Tag Archives: Mind

No Half-Hearted Savior – Sermon on Matthew 22:34-46 for the Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity

Matthew 22:34-46

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

You heard it twice today, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Mt. 22:37; cf. Dt. 6:5). You might hear “heart, soul, and mind” and think Jesus is giving you a checklist. And you might hear the “all” before each of those as a gauge to measure how much is in each tank. So, you might check the ‘love tank’ of your soul to see if it’s full or if it’s running on fumes. Or, you might think it would be beneficial to siphon some fuel from your ‘heart tank’ to make up for the deficiency in your ‘mind tank.’

That way of thinking can send you down a rabbit trail and end up missing the point Jesus is making. For one thing, when Jesus talks about your heart, soul, and mind, He’s not talking about different ingredients that make up who you are. God didn’t take one part heart, one part soul, and one part mind, mix it together, and poof—there you are. That would leave out your body. When God created Adam, the first part He fashioned was Adam’s body; then, He breathed the breath of life into Adam (Gen. 2:7). God made a body first. The love He commands here is an action that has to be done with a body.

The Bible will regularly use each of these terms—heart, soul, and mind—to talk about you as a whole. Let me walk through each of these, but we’ll spend the most time on the heart.

When we talk about someone’s heart today, it’s usually the center of emotions. But that isn’t the way the Bible talks about the heart. In both the Old and New Testament, the heart is the center of who you are. It’s the place where you understand things. The Scripture does say that the heart has emotion, but there’s also thinking. Proverbs will talk about the heart of a man planning his way (Pr. 16:9). When people grumble after Jesus absolves the man lowered from the roof before healing him, Jesus asks them, “Why do you think evil in your hearts?” (Mt. 9:4). After the shepherds visit newborn Jesus, Mary treasures up all these things, “pondering them in her heart” (Lk. 2:19). You can think of the heart as the center of who you are, the fountain of what you love and what you understand (Heb. 4:12).

Your soul is not a spare part added to your heart. Your soul is your breath and what makes you alive (Ps. 146:4; Gen. 2:7; 35:18; 1 Kgs. 17:21-22; Lk. 8:55; Jn. 19:30; Act. 7:59). Scripturally speaking, your mind doesn’t equal your brain. Your mind is where you think, but your mind also resides in the heart. In a sense, all three—heart, soul, and mind—are all of you. Your whole self.

But also know that your heart, soul, and mind don’t just sort of hang out inside of you. They move your body. Without the body, love can’t act. Don’t let the first and great command be something no one can see. You don’t keep the first and great command by feeling or thinking something about or toward God. That’s why Jesus doesn’t leave things there.

The lawyer asked for one command. Jesus gave him two. “And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Mt. 22:39). This isn’t ust a bonus command or additional hobby for people who have finished loving God. The second is like it. The love that loves God with all the heart, all the soul, and all the mind doesn’t stay there. It spills out and loves the neighbor. The mouth speaks. The hands serve. That’s how your love for God becomes something that can actually be seen.

You love God by loving the neighbor God has given you, and you do that loving with a body. The second is like the first because the first was never meant to be invisible. Love of God that never results in love of your neighbor is a false love that does not love God with the whole heart, soul, and mind. A person who withholds love from the neighbor he can see is not loving the God he cannot see (1 Jn. 4:20). The two directions of love—love toward God and love toward neighbor—hang together. On these two, Jesus says, depend all the Law and the Prophets (Mt. 22:40).

That’s why you can’t hear these words without being convicted. You know the shape and direction of this love. If the love of God is something that only stays up in your head and never gets to your hands and out to your neighbor, that’s a problem. That is sin. We have a word for that—half-hearted. The heart never put the body to work. That leads to your neighbor only getting a meager portion of love from you. Half a conversation. Half a patience. Half a mercy. 

The Law doesn’t ask you to feel warmly about God in private and then do your best toward people. The Law demands all of you, aimed at God, and landing on the person God puts next to you through what your body does. You haven’t done that, not even on your best day. Repent.

Repent and remember what God does with these two great commands. He doesn’t love you from a distance. He doesn’t just think nice things about you while He sits up in heaven. No, the Son of God became your neighbor. He took on flesh and dwelt among us (Jn. 1:14). He took a body so He could do the love and not only think it. The One who demands, “Love your neighbor,” is the God who left His throne, took a body, and became your Neighbor.

Jesus wasn’t half-hearted when He loved you. He loved you with His whole heart, whole soul, and whole mind. That whole self took a body so He could love. Christ set His face to go to Jerusalem (Lk. 9:51) knowing what was waiting there. He went anyway.

Jesus’ mind was whole. He did not scramble while these lawyers tried to test Him. He pointed them to Himself as David’s Son and David’s Lord. The Messiah stood in the flesh before them. But they refused to believe and had no answer (Mt. 22:42-45).

Jesus’ soul was whole. On the night He is betrayed, He does not desperately cling to His life. He gives it to the disciples and His Church throughout all generations saying, “This is My body. This is My blood.” A half-souled man would have been arranging an exit. Jesus doesn’t.

Christ’s heart was whole, even when He asked in the garden, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me” (Mt. 26:39). And when the Father made it clear that it wasn’t possible, Christ does not waver. He prayed, “Not as I will, but as You will.” Then, Christ, your Neighbor, went all the way to the cross for you and for all who have not loved either Him or each other.

That is the love you could not see, made visible. God’s love for you didn’t remain a mood He had for you up in heaven. Out of His love for you, God came down. His love for you is revealed in a body in the ditch of your sin, hands that touch what is unclean, feet that do not turn aside, a face set to go to Jerusalem and to the cross to save you (Lk. 9:51; Is. 50:7). God loved you by becoming the neighbor His command describes, and He did it with all of Himself in a body.

Because He did that, you are not left to manufacture a sham kind of love out of a divided heart, a love that stays inside and never acts. No, you now draw strength from Him. Christ did not save a slice or portion of you. Jesus took a body, and He still has it. He used His whole body to save your whole body. And He gives His body to you today, so He will raise your whole body on the Last Day.

He saves you—heart, soul, mind, eyes, fingers, knees, elbows. He forgives the eyes that have looked where they should not. He has mercy on the fingers that tried to cling to what they should have given to others. He cleanses the knees that have bowed to other things. He restores the elbows that preferred to rest rather than do the work of love. He redeemed all of that. And He will raise all of that. His plan is to have you, all of you, forever.

Dear saints, now you live a life that is shaped by the love of God who has neighbored you. You love Him because He first loved you by coming near in a body (1 Jn. 4:19).

Loving the Lord your God with your whole heart, soul, and mind and your neighbor as yourself is His will for you. No, you won’t do it perfectly. The Law will still accuse you of what is half-done. But you are not left to try to climb your way back to God. You have been redeemed and saved by His great love for you.

Dear saints, you do not have a half-hearted Savior. When God became your neighbor, He was resolute. Heart, soul, mind, and body, all of it, for you. From that strength, love God. From that strength, love the neighbor He has given you with the body He has redeemed. He will keep the whole of you—eyes, fingers, knees, elbows, heart, soul, and mind—until you arrive at the resurrection and the life of the world to come. Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (Php. 4:7). Amen.

Guarded by God’s Peace – Sermon on Philippians 4:4-7 for the Fourth Sunday of Advent

Philippians 4:4-7

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

We live in the sunrise of eternity, and the New Creation is dawning. When Paul says, “The Lord is at hand,” he wasn’t just thinking that this portion of Philippians would be one of the readings on the Sunday before Christmas. He was stating a fact. Jesus’ return is at hand. It was true when Paul wrote this nearly 2,000 years ago, and it’s still true – maybe even moretrue now. If something true can become truer.

Just a few verses before our text, Paul reminds us, “[O]ur citizenship is in heaven, and from [heaven] we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like His glorious body” (Php. 3:20-21). Right now, the very thing we are waiting for – Jesus’ return from heaven to transform us – that blessed event is at hand.

Since your citizenship is in heaven and since your Lord and Savior is at hand, how are you to live? Paul answers that in these verses. Toward God, you live in joy. Toward your neighbors, you live in reasonableness. Within yourself, you live in peace. Let’s consider each of these.

“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.” Now, that’s a double command – ‘rejoice… rejoice.’ But even though it’s a command, it isn’t so much a legal requirement as it is a Gospel invitation. Joy can’t be commanded or forced. In fact, the more you try to force someone to have joy, the less joyful that person will probably be. When Paul says, “Rejoice in the Lord,” he wants you to remember Jesus and all that He has done for you because that is what brings you true, lasting, eternal joy.

Christ has made you a citizen of heaven (Php. 3:20). Because He died and rose again, you also will rise again. Because He has a risen and glorified Body, He will raise, glorify, and transform your body. As surely as the Resurrection began with Jesus, it will surely spread to you and to those you love who have died in faith (1 Co. 15:20-23). So, no matter what evil things befall you in this world, Jesus has fixed it. It’s not your responsibility to make things right. Jesus has and will take care of it. Because of that, you live toward God with joy.

Also, because of that joy, you live toward others with reasonableness. Sadly, English doesn’t have a good equivalent for the word that gets translated as ‘reasonableness’ here in Php. 4:5. Other translations will use words like ‘gentleness, forbearance, or moderation,’ but even those only convey part of the meaning.

The word refers to strength, but it’s the kind of strength that doesn’t need to impose or prove or assert itself. It’s the kind of gentle strength that Jesus shows when He’s in a boat with the disciples in Mk. 8:14-21. The disciples are all worried because they only had one loaf of bread with them in the boat. So, Jesus brings up the fact that He had fed the 5,000 with five loaves of bread and the 4,000 with seven loaves of bread and that there were many baskets of leftovers after each instance. And Christ doesn’t say, “You dunces are a real pain in my patootie,” and call down lightning from heaven to strike them. He could have. Instead, He exercises a gracious and reasonable gentleness toward them and says, “Don’t you guys get it yet?”

Dear saints, you can live with that same kind of reasonableness toward others because you know that your Savior has come to right every wrong. You don’t need to demand your pound of flesh when someone sins against you. Christ will take care of things. He’s promised. You don’t need to prove anything about your rank or place or prominence or standing. All of that is secure in Christ. It’s beyond question – even if others don’t recognize it.

Sure, the world is going to throw all sorts of trials and tribulations your way which can and will cause you anxiety. But you don’t need to be anxious or worried about any of that. Listen to v. 6 again, “Do not be anxious about anything,” again that’s a command, but it’s a Gospel invitation. “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” In other words, take everything that concerns and worries you, take anything that makes you anxious, and make it your prayer. Place it in God’s hands.

Near the end of my sabbatical, I attended a service at Wittenberg Lutheran Chapel on UND’s campus because I am friends with the former pastor there, and it was his last Sunday before he started a call at a new congregation. As we chatted after the service, I mentioned something to him that I was worried about. I didn’t even use the word ‘worry’ in our conversation, but he recognized that it was something that was heavy on my heart. He listened to me go on and on about the situation. When I was finally done, he simply looked at me and said, “Christ has it.” That simple phrase was so calming. It was like the weight and burden of that situation was completely gone. His reminder, “Christ has it,” freed and released me from that worry.

Dear saints, I’d encourage you to think that way about the things that cause you worry and anxiety. Tell God about all your worries and anxieties in prayer. In a sense, those prayers delegate all your worry to God. They turn it over to Him. And after your, “Amen,” God’s response to you is, “I got it. It’s in My hands now. It’s not your problem any longer.” That, again, gives you joy toward God. It also enables that strong, gentle reasonableness toward others. And all of this allows you to have God’s in peace within yourself.

God’s peace, which surpasses all understanding, guards your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. Normally, when we think about peace, we think about a quietness and calm. We think about tranquility. The peace of God here isn’t some quiet, passive thing. Not at all. This peace guards your heart and your mind. The word ‘guard’ is a military term for soldiers who stood watch over a situation. Think of how police officers, state troopers, and other federal agents are rightly called ‘peace officers.’ From time to time, those ‘peace officers’ might have to do some violent things – like tase a criminal, do a pit maneuver on someone who is fleeing, restrain a felon, or whatever – but they do those violent things to preserve and promote peace. 

Imagine God’s peace playing whack-a-mole with anything that would come along and disturb you. Every accusation of the devil, God’s peace pounds it. Every tribulation the world throws at you, God’s peace knocks it down. Every sin you commit that troubles your conscience is tased and stopped dead in its tracks by the Lamb of God who takes away that sin (Jn. 1:29).

God’s peace guards you. It’s the stabilizing force that keeps your soul anchored in whatever turbulence the devil, the world, and your own sinful flesh would cause. This is the peace that the angels announced to the shepherds the night of Christ’s birth. “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom He is pleased” (Lk. 2:14).

The Prince of Peace Himself has come in your flesh to give you peace. Jesus says, “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid” (Jn. 14:27). Jesus doesn’t just give you a fleeting emotion. No. He establishes His heavenly Kingdom on earth, and this brings you peace and joy. His joy fuels your reasonableness toward others. And that joy and reasonableness grants you peace.

Again, dear saints, we stand in the sunrise of eternity. Your Lord is at hand. Rejoice always in what Christ has done. Let your gentle strength shine before a watching world. Pour out your worries in prayer that is laced with thanksgiving for God’s faithfulness. And watch as God’s inconceivable peace guards you. It guards you like a watchtower over your soul until that glorious day of Christ’s return when anxiety is banished forever. Then, you will feast in eternal peace in His presence. Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (Php. 4:7). Amen.

Follow – Sermon on Matthew 26:1-27:66 for Palm Sunday

Matthew 26:1-27:66 & John 12:12-19

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Most of you here today have known the story of Jesus’ life for as long as you can remember. For that, God be praised! You know that the Palm Sunday welcome will quickly move to the bitter account of Jesus’ Passion that we just finished reading.

But imagine that you didn’t know. Imagine attending our service and hearing all of this for the first time. Imagine all of it was new. You hear about Jesus being welcomed into Jerusalem with the shouts of, “Hosanna,” as He rides into Jerusalem on a donkey. Then, not even half an hour later, you hear about Jesus’ crucifixion. You might wonder, “What changed? How did this turn around so quickly? Why are the people who were shouting, ‘Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord,’ now shouting for Jesus to be crucified?”

Hearing all of this for the first time would probably be shocking to you. But, again, you know the story of Jesus’ life. You know how it begins with Jesus being born in Bethlehem. You know how it ends with Jesus’ resurrection and ascension. Jesus knew this too.

As He rode into Jerusalem on that day nearly 2,000 years ago, Jesus knew. He knew that the palm branches that were being waved to welcome Him as the king would be followed by the whip that would be waved across His back. Jesus knew that the shouts of, “Hosanna,” would soon turn to shouts of, “Crucify.” Jesus knew that the jackets across the road would morph into the soldiers, gambling for His clothes. Riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, Jesus knew that He would ride out of Jerusalem lifeless and laid on a bier. We don’t know if Jesus heard the Pharisees saying, “The whole world is going after him.” But Jesus knew that, in a few short days, almost everyone would turn their back on Him. Christ knew that, soon, it would be just a couple of men – Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus (Jn. 19:38-40) – and a few women who would lay Him in the tomb.

Jesus knew all of this as He triumphantly went into Jerusalem. He wasn’t surprised by anything that happened the following Thursday or Friday. That was the reason He went into Jerusalem. Christ wasn’t surprised by the change between that Sunday and Friday. He went knowing exactly what was going to happen, knowing exactly what was going to take place, knowing that He would be betrayed, knowing that Judas mark Him as the one the soldiers should arrest, knowing that Peter would deny Him, knowing that His disciples would flee.

Jesus knew all of it. He knew that he would suffer. He knew that He would be mocked. He knew that He would be ridiculed and beaten. He knew that He would be stripped. He knew the crown of thorns would be pressed onto His head and nails driven through His hands and feet. Jesus knew all of this. Christ knew that the reason He was going to Jerusalem was so that He could suffer, die, and rise again for you (Lk. 18:31-33).

Jesus knew that He was going to bear all of humanity’s sins before God, the Judge. Jesus – the perfect, sinless Son of God, who knew no sin – He became sin so that you, through faith, might become the righteousness of God (2 Co. 5:21). And Jesus followed through with His Father’s plan to save you.

Conceivably, we could plead innocent of all the injustices that Jesus faced – the betrayal, the denial, the false accusations, the beating, the whipping, the mocking, the scorning. We weren’t there. We didn’t do those things to Him. We would probably not be convicted of killing of Jesus before any earthly judge and jury. We could honestly say that we weren’t shouting, “Crucify, crucify Him!” We weren’t calling for Barabbas to be released and innocent Jesus be crucified. We weren’t daring God by calling for the guilt Christ’s blood to be upon us and upon our children.

Dear saints, we could say Jesus did not die because of us, but please believe that He dies for us. He goes to the cross on our behalf and in our place. Isaiah says that the Lord laid on Jesus the iniquity of us all (Is. 53:6). That leaves no doubt, no question, we – you and I – are why Jesus is on the cross.

Yet, that isn’t the entire story either, is it? Out of His love for you, Jesus willingly went to the cross. He went for the joy that was set before Him (Heb. 12:2) – the joy of winning you as His own.

The eternal Son of God did not count equality with God a thing to grasp at all costs. Instead, He emptied Himself and took the form of a servant. He was born in the likeness of men. In other words, God Himself was willing to be seen in your flesh and blood. But Jesus went lower. He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even a cursed (Gal. 3:13) cross kind of death (Php. 2:5-8) so that you could be reconciled to Him. Dear saints, have that same mind of Christ.

Even as the whip followed the palm branches; the shouts of, “Crucify,” followed the, “Hosannas”; the gambling for Jesus’ clothes followed the coats laid out on the road; let us also follow Jesus this Holy Week.

Follow Him to the upper room, where He gives His Body and Blood for the forgiveness of sins (Mt. 26:26-28). Follow Him to His trial, where He is falsely accused. Follow Jesus out to the hill of Golgotha, where He is forsaken by God (Mt. 27:46). Follow Jesus as He goes to the tomb, but let’s not stop there either.

Continue to follow Jesus out of the tomb, out of death, out of all that we deserve because of our sins. Follow Jesus, having His mind, having His humble attitude, having received His gracious love and mercy by faith. Follow Him and extend His humble, sacrificial love to others until that great day when every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.