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Sunday 08/18/24
Title: The Spirit & the Kingdom
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The Spirit & the Kingdom
Mark 12:28-35,
“(28) Then one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, perceiving that He had answered them well, asked Him,
“Which is the first commandment of all?”
(29) Jesus answered him, “The first of all the commandments is: ‘HEAR, O ISRAEL, THE LORD OUR GOD, THE LORD IS ONE.
(30) AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH.’ This is the first commandment.
(31) And the second, like it, is this: ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
(32) So the scribe said to Him, “Well said, Teacher. You have spoken the truth, for there is one God, and there is no other but He.
(33) And to love Him with all the heart, with all the understanding, with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is more than all the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
(34) Now when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, He said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” But after that no one dared question Him.”
Now it’s important to hear this for what it was. Jesus was answering a question which if stated clearly in English would say “Which commandment is the most important of all?”
Now this was a question the scribe already knew and apparently knew with some insight.
He saw in Jesus One Who possessed a keen mind coupled with understanding, but did He have wisdom? He was soon to discover that Jesus was the very embodiment of wisdom itself! Even as Paul tells us in Corinthians, “Jesus has been made unto us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption!”
So this answer of Jesus tells us the whole point of life itself.
1st this is a commandment. It is not on God’s wish list alone, it is an imperative command from His throne as God, Creator and Owner of all He is demanding reverence of.
So the command begins not with a command, but with a preamble which prepares the heart to hear the words and commands of God.
Jesus wisely began with the Shema.
You may remember on May 8, 2019 in our Trek ‘Thru the Bible’ we were covering Deuteronomy 5 & 6 which is where Moses offers the timeless and timely injunction to the 2nd generation of Israelites who are about to go in and inherit the land promised.
[See – Shema Israel]
He told them, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is One!” – Deut. 6:4
The injunction is to LISTEN. This Hebrew word Shema is typically translated as LISTEN or HEAR. While this is NOT a bad translation, it falls short of what God communicated. In all reality means more than that – it means to hear and obey and carries with it the notion of respect and in this way both God in addressing Israel originally and Jesus in correctly and wisely answering this question, not only gave the “to the point” answer, but the full answer which begins with HOW we hear!
The first command requires a heart of reverence FOR God, a willingness to LISTEN to Him and surrender our full selves to Him. So in a way, the Shemaitself answers the question in full.
To deliver the force of what God said to Israel it went a lot like this –
“Listen and obey Me out of respect for the Self Existing One, for God, the Self-Existing One is unified, full of integrity and is true to Himself.”
So Jesus began His answer with our need to see God for Who He is, respect Him, give our full attention to Him and in eagerness to fulfill His every command LISTEN.
Now as to the command itself as restated by Jesus is in fact in the future indicative is used with imperatival force. Again in English therefore to properly hear what Jesus really said, we need to read it like that.
Jesus in all reality said this – “You WILL love, the Lord your God…”
It could be argued that if we fail to start off with a proper recognition of WHO God is as the Creator and Owner of our hearts, we will ultimately be incapable of honoring this command.
Everything in this command requires all of us!
The word ALL means just that.
- All the Heart – kardías, fem. noun. Heart. The seat and center of human life. In the NT, used only figuratively. As the seat of the desires, feelings, affections, passions, impulses, i.e., the heart or mind.
- All of our Soul – affections
- All of our Mind – thinking & intellect
- All of our Strength – Which contrary to what you might think actually means our mental and moral power. Meaning our might, ability, facility & capacity.
Love when used in reference to God, as in verse 30, means – includes the idea of duty, respect & veneration. It means to love and serve with fidelity, loyalty and complete devotion.
The second command is specifically in reference to God’s people as your neighbor and is quoted from Leviticus 19:18. The word love for them means to direct your will and esteem towards someone. It is to find one’s joy in someone.
Paul expresses this towards the believers in Thessalonica when he said, “…you are our glory and joy.”
This later part of the command, though having to be stated separately and secondly due to the limits of language, cannot in all reality be fully separated from the first command, In fact the entire book of 1 John states and restates this truth throughout.
1 John 3:14-15,
“(14) We know that we have crossed over from death to life because we love our fellow Christians. The one who does not love remains in death. (15) Everyone who hates his fellow Christian is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.”
And
1 John 4:19-21,
“(19) We love because he loved us first. (20) If anyone says “I love God” and yet hates his fellow Christian, he is a liar, because the one who does not love his fellow Christian whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. (21) And the commandment we have from him is this: that the one who loves God should love his fellow Christian too.”
Now hopefully you are already beginning to see one of the primary ways in which Jesus’ statement is realized. Jesus told this scribe who seemed pleased that Jesus had just put the Sadduceas in their place, that his knowledge of these commands and their importance was impressive and that he was NOT FAR from God’s Kingdom.
Since Easter we have had a strong focus on the Holy Spirit and our relationship with Him, but within and upon us.
- Within us for the perfecting of Jesus’ image within.
- Upon us for furthering the rule and reign of Jesus in the hearts of mankind – thus accomplishing the work of the kingdom by BEING His living witnesses.
But before this we were looking at the Kingdom of God which is the rule and the reign of Jesus in the hearts of mankind.
The gospel was first preached to the Jews as commanded by our Lord and Savior Jesus Who told them to go FIRST to Jerusalem, then to greater Judea, then to Samaria before going to the ends of the earth with this Gospel or Good News of the Kingdom of God!
The Jews had been conditioned throughout the time of the Old Covenant to view God’s rule as external and demanding of the flesh.
Now they were being taught that the Kingdom of God was within them and that works were the result of righteousness, not the cause of it.
In a way, Romans 14:17 perfectly captures this when Paul told them,
“…the kingdom of God does not consist of food and drink, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.”
1 Corinthians 15:50, “Now this is what I am saying, brothers and sisters: Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.”
And in 1 Corinthians 4:20, “…the kingdom of God is demonstrated not in idle talk but with power.”
And we know the power is the person of the Holy Spirit Who has been given to all who believe as the guarantee and first installment of our future and full inheritance!
Jesus made our relationship with the Godhead the real issue by defining eternal life as knowing the Father and the Son in true intimacy – John 17:3. Then just before being taken from them in physical death, Jesus told His disciples that soon the Holy Spirit would come and indwell them and in that way they would see Him and know Him in true intimacy – unlike anything they had ever experienced and FAR BEYOND anything the world COULD experience and know.
He said in John 14:15-17,
“(15) If you love me, you will obey my commandments. (16) Then I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you foreve r – (17) the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept, because it does not see him or know him. But you know him, because he resides with you and will be in you.”
The world CANNOT SEE or RECEIVE the Spirit!
Notice it was not primarily about sin or heaven but relationship!
Which is why Paul did not ask the Galatians, “Did you receive salvation or did you receive citizenship in heaven by the works of the law or the hearing of faith?” which would have been a very 2024 way of asking the question. But rather Paul asked, “Did you receive the Spirit, by the works of the law or the hearing of faith?”
It is SO imperative for the New Covenant believer to know His salvation.
While it certainly includes forgiveness of sins and heaven, these are not primary issues but secondary and almost incidental if the truth be told.
Paul told the Galatians that if eternal life -meaning intimacy with God could have come through the Law then righteousness would have come that way as well. But since intimacy could not be obtained that way Christ came and redeemed us from the curse of rightness apart from intimacy!
It therefore is important that in all we do and pursue in our journey that we do not lose sight of first principles.
Anything that does not promote intimate union and knowing of God is at very best – to get the cart before the horse!
Sin is NOT the issue of salvation – neither is forgiveness, though they are in fact necessary. God cannot have intimacy with those who are opposed to Him. He is light -the world IS darkness. He is LIFE -they are dead.
Like Paul said,
“(14) Do not become partners with those who do not believe, for what partnership is there between righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship does light have with darkness? (15) And what agreement does Christ have with Beliar? Or what does a believer share in common with an unbeliever? (16) And what mutual agreement does the temple of God have with idols? For we are the temple of the living God, just as God said, “I will live in them and will walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.” (17) Therefore “come out from their midst, and be separate,” says the Lord, “and touch no unclean thing, and I will welcome you, (18) and I will be a father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters,” says the All-Powerful Lord.” – 2 Corinthians 6:14-18
This is reality, not man-made religion. Man focused religion is all backwards! Like we just read in Galatians – if intimacy with God could have sprang from the works of the law then God would have accepted that – but it cannot! Sure sin had to be destroyed in relation to the believer, but only SO THAT intimacy might result from it!
So when God steps in with a gospel predicated upon grace, though it addresses sin, it is focused upon knowing God in sincerity and reality.
Titus 2:11-15,
“(11) For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, (12) teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, (13) looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, (14) Who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works. (15) Speak these things, exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no one despise you.”
This is what Jesus said to His disciples on the night He was betrayed. “If I go, I will come again to receive you TO MYSELF”
Sin had to be dealt with, or They could not receive us to Themselves. So suffering is part of this perfecting process. Though we have been made alive in the spirit, we still have sin and death in our bodies. [See Romans 7-8]
The Spirit was given to prepare us for this reunion, that we might be made a habitation for God in the Spirit.
That is why all of the passages about the kingdom of God say what they do.
1 Corinthians 6:7-11,
“(7) Now therefore, it is already an utter failure for you that you go to law against one another. Why do you not rather accept wrong? Why do you not rather let yourselves be cheated? (8) No, you yourselves do wrong and cheat, and you do these things to your brethren! (9) Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, (10) nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. (11) And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.”
And
Galatians 5:16-26 which brings us full circle to where we began connecting the Kingdom of God, the Spirit of God within and upon and the first and greatest commandments all together,
“(14) For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: “YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.” But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another! (16) I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. (17) For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. (18) But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. (19) Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, (20) idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, (21) envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. (22) But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, (23) gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. (24) And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. (25) If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. (26) Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.”
Let’s wrap up by looking at 2 Thess 1:2-12 which I believe beautifully captures all of this!
“(2) Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
(3) We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is fitting, because your faith grows exceedingly, and the love of every one of you all abounds toward each other, (4) so that we ourselves boast of you among the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that you endure, (5) which is manifest evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you also suffer;
(6) since it is a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation those who trouble you, (7) and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, (8) in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
(9) These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, (10) when He comes, in that Day, to be glorified in His saints and to be admired among all those who believe, because our testimony among you was believed.
(11) THEREFORE we also pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness and the work of faith with power, (12) that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Blessings!
