Scriptures: Matthew 19:16-22; Mark 10:17-22; Luke 18:18-23

1.  He was driven to establish his righteousness

q       The approach – a typical for a man of his position and resource.  Jesus did not have the respect of the religious elite.  The people who were his peers would have been somewhat ashamed of his conduct.  In a manner of speaking he was driven by something strong enough that he was willing to disregard the social consequence of this display.

q       The address – He referred to Jesus as “Good Teacher”.  He was addressing Jesus from his own frame of reference.  When we as human beings label something as good, we speak from a personal context.  That title confers nothing on the person to which it applies.  All that it does is to tell others a little bit about the value system of the person who uses the address.

Synœceiosis; or, Cohabitation

The Repetition of the same Word in the same Sentence with an Extended Meaning

Syn´-œ-cei-o´-sis from σύν (sun), together with, and οἰκείωσις (oikeiōsis), dwelling in the same house.

This figure is so called because two words are used, and in the general sense, but with a different and more extended signification. They dwell together as it were in the same house; and yet, while one speaker takes up the word and uses it in the same sense, he yet means a different thing.

The Latins called it COHABITATIO, cohabitation, a dwelling together.

Matt. 19:16, 17.—“And behold one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life? And He said unto him, Why callest thou me good? There is none good but one, that is God.”

In the former case, the young man uses the word “good” of mere creature goodness, such as he supposed Christ to have; while in the latter case, the Lord alludes to the first, using the word in the same sense, but not in the same way; thus teaching that there is no real “good” apart from God—no “good” except that which comes from God and returns to Him.

q       The account – He had been involved in the spiritual accounting process ever since he was a boy.  I can envision that type of worrying – I did it a fair amount in my early days of faith.  Wanting so badly to avoid hell and feeling that God was almost double minded – I would never have articulated it.  The idea that when we come to Christ, we get to start over, we become new.  I wanted the past to disappear but I felt that I was starting over only to have new offenses recorded against me.  Like God invited me to become a part of his family and his kingdom and then began to try to disqualify me by watching for me to sin again.

Most all of us are driven by something.  Good or bad, there is a driving force. 

Ø      There are those who are driven by hurt or abuse in our past.  They are intent on guaranteeing that they will never be hurt again and refuse to allow themselves to be vulnerable. 

There is always a trade off when you try to protect yourself from the elements.  Gary F. and I were in Banff a couple years ago and poor Gary didn’t have a good rain jacket.  I helped him to shop for one and felt that his wife would want him to buy a good jacket.  No doubt about that.  We looked at some less expensive ones but there were some real nice Far West jackets on sale.  Now the trade off in rain jackets is waterproof to breathable.  If it’s waterproof, you don’t get wet from the outside in.  The more waterproof any piece of clothing is, the less breathable it is.  If it’s breathable you don’t get wet from the inside out.  So it’s your choice in the trade off – whether you prefer wet from the inside out or wet from the outside in.  You know what, . .  the bottom line is that you will be wet at the end of the day.

The same is true with past hurts that cause you to be the way you are today.

Matthew 5:45 In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and on the unjust, too.[1]

– you’re not going to escape the showers, the fogs, the mists, the torrential storms and rains of life.  You will be hurt by other people – and you will hurt other people.

What’s the result of over protecting yourself?

ð     Become a watcher rather than a participant in life and spiritual life

ð     You communicate to people that you do not want or need relationships and then wonder why you are left alone – why you never seem to be included

ð     Others find you a very difficult person to be around.  Because of your guardedness they fear that they will say something that will provoke conflict, open or underlying.

ð     You’ll never know intimacy.  You cannot possibly find someone who will love you deeply unless you are willing to give them the knowledge that can both hurt and heal.

Ø      Others are driven by desire.  They exercise absolutely no control over their lives.  One of the hardest people for us to say “No” to is ourselves.  There’s always a rationale, a justification that propels us forward. 

James 4:1 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?  2 You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God.  3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. 4 You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.  5 Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely? a  6 But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:

“God opposes the proud

but gives grace to the humble.” b

7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.  8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.  9 Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom.  10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.[2]

For those driven by desire, they cut a swath of division among people, hurt and brokenness.  It can find it’s way into the church as well.  Wanting an office, being critical of those who have what you want.

This young man wanted eternal life.  He wanted to get something that to him was elusive but he was not wanting to find Jesus.  There are so many who do not want to find Jesus on the road to eternal  life.  You can’t find your way to heaven without a relationship with Christ.

Can a man who wants only eternal life, really find it?  I remember wanting to avoid hell.  I asked Christ’s forgiveness feeling that this was what I needed to go to heaven.  I was definitely averse to eternal damnation but I was unprepared to live as a disciple here and now as well.  Do we have eternal life because we find Jesus?

A person doesn’t have to repent to find eternal life.  It’s just something else to gain.  A person must repent if they are to find Christ.  Because of who he is we are convicted of who we are.

You see eternal life is not an upgrade to your system, or a patch.  It is a turning away from something that you no longer want or desire.  It really is “wanting” nothing else but Jesus.  Eternal life is a part of the package.  Jesus is the package.

Some here today are driven by force of habit.  You have always gone to church – even as a young person and you perpetuate the habit.

What drives you today?

q       Alternatives

q       Affirmation

q       Absolution

What was the driving force for this young man?

2.  He was dissatisfied with his efforts to reach his goal

He had it all and it didn’t seem to satisfy him.

q       Youth

q       Wealth

q       Position

He was “missing something”.  Otherwise he never would have come to Jesus.  Looking for something to gain without considering that he might need to lose something.  He was rich and unhappy.  He was young and unhappy.  He was religious and unhappy.  He was powerful and unhappy.  His blessing was his curse.  Anything that keeps a man or woman from God is a curse.  God knows our hearts friends and he will never give us something that we cannot handle.  Many can fathom the depths of adversity, few are able to keep their heads with the seductions of success and acclaim.

Many people spend their lifetimes unaware that they are trying to fill a “God-hunger” with temporal substitutes and never find satisfaction.  Anything else will only distract us for a moment and then we feel that restless yearning return and we are off again on the hunt.  Only Jesus satisfies.

Is this a familiar picture or what?  How many times do people reach their goals only to discover that it isn’t what they were anticipating.  Inside they are not required to change and so they experience the same dissatisfaction that drove them here in the first place.  I am convinced that the underlying desire that we have is for spiritual vitality and connection with God.  We might never realize it and yet it is what we are trying to fill.  We will try to fill it with anything else but God.

3.  He was depressed with the eventual realization

Most people who live at odds with God know exactly what He wants for them and from them.  God doesn’t play games with us.

I think he was depressed because he knew all along what the real problem was.  He was just looking for an alternate route. He was depressed by prosperous conditions.  I think he’d been here before. He just hoped that this trip around the barn would produce a different reality.  Same trip – different answers.  Another preferable option that would leave his world intact.

It’s sometimes difficult to get away from your blessing.  The church doesn’t need your money so much as you need to learn to take your hands off what you have been blessed with.  Not to track what you give as an investment.

Are we coming to Christ to find the way to God or are we looking for another way.  People who have non-negotiables in their lives will go to other extremes to try to validate their own righteousness and their willingness.  He went overboard to compensate for his hidden treasure.  He’d have done anything to save his life and his riches . . . anything except to forsake his wealth.

How many weak-kneed Christians are in the same place?  Most of us know very well what our problem is because God does not play games with us.  If He has something that he wants you to change, you already know about it.  You don’t need to ask someone else what your problem is.  If there is something that is standing between you and God, an estrangement then he will show you what that is.

(Ill. Preach about “hell” more)

I always knew where I was going.  (The Holy Spirit came to convict the world of sin in regard to judgment because the prince of this world now stands condemned.) There was no doubt in my mind.  Some advocate that we need more preaching about hell as though this would cause people to come to Christ.  In my mind hell causes people to do one thing, to make them desire to avoid hell and thus they accept Christ because he is the only way out.

A person who is not prepared to discover the truth about themselves should never come to Jesus.

We come to God saying that we are looking for help and guidance but what we really want is a hip-pocket deity who will provide affirmation to us.  Sort of like a device with a limited number of prerecorded blessings.  We want God to “fit” into our ideas of what is right and wrong, our concepts of life.

Background Material

10.  instruction concerning riches (19:16-26) (mark 10:17-31; luke 18:18-30).

19:16-22. A man who was young (v. 20), wealthy (v. 22) and a ruler (Luke 18:18; perhaps of the Sanhedrin) came and asked Jesus, Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life? This ruler was not asking how he could earn salvation. Instead, he wondered how he could be assured of entering Messiah’s kingdom. He wanted to know what “good thing” (work) would demonstrate that he was righteous and therefore qualified for the kingdom. Jesus replied, There is only One who is good, namely, God. Perfection is required (Matt. 5:48; cf. 19:21); therefore one must be as good as God. He must have God’s righteousness, which comes through faith in Him (Rom. 4:5). Perhaps Jesus then waited for a response from the ruler to see if he would affirm his belief that Jesus is God, that Jesus, being one with the Father, is good (agathos, “intrinsically good”).

When the man did not reply, Jesus indicated that life (i.e., life in God’s kingdom) can be entered only if one gives evidence that he is righteous. Since the official standard of righteousness was the Law of Moses, Jesus told the man to obey the commandments. The ruler was perceptive for he immediately asked, Which ones? Other standards of righteousness were being promoted by the Pharisees, who had added to Moses’ commandments far beyond God’s intention. The young man was in effect asking Jesus, “Must I keep all the Pharisees’ commandments?” Jesus replied by repeating several of the commandments from the second table of the Law, the 5th through the 9th commandments forbidding murder . . . adultery, stealing, giving false testimony, and also the positive command to honor one’s parents (Ex. 20:12-16). Jesus did not mention the 10th commandment (Ex. 20:17) concerning coveting, but He did add the summary statement, Love your neighbor as yourself (cf. Lev. 19:18; Matt. 22:39; Rom. 13:9; Gal. 5:14; James 2:8).

The young man affirmed he had kept all these things, but he still sensed a lack (Matt. 19:20). Whether he had truly kept these commands, only God knows. The young man believed he had and yet he knew something was missing in his life. Jesus put His finger on his problem when He told him to go, sell all his possessions and give to the poor, and he would then have treasure in heaven. Such mercy toward the poor would demonstrate inner righteousness. If he were righteous (based on faith in Jesus as God), he should have given his wealth to the poor and followed Jesus. But instead, the man . . . went away sad (lypoumenos, “grieved or sad to the point of distress”; cf. 14:9; 18:31) for he had great wealth. His unwillingness to relinquish his wealth showed he did not love his neighbor as himself. Thus he had not kept all the commandments, and he lacked salvation. Nothing more was written about this young man; probably he never left all and followed Jesus. He loved his money more than God, and thus he violated even the first commandment (Ex. 20:3).[3]

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[1]Holy Bible : New Living Translation. 1997 (Mt 5:44-45). Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House.

 a Or that God jealously longs for the spirit that he made to live in us; or that the Spirit he caused to live in us longs jealously

 b Prov. 3:34

[2]The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.) (Jas 4:1-10). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

v. verse

cf. confer, compare

i.e. id est, that is

[3]Walvoord, J. F., Zuck, R. B., & Dallas Theological Seminary. (1983-c1985). The Bible knowledge commentary : An exposition of the scriptures (Mt 19:16). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.