the love of God.

If God wants something and my mind wants something else I must bow before the will of God. If I don't I love myself more than God.

I must love God with all my might everything that is in me must be controlled or under God.

And even with all my strength I don't understand again a lot but my thoughts go to our cafeteria roofing the brothers loved their God with all their strength they served us and the congregation with the work of their hands.

There and that is what has happened this morning when somebody prepared the communion element that's very practical love of God to serve the believers.

That's what we see all around us why is our sanctuary so tidy and neat because so many hands have been cleaning it.

We love our God with all our strength even we try to serve him as best as we can.

And secondly because this is a first commandment but there is a second which is like which is like the first one namely this: love your neighbor.

Yes, how as yourself love your neighbor as you love yourself.

We have learned how the best thing what the father can do to his children is to love their mother.

We have learned how when a couple loves one another they love themselves.

And we know how difficult it is it we are so self centered that to love ourselves is more natural than to love someone else.

And that is the second commandment that we love one another like we love ourselves.

And it does not mean only this kind of personal natural love love it it is way deeper.

It is that we should love our souls one another's soul so that every one of us could make it to heaven.

That we would be willing to encourage one another in faith.

We would be willing to pardon them to forgive them on behalf of God to strengthen them encourage them to believe.

That is the second commandment the two high commandments.

And now this listener this scribe who knew the letter who knew the law exactly how the letter says he understood I would say with his heart not with his understanding but with his heart that this was a good teaching.

And he said master you have said the truth for there is one God and there is none other but him and to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding with all the soul and with all the strength and to love his neighbor as himself is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.

And these men was a scribe and they were in Jerusalem next to the temple where the burnt offerings were going all the time which was according to the command of God.

But these men understood that this is deeper following of God's will than the outward doing the sacrifices.

You can do the sacrifice without believing can't you?

It's just what could be similar to that to us today someone can put money to the collection go and serve in cleaning the church and serving in the committees doing the work without faith that's the same thing.

Faith saves us work does not save us no matter how long we have served we don't make it to heaven by serving or working but by faith.

And that is what it takes this double commandment of love takes a sincere unsaint faith and that means that we want to believe we want to follow Jesus in life in in in the battle of faith and we want to follow him in life and in doctrine and in sufferings.

I think that's how the Bible says it in life sufferings and doctrine and it must it means that we must love our neighbor because how do we follow Christ if we don't follow his congregation which he is in his congregation.

So to follow Christ it means that we follow the congregation of God and we see by the eyes of faith and have seen and still see that this congregation were God has granted us his grace for us to be the members his congregation upon earth.

This our home Zion is a gift from God this is our mother spiritual mother who loves us who cares for us and in which love we are to be preserved in order to make it to heaven.

Dear brothers and sisters Jesus said to these men thou art not far from the kingdom of God but he was not in and we sinners weak people have been granted God's grace to come in.

So rejoice and be exceeding glad of your good lot in life and uplift your heart to believe your sins forgiven doubts and temptations all are forgiven in Jesus name and precious blood.

Be of good cheer and come with a comforted and encouraged heart to receive the communion.

Can I also believe my doubts and sins forgiven?

I want to believe together with you in Jesus name. Amen.