Rulers and Followers

Tonight we are going to be looking at a pretty long passage so we aren’t going to read every single verse but we’re going to be looking at Mark 10:17-45. What I want us to be able to see tonight is what it takes to be a follower of Jesus. In a world full of rulers, we need to be followers. We need to be leaders but we ultimately need to be followers of Christ first. What we are going to do in these verses is look at 3 or maybe even 4 different people and see what following Jesus or discipleship needs to look like. Does anyone know what we mean by discipleship? Discipleship is something that is required of every Christian. Every true Christian is ultimately a disciple of Jesus. We are called to be disciples of Jesus and as one commentator put it, the call to discipleship involves a cost of discipleship. No one that follows Jesus does so without cost. To follow Jesus, to be a disciple of Jesus requires saying no to things that will prevent us from following Jesus. To follow Jesus means that we are dead to sin and in a sense dead to the world in order to be alive in Christ. Dietrich Bonhoeffer has a great book called The Cost of Discipleship and in it he writes, “When all is said and done, the life of faith is nothing if not an unending struggle of the spirit with every available weapon against the flesh.” What we are going to see in these 3 people tonight is the life of faith is absolutely a struggle of the spirit against everything that we once loved in this world and that if we want to follow Jesus, we actually need to do some following. The 3 people that we are going to look at tonight are the rich young ruler, Peter, and James and John. So let’s pray and then we will read Mark 10:17-22

Mark 10:17–22 NASB95

As He was setting out on a journey, a man ran up to Him and knelt before Him, and asked Him, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone. “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.’ ” And he said to Him, “Teacher, I have kept all these things from my youth up.” Looking at him, Jesus felt a love for him and said to him, “One thing you lack: go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” But at these words he was saddened, and he went away grieving, for he was one who owned much property.

The Rich Young Ruler

Who is this guy that we read about here in Mark 10? Both Matthew and Luke both record this story and in Matthew we see that he is younger and in Luke we see that he is some sort of ruler and all three of these Gospels point out that he was rich and that is why he is often referred to as the rich young ruler. This man runs up and kneels before Jesus and asks a really important question: “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” That’s a good question right? He recognizes that this life is not everything, he recognizes that the Law of God is an important factor in his life, he knows much of what God commands so he is on the right track. What is required in order for us to have eternal life? Notice how Jesus answers. Verse 18 is a little confusing because Jesus responds with, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone.” Some people will use this verse to say, “See! Jesus isn’t God. He didn’t claim to be God.” But is that what is happening in verse 18? Is Jesus telling this man, “Only God is good and I’m not God?” No what Jesus is doing is He is making this man think through what he is saying. He is saying, “Son, if you are calling me good and only God is good, do you realize what you are saying?” This man is calling Jesus good and that is a most accurate way of describing Him but this man did not understand fully why Jesus was good. Danny Akin puts it like this: “Jesus forced him to look to God for any hope of genuine goodness and eternal life. Furthermore, Jesus implicitly confronted the young ruler with his evaluation of Jesus. To call Him good is to call Him God. Is that what he meant? If Jesus is not God, then He, like the rest of humanity, is a sinner and therefore not good in the supreme sense. On the other hand, if He is God, it would be appropriate to call Him good. It would also be appropriate to worship Him, follow Him, and obey Him.”