February 16, 2025 • 28 mins
Martin Wagner February 16, 2025 Faith Presbyterian Church Birmingham, AL
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
If you've been here for the last few weeks, you know
that we are in a series in theGospel of Luke on meals with
Jesus.
One thing you learn in ministrywhen you are hosting a meal is
that you need to remain flexible.
You need to learn to adjust onthe fly, and Jason came down
(00:22):
with COVID this week and we hadto make a pivot late in the week
in terms of preaching, and soI'm going to preach from Luke 18
today.
You'll notice this is not oneof the meals of Jesus, but if
you will grant me the grace ofcoloring outside the lines a bit
(00:43):
in our sermon series, we willlook at the rich young ruler in
Luke 18.
Though this interaction we willread about happened 2,000 years
ago, there's a sense in whichit could have happened yesterday
, because the rich young rulerasked a question that is a
fundamental, foundationalquestion that all of us ask what
(01:04):
must I do to inherit eternallife?
What is it that I need to do inorder to get to heaven?
Are my afterlife affairs inorder?
Every religion has their ownversion of an answer to this
question, and even those who arenot religious have weighed in
(01:25):
on the topic.
In 2006, warren Buffettannounced that he would give
away the vast majority of hiswealth.
He committed to give $37billion to the Gates Foundation.
When asked about his gift,warren Buffett replied there's
more than one way to get toheaven, but this is a pretty
(01:45):
good way.
In the gospel, according toWarren Buffett, the answer to
the question what must I do toinherit eternal life?
Is thou shalt give away $37billion.
So what about those of us whohave slightly less than $37
(02:06):
billion to give away?
What about those of us whoselives are a wreck?
What about those of us whodon't want to give away anything
, who all we have to offer aremoral and spiritual liabilities?
Because the bad news is that,according to the Bible, even $37
(02:27):
billion won't cut it.
The gospel, according toBuffett, is bad news for us, but
is there any hope?
What I hope we'll see in thispassage is that there is good
news for all of us who will hearit, because Jesus says that
what is impossible through humaneffort is made possible for
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everyone through the work of Godalone.
And this passage tells us howany of us can be assured of
eternal life.
And so let's read the passage.
We're going to read Luke 18,verses 18 to 27.
Hear God's word to us today.
And a ruler asked him Goodteacher, what must I do to
inherit eternal life?
And Jesus said to him why doyou call me good?
(03:10):
No one is good except God alone.
You know the commandments Donot commit adultery, do not
murder, do not steal, do notbear false witness, honor your
father and mother.
And he said All of these I havekept from my youth.
When Jesus heard this.
And he said All of these I havekept from my youth.
When Jesus heard this, he saidto him One thing you still lack
sell all that you have anddistribute to the poor, and you
will have treasure in heaven.
(03:30):
Come and follow me.
When Jesus heard these things,he became very sad, for he was
extremely rich.
Jesus, seeing that he hadbecome sad, said how difficult
it is for those who have wealthto enter the kingdom of God, for
it is easier for a camel to gothrough the eye of a needle than
for a rich person to enter thekingdom of God.
Those who heard it said thenwho can be saved?
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But he said what is impossiblewith man is possible with God.
Let's pray.
Lord, come now in the midst ofour doubts and our fears, midst
of our discouragement anddisappointment and anxieties,
and we pray that you would showus the compassion and mercy of
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our Savior, help us to believethat his yoke is easy and his
burden is light.
And so, lord, we pray that youwould take this passage in this
time and that, by your Spirit,that you would speak to us, and
we pray this in Jesus' name,amen.
(04:42):
I want us to see ourselves as welook at the rich, young ruler
this morning, because I believethat the rich, young ruler has a
lot to teach us about how it isthat we relate to God.
I want to look at three things.
The rich, young ruler shows usour fears, he shows us our
foolishness and he shows us ourfailures.
(05:04):
So first, our fears.
We refer to this man as a rich,young ruler, but in order to
get that profile of him, youactually have to look at all
three occasions in which thispassage shows up.
Our account in Luke says thathe was a ruler, matthew says
that he was young, and Mark'saccount and our account today
tell us that he was rich.
He's young, he's powerful, he'sinfluential.
(05:27):
He's everything that ourculture values.
He is who you wish you were.
He's morally upright.
He is a good citizen.
He is fervent in his religiouslife.
We all know people like this.
They are the ones who seem tohave their life together.
They are the ones who actuallydid all of the reading for the
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homework assignment at school.
They are the ones who actuallyread the terms and conditions of
the contract.
They don't just click.
Yes, I read the terms andconditions.
They have a balanced checkbook,a clean car, an iron shirt, a
well-manicured lawn.
(06:10):
We were talking about thissermon at the dinner table this
week and my kids gave me amiddle school interpretation of
this man.
This guy is Sigma with W Riz.
According to my kids, if eldersin PCA churches were selected
in a draft, this guy would beyour lottery pick.
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This guy would be your numberone draft pick, your superstar
elder.
You can even get a sense ofthat with the disciples In verse
26,.
They ask if this guy can't getin the kingdom, if this guy
doesn't have what it takes, isthere any hope for any of us?
And they're probably thinkingJesus, what are you doing
(06:53):
driving this guy away?
This guy's got money andconnections.
He's who we need in order tomake it in life, but even though
he's got what we might considerthe ideal life.
What struck me this week was tothink about just how scared this
man really was, how fearful hewas.
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Why is it that he was workingso hard to be good?
You get the sense that there isthis restlessness in his soul,
that even after he has doneeverything that he knows to do,
there is still a fear that he'snot good enough.
He's fearful just like we are.
(07:34):
We're fearful that, beneath theveneer of our morality, we know
that God looks at us and we arefearful that he is going to
find us lacking, that we'redeeply insecure and scared.
We fear that the big sins thatwe struggle with will somehow
exhaust the mercy of God.
We're fearful that God's goingto look down on us and he's just
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going to decide to cut Hislosses, but he's going to move
on to someone who is morecommitted, someone who is more
faithful than we are.
Beneath our projections ofmorality, we are scared and we
are fearful, just like this man.
What do I need to do to inheriteternal life is at the core of
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our fears.
So let's move to our secondpoint.
Not just this man does this manshow us our fears, but he also
shows us our foolishness.
The first way that he does thatis, he shows us our
misunderstanding of what itmeans to be good.
He comes to Jesus and headdresses him as good teacher
and Jesus replies why do youcall me good?
No one is good, but God alone.
(08:41):
There have been a lot ofexplanations as to why this
seems a really confoundinganswer of Jesus, but what I
think Jesus is doing here isblowing up this man's definition
of what it means to be good.
The rich, young ruler definedhis goodness horizontally, in
relation to the people aroundhim.
His goodness was relative.
And Jesus says goodness is notdefined by those around you.
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Goodness is defined by Godalone.
If you want to be good, thencompare yourself to the goodness
of God.
You see this in the next versewhen Jesus tells the man well,
you know the commandments.
And then Jesus lists half ofthe Ten Commandments Do not
commit adultery, do not murder,do not steal, do not bear false
witness, honor your father andyour mother.
(09:23):
Jesus lists what is known as thesecond table of the Ten
Commandments.
The first table of the firstfour commandments deal with our
relationship to God.
Second table of thecommandments deal with our
relationship to other people.
And so Jesus says let's testyour goodness.
How do you relate to otherpeople?
And that leads us to the secondaspect, of which the rich young
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ruler's foolishness is exposed.
He is foolish about his ownrecord.
And so Jesus asked this man howare you doing in keeping these
commandments?
And the man says all of these Ihave kept from my youth.
He says I've done what yourequire, says I've done what you
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require.
And there's a part of me thathears this response from this
man as sincere but just mistakenor naive.
And there's a part of me thatjust rolls my eyes when I hear
this response and I think in mybest condescending Willy Wonka
meme face oh really, tell memore about how you have kept all
of the commandments of Godsince your youth.
(10:31):
What is it like being perfect?
Is it a burden to be betterthan everyone around you?
It would be like me saying inour service each week, one of us
saying in our service, when itcomes time to confess our sins,
that we just say well, I'll pass.
This week, I've actually hadanother perfect week, a sinless
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week, and I'm going to skip thisone.
I'm going to take a nap.
You guys wake me up when it'stime for the sermon.
You would say that I wasdeceived about reality if I said
that the rich young rulerobviously missed the Sermon on
the Mount, where Jesus said ifyou lust in your heart, then
you've committed adultery.
If you hate your brother, youhave murdered him.
(11:15):
And so how does the rich youngruler get to this point in his
life?
How is he so foolish about hisown record of righteousness and
so foolish about the surprisinglack of a record of sin in his
life?
He does the same thing that youand I are really good at doing
we deny our sin by redefiningthe law of God.
It's not denial, it's justredefinition.
(11:39):
We look at God's law and we say, well, it can't really mean
that God doesn't really meanthat we are to be perfect.
What he means is that we are totry our best.
He doesn't mean that we are tolove him with all of our heart,
soul, mind and strength.
What really matters is that weperceive ourselves doing it
better than those around us.
This man redefined the law tomake it something that he could
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manage, to make it somethingthat he could do.
I saw a vivid picture of this inmy second year of seminary when
a group of seminary studentsflew out to Los Angeles for a
Billy Graham crusade at the RoseBowls to be one of his last
crusades, and each night wewould walk into the Rose Bowl
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and we would pass a group ofprotesters with these huge signs
that would protest all of thethings that they thought were
wrong and compromised in theAmerican church.
This was an interesting group,to say the least.
This is the type of people thatwould live to debate theology
and argue outside of BillyGraham crusade.
But it just so happened thatthere was another group of
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people who were just foolishenough, who were just crazy
enough, to want to argue abouttheology outside of Billy Graham
crusade, and that is a group ofsecond year seminary students.
So, rather than taking theadvice of our leaders, we
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decided that we would succeedwhere thousands had failed and
we would convince them of theirwrong.
We had three semesters ofseminary under our belt and we
were scholars, to say the least.
And so we go and we engage thisgroup in conversation and we
come to find out that theybelieve that they are completely
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sinless, that a part of theirprogram was complete
sanctification, that every timethat we asked them they would
say well, they were completelysinless.
There's a sense in which thesepeople thought of themselves as
the rich young ruler in thispassage, that they had actually
done what God requires of them.
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They had sold everything andthey're living in a commune in
the woods together.
But we start asking them well,what do you do about the Sermon
on the Mount?
Have you ever been angry?
Have you ever insulted anyone?
And to each of our questionsthey had a way of redefining the
law of God.
They would say well, the Bibledoesn't really say that, because
you don't read it in the KingJames Version like we do, or you
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haven't received a vision fromGod that we've received that
says we can do this or that.
At each turn they redefinedwhat it meant to be good and
they made it fit their ownrecord.
But are we any different?
I know that I have thattendency as well To define my
goodness relative to those whoare around me At least.
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I'm not as bad as that guy.
My life is a wreck, but it'sslightly less of a wreck than
the person sitting next to me.
We use fuzzy math when it comesto making up our own
righteousness, creating anequation of righteousness.
I know my life is a mess inthis one area, but I more than
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make up for it in this otherarea.
Wherever we are at estimatingour own goodness, we can always
find someone who's further downthan we are.
We can be just like the richyoung ruler in the Billy Graham
protester.
We can change the law to makeit doable.
You may have seen that SaturdayNight Live is celebrating their
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50th anniversary this weekendand in those 50 years they have
not done a lot of sketches onencounters with Jesus.
They have not done a lot ofsketches on encounters with
Jesus, but they actually havedone one on this passage.
In the 22nd season in 1996,they did a skit on the rich
young ruler.
That is just too funny and tootrue to pass up.
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So I will read the script ofthe skit from Saturday Night
Live Hello, I'm John Hayward,president of the Hayward
Foundation, and I'm a verywealthy man.
I'm worth billions and alwayshave been, but I haven't always
been a man with a conscience.
I thought my money was all Ineeded to be happy, but that
changed one day when I cameacross this book, the Bible, and
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I saw where it said it iseasier for a camel to pass
through the eye of a needle thanfor a rich man to enter the
kingdom of heaven.
That passage changed my life.
It moved me to start putting myriches towards a worthy cause,
and that's why I established theHayward Foundation for the
development of a way to make iteasy for a camel to pass through
a needle's eye.
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I'm not going to hell if mybillions have anything to say
about it.
We are doing God's work here atthe Hayward Foundation.
I found all these cancerresearchers made them stop
whatever it is they were doingand devote their energies to
trying to force these camelsthrough needles, just like it
says in the Bible.
I know it sounds impossible,but we have made a lot of
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progress.
We started small.
We tried to cram a horsethrough a drinking straw.
The result was pretty ugly andcompletely unsuccessful, but we
learned a lot.
Next we tried pureeing a camelinto a thin liquid, then pouring
the camel through the eye ofthe needle.
Sure enough, the liquid camelwill pass through the needle.
But we think that might becheating and we are consulting
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our lawyers.
But a liquid camel is only partof it.
I've also invested millions ofdollars to build very large
needles in very small camels.
Unless I've completely missedthe message of the Bible
somewhere in here is my ticketto heaven.
So we're working on a beautifulfuture.
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Here at the Hayward Foundation,we dream of a day when camels
pass willy-nilly through the eyeof needles, while billionaire
industrialists like myself canlook towards an eternity spent
in the pure white light ofheaven.
And if we can't get the camelthrough the needle, we have
another plan.
We're prepared to spendmillions to get that part taken
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out of the Bible.
Don't worry about me.
While that passage or that skitis humorous, it's not far from
reality.
Just like John Hayward and therich young ruler, we can be the
fool when it comes to our ownrecord.
We think that we can makereally small camels and really
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big needles, and God will bepleased with us.
We think that Christianity isjust an enhancement to our
otherwise good life.
We think Christianity is just aprogram of scorekeeping, a game
of winners and losers, of haveand have-nots.
But this man doesn't get it andwe don't get it either.
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We are fools in regard to ourgoodness and our record.
And to expose this foolishness,jesus shows him his failure
which brings us to our third andour record.
And to expose this foolishness,jesus shows him his failure,
which brings us to our thirdpoint today.
After the man responds that hehas kept the law since his youth
, jesus says you lack one thing.
Since you are really good atlaw keeping, why don't you try
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this on for size?
Go and sell everything that youhave.
Give it to the poor.
You'll have treasure in heavenand come and follow me.
Jesus exposes what this manlacks, and the rich young ruler
decides that the price is toohigh.
He is disheartened and he goesaway, sorrowful because he was
very rich.
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In reality, this was a man whowas possessed by his possessions
.
What he owned owned him, and hewalks away from Jesus very sad.
This is a man who built hislife around being very good and
finally he realizes that he hasfailed, and so, at this point, a
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lot of sermons on this textwill take this turn To go down
the road.
If you want to be really good,then go sell everything you have
and follow Jesus.
Or, corollary, what is the onething in your life that is
standing between you and God?
For this man, it was money.
What is it for you?
Give away what you love most inlife and go and follow Jesus.
(20:09):
While it is true.
God owns everything.
We are commanded to be generous.
Following Jesus meansself-denial and sacrifice.
I don't think that's the majorpoint of what Jesus is trying to
tell us in this passage.
The first thing that we takeaway is that you and I need to
be better rich young rulers,because that's falling into the
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exact same trap that this guywas in.
And besides, who can really dothat?
Is that the good news that youand I really need?
Jesus is not telling the richyoung ruler you need more
goodness.
What he's actually saying isyou need to come to grips with
your badness.
How did the rich young rulerfail?
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He failed in his understandingof his sin, in his understanding
of the need of a Savior.
Jesus is wrecking the mask ofgoodness that this man is hiding
behind.
He is exposing how he's gottenit all wrong.
Jesus says do you really seethat what you are trusting in is
your wealth?
You think that you followed allthe commandments from your
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youth because it was out of lovefor God, but what it was
actually doing is you're tryingto get leverage with God.
It was a power play.
The rich young ruler thoughtthat Jesus needed his wealth,
that God needed what he had tooffer.
But Jesus exposes him.
He shows him that God's law isnot up for redefinition and
revision.
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Mark's account of this passagemakes explicit what is implicit
in this passage that Jesus lovedthis man.
What is implicit in thispassage that Jesus loved this
man and Jesus' exposure of thisman's fear and foolishness and
failure is actually an act ofgrace.
That God is being gracious tothis man by exposing him, by
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bringing him to the end of hisdelusion.
Jesus loved him enough to smashhis self-deception and denial.
And Jesus loves me and youenough to do the same.
How is it that you know?
When you've encountered yourown sin, when you have
encountered the law?
It's when you give up.
God's law is holy and good andgracious and it is a gift from
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the hand of God.
God's law shows us hischaracter and His holiness and
His goodness.
But the law is a hammer of Godthat will break you when you see
that you have not and cannotkeep it.
Martin Luther writes the lawsays do this.
And it is never done.
The law makes demands of usthat we have not and we cannot
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keep.
The law of God tells you thatyou are to love God alone, with
the entirety of all of yourbeing, with your heart, soul,
mind and strength, that we areto love God perpetually and
completely, not just on Sunday,not just for a period of time,
but we are to love God in all oflife.
For all of life, we are to beperfect, as our heavenly Father
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is perfect.
And so how do you know thatyou've heard the law of God as
it was meant to be given to you?
You know that you've heard thelaw when you cry uncle, when you
give up, when it nails you tothe wall and you say I can't do
this, I give up.
When you are like the disciplesand you say this is impossible.
When you are like the disciplesand you say this is impossible,
(23:24):
that my salvation on my own isas impossible as a camel going
through the eye of a needle, andthat if I am ever to be saved
it must be a work of God, thatif I am ever to be a part of the
kingdom of God, it must beGod's work alone.
You've encountered the law whenyou come to the end of yourself
(23:49):
.
The rich young ruler lacked anunderstanding of what God
required of him.
The rich young ruler had notheard the law of God.
Is that where you are thismorning, when you think of
yourself in relation to God?
Are you a pretty good person,trying to get better?
Are you looking for somethingto add to your record of
morality?
If so, perhaps in the mercy ofJesus, he will show you what you
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lack.
He will show you that you lackthe same thing that this man
lacked that you don't know yoursin and your need, that you
don't know that you are a sinnerin the sight of God, justly
deserving His displeasurewithout hope except in His
sovereign mercy.
You know, I wish this story hada different ending.
I wish that the story wouldhave ended with the rich young
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ruler turning around and comingback to Jesus in tears and
falling at His feet and sayingSon of God, have mercy on me, a
sinner.
But that's not how the storyends.
The story ends with a sad manand perplexed disciples.
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And so what do we do with thistext?
How do we wrap this up?
Is this text just bad news forus?
Does it just show us our fearand our foolishness and our
failures?
This passage also shows us afourth thing.
This passage points us to thefaithfulness of our Savior.
(25:15):
What I want us to see in thispassage is that it is not just a
story of one rich young ruler,but this is actually a story of
two rich young rulers.
What will give us hope as welook at this passage is to see
the true and better rich youngruler, the Lord Jesus Christ,
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because Jesus is the one in thisstory with real wealth and real
power.
He is the eternal God who ownsall things, who controls all
things, who created the world bythe word of his power.
He is the rich young ruler whotruly kept the law of God.
He is the one who can say withall integrity all of this I have
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kept since my youth.
He is the rich young ruler whohad everything, all the glory,
all the power, all therighteousness, and he gave it
away.
He lost it all.
And who does he give it to?
He gives that righteousness tous, those who can't earn it and
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who can't get it right on theirown.
On the cross, jesus, our richyoung ruler, gave it away for
you and for me.
He took the punishment forevery way that you and I break
the law of God, every way thatwe have failed to do what God
requires of us, and he gives us.
Everything that is His, all theobedience, all of His
righteousness, all of Hisholiness, all of the riches of
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the Father, eternal life and theglory of heaven is all given to
us in Christ.
He lost everything on the crossso that he could make you and
me and all who trust in Him, histreasure.
The rich young ruler asked whatmust I do to inherit eternal
life?
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Let's pray to give youeverything that you need.
Let's pray, our Father.
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We thank you that, in Christ,that you have done for us what
we could not do for ourselves.
We know that when we look infor our salvation, we know that
it is impossible, but when welook to Christ, that you receive
us and that you welcome us asyour beloved children.
And so, lord, take this wordnow by your spirit.
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We pray that you would use itto bless your people, and we
pray it in Jesus' name, amen.
If you've been here for the last few weeks, you know
that we are in a series in theGospel of Luke on meals with
Jesus.
One thing you learn in ministrywhen you are hosting a meal is
that you need to remain flexible.
You need to learn to adjust onthe fly, and Jason came down
(00:22):
with COVID this week and we hadto make a pivot late in the week
in terms of preaching, and soI'm going to preach from Luke 18
today.
You'll notice this is not oneof the meals of Jesus, but if
you will grant me the grace ofcoloring outside the lines a bit
(00:43):
in our sermon series, we willlook at the rich young ruler in
Luke 18.
Though this interaction we willread about happened 2,000 years
ago, there's a sense in whichit could have happened yesterday
, because the rich young rulerasked a question that is a
fundamental, foundationalquestion that all of us ask what
(01:04):
must I do to inherit eternallife?
What is it that I need to do inorder to get to heaven?
Are my afterlife affairs inorder?
Every religion has their ownversion of an answer to this
question, and even those who arenot religious have weighed in
(01:25):
on the topic.
In 2006, warren Buffettannounced that he would give
away the vast majority of hiswealth.
He committed to give $37billion to the Gates Foundation.
When asked about his gift,warren Buffett replied there's
more than one way to get toheaven, but this is a pretty
(01:45):
good way.
In the gospel, according toWarren Buffett, the answer to
the question what must I do toinherit eternal life?
Is thou shalt give away $37billion.
So what about those of us whohave slightly less than $37
(02:06):
billion to give away?
What about those of us whoselives are a wreck?
What about those of us whodon't want to give away anything
, who all we have to offer aremoral and spiritual liabilities?
Because the bad news is that,according to the Bible, even $37
(02:27):
billion won't cut it.
The gospel, according toBuffett, is bad news for us, but
is there any hope?
What I hope we'll see in thispassage is that there is good
news for all of us who will hearit, because Jesus says that
what is impossible through humaneffort is made possible for
(02:48):
everyone through the work of Godalone.
And this passage tells us howany of us can be assured of
eternal life.
And so let's read the passage.
We're going to read Luke 18,verses 18 to 27.
Hear God's word to us today.
And a ruler asked him Goodteacher, what must I do to
inherit eternal life?
And Jesus said to him why doyou call me good?
(03:10):
No one is good except God alone.
You know the commandments Donot commit adultery, do not
murder, do not steal, do notbear false witness, honor your
father and mother.
And he said All of these I havekept from my youth.
When Jesus heard this.
And he said All of these I havekept from my youth.
When Jesus heard this, he saidto him One thing you still lack
sell all that you have anddistribute to the poor, and you
will have treasure in heaven.
(03:30):
Come and follow me.
When Jesus heard these things,he became very sad, for he was
extremely rich.
Jesus, seeing that he hadbecome sad, said how difficult
it is for those who have wealthto enter the kingdom of God, for
it is easier for a camel to gothrough the eye of a needle than
for a rich person to enter thekingdom of God.
Those who heard it said thenwho can be saved?
(03:54):
But he said what is impossiblewith man is possible with God.
Let's pray.
Lord, come now in the midst ofour doubts and our fears, midst
of our discouragement anddisappointment and anxieties,
and we pray that you would showus the compassion and mercy of
(04:18):
our Savior, help us to believethat his yoke is easy and his
burden is light.
And so, lord, we pray that youwould take this passage in this
time and that, by your Spirit,that you would speak to us, and
we pray this in Jesus' name,amen.
(04:42):
I want us to see ourselves as welook at the rich, young ruler
this morning, because I believethat the rich, young ruler has a
lot to teach us about how it isthat we relate to God.
I want to look at three things.
The rich, young ruler shows usour fears, he shows us our
foolishness and he shows us ourfailures.
(05:04):
So first, our fears.
We refer to this man as a rich,young ruler, but in order to
get that profile of him, youactually have to look at all
three occasions in which thispassage shows up.
Our account in Luke says thathe was a ruler, matthew says
that he was young, and Mark'saccount and our account today
tell us that he was rich.
He's young, he's powerful, he'sinfluential.
(05:27):
He's everything that ourculture values.
He is who you wish you were.
He's morally upright.
He is a good citizen.
He is fervent in his religiouslife.
We all know people like this.
They are the ones who seem tohave their life together.
They are the ones who actuallydid all of the reading for the
(05:49):
homework assignment at school.
They are the ones who actuallyread the terms and conditions of
the contract.
They don't just click.
Yes, I read the terms andconditions.
They have a balanced checkbook,a clean car, an iron shirt, a
well-manicured lawn.
(06:10):
We were talking about thissermon at the dinner table this
week and my kids gave me amiddle school interpretation of
this man.
This guy is Sigma with W Riz.
According to my kids, if eldersin PCA churches were selected
in a draft, this guy would beyour lottery pick.
(06:32):
This guy would be your numberone draft pick, your superstar
elder.
You can even get a sense ofthat with the disciples In verse
26,.
They ask if this guy can't getin the kingdom, if this guy
doesn't have what it takes, isthere any hope for any of us?
And they're probably thinkingJesus, what are you doing
(06:53):
driving this guy away?
This guy's got money andconnections.
He's who we need in order tomake it in life, but even though
he's got what we might considerthe ideal life.
What struck me this week was tothink about just how scared this
man really was, how fearful hewas.
(07:14):
Why is it that he was workingso hard to be good?
You get the sense that there isthis restlessness in his soul,
that even after he has doneeverything that he knows to do,
there is still a fear that he'snot good enough.
He's fearful just like we are.
(07:34):
We're fearful that, beneath theveneer of our morality, we know
that God looks at us and we arefearful that he is going to
find us lacking, that we'redeeply insecure and scared.
We fear that the big sins thatwe struggle with will somehow
exhaust the mercy of God.
We're fearful that God's goingto look down on us and he's just
(07:58):
going to decide to cut Hislosses, but he's going to move
on to someone who is morecommitted, someone who is more
faithful than we are.
Beneath our projections ofmorality, we are scared and we
are fearful, just like this man.
What do I need to do to inheriteternal life is at the core of
(08:20):
our fears.
So let's move to our secondpoint.
Not just this man does this manshow us our fears, but he also
shows us our foolishness.
The first way that he does thatis, he shows us our
misunderstanding of what itmeans to be good.
He comes to Jesus and headdresses him as good teacher
and Jesus replies why do youcall me good?
No one is good, but God alone.
(08:41):
There have been a lot ofexplanations as to why this
seems a really confoundinganswer of Jesus, but what I
think Jesus is doing here isblowing up this man's definition
of what it means to be good.
The rich, young ruler definedhis goodness horizontally, in
relation to the people aroundhim.
His goodness was relative.
And Jesus says goodness is notdefined by those around you.
(09:02):
Goodness is defined by Godalone.
If you want to be good, thencompare yourself to the goodness
of God.
You see this in the next versewhen Jesus tells the man well,
you know the commandments.
And then Jesus lists half ofthe Ten Commandments Do not
commit adultery, do not murder,do not steal, do not bear false
witness, honor your father andyour mother.
(09:23):
Jesus lists what is known as thesecond table of the Ten
Commandments.
The first table of the firstfour commandments deal with our
relationship to God.
Second table of thecommandments deal with our
relationship to other people.
And so Jesus says let's testyour goodness.
How do you relate to otherpeople?
And that leads us to the secondaspect, of which the rich young
(09:44):
ruler's foolishness is exposed.
He is foolish about his ownrecord.
And so Jesus asked this man howare you doing in keeping these
commandments?
And the man says all of these Ihave kept from my youth.
He says I've done what yourequire, says I've done what you
(10:09):
require.
And there's a part of me thathears this response from this
man as sincere but just mistakenor naive.
And there's a part of me thatjust rolls my eyes when I hear
this response and I think in mybest condescending Willy Wonka
meme face oh really, tell memore about how you have kept all
of the commandments of Godsince your youth.
(10:31):
What is it like being perfect?
Is it a burden to be betterthan everyone around you?
It would be like me saying inour service each week, one of us
saying in our service, when itcomes time to confess our sins,
that we just say well, I'll pass.
This week, I've actually hadanother perfect week, a sinless
(10:53):
week, and I'm going to skip thisone.
I'm going to take a nap.
You guys wake me up when it'stime for the sermon.
You would say that I wasdeceived about reality if I said
that the rich young rulerobviously missed the Sermon on
the Mount, where Jesus said ifyou lust in your heart, then
you've committed adultery.
If you hate your brother, youhave murdered him.
(11:15):
And so how does the rich youngruler get to this point in his
life?
How is he so foolish about hisown record of righteousness and
so foolish about the surprisinglack of a record of sin in his
life?
He does the same thing that youand I are really good at doing
we deny our sin by redefiningthe law of God.
It's not denial, it's justredefinition.
(11:39):
We look at God's law and we say, well, it can't really mean
that God doesn't really meanthat we are to be perfect.
What he means is that we are totry our best.
He doesn't mean that we are tolove him with all of our heart,
soul, mind and strength.
What really matters is that weperceive ourselves doing it
better than those around us.
This man redefined the law tomake it something that he could
(12:01):
manage, to make it somethingthat he could do.
I saw a vivid picture of this inmy second year of seminary when
a group of seminary studentsflew out to Los Angeles for a
Billy Graham crusade at the RoseBowls to be one of his last
crusades, and each night wewould walk into the Rose Bowl
(12:21):
and we would pass a group ofprotesters with these huge signs
that would protest all of thethings that they thought were
wrong and compromised in theAmerican church.
This was an interesting group,to say the least.
This is the type of people thatwould live to debate theology
and argue outside of BillyGraham crusade.
But it just so happened thatthere was another group of
(12:44):
people who were just foolishenough, who were just crazy
enough, to want to argue abouttheology outside of Billy Graham
crusade, and that is a group ofsecond year seminary students.
So, rather than taking theadvice of our leaders, we
(13:04):
decided that we would succeedwhere thousands had failed and
we would convince them of theirwrong.
We had three semesters ofseminary under our belt and we
were scholars, to say the least.
And so we go and we engage thisgroup in conversation and we
come to find out that theybelieve that they are completely
(13:27):
sinless, that a part of theirprogram was complete
sanctification, that every timethat we asked them they would
say well, they were completelysinless.
There's a sense in which thesepeople thought of themselves as
the rich young ruler in thispassage, that they had actually
done what God requires of them.
(13:49):
They had sold everything andthey're living in a commune in
the woods together.
But we start asking them well,what do you do about the Sermon
on the Mount?
Have you ever been angry?
Have you ever insulted anyone?
And to each of our questionsthey had a way of redefining the
law of God.
They would say well, the Bibledoesn't really say that, because
you don't read it in the KingJames Version like we do, or you
(14:12):
haven't received a vision fromGod that we've received that
says we can do this or that.
At each turn they redefinedwhat it meant to be good and
they made it fit their ownrecord.
But are we any different?
I know that I have thattendency as well To define my
goodness relative to those whoare around me At least.
(14:35):
I'm not as bad as that guy.
My life is a wreck, but it'sslightly less of a wreck than
the person sitting next to me.
We use fuzzy math when it comesto making up our own
righteousness, creating anequation of righteousness.
I know my life is a mess inthis one area, but I more than
(14:56):
make up for it in this otherarea.
Wherever we are at estimatingour own goodness, we can always
find someone who's further downthan we are.
We can be just like the richyoung ruler in the Billy Graham
protester.
We can change the law to makeit doable.
You may have seen that SaturdayNight Live is celebrating their
(15:18):
50th anniversary this weekendand in those 50 years they have
not done a lot of sketches onencounters with Jesus.
They have not done a lot ofsketches on encounters with
Jesus, but they actually havedone one on this passage.
In the 22nd season in 1996,they did a skit on the rich
young ruler.
That is just too funny and tootrue to pass up.
(15:41):
So I will read the script ofthe skit from Saturday Night
Live Hello, I'm John Hayward,president of the Hayward
Foundation, and I'm a verywealthy man.
I'm worth billions and alwayshave been, but I haven't always
been a man with a conscience.
I thought my money was all Ineeded to be happy, but that
changed one day when I cameacross this book, the Bible, and
(16:05):
I saw where it said it iseasier for a camel to pass
through the eye of a needle thanfor a rich man to enter the
kingdom of heaven.
That passage changed my life.
It moved me to start putting myriches towards a worthy cause,
and that's why I established theHayward Foundation for the
development of a way to make iteasy for a camel to pass through
a needle's eye.
(16:25):
I'm not going to hell if mybillions have anything to say
about it.
We are doing God's work here atthe Hayward Foundation.
I found all these cancerresearchers made them stop
whatever it is they were doingand devote their energies to
trying to force these camelsthrough needles, just like it
says in the Bible.
I know it sounds impossible,but we have made a lot of
(16:47):
progress.
We started small.
We tried to cram a horsethrough a drinking straw.
The result was pretty ugly andcompletely unsuccessful, but we
learned a lot.
Next we tried pureeing a camelinto a thin liquid, then pouring
the camel through the eye ofthe needle.
Sure enough, the liquid camelwill pass through the needle.
But we think that might becheating and we are consulting
(17:10):
our lawyers.
But a liquid camel is only partof it.
I've also invested millions ofdollars to build very large
needles in very small camels.
Unless I've completely missedthe message of the Bible
somewhere in here is my ticketto heaven.
So we're working on a beautifulfuture.
(17:32):
Here at the Hayward Foundation,we dream of a day when camels
pass willy-nilly through the eyeof needles, while billionaire
industrialists like myself canlook towards an eternity spent
in the pure white light ofheaven.
And if we can't get the camelthrough the needle, we have
another plan.
We're prepared to spendmillions to get that part taken
(17:52):
out of the Bible.
Don't worry about me.
While that passage or that skitis humorous, it's not far from
reality.
Just like John Hayward and therich young ruler, we can be the
fool when it comes to our ownrecord.
We think that we can makereally small camels and really
(18:16):
big needles, and God will bepleased with us.
We think that Christianity isjust an enhancement to our
otherwise good life.
We think Christianity is just aprogram of scorekeeping, a game
of winners and losers, of haveand have-nots.
But this man doesn't get it andwe don't get it either.
(18:40):
We are fools in regard to ourgoodness and our record.
And to expose this foolishness,jesus shows him his failure
which brings us to our third andour record.
And to expose this foolishness,jesus shows him his failure,
which brings us to our thirdpoint today.
After the man responds that hehas kept the law since his youth
, jesus says you lack one thing.
Since you are really good atlaw keeping, why don't you try
(19:00):
this on for size?
Go and sell everything that youhave.
Give it to the poor.
You'll have treasure in heavenand come and follow me.
Jesus exposes what this manlacks, and the rich young ruler
decides that the price is toohigh.
He is disheartened and he goesaway, sorrowful because he was
very rich.
(19:21):
In reality, this was a man whowas possessed by his possessions
.
What he owned owned him, and hewalks away from Jesus very sad.
This is a man who built hislife around being very good and
finally he realizes that he hasfailed, and so, at this point, a
(19:49):
lot of sermons on this textwill take this turn To go down
the road.
If you want to be really good,then go sell everything you have
and follow Jesus.
Or, corollary, what is the onething in your life that is
standing between you and God?
For this man, it was money.
What is it for you?
Give away what you love most inlife and go and follow Jesus.
(20:09):
While it is true.
God owns everything.
We are commanded to be generous.
Following Jesus meansself-denial and sacrifice.
I don't think that's the majorpoint of what Jesus is trying to
tell us in this passage.
The first thing that we takeaway is that you and I need to
be better rich young rulers,because that's falling into the
(20:34):
exact same trap that this guywas in.
And besides, who can really dothat?
Is that the good news that youand I really need?
Jesus is not telling the richyoung ruler you need more
goodness.
What he's actually saying isyou need to come to grips with
your badness.
How did the rich young rulerfail?
(20:54):
He failed in his understandingof his sin, in his understanding
of the need of a Savior.
Jesus is wrecking the mask ofgoodness that this man is hiding
behind.
He is exposing how he's gottenit all wrong.
Jesus says do you really seethat what you are trusting in is
your wealth?
You think that you followed allthe commandments from your
(21:16):
youth because it was out of lovefor God, but what it was
actually doing is you're tryingto get leverage with God.
It was a power play.
The rich young ruler thoughtthat Jesus needed his wealth,
that God needed what he had tooffer.
But Jesus exposes him.
He shows him that God's law isnot up for redefinition and
revision.
(21:36):
Mark's account of this passagemakes explicit what is implicit
in this passage that Jesus lovedthis man.
What is implicit in thispassage that Jesus loved this
man and Jesus' exposure of thisman's fear and foolishness and
failure is actually an act ofgrace.
That God is being gracious tothis man by exposing him, by
(21:56):
bringing him to the end of hisdelusion.
Jesus loved him enough to smashhis self-deception and denial.
And Jesus loves me and youenough to do the same.
How is it that you know?
When you've encountered yourown sin, when you have
encountered the law?
It's when you give up.
God's law is holy and good andgracious and it is a gift from
(22:20):
the hand of God.
God's law shows us hischaracter and His holiness and
His goodness.
But the law is a hammer of Godthat will break you when you see
that you have not and cannotkeep it.
Martin Luther writes the lawsays do this.
And it is never done.
The law makes demands of usthat we have not and we cannot
(22:42):
keep.
The law of God tells you thatyou are to love God alone, with
the entirety of all of yourbeing, with your heart, soul,
mind and strength, that we areto love God perpetually and
completely, not just on Sunday,not just for a period of time,
but we are to love God in all oflife.
For all of life, we are to beperfect, as our heavenly Father
(23:04):
is perfect.
And so how do you know thatyou've heard the law of God as
it was meant to be given to you?
You know that you've heard thelaw when you cry uncle, when you
give up, when it nails you tothe wall and you say I can't do
this, I give up.
When you are like the disciplesand you say this is impossible.
When you are like the disciplesand you say this is impossible,
(23:24):
that my salvation on my own isas impossible as a camel going
through the eye of a needle, andthat if I am ever to be saved
it must be a work of God, thatif I am ever to be a part of the
kingdom of God, it must beGod's work alone.
You've encountered the law whenyou come to the end of yourself
(23:49):
.
The rich young ruler lacked anunderstanding of what God
required of him.
The rich young ruler had notheard the law of God.
Is that where you are thismorning, when you think of
yourself in relation to God?
Are you a pretty good person,trying to get better?
Are you looking for somethingto add to your record of
morality?
If so, perhaps in the mercy ofJesus, he will show you what you
(24:10):
lack.
He will show you that you lackthe same thing that this man
lacked that you don't know yoursin and your need, that you
don't know that you are a sinnerin the sight of God, justly
deserving His displeasurewithout hope except in His
sovereign mercy.
You know, I wish this story hada different ending.
I wish that the story wouldhave ended with the rich young
(24:34):
ruler turning around and comingback to Jesus in tears and
falling at His feet and sayingSon of God, have mercy on me, a
sinner.
But that's not how the storyends.
The story ends with a sad manand perplexed disciples.
(24:55):
And so what do we do with thistext?
How do we wrap this up?
Is this text just bad news forus?
Does it just show us our fearand our foolishness and our
failures?
This passage also shows us afourth thing.
This passage points us to thefaithfulness of our Savior.
(25:15):
What I want us to see in thispassage is that it is not just a
story of one rich young ruler,but this is actually a story of
two rich young rulers.
What will give us hope as welook at this passage is to see
the true and better rich youngruler, the Lord Jesus Christ,
(25:38):
because Jesus is the one in thisstory with real wealth and real
power.
He is the eternal God who ownsall things, who controls all
things, who created the world bythe word of his power.
He is the rich young ruler whotruly kept the law of God.
He is the one who can say withall integrity all of this I have
(26:00):
kept since my youth.
He is the rich young ruler whohad everything, all the glory,
all the power, all therighteousness, and he gave it
away.
He lost it all.
And who does he give it to?
He gives that righteousness tous, those who can't earn it and
(26:21):
who can't get it right on theirown.
On the cross, jesus, our richyoung ruler, gave it away for
you and for me.
He took the punishment forevery way that you and I break
the law of God, every way thatwe have failed to do what God
requires of us, and he gives us.
Everything that is His, all theobedience, all of His
righteousness, all of Hisholiness, all of the riches of
(26:44):
the Father, eternal life and theglory of heaven is all given to
us in Christ.
He lost everything on the crossso that he could make you and
me and all who trust in Him, histreasure.
The rich young ruler asked whatmust I do to inherit eternal
life?
(27:04):
Let's pray to give youeverything that you need.
Let's pray, our Father.
(27:27):
We thank you that, in Christ,that you have done for us what
we could not do for ourselves.
We know that when we look infor our salvation, we know that
it is impossible, but when welook to Christ, that you receive
us and that you welcome us asyour beloved children.
And so, lord, take this wordnow by your spirit.
(27:49):
We pray that you would use itto bless your people, and we
pray it in Jesus' name, amen.
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