Capstone, Keystone, Cornerstone

As we've said, this is our 40th and final message in the Gospel of Mark, which is very exciting.

The original plan was that we would have 72 messages in the Gospel of Mark in every single paragraph we would cover.

But in recent weeks, we've been sensing that the Lord has been leading us to finish Mark a bit sooner, and then we can get on to some other exciting stuff for the rest of this year.

Now, the passage we come to tonight was not strictly planned to be the final passage, but I think that God is in it.

God has led us to finish tonight on this passage, because I think three really significant threads come together in tonight's passage, and that is, I can't help myself, bear with me.

Tonight's passage is a capstone, a keystone, and a cornerstone.

Three kind of things that are happening in the life of our church and in what it means to follow Jesus come together in this passage.

So it's the perfect way to finish our series.

Firstly, it's the capstone of the Gospel of New Beginnings series.

The capstone is the topstone, the thing which finishes something.

This is our final message in the series.

Secondly, this idea that we're looking at tonight is the keystone of our mission statement as a church.

Love God, love others.

And thirdly, and most importantly, this idea is the cornerstone of the way of Jesus, of the life that Jesus invites us to.

So I'm going to pray and after I pray, Trottie is going to read for us our passage and then we'll jump in.

Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for your word before us.

We thank you for the year we've had digging into Mark.

And we pray you would do again tonight what you've done so many times this year, that you would speak to us.

Speak to us in the places that we are at individually, that we would hear your word encouraging us, comforting us, challenging us and rebuking us.

We pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Tonight's reading is from Mark 12, verses 28 to 34.

One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating.

Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, Of all the commandments, which is the most important?

The most important one, answered Jesus, is this, Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.

Love the Lord your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.

The second is this, Love your neighbor as yourself.

There is no commandment greater than these.

Well said, teacher, the man replied.

You are right in saying that God is one, and there is no other but him.

To love him with all your heart, and with all your understanding, and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.

When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, you are not far from the kingdom of God.

And from then, no one dared ask him any more questions.

This is the word of the Lord.

So tonight's passage, this idea is, firstly, the Capstone, the Capstone of our Gospel of New Beginnings series.

This is the 40th message, which I think is the perfect number of messages in a series.

It could have easily been 39 or 41, but it was 40.

And I think that God was in that in January, 2024, when he mapped out this series for us.

We've had 40 messages, and I'm going to read them out, the titles of all the messages in multiple breaths.

Prepare the way, the baptism of Jesus, kingdom come, the new community of the Spirit, Jesus as Lord, Jesus in 3D, three practices of the kingdom.

The functional Saviour, follow me, the glory days, rules of relationship, giver of life, checkpoint, four beautiful things, blood, bread and betrayal.

Gethsemane, worthy of death, school of failure, triangulation, good Friday.

Easter Sunday, following Jesus, house rules, the parable of the sower, hidden kingdom, Jesus comes, the storm, no neutral ground, the healing power of Jesus, the power of familiarity in Jesus' name, satisfied in Yahweh, if this, then that, the line between good and bad, unexpected grace, the cross-shaped life, that was in the foyer a couple of weeks ago, the wonder and work of the way, one thing you lack, a new way to lead, the go of the way was this morning and tonight, Capstone, Keystone, cornerstone.

Forty sermons, and I have to plug, if you missed any of them, please go to our website or the podcast.

Even if you're reading Mark in the future, like Stephen's been doing with his friend from Melbourne, and you want to understand a paragraph, there's probably a 30-minute sermon on that paragraph on our website.

But I read out those titles just to overwhelm us with the number of sermons we've heard in Mark this year.

It's a funny thing because when you're preaching as somebody alluded to, I think Stephen alluded to, putting them in context is a good thing.

Every time we say, so Mark was written by Mark, and it's about Jesus, and he does all these actions.

But for 40 sermons, we've had the same context in terms of the macrostructure of Mark.

And yet, what I think has been awesome about this series is we've looked at Mark as a whole, and then we've zoomed in 40 times on 40 different paragraphs.

Tonight, we're going to kind of step back and look at the Gospel of Mark as a whole, and the sense in which our passage tonight is a capstone.

And as we do that, there are three threads to pick up.

Firstly, is this question, who is Jesus?

It's a question which runs under the Gospel of Mark, the whole way through.

And as you read story after story, there is implicitly and sometimes explicitly, people are answering that question.

Demons answer the question.

Crowds answer.

Disciples answer.

The Father, God the Father, answers the question, who is Jesus?

The first verse of Mark, Mark 1 verse 1, says this.

The beginning of the good news about Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God.

As it is written in Isaiah, the Prophet.

So there are two names for who Mark thinks Jesus is.

And what are they?

Messiah and Son of God.

So Mark, in his verse 1, pretty much one of the only times when Mark puts his voice into the story, Mark has told us Jesus is the Messiah and the Son of God.

And what I think is so cool, and you might not agree, but I'll prove it to you, it's cool, is Mark has structured his Gospel as a whole to answer and fulfill those two things.

So Mark, chapter 1, Mark says Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God.

How many chapters are in Mark?

Anyone know?

16?

Halfway?

8.

In chapter 8, we have that story, in Mark, chapter 8, verse 27, Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea of Philippi.

On the way he asked them, who do people say I am?

They replied, some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and still others, one of the prophets.

But what about you?

Jesus asked.

Who do you say I am?

Peter answered, you are the Messiah.

That's checkpoint one.

Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him.

So halfway through the Gospel of Mark, we have the assertion for the first time, Jesus is the Messiah.

And then at the end of Mark, chapter 15, so you are looking at the structure of Mark as a whole, we have this story.

Jesus is hanging on the cross in Mark 15, 37.

With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last.

The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.

And when the centurion who stood there in front of Jesus saw how he died, he said, surely this man was the son of God.

So there you have it.

By the end of Mark, humans within the story, within the Gospel have acknowledged the truth about who Jesus is.

Mark opens his Gospel by saying, I'm going to prove to you Jesus is the Messiah and the Son of God.

And over dozens and dozens, in fact, 72 different vignettes, 72 paragraphs, the answer is he is Messiah and Son of God.

Who is Jesus is the first question.

I understand Hamish has been producing the Mark drama this week or last week.

And the central question that they framed the Mark drama around was, who do you say I am?

Meaning Jesus asking, who am I?

Who do you say I am?

It's the central kind of question underneath the Gospel of Mark.

The second threat that we have been picking up over these 40 messages is the threat of the kingdom of God.

I've read this passage about 500 times, but Mark 1, 14 to 15, it's an important one.

After John was put in prison, that's John the Baptist, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God.

The time has come, Jesus said, the kingdom of God has come near.

Repent and believe the good news.

This second thread is so crucial to Mark's Gospel that in and through Jesus, himself, the king, the Messiah, the son of God, in everything Jesus does, every healing, teaching, deliverance and sign, the kingdom of God is coming to earth.

It's coming in and through everything Jesus does.

And then the second part of the sentence is the human response.

And what is that response?

Repent and believe.

The kingdom of God comes in and requires the response of repentance and belief.

And that's core to Mark's Gospel, to our series.

Thirdly, so first thread is this question, who is Jesus?

Second thread is the kingdom of God.

And the third thread is the teaching of Jesus.

Now, I think, I'm pretty sure Stephen said this, or somebody said this, Mark is not known for his teaching.

He's not the Gospel of teaching.

Mark's style is more tell some crazy story of Jesus doing something and then whip pan to the audience reaction, because he's trying to get us to answer this question, who is Jesus?

But Mark still does have teaching.

In fact, Mark 121, toward the very start of the Gospel, it says this, they went to Capernaum, that's Jesus and his disciples, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach, and the people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law.

Mark is not known for his teaching, but you can't get away from the fact that Jesus is a teacher.

In fact, our passage tonight, do you know geographically where it happens?

In the temple.

If you kind of go a couple of pages, or scroll up a little bit from the passage that Trottie read for us, we see in Mark 11, 27, Jesus and his disciples arrived in Jerusalem, and while Jesus was walking in the temple courts, the chief priests, the teachers of the law, and the elders came to him.

So the story that Trottie read for us happened historically in the temple courts.

That is in the heart of Jerusalem, which is the heart of Israel, and Jesus is questioned.

We see this really cool, again, I find this so cool, this pattern of Jesus being questioned by every different party of Judaism in Jerusalem.

So firstly, in 11, 27, it's the chief priests, the teachers of the law, and the elders who come to Jesus with a question.

If you turn one page to the right, verse 13 of chapter 12, later they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to Jesus to catch him in his words.

Couple of verses later, then the Sadducees who say there is no resurrection came to him with a question.

Ten verses later, one of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating, noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer.

He asked him, Of all the commandments, which is the most important?

So our passage tonight sits in the context of Jesus being barraged, being attacked by every different party within Judaism.

They've come to ask him questions to try and trip him up.

But every time, Jesus has some kind of perfect answer to deflect them.

And they go away amazed.

That's the context that our passage sits in tonight.

Jesus is a teacher, and you can't ignore that.

The first words of verse 29 is, the most important command, answer Jesus, is...

So this is the capstone of the teaching motif in the Gospel of Mark.

Jesus has done a lot of teaching on the kingdom of God, on parables, on the nature of faith and repentance.

But this is the capstone, the perfect teaching, which encapsulates the ethic of Jesus.

He says, the most important command is this, here, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one, love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.

And the second command is this, love your neighbor as yourself.

There is no commandment greater than these.

This is the capstone of Mark, the capstone of the teaching motif that we've been looking at in this Gospel of New Beginnings series.

And so stepping back on the capstone idea, the sense in which this message is the capstone of our Mark series, these three threads are the question of who is Jesus.

It drives the entire narrative of Mark.

Secondly, of the kingdom of God.

The kingdom of God has come near.

And thirdly, to summarize Jesus' teaching, the ethic of the kingdom is love God, love others.

Our passage is the capstone of the Gospel of New Beginnings series, and it's also the keystone of our church's mission.

You know what a keystone is?

In an arch, a keystone is the one in the middle.

One of the dictionaries defined the keystone as the central principle or part of a policy system, etc., on which all else depend.

This is the keystone of our mission.

We're a church on a mission to love God, love others, make disciples.

That's our mission statement as a church.

And everything we do, who we are, in fact, is driven by that mission statement, that we want to be people who love God, love others, and make disciples.

You know, that is what our mission statement is, but do you know where it comes from?

Two places, the Great Commission and the Great...

Not quite, but great book.

You should read that.

Dallas Willard, The Great Omission.

The Great Commission and the Great Commandment.

The Great Commission, of course, is the final words of Matthew's Gospel.

Matthew 28, Jesus says to the disciples, it says verse 16, The eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go.

When they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted, then Jesus came to them and said, this is the Great Commission.

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me, therefore go and, this is our mission, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I've commanded you.

And surely I'm with you always to the end of the age.

That's the Great Comission, which is the third part of our mission statement.

But the first and second parts of our mission statement as a church come from tonight's passage, the Great Commandment, love God and love others.

So as a church, we're reflecting on who we are and the sense in which this idea drives our mission.

How do we love God with heart, soul, strength and mind?

How as a church do we love others, to love neighbors as ourselves?

That's our core values.

As a church, we have 12 core values, which kind of put flesh on the bone and articulate more specifically the ways that we love God, love others and make disciples.

And it's kind of cool this year in Go24, we're unpacking one value per month.

So the core value for this month is what?

Find out, help out.

I was going to go through the months, but I can't remember all eight of them, and I didn't write it down.

But I will go through the four values that unpack what it means to love God.

But firstly, we have known and loved.

Our first core value means identity.

We love God only because we are first loved by God.

We are known by Him and loved by Him.

And because we get to call Him Father, we love God out of that place.

Our second core value is Jesus is worth it.

This is about worship, sacrifice.

In view of the one who is worthy of everything we have, we sacrifice, we worship Jesus.

That's how we love God.

Our third value is God speaks, we listen.

This is about obedience.

If you've read the book of 1 John, you know this theme that John repeats is the idea that if you love God, you will obey Him.

And if you obey Him, it shows you love Him.

So we love God by obeying Him, by obeying His word in Scripture and when He speaks to us.

Fourthly, His grace is enough.

It's about abundance.

Ephesians 1 says, we are blessed in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.

God has lavished generously on us His grace.

And out of the abundance that we have been given, we give back to God in worship and to show Him that we love Him.

Those are the four core values which we use to articulate what it means to love God as a church.

And here are the four that unpack what it means to love others.

Firstly, life matters.

The senior pastor knows.

That's good.

This is stewardship.

Genesis 1, 27, we looked at this in, I think, July, says that human beings are made in the image of God.

That means that when you see a person out there, any human being, they have inherent dignity in the eyes of God, which means we love them, we respect them, we value them, we believe that life matters.

This is about people and planet.

Secondly, canvas of color is about family.

God is painting his story in the canvas of generations in the colors of the nations.

We love others by appreciating the diversity that is in this body of Christ, even in this room, that we have far more that unites us than that which divides us.

So we love others in the context of family.

Thirdly, or seventhly, is this month's core value, find out, help out, is about care.

And this one, I think, is just so logical, because how do you love someone?

How do you help them unless you find out how they need to be helped?

So we articulate one of the driving ways that we love human beings is by listening, by asking, What do you need?

How can I help?

And then, by the grace that God gives us, because His grace is enough, we love them.

Fourthly, or eighthly, prayer has power.

Tim Keller, I think, said, or I remember hearing him say once, that the best thing, the most powerful thing you can do for another human being is pray for them.

It's not about how much money you could give them or a warm blanket.

If you pray for them, that is wishing the highest good on another person.

So we believe as a church that prayer has power to transform.

And so we love others through prayer.

And then Make Disciples has another four values, but that's not relevant tonight, so I won't go through that.

This idea, love God, love others, with all your heart, soul, strength and mind.

This is the keystone of our church's mission.

It is what drives all the different things that we do and who we are.

It's what lies behind our core value.

And that's why it's kind of a nice passage to finish on as we kind of refocus and get to the rest of the year.

Firstly, tonight's idea is the capstone of our Mark series.

It's the keystone of our church's mission.

And thirdly, if we zoom out all the way, most importantly, this idea is the cornerstone of the way of Jesus.

It's the cornerstone of the ethic of the way of Jesus.

Here's a bit of trivia.

How many commands are there in the Old Testament?

Shout a number.

How many?

600?

700 and something?

800?

Don't say 900.

613.

By my count.

No, I didn't count.

Apparently, it's some common Jewish thought for 3000, 4000 years that there are 613 commands in the Old Testament.

In fact, in the Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament, 613 commands by the end of the Torah.

Now, if you go from Genesis, Exodus, Biblical Deuteronomy, back to Genesis or back to Exodus.

No, forget this.

613 commands.

But when the law was first given to Israel, how many commands came?

10.

So you have this cool kind of journey across the Torah, the Pentateuch, first five books of the Bible, where God gives the ten commandments, the stone tablets, that have ten commandments which pretty much cover all of human life.

And then by the end of the Torah, those ten get specified to 613.

So when you zoom in on the ten, and you think, well, what does it mean to not murder?

What does it mean to not do this and this and this and this and this and this and this?

You get 613 commands.

So now, from 613 to 10, we get to Jesus who in Matthew 5, 17, the Sermon on the Mount, best part of the Bible, do not think that I've come to abolish the law or the prophets, Jesus said.

I've not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them.

For truly I tell you until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen will by any means disappear from the law until everything is accomplished.

Now, Jesus, we have to say, is the wisest person who has ever lived, the greatest teacher.

And when the man came to Jesus in tonight's passage and said, teacher, out of 613 commands, which one is the most important?

You have a one in 613 chance of getting that right if you just pick one.

Jesus answers, he says, the most important one out of 613 commands is this.

Jesus says, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength, everything.

Every part of you, love God.

And the second is this, love your neighbor as yourself.

There is no greater command than these.

It's kind of two commands, but he calls it one.

Jesus kind of does that a little bit.

But notice that he doesn't pick any of the ten commandments.

He doesn't say, you know what?

Not committing adultery and honoring your father and mother, are the most important commands.

Jesus picks a command, two commands, out of the 613.

And the two commands he picks are Deuteronomy 6 verse 4, the Shema.

This was the prayer which Israel recited multiple times a day, every day, Deuteronomy 6.4.

Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

That's the first one that Jesus picks.

And the second one is kind of this obscure passage in Leviticus 19 verse 18.

Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself.

I am the Lord.

Remember Jesus is the wisest teacher who's ever lived, the wisest human being who's ever lived.

And when that man asked him, teacher, how would you summarize 613 comments?

Jesus picks those two.

He's saying that core to the ethic of Jesus, the way of Jesus is love God, love others.

And what I think is so brilliant about what Jesus says, is the reason he picks those two, is because the 10 Commandments is split in two halves of five.

And you look at the first five, do not have any other gods before me, do not commit idolatry, do not misuse the name of God, remember the Sabbath and honor your father and mother.

Those are all ways that humans, Israel, were to love God, by not having any god before him.

And you look at the second five of the 10 Commandments, you shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, and you shall not covet.

Those are all ways that we love neighbor.

So Jesus has distilled 613 commands through the filter of the 10 Commandments to two.

Love God, love others.

That's how easy he makes it.

That's the cornerstone of the way of Jesus, is to love God and love others.

And if we were to ask, well, what does that look like?

How specifically do we love God and others?

There are some personality types in the room who would want to go from two commandments back to 613.

To say, okay, specifically when I'm on my break at work and I'm scrolling on Instagram, how do I love God and love others then?

And other personalities want to say, no, just give me the two, that's fine.

I'm more like the second type.

But they have this beautiful kind of aspect of the Gospel where we don't want to go back to the law.

We don't want to go back to 613 commands that spell out exactly how to love God and love others.

Instead, we have been given the Spirit of God to walk with us, to move in us, showing us what it means, how to love God and love others.

Courtney and my life, we're looking at the Book of Galatians, and we were struck this week, as in last week, that Galatians kind of contrasts the law and the Spirit.

And reading it this week, we live on this side of the cross, which is the other side of the law.

And Paul says in Galatians 2 verse 20, that I've been crucified with Christ.

He says, I have died to the law.

The law has killed me, but I am now alive with Christ and given the Holy Spirit.

So for the personality types that want to go from two commands back to 10 and then back to 613, you've been given the Spirit of the living God, the Spirit of Jesus himself to fill you and move in you and show you what it looks like to love God and love others in your body, your context, your family, your relationships, marriage, work, university.

We have the Spirit to teach us what it is to love God and love others, and that fulfills the law.

Jesus is the wisest teacher who ever lived.

So, this idea, love God and love others, it's the capstone of our 40 message series, Gospel of New Beginnings.

Love God, love others is the keystone of our church's mission statement, love God, love others, make disciples.

And it's the cornerstone of the way of Jesus, the life that he invites us to live.

So, as we finish in a second, here we are, it's August 18th.

I don't know about you, I'm feeling, I've been sick for like six weeks.

So much sickness, the days are short, the nights are long, there's sickness, there's tiredness, we're getting to that sleepy part of the year.

And yet we have this series called Gospel of New Beginnings.

And in January, it's easy to be passionate about new beginnings.

Yes, go to the gym every day.

And that drops off by the start of February.

But there is still, even now, in this sleepy part of the year, there are new beginnings for us as individuals and as a church.

As we come back to this core idea that sits at the heart of Mark's Gospel, that we are called as we are given the Holy Spirit to love God and love others, I think that's the best way that we could be launched into the rest of our year.

And so in a second, I'd love to have a time of open prayer.

That if you would like to pray for us and consecrate the rest of our year and the different things that we're going to look at, I'm just priming you that we will be praying in a second.

But there are new beginnings to come.

The kingdom of God is coming.

I love the last verse of our passage.

Jesus says to the teacher, you are not far from the kingdom of God.

I think that's what happens when you love God and love others.

When you live life with Jesus, when he has paid for your sins so you can be in relationship with the Father, the kingdom of God comes in a place.

So in repentance and belief, I believe that there are new beginnings.

Please God, let the sickness be done.

Let us be healthy again.

Let the days grow longer and warmer.

But even more importantly, can we be a people who have been transformed by the work of Jesus on the cross and moved by the Spirit to love God and love others with all that we have?

Jesus said, love with your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

That's everything.

So tonight is kind of the Gospel of Endings and the Gospel of New Beginnings.

We are finishing our Mark series, and I don't know when we'll be back in Mark.

But next week, we're launching into an exciting new sermon series, which I won't say what that is.

You'll have to come back next week.

But it's Endings and it's New Beginnings.

So I wonder if the bands might like to come and get ready.

And we might have a time of open prayer.

As we finish one season, we finish 40 messages in Mark and we look ahead to the next four months, the rest of the year, that we might have new beginnings in the law, that he might move in us to love God and love others.

Let's pray together.

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