The Rich Young Ruler - Mark 10:17-31 (Type 2)

Introduction:

My name is Ethan Morton and I am a child of God as well as the youth and young adult pastor here at Westside Christian Church. Thank you for being here and I am grateful to be with you all this fine October morning. If you haven’t already guessed it by all the younger faces, today is Youth Sunday. Most of our youth serve on a regular basis, but today is special because most of the service is lead by the youth. This provides an incredible opportunity for us to recognize the church as multi-generational and what God is doing in the lives of our youth. On the other side it gives our youth the opportunity to express gratitude toward there church family and all the folks who have poured into their lives, mentored them, and raised them up in the Lord. As I have gotten a few years older, I have personally recognized all the ways in which my home church loved on me and discipled by teaching me about Jesus. Though I learned more from their hearts of devotion towards God more than any of their lessons that I would likely soon forget.

Father, we acknowledge that without your Spirit it is impossible to hear you this morning. We ask that you open our hearts and minds to listen to what you speak through your Spirit concerning your Son, Jesus Christ. Humble us, place us under your truth and guidance, lead us in this journey this morning. Amen.

(FQ) This morning we will be exploring the question: Who will be in God’s Kingdom? Who will be in heaven? Or to reduce it even further, Who can be saved?

To answer this sincere and vulnerable question we will be spending our time this morning in Mark 10. Many of us have probably asked whether or not will make it to heaven or go to heaven during different seasons of our life. Maybe you’ve wondered if you can be saved or if you will go to heaven. Maybe someone even accused you of having a “lack of faith for even asking the question.” One of the reasons why this question is vulnerable is because it acknowledges that death is apart of our existence. Something that society is rather silent on most days. We don’t like thinking about death, and when we do it’s usual in a solemn and cold manner. Like when your watching a movie and the words the end come up on the scene, “It’s over already.” When maybe you were hoping for a bit more. Or when you get to the end and there is a cliff hanger that makes you think that the producers will make a second movie. As Christians we profess that there is a bit more than just “the end.” We believe in that the after life and that it isn’t make believe. But to be honest so do many other religions, so how is Christianity any different. Or how is Christianity's take on the after life any better than Buddhists who believe in reincarnation until you get out of the cycle or Muslims who believe that your good deeds must out way your bad to get in to heaven. How is Scriptures understanding of heaven differ from the world’s religions and cults. In other words “in the end” who will be saved? If you don’t know the answer, I hope you walk out of this building with a better understanding, not only of who will be saved, but of heaven, and of the God reigns over it.

(SETTING THE SCENE) The Gospel of Mark spends a great deal of time discussing the Kingdom of God which is just another way of describing heaven. But specifically kingdom of God draws our attention the the fact the heaven is God’s kingdom. His domain and territory. Where his the righteous and just ruler on the throne. It’s where God dwells. And Jesus illustrates to us in the gospels how one draws as close to God as one can get, the very place in which God dwells, heaven. But as Jesus illustrates and paints, the picture we begin to see may make us rethink a few things. In Mark 10:13-16 starting in verse 13, the Spirit writes

Mark 10:13–16 ESV

And they were bringing children to him that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them.

Who can be saved?

(a1) Those who have the understanding of a child.

(LUCY)

The understanding of a child is simple. Back and white. They know right from wrong. There is nothing abstract about it. When you feel weighed down by the complications of life all you have to do is look at a innocent child and somehow everything else that does not matter fades away. The simple understanding of a child reminds me of a girl named Lucy. She had three other siblings. Her and her siblings went from their home in London to go live with a professor in the English country side. While staying there Lucy ends up discovering this entirely different world, one full of talking animals, witches, and a lion that she is very much fond of. She enters this other realm through a larger wardrobe. She tells her other brothers and sister about it but they don’t believe her. Eventually the rest of her siblings, as you may have already guest, discover C.S. Lewis’ Narnia. How is it that Lucy, the youngest, discovered Narnia first before anyone else. It must have been her child-like faith, she believed what no one else thought could be real. She was the most ready out of all her siblings to take a step of faith into a larger realm that was unknown and unfamiliar. But once she was in Narnia, she understood as a child, that this place was more real than the last one.

(CHILD)

When you get older you begin to lose that child like wonder and imagination, that allows you to go outside to play as army soldiers with nothing but a few sticks and rocks. You lose the simplicity of knowing that Jesus loves you is enough. That you don’t need anything else but Jesus. Here in this passage Jesus reminds us that we must have the faith of a child, depending on him alone for our security and protection in this world, knowing that we don’t have to worry because God has us. We must live every single day in the arms of Jesus. Children get this better than anyone else. Just like Narnia made better sense to her than to her other two brothers and sister. Heaven is a invitation that you simply accept, than a paycheck you have to earn. We would much rather be a hard working adult than a helpless child, but that is what Jesus is calling us to do. In order to receive heaven we have to admit that we are indeed a helpless child.

(a2) Those who have the understanding of a child can be saved.

(TRANSITION)

But surely Ethan I don’t have to become like a child? I’m all grown up. I just turned 10, 15, 20, 30, 40, 60, 80 years old? There has to be another way that I can be saved. Lucky for you, this isn’t the only passage that talks about who can be saved.

(BART)

Mark 10:46-52 Later in the vary same chapter in Mark 10:46, Jesus is getting closer to the city of Jerusalem when he hears a man shouting his name on the side of the road, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” People around Him tried to shut him up, but he wouldn’t stop shouting, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” The man is causing quite a scene when Jesus asks those around Him to call Him over. So the men around Jesus walk over to the man and tell Him “Take heart. Get up; he is calling you.” So the man throws off his cloak, jumps on up came over to where Jesus was. Then Jesus asked the man “What do you want me to do for you.” The man’s name was Bartimaus and he was blind. He sat on the side of the road for years begging for spare change. It almost seemed obvious to everyone around Him that clearly he wants the renown miracle worker Jesus to heal him. It should have been obvious to Jesus that is what this man wants, but Jesus just asked Him “What do you want me to do for you.” And the blind man said to Him “Rabbi, I want recovery of sight.” And Jesus said to him, “Go your way; your faith has made you well.” And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way.

On the surface it seems that this man did not have very much faith, but Jesus looked below the surface. Though this man could not see with his eyes, he believed with his heart that Jesus was the Son of God. He called Jesus the Son of David which is a reference to the promised Messiah who would come and save the Jews. Though this man could not see Jesus, it didn’t stop Him from knowing who Jesus was. Not only that but after Jesus healed Bartimaus, he got up and followed Jesus. His old way of life was no more, he was forever changed there was no going back. Bartimaus saw that Jesus was the best option, the only option, and likely followed Him for the rest of his life. He knew that he wanted to be healed, but that only Jesus himself could heal him. “Who can be saved?”

(b1) Those who have the sight of a blind man.

(20/20)

Growing up I had to wear eye patches because my right eye was weaker than my left. So I would cover up my left eye with an eye patch in order to make my right eye work harder. And it was the worst. The benefit was that I never needed a costume for Halloween. The downside is that people would always remind me that Halloween was in October. So I’m doing all this stuff for my right eye and I go to the doctor and it turns out that with glasses I was now able to have 20/20 vision, like it worked. It all paid off, I could get a new costum. But that all changed one year at church camp.

It was at the beginning of the week on a Monday night and we were playing a game outside. The game was called underground church, and the premise was that you were a christian trying to find the underground church before the cops found you. And if the cops tagged you you would have to go to jail. So I was on the run, right, trying to find this “underground church” running around in the dark trying not to get tagged. So I’m searching for it and I hear some yelling behind me and it sounds like the po po. So I run behind this tree and get down real low to the ground on my stomach. I can’t see anything. Then I start to hear footsteps running closer and closer. So I crawl out behind the tree to get a look and then boom. My right eye all of a sudden starts throbbing with a surging pain, the most pain I had ever felt in my life. I get rushed to the emergency room, where I get 56 internal dissolving stitches and 6 external ones. It was until later that I found out what had actually happened. What are the chances that a girl, apart of my very same youth group had been sprinting at full speed away from red and blues when she tripped over a stump in the ground which turned out to be my head. It wasn’t her fault, she didn’t even know I was there, and it wasn’t until she hit me that I knew she was there either. Needless to say all the progress that I had on my right, shot out the window. I no longer had 20/20 vision.

The reason I tell you this story, is not for you to be scared of the dark, though I am now, but rather it seems that life can feel like this at times. You feel like everything is going great, like your making so much progress, and then wham out of nowhere you get hit in the head. I imagine in these moments, Jesus asks us the same question he asks Bartimaus, “What do you want me to do for you?” When life gets tough, we tragedy happens, or maybe you just feel like you’ve been in a season where God is absent from your life, Jesus asks “What do you want me to do for you.” Jesus wants to be deeply involved in your life if you let Him in. But you got to let Him in, you have to ask for help.

(b2) Those who have the sight of a blind man can be saved.

(TRANSITION)

Okay you say, that’s great Ethan, but I’m not like you, I have 20/20 vision, I don’t even need glasses. And I don’t “see” any reason to admit that I need Jesus to help me. Isn’t there a prescription for this kind of thing, or maybe like a list of 5 ways to start living in heaven now. I'm a little confused and I don’t think this is going to work for me, is there any other way I can be saved? I’m glad you ask, Jesus actually discusses this in detail with a man who thought that he had his pots and pans neatly stacked and in order.

Mark 10:17-31 In the middle of Mark 10, begging in verse 17, we hear the footsteps of a man running up toward Jesus and kneeling on the ground before Him. As he is panting for breath, he asks Jesus a question, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life.” However before Jesus answers his question, he responds with his own question, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.” Calling Jesus good teacher, was a sign that he highly respected Jesus as a Jewish rabbi at the very least, even more so maybe a prophet. But Jesus corrects him saying that only God is good. Then Jesus proceeds to answer his question concerning eternal life: You know the commandments don’t you: “Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.” “The Jewish boy nodded and replied I’ve kept these since my youth.” And as Jesus looked down at him, he loved him. But this was the kind of love that you have for someone when your about to say something really tough, or about to deliver bad news. It was the purest and highest forms of love that was honest to someone even when it would cause them grief. Jesus looked on Him with love and said “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.” At this the man let out a sigh of anguish, he was dishearten because he had a lot that he needed to go sell, and he left Jesus sorrowfully. Mark never tells us if he left to go do what Jesus asked or whether he went away continuing to do what he has always done since he was a little boy. But in the context of the Gospel of Mark it seems that Jesus call to come and follow is sorrowfully denied by this young man.

But Jesus most certainly uses this as a teaching moment for his disciples standing behind him. He turns around and looks at his disciples, and exclaims “How difficult is it for those who have wealth to enter into the kingdom God!” His disciples turn looked at each other with amazement, but Jesus continues…“Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God! 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.” And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, “Then who can be saved?” This echos are similar question that we’ve been asking together, “Who will be saved?” And Jesus himself answers the disciples and our question of who can be saved:

(d1) “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.”

I distinctly remember going to one Christmas Eve service as a kid. It was candle light service and we all had candles to sing silent night together. I was standing next to some teenagers that I didn’t know. After the song was over everyone started to blow out there candles. But one of the teenagers next to me took his fingers licked em put them together and sizzled out the flame. And like a kid in the candy store I was tempted to try it. So I put my two fingers together and licked em and just as I was about to sizzle the flame, I hear my mom say “Don’t” and she blew out the candle for me. I imagine if my mom wasn’t there I would have let my impulsive said of my brain let me burn my fingers. Of course there was numerous times later where my mom wasn’t there and I did in fact burn my fingers. I thought I could put out the flame on my own. But I was wrong.

And to be honest I don’t think I’m the only one. We live in a world that has a lot of burnt fingers. And if you look down at your hands you probably do too. Every time we try to face our demons alone, our sins, our battles, or struggles, or whatever it maybe, we forget that we, like a child are helpless. Those who have the riches of a poor man.

The rich young ruler thought he had his life together. He thought he had done everything right. And I believe that he was on the right track. But when Jesus lovingly pointed out the one thing that he was stuck on, the on thing that he was holding back he didn’t want to give it up. It’s not to hard when we start thinking about the things in our lives that we would rather not give up. But Jesus is pretty clear about the kind of sacrifice that is required of someone wanting to come and follow Him, someone who wants to be saved.

Mark 10:29–31 NIV

“Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”

Listen I’ve been trying to follow along, but I gotta stop you right here Ethan. And I just don’t think I can do it anymore. First you said those who have the understanding of a child can be saved, which seems a little complicated. Then you said those who have the sight of a blind man can be saved, which makes you sound a little loopy. And now if I’m getting this right your essentially saying yes. “Who can be saved?”

And you may think that all of this sounds ridiculously and even radical. But maybe that’s the point. Everything that Jesus requires of us sounds impossible when you forget his vary own words. If you remember anything as you walk away this morning seeking to come and follow Jesus it is this:

(d2) “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.”

Out of context these words sound fluffy, but when related to the cost of discipleship that Jesus is actually talking about, we realized that if were going to try to follow Jesus it’s going to be difficult and we can’t leave God out of it. You can’t follow Jesus on your own. The rich younger ruler was trying to obey God on his own terms. And it didn’t get Him very far. And it’s not going to get us very far either.

(CONCLUSION)

To echo the rich young ruler’s question once more, then what must I do to inherit eternal life?

And the short and sweet answer is nothing. Heaven is real, but you can’t get there on your own. The road to heaven is a path that you can make yourself. Heaven is not something that you can earn. Working harder won’t get you there. Your credit card won’t work up there. And neither will a good pair of roller skates.

While you and I were still messed up and broken, God loved us. God sent his Son, Jesus to do what we could not do. Jesus’ death on the cross paved away that we might know God and know Him into eternity. Because of Jesus’ death on the cross heaven is possible. Apart from Jesus heaven is impossible.

So where does that leave us. We must admit that we are hopeless and need Jesus in our lives to heal our brokenness and bear the consequences of our guilt. It’s the part of the gospel where Jesus asks us if we want to be healed and by our saying yes we admit the fact that we even need to be healed in the first place. Just like simplicity of a child who knows that they need their parents to be safe and secure, we must admit that we need God to be forgiven from our hearts, healed from our sickness, and his power to do what he requires of us.

“WORSHIP TEAM”

If you want to admit your need for Jesus in your life, to confess his Name above every other name to be saved and spend eternity in God’s presence, we welcome you to come up to the front, so we can pray with you, and help you make that decision.

(Challenge)

Mark 10:45 is a deeply challenging chapter for us and in our american society. Jesus became a servant for us reminds us that we no longer serve ourselves. We are all called to discipleship, and if you and I choose to accept, we no longer place our security and trust in earthly things. Whether it be a bank account, a relationship, an education, the american dream, a job, a house, what ever it be we consider it all to be garbage in comparison to the life we gain in Christ and the treasure we will receive in heaven. Will you prayer me:

Heavenly Father up above who sits on the throne,

We thank you for your Son who became a servant and died to save us from ourselves. Before Christ we were thirsty, but now we are satisfied. We were hungry, but now we are full. We were sick, but now we are healed. As we go out into to the world, help us as we seek to come and follow you. Give us strength when we are tempted. Give us perseverance when we experience persecution. Help us be able to leave behind what anything that stands in the way of pursuing you and knowing you God. Lord we know that belonging to your kingdom means that we will be the world’s losers. But help us to cling to your promises, knowing that you will be with us always to the end of the age.