When a lawyer approaches Jesus and asks which commandment is the greatest, it is easy to miss how significant the moment actually is. The question is not hostile, nor is it superficial. It reflects a long-standing and serious debate within Jewish theology about how to live faithfully when God’s commands appear to compete with one another. In a religious culture shaped by deep reverence for Scripture, this is not a trick question. It is a question about direction, priority, and the shape of a life devoted to God.
What makes the moment remarkable is not simply the question itself, but Jesus’ decision to answer it directly. Throughout the Gospels, Jesus consistently redirects, reframes, or declines to answer most of the questions posed to Him. Out of more than 180 questions He is asked, He answers only a handful plainly. His willingness to answer this one signals that something central is at stake.
In this sermon, Jesus refuses to do what the lawyer expects. He does not rank commandments or isolate a single rule that outweighs all others. Instead, He joins two commands together and insists they cannot be separated. Love for God and love for neighbor are not parallel values to be balanced, nor are they sequential steps to be mastered. They are a single, integrated reality. To pull them apart is to misunderstand both.
The sermon presses into the deeper question beneath the lawyer’s inquiry. What are we really aiming at when we talk about faithfulness? Is the goal moral precision, religious performance, or relational wholeness? By answering the way He does, Jesus exposes a subtle temptation that still shapes religious life today: the desire to love God in ways that do not require us to love people, or to serve people in ways that do not require surrender to God.
Rather than offering listeners a slogan or a familiar summary, this message invites a reorientation of desire. It challenges the assumption that spiritual maturity is measured by knowledge, activity, or discipline, and instead places love at the center of formation. Not as sentiment, but as the defining posture of a life aligned with God’s heart.
Written with theological clarity and pastoral restraint, Questions Jesus Answered | What Do You Really Want? is designed to linger. It is a sermon that resists reduction and rewards careful listening. It functions well as an entry point into the larger series, but it is equally effective as a standalone teaching on discipleship, identity, and the integrated nature of love in the Christian life.
This resource is intended for pastors and churches that value depth over novelty and formation over immediacy. It does not rush to application or dilute tension. Instead, it allows Jesus’ answer to stand in its full weight and invites listeners to examine what they truly want from God, from faith, and from their lives.
This download includes the complete sermon manuscript and a professionally designed PowerPoint presentation, providing everything needed to preach, teach, or adapt this message with confidence.
