Sermon Matthew 22:34-40 “The Greatest Commandment”
New Covenant Church
May 20, 2018
Listen to this sermon.
This is my final sermon in my series on the ten commandments. For nearly four months we have focused our attention on the instructions for life given to us by our creator. We have looked at the ten commandments given by God to Moses on Mount Horeb just after freeing the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt. We have heard the new commandment Jesus gave disciples at his last dinner with them to love one another. Today Jesus will be asked by some religious leaders which of these commandments is the greatest. And his answer will lead us to a New Covenant. We will get to this, but first, let’s pray.
“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)
In the first century, the ten commandments were recited twice each day at the Jerusalem temple. But there was a controversy about this. Some of the Jewish leaders objected to this practice because it seemed to indicate that these ten were somehow more important than all the other commandments. Other leaders thought that these ten were special and needed to be recited twice a day.
Some Pharisees, seeing Jesus teaching in the temple, decided to ask him to enter the debate on one side or the other. Would Jesus say that one commandment is the greatest or that they are all equal? Answering, either way, Jesus would make enemies. So let’s hear how Jesus handled this sticky situation.
Matthew 22:34 Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Jesus’ answer was brilliant. He said the greatest commandment was not one of ten at all. Rather he quoted The Shema. The Shema is a prayer that all Jews are supposed to say twice each day. Let’s listen to it.
Deuteronomy 6:4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
According to Jesus, this is the greatest commandment. It signifies the covenant God established with humanity through the prophet Moses. And all Jews knew that this prayer had to be learned by each new generation for the covenant to continue. Here is how Moses put it.
Deuteronomy 6:6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
The covenant that God established with his people was to be passed from generation to generation forever. Parents were given the responsibility of impressing the covenant in the minds of their children. And this process would continue in perpetuity forever.
But we live in a sinful world, and parents do not always do what they are supposed to do. Sometimes parents do not impress the commandments on the minds of their children. What then? What if this neglect went on for generations? What would happen to the commandments? What would happen to the covenant between God and his people?
This very thing happened to the people of Israel. Listen to what happened during the time of King Manasseh of Judah.
2 Kings 21:1 Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem fifty-five years. His mother’s name was Hephzibah. 2 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, following the detestable practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before the Israelites. 3 He rebuilt the high places his father Hezekiah had destroyed; he also erected altars to Baal and made an Asherah pole, as Ahab king of Israel had done. He bowed down to all the starry hosts and worshiped them. 4 He built altars in the temple of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, “In Jerusalem, I will put my Name.” 5 In the two courts of the temple of the Lord, he built altars to all the starry hosts. 6 He sacrificed his own son in the fire, practiced divination, sought omens, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the eyes of the Lord, arousing his anger.
For 55 years The Schema was not prayed and the ten commandments were not recited in the temple or in the homes of the faithful. King Manasseh led the people astray. After generations of neglect, the ten commandments were forgotten. Even the ancient scrolls that contained the word of God were lost. And God decided to put the kingdom of Judah which he had established to an end.
2:KIngs 21:10 The Lord said through his servants the prophets: 11 “Manasseh king of Judah has committed these detestable sins. He has done more evil than the Amorites who preceded him and has led Judah into sin with his idols. 12 Therefore this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I am going to bring such disaster on Jerusalem and Judah that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle.
Led by their king, parents stopped impressing the ten commandments on the minds of their children. And within a few generations, their covenant with God came to an end, forgotten, with the Bible in a dustheap. The people of God were unfaithful to their promises.
But God is faithful. After King Manasseh died God helped his people find the lost Bible.
2 Kings 22:3 In the eighteenth year of his reign, King Josiah sent the secretary, Shaphan son of Azaliah, the son of Meshullam, to the temple of the Lord. He said: 4 “Go up to Hilkiah the high priest and have him get ready the money that has been brought into the temple of the Lord, which the doorkeepers have collected from the people. 5 Have them entrust it to the men appointed to supervise the work on the temple. And have these men pay the workers who repair the temple of the Lord…
8 Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the secretary, “I have found the Book of the Law in the temple of the Lord.” He gave it to Shaphan, who read it. 9 Then Shaphan the secretary went to the king and reported to him: “Your officials have paid out the money that was in the temple of the Lord and have entrusted it to the workers and supervisors at the temple.” 10 Then Shaphan the secretary informed the king, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read from it in the presence of the king.
11 When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his robes. 12 He gave these orders to Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Akbor son of Micaiah, Shaphan the secretary and Asaiah the king’s attendant: 13 “Go and inquire of the Lord for me and for the people and for all Judah about what is written in this book that has been found. Great is the Lord’s anger that burns against us because those who have gone before us have not obeyed the words of this book; they have not acted in accordance with all that is written there concerning us.”
So the long lost Book of the Law was found during Temple repairs. And it was read to King Josiah who realized what had happened. The Old Covenant between God and his People had come to an end.
But God was ready to establish a New Covenant with his people. This New Covenant would not have the defects of the Old. It would not depend on parents teaching the commandments to their children. God would do this important teaching work himself. And so he told this to the prophet Jeremiah.
Jeremiah 31:31 “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. 32 It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord.
33 “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
And so in the New Covenant, the responsibility of impressing the law of God on the hearts and minds of children is no longer be the sole responsibility of parents, who proved to be unfaithful. Rather God himself will place the law on the hearts and minds of believers. And since God is faithful there will always be faithful believers obeying the law. The New Covenant will last forever.
But when will it start? In Jeremiah’s day, Jerusalem and its temple were in ruins. The people were scattered. But God had a plan. And a savior came into the world. Let’s listen to what Jesus had to say?
Matthew 5:1 Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2 and he began to teach them...
17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.
With the coming of Jesus, the New Covenant began. He fulfilled the prophecy of Jeremiah. The Law of Moses would be written directly on the hearts and minds of believers. But how would Jesus accomplish this? Let’s go to the prophet Ezekiel.
Ezekiel 36:25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. 28 Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors; you will be my people, and I will be your God.
The Old Covenant came through Moses. The New Covenant comes through the Holy Spirit. And this is what we celebrate today, Pentecost Sunday, the coming of the Holy Spirit into the world initiating the New Covenant.
And we are the beneficiaries of all this. The Holy Spirit comes upon us to impress upon our hearts and minds the commandments of God. The purpose of these sermons has not been to teach you the ten commandments. Rather my purpose is to cooperate with the Holy Spirit as she binds these commandments in your minds and hearts. As believers, the Holy Spirit has been working in you preparing you to live a life in harmony with the ten commandments.
God spoke all these words, saying, I am the Lord your God.
You shall have no other gods before me.
You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or worship them.
You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God.
Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy.
Honor your father and your mother.
You shall not murder.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife or anything that belongs to your neighbor.
Our Lord Jesus said: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
Let’s pray. Holy Spirit we thank you for being here with us. We thank you for the strength and comfort you give us. We thank you for impressing the commandments on our hearts and minds. And we know that these are instructions from our creator God so that we may live long and prosperous lives. Help us to always live according to these holy words. This we pray in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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