Calvary Baltimore Weekly Sermons

The scribe asks Jesus about the weight of the weighty laws. 

Love God with all your heart...

Colossians 3:16... Believers should be constantly drawing from the scriptures! It's not just good for you, but for those God has put in your life. Your wife and kids need a godly husband and father! When you aren't that, you're actually hurting them. 

Proverbs 13:20... Whoever walks with the wise will be wise. Surround yourself with the wise. 

Preaching at its best contains error. But in Scripture itself, there is no error! 

Love your neighbor as yourself... 

Yes, you need to love yourself in a sense (don't beat yourself down). But popular psychology emphasizes this beyond God's intent.

You hear, "Before you can love your neighbor, you have to learn to love yourself." There's a healthy amount of self-love, but our culture is obsessed with the love of self, to the point that it takes precedence over the love of others. Self-love is blinding! We're already good at prioritizing ourselves (witness a toddler!) Everyone naturally does what's right in their own eyes.

According to God's Word, the chief marker of the end of time is that people will be lovers of self! Too much self-love gave us sin in the beginning, and will cause our downfall in the end. 

Jesus says: Love people like you wish to be loved! 

He says anxiousness, anxiety, is part of humanity, "today has enough worry of its own."

Through faith in Jesus, you belong to the Father! You find your worth not in what others think, but in what God says about you!

When you find your worth in Him, only then you can be a blessing to those around you!

What makes you valuable? Go to the cross! That's how valuable you are.

Two thoughts...

1. Being near the kingdom is not the same as being inside it...

Jesus's message has always been a message of the Kingdom. Repent, and believe in Jesus, then you're in the Kingdom. 

The scribe here is near the Kingdom. Many are far from it. Many seem indifferent to the things of God, no desire to read the Bible, to pray. So we pray for their hard hearts!

Agreeing with him places us near the Kingdom... but loving him places us in the Kingdom! We must give him our heart, not just our mind. 

So the big question: Am I in the Kingdom, or am I only near the Kingdom?

You prove you love the Lord when you follow him faithfully! We must endure till the end. We must follow him privately, not just publicly. We must let go of the things of this world completely! 

2. Joyous love...

All the Old Testament commands two things: love God, and love people.

God pours his love into our hearts, so we can take that love to the people he gives us! Our work is to love God and love people.

In this, there's a fullness of joy! Walking in his love is obeying his commandments, and this brings us to joy!

Warning: life can be very hard. People fail you. Systems of the world fail you. Satan wants you miserable! He wants your to believe the dark things in you are what define you. But God's mercies are new each day! Your past does not define you! 

Everything is forgiven! You are not defined by your shame!

You are not owned by the things that have hurt you. In him, we live and move and have our being! It's Christ who lives in me! He makes known to us the path of life! In his presence is fullness of joy!

Jesus shows us how to live a life worth living!

There's no joy in selfishness, in self-focused living. To walk with Christ is fullness of joy! It's awesome to love the people around you! 

1 John 3:14... We know we're saved because we live the brothers. If you don't love, you're dead! 

Choose Jesus! Choose life, love, and joy! 

A footnote...

Objections:

If I love people, does that mean they'll love me back? No. And that hurts. But if you refuse to let others in, you're living a dark, cold life, hurting yourself worse than if you got stabbed in the back by one of the people God brought into your life. 

Love and pray for your enemies! Love your neighbor as yourself!

Love is an action, not just emotion: True biblical love involves doing, caring, and going out of your way. If you claim to love someone but treat them poorly, you do not actually love them.

1 Corinthians 13 (Love as Verbs): In the original Greek, Paul’s famous list ("Love is patient, love is kind...") does not use adjectives; it uses verbs. Love does patience, love does kindness.

No bookkeeping... True love is not resentful and keeps no ledger of past wrongs. This directly mirrors the cross, where Jesus wipes our ledger completely clean.

Love is not devoid of emotion. Jesus was moved to compassion and wept; love involves both inward affection and outward action.

The scribe's question: weightiness of the Law... A scribe (lawyer) approaches Jesus after hearing Him answer the Sadducees well.

The scribes constantly debated the "weightiness" of the 613 Old Testament commands. Idolatry and murder were "heavy" laws carrying the death penalty, while failing to tithe herbs from a garden was a "light" law, etc.

The scribe genuinely wants to know which law Jesus considers the heaviest or most important.

The greatest commandment, loving God...

Mark 12:29-30: Jesus starts by quoting the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4). Before diving into theology, Jesus establishes who God is (Yahweh, the Eternal One, the King). You cannot debate the King's commands.

We are called to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. The specific categories matter less than the overall point: love God with absolutely everything you have and hold nothing back.

The 2nd Commandment, loving your neighbor...

The order matters (Mark 12:31)... Jesus quotes Leviticus 19:18. You must first learn to love God rightly before you can truly love your neighbor rightly.

If you prioritize loving people without loving God first, you fall into a liberal theological trap (building wells for physical needs but ignoring their eternal soul). True love cares for a person's immediate needs and their eternal salvation!

Near the Kingdom vs. In the Kingdom...

The scribe spent his life categorizing rules, but Jesus collapses the entire law into a relationship (love). The scribe recognizes this is true and agrees.

Mark 12:32-34... Jesus tells him he is "not far from the kingdom." Agreeing intellectually with Jesus puts you near the kingdom, but surrendering to and loving Jesus puts you in the kingdom.

Many people today are near the kingdom (they wear crosses, attend on Easter, agree with the morals) but have never actually entered in through genuine surrender!

Love is God's being: Christianity is utterly unique because it has a trinitarian God. A unitarian god cannot be inherently loving, because before creation, there was no one to love.

From eternity past, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have perfectly loved and deferred honor to one another. Salvation is an invitation to be brought into this eternal loop of love.

Receiving and pouring out God's love...

Deuteronomy 7:7-8: God doesn't love us because of anything special we did; He loves us because He is love. Because His love is unearned, it cannot be lost.

Through the Holy Spirit, God is constantly pouring an ocean of love into our hearts every single day.

Our response is to splash that love back onto God and out onto others. We are never asked to give what God does not supply. Like the widow of Zarephath's oil or the feeding of the 5,000, God miraculously replenishes the love we give away.

Satan wants us to believe selfishness brings satisfaction. In reality, because we are made in the image of a giving God, we will never be more joyful or satisfied than when we are generously pouring out love to others, and giving God the glory!

Other of Service:

Greeting and Prayer

Pastor Josh Plantholt

Worship songs

✧ Agnus Dei

✧ Shout to the Lord All the Earth

Scripture reading

Revelation 21: 1-7

read by Patrice Brink (Laura’s sister)

Poem reading

“Death, Be Not Proud”

read by Rick Howard (Laura’s husband)

Eulogy #1

Maureen van Leuven

Eulogy #2

Frank Pimentel (Laura’s brother)

Eulogy #3

Bob Brink (Laura’s brother-in-law)

Sermon

Pastor Josh Plantholt

Worship song

✧ Amazing Grace

Dismissal to lunch

1 John 2:12-14

Our country was discovered by Europeans in the name of Christ. Many of our founding documents speak of God as our guide. The idea was to found it under Christian principles. 

We're rich in resources, surrounded by allies north and south. We've experienced multiple great awakenings, won two world wars and could have taken over the world, but we didn't, because it wasn't the right thing to do.

We are so blessed! We have freedom of speech, religion, self-defense, to elect our own leaders. Thank God for what he's given us! Today we have climate control, advanced medicine and technology...

So... Is the foundation for the next 250 years as strong as the foundation for the last 250?

We've become successful... and in doing so, we've unfortunately become rather self-sufficient. There's less need to rely on God. 

We're shifting away from the God who has provided our prosperity! 

There is no morality without religion, without God. Satan's influence is seeping into the highest levels of government. 

We must embrace the One who caused our prosperity, and reject the one who seeks to destroy us! We must return to the Lord. 

V12...

- Children: new converts 

- Young men: laborers

- Fathers: mature Christians

The children, v12...

They're the newcomers. We never actually mature beyond this, just build upon it!

Their sins are forgiven! They understand and acknowledge the bad news of their own sinfulness before welcoming the good news. 

Their sins are forgiven, and why? For his name's sake. Any righteousness in us is a gift given by God, not of your own doing. It's only because he chose to love you! There is no boasting in our own righteousness. 

They know the Father. 

You can only know him once you've come to the Son! Jesus tells us to pray not to him or to the Holy Spirit, but to God the Father! 

The fathers... v13-14

They're marked by one defining thing: they know him who was from the beginning! The self is not involved... it's all in who they know.

The teachings of great men of God tend to become more simple over time. It shows perspective. The church consistently needs to hear the character and attributes of God, simple, foundational truths!

The church needs great, faithful men who preach the Word of God. This is what America needs!

Mature faith is built over a lifetime. It's about daily faithfulness in the Word. Compounded over a lifetime! But the time hasn't passed for you; it's never too late to start. There's still time! They're are treasures waiting for you. 

Young men... v13-14

These are those who are laboring for the Lord...

They have strength.

The Word abides in them. Every chapter points to Jesus! This is where the Fathers are made. This means to live God's Word! You know no biblical principle until you've lived it. 

They have overcome the evil one. The overcoming is not in progress, but is finished! 

We need to stop living as if Satan has won. The gates of hell cannot prevail against the Church! Christ has secured the victory.

America already belongs to the Lord; every knee will bow and every tongue will confess! Our job is to take the Gospel to the ends of the earth.

The Church is not called to be accepting our tolerant of Satan. We must resist the devil. We need to call out evil. 

In closing...

Is the foundation for the next 250 years as strong as it was originally? No. But with God's grace and strength, it can be. Seek his face, repent, and follow him.

We must reject the tolerance we're being forced to adopt. We just call good good, and evil evil!

So...

Through the power of the Holy Spirit and the teachings of Christ, we can continue what they started. All is not lost. He is able! Pray for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit on us and on this country! The next generation will need you to be one of the fathers. Are you strong? Are you worth building a house upon? 

Decide whom you'll serve! Where's your hope? What is your rock? 

Joshua 24:15, "... As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!"

The scene opens at the Sea of Tiberias; the disciples fished all night and caught absolutely nothing.

Jesus asks, "Children, do you have any fish?" to demonstrate that our best efforts are totally fruitless without him.

We are called to be "fishers of men," pulling people from the violent, dark kingdom of the world (symbolized by the sea) into the kingdom of light.

We are the branches and He is the vine; the end of our own strength and plans is the exact beginning of God's strength and plans.

At Jesus' command, they catch 153 fish... the number represents an overflowing, complete haul, yet the net does not break.

Peter is actively being "pruned" during this interaction... God must wound our pride to produce more spiritual fruit. We're like grapes, but the ultimate purpose of grapes is to be crushed into wine; every Christian must eventually feel the "blade" of the Word and affliction, to grow.

The actual power resides in the hand that wields the weapon (God), not the weapon itself (us).

Jesus cooks breakfast on the shore; the character of God is a festive welcome! Creation was the original house of hospitality, concluding with an invitation to a grand feast in Genesis.

The Church is called to act as God's hospital in an inhospitable, messy world. We gather to get "heavenized" through Christ so we can go back out into our daily lives and be bread and wine to the world.

Peter puts on his heavy outer garment before diving into the water, demonstrating his reinstatement as an apostolic priest and shepherd. When they're face-to-face, Jesus doesn't scold Peter for his past lies or failures; He simply and repeatedly asks, "Do you love me?"

This restoration happens around a charcoal fire, directly mirroring (and redeeming!) the previous charcoal fire where Peter denied Jesus three times.

Jesus equates loving him with feeding his sheep (teaching and sharing the Word with others)!

God created the universe out of divine passion and a deep yearning to pour His love onto us, not because He was lonely or lacked anything. Earth is currently estranged from Heaven, but the incarnation at Jesus's birth brought the angelic choir to earth to begin restoring that harmony.

God cascades his love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit to empower us to love him; we lack the natural capacity to love him on our own!

We must assess our own hearts, and love Jesus for exactly who He is, not for who we want Him to be, or how we prefer him to act.

A little context before John 3:16... John 3 starts with Jesus and Nicodemus.

v1-8...

Jesus explains being "born again." Water birth = physical birth. Spirit birth = born of the Holy Spirit.

Spiritual birth is driven completely by the Holy Spirit. Just like we didn't cause our physical birth, we did nothing to cause our spiritual birth.

v9-20...

In the book of John, the crucifixion is frequently framed as an hour of victory or glorification (Jesus being "lifted up" or "raised").

God's purpose in sending Jesus wasn't to condemn the world, but to save it. However, rejecting Jesus inherently means rejecting the Father, bringing condemnation.

Humans naturally love darkness over light. Love and works are connected; you become what you love. Genuine faith produces fruit (walking in the light). To come to Jesus is to walk in the light!

Back to v16, piece by piece...

"For God so loved the world" translates best to "In this way, God loved the world."

General love (love of the whole world) vs. covenantal love (love of the Church)... God loved the whole world enough to send His Son as an open invitation, even knowing many will reject Him. An example... loving spaghetti vs. loving your neighbors vs. loving your wife/kids. They are all "love," but very different kinds and depths.

God's covenantal love for His people (the Church) is different; it's unbreakable and carries into eternity.

Danger of liberal theology: They accept God's general love for the world but wrongly deny God's wrath, judgment, and hell for those who reject the gift.

"...that He gave his only Son": Sending Jesus is the supreme act of love. Jesus is a greater gift than solving world hunger, wars, or curing cancer. He's the greatest gift to humanity!

"...his only Son": Jesus is the unique Son of the Father. He was not created ("begotten" is often misread as created). He is God, the Word, from the beginning, and took on human flesh.

An Old Testament parallel... Abraham and Isaac (Genesis 22). Isaac was the "son of the promise." The big difference: God stopped Abraham and provided a substitute ram, but there was no substitute for Jesus. God did not spare his own Son (Romans 8:32)

The order of salvation... a the theological debate: which comes first, Regeneration or Faith?

Regeneration (awakening by the Spirit) must logically precede Faith. Because humans are spiritually dead by nature, God must first turn on the lights and soften the heart before a person even has the ability to believe!

This is why prayer is necessary for evangelism... you can preach until you are blue in the face, but God has to prepare their heart first.

So! We aren't loved because we believe. We are ALREADY loved by God, and our belief is a direct response to that love.

Responding to God requires two simultaneous actions: belief and repentance. Rejecting the darkness, and turning toward the light!

A sermon not about how much we love the Trinity... but how the triune God loves us!

1. The Father...

"For God so loved the world that he gave" - this is God the Father.

Our Father is a loving father! Love is an action, according to God; God's love GAVE us his only son. 

Love isn't feeling, but doing! God is a giver. 

The Lord's prayer... We ask God for a lot! Because we have a good father who loves to give to our children.

Luke 11:9... ask and it will be given.

Our Father is quick to love, to give, to forgive us. His love is action! Abundant, sustaining. He provides, he gives! 

For he so loved "the world"... He loves all of sinful mankind! He gave his son to the unlovable world!

2. The Son...

He gave "his only Son"... 

John 3:16 shows us HOW God loves us. 

His son would be crucified and lifted up. He loves me so much that he sent me his son (so that we may kill him instead of dying ourselves!)

Christianity is all about the cultivation of our private relationship with God. We must make sure we're spending time with God, or we will spiritually shrivel and die!

We should be like a tree planted by the water! (Psalm 1)

Go to God, who freely gives! He even sent his Son. 

3. The Holy Spirit...

"Whoever believes in him"... You're going to heaven ONLY because you believe in him. 

"Believes" is present tense. It must be ongoing, not just a decision you made in the past! An ongoing belief. If you're a Christian, go to church, read his Word, repent of your sins continually. 

Once saved, always saved, yes! But... if you walk away from the Lord, it may be that you're an example of bad soil rather than good. You may not have really been converted. If your belief isn't ongoing, in the present tense, it's not genuine. How do you continue to live your life? You'll know a tree by its fruit. 

Yet it's not about your works; it's about the state of your heart.

True belief results in faithful endurance to the end. Be all in!

The Father so loved the world, that the Son came, and the Spirit awakened us.

4. Why must we believe?

God is good, and we are not. He is perfect, and we are imperfect. The wages of our sin is death! We deserve to die when we meet the Judge. God cannot ignore evil, because he is good! Unless we receive the gift of the Son, then the holy, just wrath of God is on us! 

We need help, and in Jesus, we have it! He absorbed God's wrath, so every sin we'll ever commit is paid for!

This is the Gospel message!

Revival...

God pours out his spirit on the people, and they're induced to follow Jesus, to live righteously in holiness, following him! 

But we must not yet to treat the symptoms of the world before we diagnose the disease. Symptoms would be greed, lust, poverty... The real disease of our culture is that the West has forgotten her King!

We need an outpouring of the Holy Spirit! A revival of people submitting to and following Jesus Christ! 

Receiving the gift of Christ gives us eternal life.. 

5. Humanity's hope... Eternal life! 

John 17:3... To believe is to enter eternal life! Eternal life starts now, not only in the afterlife. You have access to God Almighty now! 

And it lasts forever. To receive him is to have everlasting life! Through Jesus Christ, we don't have to be afraid of death. 

Ps118:17... I shall not die, but live, and recount the deeds of the Lord. 

We enter Heaven, and our first words will be "Thank you!!!" We start singing about the cross! 

To receive the Lord is also to be under the love of the Son. A decision for Christ is to live eternally in his love!

Mark 12:18-27 - Confrontation passages, Day 3

This is the third day of Jesus's confrontation passages in Mark. First the Sanhedrin challenged him, then the Pharisees, and now it's the Sadducees' turn! The religious leadership is challenging his teaching and authority. They denied the resurrection, didn't believe in an afterlife. They were so conservative they only trusted the first five books of Moses (the Torah). So Jesus responded to them using only those books :-)

The question of "whose wife is she in the afterlife"... we explore the apocryphal book of Tobit a story of Sarah who is described as having multiple husbands who were killed before she could consummate the marriages. Despite her grief, she decided it would be selfish to kill herself. The Sadducees may be referencing this story.

The Sadducees assumed that if Heaven existed, it would just be a continuation of earthly family dynamics, human drama, etc.

John 11:25, an "I Am" statement from Jesus... "I am the resurrection and the life"... to accept him is to accept the resurrection!

By dying on the cross, Jesus destroyed the one who held the power of death (Hebrews 2:14). Satan has no claim over a believer.

At conversion, the "old man" dies. The believer is made alive in Christ, and our legal debt of sin is nailed to the cross (Colossians 2). We have no need to fear death, as we've already died! Our life is eternal, and our victory is secured. This is our hope, our song! The great and mighty acts of our Lord.

Jesus says that when the dead rise, they neither marry nor are given in marriage; they are "like angels in heaven." The family of God is those whoever does the will of God, who are brought together by Jesus Christ.

The last bit, v26-27...

Jesus then brilliantly uses a text from the only books the Sadducees accept (Exodus/Moses at the burning bush). God said, "I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." He is the God of the living, not the dead.

Jesus tells them, "You are quite wrong." The Sadducees read the Bible with a predetermined assumption (no afterlife), which threw their entire worldview off. Warning: Like a rocket ship off by one degree, bringing our own assumptions or failing to take the "whole counsel of God" (all 66 books) can lead us to disastrous belief systems.

The Sadducees' question treated the hypothetical woman like property: "Whose wife/property will she be?" Jesus's answer dignifies her. In Heaven, we are not property to be owned, or objects for abuse. We are like the angels, children of the living God, dwelling in perfect harmony together, in God's presence!

In his presence is fullness of joy, no more tears, no more sorrow!

Mark 12:18-27 - Confrontation passages, Day 3

This is the third day of Jesus's confrontation passages in Mark. First the Sanhedrin challenged him, then the Pharisees, and now it's the Sadducees' turn! The religious leadership is challenging his teaching and authority. They denied the resurrection, didn't believe in an afterlife. They were so conservative they only trusted the first five books of Moses (the Torah). So Jesus responded to them using only those books :-)

The question of "whose wife is she in the afterlife"... we explore the apocryphal book of Tobit a story of Sarah who is described as having multiple husbands who were killed before she could consummate the marriages. Despite her grief, she decided it would be selfish to kill herself. The Sadducees may be referencing this story.

The Sadducees assumed that if Heaven existed, it would just be a continuation of earthly family dynamics, human drama, etc.

John 11:25, an "I Am" statement from Jesus... "I am the resurrection and the life"... to accept him is to accept the resurrection!

By dying on the cross, Jesus destroyed the one who held the power of death (Hebrews 2:14). Satan has no claim over a believer.

At conversion, the "old man" dies. The believer is made alive in Christ, and our legal debt of sin is nailed to the cross (Colossians 2). We have no need to fear death, as we've already died! Our life is eternal, and our victory is secured. This is our hope, our song! The great and mighty acts of our Lord.

Jesus says that when the dead rise, they neither marry nor are given in marriage; they are "like angels in heaven." The family of God is those whoever does the will of God, who are brought together by Jesus Christ.

The last bit, v26-27...

Jesus then brilliantly uses a text from the only books the Sadducees accept (Exodus/Moses at the burning bush). God said, "I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." He is the God of the living, not the dead.

Jesus tells them, "You are quite wrong." The Sadducees read the Bible with a predetermined assumption (no afterlife), which threw their entire worldview off. Warning: Like a rocket ship off by one degree, bringing our own assumptions or failing to take the "whole counsel of God" (all 66 books) can lead us to disastrous belief systems.

The Sadducees' question treated the hypothetical woman like property: "Whose wife/property will she be?" Jesus's answer dignifies her. In Heaven, we are not property to be owned, or objects for abuse. We are like the angels, children of the living God, dwelling in perfect harmony together, in God's presence!

In his presence is fullness of joy, no more tears, no more sorrow!

How do we know when our interpretation of the Scripture is correct? Jesus points back to Scripture to answer. Don't let one verse stand on its own authority, but read it in the whole context of the Bible! That's the basis of sound doctrine.

v18... Sadducees believed there's no resurrection, no afterlife. They exalted the pentateuch over all else, and it's not resurrection-focused. To their thinking, man is largely in charge of his own destiny.

Jesus will respond to their question from the pentateuch! 

Sadducees look at marriage as a permanent institution, even in the afterlife.

v24... They're off track because they know neither the scriptures nor the power of God! 

Sometimes the most learned people are the most backwards and wrong. The Sadducees' education focused on cherry-picking verses in a limited context. 

Jeremiah 22:29... God's word is like fire, like a hammer! Hebrews 4:12: it's sharper than a two-edged sword. If the Bible is true, we can trust it completely! All Scripture is breathed out by God. 

How do we ensure we're not being led astray in our reading of Scripture? We use Scripture to interpret Scripture!

2 Timothy 3:16... It's all breathed by God, profitable for teaching. It will tell you who God is! Profitable for reproof. For correction, restoration!

We need God to constantly lead us in the way. We must be complete, and equipped for every good work.

Let the Word beat you up! It'll equip you for every good work. Store his Word in your heart, prepare yourself for reasonable service, so you're ready to serve instantly, in season and out of season. 

Your family needs you to be in the Word! Your wife needs a godly husband, your kids need a godly father. Be ready for every good work.

The Sadducees were also ignorant of the power of God over death. Believing in the resurrection is an elementary requirement of Christianity. Our country has been raised without God for generations, and the culture no longer believes in life after death. There's no accountability for sin. 

Christ died and rose again, so when we die, we will rise again! 

v25... Resurrection is not optional; we WILL rise after death, either to eternal life or eternal judgment.

Marriage is indeed for a lifetime, but not for eternity!

v26-27... He is the God of the living!

Is God's love limited by the grave? No! He's faithful until death, and beyond. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord! His steadfast love endures forever!

1 Corinthians 13... Love is patient, kind... He's describing the love of Jesus for his people. 

If you know you're a sinner in need of a savior... His love for you cannot be broken!

You're never closer to your deceased loved ones than when you're worshipping God! There is no death in his presence. Death is just a beginning for the believer! 

Romans 8:31... If God is for us, who can be against us? It's God who justifies! 

Who can separate us from God's love? Nobody. Nothing.

We are more than conquerors through him! Because he loves us, we live! His love is forever fixed on you! There's no condemnation for you. And because of his love for us, we will love him all the days of our lives!