series: Red Letter City
title: Love Your Enemies
date: June 12, 2016
teacher: Jacob Bender
scriptures: Matthew 5:43-48, Matthew 16, Matthew 18, Leviticus 19:18, Proverbs 24:17, Romans 12:21, Luke 22:36, Matthew 26:52-53, Luke 23:34, Luke 6:46, Matthew 22:34-40, Matthew 10:34-36, Revelation 19:15, Isaiah 49:2, Isaiah 11:4, Ephesians 6:17 (rhema), John 1:14, Hebrews 4:12 (logos), Romans 12, Psalm 23, Psalm 23:5
Title: gods & murder
Series: Realities
Teacher: Jacob Bender
Date: September 20, 2015
scriptures: Mark 12:28-34, Deuteronomy 6:4-5, Psalm 82:4, Ezekiel 33:6, Luke 22:36, John 18:10-11, Matthew 5:22, James 1:22, Matthew 3:16, John 10:30, Genesis 2:24, John 17:6, John 17:21, Colossians 1:15-17, Luke 23:21, 1 Peter 2:24, Hebrew 12:3,
Observing Jews wake up every single morning, and they quote this verse.
“Hear Oh Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One.” They say it at everything. Of course, they aren’t quoting Jesus, they are quoting the verse that Jesus is quoting, which is Deuteronomy 6:4-5.
Jesus answered the scribes question here in Mark, by quoting an old testament passage known as the SHEMA.
They ask him, “What is the most important thing?”
and he quotes Deuteronomy. He says, what is most important? Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ But Jesus adds the second part: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’
and the scribe responds to Jesus, and says, “you are right. He is one. God is one. And there is no-one else besides him. You know the scriptures. We can move on now.
It seems this would sum it up. If we could just grasp this concept fully, with all of our hearts, it would solve just about all of our problems. God comes first. People come second, and you are included in the second, but you are not above it. You treat people just like you would treat yourself… If you believed this, and we lived this, we wouldn’t need the Ten Commandments. We would already be doing them.
But the problem is that we don’t grasp this. And that is why we are still hurting each other. We are still talking bad about each other, we are still gossiping and slandering, and belittling each other.
We can’t even get our mind around “love your neighbor as yourself” – and if you can’t love your neighbor as yourself, could you possibly love God with all of your heart?
Moses wrote the SHEMA in Deuteronomy six…. its the chapter right after he gives us the Ten Commandments… Its almost like he was doing the same thing that Jesus does… he is saying, “Here are Ten words to live by.” But if ten is too many, here is one.
If we understand the principles behind the SHEMA, we would automatically do the Ten Commandments.
We hope you will join as we explore the SHEMA, and why that is the way that he responded the the scribe.
