Rich, Young, and Wrong

Luke 18:18-34

ROUGH DRAFT ONLY

Intro:

I want to begin this morning by contrasting two men. Malcom Forbes and Jim Elliot.

Forbes is famous for being all about wealth and is quoted as saying, “He who dies with the most toys, wins.”

Jim Elliot on the other hand went to Ecuador as a missionary with his friend, pilot Nate Saint and three other men. They were trying to evangelize a remote tribe by making contact and giving them gifts. Things had been going well until January 8, 1956 almost exactly 70 years ago today. The anniversary of it was this week. On that day some of the Huaorani warriors speared all of the men, killing them.

Years before this on October 28, 1949, Elliott wrote in his journal:

He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose. - Jim Elliot

You see, the thing Jim Elliot understood better than Forbes is that, he who dies with the most toys, … still dies. What position in your life do all of those toys have? What would you hold back from Jesus?

It has been quite a bit since we have been in Luke.  We took a break for advent and now, it’s time to jump right back into Luke chapter 18 as we continue our journey through this gospel account.  Lord willing, we should finish up with Luke in May right before summer.  

As we jump into this story about Jesus and the rich young ruler, I want to make sure we set up the context biblically.  This passage is the back end of a contrast.  Jesus had contrasted the prayers of the Pharisee and the tax collector and their attitudes: the self congratulatory and proud attitude of the Pharisee and the humble and broken plea for mercy of the tax collector…

And now, after that contrast, we have a contrast presented by Luke of a child accepting Jesus just as he is offered and this rich ruler who only wanted Jesus on his own terms.  

Most of us have spent our lives learning how to depend on our selves for everything so the thought of giving that up to depend solely on someone else for something as final and serious as salvation can be a really difficult notion for some of you.

What do we know about this guy?  He’s extremely wealthy we find out later.  He is a ruler of some kind.  This could mean either a formal gov’t position or not.  He could have been a ruler of the synagogue but in either case we can say he was a recognized leader in the community.  

Transition: Let’s read the first few verses again to get it fresh in our brain and look at what it is that gets in the way of this man following Jesus.

I.  What gets in the way?  (V. 18-23)

Luke 18:18–23 ESV

18 And a ruler asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 19 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. 20 You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother.’ ” 21 And he said, “All these I have kept from my youth.” 22 When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” 23 But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich.

This ruler comes to Jesus with this question. He wants to know what he needs to do to inherit eternal life. He’s coming with a preconceived idea that he can be saved by some grand action of his own. Let me caution you right from the jump: We hear this about him and think, that’s ridiculous because we say salvation is through faith in Christ alone. See, we may not say out loud that we believe we can earn God’s favor or salvation but sometimes we go out and live our lives like that is just exactly what we believe.

We tend to look at guys like this in scripture and our disgust at them sometimes masks that we need to see their folly to help us see our folly.

Luke 12–24 for You The Rich and Righteous Ruler

Notice that a works-righteousness approach always leads to anxiety, for we will never know whether we have done enough to please God in an ultimate way! In fact, both Roman Catholics and Muslims agree in their view that it is the highest presumption to imagine that we can know for certain that we have eternal life. If it is true that our good works are part of what merits God’s favor, then they are absolutely correct. But, thanks be to God, that is the exact opposite of the good news of the kingdom.

Good Teacher: Jesus doesn’t deny being good. He is so much more than just a good teacher. His response asks, why the ruler calls Him good… only God is good so if Jesus is good and only God is good then Jesus is God.

He’s flattering Jesus…

Jesus’ reply:

Keep the commandments: perfection is the requirement.

If you don’t come with the faith of a child dependent solely on God for salvation then you have to keep the law perfectly. There’s a big problem

He claims he has kept them…

since a child…

He doesn’t debate the man’s statemetn about having kept the commandments…

Jesus doesn’t argue but gives him a test…

A lot of people think of the 10 commandments as a short list of sins that they almost never commit or maybe never commit. They think of the big ones like not murdering or adultery…

The ways we break them sometimes are not doing the forbidden but by neglecting to do the opposite of the command. Sins of commission vs omission.

Jesus was gracefully showing the ruler that he had idolatry in his heart for his riches and was actually guilty of breaking one of the commandments.

Exodus 20:3 ESV

3 “You shall have no other gods before me.

The difference between how the Pharisees thought of breaking the law/sin and how Jesus explained that it goes to a heart level.

i.e. murder, adultery\

We should be careful with our understanding and use of this passage. I don’t believe that Jesus is giving a prescription for every believer to sell everything and give it away. If you take this as prescriptive for salvation then you’re back into doing salvation by works. This was a way of pointing out that God was not primary in the man’s heart. What is required is not selling all of our possessions but putting our faith in Christ alone.

salvation by grace through faith

It is true that Jesus was speaking most specifically to the ruler himself, and not to anyone else. But why is it that we are so quick to put all kinds of qualifiers on this verse, and to insist that Jesus does not command all Christians everywhere to sell all their possessions? Why do we secretly hope that Jesus won’t tell us to sell what we have and give it to the poor, but will tell us to do something else instead? Very likely it is because we would be unable to pass the same simple test. If we had to sell everything we had to inherit eternal life, would we be able to do it? If not, then are we not in the same spiritual trouble the ruler was in?

Philip Graham Ryken, Luke, ed. Richard D. Phillips, Philip Graham Ryken, and Daniel M. Doriani, vol. 2, Reformed Expository Commentary (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2009), 277.

For a long time, this is what kept C. S. Lewis from coming to Christ. He did not want to give up his sovereignty over his own life. Most people don’t. We would prefer to be the god of our own lives. This was Lewis’s main objection to Christianity, as it has been for many other unbelievers. He wanted to be his own Ultimate Authority, but Christianity would not allow this. “There was,” Lewis wrote, “no region even in the innermost depth of one’s soul … which one could surround with a barbed wire fence and guard with a notice ‘No Admittance.’ And that was what I wanted; some area, however small, of which I could say to all other beings, ‘This is my business and mine only.’ ”

Philip Graham Ryken, Luke, ed. Richard D. Phillips, Philip Graham Ryken, and Daniel M. Doriani, vol. 2, Reformed Expository Commentary (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2009), 278.

Transition:

II.  What is possible with God?  (V. 24-27)

Luke 18:24–27 ESV

24 Jesus, seeing that he had become sad, said, “How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! 25 For 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.” 26 Those who heard it said, “Then who can be saved?” 27 But he said, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.”

Those who overheard this conversation

Camel and the eye of the a needle

The people listening knew right away what Jesus was saying. You can tell by how they react. This was a seemingly impossible task…

As long as you fence off places in your life as off limits to Jesus, you will never truly trust Him.

“Some people are so poor, all they have is money.”

Transition:

III.  Is Jesus worth it to you? (V. 28-30)

Luke 18:28–30 ESV

28 And Peter said, “See, we have left our homes and followed you.” 29 And he said to them, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, 30 who will not receive many times more in this time, and in the age to come eternal life.”

“Many are ready to give up everything for Christ’s sake,” wrote J. C. Ryle, “excepting one darling sin, and for the sake of that sin are lost for evermore.”

Philip Graham Ryken, Luke, ed. Richard D. Phillips, Philip Graham Ryken, and Daniel M. Doriani, vol. 2, Reformed Expository Commentary (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2009), 278.

People who claim to follow Jesus but hold onto one sin…

fornication

homosexuality

racism

position and power

idolatry of anything

trans identity — maybe dealing with a child or grandchild…

Transition: 

IV.  What it cost Jesus? (V. 31-34)

Luke 18:31–34 ESV

31 And taking the twelve, he said to them, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. 32 For he will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. 33 And after flogging him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise.” 34 But they understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said.

This is the fourth time in the book of Luke that Jesus predicts His suffering. He is bringing it into the whole of humanity by bringing the Gentiles into it here.

It was kept from the hearers from understanding. For some reason, God did not want them to understand or comprehend what this was about until after the fact.

Salvation is not by your works. Not by your merit.

It’s by His works. His finished work on the cross.

His merit.

There is a bit of irony in the fact that this rich ruler would not give God the number one place in his heart because of his money and likely the power and position that comes with it. And yet Christ Jesus gave His very life to purchase us out of our bondage to sin. It cost Jesus His life and He willingly gave it because He believed that His creation was worth saving. Those made in His image. We have value and worth before God as His creation. But our sin separates us from God. And for the Glory of God in Salvation, Christ Jesus loved us and gave His life to redeem us.

It cost Jesus. So what is He worth to you?

I’m sure some of us have moments in our journey of faith that make us look up and ask, is this worth it? But it is.

PRAY