Sermon for Sunday August 24th, 2008

"So Close And Yet So Far!" by Lee Miller

Mark 12:28-12:34

“So Close and Yet So Far!”

It was one of the best football games ever. Remember Super Bowl XXXIV between the Rams and Titans? In the final seconds Tennessee was driving for the game-tying touchdown and on the final play Kevin Dyson caught a pass over the middle and lunged for the goal line. He was tackled just short of the goal line in fact he missed scoring a touchdown by one yard, three feet. So close and yet so far! He missed it by about the same distance between the raised hands of a referee signaling a touchdown.
Mark 12:28-34 is a familiar story I’ve read many times and a phrase that I never noticed before recently caught my attention. Jesus’ answer to the teacher of the law, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God” jumped from the page. What did He mean? Is there any significance to that statement or is it not important at all? Since that time I have been haunted by those words and have tried to find the answer. I happen to believe it speaks volumes and especially with what is said by Mark the Gospel writer immediately following. “And from then on no one dared ask Him any more questions.” I wish the man would have asked one.
I believe there are hundreds of thousands and maybe even millions in the church of America and around the world who are close to, in other words, “not far from the Kingdom of God.” You might say well isn’t being “not far from” a lot better than being “far from”? Maybe it is but one thing I know for sure being “not far from the Kingdom of God” is still not in the Kingdom of God. The question in my mind as I look at this text is what’s missing? What was lacking? Here’s a teacher of the law a religious man who’s not in the Kingdom. He was not far so how close was he? A mile, a yard, an inch? And this begs the question what about me, what about you? Might Jesus say to us, “you are not far from the Kingdom of God?” So close and yet so far!
In order to understand the context of this story it’s necessary to look at what happened prior to this. Chapter 11 records Jesus’ triumphal entry and clearing the temple of the moneychangers. In verse 18 “the chief priests and the teachers of the law began looking for a way to kill him.” In verses 27 & 28 “while Jesus was walking in the temple courts, the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders came to him. By what authority are you doing these things? And who gave you authority to do this?” In chapter 12 verses 12 & 13 “then they looked for a way to arrest Him, Later they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to Jesus to catch Him in His words.” Verse 18 “Then the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Him with a question.” All these questions was an attempt to trap Jesus.
One of the teachers of the law heard them arguing and saw that Jesus had answered them well so he asked a question. Teachers of the law or scribes were men well educated, who new the law. They were called to study, preserve and apply the law and to teach people about God. They were like our Sunday School teachers. However, they drifted away from their calling and used it to rule over and even manipulate the people with power and wealth. Jesus openly criticized them for their hypocrisy, not because of their authority and position but because they willfully distorted His words, living one way and teaching another.
This teacher had a question, of all the commandments, which commandment is the most important? “The most important one” said Jesus, “is this: the Lord our God is one Lord. First: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and second: Love your neighbor as yourself. There’s no commandment more important than these.” And the man replied, “Well said teacher, you are right in saying God is one and there’s no other. To love Him with all your heart, all your understanding and all your strength and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than even burnt offerings and sacrifices.” He agreed with Jesus.
When Jesus saw that he had given a wise intelligent answer, He Said. “You are not far from the Kingdom of God.” After that nobody dared ask another question. I dare ask one question, what’s missing? So close and yet so far! They say “close” only matters in horseshoes and hand grenades. Remember the phrase “close but no Cigar?”
Not far from the Kingdom of God is still not in the Kingdom of God so what’s missing? What is the Kingdom of God, it would be well to know what it is he’s not far from. It might be helpful to see what it is not! In John 18: 36 Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place.” Paul in Romans 14:17 & 18 said, “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by men.” So far we know the Kingdom of God is not a kingdom of this world and it’s not something tangible. What is the Kingdom of God? In Mark 1:15 Jesus declared “The time has come, the kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!” What is the Kingdom of God? Jesus in Mark 10:14 said “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” In Mark 10: 23 He said, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” Jesus in the Sermon On The Mount said to pray, “Your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” Later in that same chapter he said, “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you.” In Luke 17:20 & 21 again Jesus said, “The kingdom of God does not come visibly, nor will people say, here it is or there it is, because the kingdom is within you.” What is the Kingdom of God, have we defined it yet? How could Jesus say you’re not far from it if the man didn’t know what it was? The Bible doesn’t actually give a definition yet there are 119 verses in the New Testament that refer to the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God is literally the dome where Jesus is King! What’s missing, why is this teacher of the law not in the Kingdom of God? So close and yet so far!
The most important commandment Jesus said is to love the Lord God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The heart is believed to be the center of our emotions, feelings, moods and passions. We can express love, joy, sorrow, anger, courage and fear. The heart also represents the idea of choice or freewill and conscience. Since the heart is the center for decisions, obedience, and devotion, it represents the total human person. The soul is not as easily defined. It is our spiritual being, the inner part of us equivalent to our personality. In the New Testament soul refers to one’s life. Mind is our intellect capable of reasoning, reflecting, understanding and desiring. The mind makes it possible to have different opinions. It also describes one’s own mind-set, attitude, or characteristic point of view. In Romans 12 Paul is concerned that a Christian’s mind be transformed by a renewed dedication to the will of God. Strength may be referring to our bodies. In the same passage Paul says we are to present our bodies a living sacrifice and another time he says our bodies are the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. Strength then could represent our actions.
What does it mean to love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength? The key word is all. All means all! Our love for God must be a total commitment of our whole lives. We are not to be halfhearted, partially committed, or compartmentalized. We can’t say we love God on Sunday and live like the world the rest of the week. We can’t say we love God in our thinking and continue to live as we please or try to do His will in one area and not the other. We can’t say, “God you can have my money but don’t bother telling me how to run my business” or “God I’ll give up alcohol and drugs but leave my sexual pleasures alone.” It’s all or nothing, God wants and deserves it all…loving God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength involves every aspect of our lives, every fiber of our being. It means all the time 24/7, 365 days a year. We need to love the Lord with a passion and holy boldness! Is this what was missing with the teacher of the law? Was he halfhearted, partially committed or passive? So close and yet so far!
The second commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself. Who’s my neighbor? Is it the person next door? In Luke’s version of this conversation the man asked Jesus who is my neighbor and Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan. The moral of the story is anyone we come in contact with, anyone our lives touch in any way is our neighbor. Jesus says love your neighbor love everyone you come in contact with everyone your life touches just as you love yourself. The implication is that we love and take care of ourselves for Paul said in Ephesians no one ever hates their own body but feeds and cares for it. It’s really the same as the golden rule, “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” We are to love everyone and to treat everyone the way we want to be loved and treated. The real issue is do we love our neighbor as much as we love ourselves! By the way these two commandments go hand in hand. If we love the Lord with all our heart soul mind and strength we can’t help loving our neighbor. In I John 3:16 we read, “This is how we know what love is: Jesus laid down His life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. If anyone has material possessions and sees their brother or sister in need and has no compassion, how can the love of God be in them?” In 4:7, “Dear friends let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. If anyone says, I love God but hates a brother or sister, they’re a liar. For anyone who does not love a brother or sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. Whoever loves God must also love a brother or sister.” The proof that we love God is in how we treat our brother or sister. Is this what’s missing, is this the reason he was not in the Kingdom of God? So close and yet so far!
I submit to you there’s something else. I believe what’s missing in this man is found in verses 35-40 of this passage in Mark 12. While Jesus was teaching in the temple courts, he asked, “How is it that the teachers of the law say that the Christ is the son of David? David himself, speaking by the Holy Spirit, declared: “The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand
until I put your enemies under your feet.” David himself calls him “Lord.” How then can he be his son?” The large crowd listened to him with delight. As he taught, Jesus said, “Watch out for the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and be greeted in the marketplaces, and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets. They devour widows’ houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. Such men will be punished most severely.” Jesus spoke out against the very same man in our story, a teacher of the law.
The teacher of the law first of all missed the most important aspect of the Kingdom of God. He missed the very thing Jesus was saying. He missed the fact that he was talking to the Lord God, the King of the Kingdom!” He missed it by that much! He was too proud and arrogant to see that Jesus was the Messiah and didn’t ask what’s missing. He called Jesus teacher which is as if to say you and I are on the same level since I am also a teacher of the law. If he had instead fallen to his feet in humility and cried out my Lord and my God I believe he would have been in the Kingdom. Secondly he missed the Kingdom because he did not obey the very commandments he asked Jesus about. In Luke’s account of the Sermon On The Mount Jesus asked, “Why do you call me, ’Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?”
But, you say, the teacher of the law agreed with Jesus, he got the right answer so why wasn’t he in the Kingdom? He missed it by about 18 inches the distance between his head and his heart. It’s not enough to just have head knowledge, to give the right answer and to agree with the facts. You can agree with the Bible from cover to cover that all the facts are true and still miss the Kingdom of God. Satan and his demons believe and tremble, agreeing with the facts. Entrance into the Kingdom of God starts with repentance, a change of mind, a change of heart and a change of direction 180 degrees. It’s a revolution of every part of your life, heart, soul, mind and strength into a radical love relationship with the Lord God and one another.
I believe this is what’s missing in the church today. We think we’re in the Kingdom by just agreeing with the facts. It means loving God supremely and each other equally. We say we do that but our marriages are falling apart, family relationships torn apart, bitterness, unforgiveness, sexual immorality, gossip and slander, grumbling and complaining. Attitudes that my agenda, my preference, my way is best, and that’s pride! I’m simple enough to believe if we love God with all heart soul mind and strength and our neighbor as ourselves we could solve a lot of these problems. To be in the Kingdom of God means to have Jesus as King of your life. By definition the Kingdom of God is the royal rule and reign of King Jesus in your life and mine right now. And I believe it should be very clear by now that Jesus might say to us, “you are not far from the Kingdom”. God forbid He should say that to us when we stand before Him. So close and yet so far!
There was another man who asked Jesus a question, he was a rich man. In Mark 10:17 He asked, “Good teacher what must I do to inherit (or receive) eternal life?” Jesus answered, “You know the commandments:
Do not murder, commit adultery, steal, give false testimony, defraud, honor your father and mother.” The man said, “Teacher all these I’ve kept since I was a boy.” Notice Jesus did not dispute that but looked at him and loved him and spoke the truth. “One thing you lack, go and sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come and follow me.” And he went away sad and he was not far from the kingdom. So close and yet so far! He missed the Kingdom of God because he lacked one thing. One thing! One thing can and will keep us out of the Kingdom!
Hear the words of Paul in Galatians 5:19, “sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery, idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealously, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you those who live like this will not inherit, (receive or be in) the Kingdom of God.” What one thing might be lacking or missing in your life? What one thing might be keeping you from the Kingdom of God? You can ask God to show you and then surrender all in repentance and faith toward God and you’ll no longer be, “not far from” but you’ll be in the Kingdom.