Poor Young Slave
Notes
Transcript
Good Morning
Why do crabs never give to charities? Because they are shellfish!
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Last week we talked about being child like and not childish. There is a big difference between the 2.
Today we are going to be in Mark 10:17-22.
Today we are going to look at a familiar passage. The rich young ruler. I think that is a bad title. It should be called the poor young slave. This will make more sense once we break down these verses.
I have heard a lot of people say this young man was seeking God and eternal life. That is in direct contradiction to what the Bible tells us.
9 What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, 10 as it is written:
“None is righteous, no, not one;
11 no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.”
The Bible tells us that no ones seeks after God. So this young man was not seeking after God. We will see this as we get into the message.
There has been a change in the American church that has made us to believe that we should be seeker sensitive. That we should change and be accommodating to those who are seeking God. Well according to what we just read, there aren’t any who are seeking after God. We should never change who we are as a church to accommodate anyone. People don’t change the church, it is the church who is to change people. We have to know what the Bible says so that we can make sure and know what we are supposed to do. If we don’t know the Bible, we will be more likely to believe what the world tells us. Remember that the devil doesn’t change God’s word a lot. He only slightly twists it so that if we are not careful, we will believe what he says. When culture changes the church, the church loses. We are not here to make the world happy, we are here to serve our King. We only have to please one person, God.
Please stand as we read God’s word.
17 And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 18 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. 19 You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’ ” 20 And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.” 21 And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” 22 Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
Let’s pray
Jesus is about to leave the area and this young man runs up to Jesus and falls on his knees. We know from Matthew and Luke that this was a rich young ruler. This is important to know because of the way he is described as he came to Jesus. It says that he ran and knelt before Jesus. In that time a man of importance that was wealthy, would never run. It was considered undignified for them to run. For them to run they would have had to lift their outer garment and expose their legs. That was looked down upon, it wasn’t done especially by the upper class. Then it says he knelt. This shows he was a very humble person. None of the Pharisees or Sadducees ever knelt before Jesus. The rich and elite of this time would not kneel to anyone. They thought that they were better than everyone else. So, for this man to kneel before Jesus, that was an extremely humble sign and gesture.
Then he calls Jesus good teacher. Jesus asks him why do you call me good, no one is good except God alone. Now Jesus is not saying that He is not good or that He is not God. He is making sure that the young ruler knows what he just said. Jesus wants to affirm that He is God, and that this man knows that also. This was not a new teaching, the Rabbi’s would not let people call them good Rabbi, because they knew this truth that only God is good. This young man would have known this also, and Jesus was reminding him.
He asks Jesus what must I do to inherit eternal life? When you read this you might think, Jesus is going to go straight to the gospel. He is going to tell him to believe in Him. He could have done this, but that is how we get a false conversion. We try and get things out of order. We want to get right to salvation by believing in Jesus. That is not how Jesus handles this situation. Jesus takes the young man to the last 5 commandments. These are the ones that deal with how we treat each other. Jesus lists them out for him and his response seems prideful and arrogant. He tells Jesus that he has kept these since his youth. Now we all know better than to believe someone when they say something like this. This young man probably broke all of these that morning before he got to Jesus. We all know that we sin everyday. This young man was no different. The reason that Jesus referred him to the law, was that the law is supposed to reveal our sins. It is a mirror meant to show us how dirty we are. The Jews thought that it was the was to eternal life. They thought that you could keep all the law and be made righteous in God’s eyes. That is why they rejected Jesus. They didn’t think they needed saving. It is not until we realize that we are sinners, do we realize that we need a savior. That is what Jesus was trying to get him to see. When he told Jesus that he had kept all these, Jesus had a different response. It is only recorded in Mark, Matthew and Luke do not record that Jesus loved him. The NASB says that He showed love to him. I like this translation better. That is what Jesus did. He could have called him a hypocrite and pointed all the sins that he had committed that day, but He didn’t. He showed him love. Instead of embarrassing him and making him look bad, Jesus showed him love by telling him to do something that would reveal his sin. He told him to go and sell all that he had and give it to the poor and then to come and following Him. Jesus revealed his greatest sin, his love of money. This young man had a god instead of the God. Money was his god. He loved his money and possessions greatly. This man had lived a life of ease and comfort. To follow Jesus and have eternal life, means we will have to leave our comfort zone and go and do things that make us uncomfortable. We can tell by this man response how much he loved his things and money. It says he was disheartened and went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. This rich young ruler wasn’t looking for eternal life, he was looking for another possession, another treasure to add to his collection. This rich young ruler is actually a poor young slave to his possessions. He lost out on the greatest treasure!
No this does not mean that we can not have possessions. This passage is not Jesus promoting socialism. This is not something to build our theology on. This is Jesus interacting with one man, he was not teaching a crowd, or His disciples. He was revealing to this young man who his god was.
His first mistake was thinking that he could do something to inherit eternal life. There is nothing we can do to gain our own salvation.
Everything that is required for salvation was provided on the cross by Jesus. We can not add to or take away anything that He did. We can never do anything to change that. There is nothing that we can do that God would except in place of His Son’s sacrifice. When we try and do something to earn our salvation, we say that Jesus was not enough and we have to complete what He did.
Jesus said it on the cross, IT IS FINISHED! Our debts are paid. We can do nothing to earn eternal life. We can only do what Jesus tells us to do in response to what He has done for us. We do good works as a thank you to Jesus. Never to replace what He did.
The only acceptable answer to why do you deserve to enter heaven is because of Jesus. If your answer is anything but Jesus, it is wrong. We can not get this wrong. Salvation only comes through repentance and believing in Jesus. If we don’t first repent, then we don’t need a saviour. We first must realize that we are sinners that are helpless to pay the debt that our sin has left us with.
I believe that this is why we have so many false believers today, for decades we have preached that Jesus is love. He loves you and would not reject you. That is not what the Bible teaches. Matthew 7:23
23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
Jesus clearly teaches that if you don’t know Him and He doesn’t know you, He will reject you. This isn’t mean, this is the truth. When we don’t tell the truth, that is mean. That is letting someone live a lie. Jesus came to tell the truth, to let us know how to have eternal life. It is our job now to continue to teach what He taught.
Works alone equal hell.
Faith plus works equals heaven.
We must fist repent and then believe who Jesus said He was. Then we can have salvation.
If you have never admitted that you are a sinner, then you need to today. Don’t let another moment go by risking waiting to long. We are promised another second of this life.
Jesus taught to repent and then believe. Those to must be in that order. Only sinners need a saviour.
We all need Him
Have you repented and believed? Do it today.
Let’s pray
