thoughts and ruminations while in exile (1 Pet. 2:11)

Sermon Manuscript

Listen here

The Overall Context: Discipleship
As we come to this passage today, we certainly must know the context in order for us to get the point. Jesus’ dialogue with the rich young ruler is set against the backdrop of a larger discussion: discipleship in the Kingdom of God. There is no doubt that one of the central themes in Jesus’ ministry is the kingdom of God. In fact, in Mark 1 we see that at the beginning of His ministry Jesus came to Galilee saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

When we talk about the “kingdom of God,” we are talking about the “rule of God,” or the “reign of God.”1 God is the King of His Kingdom. As the king, He sets the terms, issues commands, and demands obedience. Let us never forget though, that He is a gracious and loving king who binds Himself to His people in covenant love, care, and commitment.2

Sadly, the Jewish leaders of Jesus’ day, and even Jesus’ disciples, had confused the nature of the kingdom. It did not belong to the rich, those who came from a certain family, or those who thought they could earn their way in by meticulously keeping the Law.
There is some debate as to exactly how the Jews in the first century understood the nature of the kingdom. We do know, however, that many may have understood it as a time of Israel’s national supremacy. The Messiah was seen as a political figure who would come in and free Israel from Roman oppression. If that wasn’t their view, they clearly related the kingdom with something supernatural.3

I say all that to say: However the Jews understood the nature of the kingdom, when Jesus arrived on the scene, He turned everything upside down; He completely dismantled their expectations. Let me show you what I mean by this. (Remember we are talking about discipleship in the kingdom of God.)
Each discourse that Jesus gives to His disciples on discipleship and how God’s kingdom operates comes after a prediction of His death. And Jesus predicts His own death 3 times in the gospel of Mark.

Allow me refresh your memory: In Mark Ch.8 after Peter gives his great confession—“You are the Christ”—Jesus tells His disciples that He will be crucified and raised from the dead. And how does Peter respond? He rebukes Jesus! Peter says, in essence, “This can’t be how God works! This isn’t what we were expecting! Do you remember what Jesus says to him? “Get behind me Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man” (V. 33). Then Jesus tells them how things operate in the kingdom: "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. 36For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? 37For what can a man give in return for his soul?”

Then in Mark 9:30 Jesus predicts His death a second time, his disciples still do not understand, but this time they don’t ask Him because they are afraid. But it doesn’t get any better. This time, rather than Peter rebuking Jesus, the disciples get into a debate over which one of them will be the greatest in the kingdom. So what does Jesus do? Again, he has to teach them about the true nature of the kingdom. He wants them to know what true greatness looks like in the kingdom. He tells them: And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, "If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.

He goes on from there to tell them about the need to deal with sin in their lives, and then about marriage. And then, as we saw last week, Jesus says a perfect example of someone fit for the kingdom is a child: one who simply receives the kingdom. Jesus demonstrates there that the kingdom is not something that we earn, but something that God bestows upon us.
The central message that Jesus wants to get across to us today is that: Following Christ means having kingdom priorities.

This is the background for Jesus’ dialogue with the rich young man. Jesus has predicted His death for the second time and is on His way to Jerusalem to be crucified, and this young man serves as an illustration of someone who does not have a proper understanding of kingdom priorities.

So Jesus is on his way to be crucified, Mark tells us, and as they are on their way a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, "Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
Wow! Now here is a man who appears to know what he wants. He is certainly not shy. He runs up to Jesus in front of everyone to ask Him this all-important question. As far as we can tell in Mark’s gospel, this young man does this in broad day light. He’s not like Nicodemus in John 3 who also had questions for Jesus, but in order not to be embarrassed by his fellow Jews, went to Jesus during the night (Jn. 3:2).

No, this man, in broad day light RUNS to Jesus and knelt before him. And trust me, Jewish men did not think it was appropriate to kneel before just any man. By this act he is clearly acknowledging that Jesus is a distinguished Jewish Rabbi.
And notice that he calls Jesus “Good Teacher.” Now, from our perspective, this is a polite greeting.4 But Jesus challenges this man’s notion of goodness as we will see.
So he runs up to Jesus, calls him “Good Teacher,” and wants to know what he must do to inherit eternal life. Even if the question appears to be phrased the wrong way, this young man is clearly zealous; he appears to be sincere; and he knows what he wants; he’s got a question and he wants an answer.

Sproul says, “Here is a man who is not looking for a healing or for a handout, rather he raises a profound theological question.”5 In other words, he’s not coming to Jesus asking to Him to fix some physical ailment of his body, or to miraculously give him food. He also doesn’t appear to have some ulterior motive. We already know he’s rich, so, unlike some preachers today, he accurately recognizes that Jesus is not a means to money.

But after all this, the first thing Jesus does is challenge his notion of goodness. He asks the young man, Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.
What’s Jesus getting at here? Well, throughout the OT only God is called “good” in an ultimate sense. Everything else is merely “good” in a relative sense, and human beings are only “good” in comparison to other sinful human beings.

Given that OT background about the word “good,” we can see why Jesus questions this young man. Jesus is not diminishing or denying His divinity here. He is saying to this young man, “If only God is ‘good,’ what are you implying about me when you call me ‘good?’” He is saying, “If only God is good, and you’re calling me good, you must be saying that I’m God.” But Jesus knows this man’s heart, and He knows that he is not willing to recognize His deity, so Jesus challenges his notion of goodness.

Jesus knows that for this man, He is nothing more than a good teacher. But Jesus says to this man, and He says to everyone else in the world, “Don’t call me ‘good’ unless you are prepared to call me God.” So, those who say they believe that Jesus is simply a good teacher are not doing Him any favors. Either Jesus is who says He is, or He is a liar. And liars are not good people. C. S. Lewis expressed this point best in his book Mere Christianity. He wrote this:

Jesus recognizes that this man, and many in our own day, have an improper (indeed, an unbiblical) view of goodness. And that’s what Jesus is calling into question here. Jesus is telling this young man, and by extension all of us, “You do not get to set the standard of what good is!” “Good,” and “goodness” are not measured by some arbitrary human standard. God is good, and the world is going to be judged by God’s standard of goodness.

This brings us right into v.19, because where do we find God’s perfect standard of goodness? We find it in the Law of God. 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 mother.'" Jesus turns to the source of authority that all Jews accepted.
In reading Jesus’ response, you may wonder why He would answer in this way. After all, aren’t we saved by grace? Why does Jesus say this? Is He saying that we are saved by keeping the Law? Obviously, the answer to these questions is “No.” He answers this way for a specific reason, because He wants to show this young man His fundamental error: God does not grade on a curve.

Notice here that Jesus doesn’t even list all of the 10 commandments. He lists those commandments that are a part of the second table of the Law: the commandments that deal with our responsibility to our neighbor. He also uses the Law for another very important purpose: to show this man his sin.

This is what the Law does: It shows us our sin. Paul says this very thing in Romans 7:7--if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, "You shall not covet."

The Law reveals our sin. It is intended to convict and prick our conscience so that we say within ourselves, “I have not lived up to God’s standards. I need forgiveness. I need a Savior!” At the end of Romans 7, what’s Paul’s conclusion? “Wretched man that I am!” But Paul doesn’t leave it at that. He cries out to God and asks, “Who will deliver from this body of death?” Paul’s answer comes in V.25. “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Then he goes on to give us those precious words in 8:1, “There is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.”
Unlike Paul, however, this man’s answer reflects, not only his ignorance, but the theology of his day. And he said to him, "Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth."

While that’s not the case, the man assumed that because he had not actually committed the acts, therefore, he was not guilty of them. This shows that he doesn’t not truly understand God’s Law.
He must not have been present when Jesus gave His Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5-7). There Jesus outlines the full ramifications of the Law. We see there that when God tells us, “Do not steal,” the thought of stealing someone else’s property must never even enter your mind.
He tells us that even lusting after a man or woman is the same as adultery; hating someone is the same as murder. But, you see, the Jews that they could hate someone with all their heart, and as long as they didn’t kill them, they were okay. God says that is not how it works. We may be able to convince ourselves that we are good people because we have not acted out on all of our desires, but we have done all those actions and more in our hearts. As Kim Riddlebarger says, “Our hands may be clean, but our hearts are black.”

God says our hearts and our intentions must be God honoring; God says it’s not just the action, but our intentions and our motivations. For an action to truly be God-honoring it must flow from a heart that loves God and our neighbor perfectly. And it is because Jesus knows the true standard of God’s Law, and knows what is in this man’s heart that we read in v.21:
21And 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." 22Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
In order to show this man his sin, Jesus calls his bluff. After all, think about it, nowhere in the Bible does God say that a person must sell all of their possessions. This man says he has kept the Law since his youth, but when Jesus asks him this question, we see he hasn’t kept the Law in the past 5 minutes.

He says he’s kept the Law since his youth, but Jesus shows him that he loves money more than God. He has broken the first commandment. And James says to break one is to break them all (James 2:10).

J. C. Ryle says, “With all his professed desire after eternal life, he loved his money better than his soul.”

This man is not a law-keeper, he is a law-breaker like everyone else. Remember what the point of this section of Scripture is? Following Christ means having kingdom priorities. That is to say, following Christ means putting Him ahead of everything. He is number one.
And this young man, who has just confessed in front of God and everyone else that he has kept the commandments since his youth, when push comes to shove, God is not number one in his life.

This young man is not a true disciple, he is what Dietrich Bonhoeffer would call a “would be” disciple.6 “Would be” disciples are those who “would be” a follower of Christ, but it must be on their own terms and in line with their expectations.

Again, Jesus is telling us that following Him means putting nothing ahead of Him.
Bonhohoeffer says, “discipleship can tolerate no conditions which might come between Jesus and our obedience.”7

Now, after this Jesus’ disciples are freaked out. They cannot believe what has just taken place. We have to keep in mind that, while Jesus knows this man’s heart, His disciples do not. From a human standpoint this young man had it all.

He was sincere and zealous for God, he did his best to live a holy life, he at least tried to conform his life to the Law of God, and he was rich—which was a sign of God’s blessing and approval. So, if anyone had a shot of getting into the kingdom, it was this man. But notice the next few verses:
23And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, "How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!" 24And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, "Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25It 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 Jesus to say these words at a time when riches were a sign of God’s approval, would have shocked everyone. He is taking everyone’s worldview and turning it on its head.
The point that Jesus wants to get across to His disciples is that God’s kingdom is given to those people who realize they can do nothing to save themselves. That is, the kingdom is not gained, it is received.

Jesus says being rich does not qualify a person for heaven, and, being poor does not disqualify one from getting into heaven. Sinners cannot make it into heaven; being proud and self-righteous certainly disqualifies a person. And pride, no matter how much money you have completely destroys your chances.

This is why Jesus says it is hard to get into heaven. He says it’s so hard that it would be easier for the largest known animal in Palestine (a camel) to go through the eye of a needle (the smallest opening).

Now can you see how Jesus’ point here makes so much sense in light of the broader context? Unlike a child who simply receives what God gives, this rich young man thought he was able to do what God required of him, but then gets upset when God sets the standard too high.
But you see we are all in the same predicament as this young man. The problem isn’t with the man’s riches, the problem is that he lacks the righteousness that God requires. And so do all of us.

What’s the point here? We cannot make it to heaven on your own, because we cannot do what God commands. In contrast to what the philosopher Immanuel Kant taught: Ought does not imply can. Because we have sinned against God, we owe a debt to the creator of the universe. And here is the truth that many people do not like to hear: You cannot pay God back, but you still owe Him. We owe a debt that we cannot pay back. Therefore, salvation is impossible.
And the disciples grasp this, so notice their question in verse 26: And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, "Then who can be saved?"

For all of the stupid things the disciples ever said, here they got it right. Finally they get it? This is the point Jesus has been trying to make all along: Men and women cannot save themselves. By using the commandments of God, He had driven them to despair. They had seen God’s requirements under the Law, which is, as the Westminster Larger Catechism puts, God demands perfect, personal, and perpetual obedience. The disciples conclusion was: We don’t have the power to do this!

But then come the beautiful words of verse 27: Jesus looked at them and said, "With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God."
Jesus says there is a God-given solution to the problem: And that is that what God demands of us under the Law, He freely gives to us in the gospel. This is God’s answer to the problem of human sin.

God says human beings are sinful and because of this, they cannot earn access into the kingdom, therefore, all they must do is admit that this is the case. God gives us the demands of the Law so that we will fall on our knees, throw our hands in air and say, “God, I cannot do it, I need mercy.” It’s at that moment that God says, “Receive the kingdom like a child.”
If they cry out like Paul did: “Wretched man that I am, who will save me from this body of death?” If they will say like the tax collector in Luke 18, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” Once a person realizes they have no righteousness of their own, and they look completely away from themselves and trust Christ to be their righteousness, their pardon, and their death, that person is declared righteous in the sight of God.

Notice, it is not that they are just forgiven (which would be amazing enough). Go down in front of the congregation to say this!!! God doesn’t say, “You’re unrighteous, but I forgive you.” He says, “You’re righteous!!!” Christ’s obedience is your obedience!!

This is the gospel brothers and sisters! This is why it is called “Good news.”

Next Peter contrasts his actions with that of the rich young man. He tells Jesus that he and the other disciples have left everything to follow Him. And that does provoke a good question: What about those who have given up everything and followed Jesus? What about those who have put nothing ahead of Jesus?

In his response, Jesus says that He can be trusted to fulfill what He promises. He has reversed the order of things. In God’s economy, those who give up everything to follow Christ are first. But those who think they can come to God on their own terms, and want to write God into their own story, show that they are not born again, they do not have kingdom priorities, they are not true disciples, and therefore, they will be last—they will not inherit eternal life.

Closing
You know many people claim to live by the Ten Commandments. They say they try their best to live by these and believe that God will accept them. The message they believe God gives to them is, “Try harder,” and “Do your best.” And once you’ve done your best, God’s grace will take care of the rest. Brothers and sisters, I assure you that is not the gospel. The gospel is not, “Try harder,” or “Do your best.”

The gospel is that God does FOR us, what we cannot do for ourselves.

1 See “Kingdom of God,” in the Baker Theological Dictionary of the Bible, Ed. Walter Elwell. Baker: Grand Rapids, 1996. P. 451-454. Also, see Kingdom Ethics: Following Jesus in Contemporary Context, by Glen Stassen and David Gushee. IVP: Downers Grove, 2003, p. 19-31.
2 See Swain’s article.
3 See “Kingdom of God,” p. 452.
4 Trent C. Butler. Holman New Testament Commentary: Luke. Nashville: Broadman and Hollman, 2000. Pg. 299.
5 R. C. Sproul. A Walk with God: Luke. Great Britain: Christian Focus Publications, 2005. Pg. 337.
6 Dietrich Bonhoeffer. The Cost of Discipleship. Simon & Schuster: NY, 1959., pg. 61.
7 Ibid.