Sermon Tone Analysis

WHAT GOOD DEED MUST I DO TO INHERIT ETERNAL LIFE?

Introduction

We learn about the rich young man, who comes to Jesus with a question, WHT GOOD DEED MUST I DO TO INHERIT ETERNAL LIFE?

Verse 16-17

Before we go further examining this question may I ask each of you a question, what will you ask Jesus if you had an opportunity today to meet him.

This man’s question is very interesting and we need to think about what we would ask Jesus, if we had an opportunity to meet him today.

From this question we can have a fair understanding that he knows what is eternal life otherwise he wouldn’t ask only about eternal life or he was listening to the sermons of Jesus.

He didn’t have the proper knowledge of what is eternal life?

He was consumed by the power of his riches, and he understood that his good deeds will allow him to obtain eternal life, from his question we can also understand that he assumed that eternal life cannot be bought so by good deeds one can attain eternal life.

The man sincerely believed that he had obeyed all these commandments, yet he felt that something was lacking.

· The powerful lesson here is that even if a person could keep all these commandments perfectly, which this man claimed to have done, there would still be a lack of assurance of salvation.

The answer was that keeping the commandments perfectly could not save anyone—for obedience is not a matter of law keeping, it is a matter of the heart.

This was a mind-bending revelation to this young man and to all of Jesus’ listeners.

· So we see Jesus exposing his major problem – and we will be looking at this portion to expose what is good that we need to do to have eternal life.

Jesus teaches us here the matter of the human problem .i.e.

we as individuals cannot do anything good or perfect because of the aspect of sin, and Jesus first points out that the person needs to follow the law, because the law guides a person to convict his/ her to what is sin.

· The words of Jesus states very clearly that if you are the child of God and if you want to be mature or fully grown understand and follow the law.

The man said he had never once broken any of the laws Jesus mentioned, so he may have felt that he had attained a certain level of perfection.

But the law was not the standard of perfection, God was.

Jesus lovingly broke through the man’s pride by pointing out that despite his self-proclaimed obedience, he still had a long way to go in understanding what God desired.

· Jesus told him, “Sell all you have and give the money to the poor.”

This challenge exposed the barrier that could keep this man out of the Kingdom: his love of money.

Jesus was breaking the man’s understanding by asking him do you truly love God? do you really desire to possess eternal life?

The man thought he needed to do more to get close to God and be a follower of Jesus.

Verse 18 and 19 - What we need to understand here that Jesus teaching us that how we need to see the attitude of obedience towards Jesus.

The man thought he needed to do more; Jesus explained that there was plenty more he could do, but not in order to obtain eternal life.

Instead, he needed an attitude adjustment toward his wealth.

By putting his treasure in heaven and following Jesus along the road of selflessness and service to others, the man could be assured of his eternal destiny.

Activities don’t help you to achieve but eternal life in Christ can only be possible by knowing who God Is to our lives.

When Jesus, replies to the second question verse 20 of the man Jesus pin points to him with this statement verse 21 - sell of your property – Jesus breaks him to tell him that your heart is not with God

The reason the person, found it difficult was for him eternal life was one of the man possessions he got with money and he didn’t want eternal life personally.

Jesus identified the problem and then confronted the person.

I put this question in front of you all tonight – why do you need eternal life?

many times we feel security in the strength of our earned money and education and position – but Jesus tonight asks us this question do you really need eternal life and why do you need it.

Just as we take it seriously to accept our Saviour in the same manner we need to see the seriousness of eternal life with Christ.

Let us see what happened to him verse 22 - the person was sad because his wealth gave him security and a identity in the society.

Now the person felt it hard to leave these two and fully depened on Jesus, the person took security and assurance under the shade of material riches..

Verse 23-24 Jesus teaches how we need to aim our lives as children of God on this earth aiming for our lives with perfection from above.

Jesus is not teaching about selling of your possession here but he raises the attention on the topic of how we need to personally understand the significance of eternal life.

Wealth can be a stumbling block.

When our physical needs are met we feel that we are perfect, but the scriptures reminds that every good thing is from above and should move our lives forward with that attitude.

We come to beauty of the question or the answer of Jesus – what is being saved?

, it is not just the rich who have difficulty, for salvation is not possible for anyone from a human standpoint.

No one can be saved by his or her wealth, achievements, talents, or good deeds: Humanly speaking, it is impossible.

But the situation is not hopeless, for God has an entirely different plan: With God everything is possible.

Salvation cannot be earned; God gives it to us as a gift.

Verse 25-26 - with man this is impossible but with God all things are possible