Do You Have to be Poor to be Saved?
Notes
Transcript
17 And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
18 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.
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, all these I have kept from my youth.”
21 And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”
22 Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
23 And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!”
24 And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God!
25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”
26 And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, “Then who can be saved?”
27 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.”
28 Peter began to say to him, “See, 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 lands, for my sake and for the gospel,
30 who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.
31 But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”
Like many that we’ve seen when they encounter Jesus during this time, this man is eager to meet Jesus. He runs to Jesus and kneels down before him giving Jesus great honor reserved for great teachers of the law.
This is a man of power, affluence and influence. He is eager and excited to know what he must do to have eternal life.
Sidebar: I wish we saw this today.
With all the death, destruction and fake news in the world today you would think more people would be pouring into our church asking this very question.
With everything that is going on Christians ought to be the outliers that help to calm people down and tell them their hope is not found in the government, the economy or in vaccines.
Hope can only be found in the name in Jesus!
This should cause people to ask “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
The jewish people of the day would say the way to life was by keeping the commandments but this fellow shows that he understands there is more than that.
17 And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments.”
v. 10:18
Jesus does something interesting here.
When reading this text, some people have said that Jesus is teaching the he, himself, is NOT God.
However, what Jesus is doing is masterful.
He’s actually testing this man to see if he understands that magnitude of his words.
Did this man understand what he was insinuating by calling Jesus “good”?
Was he actually able to see and identify the true nature of this good teacher like Peter had earlier?
29 And he asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Christ.”
There is only one that is good and that is God.
10 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one;
11 no one understands; no one seeks for God.
12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”
Only the divine Messiah/Christ could give him that eternal life that he desired to have. Jesus is forcing him (and us) to look to God for any hope of genuine goodness and eternal life.
Again Jesus is challenging the man to understand the implications for his statement. To call Jesus good is to call Him God. If Jesus is not God then he would be like the rest of humanity, who are sinners and by definition NOT morally good.
Words matter!
v. 10:19
Jesus then sums up the commandments.
Do not murder
Do not commit adultery
Do not steal
Do not bear false witness (lie)
Do not defraud
Honor your father and mother
If any of you a familiar with Ray Comfort, he is an evangelist that uses this tact as well when he talking to people.
He’s got videos on YouTube and all over the internet where he’s sharing the gospel with people.
He always starts off by asking the person if they think they’re a good person.
Most people would like to admit they are good people.
They think they’re good because they’re not in and out of jail or maybe they’re not angry or abusive most of the time.
He asks questions like:
How many lies have you told in your life?
Maybe a few fibs or white lies...
What do you call someone who lies?
A liar!
So what are you?
Have you ever stolen something? Even if it is small?
What do you call someone who steals?
A thief!
So, you’re a lying thief.
Have you ever used God’s name in vain?
People often use God’s name as a cuss word but the bible says his name is Holy.
Would you ever use your mother’s name as a cuss word?
You would dishonor and insult your mother by using her name in that way.
Using God’s name in this way is called blasphemy and in the Old Testament it is punishable by death.
The bible says if you look at a man/woman in lust, you have committed adultery in your heart.
Have you looked at a man or woman in lust?
Have you had sex before marriage?
The bible calls this fornication.
If we stop there and you answered yes to each of those questions, you’re a lying, thieving, fornicating, blasphemous adulterer.
Anytime we turn on the news or the media we have no problem calling out the sinfulness in the people we see but when it comes to looking at ourselves, all the sudden we don’t think it’s that bad.
The bible says, NO ONE IS GOOD!
In anticipating of you asking, what about me? It says, NO NOT ONE!
Brothers and sisters, you’ll have to face God on judgement day and he’s going to judge you by these commandments. Would you be innocent or guilty?
Heaven or hell?
v. 10:21
Even though this young man was honest and sincere, Jesus wants him to see that God must be God in our lives. NO ONE and NO THING can stand between Him and us.
Now, this particular demand on this man is not necessarily general command for everyone.
This man’s wealth occupied a place that only God should have in his life.
For this man, his possessions, wealth and stature was his idol and his god.
His trust was ultimately in his wealth and not in Jesus.
Jesus calls us to put away anything that would be an obstacle to following him.
Timothy Keller in his book, King’s Cross says this:
“When Jesus called this young man to give up his money, the man started to grieve, because money was for him what the Father was for Jesus. It was the center of his identity. To lose his money would have been to lose himself.”
While Jesus isn’t condemning wealth or promoting financial poverty, he is pointing out that wealth breed’s confidence in yourself and can be addictive.
If you’re on a 1000 foot cliff with you legs hanging over would that be scary?
Have you ever been to the Sears Tower (Willis) in the Skydeck?
The Sears Tower is one of the tallest buildings in the western hemisphere at 1, 353 feet.
The Skydeck is on the 103rd floor.
It’s a glass box that extends out 4.3 feet from the building.
The is one of the many tourist attractions in Chicago.
They typically have about 1.5 million visitors each year.
Would it be scary for you to step out onto this platform?
What if the floor cracked beneath you while you were standing on it?
This happened just last year.
While a family was standing on the platform, the protective layer splintered into thousands of pieces.
Do you think they were scarred?
It had also cracked before in 2014.
They say the ledge is designed to hold up to five tons and it’s protective coating is to help keep the ledge from getting scratch so the actual ledge “shouldn’t” be dangerous.
This fear that you’d have standing over 1000 feet in the air is a good thing. In the case of the skydeck ledge, fear tells you to “Get Away from the Ledge!” DANGER DANGER
In the same way, if we honestly ask ourselves if we truly follow God’s commands, we put ourselves on the edge of eternity. Fear tells us we’re in eternal danger.
If you remember from Proverbs it says
10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.
31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
Brothers and sisters, this fear should drive us to our Savior and his name is Jesus.
You and I broke the law but Jesus paid the fine. This is what Jesus did for us on the cross.
The just payment for sin is death.
The payment for the “white lie” you told - death
The payment for sex before marriage (fornication) - death
The payment for stealing candy from the store - death
It sounds harsh, but that is the reality.
Instead of thinking about how harsh it sounds you should be thinking about how you don’t want to fall into the hands of the living God.
However, if we choose to follow Jesus, he suffered on the cross and has already paid your penalty on your behalf.
If you had to go to court for speeding or something and someone pays your fines for you, the judge would legally let you go.
In the state of Illinois:
More than 30 mph - $160
Running a red light - $120
DUI - $1500
If you did all three of these, you’d have to pay $1,780 just for tickets, then add on court and legal fees.
What if you appeared in court and the judges says, Look these are all very serious infractions where you put yourself and others in harms way. However, I’ve decided to pay these fines for you.
In a similar fashion, Jesus has paid the cost of our sin and our sentence of death has been commuted.
This is Good News.
It’s only good news if you understand that you’ve broken the law though. As long as you think you’re a good person and haven’t broken any laws, you want see a need for a savior.
You’re standing on the edge of eternity and think you’ll be ok, when one gust of wind or one seemingly small transgression will have you plunging to your death.
When you recognize that you’re a lying, thieving, fornicating, blasphemous adulterer and etc. you must turn away from those things, turn to God and ask for forgiveness. This is called repentance.
19 But God’s firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity.”
9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
11 For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.”
Brothers and sisters, I’m asking you to give up everything you have today to follow Jesus because Jesus gave up everything for you.
Even though you might have a house, car, job clothes or whatever you have nothing to give God. There is no way to earn salvation. As we consider eternity, whatever you have on earth is worthless.
You’ve got to ask yourself, who or what will have first place in your life?
So, do you need to be poor in order to be saved?
I love how Paul puts it in
9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.
Jesus says, anyone who leaves all of this behind for his sake will gain eternity.
With men, entering God’s kingdom and receiving eternal life is impossible, and no one will be saved.
However, with God all things are possible, and anyone can be saved.
If you want Christ as your savior, you have to replace what you have been looking to as a savior.
Are you ready to do that today?