Sermon Notes for Sunday, July 12th, 2009

While the pastor and his family were away for summer vacation, our Lay Member to Annual Conference, Mr. Tim Lancaster, delivered the following message to the congregation:

The Greatest Commandment

The reading of the Word of God.

“This is the Word of God for the people of God.”

Leviticus 19:18

Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.

Matthew 22:36-40 36

"Master, which is the great commandment in the law?" 37Jesus said unto him, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38This is the first and great commandment. 39And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."

“Thanks be unto God.”

(The Message)

This morning, let’s ponder what Luke told us about the “Greatest Commandment.”

Luke Chapter 10: 25And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? 26He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou? 27And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself. 28And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live. 29But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour? 30And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. 31And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side. 33But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, 34And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee. 36Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves? 37And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.

Samaria was a region of central Palestine that was once the capital of Israel. In 721 B.C. it was captured by the Assysrians who deported much of the population and replaced them with foreign colonists (2 Kings 17:24-33). The colonists were pagans who eventually intermarried with the remaining Jews. They adopted the religion of Israel, but they also continued to worship their pagan idols. The Jews considered the Samaritans to be religious heretics of a foreign nationality and inferior race. The Samaritans offered to help rebuild the Jewish temple, but their offer was rudely rebuffed (Ezra 4:1-3). Finally the Samaritans built a rival temple on Mt. Gerizim and proclaimed it, rather than the Jewish temple, to be the true house of God. By the time of Jesus, the Jews and Samaritans had hated each other for hundreds of years.

With that background, it is easy to understand that there was no one the Jewish expert in the law would have considered to be less of a "neighbor" than a Samaritan. If a Samaritan man could be a "neighbor" to the Jewish man who was robbed and beaten, then the definition of "neighbor" would have to include all people, regardless of race, religion, nationality or any other artificial distinction.

The Samaritan man gave freely of both his time and his money to help a Jewish man who was not only a stranger, but also was of a different religion, a foreigner and an enemy of his people. In His Parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus challenges us to "Go and do likewise." We do not have to agree with other people's beliefs and opinions or condone their actions, but Jesus calls us to overcome our prejudices and show our kindness to all people of the world and consider them our "neighbors."

The importance of Man, we have recorded in Genesis, God the Maker of Heaven and Earth made Man both male and female in His own image, and after His likeness.

We have God working through Man with Seth, then Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph,

Moses, Naomi, Ruth, Samuel, David, the prophets, and then moving on to the New Testament through our Blessed Virgin Mary, Jesus Christ our Lord, his Disciples, St. Paul, and ultimately the Bride of Christ in Revelation.

When we look at these people’s lives in our Holy Bible, we see how to “love your neighbor as yourself.”

If we ponder in our heart some of the examples our Lord Jesus gave us, we get even more insight of these 2 Commandments.. Let’s think back how Jesus responded to Satan in the Wilderness, Satan wanted Jesus to use His Supernatural powers to turn stones into bread, then Satan took him to the pinnacle of the Temple and asked Jesus to jump off and let the angels protect Him. Satan then took Jesus to a high mountain and told him too look around and that he would give Him all these things. Jesus told Satan to get away, “for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.”

He gave us the example when Peter didn’t want our Lord to suffer death, and how he rebuked Peter.

Jesus’s family wanted to take Jesus back to Nazareth when He was on the other side of Galilee, but He responded, my real mother is the one’s that does the will of God.

Let’s consider the “Last Super,” we know the Passover Communion was about remembering God working with Abraham’s children that left Egypt(the Jew’s still honor this tradition), we now have our Lord’s Table remembrance, reminding us of our Christ’s blood for our sins, and His body for our sacrifice.

We have the reminder of our Lord in the Garden, when He asked the Father if possible take this cup from me, and we have His words to ponder,”not my will, but Thy will be done.

We have the prayer Jesus prayed to the Father that we would be one, as He and the Father are one, (totally obedient to the Father).

We have His statements on the Cross,”Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”

We read of His compassion to the thief on the cross beside Him.

We know “no greater love than a man to lay down his life down for a friend.”

We have the Blessed Virgin Mary accepting the Word of God , to receive in her womb the Son of God that would bring Salvation to all people. A woman having a child without a husband would be stoned, but she trusted in the Word of God, and God made a way.

We have the Disciples that gave their life for the Ministry of the Gospel. We have St. Paul that gave us many Holy Scriptures linking the Holy God’s relationship with Man and ultimately St. Paul giving his life for the gospel. People would we or any of America’s Ministry of the gospel be that willing? Do we or don’t we really need to come back to the greatest commandment?

We have John that gave us the final consummation of the Holy God’s relationship with Man. Is that final consummation our focus, or are we like the people Jesus dealt with during His earthly Ministry? Let’s ponder that thought in our hearts.

In conclusion, it’s when we turn our eyes upon Jesus the things of this earth will go strangely dim in the light and glory of his Grace. There are many things we don’t understand on this side, so we have to exercise our faith in the God of Heaven and Earth to carry us through. It’s when we get more like St. Paul when he mentioned “it’s no longer I that live, but Christ lives in me”. In our own strength we can’t love our neighbor as ourselves, but in Christ and we can do all things in Him that strengthen us. We must draw nigh unto Him and He will draw nigh to us, and we stand in faith on the promises of His scriptures, knowing when we delight ourselves in the Lord he will give us the desires of our heart. Lord, have mercy on us your children that we grow more and more in you so it is no longer we that live, but you live in us. We know the way Lord, you are the Way, the Truth, and the Life. We know you prayed for us Lord Jesus, when you prayed, Father sanctify them in thy Truth, thy Word is thy Truth. May we be more like David, “Thy Word have I hid in my heart to not sin against Thee”. We pray Lord that we take the principles of your word and apply them in our daily life.