Matt 22:37 Preparation for Crucifixion 12/09/2018 ßà
#1. The Greatest Commandment (Matt 22:37-38, Deut 6:4-5, Matt 5:48, Deut 10:16, 30:6)
#2. The Greatest Sin (Matt 22:37-38, Jam 3:1, Rev 21:8,27, 22:15, Hos 6:6, John 17:3, Mic 6:6-8)
#3. The Second Greatest Sin (Matt 22:39-40, Lev 19:18, John 15:12-13, 13:34-35)
#4. An Accusation on a Platter (Matt 22:41-46, Psalm 110:1, Acts 2:36, Eph 1:19-22)
Please open your Bibles to the Gospel According to Matthew, Matt 22:33 (2X). This is the fourth and final sermon on Matt 22. We have seen how the events in this chapter are closing in on the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. We have seen how the parable in the beginning of this chapter focuses on the mission for which Christ came to this earth. It was to pay for the sins of all those whom He drew out of the highways and byways to be His Bride at the magnificent wedding feast in the new creation. We have seen how the test of the Pharisees put the Lord Jesus in a bind: to render tribute to Caesar or to the Law of Moses. It made Him focus on a higher obligation: to render a penny to Caesar, but to render His life to God. We have seen how the test of the Sadducees was like the voice of Satan speaking through them, tempting Him to doubt His own resurrection. It reminded Him of the event of Moses at the burning bush, and it reminded Him that the bush was not burnt, and it reminded Him that the souls of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were eagerly waiting for the cleansing that was promised. And today we will see again how this last test by one of the Pharisees made the Lord focus on His crucifixion that was so near. Therefore the title of this sermon is, “Preparation for Crucifixion” (2X). Before we read this passage, let us remember that the time was late in the morning on Tuesday,
Mt 22:33 And when the multitude heard this, they were astonished at his doctrine.
Mt 22:34-39
Mt 22:40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
Here we are, three days before the multitude is going to shout, “Crucify Him, Crucify Him!” But now, we read in verse 33, the multitude was astonished at the doctrine of the Lord Jesus, how He had put the Sadducees to silence. They were in utter admiration of His wisdom. And likewise two days earlier, on Sunday morning, the same multitude hailed Him as their Messiah when they shouted “Hosanna to the Son of David”, which is definitely an appellation of the Messiah as the Son of David. Please put a sticker here in Matt 22 for we will return there many times, and please turn in your Bibles to the Gospel of John, John 2:24 (2X). So they were in awe of Jesus, and that is why they hailed Him as their Messiah, the Christ, the Anointed One. How is it then possible that their opinion of Him switched so quickly that they wanted Him crucified only three days later? Can we see in this the fickleness of the heart of man? Can we see that the heart of man and the thoughts of man cannot be trusted? The Lord Jesus knew this all along early in His ministry when they were in awe of the Lord Jesus by the miracles that He did. We read in John 2:24-25, “But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men, And needed not that any should testify of man: for he knew what was in man”. And can we see in all these movements of the multitude that it was really God who orchestrated all these events through the sins of man? This is a great principle: God works His plans through the sins of man, without making God the author of those sins. This principle is perfectly stated in Prov 19:21, “There are many devices in a man’s heart; nevertheless the counsel of the LORD, that shall stand”. Let us return to the Gospel of Matthew, Matt 22:37 (2X). This lawyer-Pharisee asked the Lord, “Master, which is the great commandment in the law?” He really meant, “What is the greatest commandment in the Law of Moses?” It was his intention to tempt the Lord into saying something that was not in agreement with what the Pharisees had taught the people. But in this matter the Lord Jesus and the Pharisees were on the same page. Jesus answered:
#1. The Greatest Commandment (Matt 22:37-38, Deut 6:4-5, Matt 5:48, Deut 10:16, 30:6)
Mt 22:37-38
The Lord was referring to the words written in Deut 6. Please turn in your Bibles to the Prophecy of Deuteronomy, Deut 6:4 (2X). This verse is the most often quoted verse in the Bible, for every orthodox Jew repeats it several times every day. It is called “the Shema”, and it is this verse, Deut 6:4, which is spoken at the start of the worship service in every synagogue. We read in Deut 6:4-5,
De 6:4-5 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
Two things are in view here: #1. It is emphasizing that we worship a God who is one God. And even though the NT identifies Him as three Persons, we must still maintain that these three Persons are one God. The Father is fully God. The Son is fully God. And the Holy Spirit is fully God. But the Father is not the Son, and the Son is not the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is not the Father. And yet, each of these three Persons is fully God. #2. The command of Deut 6:5 is an absolute command. And from the words that follow Deut 6:5 it is understood that we must love Him every minute of the day. And thus it means that we must love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, and with all our strength, and we must do it every minute of the day, every day. This is really the first and the greatest commandment. Can we do it? Absolutely not! Our human body makes demands on our mind that are distracting to our love for God. As a result, our love for God is not really that great. And we are easily distracted by sins that are pleasing to the flesh. Just think of David’s sin with Bathsheba, even though God says of David that he was a man after God’s own heart. And so, here we have an impossible command, and yet we must obey this command for it is the first and the greatest commandment that God has given us in the Bible. This is not the only place where God is giving us an impossible command for we read in Matt 5:48, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect”. How can we live our lives as perfectly as God Himself? It means a life of zero mistakes, and it means that everything we do, even our driving on the road, is done perfectly so that it can never be improved. Can we do it? Absolutely not! And thus it means that there is sin cleaving to everything we do, which also means that each day we commit hundreds of sins that we are not even aware of. Can we ask the Lord’s forgiveness for sins that we are not even aware of? Absolutely not! And this means that God does not wait for our plea for forgiveness. He forgives when He wants, and He is not waiting for our prayer for forgiveness. Please turn a few pages to your right to Deut 10:16 (2X). And so, when we read that the Lord Jesus led a life that was free from sin, we have a little more appreciation for the perfect life that He provides to substitute for our life. The Lord gives us here in Deut 10:16 another impossible command:
De 10:16 Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked.
How can we circumcise the foreskin of our heart? It is an impossibility! God gave us this command to show us how guilty we are. But God did not leave it there. Please turn a few more pages to your right, to Deut 30:6 (2X). God also gave us the way to escape. And herein we can see the work that Christ shall do and the work that God the Holy Spirit shall do to circumcise our hearts. We read in Deut 30:6,
De 30:6 And the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live.
And so we see that God shall circumcise our heart so that God will account us as having no sin, and as having loved Him perfectly, and having lived a perfect life. But all this is reckoned to our account because the Lord Jesus Christ has paid for every sin in our life, and has substituted His perfect life for ours. From God’s perspective we have fulfilled all these impossible commands of Matt 5:48, and Matt 22:37, and Deut 6:5, and Deut 10:16. How do we know this? We know this because God has given us faith. Did God do this for every human being? No, because God has not given every human being this faith. Only some on whom His unmerited favor, His grace, rests have received this faith. But everything we have said so far hangs on Christ’s perfect obedience to this command.
Please turn in your Bibles to the Epistle to the Hebrews, Heb 5:7 (2X). How did the Lord Jesus Christ fulfill His love for God with all His heart, and soul, and mind, and strength, every minute of the day? This question of the Pharisee reminded Him that He had to be the spotless Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world, and that He had to remain spotless every minute of the day, every day. It reminded Him of the righteousness of God that He came to satisfy on behalf of those whom He came to save. And this question of the Pharisee reminded Him that our God is infinitely righteous. He is an infinitely righteous Judge. An unrighteous judge might reduce the penalty for a crime when someone dear to him stands before the judgment throne, especially when his own son stands before him. But a righteous judge does not do that. A righteous judge shall demand the same penalty for crimes committed, regardless if it is a stranger or if it is his own son. And so, when the Lord Jesus Christ offered to pay the penalty on behalf of my sins, He had to pay a penalty that is equivalent to the penalty that I had to pay. What did I have to pay for my sins? My penalty would be an eternity in Hell, both my body and my soul, and the sufferings in my body are of a different nature than the sufferings in my soul. And thus the Lord Jesus had to pay the equivalent of my sufferings in His body and in His soul. That is why God made Him fully man, so that He would be able to endure this penalty in His human body and in His human soul. And so, when we read in 1Pet 2:24, “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed”, it seems as if Christ only suffered in His body. However, we should not isolate this verse as if it is the only verse that speaks of the sufferings of Christ. The purpose for which Peter speaks this way is to indicate that the Lord Jesus suffered in His humanity, for it was in His humanity that He could pay the penalty for our sins; it was in His humanity that He could substitute for us, who are His kinsmen. There are many other verses that speak of Christ suffering in His soul. For example we read in Isa 53:10-12, “Thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin”, and “He shall see of the travail of his soul”, and also “He hath poured out his soul unto death”. Moreover, we read in Luke 22:44, “And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground”. No one laid a hand on Him, and yet He was already suffering in His soul. Was Jesus afraid to die? Absolutely not! He looked forward to this great day when He would satisfy the righteousness of God on our behalf and conquer Satan on the cross. But the horror of facing the equivalent of an eternity in Hell made Him plead for deliverance from this Hell. And was His plea for deliverance granted? Absolutely yes! For we read in Heb 5:7,
Heb 5:7 Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared;
“To save Him from death” certainly cannot mean physical death, for this plea was not granted. He died on the cross. But the death that God speaks about here is not physical death, but the second death in the Lake of Fire. And this plea was granted, for we read in Acts 2:27 of the faith of Christ before He endured the equivalent of Hell on behalf of us. We read in Acts 2:27, “Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption”. And also in Acts 2:31, “He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption”. Both verses express the faith of Christ that His Father would not leave His soul in Hell. The KJV has translated this correctly as “Hell”, and not “the grave”, for the human soul of Christ was never in the grave but went to heaven, for on the cross He said, “Father, into Thy hands I commend My Spirit”. It was not an empty body that went into the grave, for God the Son was ever present in the body of Jesus. For we read that we were buried with Christ, and we were buried with Him because we were in Him from before the foundation of the world. This can only mean that our names were locked in God the Son from before the foundation of the world, and that is why we could be buried with Him. And so, we see that all these things hang together by the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is why the apostle Paul says
1Co 2:2 For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.
Now, if the love of God is the greatest commandment, what do you think is the greatest sin?
Please turn again to the Gospel According to Matthew, Matt 22:37 (2X).
#2. The Greatest Sin (Matt 22:37-38, Jam 3:1, Rev 21:8,27, 22:15, Hos 6:6, John 17:3, Mic 6:6-8)
Indeed, the greatest sin is to abandon the love of God. The Lord Jesus said in Matt 22:37-38,
Mt 22:37-38
To sin against this commandment is a greater sin than murder, or adultery, or stealing. Let me prove this to you. When you count the words in the Ten Commandments, for example in Ex 20, God dedicates to the first four commandments, which deal with our love for God, 242 words. And God dedicates to the remaining six commandments 77 words. And this word count comes from the KJV. In other words, God dedicates more than three times the space to commandments dealing with loving the Lord, versus space dedicated to loving our neighbor. Now, if this seems too much of a mechanical way of looking at the priorities of God in the Bible, please turn in your Bible to the Epistle of James, Jam 3:1 (2X). You find the Epistle of James right after the Epistle to the Hebrews. We have here a verse which speaks about “masters”, which is a Biblical name for teachers of the Word of God. We read here in Jam 3:1,
Jas 3:1 ¶
What is God warning us for? Paraphrased the Lord says, “My brethren in the Lord, you who claim to have the same faith, let not many become teachers of the Word of God, for if you teach heresy, know for sure that the hottest place in Hell is reserved for false teachers”. And why is this so? Well, if you kill someone, perhaps you will send this one person to Hell because this happens to be an unsaved person. But if you are a false teacher of the Word of God, you are teaching your disciples to love another god, and abandon the love of the true God of the Bible, resulting in many who are following your doctrines to be steadfastly guided into Hell. For example, think of the many fathers who are bringing their children under the hearing of your false teachings because they trust you, and in this way you are helping to visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of them that hate the true God of the Bible. And this warning certainly applies when we approach the end of time, for it is then that a great number of false gospels will be spawned by teachers of the Bible, who should not be teachers at all. God tells us here in Jam 3:1 that bearing a false witness of His words causes false teachers to be under greater judgment than if they had not become teachers. This is the category of people whom God speaks about in Rev 21:8, and Rev 21:27, and Rev 22:15, when He speaks about liars who shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone. Now we can understand what God says in Hos 6:6, when He says, “For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings”. Paraphrased God says that He is more pleased when people acquire the knowledge of the true God, rather than with all the burnt offerings of the entire ceremonial law. And why is this so? All the animal sacrifices of the entire OT could not take away one sin. But knowing the true God, and Jesus Christ whom He has sent, is life eternal, and means a complete remission of all your sins (John 17:3).
Please turn in your Bibles to the Epistle to the Romans, Rom 8:5 (2X). How do the people of the world commit this greatest sin? What are we seeing today? We see that there is a great emphasis on living a good and decent moral life. Many preachers focus their preaching on “practical issues”, teaching their congregation how to avoid pitfalls of immorality, and pitfalls of bad interpersonal relationships, and pitfalls of not being able to forgive, and so on. I could make a long list of topics to preach on. But I am not a topical preacher, because I firmly believe that you must hear the Gospel of Christ crucified in everyone of my sermons. This is what the majority of the words in the Bible have to do with. You can see the result of all these practical sermons that are spouted into the world today. People are urged to live in peace with one another, but which god you want to worship is actually your own individual choice. That is not how God speaks to us in the Bible. By ignoring the most important command of God people are trying to create a heaven on earth without God. And this is how they commit the greatest sin. But let me now address a very practical question: Why do good people go to Hell? Let me give you the answer up front. It is because they commit the greatest sin. God addresses this fact in Rom 8:5-8,
Ro 8:5-8 For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
You see, these words convey an important principle: The purpose of the Bible is not to have people tolerate one another in peace. The purpose of the Bible is not to teach people how to live a decent moral life. But the purpose of the Bible is to tell us about the depravity of man, and God’s wrath on this innate depravity of the flesh, and the glorious escape from this condemnation through faith in the spiritual consequences of the cross of Christ. Rom 8:5 tells us that the way everyone is born into this world, as a natural man, is a man who is only concerned about his flesh, and does not mind the things of the Spirit of God. And if the natural man begins to conjure up some spiritual things, he always invents his own god who is like man, and who thinks like mortal man. But God has given us the Bible, so that we can read about spiritual things that are real, and which God has written in the Bible so that man can be saved from condemnation. Moreover, God tells us in Rom 8:5 that there are two groups of people in the world: Those who mind spiritual things, which are the things of importance to God, and those who mind only carnal things, the things of the flesh, things that are of importance to the here and now. The natural man is an unsaved man who does nothing to the honor and glory of God. If a rich millionaire gives much of his wealth to charity, but remains unsaved because he wants to be do-gooder in this world, and he does not read the Bible about honoring God in His way, then he falls far short in the purpose for which he was created. Man was created in the image of God, and was created to give God the glory He deserves. And so we must let Rom 8:8 ring loud and clear, “they that are in the flesh cannot please God”. On the other hand, the thief on the cross led a life full of murder and robbery, but in the nick of time God showed him Christ, the only way, the only truth and the only life giving person. Now he is glorifying God throughout all eternity. And so, why do good people go to Hell. They go to Hell because their goodness is perceived in the eyes of this world, but not in the eyes of God. But when bad people go to heaven it is because God had mercy on them, and they have received the faith to believe the Gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ, and have received from God the ability to love Him and to glorify Him and Jesus Christ whom He has sent. The people gathered in the parable of Matt 22:10 were both bad and good.
#3. The Second Greatest Sin (Matt 22:39-40, Lev 19:18, John 15:12-13, 13:34-35)
Let us now return to the Gospel of Matthew, Matt 22:39 (2X). The answer that the Lord Jesus gave to the Pharisee consisted of two parts. The first part, the greatest commandment, we have already seen. Now, what is the second greatest commandment? The Lord answered the Pharisee in Matt 22:39-40,
Mt 22:39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
Mt 22:40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
Where did the Lord Jesus get this from? He grabbed it from Lev 19:18, where we read,
Le 19:18 Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD.
Who is this neighbor as indicated by Lev 19:18? It is a fellow believer, for Lev 19:18 speaks about “the children of thy people”. In other words, this event is different from the other time when the Lord Jesus spoke about the Parable of the Good Samaritan. The Lord had a different objective there. But here the Lord Jesus indicated that we must love our fellow believers as much as we love ourselves. Please turn in your Bibles to the Gospel According to John, John 15:12 (2X). This is one of the chapters where the Lord Jesus gave His farewell discourse to the disciples. The entire farewell discourse is in chapters 14, 15 and 16, and it was given on Thursday evening just before the Lord Jesus was going to suffer for our sins in the Garden of Gethsemane. We read here in John 15:12-13,
Joh 15:12
Joh 15:13
Here is the application of the second greatest commandment that the Lord Jesus gave to the Pharisee in Matt 22:39. And so, what is the second greatest sin? Think about it now, for the Lord Jesus tells us here something very practical for the health of our church. Let me put it in my own words. We assemble here because we believe almost the same things. We congregate here because saints need fellowship of one another, and we are commanded to love one another. Therefore, when we separate ourselves from one another because of some petty differences, or we form little groups with the purpose of letting our protest be heard by other groups, we are in fact violating the second greatest commandment of the Lord. Whatever our gripe is, it is not to be done this way. It must be done in such a way that we still express our love for one another, for that is the commandment of the Lord. When the Lord Jesus emphasized this second greatest commandment in Matt 22:39 on Tuesday morning, and then He repeated it on Thursday evening just before He began His atonement for our sins, do you not think that this is a very great command that is very dear to the Lord’s heart? So, let us meditate on this.
Please turn in your Bibles to the Epistle to the Romans, Rom 13:9 (2X). Besides not loving our fellow believers in our own church, how else do we fail to love our neighbor? But now I want to expand the concept of a “neighbor” to every one in the world. And now most of those whom we are called to love are actually enemies of the cross. And thus we are called to love them in a different way than we are called to love our fellow brethren in our church. We read in Rom 13:9,
Ro 13:9 For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
How then do we love our neighbor, and how do we fail to love our neighbor? God lists here five of the Ten Commandments, all five out of the second table of the Ten Commandments. The first four commandments are not listed because they have already been dealt with in the greatest command. Please turn in your Bibles to the Second Epistle to the Corinthians, 2Cor 5:17 (2X). When we have been saved, and we see that our neighbor is still on the way to Hell, we should endeavor to tell him the way of salvation, unless he does not want to hear it. If we say nothing, it is as if we are bearing false witness, for we are then showing by our actions that whatever they believe it is OK with God. And that is not OK with God. This is not what we read here in 2Cor 5:17-20,
2Co 5:17-20 Thherefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things are become new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.
Twice in this passage does God say that He has committed to us the ministry of reconciliation. What does that mean? It means that we open our mouth and tell people that the wrath of God is upon most of mankind because they are violating the first and the greatest command. And secondly, we must tell whosoever wants to hear that the Lord Jesus has suffered, and shed His blood, and died on a cross to atone for the sins of whosoever wants to hear about God’s provision for saving people from their slippery slide into Hell. This is what it means to be ambassadors for Christ. This is what it means to love our neighbor as ourselves, for we want even our enemies to be at peace with God like we are. This is what it means to be reigning with Christ on this earth, for in doing this we not only are helping to build th temple of God, but we also hasten to bring in the last of God’s elect, and so hasten the coming of Christ.
#4. An Accusation on a Platter (Matt 22:41-46, Psalm 110:1, Acts 2:36, Eph 1:19-22)
Please turn again to the Gospel of Matthew, Matt 22:41 (2X). The Lord Jesus perceived that the scribes and the Pharisees and the Sadducees had nothing to accuse Him of that was worthy of death. To try to find fault with a person who never committed any sin is an impossible task. Even when they would bring in false witnesses, it was impossible to make the false witnesses agree on their testimony. And so, the Lord Jesus arranged to give them His accusation as it were on a silver platter. We read in
Mt 22:41-46
The Lord Jesus quoted from Psalm 110:1, a Psalm of David, where we read, “The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool”. The King James Version NT has printed the OT quotation correctly. The first “LORD” is the word “Jehovah”. The second “Lord” has the meaning of “Master”. And thus verse 44 says, “Jehovah said unto my Master, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool”. Why does David speak of his Son as his Master? It is because David recognized that the Messiah is also God Himself. The Lord Jesus gave the Pharisees this information so that they could pressure Him later under oath, to give them a handle on how to accuse the Lord Jesus of blasphemy. And under the Law of Moses blasphemy is punishable by death. But Jesus is Lord, even though the Pharisees did not want to believe this. For example, God wrote in Acts 2:36 through the mouth of the apostle Peter,
Ac 2:36 Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.
God made Him whom ye have crucified both Messiah and King of kings. Therefore tremble, and be afraid, for He shall come again as the Judge of all the earth and as a righteous Judge He must avenge every sin, including the sin of crucifying Him. Therefore, we rejoice that He has counted us worthy to be His Bride, for this means that He has put away our sins. We read in Eph 1:19-22 these glorious words:
Eph 1:19-22
We rejoice in the greatness of His power to us-ward who believe, for God has given us this faith.
AMEN. Let us turn to the Lord in prayer.