A Recent Sermon-Read Matthew 22:34-38
Introduction
In an earlier sermon, I introduced the concepts of monism and dualism. In modern scientific and academic circles, it is believed by many that the mind is the product of the brain. Naturalists, who are generally atheists, conclude that the human mind is nothing more than highly organized matter that somehow creates the mind. They reject the concept of the existence of a soul and would argue that someday, science might be able to produce a functioning human mind by assembling the right atoms. Thus, naturalists who believe the material universe is all that exists, believe that the mind is identical to the body. They reason, when the body dies, the mind ceases to exist and decomposes into dust along with the body. For the naturalist, there is no afterlife. When you die, you are just dead. That is the end of it.
The obvious challenge to monism is how can dead matter produce conscious beings. In science, matter has mass, weight, density, etc. But do we ever talk about the kindness of hydrogen? We might talk about the flammability of hydrogen because that is what was in the Hindenburg which went up in flames. But you need to have a living, thinking, intentional human being to have kindness. You see, kindness flows from a conscious individual, not dead matter. Do we ever talk about the loving nature of water? However, we might talk about the loving nature of individuals. The French philosopher and mathematician Rene Descartes observed that matter and thoughts are different types of things. He reasoned that he could envision his mind existing without his body, but that his body could not exist without his mind, and if it did, it would not be him.
Theists, like all of us, believe in God and have argued for millennia, informed by the Bible, that mind and body are distinct things. Thus, we are dualists like Descartes. Dualists argue that when the body dies, the mind lives on for eternity as part of the soul. Of late, there is growing scientific evidence that the mind survives when the body is brain dead, because many people who have experienced brain death are able to later recall important details that occurred in the hospitals where they were treated at the time that they were supposedly, yes, brain dead.
So, to summarize, monists believe that the mind is just a product of the brain. So, when the body dies, the brain decomposes, and the mind dies with it. Dualists, on the other hand, believe that the mind is distinct from the body and that it survives when the body dies.
The ultimate reality and the nature of human beings that Jesus describes contradicts the monist view that there is nothing beyond the material universe. Jesus describes a reality in the gospels that includes our present material reality but also looks to a reality that is beyond to a spiritual realm. This spiritual realm is heaven, which is the eternal dwelling place of God. It is the place where all true believers will be united with God. This will play into our study of our sermon text, so let’s move on to that.
Exposition
Our sermon text is a familiar text. No doubt, you have often heard or read it. You have probably heard sermons on it, and I am sure I have mentioned it several times. However, our focus on this passage cannot be overdone. Why? Because Jesus says, this is the greatest commandment. Loving God is the first priority of Christians. It should be your first priority each day. Loving God should be on your heart when you rise in the morning and when you go to bed at night and at all points in between. The love of God should inform every decision, be evident in your work and passions, and flow from every pore of your being. The love of God should be manifest in your actions, interactions, and reactions. It should be evident to all who know you, those you love, those who love you, and those who do not love you. If I haven’t made it clear, the love of God should be central to your character, your motivations, your use of time, and your dealings with others. Am I being clear? Love of God is the first and foremost job of any Christ-follower.
Let’s look at the context of our sermon text. My favorite study Bible titles the chapter in which we find our text, “The rejection of the nation.” This title is appropriate because what we find in Matthew 22 is the Pharisees, Herodians, and the Sadducees, all seeking to find some reason to eliminate Jesus. This is a chapter where the ruling parties of Israel seek to test Jesus, hoping He will say something that will give an excuse to kill Him. But they are no match for the owner and creator of the universe. Jesus calls them out as hypocrites, for they sit in the chair of Moses making pronouncements and lording it over the people, but they do not do the things they teach the people. Their hearts are cold, and they have lost their love for God if they ever had it. You see, for these Jewish leaders, the love of God has been replaced with love for themselves and the power and influence they wield. In short, they might know something about God, but they do not know God.
So that is the lead up to our text. But still, the Pharisees send a lawyer to question Jesus. They haven’t learned their lesson. The lawyer poses this question to Jesus. What is the greatest commandment? Apparently, this question was being debated among Jewish leaders in the first century. Jesus answers, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’ ”
The Bible refers to the material part of our being as the flesh or sárx in Greek. Here, Jesus is talking about the immaterial part of our being, the core of our essence as individuals. One reliable Greek dictionary, The Complete Word Study of the New Testament, draws these distinctions between heart, soul, and mind.
The heart is the place from which springs “desires, feelings, affections, passions, impulses” The soul is the immaterial part of human beings. The mind is the part of us, allowing understanding, intellect, thought, and memory. This is the place within us that thinks and reasons. If you take heart, soul, and mind together, you have what makes you, You, what distinguishes you from others. It defines how you think and react and what kinds of passions and interests you have. The nature of your heart, soul, and mind will inform how you feel and how you love. Heart, soul, and mind are where the image of God within you resides.
In our modern scientific world, a heart is just an organ that pumps blood through the body, and the mind is just the product of neurons firing and chemical processes. Hearts and minds can be more capable or less capable, according to science. But the Bible attributes other characteristics to them. Minds can be hardened, blinded, corrupted, and debased. They may also be pure or renewed. Minds cans contain God’s laws, and can acquiesce to the mind of Christ. Minds can also be an instrument for loving God. In the Bible, the heart is the seat of emotions, the place of love or hate, joy or sorrow, peace or bitterness, courage or fear.
Sometimes the thinking and decision-making process is said to be carried out in the heart. The heart of an individual is where the true character of that individual resides. In Romans 5:5, Paul writes, “the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” In Romans 10:9 we learn “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; In Ephesian 3:17 we learn that it is in our hearts that Christ dwells through faith.
Why is Jesus so focused on loving God with the non-physical part of our being in our sermon text? I think it is because that is what will survive death. Our current physical bodies will remain in the ground when we pass away, but our soul, the intentions of our hearts, and the knowledge and understanding of our minds will live on for eternity, someday to be joined with an incorruptible physical resurrection body. Moreover, God is spirit and He must be worshipped in spirit. Certainly, we can love God with our bodies on this earth by the physical work we do for the kingdom, but someday these bodies will return to dust; our souls however will live on for eternity.
Knowing God
Now I come to the crucial point. To love God, we must know Him. Let me repeat that. To love God, we must know Him. Here is why you need to know God to love Him. Can you love a person you have never met? Other than some vague desire for the good of the individual you have not met, it is hard to love that individual. In contrast, think about the child or grandchild that is in your life. I think of my three little grandsons. I see them several times per week. One is 3 ½, one is almost 2, and one is seven weeks. My love for each of them has grown and grown when I think about their mannerisms, curiosity, ability to return love, and their innocence, and their potential, it makes the love in my heart for them grow more and more each day.
You see, there is a difference between knowing someone and only knowing about someone. If, for some reason, I had a grandchild that I knew about but had never met, I would still love that child, but it would be vastly different from the experience and depth of love that comes from the regular interaction with my three little grandchildren.
It is easy to get stuck in the place where we know about God, but we really do not know God. In that place, we cannot develop a true love for God. How do we get out of that rut? How do we get to the place where we love God with all our heart, soul, and mind, where we truly love God with the totality of our being? We read this in Jeremiah 29:13 “You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.” There is that heart thing again.
One of the great books about God is by J. I. Packer, a Canadian theologian. Some of you might be familiar with it as it was used in one of the study groups a few years back. The book is titled Knowing God. Millions of copies have been published and it was required reading for my first seminary program. One of Packer’s most important observations is that there is a big difference between knowing about God and actually knowing God. Packer says that many Christians have never really grasped this. Packer writes:
We find in ourselves a deep interest in theology . . . We read books about theological exposition and apologetics. We dip into Christian history, and we study the Christian Creed. We learn to find our way around the scriptures.
Packer continues:
All very fine—yet interest in theology, and knowledge about God . . . is not the same as knowing him.
Packer concludes you can know a great deal about God, theology, and doctrine without really knowing God. This is a strong challenge to those of us who have spent a good deal of our lives studying these things. However, Packer is not saying that we should not learn about God, but the Christian experience cannot stop there. All of us must strive to know God, not just about Him, that is how we will grow to love Him. Drawing on the example of Daniel, the great prophet and servant of God, Packer identifies four characteristics of those who know God.
First, those who know God have great energy for God. In the prophet Daniel, we find an individual who stood up for the honor of God and the truth of God. In Daniel 1, rather than eat the choice food of the king and drink the king’s wine, which was not allowed by the Mosaic law and would have resulted in defilement, Daniel appealed to the commander of the officials to eat vegetables and drink water. Daniel could just have accepted his situation as fate, you know when in Babylon, do as the Babylonians do; what happens in Babylon stays in Babylon. Not Daniel. Daniel’s desire to please his God outweighed the external pressures of the world around him to conform to the wicked ways of the Babylonians. Then again, In Daniel 6, when King Darius signed an edict that no one was to pray to any god or man except Darius himself, he set himself up to be the sole object of worship in his kingdom. What did Daniel do? Daniel continued right on praying three times a day in front of an open window so that he might be seen. This courageous act landed Daniel in the lion’s den, but Daniel would have rather died than worship any man or false God. Daniel had great energy and motivation for his God.
Second, those who know God have great thoughts of God. Nebuchadnezzar was the great king of Babylon who conquered Israel. He was confident in his power. One day, he was walking on the roof of his palace reflecting on his own majesty and glory, having a little self-worship session, when Nebuchadnezzar heard a voice declaring that his sovereignty had been removed. Immediately, he went mad, and it lasted for seven years. He lost all reason. At the end of the period, when he had humbled himself before God, his reason was restored. Through the prophet Daniel, God taught Nebuchadnezzar the following that Nebuchadnezzar proclaims in Daniel 4:
34 “But at the end of that period, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High and praised and honored Him who lives forever; For His dominion is an everlasting dominion, And His kingdom endures from generation to generation. 35 “All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, But He does according to His will in the host of heaven And among the inhabitants of earth; And no one can ward off His hand Or say to Him, ‘What have You done?’
Daniel taught Nebuchadnezzar about the sovereignty of God because Daniel had great thoughts about God and great understanding of God.
Third, those who know God show great boldness for God. The prophet Daniel, as Packer says, was willing to stick his neck out for God. Daniel ended up in the lion’s den and in the fiery furnace because of his love for God and his desire to honor Him. I think of the boldness of the early Christians in standing for their faith. I’m sure that none of us is looking to go out of this world as a martyr, but as Christians, history has proven that that is always a possibility.
Tacitus, a Roman historian, writing in A.D. 109, affirms the torture of Christians during Nero’s reign. It seems that Nero was suspected by some of setting the great fire of Rome. To deflect the blame from himself, Nero blamed the Christians as scapegoats. Tacitus indicates that the early Christians were killed in excruciating manners. They were torn by dogs, crucified, or burnt as human torches to provide illumination at night. Nero reigned from A.D. 54 to A.D. 68. The great fire of Rome occurred in A.D. 64, so this persecution of Christians broke out toward the end of Nero’s reign. It is during this period that the Apostles Peter and Paul, and many others, are thought to have been martyred.
Fourth, Packer writes, those who know God have great contentment in God. We live in a troubled world. We live in a world beset by evil, and now a modern-day plague. I am not diminishing mental illness that results from body and brain chemistry. That has always been with us, but something more is going on in our culture. In 2018, Barnes and Noble announced that sales of books about anxiety jumped 25% from the previous year. Between 2007 and 2012, anxiety disorders in children and teens increased by 20%.[1] According to a recent study, the rates of major depression among teenagers ages 12-17 were up by 52% during the period of 2009 to 2017.[2] Do you think that in some measure, these alarming trends are related to our growing national rejection of God, His sovereignty, and His commands?
I have spoken of this before, America is abandoning God and historic evangelical Christianity. First Peter 5:7 tells us to cast our anxiety on God. It is very hard to do that if you do not know God. That is precisely the place in which Americans find themselves. It is no wonder that anxiety is on the rise in America. Many Americans do not know the peace that comes from knowing God. But as believers, we must stand on the promises of God. We have comfort in knowing God that the world will never have. In trial and tribulation, remember these things, my brothers and sisters in Christ.
- Psalm 46:1: God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble.
- Psalm 34:19: Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the Lord delivers him out of them all.
- Isaiah 41:10: ‘Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’
- Deuteronomy 31:6: Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid or tremble at them, for the Lord your God is the one who goes with you. He will not fail you or forsake you.”
- 2 Thessalonians 3:3: But the Lord is faithful, and He will strengthen and protect you from the evil one.
There is real comfort in knowing that God is for us. A big and growing problem in America is that many have rejected God. And while some might know a bit about God, they do not know God. If you do not know God, you cannot know the contentment of God, the spirit of calm, and the spirit of peace that comes from knowing that no matter what arises, God is in control.
God promises to protect His people and those who love Him. Our hope is not in governments. Our hope is not in science. Our hope is not in other people. No, as lovers of God, our hope is in the eternal, unchanging nature of the one true God. In this truth, we have great comfort and contentment in these troubled times.
Moms and Dads, parents and grandparents, millennials and boomers, inoculate yourselves in these turbulent times with the promises of God that are the only source of true peace. Memorize the verses I just mentioned. Teach them to your children and grandchildren! And take them to heart so that you may have contentment and know peace and be shielded from anxiety.
So what can we do to grow in our knowledge and love for God? Here are some of Packer’s thoughts on this matter. First, ask God for help. There is not a person who is hearing this message, including your pastors, who does not need to grow in their knowledge of God. Packer says that many of us have no idea how impoverished we are in this area. We cannot measure our knowledge of God by our position in the church or the jobs that we do in it. These are all important things, but they are not a substitute for a growing knowledge of God that results in true love of God with our heart, soul, and mind, the entirety of our being. In regular prayer, let us ask God to help us grow in the knowledge of Him so that we might love Him better.
Second, Packer suggests, we must seek our Savior. God promises that we will find Him when we seek Him with all our hearts. He will be found in persistent prayer and consistent daily devotion to the Scriptures. We are in strange circumstances where perhaps we have more time on our hands than usual. What if we committed to using this quarantine time to read two chapters of Scripture every day? You can read the entire Bible in about a year and a half at that pace. I will add this. You can make a great start by reading the Book of Daniel and meditating on it. It is a short and fascinating book, and in that book, you will find an example of a man who truly loved God and knew Him. The top priority of Christians is to love God with all their being. To love Him, you must know Him. Follow the example of Daniel. Follow the example of your Savior. Amen.
[1] https://www.healthychildren.org/English/health-issues/conditions/emotional-problems/Pages/Anxiety-Disorders.aspx
[2] https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fabn0000410