Sermon 10-10-2021
Mark 10:17-31 (nlt)
The Rich Man
10:17 As Jesus was starting out on his way to
Jerusalem, a man came running up to Him, knelt down, and
asked, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
18 “Why do you call Me good?” Jesus asked. “Only
God is truly good.
19 But to answer your question, you know the commandments: ‘You must not murder. You must
not commit adultery. You must not steal. You must not testify falsely. You must
not cheat anyone. Honor your father and mother.’”
20 “Teacher,”
the man replied, “I’ve obeyed all these commandments since I was young.”
21 Looking at the man, Jesus felt
genuine love for him. “There is still one thing you haven’t done,” He told him.
“Go and sell all your possessions and
give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come,
follow Me.”
22 At this the
man’s face fell, and he went away sad, for
he had many possessions.
23 Jesus looked around and said to His
disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God!”
24 This amazed them. But Jesus said again, “Dear
children, it is very hard – [some Versions say: very hard for those who trust
in riches] to enter the Kingdom of God.
25 In fact, 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!”
26 The disciples were astounded. “Then who in
the world can be saved?” they asked.
27 Jesus looked at them intently and said,
“Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But not with God. Everything is possible
with God.”
28 Then Peter began to speak up. “We’ve given up
everything to follow you,” he said.
29 “Yes,” Jesus replied, “and I assure you that
everyone who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or
children or property, for My sake and for the Good News, 30 will
receive now in return a hundred times as many houses, brothers, sisters,
mothers, children, and property—along with persecution. And in the world to
come that person will have Eternal Life.
31 But many who are the greatest now will be
least important then, and those who seem least important now will be the
greatest then. [And some versions say: But many who are first will be last; and
the last, first.]”
So - What Must You DO To Receive Life?
I heard a story of a man named Joe. He is expert
in diamonds and on his flight home one day, he was seated next to a woman who
had a huge diamond on her finger. Finally, Joe introduced himself and said, "I
couldn't help but notice your beautiful diamond. I am an expert in precious
stones. Please tell me about that stone."
She replied, "This is the famous ‘Phillips
Diamond’. It is one of the largest in the world. But there is a strange curse that
comes with it."
This made Joe very interested. So, he asked, "What
is the curse?"
As he waited breathlessly, she replied, "It's
Mr. Philllips."
So, Are Your Precious Treasures ‘Cursed’ or are
they ‘Blessed’?
Did you know, most of the “Treasures” within
Our World are Cursed!
You See – They Are Cursed BECAUSE They Have the
Capability Of Stealing Your Heart! And Your Soul Away from GOD!
The ‘Rich Young Ruler’ is one of the Unique Characters
who Live Within the Bible. And They have the Ability to Represent By Far the
Majority Of the People Who Live Within Our World Today!
Do You Agree That ‘GREED’ IS ALIVE And DOING
WELL Within Our Today?
Take a Look at the Number of Casinos
·
9 Casinos in
Kansas
·
14 in Missouri
·
44 Casinos in
Colorado
·
> 110 Casinos
in Oklahoma
And the Lottery - Powerball
·
Odds of winning
are 1 in 292 million
·
Yet – Average 371
Million tickets are sold per drawing
So Reluctant Are WE, So Reluctant was HE To Give
Away His Earthly Wealth,
Caused US, Caused HIM to SELL His Soul Just so
- he could Keep his money. HE, – Just Like WE ALL, Want to be SAVED!
BUT - Not at The PRICE Of Losing His Or Our Possessions!
Let me ask:
What is the 1st Thing that
Impresses You About This Rich Man When you read this Story?
The 1st thing For Me Was That This Rich Young Ruler
Was So Near to “The Kingdom” BUT he didn’t even know it!
He asked all the Right Questions! He
understood the Law! And he understood Jesus’ teachings!
However, The Truth of it all is: His Love For
His Money - Kept-him-out-of-the Kingdom Of GOD. But - Along with All Of The Negative
Characteristics, The Bad Desires, The Poorly Chosen Paths, There is Still A LOT
of GOOD STUFF Which Can Be Said About this Young Man.
For Example: What about the Fact that It Only Took
Just a Few Minutes Before Jesus Loved this Man! To Me, That Does Not Sound Like
Someone Who Is Without HOPE!
And - Here is Another Thing Which We Need to
Recognize. We need to remember that This Young Man DID NOT See Jesus as the Son
of God.
No - To this Young Man, Jesus was just A New
Prophet, Someone with an Exciting Message, Someone who has A Magnetic
Personality, Someone who Possesses Eyes Which Grip And Hold you Speechless.
And for sure – This Young Man Did Not See Jesus
as the Christ Which We Proclaim Within The Apostles' Creed
(You Remember, We talked about that Creed Only
a Few weeks ago)
So - INDEED – We Need To Cut This Guy Some
Slack!
You See - Not Even the Disciples Had Truly
Figured Jesus Out Yet!
And So - We will begin by Defending This Underdog
As we look at 3 of His Positive And then - 3 Of His Negative Qualities.
We will talk about things which Brought him to
the Master in the first place And of His Qualities which made him Interested in
Jesus’ Teachings So he went Looking for Christ.
His 1st Positive Character is: He was Courageous.
Luke describes him as a RULER. Luke 18:18–30
18:18 “Now a certain Ruler asked Him, saying, “Good
Teacher,
what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”’
That would mean that This Young Man, Belonged
to the Upper Class.
It is in this group where Most of the Criticism
Against Jesus came from.
We should note that it was his Willingness to
learn That he approached Jesus.
In doing this, He did not let his Social
Position Keep him Away From Jesus.
He did not buy in to His peers’ evaluation
of Jesus.
Nicodemus
was another Rich man who went to see Jesus. But Nicodemus went in the night. Under
the vail of darkness. That is how Nicodemus went To see Jesus And he went with
the same question.
But
Nicodemus went Under the cover of darkness.
And
this Young Ruler went in the day.
But if we are honest, How many of us Have Elected
Not To Defend the Church Or Make Christ Known Within Some Grouping of Our
Pears?
That would be when We had Lost Our Own Courage Or
We Simply Decided that We Just Didn’t want to Speak Up So, we stayed quiet!
In Many Ways, in those times, We were like Nicodemus And Not Like this Rich Young Ruler.
So, I say this young man
Had ‘Courage’.
His 2nd Positive Trait Is: He was HUMBLE.
When he came to Jesus He Came Running. Then, The
Elite People Did-Not-Run. It was Considered Undignified. But it didn’t matter To
this young rich ruler! Because Scriptures Said He RAN up to Jesus And then, He
knelt before Christ!
He Knelt In the Middle of the Road! In Broad
Day Light! For the World to See!
Then – Did You Notice What He Asked:
“A man came running up to Him,
knelt down,
and asked, “Good Teacher,
What must I do to inherit eternal life?”’
He Did - Not come to Jesus With a Verbal Puzzle,
Or with Pious Theological Nonsense. That is what the Pharisees always do.
SEE – The Pharisees would come to Jesus and ask:
Hey - Jesus, what do you think about:
Paying taxes to Caesar? Oh - Jesus what do you:
Think about Divorce? Now - Jesus what do you think: About an Afterlife? TELL
US: Why don’t your Disciples fast, Or Wash their hands? And Why Are You NOT Obeying
the Sabbath?
But the Truth of it All Is They Could Not Care
Less Of what Jesus thought About Any of These Issues.
SEE THE THING IS:
§ The Pharisees Believed That they had Nothing
at all To learn from Jesus. They were just asking These questions simply To
trip Him up And They were Waiting Until such a time that He did Make some FATAL
ERROR!
They
were arrogant.
But How Refreshing to Finally See Someone who Is
Genuine and Sincere!
"Good Master," "What must I Do
To Inherit Eternal Life?"
YES
- He was asking The Right Question. He had gotten down to the Fundamentals. He
was in effect saying: Jesus, you clearly have The Secret to the TRUTH of LIFE. Tell
me that Secret So that I Can Do the Same.
Can we agree – That Too Often, Even Within the Church,
We Ourselves Are Not Humble to God nor Others.
TO OFTEN We spend Way Too Much Time On Issues which
Really Don’t Really Amount to a Hill of Beans! All the While – We are Really Avoiding
The Eternal Questions of Life.
Far Too Often, Our Motivation Is Not Sincerity But
Rather – It Is Recognition And Advancement Of Our Own Agenda.
But Not that Morning!
That Was Not This Young Man's Problem. He Ran
to Jesus. He Knelt Right There Before Jesus In The Middle of the Whole World! WHY?
Because He was Humble! And He Did Not Know!
His 3rd Positive Trait is: He was Religious.
Now I don’t mean this In a Negative Way. He was
a Spiritual Man. One who is deeply concerned With Religious Things. When Jesus Instructed
him To keep the Commandments, He answered:
“Teacher, all these I have kept
since I was a boy.”
SO: What Does That Mean?
In His Custom It Means: At the age of 13, That
was the Age When a Jewish boy Would Take Responsibility Of His Own Personal Life
In Keeping the Commandments.
And Based Upon His Answer to Jesus He Had
Done So. BUT – Does this Type of Statement Raise Up some
Questions Within You?
I Mean - How is that Possible?
Not Only with - Us Being Humans But also as Christians
Too.
Don’t we Know As Well as Understand That - We
Ourselves Are Unable to KEEP The Law? I Mean – Breaking Even Just One of the Smallest
of Commandments Means that we have FAILED! So, is this Rich Man a SUPER
Christian? Or – Has he Just lied to Jesus?
“Teacher, all these I have kept
since I was a boy.”
Herein lies the KEY To this passage of
Scripture And the Turning Point Of this Young Man’s Life. This is where it
Begins. The Negatives Begin to Creep Up Into
this Man’s Story BUT - Before we get to them Let us Recap.
No Doubt –
1)
This young man
was Courageous. He did not hide that He was interested in Jesus.
2)
He was Humble. He
came running to Jesus And in his nobleman’s clothes, He knelt in the dust
before Christ.
3)
And he was Religious.
He had kept the Commandments From His age of Accountability.
PART 2
At This Point, We are Going to take A Look at
some of the Negatives Which have started To Add Up In this Young Man’s Life.
There are 3 in Which I Would Like For us to
Focus Upon.
His 1st Negative is also – A Foundational Error. This Young Man was
looking For a RULE or a CURE to Keep So that he Could Please God.
Listen to him:
“What must I DO to receive eternal life?”
The Telling Word here is: DO
What RULE Must I Keep In - Order For God to be Pleased
With Me?
“You know the commandments:
‘You must not murder.
You must not commit adultery.
You must not steal.
You must not testify falsely.
You must not cheat anyone.
Honor your father and mother.’”
And I believe it is here Where You Can Begin to
Hear This Man’s Frustration Within his Words.
20
“Teacher,” the man replied, “I’ve obeyed all these commandments since I was
young.”
Can we hear: His unspoken Frustrating
Words? It is as If he Is Saying:
‘What
Am I Doing Wrong?’
This may be Difficult For us to truly relate to
him BECAUSE – We have the Rest of the God’s Book And He doesn’t.
Romans 3:20 “For no one can ever be made right with God by
doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are.”
Romans 3:22 “We are made right with God by placing our
faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter
who we are.”
Romans 3:23-24 “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of
God’s glorious standard. Yet God, in His Grace, freely makes us right in his
sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when He freed us from the penalty for
our sins.”
By SEEKING The TRUTH, This Young Ruler Was
Doing the Right Thing!
He had Doubt if what he was doing Was Really
Saving His Soul.
SEE – This Rich Young Ruler Was Performing Outward
Exercises In An Attempt To Reach the Internal Truths. He was Trying to Conform
Outwardly To The Law Instead of Obeying Inwardly. He was Living By The Law rather than - Through
Grace. That Is What He Was Doing Wrong
Our 2nd Negative is the Fact That He Loved Is MONEY.
Isn’t It Interesting that Jesus, After being Impressed
By this Young Man, That Jesus Actually, Does Give Him Something To Do.
21
Looking at the man, Jesus felt genuine love for him. “There is still one thing
you haven’t done,” He told him.
But - Let us not get confused with The ‘DOING’
in Jesus’ Command. Jesus is not giving him another LAW to Follow, But Rather, He
is Teaching The Spirit of the Law. Is
this not what we hear within James 2:18?
“Now someone may argue, “Some people have
faith; others have good deeds.” But I say, “How can you show me your faith if
you don’t have good deeds? I will show you my faith by my good deeds.”’
“Go and sell all your possessions and
give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come,
follow Me.”
Recently - It saddened my heart when I Recently
heard a Pastor Repeat part of a conversation Which he had with one of his
congregation.
The lay person asked, “Why should I go to your
church When I can stay home And listen to other services Which have much better
sermons Than the ones you deliver?”
You know – Within that question Lies other
questions:
Why should we go to church? Why can’t we have
Church where we are? Why should I give My Money to the Church? Our Love of this
World Usually Always Lives Within Our Love for Money.
And this Type of Love Is so Destructive.
It Blocks, It Prevents the Love of God.
You know what Jesus said,
“Where your treasure is there is your heart
also.” Matthew 6:21
His 3RD Negative Trait is found in Mark
10:22
“At this the man’s face fell,
and he went away sad”
HE WALKED AWAY!
He Could Not Handle the Truth Even When He Heard
It From The Man Who Tells - The TRUTH. He could not Reshape His Priorities. And
Here, Maybe there are some of us Who are like the Young Rich Ruler? To LOVE God
And to LOVE your neighbor In such a Sacrificial And Self-Deleting Way – Was
Simply - Beyond Him.
In This Type of Love – You Lose Yourself!
What do You Think? Do You Think that Just Maybe
He Knew All Along What He Was Truly Missing. He Knew Where His Heart Was.
He Just Did Not Want to Give Up His Life.
He Did Not Want to Part with His Wealth.
And When He CHOSE To Retained His Wealth He Relinquished
His Eternity.
Amen.
