All We Need Is Faith In Jesus | Mark 10

Y’all can go ahead and turn in your Bibles to Mark 10.

So a couple weeks ago I decided to take my car to get an inspection done on it. It was long overdue. I had already waited years to get it inspected and I knew it needed to be taken a look at. And there’s a guy at our church that works at a mechanic shop so I thought I’d take my car over to where he works and have him inspect it. So I did. And I was not ready to hear exactly how much would need to be repaired.

Over the course of a couple weeks, I found out that I needed to get all four tired replaced (which ain’t cheap by the way), spark plugs needed to be replaced, my brake pads needed to be replaced, my purge valve needed to be replaced, and the most expensive repair of them all I needed to replace my water pump.

And I just sat there thinking about it one night and thought to myself, “My car seemed like it was fine before I got it inspected. How could it need all these repairs done on it?”

And even though I wasn’t happy about it cause it costs a lot of money, I started getting the repairs done on it. And I plan to continue slowly getting those repairs done on my car until they’re all done.

Now I wanna ask y’all. If the car seemed like it was fine before I got the inspection done, why would I pay for these repairs on my car?

I trust the guy I took the car to. I go to church with him. I have faith that he knows what he’s talking about and that he’s telling me the truth when he says these things need to be replaced. So even though I don’t see the problem, I know he knows more than me about cars. And I trust that he has my best interests in mind.

And ain’t that just so similar to our relationship with God. God knows infinitely more than we do. He has our best interests in mind. And yet we so often don’t trust Him.

And that’s what our passage tonight is about. Having faith in God instead of ourselves.

Now we’re gonna skip around a bit in chapter 10. We gotta make up some lost time from missing a day in January, but as we walk through chapter 10 I’m gonna pose 3 questions for y’all. And chapter 10 is gonna answer these questions for us.

So, let’s dive into our first passage.

Someone read verses 13 through 16 for us…

Mark 10:13–16 NLT

13 One day some parents brought their children to Jesus so he could touch and bless them. But the disciples scolded the parents for bothering him. 14 When Jesus saw what was happening, he was angry with his disciples. He said to them, “Let the children come to me. Don’t stop them! For the Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children. 15 I tell you the truth, anyone who doesn’t receive the Kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.” 16 Then he took the children in his arms and placed his hands on their heads and blessed them.

1. Who have these children placed their faith in?

So one day some parents bring their children to see Jesus so He could bless them. And the disciples are not having it. We don’t know why this is. Maybe they just thought the kids weren’t worthy of being in Jesus’ presence, but they start scolding the parents. And when Jesus sees this, He is not happy. He gets angry with the disciples and He shows them how they could learn a thing or two from these kids.

He says, “Let the children come to me. For the Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children. Anyone who doesn’t receive the Kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.” Then He blesses the children.

I wanna focus on that last sentence Jesus said. “Anyone who doesn’t receive the kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.” Why did Jesus say this?

There are some downsides to growing up. When we’re little, we just trust that everything is gonna work out. We trust our parents, our grandparents, teachers, and any other authority figure in our life. We just trust that they’re gonna do what needs to be done, they’re gonna look out for us, and we’ll be fine.

But as we get older, and y’all have gotten to that age, we trust everyone else a little less. We start questioning the motives of the authority figures in our life. We wonder if they actually know what’s best and if we don’t think they do, we do our own thing and ignore them.

And some of this is good for us. I shouldn’t walk up to any mechanic and trust every word they say because some mechanics lie and just want your money, but this really affects our relationship with God.

We even start questioning whether God’s motives are good. And whether He’s actually right. I mean one of the most common questions people have about God is, “Why does God let bad things happen to good people?”

And what Jesus is showing us here is we need to have faith in Him like a child would have faith in the authority figures in their life. We need to trust Him completely that He knows what He’s doing, He knows what’s best for us, and He has our best interests in mind. And all of these things are true.

So who have these children placed their faith in? Jesus. They trust Him completely.

Alright let’s move on to our next passage.

Someone read verses 17 through 22.

Mark 10:17–22 NLT

17 As Jesus was starting out on his way to Jerusalem, a man came running up to him, knelt down, and asked, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 18 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus asked. “Only God is truly good. 19 But to answer your question, you know the commandments: ‘You must not murder. You must not commit adultery. You must not steal. You must not testify falsely. You must not cheat anyone. Honor your father and mother.’” 20 “Teacher,” the man replied, “I’ve obeyed all these commandments since I was young.” 21 Looking at the man, Jesus felt genuine love for him. “There is still one thing you haven’t done,” he told him. “Go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” 22 At this the man’s face fell, and he went away sad, for he had many possessions.

2. Who has the Rich Young Ruler placed his faith in?

So Jesus and the disciples are on their way to Jerusalem and a man runs up to them, kneels at Jesus’ feet, and asks Jesus, “Good Teacher, what must I do to go to heaven?”

We call this man the Rich Young Ruler because we learn from this passage in Mark, from the gospel of Matthew, and from the gospel of Luke that this man is rich, young, and a religious leader.

And when he asks Jesus this question, Jesus immediately knows the rich young ruler’s heart. Jesus says, “Why do you call me good? Only God is good.” Now we know Jesus is God, but Jesus is trying to show this man that no one else but God is good.

You see all of humanity is sinful. The only truly good person was Jesus. So Jesus continues, “You know the commandments: Don’t commit adultery, don’t murder, don’t steal, don’t lie, honor your father and mother.” And this man responds, “I’ve kept all these commandments.”

And I mean, c’mon. There’s no way this man has kept all these commandments. Y’all ever lied? Y’all ever done something your parents told you not to do? Y’all ever took something that wasn’t yours? I’ve lied, I’ve disobeyed my parents, I’ve stolen things. I’m sure all of y’all have done all those things. And if you say you haven’t you’re prolly lying so you can add that to the list.

And Jesus knows this. He knows this man is lying. Even if this man thinks he hasn’t done these things, he lyin. But even though this man is lying to Jesus, He still loved him. And he wanted him to realize that he’s a sinful person. And that he needs someone to pay for his sins. So Jesus takes it a step further. He says, “Alright. Go sell all your possessions, give all your money to the poor, come follow me, then you can go to heaven.”

Then this dude doesn’t look quite as righteous as he thought he was. And he realizes it too because he face fell and he went away sad.

Jesus goes on to say a few things, but I want to focus on one sentence Jesus says in verse 23. He says, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God!”

Just to provide some context for y’all. If you were rich back in this time, the Jews took that as God’s favor is with this person. So they actually based how much favor a person had with God based on how much money they have.

You see this play out in the Old Testament book of Job. God allows Job to lose everything, he get boils all over his body, man went through it. And Job’s friends tell Job, “God must not be a fan of you right now.” But by the end of the book, Job realizes that you don’t base your favor with God based on how much money you have.

So this statement Jesus just said is confusing. And the disciples even ask Jesus, “Then who can be saved?” And Jesus says, “With people it is impossible, but not with God; for all things are possible with God.”

So the truth is, we can’t save ourselves. We can’t earn our way to God. We can only be saved through Jesus. When Jesus died on the cross and rose from the grave three days later, He paid the penalty you deserved for your sins. And it is only through having faith in Him that you can be saved.

Going back to earlier with my car. If I had trusted in my own opinion instead of the mechanic’s opinion, my car may have left me on the side of the road totaled in a few months. But I had faith in the mechanic that he knew what he was talking about and that he had my best interests in mind.

You can’t make it to heaven without Jesus. It is only through accepting Jesus as your Savior that you can have eternal life.

3. Why is Jesus the only one worth placing our faith in?

Mark 10:35–38 NLT

35 Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came over and spoke to him. “Teacher,” they said, “we want you to do us a favor.” 36 “What is your request?” he asked. 37 They replied, “When you sit on your glorious throne, we want to sit in places of honor next to you, one on your right and the other on your left.” 38 But Jesus said to them, “You don’t know what you are asking! Are you able to drink from the bitter cup of suffering I am about to drink? Are you able to be baptized with the baptism of suffering I must be baptized with?”

There’s a lot to unpack here. James and John want to sit on either side of Jesus in heaven, and Jesus responds with, “You don’t you are asking!” And basically tells them they couldn’t endure the suffering He is about to endure.

And this is true. Yes the disciples are gonna go through some really difficult things later on, but this doesn’t even come close to what Jesus went through.

Think about this. Jesus was sent to Earth. And even if you stop there the things Jesus sacrificed just to come to Earth is insane. He was God in heaven, and He chose to step off His throne and become a man. Knowing that the Father was sending Him to Earth to die.

So the perfect Son of God came to Earth. Dealt with stuff like hunger, thirst, exhaustion. and was brutally mistreated on Earth. People did not like Jesus. He was constantly ridiculed, persecuted. And finally He gets arrested by the very people He came to die for. They humiliate and persecute Him even more for crimes He didn’t even commit.

And eventually, He would go to the cross to die for the sins of those very people. He suffered a brutal death, and the wrath of God that we deserved for our sins.

Thankfully the story didn’t end there. Jesus rose three days later, officially conquering sin and death. And He now sits on the throne as our King.

And reading this passage, its so easy to think, “What a boneheaded thing for the disciples to say.” But we essentially say the same thing James and John does here when we try to earn our way to Heaven. We try to think we’re self-righteous and deserve to sit on either side of Jesus. No we don’t. We deserve condemnation. And every day that we live knowing what Jesus did for us on the cross is an immense gift in itself, but one day we will get to actually be with Him for all eternity.

And so what I want y’all to take from all this is place your faith in Jesus. If you haven’t accepted Jesus into your heart as your Savior, don’t wait to do it. Do it today. You don’t know what’ll happen tomorrow. If you do know Jesus stop holding on to your old life. Stop placing your faith in worldly things and yourself and trust in God. Seek after Him because He’s the only one worth seeking after. Read His Word, pray, continue to come to church and be in community with other believers. Let’s live each day thankful for the gospel and what Jesus has done for us.