Mark 10:17-34 - A Proper View of Christ, Self, and Salvation

Mark 10:17 - 31 Intro: • Dealing with some ‘counter-cultural’ stuff • ‘Others First,’ becoming servant of all • ‘Cut off’ that which feels good • Take radical steps in eradicating sin ◦ Today is a good example of WHY Read 10:17-23 17 As He was setting out on a journey, [where? Toward Jerusalem; moving south:] 10:1 – “Getting up, He *went from there to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan…” “… a man ran up to Him [Mat: young; Lk: Ruler] and knelt before Him, and asked Him, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” You ever encounter such a convoluted question that you stand dumbfounded for a minute, not knowing how, exactly, to answer it? Well here’s one. • Can imagine Jesus: “Ok, where to start with this?” • Three problems, 3 misunderstandings wrapped up in that ◦ Jesus… self… salvation. “Good Teacher…” • No problem, “Teacher.” Called ‘teacher’ a lot (45x in Gospels) • Problem is, calls Him Good w/o knowing who He is. • Remember a common thread – misunderstanding of Jesus’ nature and person ◦ Scribes (Beelzebul), family, hometown, Herod, Disciples ◦ It’s been being adjusted in the minds of those around Him “What shall I do…” • Compare this with what Jesus just said previously: ◦ 1015: “Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all.” “…To inherit eternal life?” • Let me ask you: “What must you do to inherit something?” ◦ Nothing you can do… ◦ You can only receive an inheritance • And that’s part of the answer, though: • What must happen for you to inherit something? ◦ That’s right… sneak peak for you: ◦ To inherit something… someone must die. ▪ (Jesus… and this man (must die to self).) We’re going to see Jesus adjust this young man’s thinking in three ways, give him a proper understanding of Christ, himself, and of salvation. Jesus begins as we’ve seen before, to dismantle the misunderstanding. 18 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone. Not necessarily a rebuke, though, but perhaps to provoke thought: • To lead the young man to a deeper understanding that Jesus was much more than a simple ‘good teacher.’ • A proper view of Jesus… So what’s He saying here? Isn’t Jesus Good? “Well, I thought so!” By saying this, Jesus is saying either: A. I’m not good… or: B. I am God. C. Which is it? “Go think on this” Especially considering His claim at the end to be the way to eternal life. Goes on to answer the question: 19 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.’” 20 And he said to Him, “Teacher, I have kept all these things from my youth up.” Goes back to the Law, the 10 Commandments: Yet Notice the commandments given: all deal with personal relationships, and actions • None with relationship with God (1-4) • None with posture of the heart – doesn’t mention the 10th (coveting) ◦ Didn’t want to condemn him by this means, by the law, because the young man would go away trying better according to Law/works… already thinks he’s done well: 20 And he said to Him, “Teacher, I have kept all these things from my youth up.” Jesus doesn’t argue the point, because the law isn’t the point… Jesus takes him to point: the posture of one’s heart and relationship to God. 21 Looking at him, Jesus felt a love for him and said to him, “One thing you lack: [lack?! I have everything!] go and sell all you possess and give to the poor [thus making him poor], and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” Let’s break this statement down as well: • Just as the young man’s statement was baffling, so is Jesus’ statement: “One thing you lack”… Here Jesus leads the man to a PROPER UNDERSTANDING OF SELF • Lack, “Fall short,” insufficient. • He’s stuck in the Jewish mindset that you do the right things, ◦ Keep commandments, be a Jew, obtain life. ◦ He thinks he’s kept all the law– rich (favor) • Jesus is Here to destroy that idea: • Show that he has been breaking the First commandment, “You shall have no other gods before me” (Ex. 20:3). ◦ Reveals His insufficiency, his lack… which he, being rich, had never thought of before. So what is he to do? 21“Go Sell everything you Have” • Thus becoming poor in person, not just poor in spirit • Jesus COMMANDS him to become deficient, INSUFFICIENT • By doing this, Jesus points to this man’s gods and tells him to separate himself from them ◦ Divorce himself from them ◦ Cut them off… “Come Follow Me” • Do you understand the audacity of this claim? • He was asked what to do to inherit eternal life • This man, this ‘Good Teacher’ told RYRlr that the answer is to follow Him. ◦ He’s saying that He is the way to eternal life. ▪ He’s much more than simply a “Good Teacher.” ◦ “It is the following of Jesus that results in salvation, not the selling of goods” • “What can I do? What works can I do?” ◦ John 6:29 – “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent” This is where Jesus reveals to him a PROPER UNDERSTANDING OF SALVATION • That there’s Nothing we can do. ◦ Nothing can do to inherit… you must receive • Jesus tells this young man to sell everything b/c that is what is coming between Him and God, preventing salvation. What about us? Is Jesus telling us to sell everything? • Maybe. Verse 22. • No, Jesus asks us – just as this man – to remove from our lives the barriers to God ◦ 1st: Sin; Jesus removes ◦ Repentance, rejection of those things that were dragging us to hell in the 1st place ▪ If that’s money, so be it. What else? Pride? Status? Pleasurable Sin? • So, no, He did not give this command to everyone ◦ Supporters • Goods are good as long as you do not hold tightly to them ◦ When Used For the Kingdom of God and Kingdom work ◦ The problem arises when you are clinging on to them too tightly. That’s what this young man is doing… 22 But at these words he was saddened, and he went away grieving, for he was one who owned much property. • There is a decision to be made • Rqmnt for inheriting: ◦ Someone must die ▪ know ur thinking Jesus (Yes; by this His righteousness can bcom ours) ◦ But this man must die to self, too. ◦ What did we read about the call to Discipleship? ▪ Mk 8:34-35 – “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. 35 For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.” ◦ Lewis: Till we Have Faces: “Die before you die. There is no chance after.” ▪ THERE IS A DECISION TO BE MADE Also: Jesus lets him go; doesn’t chase after him. ◦ Jesus loves him – (For this sinner still in sin) – but lets him go • Last week, we talked about God’s welcoming, just wanting to take you up in His arms, ◦ all the condemned; he wants to take us up in His arms and protect us. • This week, we’re talking about the letting go. He will let you go if that’s where you want to go. ◦ But you’re in a fortunate position, perhaps even a rare one… He’s calling you now. 23 And Jesus, looking around, said to His disciples, “How hard it will be for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God!” • Equates KoG with ‘Eternal Life’ (v. 17) ◦ Now establishing Himself on eternal matters and eternal standing. • Why is it hard? Because the Rich man needed to know his inadequacy ◦ PROP understanding of SELF • This is the point: ◦ To receive KoG, We all must see our inadequacy, our deficiency ◦ We all consider ourselves rich, self-sufficient ▪ But until we recognize our poverty, we will not cry out for help ▪ Until we recognize our poverty, we will remain unsaved. • Blessed are the poor in spirit… they know that they’re poor. ◦ The Poor know they lack. The rich don’t. 24 The disciples were amazed at His words. But Jesus answered again and said to them, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! Couple Trans: “how hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God!” • And this gets to the point of the matter: ◦ Trust in riches. • Gregory the Great (6th), Thomas Aquinas (13th): Worst Sins: Pride, then Covetousness ◦ Pride: “Will not Serve or surrender.” “Self-Rule” ◦ Greed/Covetousness: Self-Sufficiency, not trusting God, not surrendering ▪ they trust in riches… find security in them ▪ B/C then you’re not trusting in God. ◦ “how hard it is for those who trust in riches” How hard is it?: 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.” 26 They were even more astonished and said to Him, “Then who can be saved?” 27 Looking at them, Jesus *said, “With people it is impossible, // but not with God; for all things are possible with God.” IMPOSSIBLE. Jesus setting up this darkness to contrast the light of the Gospel and… • When they say, “Then who can be saved?!” reminds Acts 2: 36 “Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ—this Jesus whom you crucified. 37 Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brethren, what shall we do?” • They reach this place of desperation. • Recognized their guilt and their great lack, need, poverty. Do you understand this? Do you understand your helplessness? Do you understand your poverty? • If you do, good. You’re blessed. • Matt. 53 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” A. W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God, calls this “The blessedness of possessing nothing” (21) and explains that “The blessed ones who possess the kingdom are they have repudiated every external thing and have rooted from their hearts all sense of possessing. These are the ‘poor in spirit…’ Though free from all sense of possessing, they yet possess all things: ‘Theirs is the kingdom of heaven’” (23) Rock of Ages: Nothing in my hand I bring, Simply to Thy cross I cling; Naked, come to Thee for dress; Helpless, look to Thee for grace; Foul, I to the fountain fly; Wash me, Saviour, or I die! In a work called, “Hymn Studies” (19th cent. commentary on hymns) the author says: “The holiest man must say in his prayer: ‘Thou must save and Thou alone.’ The purest saint on earth must cast himself wholly on the merits of Christ’s atonement, and say: ‘In my hand no price I bring; Simply to the cross I cling’.” Are you clinging to the cross today? • Or are your hands too full to cling to anything else? • Do you not realize that to embrace the cross of Christ is to release everything that you’re presently clutching onto? ◦ This is why Jesus says that we must release the grasp of all – family, wealth, houses, everything – to embrace the cross of Christ. • To pick up our cross and follow Him… our hands must first be emptied. 28 Peter began to say to Him, “Behold, we have left everything and followed You.” 29 Jesus said, “Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms, for My sake and for the gospel’s sake, 30 but that he will receive a hundred times as much now in the present age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions [wait, what?!] …and in the age to come, eternal life.” 2 Tim 3:12 – “Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” – Paul’s last. Romans 8: ◦ :11 – “He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you…” ◦ :17 – “…we are joint heirs with Christ, if we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.” • 18: – “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” • Why do we cling so tightly to these things that are going to disappear like smoke? ◦ I’ll tell you why: because they are our joy and our security. • Do you now see why God was showing this young man what his god really was? • These things are not bad in themselves… ◦ But if they’re dragging your heart’s desire from God… ◦ If they’re dragging you away from Him and to hell… ▪ Mk 943-48: Cut them off. ▪ Mk 836-37: “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? 37 For what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” • Luke 12: 15 – “Guard yourselves against every form of greed, A man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” ◦ Not inherently evil… but must be held lightly ▪ Open hand… ◦ Unless you think you have an out, “It’s ok, I’m not rich!” ▪ Convicting, realize: even the poor can be covetous and greedy ◦ Matt 6:24 – “Cannot serve two masters” ◦ Covetousness, Greed, can only be driven out by the power of a new affection 31 But many who are first will be last, and the last, first.” Returning to that lesson of placing others first, the KoG first. Now. Are we prepared to continue our march to the cross? Have we laid down those things that occupy our arms and our hearts? In the story of Mark, do we see now how the disciples are being developed? Salvation being expressed? Titus 3:5 – “God not saved us according to the righteous things which we have done, but according to His MERCY…”