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JESUS FOR MESSIAH | Week 4 | Sermon · Rewind

Rock Point Church

Pastor Jeff Reinhart · Oct 28, 2024 · 38 min watch · 3 min read

JESUS FOR MESSIAH | Week 4 | Sermon

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In this message

Big Idea
Key points
Application

Scripture in this message

Matthew 22:34
Matthew 22:37
Matthew 22:39
Luke 15:11
Luke 15:17
Luke 15:20

Big Idea Key points Application

Big Idea

Love recognizes God's love for us and responds to it — by loving Him with everything we have and loving our neighbors radically.

Jesus cuts through religious noise and political distraction to call His followers back to two non-negotiable fundamentals: loving God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and loving your neighbor as yourself. Drawing on the Parable of the Prodigal Son and the Parable of the Good Samaritan, Pastor Jeff shows that genuine faith is not about outward performance or minimal effort but about recognizing God's relentless, pursuing love and responding to it in a way that overflows into the lives of every person around us — even the ones we'd rather avoid.

Key points

1
1Jesus brings us back to the fundamentals: loving God and loving others are the two greatest commandments on which everything else depends.
2
2Loving God begins with recognizing your need for Him — like the prodigal son who 'came to his senses' and turned back toward the Father.
3
3Loving God requires responding to His love — the Father runs to meet us while we are still 'a long way off,' welcoming us home with grace, not condemnation.
4
4The older-brother mindset — performing for God while resenting the lost — reveals a heart that has missed God's love and will miss the party.
5
5Loving our neighbor starts with recognizing our role: keeping our eyes up for people who are emotionally and spiritually broken, rather than crossing to the other side to avoid them.
6
6The Good Samaritan shows us what it looks like to respond in love — running toward brokenness, not away from it, regardless of differences.
7
7Christ followers should be known by their love, not their political stance or opinions — love for one another is the proof to the world that we are Jesus's disciples.

love recognizes and responds

Application

Pastor Jeff closes with two direct challenges. For those who are far from God — or who have been trying to do life on their own — this is the moment to recognize that the Father is already running toward you, and to respond by saying, 'Jesus, I give my life to You.' For those who already follow Jesus, the call is to ask God honestly: Who have I been crossing the street to avoid? Who in my life — a coworker, a neighbor, someone with different views or a different vote — needs me to be a neighbor to them this week? Being known by love is not a feeling; it is a choice to run toward brokenness, create margin for divine interruptions, and point the people around us to the same Jesus who pursued us first.

Take it into your week

Made by Rewind AI from the sermon transcript. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

Scripture in this message

From the transcript
“If you have your Bibles, Matthew twenty-two 34. I'll give you a second to turn there. This is what it says, but when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees”
Read the whole chapter →
From the transcript
“This is in verse 37. It says, Jesus replied, you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment”
From the transcript
“But then he doesn't stop there. He adds a second command to the first. And this is what it says in verse 39. It says, the second is equally important. Love your neighbor as yourself”
From the transcript
“Let's check out the first story. Jesus, again, responding to the religious leaders who were missing the point. This is in Luke 15, chapter 15 verse 11. It says this, he tells a story”
From the transcript
“Verse 17, and this is where I want to look at. The younger son, it says, When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, 'At home, even the hired servants have food enough to spare”
From the transcript
“look what happens, and this is the second point in loving God, is we need to respond to his love. Respond to his love. In verse 20, it says this, so he returned home to his father”
From the transcript
“let's check-in on the older brother in this story. Check this out, in verse 28, it says, The older brother was angry and wouldn't go in. His father came out and begged him”
From the transcript
“Luke ten thirty, Jesus tells this story. There's this man, he's a religious guy, and he's basically saying, hey, how I inherit eternal life”
From the transcript
“So this is what it says in Luke ten thirty. It says, Jesus replied with a story. A Jewish man was traveling from Jerusalem down to Jericho and he was attacked by bandits”
From the transcript
“Verse 33 says this, then a despised Samaritan came along. Now this is where things get crazy in the story because Samaritans and Jews hated each other”
From the transcript
“We're gonna be known by our love. In John thirteen thirty four, it says this, this is Jesus. So now I am giving you a new commandment. Love each other, just as I have loved you”

Made by Rewind AI from the sermon transcript. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

7-day devotional

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There is a moment in Matthew 22 where the religious experts are lobbing question after question at Jesus, trying to trap Him in a political or theological corner. His answer cuts right through all of it. Love God. Love your neighbor. Everything else hangs on these two things. Pastor Jeff opened the sermon here because it is where Jesus opened — not with a program or a position, but with a Person and a posture. It is easy, especially in a noisy cultural moment, to let secondary things crowd the center. We organize our faith around opinions, affiliations, and arguments until we can barely find the thing that was supposed to be at the heart of it. Jesus will not let us stay there. He keeps pulling us back to the fundamentals — not because they are simple, but because they are load-bearing. Everything else in the Christian life is downstream from these two loves. A good question to sit with today is not 'Am I doing enough?' but 'What is actually at the center of my faith right now?' If it is anything other than love for God and love for people, Jesus is gently asking us to reorder.

For reflection

What has been crowding the center of your faith lately — and what would it look like to let love for God and others reclaim that space?

Pray

Pray for clarity about what is truly at the center of your heart right now, and ask God to reorder whatever has drifted.

The younger son's journey begins with a demand and ends in a pigpen. He wanted everything the Father could give him without the relationship itself. Sound familiar? Pastor Jeff pointed out that this is the portrait of a life lived entirely on our own terms — and it works, until it doesn't. The moment that changes everything in the story is quiet: 'he came to his senses.' No angel appears. No dramatic intervention. Just a young man in the mud, finally honest about where he is. There is something deeply freeing about that moment. Coming to your senses is not defeat — it is the beginning of coming home. For some of us, that moment is today. We have been doing life independently, managing things ourselves, keeping God at arm's length. The sermon's invitation was direct: the Father is not waiting for you to clean yourself up before He will look at you. He is already looking. The first move toward Him is simply honesty — acknowledging the distance, naming the need, and turning around. You do not have to have the right words. The younger son rehearsed a speech the whole way home, and the Father interrupted it before he could finish.

For reflection

Is there an area of your life where you have been trying to manage things on your own rather than bringing it to God? What would it look like to 'come to your senses' there?

Pray

Pray for the honesty and courage to name the distance between you and God in whatever area feels most guarded right now.

This is one of the most stunning images in all of Scripture. The father in Jesus's parable does not wait by the door with arms crossed. He sees his son while the son is still 'a long way off,' and he runs. In the ancient Near East, a man of dignity did not run. He would have hiked up his robe to do it, which would have been considered undignified. Jesus is painting a picture of a God who is willing to look undignified in His pursuit of you. Pastor Jeff's point was not subtle: this is how God responds to someone turning back toward Him. Not with a waiting list, not with a probationary period, not with a lecture — with a robe, a ring, a party, and the best that the house has to offer. If you have been carrying a quiet fear that God is disappointed in you, or that you have used up His patience, this parable is Jesus's direct answer to that fear. The Father's love is not conditional on how far you wandered or how long you were gone. The only condition in the story is the turning — and even then, the Father is already moving toward you before you arrive. Grace really is that disorienting, and that good.

For reflection

Do you find it easier to believe God tolerates you or that He genuinely celebrates you? Where do you think that picture of God came from?

Pray

Pray for a fresh, personal encounter with the pursuing love of the Father — ask Him to make this parable feel real, not just familiar.

The older brother never left home, and yet by the end of the story he is standing outside the party. Pastor Jeff did not let this character off easy, and neither does Jesus. The older brother's problem is not that he worked hard or stayed faithful — those are good things. His problem is that he was performing for a father he did not actually know. His anger at his brother's welcome reveals that he had been keeping score all along, waiting for his obedience to pay off. When it didn't work the way he expected, the resentment boiled over. This is what religion without relationship produces. It is possible to be in church every week, to know the right answers, to serve and give and show up — and still be standing outside the party, bitter that God seems too generous toward people we think haven't earned it. The Father's response to the older son is the same grace he showed the younger one: 'Everything I have is yours.' Not 'you're right and he's wrong.' Just love, extended again. If you recognize yourself in the older brother today, that is not a condemnation — it is an invitation to come back inside.

For reflection

Is there someone in your life whose welcome back into God's family has felt unfair to you? What might that reaction reveal about your own picture of grace?

Pray

Pray for God to search your heart for any older-brother resentment, and ask Him to replace it with genuine joy for the people He is pursuing.

A man is left for dead on the side of the road. A priest sees him and crosses to the other side. A Levite does the same. These were not villains — they were religious professionals, people who knew the law better than almost anyone. And they walked past a dying man. Pastor Jeff's question is worth sitting with: Why? Maybe they were busy. Maybe they were afraid. Maybe the man's condition was messy and they didn't want to get involved. Maybe he was the wrong kind of person. We have all been the priest or the Levite at some point. We have all crossed the street — literally or emotionally — to avoid someone whose need felt too complicated, too costly, or too inconvenient. The sermon named it plainly: keeping our eyes up means staying present enough to see people. That is harder than it sounds in a world that rewards efficiency and self-protection. Loving our neighbor begins before we do anything — it begins with whether we are willing to look. Today is a good day to ask God to slow you down enough to see the people He has placed in front of you, and to consider whether there is someone you have been quietly avoiding.

For reflection

Think about your typical week — where do you tend to keep your eyes down or stay on your side of the street? What or who might you be avoiding?

Pray

Pray for the willingness to slow down and truly see the people God places in front of you this week — and for courage not to cross the street.

The Samaritan was the last person in Jesus's audience who anyone expected to be the hero. Samaritans and Jews did not mix — there was real ethnic tension, real historical grievance, real social distance between them. Jesus chose this character on purpose. The Samaritan sees the man, feels compassion, and moves toward him. He bandages the wounds, loads him onto his own animal, pays for his care out of his own pocket, and promises to cover anything extra on his way back. Pastor Jeff put it plainly: this is what running toward brokenness looks like. It costs something. It creates inconvenience. It requires crossing lines we have drawn — cultural, political, relational. The sermon's challenge for this week was concrete: Who is the person in your life that feels like the wrong team, the wrong neighborhood, the wrong politics, the wrong lifestyle? That person is your neighbor. You don't have to agree with them. You don't have to solve their problems. You just have to show up and not walk past. The Samaritan didn't fix everything — he just refused to leave the man in the ditch. Sometimes that is exactly what love looks like: staying when it would be easier to go.

For reflection

Who is one specific person in your life — a coworker, neighbor, or someone with different views — that God might be calling you to move toward rather than avoid this week? What is one practical step you could take?

Pray

Pray for the specific person or situation that came to mind — ask God to give you compassion, courage, and a concrete opportunity to show up for them.

Jesus said the world would know His followers by one thing: love for one another. Not by their political positions, not by their doctrinal precision, not by how often they quote Scripture on social media — by love. Pastor Jeff closed the sermon with this verse because it is the destination of everything that came before it. The two greatest commandments, the prodigal welcomed home, the neighbor bandaged on the roadside — all of it flows toward a community of people whose lives together become visible proof that Jesus is real. That is a high calling, and it does not happen automatically. It requires choices. It requires creating margin for divine interruptions rather than running a perfectly optimized schedule. It requires asking God honestly, week after week, who we have been crossing the street to avoid. The good news woven through every passage this week is that we are not trying to generate this love on our own. We love because He first loved us. The Father who ran toward the prodigal, the Samaritan who ran toward the wounded man — these are pictures of what Jesus has already done for us. What we now offer to others is simply what we have already received. Go be that to someone this week.

For reflection

As you look back over this week, where did you see an opportunity to love like this — and what would it look like to live this out more consistently going forward?

Pray

Pray for a heart so shaped by the love you have received from Jesus that it overflows naturally into the people around you — and ask God to show you one specific person to pursue this week.

Made by Rewind AI from the sermon transcript. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

Small-group discussion guide

For leading a group conversation about this message.

Open

This message zeroes in on two things Jesus called non-negotiable — loving God and loving our neighbor. Before we dig in, what is one word that comes to mind when you hear the phrase 'known by love'?

Discussion questions

1
In Matthew 22:37-40, a religious expert tries to test Jesus, and Jesus responds by boiling everything down to two commandments. Why do you think Jesus frames these two as the foundation for 'all the law and the prophets' — what does that tell us about what God is most after?
2
In the Parable of the Prodigal Son, the son 'comes to his senses' while still in the far country — before he has cleaned himself up or rehearsed his apology. What does the father's response in Luke 15:20 suggest about the kind of God Jesus is describing?
3
The older brother in Luke 15:28-32 has never left home, yet he stands outside the party, angry. What does his reaction reveal about the difference between performing for God and actually knowing His love?
4
In the Parable of the Good Samaritan, both the priest and the Levite see the wounded man and cross to the other side. Pastor Jeff pointed out that the Samaritan — someone with real cultural and social reasons to keep his distance — runs toward the brokenness instead. What makes that kind of response so costly, and what makes it possible?
5
In John 13:34-35, Jesus says the world will know His disciples by their love for one another. Pastor Jeff challenged us to consider whether we are more easily identified by our political opinions than by that love. How might taking that seriously change the way we show up in everyday relationships — with coworkers, neighbors, or people who see the world differently than we do?
6
Pastor Jeff closed with an honest question worth sitting with: Who have I been crossing the street to avoid? What would it look like, practically, for a group of people like us to 'create margin for divine interruptions' this week?

Pray together

Ask God to show us whose brokenness He is calling us to run toward — and for the courage to do it

Made by Rewind AI from the sermon transcript. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

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Go deeper

Continue the series

Jesus For Messiah

Week 4 · 6 messages

Where these passages are preached

Matthew 22 Luke 15 Luke 10 John 13

Explore related topics

God's Pursuing Love Grace and Acceptance Loving Your Neighbor Religious Performance vs. Genuine Faith The Two Greatest Commandments

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