Participants: Glenn Russell & Ranko Stefanovic (Host)
Series Code: MTBOTB
Program Code: MTBOTB000018A
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00:21 Hi, welcome to the Books of the Book series.
00:23 We're exploring the gospel according to Mathew. 00:26 I am Glenn Russell, your host, 00:28 professor of religion, Andrews University, 00:30 department of religion. 00:31 It's a great joy to be with you 00:33 and to be with my friend Dr.Ranko Stefanovic. 00:36 Ranko, you're professor of New Testament at Andrews. 00:39 You know, probably we should pause for right now 00:42 and ask you just a little bit, you didn't grow up in Michigan, 00:45 tell us a little bit about your homeland? 00:48 My heavy accent indicates that actually 00:51 I moved to the States in the later stage of my life. 00:56 I was born and I grew up in the country 00:59 what used to be Yugoslavia. 01:01 That country split into seven different countries. 01:04 So, currently I am a Croatian citizen, 01:09 even though currently I am U.S. citizen. 01:13 Yeah, but I am coming from 01:14 different part of the world 01:16 and I love this country, 01:18 I am really happy that I am here. 01:20 And, Ranko, you've gone through 01:23 a change in the world you grew up 01:25 and compared to the freedom you have now. 01:27 Yes. 01:28 You grew up under communism. 01:29 You suffered, you were harassed 01:32 for your Christian faith, for your belief in God. 01:35 Yes, It's so nice to serve God in freedom. 01:39 Yes. 01:41 And this program goes all over the world 01:43 and we need to always keep in mind 01:44 those who were in situations, 01:46 some of you do not have the freedoms 01:49 that they're in other parts of the world. 01:51 And we want you to know you are never alone. 01:54 There are people in this building 01:55 that pray everyday for you in your situation. 02:00 So don't ever feel you're alone, 02:02 God is with you, he'll be with you. 02:03 Ranko, you faced ridicule, 02:07 you faced opposition sometimes. 02:09 These gospel, the story of Jesus facing ridicule, 02:12 you must relate to it in a certain way then. 02:14 Yes, we're going now to a very interesting text, 02:17 so lets go to that and-- 02:19 Before we get to it, let's go to God and pray. 02:22 All right, Ranko, lead us in prayer, 02:23 that God may guide us. 02:25 Our heavenly Father, 02:27 thank you for giving us this beautiful book. 02:31 and a special passage 02:32 that is very, very meaningful to us. 02:35 Please, open our spiritual eyes 02:38 that we can get that full insight 02:40 into the message that Jesus Christ 02:42 and the Holy Spirit brings to our hearts. 02:44 We pray all of this in Jesus name, amen. 02:50 We're in Mathew, Chapter 22. 02:53 Yes. 02:54 We should remember that we're 02:56 in the last week of Jesus life. 02:58 Yes. 02:59 He's already entered Jerusalem riding on a donkey, 03:02 an example of humility a different kind of Messiah 03:06 than they were expecting. 03:08 But He's facing opposition, opposition, opposition, 03:11 especially from the two main religious groups 03:14 the Pharisees and the Sadducees 03:17 And as you look at Mathew 22, 03:18 it's kind of a one and then the other comes after them. 03:21 Pharisees they come to trap, Jesus. 03:24 They were unsuccessful, they leave. 03:26 Sadducees jumped into situation, 03:28 Sadducees are not successful, 03:30 Pharisees are coming. 03:31 Yeah 03:32 Boy,Jesus had a hard time, can you imagine that? 03:35 What our Lord faced is really something-- 03:38 verse 34. 03:39 So we have one of these now occasions. 03:41 The Pharisees now it's there turn. 03:43 It's there turn to attack. 03:44 Yeah. 03:45 "But when the Pharisees heard 03:47 that he had silenced 03:48 the Sadducees, they came together. 03:49 And one of them, a lawyer, 03:51 asked him a question, to test him. 03:52 Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law? 03:57 And he said to him, "you shall love the Lord, 03:59 your God with all your heart and with all your soul." 04:02 with all your mind." 04:03 This is the great and first commandment 04:05 and the second is like it. 04:07 You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 04:09 On these two commandments depend all the law 04:11 and the prophets." 04:13 Very familiar passage. 04:14 I know that our viewer's doesn't matter 04:20 if they are too much familiar with the Bible. 04:22 But almost everybody is familiar 04:25 with these two commandments 04:27 that actually Jesus stated here. 04:29 And this is probably the summary 04:32 of the entire gospel. 04:34 By the way, can I be, can I be so frank and to say 04:37 according to Jesus, this is the summary of the entire Bible. 04:41 The law and the prophets is actually the Bible... 04:46 of Jesus time. 04:47 New Testament was not in existence. 04:49 Jesus today would say, 04:50 on these two commandments depend the whole, 04:55 the whole law and the prophet's Old Testament 04:57 and the gospels. 04:59 This is actually what entire Bible is all about. 05:02 So probably we should take little bit more time 05:05 to understand because this is the summary 05:08 of all biblical teaching. 05:10 All right, so he comes with the question, 05:12 what is the greatest commandment? 05:14 What is the greatest commandment in the law? 05:17 This was a trap to Jesus. 05:19 You know, 05:22 if you ask a Pharisee. 05:23 which is the greatest commandment? 05:25 they would say the Sabbath. 05:28 And Jesus could say the Sabbath. 05:29 you say that the Sabbath is the greatest commandment, 05:33 what about not to kill Other human beings? 05:36 If Jesus said, not to kill-- 05:38 Oh, what about the Sabbath? 05:40 See, this also a trap. 05:41 Sure, it's like asking a parent who is your favorite child. 05:44 Yes, yes. 05:45 You know, you can't even say 05:46 which of the Ten Commandments is most important. 05:48 And then Jesus made the statement 05:50 that there're two commandments 05:52 and usually 05:54 if you read it superficially without notice 05:58 how would Jesus said was very paradoxical. 06:01 And I will like us to pay attention to that 06:03 because the beauty of Jesus' answer 06:06 give us to Christian a powerful message. 06:10 Number one, is do we notice something, 06:13 Jesus said-- 06:16 what is that? 06:17 "They said, which is the greatest commandment?" 06:19 Thirty seven. 06:21 Thirty six and thirty seven. 06:22 Jesus said, "You shall love the Lord, 06:24 your God with all your heart, with all your soul, 06:27 with all your mind." 06:28 This is in Greek the greatest and the foremost 06:35 or Greek text says, the first commandment. 06:40 And nothing unusual. 06:42 Glenn, can you imagine? 06:43 I tell you-- you know, 06:44 I am teaching my class and in the class 06:48 there is a student 6'.3" tall. 06:52 He is the tallest in the class 06:55 but you know, there is another student, 06:57 he's as tall as the first one. 07:00 What would you say to him? 07:02 that first student that I mentioned 07:04 he's not the tallest, 07:06 if you have another person who's tall? 07:08 Here we have the first paradox. 07:10 Jesus said this is the greatest commandment 07:13 but what do we have next? 07:15 But the second commandment is as great. 07:19 I am paraphrasing, as great as the first one 07:23 and the second commandment is 07:25 you shall love your neighbor as yourself. 07:28 We have here a kind of paradox. 07:31 But actually, from the stand point of the Bible 07:35 and God's stand point this is not a paradox. 07:40 You know, we as a people we apply that greatest 07:45 and not as great as the first one 07:47 to many different things in this. 07:50 I like to point something, you know, God created Adam 07:54 that's why he's greatest and Eve is the second 07:57 that's why man-- 08:00 in the Bible, the fact that something is first 08:05 makes it great but does not put 08:09 the second one on the less importance. 08:13 So you're not talking about greatest 08:14 and the other one is inferior. 08:16 Is inferior. 08:17 What Jesus is talking here about, 08:19 there is something that is first 08:21 the first doesn't make it greater than the second one. 08:26 It means that first must come as first 08:29 and the second is always the second 08:32 it's never the first. 08:33 So let's explain what we have here. 08:36 It means that the two commandments, 08:40 the first one, is we shall love God, 08:45 with all your heart it means that this is the first 08:49 All the relationships they actually begin with this. 08:53 We're talking here about 08:55 that vertical relationship with God, okay. 08:58 Then there is the second one, the second is second 09:03 never the first but it is not inferior 09:06 it's not of less importance. 09:08 It means the second comes only after the first one 09:11 Let's explain it. 09:12 We can have a proper relationship 09:15 with fellow human beings. 09:17 We can love our fellow human beings. 09:19 We can be on that horizontal relationships 09:21 only that after we have established 09:25 that firm vertical relationship with God. 09:28 You know, Glenn, as you mention 09:29 I lived in completely different society 09:31 and that society was completely atheistic. 09:36 There was denial of God everywhere 09:39 in newspapers, in the textbooks, 09:41 everywhere in the denial of God. 09:43 But there was a strong emphasis, 09:45 we're all brothers and we have to respect, 09:47 we have to love each other. 09:50 So they follow the second commandment. 09:52 The second commandment. 09:53 There is no first. 09:55 But they denied the first one and I noticed, 09:58 with that effort to stick to the relationships 10:03 on the horizontal level 10:04 actually people could not love each other. 10:07 They just tolerated each other. 10:10 This makes difference. 10:12 You see, only when we have 10:14 strong vertical relationship with God 10:16 we can genuinely love our fellow human beings. 10:20 If you deny God, if you do not establish those, 10:24 that vertical relationship with God 10:28 there's no love for fellow human beings. 10:30 You can tolerate them, how long do you tolerate them? 10:33 As long as they tolerate you. 10:35 That's what happened in my country, 10:36 people stopped tolerating each other 10:38 the war came and civil war came 10:41 and this is actually what happened in my country. 10:43 So this is the first thing Jesus, emphasized. 10:46 You cannot, you cannot have 10:48 a strong horizontal relationship with fellow human beings. 10:52 if you do not have a strong vertical relationship with God. 10:56 Distorted vertical relationships with God, 10:59 leads to distorted relationships with fell ow human beings. 11:03 I certainly hope we got that because we see it's so often. 11:06 We become like the God, we worship. 11:08 And if we don't understand who God is 11:10 we have a distorted view of him, 11:12 it will come out in our behavior towards others. 11:15 Actually we go to the Old Testament. 11:17 the Old Testament, whenever the people of Israel, 11:20 departed from God, 11:22 distorted that vertical relationship with God. 11:26 What was the message of the prophets? 11:28 You oppress the poor, you make the widow to suffer, 11:32 you treat people in that harsh way, it's always. 11:36 I would like another case in the book of Romans, 11:40 we see from verses 18, Paul talks about the Gentiles 11:45 who had opportunity to know God They rejected God. 11:49 They didn't want to glorify God, 11:51 automatically there is all kind of sins in their lives 11:55 against the humanity that happens, 11:57 it's always. 11:58 Right relationship with God 11:59 leads to the right horizontal relationships 12:03 with fellow human beings. 12:05 Distorted vertical relationships with God 12:07 leads to the distorted horizontal relationships 12:11 with fellow human beings. 12:12 This is the first paradox. 12:14 The second paradox is, Glenn. 12:15 He says, you shall love God, you shall love your neighbor. 12:23 Do you see here any paradox? 12:24 Glenn, can you imagine you are there in the classroom 12:29 and there are two students, they're fighting. 12:31 They cannot stand each other. 12:32 You invite them there to your office 12:34 and say, "hey, I don't like your behavior." 12:37 If you do not change your attitude toward each other 12:41 I am failing you the class. 12:43 You have to love each other 12:45 and they leave your office hugging each other. 12:48 Now they love each other 12:49 because you issue the commandment. 12:51 Can you force somebody? 12:53 can you command to two human beings. 12:56 You have a family, husband and wife. 12:58 They're fighting against each other. 12:59 They come to the court they want to divorce 13:01 and judge said, go home. 13:03 If you do not stop fighting against each other 13:07 if you don't love each other, you'll go to the prison. 13:09 And they are hugging each other, 13:10 now they love each other. 13:12 Does it work like that? 13:13 No, that's external. 13:15 So was, Jesus, realistic here? 13:17 You're asking questions that I know you want answers. 13:20 Actually Jesus does not say love each other. 13:23 You said, you shall love God, 13:26 you shall love your fellow, fellow believer. 13:30 As that one person said, in the book 'The Desire of Ages' 13:36 said that every commandment of God 13:39 is actually God's promise to us. 13:42 He's bidding us his enabling. 13:44 The human beings, it is impossible 13:47 but to God it's possible. 13:49 Actually what Jesus tried to tell us, 13:52 the fact that we realize that God exists, 13:56 what He did for us? 13:58 That I'm accepted by God will make me to love God 14:02 When I know, when I realize, what God did for me? 14:05 Will, make me to love my fellow human beings. 14:09 You know that text from first John, 14:11 we love because he first loved us. 14:16 This is really the promise not the real commandment. 14:20 So for our marriages, for our churches, 14:23 for our places of work, the way we increase our love 14:27 to one another is to increase our love for God. 14:30 Thank you, Ranko. 14:31 We're gonna be right back after a break 14:33 because we've got some more to explore here 14:35 in this fast ending gospel of Mathew. 14:37 We'll be right back. |
Revised 2023-11-21