Why aren't you investing in tax liens?
All passive, no effort, double digit returns guaranteed.
Outperforms the stock market by a wide margin.
That's from an ad I heard this week.
Why am I not investing in tax liens?
Well, for one thing, because I have never heard of them.
For another, if you're out there selling it to me on the
Internet, it probably isn't as much of A slam dunk as you're
making it out to be. My guess is those returns are
not nearly as guaranteed as you say they are.
That zero effort probably involves more effort than you're
telling me. It's probably a lot more hidden
risk than your tidy advertisement and the class
you're trying to sell is going to acknowledge.
Lots of us want wealth. Sometimes we want it fast.
We often want it to come easy. Not only do we want more money,
sometimes we want lots more. We want lots more.
We want it now, and we want to get it without having to work
hard for it. Best of all, it's a guaranteed
payout. All you have to do is put in X
amount of cash upfront. Do you want more money?
If you do, how do you plan to get it?
How you relate to money is one of the most revealing tests of
your character. What would you do to get more
money? What do you do with the money
you have? How do you respond when you lose
money? We don't like to admit it, but
money has a way of burrowing its roots deep into our hearts.
There's a lot we're willing to give up in order to gain money,
and money is often very hard to give up.
This morning we're continuing our series in Mark's Gospel with
chapter 10, verses 13 to 31. If you don't have a Bible, you
can raise your hand and someone will bring you one right now.
And if you don't have a Bible, because like you don't have one,
you can read at home, you can keep it, take it home with you,
read it. We'd be delighted for that to be
our gift to you. In our passage for this morning,
Jesus continues teaching on the demands of discipleship and what
being His follower means for your daily life.
What does it take to be His follower?
What do you have to give up in order to become His follower?
And what do you stand to gain if you want to follow Jesus?
What do you get to demand? And what is following Jesus
demand of you? Consider those questions as I
read Mark chapter 10 verses 13 to 31.
And they were bringing children to him that he might touch them.
And the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw it, he was
indignant and said to them, Let the children come to me, do not
hinder them, for to such belongs the Kingdom of God.
Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the Kingdom of God
like a child shall not enter it. And he took them in his hand.
He took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands
on them. And as he was setting out on his
journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, Good
teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?
And Jesus said to him, Why do you call me good?
No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments.
Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not
bear false witness, do not defraud, honor your father and
mother. And he said to him, Teacher, all
these I have kept from my youth. And Jesus looking at him, loved
him and said to him, You lack one thing, go sell all that you
have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in
heaven, and come follow me. Disheartened by the saying, he
went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, How difficult
it will be for those who have wealth to enter the Kingdom of
God. And the disciples were amazed at
his words. But Jesus said to them again,
children, how difficult it is to enter the Kingdom of God.
It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than
for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God.
And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him,
Then who can be saved? Jesus looked at them and said,
With man it is impossible, but not with God, for all things are
possible with God. Peter began to say to him, See,
we have left everything and followed you.
Jesus said, truly. I say to you, there is no one
who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father
or children or lands, for my sake and for the Gospel, who
will not receive a hundredfold now in this time houses and
brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands with
persecutions and in the age to come, eternal life.
But many who are first will be last, and the last first.
Here's the point of our passage in one sentence.
A follower of Jesus gives up everything for Jesus, then gains
everything from Jesus. A follower of Jesus gives up
everything for Jesus, then gains everything from Jesus.
We'll unfold that truth in three steps as we walk through the
passage. What does a follower of Jesus
give up and then gain? To be a follower of Jesus is
2.1. Demand nothing.
That's the main point of Jesus's
interaction with children in verses 13 to 16.
To be a follower of Jesus is to make no demands, to assert no
rights. Why?
Because you have none. You have no status or standing
before God. You can make no claim on Him.
Instead, you can only receive His salvation as an act of His
sheer grace. Look first with me at verses 13
and 14. And they were bringing children
to him, that he might touch them.
And the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw it, he was
indignant and said to them, Let the children come to me, do not
hinder them, for to such belongs the Kingdom of God.
Verse 3 doesn't specify who was bringing children to Jesus.
Presumably it was mostly parents, but it could have
included other friends or family members.
They wanted him to lay his hands on the children and pray for
them to pray a blessing over them.
Just a quick encouragement to parents here.
Parents, what can you do to bring your children to Jesus?
Let me encourage you to practice regular family worship.
Read scripture and pray and sing with your kids.
Bring them to Jesus by preaching the gospel to them over and over
again. Your highest priority as a
parent should be to bring your kids to Jesus.
But the disciples didn't understand that.
They rebuked the people who were bringing their kids to Jesus.
Why? The text doesn't say so
explicitly, but whatever the reason, the disciples clearly
thought Jesus had more important things to do than spend time
with children. The disciples clearly thought
there were more important people for Jesus to pay attention to
than children. But that's not what Jesus
thought. Verse 14 tells us Jesus was
indignant with the disciples. He was angry with them.
And so he rebukes them for rebuking others.
He commands them to let children come to him.
And what reason does he give? He says, For to such belongs the
Kingdom of God. So Jesus receives and welcomes
children, kids in the congregation.
Jesus embraces you. Will you embrace him?
Jesus welcomes you. Will you welcome him?
Now, Jesus doesn't exactly say that the Kingdom belongs to
children. Instead, when he says the
Kingdom belongs to such, he means the Kingdom of heaven
belongs to people who are like children.
Jesus embraces children, and he uses those children to teach his
disciples a lesson about how to receive the Kingdom.
What is that lesson? Here's verses 15 and 16.
Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the Kingdom of
God like a child shall not enter it.
And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands
on them. So what does it mean to receive
the Kingdom of God like a child or in a childlike way?
Again, the crucial thing to remember, as we saw a few weeks
ago, is that in Jesus day, children had no status.
They were totally subject to the will of others.
They had no legal or social standing to make claims or
demands on anyone. So Jesus is not appealing to
some allegedly innate quality in children like that.
They're innocent or trusting or humble.
Instead, he's pointing out that children can make no demands
because they have no status. They can make no claims.
In other words, to receive the Kingdom, to enter into a right
relationship with God, to receive the salvation Jesus is
offering, you have to die to yourself.
To receive the Kingdom, you have to lower yourself, lower
yourself down to the level where you will make no demands
whatsoever. To receive the Kingdom, you have
to realize that what you bring to the table is only lack, only
need, only emptiness. When you realize that, you
realize that you have no standing by which to make
demands. Every parent knows the
difference between a request and a demand.
Not every child seems to know the difference, so parents have
to teach them. Mom, dad, Gimme.
No, you say, Mom, Dad, may I please have You don't demand you
ask politely. That simple lesson is at the
heart of what Jesus is teaching here in order to get right with
God. You may not say Gimme.
You may not bring a list of demands.
You can't say to God, all right, I'll sign up and play for your
team if you give me XYZ, if you make the deal sweet enough, if
you make a better offer than some of these other teams that
are out there competing with your team, I'll trust you and
keep your word. If you promise you give me this
and let me keep that and I get to hold on to this other.
You do not get to negotiate favorable terms for your signing
with God. Total self surrender is the only
way to become a Christian. To follow Jesus is to demand
nothing. Self negation is the shape of
the Christian life. The less you assert yourself
before God, the more your heart and will will align with God's
heart and will. The Christian life is no demands
all dependence. The Christian life is no
assertion of rights, all reception of grace.
You can't come to God and say I deserve that, because all you
can do is cast yourself totally on his mercy and on his care.
The central dynamic of the Christian life is that you have
no claim on God, and yet he gives to you with infinite
generosity. You have no demands.
He has all abundance. Recognizing that should lead you
to be loving and generous toward those who have no claim on you,
those who can make no demands on you, those who do not stand to
enrich you or elevate your status in any way.
Jesus illustrates his point about the Kingdom by his own
compassion and kindness toward children.
So the main point is that we should become like children and
having no demands, making no status claims before God.
But Jesus illustrates that by his own kind, compassionate
embrace of children. So how should we emulate that
attitude where Jesus welcomes and embraces those who are
least, including children? A few practical encouragements.
Married couples, if you don't yet have children and you've
been intentionally seeking to avoid conception, let me
encourage you to embrace the gift of children.
Children are certainly a burden, but even more than that, they
are a blessing. Children change you in ways you
didn't know you needed to be changed.
Children bless you in ways you didn't know you needed to be
blessed. Children are the natural fruit
and fulfillment of marriage. They're part of what marriage is
for. They're a gift to be embraced
with open arms. If you don't want children, what
do you want more, and what does that say about your heart?
For all of us in the church, whether married or single
parents or otherwise, let's embrace the children of our
church. God has blessed us richly by
blessing us with almost as many children as we have members.
That's a gift. That's a blessing.
It's something to be celebrated and thank the Lord for.
It's a blessing that we have so many kids and it seems we have
more kids coming by the week. Talk with kids at church.
Engage them in spiritual conversation.
Get to know them and their families patiently, cheerfully.
Bear with the distraction that children bring.
A church that's noisy because it's full of children is a whole
lot better than a church that is quiet because there are none.
The noise is a sign God's blessing.
Consider how you can serve the children of the church.
Engage them in spiritual conversations, ask them
spiritual questions. Or you could even consider
volunteering to teach in our children's ministry.
Jesus welcomes children, and so should we.
But again, the main point is not what to do with children, but
the way in which we have to become like children.
Have no status. Make no demands.
If you demand nothing, that means you will be willing to
point #2 give up everything. Give up everything.
We see this in verses 17 to 27. To be a follower of Jesus is to
be willing in principle to give up everything in order to gain
Him. It's to be willing to part with
anything in order to obey Him. To be a Christian is to forever
give away the right to say no. Jesus, you can't take that.
Jesus teaches us this in his encounter with the rich man that
begins in verse 17. Look first to verse 17.
And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt
before him and asked him, Good teacher, what must I do to
inherit eternal life? We'll only learn later in the
passage that the man is wealthy. The Gospel of Luke adds that
he's a ruler, meaning a leader in the synagogue.
And Matthew tells us that he's young, so he's often called the
rich young ruler. But this man doesn't just have
wealth and social standing. He's also earnest and zealous in
his approach to Jesus. He he kneels before him, he
implores him, indicating humility and a genuine desire to
hear Jesus answer to his question.
The question he asks is sober and serious.
What must I do to inherit eternal life?
That is the best question anyone has asked Jesus in the entire
gospel so far. He's off to a good start.
This is a crucial question. Most Jews of Jesus's day
believed in a coming resurrection and new creation on
the far side of God's final act of judgement.
So that naturally raises the question, who will make it
through that judgement into the resurrection and the new
creation? What do I have to do to inherit
that eternal life? If you're not a believer in
Jesus, we're glad you're here. We're delighted you would come.
We hope you'll make friends with others in the church, find
people you can talk to about whatever spiritual questions you
have. I would encourage you that the
most important question you could ask this morning is this.
What must I do to inherit eternal life?
That's a better question than any of the dozens of questions
that might be jostling around your head right now, competing
for your attention while I'm preaching this sermon.
What must I do to inherit eternal life?
Notice also how this man addresses Jesus.
He calls him good teacher. That's an unusual way to address
a rabbi. We don't really find that in
Jewish literature. It's more than usually polite
and Jesus answer seems abrupt. Verse 18 And Jesus said to him,
Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.
I think Jesus is acknowledging that the man has at least a
partly right understanding of who he is, but he's testing him
to see just how right. Note that Jesus doesn't strictly
issue a denial. He asks the question, then he
adds A theological truth to put the question in context.
Why do you call me good? It's as if he's asking, just how
good do you think I am? What kind of goodness do you
think I have? And he reminds him, no one is
good except God alone. So Jesus raising the stakes.
His wording alludes to Deuteronomy 64, the Shema, the
central confession of Israel. You could bring out that
illusion by translating Jesus reply as no one is good except
the one God, or no one is good except God who is 1.
There is a goodness that belongs to God alone.
Only God is infinitely good, only God is good without limit
or defect. Only God is perfectly good, and
only God is the source of all the other goodness that exists.
All creaturely goodness, whether goodness in a human being or
goodness in this world, is a participation in God's goodness
and reflects God's goodness. So, rich young ruler, how good
do you think Jesus is? What kind of goodness is it?
Then Jesus begins to answer the man's question.
How can I inherit eternal life? Verse 19, You know, the
commandments do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not
steal, do not bear false witness, do not defraud, honor
your father and mother. Here Jesus quotes the
second-half of the 10 commandments, often called the
second table of the law. These are the commandments that
have to do with how we treat other people, and they're
summarized in Leviticus 1918 As you shall love your neighbor as
yourself. Jesus quotes them out of order
because he's just summarizing. It's just kind of a short,
casual reference to shared common knowledge.
And also instead of the 10th Commandment, you shall not
covet, he puts in you shall not defraud.
I think what's going on there is that defrauding is a concrete
application of coveting. If you have an inward inordinate
desire for something you shouldn't have or something that
doesn't belong to you, if that goes unchecked, it will lead you
to do harmful things toward others to get that thing you
want. So I think it's an application
of coveting. It's important to recognize that
from the very beginning of his response to this man's question,
Jesus is setting out a test. First, he tests how well the man
knows Jesus. That's verse 18.
Now in verse 19, he begins to test how well the man knows
himself. The man asked him a question.
Jesus pings it back to him as a test of his self knowledge.
Now in verse 19, Jesus holds up God's law as a mirror.
That's one of the purposes of God's law is to serve as a
mirror for all of us. You will learn more about
yourself by staring into the mirror of God's law then you
will by just gazing into your own thoughts.
If you want to know yourself better, gaze into the mirror of
the law and then look at yourself, and then look back at
the law and then look at yourself.
By comparing yourself to God's law, you will gain a kind of
self knowledge you will not have any other way.
So Jesus holds up the mirror of the law and asks the man to tell
him what he sees. Verse 20.
And he said to him, Teacher, all these I've kept from my youth.
Now, it's important not to jump to the conclusion that the man
is a hypocrite. I don't think we're meant to
think that he's lying. He's sincere.
He's a very moral person. He's upstanding.
He's a religious leader in the community.
He knows the law. And as far as he knows, he's
kept the law. He hasn't murdered anybody.
He hasn't stolen anything. He hasn't committed adultery.
He hasn't defrauded anybody. Jesus.
Yeah, I know the commandments. I love the commandments.
I do the commandments. I've kept them my whole life.
So he's very upright. He's sincere, but he's also
ignorant. He doesn't know God's law like
he should, and so he doesn't know his own heart as he should.
He doesn't understand that God's law addresses not only outward
action, but inward desire. The law is not only outward and
moral, it's also spiritual. By implication, the command not
to murder prohibits sinful anger.
By implication, the commandment not to commit adultery prohibits
lust. That's exactly what Jesus
teaches in a sermon on the mound in Matthew 5.
And when Jesus does that, he's not like coming up with some
magical spiritual insight that nobody ever could have had
before. He's just teaching the true
meaning of the law. God's law prohibits murder, and
so it prohibits everything that could possibly lead to or
contribute to murder. If murder's prohibited, anything
that sets you on the path is prohibited.
God's law prohibits adultery. So anything that would set you
on the path, anything that would weaken your defense, anything
that would begin to pull you in that direction is also
prohibited. That's the true meaning of God's
law. If the man knew the true
spiritual reach of the law, he'd have a whole different knowledge
of his own heart. He'd know that even if he's kept
all the commandments outwardly, he has not kept them inwardly.
If he knew the law better, he'd know that sin is everywhere in
his heart. It's in his thoughts.
It's in his reflexes. It's in how he responds to an
insult. It's in how he feels when
someone gets something he really wants but doesn't have.
He may not have defrauded, but he has coveted.
We all have. I have, You have.
Do you know God's law? Do you know your own heart?
In verse 21, Jesus continues the test and he ratchets it up to
the next level. He continues to test not whether
the man is lying, but whether he knows the truth about himself in
the 1st place, verse 21. And Jesus looking at him, loved
him and said to him, you lack one thing, go sell all that you
have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven
and come follow me. Jesus looks at the man lovingly
because the man is earnest but ignorant.
He's sincere but he's self deceived.
So Jesus pities him. He has compassion on him and he
expresses that compassion in the form of an insanely demanding
command. The command is meant to shock
this man into spiritual life. Jesus challenge is as loving as
his look. Jesus is testing how badly this
man really wants eternal life. Do you want it so badly you're
willing to give up all your earthly wealth now?
Are you willing to put your money where your mouth is?
Literally, you say you want eternal life.
OK, give up all your money in such a way that it'll only pay
off in eternity. You want eternal life?
I'm showing you how Jesus has divinely discerned the single
point on which the fate of this man's soul will turn his wealth.
How does man respond? Verse 21 Disheartened by the
saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
What's the one thing this man lacked?
He lacked the willingness to give up everything in order to
follow Christ. He lacked a heart fully
surrendered to God in Christ. You might say he lacked the
willingness and the ability to put to death his love of money.
What does a man response show? It shows that he hasn't kept
God's law at all. For one thing, he sure hasn't
kept the command not to covet. If he chooses to keep his wealth
at the cost of his own eternal soul, that shows he's in bondage
to covetousness. He loves wealth so much he would
rather die forever with it than live forever without it.
So he's broken the 10th commandment for sure, but he's
also broken the very first commandment.
The first commandment and the 10th commandment go together.
You shall have no other gods before me.
What God has he put before the true God?
Money. Jesus's command to sell
everything and give all the proceeds to the poor is not a
command that he gives to all people, but a specifically
tailored command to meet this one man's spiritual need.
This command alone could expose the man's heart to himself.
Why? Because he had made wealth an
idol. He'd made wealth something he
worshipped. He was unwilling to part with
his wealth even it cost him eternal life with Jesus.
This man saw enough good in Jesus to come to him and fall
before him and ask him an earnest question, but he did not
see the fullness of Jesus goodness, otherwise he never
would have left him. If he knew how good Jesus is, he
would have known. Jesus is worth giving up
everything for. This is not arbitrary.
This is not some like bizarre spiritual game where the rules
just change around in ways you can't predict.
Jesus is worth giving up everything for.
That's what Jesus teaching this man.
That's what he's teaching all of us.
To be a follower of Jesus is to be willing and principle to give
up everything for him. It's to decide in advance that
following Jesus word that even if it costs you everything, if
being a Christian isn't costing you something, you're doing it
wrong. If being a Christian isn't hard,
you're doing it wrong. This man made a tragic choice.
He chose wealth over Jesus, money in this life over infinite
bliss in the world to come. He chose the treasure that will
disappear over treasure that will never fade.
He chose uncertain joy for a short time over certain joy
forever. Why should you give up
everything to gain Jesus? Because Jesus gave up everything
to purchase you. God is our Creator.
We owe Him everything. We owe him our lives, our
hearts, ourselves. And the essence of sin is
putting other things in God's place.
The essence of sin is living for what we want and making it
something other than God. That racks up an infinite debt
that we can never repay. It's an infinite offense.
It's not like the traffic toll I have to pay that only cost $0.92
and just somehow it's taking me like 1/2 hour to try to get
through the system and pay. Our sin is not like a 92 cent
traffic toll. Our sin wrecks up an infinite
debt. And Jesus became Incarnate and
lived a perfect life and endured hardship, had nowhere to lay His
head, had no permanent possessions of His own, gave up
everything and gave his very life to pay the debt of the sin
of all those who had turned from sin and trust in Him.
And then he rose from the dead, entering into glory, entering
into a whole new mode of life that'll never lose anything,
that'll never be threatened by death, entering into glory to
say this is what glory you'll have if you turn from sin and
trust in me. If you've never turned from sin
and trusted in Jesus, he's worth giving up everything for.
All you have to do to get right with God and inherit His Kingdom
is turn from sin and believe in Him.
The gospel is a promise of endless gain, infinite gain, and
it's based on a great exchange. Jesus took on our sins so that
we could have His righteousness. Jesus took on our poverty so
that we could have His infinite wealth.
If you're not a believer in Jesus, put yourself in the shoes
of this rich young ruler. If you came to Him, said, Hey,
what does it take for me to get right with you?
What question would he ask you? What would he ask you to give
up? Here's another way to get at
that question. What would you find hardest to
give up in order to start following Christ?
What would you least want Jesus to demand?
No Jesus, please, not that. How about something else,
Anything else, but not this? However you'd answer that
question, you need to hear Jesus's call.
Give it up, sell it off, give it away, kill it, die to it and
come follow Him. If you are a believer in Jesus,
what's your most dangerous temptation?
What's your desire, your attachment, your value, your
commitment that is most in danger of turning you away from
following Him. In verses 23 to 25, Jesus begins
to teach his disciples the lesson that they should learn
from this man's tragic choice. And Jesus looked around and said
to his disciples, how difficult it will be for those who have
wealth to enter the Kingdom of God.
And the disciples were amazed at his words.
But Jesus said to them again, children, how difficult it is to
enter the Kingdom of God. It is easier for a camel to go
through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the
Kingdom of God. For hundreds of years people
have attempted to make Jesus's saying in verse 25 seem more
reasonable. If you've come to church for a
while, you've probably heard a story along the lines of there's
this gate outside Jerusalem and it's called the needle gates.
And it was very narrow and animals that would pass through
it had to take off all their baggage in order to fit through.
And so it kind of symbolizes that a rich person has to humble
themselves and get rid of the baggage of their wealth in order
to enter God's Kingdom. Problem is, that interpretation
only began to arise 1000 years after the time of Jesus.
Somebody just made it up. There is no gate called the
needle. When Jesus says it is easier for
a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person
to enter the Kingdom of God, he is inviting you to imagine this
teeny tiny space and large animal.
He is inviting you to draw the conclusion that is impossible.
He is not saying it's hard for a rich person to enter the
Kingdom. He is saying it's impossible.
And if that sounds crazy, you got to know that's how the
disciples heard it essentially. That's crazy is what they said
to him. So we got to sit here for a
minute. We're we're going to see some
resolution. The pictures going to clarify.
But first you have to hear Jesus says it's impossible.
There are plenty of religions, some even they call themselves
Christian, that treat wealth as an infallible sign of God's
blessing. The world assumes wealth and
possessions are only an asset. Jesus here declares that in
spiritual terms, wealth is a massive liability.
He treats wealth not as a blessing, but an obstacle.
If wealth keeps you from entering God's Kingdom, then it
is no better for you than a millstone around your neck.
So we need to sit with this warning.
How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter
the Kingdom of God. Why?
Why is it difficult for those with wealth to enter the Kingdom
of God? It's because wealth is an
all-purpose God substitute. Money is a uniquely versatile
idol. Some idols can only play one
position. Wealth can play them all.
Power, pleasure, prestige, protection on their own.
Each has its limits, but money can get you power, pleasure,
prestige, protection, and whatever else you want.
Money's an idol that can grant you access to whatever idol your
heart serves. Money's like a genie that can
get you whatever it is your heart is enslaved to.
Money's like a shape shifting superhero idol.
It can turn itself into whatever it is you most want.
Money is hard to get out of your hands and hard to get out of
your heart. If you do have wealth, leave it
to your own conscience to answer for yourself.
If you do have wealth, don't set your heart on it.
Beware the temptation to give it ever greater time and effort,
ever greater attention, ever greater affection.
Beware of lifestyle creep every time your pay raises, so do the
price tags on all the stuff that you need to have just to have a
normal life. Beware of appetites that grow
with or that grow faster than your paycheck.
If you do have wealth, what should you do with it?
Give it away generously. Use it to bless and serve
others. Whether it's a nice car or a
nice house, only buy something you'd be glad to let others use
or borrow. Only buy something that in good
conscience you can use openly and give generously.
You can also consider imposing a cap on how much your family will
live on and save and then give the rest away.
Or you could consider steadily increasing the percentage of
your income that you give away. The point is this, money wants
your heart. Don't let money get a hold of
your heart. Instead, show Jesus you love Him
more than you love money by what you do with money.
So does Jesus here single out wealth?
It's kind of a yes and no. He points to the unique
temptations of wealth to teach us all a lesson about what we
have to give up to follow him. To be Jesus follower is to be
willing to give up everything. And the disciples are shocked.
They're stunned. A rich person barred from the
Kingdom isn't that backward. Isn't wealth a sign of God's
blessing? Look at verses 26 and 27.
They were exceedingly astonished and said to him, then, who can
be saved? Jesus looked at them and said
With man it is impossible, but not with God, for all things are
possible with God. The disciples thought the rich
young ruler would have been a prime recruit.
He's got standing in the community, he's got a good
reputation, He's got plenty of resources we can leverage for
Kingdom purposes. Surely Jesus, this is a keeper.
This is not time for catch and release.
Why are you turning this dude away?
Think about how much good he could do for us.
But Jesus turns worldly values on their heads like Mary sings
in Luke 153. He has filled the hungry with
good things, but has sent the rich away empty.
Beware of thinking that someone is a prime recruit for the
Kingdom because of any wealth or status or resources that they
have. Beware of paying insufficient
attention to somebody who might be in spiritual need or might be
spiritually open because they seem to have nothing in worldly
terms. Verse 27 is really a key to the
whole passage. With man it is impossible, but
not with God, for all things are possible with God.
Salvation is humanly impossible and divinely possible.
Only God can give eternal life. Only God can grant someone faith
and repentance. Only God can grant someone's
heart to break free from the love of money.
Only God can make someone willing to give up everything in
order to gain him. Eternal life not only has God as
its goal, it has God as its beginning, its source.
The salvation of a rich person is a miracle.
The salvation of any person is a miracle, and God specializes in
miracles. No one can save themselves and
no one is beyond the reach of God's grace.
So what should you do? To paraphrase our church
covenant, Evangelize boldly, pray fervently, and leave the
results to God. Point #3 Gain everything.
To be a follower of Jesus is to gain everything.
That's what Jesus promises will happen to every believer in
verses 28 to 31. Every sacrifice you make in
order to follow Jesus and help others follow Jesus will be more
than repaid both now and in eternity.
Prompted by Jesus encounter with the rich man, Peter begins to
reflect on the sacrifices the disciples have already made in
order to follow Jesus. Verse 28 Peter began to say to
him, see, we have left everything and followed you.
In other words, hey Jesus, we, we've pretty much already done
what you just told that rich guy to do.
What's going to happen to us? What do you we've left
everything. What do you have for us now?
The fact that Peter and the other disciples have left
everything doesn't necessarily mean they've sold everything.
They were fishermen. Some of them still had boats.
That's how they travelled around the Sea of Galilee.
Another evidence that they didn't necessarily sell
everything is that the house Jesus used for ministry in
Capernaum over and over again was very likely Peter's family
home. So not all his disciples sold
everything, but all 12 who were travelling with Him throughout
his earthly ministry had turned their backs on their whole
previous life. They'd left homes and jobs.
They had no security beyond what came direct from God's hand.
Whatever Jesus would eat is what they would eat.
However Jesus got provided for is how they would get provided
for. Wherever Jesus was able to sleep
is where they would be able to sleep.
They left their jobs, their income, and the use of whatever
possessions they had in order to follow Jesus and join him on his
mission. Jesus here essentially
interrupts Peter verse 28. Peter began to say if he had the
chance to finish his thought, it probably would have been
something like, what about us? What is there for us now?
What do we get who've given up everything?
Jesus says, I know Peter, I know what you've given up and I know
what you're about to ask. Verses 29 and 30, Jesus said,
truly, I say to you, there's no one who has left house or
brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for
my sake and for the Gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold
now in this time houses and brothers and sisters and mothers
and children and lands with persecutions, and in the age to
come, eternal life. When I read those words, it's
hard not to think about specific people, specific names and
stories. A dear sister who came to faith
as an adult, whose dad's a militant atheist, and she is
wondering what her conversion's going to do to her relationship
with her dad. A dear brother whose parents
were missionaries, who grew up on the mission field, and who in
8th grade, survived a terrorist attack on his Christian School.
A dear family who have served in very hard places in the Middle
East for 10 years, who survived an explosive being thrown into
the home where they were staying because the people there knew
they were Christians. What's the cause of this leaving
for my sake and for the gospel? It's to become a Christian and
to help others become Christians.
That's why Jesus gives 2 causes, for my sake and for the gospel.
Jesus has in view the sacrifices we make in order to follow Him
and to help others follow Him. Sometimes becoming a Christian
will jeopardize your relationship to your family.
Sometimes becoming a Christian will cost you your job or even
make you unhireable in the entire city where you live.
Becoming a Christian can cost you financially.
It can cost you your reputation. It can cost you your friends.
And there are even more sacrifices we make in order to
proclaim and advance the gospel. Some of those are sacrifices we
make or risks we run. Whenever we share the gospel
with somebody, how are they going to respond?
What are they going to do to us? What are they going to think of
us? But there are some sacrifices
that are uniquely made by those who devote their lives to making
Jesus known where he is not known or little known.
What do those Christians give up who in our terminology become
missionaries? Often they give up a career,
financial security, a house and a home, a way of life they may
have known for decades, a sense of stability and security, often
times relationships with extended family at least making
them a whole lot harder. What have you given up for Jesus
sake and for the gospel's sake? Whatever those sacrifices are,
Jesus promises to repay them in two ways.
At 2 times. He promises to provide
abundantly in this life and to satisfy you perfectly in the
next life. Look at the phrase in verse 30.
Now in this time again, verses 29 and 34 context, truly I say
to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or
sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake
and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold.
Now in this time houses and brothers and sisters and mothers
and children and lands with persecutions.
How do you receive all this? First and foremost, every
believer in Jesus receives this hundredfold of family members
and houses and physical provision in the local church.
Whatever family you lose for Christ's sake, you gain even
more of in the local church. The local church is where we
find 100 brothers and sisters and mothers.
The local church is how we receive 100 houses and lands,
which means that as a church, we should share all that we have
with our fellow church members. We should share our very lives.
We should be family to each other.
We should be family for each other, especially for those who
have in any sense left their natural families in order to
follow Christ. These words of Jesus are also
fulfilled in how churches care for those who are sent out to
proclaim Christ's name. They're fulfilled in how we
support missionaries. But the list is not all
positive. You might have noticed one of
these things is not like the others in Jesus list.
There's also with persecutions. In this life we should not
expect paradise, but wise and loving Providence.
Providence that mixes blessing with suffering.
What should you do if you feel like you have given up
relationships and riches for the sake of the gospel, but you
haven't experienced this hundredfold provision?
Lord, you know how much I've given up for Jesus sake and for
the gospel. Where's my 100?
I don't see it. If that's you trust the Lord,
Ask Him to open your eyes wider to what He's already provided.
Ask him to provide still more and trust that Jesus will keep
his promise. Whatever lacks we endure in this
present age, remind us that ultimately Jesus will keep his
promise in the new creation. Looking at the the end of verse
30, in the age to come, eternal life, every, every sacrifice you
make now is ultimately worth it because of what you'll receive
then. When Jesus comes, when he raises
you from the dead, when he gives you a glorified body to live in
a glorified universe, Jesus promises provision and
consolation now and infinite reward later.
God will care for you now and he will reward you then.
God will sustain you now and he will satisfy you beyond
imagining then. No one has ever lost by giving
up everything for Jesus. What principle orders your
priorities? Is it for Jesus sake and for the
Gospel? Or is it to have a stable,
comfortable life? Or is it to put family first?
Or is it to have a fulfilling career?
What would it look like to make for Jesus sake and the gospel
your highest priority? What Kingdom good might God do
through you if you were willing to give up more for his sake and
the gospels? Is there something you've never
thought about giving up that if you did, might open up a whole
new venue to glorify God? Is there something you could
sacrifice, some offering you could hand over to the Lord that
might make sense for Jesus sake and for the Gospels and for no
earthly reason. To be a follower of Jesus is to
demand nothing, give up everything, and gain everything.
There's one last little part of the passage we haven't
considered, and we'll close with this verse 31.
But many who are first will be last and the last first.
Jesus saying don't judge final outcomes by present positions.
Don't take your bearings by who's got the most now.
Don't live for wealth, it'll disappear.
Live for wealth that will last. What wealth are you investing
in? When do you hope for that
investment to mature? Are you investing more for
retirement or for eternal life? Minor keys to Zion City, where
beside the King I walk, For there my heart has found its
treasure. Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, we thank you for the promise that the first
will be last and the last first. May we all be willing to be last
in whatever ways we need to in order to gain Christ and eternal
happiness in Him. We pray in Jesus name, Amen.