Sermon Tone Analysis

KJV - 16 And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?

17 And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good?

there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.

18 He saith unto him, Which?

Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, 19 Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

20 The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?

21 Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.

22 But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.

17 And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good?

there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.

18 He saith unto him, Which?

Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness,

19 Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

20 The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?

21 Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.

22 But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.

NRSV - Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. 2 There they gave a dinner for him.

Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him.

3 Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair.

The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

So what’s the difference between an encounter and an experience?

Well an encounter is defined as a chance meeting, to happen or stumble upon, to come upon face-to-face.

An experience is practical knowledge, skill, or practice derived from direct observation of or participation in events or in a particular activity.

With that being said I have a question for you, “Have you experienced God or have you merely encountered Him?

In our text in Matthew, this man, known as the rich young ruler comes to Jesus with a question.

To start the conversation, he addresses Jesus as Good Master.

Now this is an honorable title, he understands and respects Jesus as not just an ordinary teacher but a teaching master and the fact that he uses the word master shows his submissiveness to Jesus and his willingness to be taught by Jesus.

To learn,

you must have a desire to be taught,

you must avail yourself to the teaching and

you must respect the person who is teaching you.

If any of these ingredients are missing, learning is not necessarily impossible, but it is improbable.

This man understood that Jesus came from God, he had no doubt heard about Jesus, the things he was doing, healing people, casting out spirits and such.

I’m sure he had heard about how he taught in the Temple, as one with knowledge.

So he’s confident that He can answer his question, after all this should be an easy one for this man who knew so much and so he goes for it.

“…what good deed must I do to have eternal life?”

This was a great and important question, after all eternal life is important, it’s real and this man wanted to know how to get it.

We can see a few things from his actions

he was convinced that it was possible to have eternal life and

he knew there was something he had to do in this life to get it and he wanted to make sure he had his bases covered.

He was a young man but it’s never too early to start preparing for your future and your eternity.

And that is exactly what this man was doing.

But let’s look at this man, he was young, he was rich and he was a ruler, a magistrate, a justice of the peace in his country or what we would call today a judge.

So he had some clout and some abilities beyond his years.

In other words he was no dummy.

He undoubtedly had a good life on earth and he was looking into the future knowing that at some point this life on earth would end and he was thinking about the next life.

This type of thinking is probably the reason he was a rich—young—ruler.

This man had prepared for where he was in life, he had it going on and he thought let me find out what’s next, what do I have to do to seal the deal for the next life.

I believe it’s out there, I want it so let me find out what good deed I have to do to get it.

He was willing to work for it, he wasn’t asking for a handout.

But what he didn’t understand and what is clear for us today is you can’t work your way to heaven.

It’s not about deeds, it’s about the confession of your mouth, it’s about the profession of your faith, it’s about the condition of your heart, what are you believing in your heart?

And now we see Jesus’ answer which begins with a question, “Why callest thou me good?

there is none good but one, that is, God:” So Jesus is establishing something first; only God is good, so are you acknowledging me as God? Are you hearing the words that are coming out of your mouth?

Do you realize what you’re saying?

Words have power, so it’s very important to choose your words carefully and be intentional about what you say and to whom you say it.

Then Jesus answers his question, “…but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.”

At this point the people are still under the law, the dispensation of grace has not yet been made available.

The rich, young ruler was talking to grace, but grace had not yet finished his assignment, his work was not yet complete.

The man says, alright keep the commandments but excuse me Jesus, I have a follow up question, can you clarify, which ones?

Jesus is so patient and he tells him,

don’t murder,

don’t commit adultery,

don’t steal,

don’t bear false witness,

honor your father and mother and

love your neighbor as yourself.

The young man says cool, I have kept all those commandments since my youth.

But remember this young man is smart and he senses there’s something else because he says, what else, what do I still lack?

He’s thinking, could it be that easy?

The young man says cool, I have kept all those commandments since my youth.

But remember this young man is smart and he senses there’s something else because he says, what else, what do I still lack?

He’s thinking, could it be that easy?

And now comes the challenge for him, Jesus knows how to get to the heart of the matter and he says, “If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.”

Wait what?

This young man was probably what would be classified as an analytical person, he thought things through, he worked things out, he made a plan and he carried out his plan.

This man thought, I am preparing for my next life long before this one is over and I’m going straight to the source to get the road map.

And then, uuuurrrrrrr!

Pump the brakes, what do you mean sell all I have and give the money to the poor?

Do you know how much I have and then you want me to follow you?

Treasure in heaven?

I got treasure right here on earth and you want me to give it away.

What?! Really?!

And now we see the real man, because when he heard what he needed to do, “…he went away grieving, for he had many possessions.”

We now see what was truly important to the man, his life was all about his stuff, the wealth he had amassed and he didn’t want to give it away and the status he had achieved and he didn’t want to give it up to follow Jesus.

You see Jesus appeared to be a man with nothing, he had no home in fact back in Jesus says, “Foxes have dens to live in, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place even to lay his head.”

This man had no doubt worked diligently to get to where he was and to ask him to walk away was a lot and as much as he wanted eternal life, he couldn’t take his eyes off his present life long enough to get it.

If we are going to follow Jesus, we have to be willing to lay down the lower life so that we may obtain the higher life.

There’s a song that says, I give myself away, so you can use me.

This man had an encounter, he came face to face with Jesus and he walked away sad and grieving because he was not willing to do what it took to get what he wanted.

In his mind, the price was just too high.

And now as we turn to the text in John, we journey to Bethany and we’re in the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus.

This is a place Jesus spent some time.

He had been to this house for dinner on more than one occasion.

This is the place where you’ll find in that Martha complained to Jesus that Mary wasn’t helping her serve and Jesus told her Mary had chosen the good part and it would not be taken away from her.

This is the place Jesus came to raise his friend Lazarus from the dead

This is the place where six days before the passover Jesus came to once again to dine with his friends.

As we set the scene Jesus has come to dinner, Lazarus was at the table with Jesus, Martha was doing her thing serving.

Her gift was the gift of hospitality, she enjoyed preparing the meals and serving their guests and you can find many places where you’ll see Martha serving.

Martha was a doer, she didn’t sit idly by and wait for things to come to her she went out after them, including Jesus when her brother Lazarus had died.