The Riches Of Christ

Intro

Last week Scripture spoke to the planners

What message did Scripture have for the planners? Our plans ought to consider God and His glory.

This week Scripture is speaking to the rich, and to those who desire to be rich.

Ebenezer Scrooge and the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come

Those that lived close to him don’t care about his passing at all. The only people who have any reaction to his death are the people that owed him money because they didn’t have to pay their debts anymore.

James shows us an even worse fate for the rich than Charles Dickens was able to. The fate of those who find their wealth in material things is worse than a lack of loved ones, it is a lack of love altogether. It is a separation from the love of God and coming face to face with the wrath of God.

Material Wealth Blinds Us To A Destructive End

Our end is one of destruction

James 5:1–3 ESV

Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days.

James doesn’t sugarcoat it. In fact, he is doing the exact opposite. He is writing to a people who are in a sedated state and he is trying to snap them out of it and back into reality.

What is the reality of everything? Where does this life lead us?

James 5:5 ESV

You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.

We are described as living in a day of slaughter, and the rich are described as the fattened animals. Nobody wants to be the fattest turkey on Thanksgiving.

Material Wealth acts as a sedative or a painkiller

We know in our minds that material things can’t last, but we act as though they can offer us lasting fulfillment.

Do you know what finding pleasure in things is like? Finding pleasure in material things is like the turkey that eats as much as possible in the month of November. It should be obvious what is going to happen to that Turkey, but it decides to push that concern off for a later day and to indulge in as much as possible.

It is like a person who has appendicitis deciding not to receive life-saving surgery but rather to receive pain-killers to deal with that awful pain in their side. The pain killers will be effective at helping you forget about your bursting appendix, but it will not change the fact that your appendix is bursting.

Of course, that day comes and there comes a point where it can no longer be ignored. The day comes when it is too late to be treated, and the reality of the situation will finally consume you. The third Thursday of November comes and the Turkey looks down at his waistline and gulps. The appendix finally bursts and there is nothing more that can be done to save you.

Material Wealth Cannot Provide Lasting Enjoyment

But thats just the point that James is making here. In deciding to take pleasure in material things, we exchange an eternity of joy for a few moments of fleeting pleasure.

In fact, Jesus makes this same point in the book of Luke.

Luke 6:24–26 ESV

“But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. “Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry. “Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. “Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.

Jesus tells us that the pursuit of “living your best life now” will actually leave you empty later. So why, then, do we place so much of our time and energy into accumulating material things? Why do we act as though they will bring us true joy? Why do we long for the day when we can get the dream car, or that nice house, or that toy, or the all-inclusive trips whenever we want? Those things will be our undoing in the end if they are the things that we strive for.

However, Jesus did not come to preach a message to people that the point of no return has come. He didn’t come to tell us the timer has finished ticking, but that will be his message the next time that he comes. This time, He came to tell us that it is indeed coming, but that it is not yet too late. He came to warn us of where we are headed, and to offer us a way of escape.

Christ’s Love Rescues Us To Eternal Life

Christ offers us forgiveness and escape from our destructive end

John 10:7–11 ESV

So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

This is where Jesus is different from the story that Charles Dickens wrote about Scrooge. The Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come helped Scrooge see where his love for things would lead him, but that just left Scrooge with the idea that he had to be better.

Jesus tells us about where our love for material things will lead us, but then he points us to the better life that he already lived as our way of escape. He makes it clear that this world we love so much only desires to steal and eventually kill and destroy us, but he desires us to experience true and eternal life. We cannot find a path back to true joy in our own efforts, nor do we have to. We only have to place our hope in Christ, who laid down his life so that we could pick it up, and all the rest is taken care of.

Jesus came and accomplished living that better life for us so that we could see that He is the only one who can bring us true wealth, not these things that just distract us from an inevitable fate.

True and lasting wealth can only be found through a relationship with Christ

So the call is clear: abandon the love for material things and turn to Christ, who is the only source of true and lasting wealth.

Verse 1 - The future for the rich does not look good

Verse 2 - Any treasures we store up here will fade away. We might not like to think about it, and we may even be tempted to say “that day might not even exist.” Sure enough, that day comes for us all.

Verse 3 - All of our corroded treasures are going to stack up as evidence against us. What did you do with your time? What did you do with your relationships? What did you value the most? All you will have is a pile of corroded treasures.

verse 4 - Are you fair in your living? Do you seek the welfare of your neighbor, and of everyone you come into contact with? Or do you only want to get yourself ahead, cheating the system whenever you are able to? The voices of those you cheat cry out against you.

verse 6 - links up with verse 4

verse 5 - A life of comfort now leads to a life of misery for eternity. Would you rather live it up for a few years, blindly being led to the slaughter house all the way? Or would you deny your flesh here and accept the offer to exit the slaughterhouse line, coming with Jesus to eternitn y.

Jesus is our true riches, the worldly things we have here just help distract us from what lies at the end of the road of this life. We willingly sedate ourselves so that we don’t have to worry about what is coming, just so that we can wake up and experience the slaughterhouse all at once. Is that really any better? Isnt the end the same? If you could escape the line, even if it meant some hard struggle, wouldn’t you prefer that?

Jesus is the way. Dont choose sedation, don’t choose a blindfold. Keep your eyes open to reality, and accept the outstretched hand of Christ. He will lead you away from the slaughter, towards the everlasting life that he has set aside for you. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy, but Jesus came so that we may have abundant life.

At the end of this life lies a slaughterhouse, and all who are born into this world are born on the track that leads directly to it.w

True riches can only be found in Christ.