Mark: The Rich Young Ruler [part 2] [Mark 10:17-31

Mark: The Rich Young Ruler [part 2] {}

We look again at the story of the rich young ruler. Our focus today will be on Jesus’ response to the man’s reaction to the invitation of eternal life, and his teaching of discipleship to the apostles. [v.23-31] [we’ll read it all]

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There’s an old cliche that people use often, “the grass is always greener on the other side.” How often have you heard that? How often have you used that cliche? We laugh and joke about it but the reality is we often live that cliche out, we want what we don’t have right?

Husbands have wandering eyes, wives dream of the perfect husband, children wish for better parents, parents want perfect children, workers dream of the ideal job, while employers long for perfect employees, people look for better pastors, while pastors look for the perfect church…yet none have been found. But that doesn’t stop our covetous hearts from wander does it? We shop for happiness as if we live in a cafeteria with a menu full of choices…I’ll take a little of this and a little of that, and that’ll please me. Sin has given us longing eyes but not wise eyes. We want what we want, we want what is easy, we want what we think satisfies.

In our text this week and last week we’ve seen a man who is trying to add one more satisfying thing to his list of much, the only problem was, he didn’t take what was best. The grass was actually greener on the other side of this fence, but he didn’t receive it.

The rich young ruler came searching for eternal life, as we seen last week. He came with the right attitude of humility towards Jesus [running, bowing], he had come to the right person with the question of eternal life [Jesus], but when Jesus, who knew where the man’s heart lie, said to him sell every thing you have and give to the poor and come and follow me…the man went away sad because he had many possessions. He couldn’t give up his stuff for eternal life. One of the biggest hindrances to a relationship with Jesus is affluence.

Affluence means literally, “flowing” with prosperity. While wealth is not condemned in scripture but is seen as a good gift from God…affluence does however have great dangers, and the scriptures warn of the snare of affluence.

I did some digging on affluence [wealth] in the bible and found well over 100 scriptures on the subject. It varied and not all was bad. Many scriptures spoke of Godly affluence as a blessing, for example Exodus 3:8

English Standard Version Chapter 3

I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey

Deuteronomy 28:11

English Standard Version Chapter 28

And the LORD will make you abound in prosperity, in the fruit of your womb and in the fruit of your livestock and in the fruit of your ground, within the land that the LORD swore to your fathers to give you

I printed off a whole page of scriptures. [7 or 8 pages]

The scripture also spoke of examples of affluence from the life of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob…from the life of Job and Solomon…and in the NT Joseph of Arimathea.

While many good things were spoken of affluence there were also warnings of the dangers of affluence, reliance upon riches, over-attachment to wealth, greed for more, the temptation of money, the anxiety possessions bring, the spiritual complacency and contempt for God that comes with it, as well as contempt for the poor and unfortunate. There were several scriptures on the temporary nature of affluence…... for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world.

for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world

There was also much on spiritual affluence as well…i.e. the riches of God , And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

Spiritual wealth, , Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (

It also spoke of the shared wealth of the church and the wealth in heaven. So the bible is not quiet on this matter of affluence. Why do I bring this up, well I think it’s obvious, that’s what this whole passage is about. Will we be rich with God or wealthy with stuff? What takes precedents in our lives, God or wealth? This question we all face today in the place we live.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

This Memorial day we remember those who have died serving our great nation…and in America, we have been blessed, we live in the most affluent nation in the world and probably in history. The facts are, if you have a roof over your head, clothes on your body, and food daily, you are in the top 15% of the world’s wealthiest people. Most of us have much more than just the basic needs right…we are so blessed as a nation…that’s good and bad.

One traditional view of God’s blessing is..God favors the rich. Israel had their own prosperity theology…if you had riches it was because God blessed you. There was truth to that in the OT, when people were favored by God, God often blessed them with land, possessions, positions, etc. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Job, David, Solomon, even the nation Israel was blessed with a land flowing with milk and honey. But we also see often how the love and desire for these blessings become more of a hindrance than a blessing. We can identify with that today. Some of the wealthiest men in the world were asked what concerned them most, they’re answer…losing all they had gained. Now we get this, you don’t have to be one of the wealthiest people in the world to see how wealth and possessions can easily become a problem with our relationship with God. So Jesus makes an unexpected exclamation and the disciples are astonished at it.

Twice Jesus exclaims how difficult it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God [read verse 23 and 24] The disciples are shocked by these statements. Often that is the response of people about wealth hindering a relationship with God…astonishment. I find it interesting that we can see the snares of wealth yet are still astonished by what Jesus says here. Why because it’s just common thinking, it was common in the days of Jesus, that if you are rich then God had blessed you…friends we still think that way. And there is definitely truth in that, but it can easily become out of balance.

Friends one of the most dangerous teachings that is very popular today is the prosperity gospel, or the wealth and health gospel, or name it claim, whatever you want to call it. Those who teach that basically teach, God wants to bless you with wealth and health and all you have to do is claim it. While there may be a hint of truth here, God wants to bless and prosper us, it may not be in material things though. There is danger in that way of thinking, one because it takes what is good, God’s blessing and God’s favor, and it turns it into my wants not God’s blessings…it turns God into some sort of genie in a lamp. Just rub God the right way and you’ll get rich. Nothing could be farther from the truth yet so appealing than that. That goes against what Jesus is saying here.

I want you to notice how Jesus builds on this exclamation…first it’s difficult for the rich to enter the kingdom of God, then he builds on it in verse 24, “Children [a term of endearment] how hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God.” Then Jesus takes it to a ridiculous level…verse 25. “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” This verse may be one of the most abused verse in the NT.

For many years, dating all the way back to the 9th century preachers have told of a side gate in the wall of the city of Jerusalem that was very small and thin called the eye of the needle. To get a camel through this gate you would have to take all the stuff of it’s back and get it to kneel down and crawl through…the only problem is it’s not true…there is absolutely no evidence a gate like that existed in the wall of Jerusalem. While people have told that story for a long long time, remember for the first 8 centuries no such gate was mentioned, including the 1st century when the wall was still standing.

I get the point of the story and it makes for really good sermon illustrations like…you got to take off what you’re holding onto and you got to get down on your knees and come to God…it makes for good stuff, the only problem is…it’s not true. There was no gate like that.

So, then what is Jesus saying? Why is it important? I’m not trying to debunk great sermons and preachers of the past, but it’s important we don’t misunderstand this because it’s too important. Jesus is not saying, “it’s really hard to get into the kingdom of God, so you have to do this and that.” No He’s saying… “it’s impossible for anyone to enter the kingdom of God on their own!” Think about it. Take a needle, look at the eye of that needle, [eye of a needle was the smallest opening possible the Jews referred to]. Now stick a camel through it…can you do it? Not a chance, absolutely not, it’s not hard, it’s impossible! Jesus is saying exactly that.

It is impossible for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven and for that matter, it’s impossible for anyone to enter the kingdom of heaven…this is the picture. No riches can buy it, no works can earn it, no good deed or law kept can attain it…salvation is utterly impossible for any and every person apart from the grace of God!

The disciples were greatly astonished and said, “who then can be saved.” They got the picture. In their day to be rich was to be favored by God and if the favored of God couldn’t enter the kingdom of heaven, then who could? Greatly astonished doesn’t quite grasp how they felt, the word used encompasses shock, panic, and fear…they were afraid…who can be saved. Jesus affirms, with men it’s impossible, but not with God, for with God all things are possible.

God made the impossible possible through His Son Jesus Christ. A promise, a miracle that was stated way back in the OT

, Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel [God with us]

, He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 4  Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed

a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;

and as one from whom men hide their faces

he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

4  Surely he has borne our griefs

and carried our sorrows;

Jesus came as a divine miracle from heaven to do the impossible!

yet we esteemed him stricken,

smitten by God, and afflicted.

5  But he was pierced for our transgressions;

He, Jesus is the one who could pay the enormous debt of our sin. If there ever was one who knew what riches were it was Jesus, being God in human flesh. He was there at the creation of the world, and created everything in it. We in our sinfulness cannot give up our worldly riches, at least without a lot of complaining about it, Jesus gave up all the splendors of heaven, and submitted to the limits of a human body. While on this world, He wasn’t wealthy by any worldly measure, but was born lowly and humble, grew as a carpenter’s son, and during his public ministry relied upon the generosity of others for his physical needs.

he was crushed for our iniquities;

upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,

In a world that measures blessing by what you have, Jesus had nothing, and it would appear at the cross Jesus lost. The clothes he had was gambled away. He died with nothing. He allowed Himself to become nothing so that we might become something. At the cross, Jesus takes all those times where we put ourselves, our selfish desires, our stuff of this world ahead of others, and dies for those sins, he dies for all our sins, thought, word, and deed. And Jesus takes that gift of forgiveness, eternal life, and salvation He won at the cross, and gives it freely to us, no strings attached…to those who repent and believe on Him. The impossible is now possible through Christ!

and with his wounds we are healed

, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

The impossibility of salvation is possible because of the One from the beginning has come to us in the flesh to rescue us from the impossible state of condemnation that we are in.

The first [the one from the very beginning, Jesus] became last so that the last might become first.

If you are here this morning thinking you are a lost cause for Jesus, or that you are too impossible for Jesus to save…I want you to know that nothing…absolutely nothing is too impossible for God. You might ask yourself, but what if I lose my friends, family, my comfortable life to follow Jesus? What if I leave everything to follow Jesus? Well…it’s better than you think!

Peter the ever ready spokesman for the disciples says, “look we left all and have followed you.” [v.28] And Jesus affirms whatever you lose in this present age for Jesus and the gospel you will not fail to receive a hundred times as much, now at this time and in the age to come. Jesus notes the things we may have to give up are precious like family, friends, lands. It costs to follow Jesus, however, the blessings way outweigh the losses! One surprising blessing is persecutions? Which strikes a sobering note to following Jesus may include suffering, but as John Piper said, “Jesus himself will make up for every loss we endure.”

Hudson Taylor a missionary to China, who spent 50 years in China and lost his fair share throughout that time said, “I never made a sacrifice.” He understood what Jesus was referring to here.

The first [the one from the very beginning, Jesus] became last so that the last [you and me, and all those who believe] might become first.

Tim Keller said, “the heart of the gospel is all about giving up power, pouring out resources and serving…the center of Christianity is always migrating away from power and wealth.”

Jesus said to the rich young ruler, “I want you to imagine life without money. All you have is Me. Am I really enough?” Do you truly believe the person who has Jesus plus nothing actually has everything? That is the question Jesus puts before this man. This is the exact same question He puts before you and me today. How will we respond?

[Pray}

George Beverly Shea, the great singer who served with Billy Graham for so many years wrote a song, “I’d rather have Jesus” It’s in our hymnal on page 530, we’re going to change the invitational song to this. Turn and sing with me, and let this song be the anthem of our lives.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.