The Last Will be First

Way back in the beginning of Matthew 18, Jesus told us that Kingdom Citizens look like little children, they come in their humility, in their relative insignificance, with their lack of resources or abilities to offer, yet they are blessed.

As we start off in our passage today, that theme is reinforced, only this time the emphasis is on actual children that are brought to Jesus, and again, Jesus says “the kingdom of heaven belongs to such.”

As we’ve walked through Matthew, we have seen Matthew group his writing into themes, often putting story upon story or teaching upon teaching to emphasize a point.

To some, this might be frustrating - we wish that Matthew would have written just as things happened - in the exact order or sequence.

But the way Matthew is writing is true to His experience, and it is helpful, because Matthew is telling us what He learned, as a disciple of Jesus Christ, and how he learned it.

And seemingly, in this section, there is somewhat of a theme of relationships.

In the middle of Matthew 18, for instance, we learned what to do if our brother sins against us. We learned about our relationships in terms of forgiveness.

Well, in the beginning of Matthew 19, we read about the marriage relationship, and how we view that covenant and bond that was made before God. And, it is no wonder that Matthew writes about that relationship right after forgiveness, for perhaps the one relationship that requires the most often forgiveness is the relationship of man and wife.

Next, as we see today, Matthew speaks of two other kinds of relationships. First, he goes again to children - and we will see why that was important in a moment.

Finally, we see one other kind of relationship - and that is our relationship with our possessions, with our wealth.

All of these things, truly, go back to where we started in the beginning of 18, because all of these relationships reflect on our heart. Whether it is with forgiveness, or our marriage, or our children, or our wealth, all of those things require a righteous mindset and righteous attitudes, especially humility.

Pride is a great enemy of following Jesus. If we refuse to forgive, or refuse to love, or refuse to stoop down for those below us, or cling tightly to our earnings and possessions, we do not reflect our Savior.

Some of us have very few possessions, but we may have pride, and we might be prone to cling to that like its our dying resource. Even in that situation, these lessons are applicable.

Entrance into the Kingdom is granted to those who truly follow Jesus, but that does not come without a cost.

1. The Last - Vs. 13-15

Matthew 19:13 ESV

Then children were brought to him that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples rebuked the people,

There is a purposeful “between the lines” comparison in this text between these little children and the rich man that we read about afterward.

These children were brought to Jesus, for a blessing. This wouldn’t have been uncommon, people would often request that a great Rabbi or religious leader would bless their children, pray for them. It was often done at age 13, when parents would seek a blessing for their children to sort of “graduate” from childhood into becoming responsible for the commandments.

But the word here generally refers to “very young children,” maybe up to 6 or 7 years old. And the point of this little story is not so much about the blessing they were seeking, but the disciples’ response and Jesus’ teaching.

The disciples “rebuked the people.” The people who were bringing these children, presumably parents. They denounced them. They heaped shame on them.

Why would they do that? Well, a little cultural research shows that people didn’t exactly have the same view of children as we do at that time. In our culture, we might go a bit to the other extreme, and sort of idolize our children, making all things about their happiness and contentment. But in this day, especially these young children were often seen as an annoyance.

And even if they weren’t “annoying,” they were certainly the least and lowest of society.

Now, we should note that this view of children did not come from a righteous, scriptural mindset. In fact, the scriptures taught quite the opposite.

Psalm 127:3 ESV

Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward.

The proverbs also speak of children and grandchildren as the glory of their family. So this annoyance and despising that was taking place here was not in keeping with God’s viewpoint of children, and Jesus shows us that.

Matthew 19:14 ESV

but Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.”

The lesson is simple - Jesus included the children. The Kingdom of heaven is not just for mature adults. It is very possible for young children to come to him, with childlike humility and faith, and gain entrance into the Kingdom.

We should have Jesus’ view of the children. Can they be frustrating at times? Can they cause trouble? Of course, but truly, they are the next generation of our world, they are the next generation of our church, they are the next generation of the Kingdom here on earth.

And it is to “such” that the kingdom belongs. That is, those like the children. Jesus is again making a comparison - it will be those child-like disciples who are greatest in the Kingdom, just as we saw in the beginning of 18.

The children were brought, in their humility, in their weakness, to Jesus. And they exemplified the Kigndom. The disciples, here, showed a bit of the opposite - they revealed the leftover pride in their hearts as they rebuked the people and tried to send them away. Jesus, again, brings them down a few notches by lifting up the least of these.

These children, the least and last in society, the lowest and sometimes despised, were the first - the owners of the Kingdom. Now, of course, the Kingdom truly is “owned” by the king, but the Kingdom is “theirs” in that these little ones, and the kingdom citizens like them, are the true benefactors of the Kingdom.

Do we reflect Jesus’ view of the children? That they are the next generation of the Kingdom, the next generation of our church, and the next generation of our world? That we should not despise them for their lowliness, but embrace that lowliness for ourselves before our Savior?

2. The First - Vs. 16-20

Well, Matthew then gives us a masterful comparison - for after the little children are brought to Jesus in their humility and insignificance, the entire opposite happens.

Matthew 19:16 ESV

And behold, a man came up to him, saying, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?”

We read about this man in all three of the synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. We learn a few different things about Him.

Matthew tells us first that he is just a man, but eventually we learn that he is young an rich.

Mark adds that he is a “ruler.” Possibly a pharisee, possibly a Temple official. Regardless, his social standing and wealth are important in this passage, because compared with the little children, he is not the low and despised of the world, but the esteemed.

He comes looking for a spiritual achievement, a spiritual secret. The way he asks his question gives an idea of his mindset. He had obviously accomplished much at his young age, and attained much. He thought, surely there is something greater I can do to unlock eternal life.

Matthew 19:17 ESV

And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments.”

Jesus’ response tells us a few things. One, it tells us that Jesus is already onto him. Jesus perceives something in the young man, something in his voice, in his question, that we cannot see yet.

Jesus perceives that, though he seems honest and prudent and earnest about going deeper in a spiritual sense, that there will be something to hinder him. There is more than meets the eye.

“why do you as me about what is good? There is but one who is good.”

Even with that, Jesus knocks him down a notch, reminding him that nothing he can do is truly “good.” Only God is good. He then gives him a very simple, yet impossible, response.

“If you would enter life, keep the commandments.”

Now, right there should have been an admittance of honesty. “Well, i try to keep them, but I fall short.” There would have been humility, there would have been a childlike demeanor. But instead, the young man digs himself into a deeper hole.

Matthew 19:18–19 ESV

He said to him, “Which ones?” And Jesus said, “You shall not murder, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Jesus reminds the young man about God’s law, and gives him some examples from the commandments.

The noteworthy thing about these, is that they are all the external commands. He gives the five commandments that can clearly be observed. And they are the 5 commandments that have to do with how we treat others.

He also sums them up with “love your neighbor as yourself.”

At this point, the young man was probably diappointed in Jesus’ answer. For in his mind, these were all so simple. He had kept these! No problem.

Matthew 19:20 ESV

The young man said to him, “All these I have kept. What do I still lack?”

Again, this reveals his mindset. He honestly believed he was blameless in these categories. He honestly believed he was beyond these simple commandments - he wanted something deeper, something more. Some spiritual adventure, something noteworthy.

These simple things, though, are not as simple as they seem - and as we will see, had he truly been keeping these, the next thing that Jesus says would not have been as difficult or surprising.

You see, not just in his state of social class, but even in his own mind, this young man was the “first.” He was on top of his game. He had kept all these commandments! What is the real thing that I lack?

Now, before we go on, there is a warning here to any of us. And the warning is that none of us should ever relax into this attitude of “I’ve kept all these!” when we look at God’s standards.

If we are truly honest with ourselves, even if we are moral and upstanding people, can we actually say we have kept all these? And these are just the external ones that other people can see. What about the inward righteousness of loving God, of having no idols, of not coveting? Can we truly say, “I’ve kept all those!”

You see, it is in that mindset that the pride of our hearts comes out. There is no childlike humility in that kind of answer, in that view of ourselves. When we make that assumption and assessment about ourselves, we place ourselves at the top of the ladder. We think we have it all handled, but one little statement from Jesus will knock us down. And that is what we see next.

3. An Obstacle - Vs. 21-25

Matthew 19:21 (ESV)

Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”

Here, Jesus gives the final blow. Now, I think Jesus was working up to this the whole time. I think He knew the young man would assess himself as being righteous and blameless in all the normal ways.

This, then, is what repentance would have looked like for this young man. To turn from his riches and follow Jesus. Even if he was truly “complete” or “perfect” in all other ways, which he was not, this is what he was lacking.

Matthew 19:22 ESV

When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

He went away sad. Why? Because though he was rich, the cost was too high. He couldn’t stomach it. He had just gone from the top of the top, to being shaken down to his very core.

Jesus touched the one thing in his life that represented the raw nerve, and that was his riches.

Now, notice, the ultimate objective of Jesus’ command was that the young man should come and follow Him. The discussion about the keeping of the commandments was to get him to this point. Even in this, Jesus is showing that it is not enough to be morally upright by the Law’s standard in order to enter the Kingdom. You must follow Jesus.

But for this man to follow Jesus, he would have to leave behind the one thing that he just couldn’t bear to leave behind. His money.

Peter, Andrew, James, and John left their fishing nets. Matthew left his tax booth. But this man’s greatest obstacle was, what he thought, was his greatest asset.

Matthew 19:23–24 ESV

And Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”

What Jesus says here is very telling, and very true. The Bible never warns about having riches, but it does warn about the love of riches. It never warns about having possessions, but it does warn of loving them and coveting them.

Riches and financial blessings are a temptation and an obstacle to truly following Jesus. Now, there are certainly many people who remain rich and follow Jesus. Think of Joseph of Arimathea, who used his wealth to give a tomb to Jesus in his death. Think of All the saints in the Acts and Epistles that gave generously out of their riches. Yet, there is the marker - when it came to the Kingdom, they valued the kingdom more than their possessions. This young man did not, and Jesus tells us here that many who are rich have the same mindset.

Jesus doubles down on this, too. He first says “it if very difficult.”

Then he goes a step further.

“The eye of a needle.”

Now, every time you’ve heard a sermon on this passage, you’ve heard one of two things. Either that Jesus was talking about a literal eye of a needle, or that there was a tiny little gate in the walls of Jerusalem called “the eye of the needle” that a camel could just barely fit through if it went down on its knees.

While that notion does well in a sermon, and there are great comparisons about stooping down and coming to Jesus on our knees, the fact is that there is no historic evidence that such a gate existed. And without going into any more detail, that leaves us with the fact that Jesus was using this to not teach the relative difficulty of entering the kingdom, but of the impossibility.

That is, there are things in our life which are such temptations and so dear to us that make it impossible to enter the Kingdom on our own.

Now, the disciples understood Jesus’ analogy, they knew he meant “its impossible.” Just listen to their response.

Matthew 19:25 ESV

When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, “Who then can be saved?”

Here is where the comparison comes from where we started, with the little children in verses 13-15. When they came to Jesus, the disciples rebuked them and tried to turn them away.

When this man came to Jesus, it was Jesus who, with his teaching, turned him away.

Do you see the mindset difference? The disciples saw this guy coming and said, “surely, he is a great candidate for the kingdom! He is eager, is keeps the law, he is wealth, so he must be a blessed man!”

If the disciples response to the children reflected a common view of children, then their view of this man reflects a common view of riches.

The simple viewpoint was that riches=blessing from God. Here was a man, a devout Jew, one who knew the law and said he kept it, and on top of all that, God had blessed him with many riches.

In our day, if a man like this had come up to an evangelist, the response might have been to simply lead the man in a sinners’ prayer and get him quickly to a Sunday service so he can start giving in the offering! But in doing that, we would have skipped the part that Jesus emphasized. Repentance.

This man needed to turn from his greed and turn to Jesus. But he couldn’t.

And the disciples were astonished - if he can’t be saved, who can!?

As a side note, this passage does something for us that is very helpful. Because four different statements are used that we find here to be at least somewhat synonymous.

We see entering eternal life, entering the kingdom of heaven, entering the kingdom of god, and being saved, all used in the same way and the same context. That is helpful, because we can easily be confused by all these statements. But truly, to be saved is to have eternal life, even now, and to have eternal life is to be a citizen of the Kingdom, even now, an the Kigdom of heaven and Kigndom of God are just two ways of describing the same thing - the realm in which God is the ruler and heaven is our home.

So we could reword the disciples’ question, “if this man cannot enter the Kigndom, who can?!” “If this man cannot gain eternal life, who can!?

Fortunately, Jesus does answer this in a very simple way.

4. The Answer - Vs. 26

Matthew 19:26 ESV

But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

With man, it is impossible.

Who can be saved? With man, it is impossible.

Who can enter the kingdom? With man, it is impossible.

Who can have eternal life? With man, it is impossible.

This is what the rich young man was missing. He was looking for that one final thing he needed to do to gain eternal life. But the one thing was not what he was expecting. When it came to repentance and following Jesus, he could not do it. He found it impossible.

It goes right back to Jesus’ first words to Him. Why do you ask about what is good? Only God is good!

And truly, it is only the righteousness and goodness of God that is good enough for heaven, for eternal life, for salvation. This man wasn’t 99% of the way there, just needing that one more “bump” to get him over the top. He was, essentiall, 0% of the way there - because the thing he lacked was the thing we all need. To repent and follow Jesus.

For Him, it was his riches - and probably, for many in our culture, it is still our riches. We live in relative wealth to the rest of the world. Even the poorest among us now have homes and transportation and smart-phones, and very few are actually starving in America.

We are independent, and in our minds, self-sufficient. That is the one thing that will always keep us from following Jesus.

The minute we think, “we can do this!” Is the minute we will have to walk away from Jesus sad, because he will strike the nerve of the one thing we continually hold on to.

Maybe it is riches, but maybe it is something else. Maybe it is our intellect, for many it probably is. We’ve followed the science, believed the best and smartest, and the Gospel is just too simplistic for us.

For some, maybe it is lust. For some, maybe it is anger. For some, maybe it is just simple pride.

There is always a nerve right where our sin meets repentance, and Jesus will always touch that nerve if we come to him and try to avoid it. And we will find, on our own strength, that what it takes to be a disciple, to enter the Kingdom, to be saved, is too much for us. It is impossible.

But with God, all things are possible.

2 Timothy 2:24–26 ESV

And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.

Peter, before the High Priests and Sadducees.

Acts 5:30–31 ESV

The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.

Of the Gentiles receving the Holy Spirit.

Acts 11:18 ESV

When they heard these things they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.”

Do you see that? Whether it is our enemy, or whether it is Jew or Gentile, with man it is impossible to be saved, but with God it is possible.

His grace can grant repentance to the least and the greatest. To the worst of the worst, and to the seemingly righteous. We all have that need before the Lord.

In our flesh, we probably have all looked at someone and said “i just can’t see how they could ever be saved.” But the fact is, we all must look at ourselves and say, “I just can’t see how I could ever be saved!”

That is what the Disciples were saying - if this man can’t be a disciple, how can we!?

But with God, this is possible. By His grace, he grants this.

Has Jesus struck a nerve in you, where your sin or your pride comes up against repentance? Do you feel that it would be impossible to give that thing over to Him? It might be impossible , in fact, it probably is for you. But with God, it is possible. His Grace is so powerful and strong, it can overcome even to tightest grasp of our sinful pride and flesh. He can make a weeping lowly disciple out of the biggest and stubbornest tough guy. He can bring the strong to their knees, and he can exalt the littlest child to His very Kingdom. This is God’s grace.

What is it that you are holding on to in coming to Christ? Is it your pride? Is it your lust? Is it your riches?

Proverbs 11:4 ESV

Riches do not profit in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death.

You could insert any thing in that wisdom - “lust does not profit in the day of wrath...”

“Anger does not profil in the day of wrath...”

“Pride does not profit in the day of wrath...”

What is it, dear one? Have you avoided coming to Christ because it seems impossible? It is, but by His grace, it is not!

5. A Promise - Vs. 27-30

The cost may seem high, it certainly did to that rich young man. But a true follower of Jesus will not lack for any good thing. Whatever we give up in coming to Christ will be long forgotten in the abundance of blessings.

Read 27-30

Those who were low, will rule with Jesus.

Those who gave up, will receive.

When mark tells this story, he emphasizes that the blessings will be in this life and the next. In this life, they will come with persecutions, but they will be blessings nonetheless.

Jesus is using hyperbole here. If we twist this, as many have, we can turn the Gospel into a “get rich quick” pitch. You see that from some of the television preachers. “Sow a seed and reap a blessing!” seems to be the one draw for many people, but that simply reveals the greed that we need to repent of.

But rather, those who truly give up all for Christ will be blessed beyond measure. It may not be 100 times what we gave up in dollar amount, but following Jesus with little is 100 times, infinite times more blessed than walking away with our riches, but sad.

And truly, the greatest gift and inheritance, is eternal life. Salvation. Entrance into the Kingdom. A reality now, fulness later.

Psalm 37:16–17 (ESV)

Better is the little that the righteous has

than the abundance of many wicked.

For the arms of the wicked shall be broken,

but the Lord upholds the righteous.

Which sounds much like Jesus words at the end of this chapter.

Matthew 19:30 ESV

But many who are first will be last, and the last first.

Like the little children, who are last in society, but first in the Kingdom, and the rich young man, who was first in his own mind, but denied entrance on his terms.

What is it that Christ would have you lay down? Do you find it impossible? Come to Him, and find His Grace strong enough to break the tightest grip of the flesh, and be set free.