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Preacher: Pastor David Ball
Scripture: Mark 10:17-31
In this passage, a young man came running to Jesus, desperate to learn what he could do to inherit eternal life. Jesus turned to question back to the young man and, in the process, uncovered his sinful heart of false abundance. The truth is that we all have a sinful heart of false abundance. The things and people that we look to for our life and well-being. Jesus, through it all, loved the young man just as he loves us and called him to a new life of abundance through the grace of God alone.
Transcript
So this evening we’re continuing uh as we’re working through Mark chapter 10 together which is our lectionary uh reading for the month of October is Mark chapter 10 uh and Mark chapter 10 deals with a lot of relevant uh issues for for our culture today uh last week we uh dealt with the uh the really uh uh exciting topic of uh of divorce um and looked at God’s plan for marriage and family and children but Mark 10 goes even beyond that as we’ll look at today um but last week as we uh as we looked at marriage in particular and family and children as God’s good intention for his creation ultimately what it did was it exposed all of us in our self-righteousness and how in desperate need we are for the righteousness of Christ to clothe us as we put our full trust in him alone and today in verses 17 through 31 we’re talking about another fun topic and that’s money and
wealth Jesus used use this encounter with the rich young man to teach a greater lesson of what it takes to enter the kingdom of God and before we jump into this I think there’s a few things we kind of have to to consider uh before we jump uh into the passage uh just like Jesus did with divorce uh Jesus is using an absolutely uncompromising ethic of the kingdom of God when he’s dealing with uh these worldly issues and the issues that uh that God cared about in a right context in his creation uh in a powerful way he uses them to expose all of us so the first thing we have to consider is this that we cannot read Mark 10: 17-31 as rich people are bad and poor people are good that’s not what Jesus is getting to in this no matter how much I think our in this uh you know political season right we’re we’re told by different sides that that’s how we should be looking at it everything should be one against the other and that’s not what what Jesus is getting to here at all Jesus warns us about our attitudes towards money and the evil that it often produces in our lives and the obstacle that it can that it can present in our lives to receiving the gospel of the kingdom of God God but money is important God calls us to good stewardship uh money is certainly when it’s used in the right ways and God pleasing ways has the ability to do so much good in this world so we have to keep that in context the second thing we have to consider is this that the wealth referred to uh in these verses uh is a very relative word our Western middle class represents a weal that was absolutely unimaginable by first century average
person and if we look at it even in our world today it it’s an an unimaginable wealth for uh most people around the world isn’t it there’s a reason why so many people want to come to the United States right there’s there’s part of the reason why we have such a problem uh at the border is because people want to come here because the wealth of an average American is far exceeds people around the world it’s why we need we need a good plan right we need a good Security on the S South border not to just to keep people out but to PE to let good people in it’s important we want people to come and have the American Experience right but we’ve got to do it in a good in a right way that uh protects the most vulnerable who are being abused in terrible ways and while we never do it perfectly we definitely need to be better don’t we but the better way to understand I think in this context of of the rich Rich Young Ruler uh the the better way to understand wealth and and and the richness uh of verse 17 and 31 is that of affluence and abundance of affluence and abundance I think those are better words that we can all relate to how living in abundance is a real barrier for entry into the kingdom of God it’s a real danger because Mark 10:1 17-31 isn’t just about rich people or the better poor people it’s about all of us all of us can be found in this Rich Young Ruler all of us can be found in Peter uh at the end of this passage where to put ourselves into their place uh and how just like this rich young man when he encountered Jesus Christ he was forced to own a new reality about himself when we encounter Jesus we’re forced to face a new reality about ourselves this rich young man when he encountered Jesus he encountered what it meant to truly be loved in a way that he had Never Been Loved Before when we come encounter and encounter the the living risen Jesus Christ what we find is a love that we’ve never encountered before this rich young man when he encountered Jesus he was called to a new life a new way of thinking a new way of living a radical new way so too when we encounter the Risen Christ he calls us into a new life a new way of thinking a new way of living and finally when we encount when when this Rich Young Ruler encountered Jesus what he found was that Jesus or what Jesus tried to teach him was that Jesus was the only hope our only hope was in his unrelenting Grace for us that’s what we find when we encounter the Living God and his son Jesus Christ but let’s work through this passage together I invite you to open up uh to verse 17 in your bulletin or if you brought your Bibles you’re welcome to open up to uh to as we work through this passage together for just a moment this is how we begin and this Jesus 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 you know if you read the gospel Els what you find out is Jesus’s life is one Interruption after another isn’t it I don’t know about you but I don’t deal with interruptions very well uh Jesus is just setting out on his journey right he’s just setting out on the trip you ever been on that uh that car trip right and you think all right I’m going to make it to uh such and such by this time and you get about 15 minutes into the journey and somebody hey I got to go to the bathroom it’s just inevitable isn’t it it’s just inevitable well Jesus here finds an interruption he was setting out on a journey when a man ran up to him and knelt before him now that’s pretty remarkable right there in itself we we probably could pass over it if we don’t take a moment to to carefully consider that uh right off the bat what this tells us is that this man is dealing with something at least that he considers to be an incredibly urgent matter that he had to run to Jesus in order to get before him and then he knelt down before him and so it acknow he acknowledged a level of respect and honor and showed some genuine humility in coming before Jesus and he asked Jesus good teacher what must I do to inherit eternal life this is actually incredibly big this is the only time in all of the gospels that anyone one is called Jesus good teacher and so it stops Jesus and Jesus stops to to talk with him it’s significant and we’re going to talk about that that in just a few minutes uh a little bit more uh but the picture of this man is that he’s desperate that’s that’s the picture that that Mark’s painting for us he’s desperate he’s looking for something he’s looking for something more he’s missing something therefore in his life so much so that he wanted to run to Jesus he couldn’t just walk he couldn’t just try to catch up to him in good time he needed to get before him urgently in other words he’s so insecure about something something is so fearful and so gnawing at him that there is no time to waste time is of the essence he’s got to get to Jesus well what is it what is it what is that thing that he’s so desperate for well he’s desperate for some Assurance about his UL imate future he’s desperate for Assurance about his ultimate future he wants to inherit eternal life that’s what he asked Jesus for right good teacher what must I do to inherit eternal life he wants to inherit it now our uh our passage uh we know that this is a wealthy man we’re told a little bit later on right uh and the wealth here can mean that he was a man of of of substance meaning that he had land uh he was an estate owner uh and so as such a young man is it’s uh it implies that he’s a he’s a young person who’s in already inherited he hadn’t uh lived long enough to be able to build up enough wealth to be able to acquire land and to work his way up uh he was a young man who had inherited what he had received uh he had inherited an abundance an at least a worldly abundance of and through that abundance he he enjoyed a certain amount of of worldly Comfort through possessions and the security that uh that that kind of Life provided for him but even with all that he had he recognized that it wasn’t enough it wasn’t
enough in his own words he wants to now inherit something more he wants to inherit something more he wants to inherit eternal life he wants to know what he’s got to do to earn it right he wants to know what he’s got to do to be able to earn the right to
inherit now the irony of it is how much did he have to do to earn his worldly inheritance just to be born into the right family right and in the right order that’s all he had to do but despite all that he has he’s desperately insecure about his ultimate future and so then in verse 18 this this is what we’re told and Jesus said to him why do you call me good no one is good except God Alone Now I said a minute ago that that that statement of saying good teacher was significant right uh that that’s the only time anyone’s come up and called Jesus good teacher uh but as always always is the case and we saw it last week as well and when anyone comes to Jesus whether it’s a Pharisee or a sadducee or just an ordinary person coming to Jesus to ask a question Jesus wasn’t interest interested in just answering it for him Jesus wasn’t just answered in giving them the yes or no or here’s what you need to do uh Jesus asks a question of his own as he’s want to do right and the question he asks is in incredibly revealing one a question that would expose this young man’s True Heart his true desire what’s really going on in him and why he’s coming to Jesus in the first place uh this is the first thing we can always expect when we come and we encounter Jesus he’s not interested in just telling us what to do I know it would be much easier that way that’s the way we want it we go to him for specific answers just give me the answer tell me what to do uh that’s not what Jesus wants to do with us he’s not interested in just telling us what to do he’s more interested in getting to the core of our own hearts at least that’s what the gospels tell us every encounter that comes to Jesus Jesus is more interested in getting it to what’s really happening in the hearts of those who are coming to him Expos when we come before him what he’s interested in doing is exposing us our deepest loves our deepest motivations what are they where is this really coming from what’s going on with you we want Jesus to deal with them we want Jesus to do deal with the situation outside of us right but then he’s always wanting to deal with what’s going on in us and that’s what he does with this Rich Young Man how he goes why do you call me good no one is good except God alone right off the the bat Jesus digs deep into this man’s heart questioning the very foundations of what this man believes what do you believe Jesus is asking him about goodness what do you believe about goodness because what you believe about goodness is going to reveal why this man has come to Jesus in the first place what he’s really after what he’s really looking for Psalm 14:3 says they have all turned aside together they have become corrupt there is none who does good not even one that’s what the scriptures say right which this man would have known Jesus wanted to know if this man believed that he was a good teacher because he believed that people are just basically good is that what you’re saying are you calling me good teacher because you believe that people humanity is good uh and that’s the prevailing belief of our age isn’t it that people basically are good and good people will do bad things when their environments dictate
that it’s the major pivot that’s happened in the Disney movie industry right I don’t know if any of you uh have young enough kids that you still every once in a while see one but there’s a major shift in that there’s no longer good versus evil and good conquering evil with good triumphing over evil in the end now it’s just evil people becoming good when their environment is exposed and dealt with and and that stress goes away that they’re really good they were basically good people inside they just were acting badly because of whatever happened uh in their lives Jesus wants to know the core motivation of this man’s heart where’s he coming from what do you really believe was he coming to him a a faithful was this a faithful gesture to the one that he believed to be the Son of God the Messiah or did he just think that people are basically good and that Jesus may have some good words of wisdom for him he’s heard this good reputation of this Guru that uh got the latest greatest uh word that we’re all going to follow
right in other words Jesus wanted to know do you believe believe that I am God is that what you’re saying because you know only God is good are you saying that I’m
God do you trust that I have the power and the authority of God to give you what you’re so desperately looking for right now what you come running for do you trust that I’ve got the power and the authority of God to give it to you or do you believe that you are good and that you can get get what you want by your own power by your own
authority and so Jesus continues into verse 19 getting at the heart of what’s really motivating this man where he’s really coming from in verse 19 you know the Commandments Jesus says do not murder do not commit adultery do not steal do not bear false witness do not defraud honor your father and your mother basically Jesus just cites for him the second part of the Ten Commandments the second part of of the decalogue uh and why did he choose the second part well the second part has to do with how uh it’s the part that governs our Behavior with other people it’s the horizontal relationships that these are dealing with and so Jesus uses these and then in verse 20 the man responds he said to him teacher all these I have kept from my youth all these I have kept since my youth he says in other words what he’s saying to Jesus I’m good I’m good I’ve done it all now notice the young man does not call Jesus good teacher again no he learned his lesson the first time right uh he didn’t make that mistake again he he wasn’t going there uh the man maintains that his conscience is clear regarding regarding God’s law with the way that he treats everybody around him he’s good now it’s obvious that he wasn’t aware of Jesus’s teaching in Matthew 5 uh how Jesus defined uh God’s law and these Commandments in particular uh he didn’t fully understand that uh if so he never possibly would have said yeah I’m good I’m good so in encountering Jesus Jesus has forced this young man to see his life and it through different lens in light of the goodness of God not as the good boy who’s always done what is right and earned everything that he has but as a Young Man full of trust in his own ability to be good that’s what Jesus is exposing in the heart of this young man who came to him uh in other words Jesus has exposed his own sin uh he’s exposed to se a heart of self-reliance and a desire to self-determine what his ultimate future is going to be based on his own good
works that’s what sin really is it’s just a desire to self-determine to in our own power through our own good works to determine what our future ultimate future will behold and that’s what this young man wants that’s what he’s looking for Jesus to affirm in him friends when we encounter Jesus that’s what he does to us
when we encounter the goodness of the Son of God it exposes our own sin our own selfishness our own self-centered desires to be good and to declare to God what is good right because that’s what we really are doing we declare to God what is good as we justify all the ways that we act and how we treat one another but then something incredibly unexpected happens s in verse 21 and Jesus looking at him loved him and Jesus looking at him loved him Jesus wasn’t frustrated by this interruption in his journey Jesus wasn’t angry about his hard-heartedness his self-centeredness his rebellious thinking and his rebellious desires Jesus saw him where he was and he loved him and he loved him the the word for love is the the agape love meaning sacrificial meaning an unselfish love a Godly love Jesus loved him when he saw him Jesus loved him even in his own sin and Rebellion that’s the second thing that we encounter when we come in the presence of Jesus we counter his love for us sinners Romans 58 Paul proclaimed it but God showed his own love for us in this that while we were still sinners Christ died for us the key words there being still Sinners not those who had figured it out not those who had become good enough to have earned God uh no still Sinners God loved us Jesus loves sinners Jesus loves us in our sin but even better Jesus loves us out of our old way of life because in loving him Jesus said to this rich young man you lack one thing go sell all that you have and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and come and follow me those are some hard words from
Jesus but we have to take them in the in this context of what’s going on here this wasn’t a general requirement of God’s law this is this isn’t found in the law of Moses it’s not even a universal uh Universal requirement that we see in Jesus Calling disciples to follow him this isn’t Universal he didn’t require this of the disciples uh he didn’t require of Levi the tax collector when he called
him in fact it Levi home when Jesus encountered the Pharisees who were deeply upset with him dining with Sinners what is it that Jesus said he said I have come not to call the righteous but C Sinners to repentance that’s why I’ve have come the young man’s love was for his money his possessions his love was for his abundance and Jesus was calling him to a New Life free of those loves that were causing him such doubt and such insecurity in his life so much so that he had to run to find Jesus to find a way out to find another way and calling him to a new life Jesus did to follow the God who loves him even in his sin friends this is the third reality of an authentic Encounter With Jesus he calls us to a new life of repentance a new way of thinking thinking in terms of repentance think a new way of living living a life of repentance that we’re Sinners who are dearly loved by God and called to give up those things that are a barrier to our life with him for this young man it was his wealth it was his abundance for each of us it might be something different but at their very core they’re the same whatever it is that makes us think that we’re good and that we’re righteous on our own and we don’t need any help from God to handle this then in verse 22 disheartened by the saying the young man went away sorrowful for he had great possessions the man we’re told was disheartened you know it makes it sound very compassionate right very kind of sweet but it’s actually the the the words I I’d actually disagree which I don’t a lot obviously very seldom uh with the translation here uh the the translation can actually it shows a lot more power in this word disheartened it it literally means
threatened this man was threatened by what Jesus was doing and what Jesus had called him to it was offensive to him Jesus love and grace for him was a threat to all that he believed to be good all that he was living by and so he couldn’t accept this he couldn’t accept this call to this new life of repentance of changing my ways of giving up the things that that are filling my life because they’re keeping me from a life with Christ he preferred his own way of being good enough the same life ironically that left him insecure and longing for more in the first
place he was
angry he was angry about what he heard and that’s why he went away he was offended the grace of God is offensive calling us to a life of repentance is challenging the very core of our sinful nature it’s a
threat then in verses 23 to 31 we get the final lesson in encountering Jesus when we encounter the authentic Jesus we find find that our only hope is in his unrelenting Grace for us Jesus used a rhetorical device uh with his disciples that uh where the disciples who were utterly astonished by all this right like they are blown away they’re like how how could you say this like who who then could we’re going to get to it who then could possibly be Sav Jesus but the rhetorical device is that if the easier event is manifestly impossible then the harder one is even more so right pretty simple uh it’s a good way of making a point and so Jesus says it’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God now there’s been attempts to try to explain this away o over the years one is that you know the eye of the needle is actually this smaller door inside the greater door that leads into a city uh and so the camel well the camel could squeeze through but he’d have to lose all of his load and everything in order to make it through um you know one there’s no historical record for there ever being a door called a needle um uh so there’s there’s not you know we haven’t been able to find that uh but also it undermines the whole argument that Jesus is making the whole rhetorical device here is it’s impossible it can’t be done it’s impossible for man is Jesus his point with man it is impossible but not with God for all things are possible with God Jesus isn’t saying that for poor people salvation by their own good goodness is possible that’s not what he’s saying he’s saying salvation is only possible when God intervenes by his grace into our lives and calls us to himself that’s what Grace is a true disciple of Jesus Christ is called by a life of repentance that’s dependent upon the upon God and His goodness alone for our salvation and that kind of life it h it bears fruit in our lives and the fruit that it bears are hearts of humility hearts of humility towards ourselves and towards one another P we see it play out in the next the next encounter right Peter uh Peter wants to claim now that he’s heard this right he he’s heard about how difficult it is well that’s not who we are Jesus just look at us look how good we are we’ve left everything and we’ve followed you Peter as usual missed the whole point he missed the whole thing but Jesus quickly corrected him and he emphasized that a life that is dependent upon God’s grace good grace alone is a life of humble service to others that’s the fruit that it bears in our lives friends as we continue to encounter the Risen
Jesus every day every moment moment may we see ourselves honestly in the light of his goodness and in the process we may we know his incredible love for us sinners and may that love call us to a New Life of repentance where we find in his unrelenting Grace a humility and a hope that we might truly serve him as his disciples in this world Amen
