What are YOU Attached to?
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Tough Things Jesus Said or Did!
Find some things that you think is difficult and shoot them to me this week! You can call, text, e-mail, FaceBook, or mail a letter, Faithlife message me! I want to hear somethings that you things that you think are difficult and we can talk about them!
What is your favorite thing on this planet?
What do you like about it?
Mine is my smoker! I LOVE my smoker!
I would gladly give up just about anything - except my smoker - and maybe a few Bibles that I have.
If Jesus asked me to give up my smoker to follow Him, we might possibly have some issues!
I don’t think that Jesus is as concerned with me giving up my smoker to follow Him as maybe He would like to see me use it to further His kingdom!
In today’s story we read about a man that was not willing to give up his attachments to follow Jesus.
As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
The man ran up to Him....
I am not a runner! I know what the Bible says about running when no one is chasing you....
Proverbs 28:1 (NRSV)
The wicked flee when no one pursues,
Just kidding…but seriously, when is the last time that I ran, when something was important to me!
He was in a hurry…what he was about to ask Jesus was urgent, at least in his mind.
My first question is: Do we approach Jesus with the same urgency?
Or, are we pretty nonchalant about Jesus?
Sometimes, when a problem comes, we run as quickly away from Jesus as we possibly can, but walk humbly back to Him when we realize that He is the only one who can help us!
Not only does he run to see Jesus, he kneels before him!
As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
You only kneel before someone when you respect them or when you are begging for something!
My Grampy used to make me beg for a can of his vanilla coke. It was cruel.
This guy definitely had better intentions than a can of vanilla coke!
He wanted to know how to inherit eternal life!
How many of you have asked this question before? How do I get to heaven?
He knew that Jesus knew the answer, what he didn’t know is that Jesus IS the answer!
“Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone.
Before Jesus even dives into this question about eternal life, he talks about what good is.
Why would the guy call Jesus the Good Teacher? Jesus has been called teacher before, but it was never accompanied with Good before. This was a first and a last in scripture! It’s the only instance where good and teacher go together!
This shows the sincerity of the man asking the question: he is likely trying to bring honor to Jesus.
But Jesus is going to to quickly lay something out for the man!
No one is good except God alone!
In which case, Jesus make a subtle hint about who He is. He doesn’t correct the man and say something along the lines of “I am not God, why should you say that I am God?”
Instead, He simply makes the statement: No one is good except God alone.
In verse 19, he then speaks to the commandments.
You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honor your father and mother.’”
You notice something here, these commandments are the ones that have to do with other people.
He doesn’t mention the first 4, which have to do with honoring God.
It must be noted here that in this conversation, Jesus is meeting this man right where his mentality is!
You see, you and I know the way to heaven is through Jesus! If you didn’t know that, now you do!
The way to eternal life is through Jesus. But this man didn’t understand that!
He thought it was about what he did.
Notice, that Jesus doesn’t talk to this man like he did the samaritan woman at the well.
To the woman at the well he said “if you knew who it is that is talking to you, you would have asked him for a drink and he would have given you living water.”
Jesus told her exactly how to receive eternal life!
But this guy, he “humors,” if you will, his naivety and makes it about deeds.
“Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.”
He is explicitly saying, I have done everything that I was supposed to do.
It almost makes me ask the question: Then why are you bothering with Jesus?
If you have it all figured out, then why are you still coming to Jesus.
If it were me, I would have said something like “Go on about your way, then!”
If you think that you have figured it out, then you don’t need Jesus!
How many people do we know that think that they have it all figured out, yet are still missing something?
I think the man knew that he was still missing something.
He did everything right. He did everything that he possibly could. Yet, he was still missing something!
Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
Looked at him - Greek word, Blepo, which means to “gaze upon.” - Jesus looked into his soul and loved Him.
How many times does the Bible say that Jesus loved the person that he was interacting with?
Very few! So the fact that the Bible says Jesus loved him means something. It means that Jesus had a deep compassion for him!
Jesus was being very serious and intentional with him.
And he says, go and sell everything you have, give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me!
This is the only person mentioned in scripture that Jesus told this to.
This was for a specific person in a specific moment. Jesus knew this guy was caught up on doing works, so he used works to illustrate what the guy was lacking.
This leads me to believe that Sometimes, Jesus is going to have us do specific things that challenge us right where we need it!
What areas of your faith do you struggle with?
What areas do you need Jesus to challenge you in?
In order to enter the kingdom of heaven, he explained to this man that you had to be as dependent as a child to enter the kingdom.
People were bringing little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” And he took the children in his arms, placed his hands on them and blessed them.
To enter the kingdom, we must have faith like a child and the same dependency as a child. We must trust that Jesus will provide for us as He did for the disciples!
At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.
Jesus touched the man at his core. He knew exactly where they man would lack his faith.
He didn’t ask the other disciples to sell all their stuff, but He did ask them to follow Him.
The man was too attached to his stuff to follow Jesus!
The Beacon Bible Commentary describes this nicely by saying : As the classic hymn “Rock of Ages” has it, “Nothing in my hand I bring;/simply to thy cross I cling.”
We can’t be attached to Jesus and our stuff at the same time!
We have to make a decision!
Nooma series by Rob Bell - was at the beach with his family - son picked up a ton of seashells. Then he saw a starfish - dad told him to go get it - he ran out a bit and then ran back - dad said to “go on” - he ran out and then ran back - he looked at his dad and said “my hands are full”
Sometimes we are like that with Jesus!
We see that what He has to offer is amazing, but when we have to choose between Him and what we are attached to, we can’t make the decision!
The man walked away from the greatest Man to ever walk the earth because He couldn’t give up his stuff!
What is it that you can’t give up to follow Jesus?
What seashells do you have in your hands that doesn’t allow you to pick up the starfish?
Do you understand that what Jesus has to offer is far greater than anything you you could possibly imagine?
What are you attached to?
Family?
Relationship?
Sin?
Stuff?
Security?
Status?
The man owned much wealth. In their culture, more wealth meant more blessings from God. And more blessings from God meant more opportunities and status.
It is possible that this man went away sad because he knew that he was giving up his “status” by selling all of his possessions.
What is it that you are so attached to that you can’t follow God in the way that He is calling you to?
Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!”
Jesus looked around. There was likely still a crowd around. He probably looks around because He was getting ready to say something profound - and more importantly, counter-cultural!
Again, they thought that the wealthy would be the ones in heaven, after all, they were the ones who were “blessed by God.”
They were the ones who had “all the opportunities,” that no one else did.
So, Jesus’ comment here is another difficult thing to swallow. - particularly to any Pharisees who might have been lurking around.
The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God!
They were amazed at His words because it was so counter-cultural!
How often does Jesus say things that are counter-cultural!
Because, He brought a new kingdom. A better kingdom. A righteous kingdom.
At first glance, it appears that Jesus is insulting the disciples - I mean, how many of you like to be called children?
So, at first, I was like “why would He do that?” Why would insult them?
They aren’t the ones with the issue.
But that’s it, isn’t it?
Jesus just said that unless you become like little children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven!
Children don’t have possessions that they are attached to in the same way that adults do!
The context here is not that being like a child is an insult, it’s actually a complement!
The disciples left everything to follow Jesus!
They had it figured out! They followed Him in the way that a child follows and adult - blindly, unattached to anything! Full of faith and hope!
It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
This is an interesting verse.
As I read commentaries, I learned a few things this week!
Needle’s Eye Gate
The eye of a needle was likely NOT referring to an opening in the city gate. - in the 9th century AD someone said that it was an opening that would be very difficult for animals to go through. They would have to unload everything and crawl through on their knees.
This sounds good, and makes for a good analogy - but there is no such gate like this in the Jerusalem city wall. This is not the context that the disciples would have understood Jesus to mean.
This thought undermines Jesus’ point as it means that it is unlikely for a rich man to enter heaven, but not impossible.
2. Kamilon vs. Kamelon
I learned that the word for “camel” could quite possibly be a mistranslation. The Greek word for “camel,” Kamilon is similar to the aramaic word for “thick rope,” Kamelon.
Is it possible that the translators used the wrong word for what Jesus meant?
This is a likelier analogy for what Jesus is saying as a rope going through the eye of a needle would be more impossible than the camel and gate in the first thought.
It would relate more to the disciples as they were familiar with the ropes used for fishing.
Also, proves some possibility, but the rope would have to be undone to allow each thread to go through individually.
However, if Jesus meant the word for “thick rope” then the greek writers would have probably used the word “kaldio”
3. Camel and Eye of the Needle
The camel was the largest animal in that area that they would have been familiar with.
The eye of the needle is the smallest opening.
Therefore, the analogy proves impossible.
As if Jesus said “it is impossible for a wealthy person to enter the kingdom of heaven.”
This is substantiated in the disciple’s response...
The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, “Who then can be saved?”
If the wealthy “blessed by God people, who have the most opportunities, and seem to “have it all together,” can’t enter the kingdom of heaven, then who can?
Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.”
How often do we apply this verse to anything we want it to?
There are some things that are impossible with God.
God doesn’t create evil!
God cannot sin!
God doesn’t lie!
God cannot, not love!
So, if you use this verse to justify something, keep in mind there are some things that are impossible with God.
What Jesus is specifically speaking to here is the question of salvation from His disciples.
God determines who is saved!
Only through God (Christ) can one be saved! - Through faith not by works....
God just basically said that it is impossible for a rich man to be saved.
But, then says that all things are possible with God!
Worship Team
The whole issue here is not money - it is what we are willing to give up to follow Jesus!
The rich man could have followed Jesus and be saved. He was given an opportunity and rejected it.
Likewise, we are given an opportunity!
What seashells are you holding on to?
What things in your life are you too attached to to follow Jesus?
What are you attached to?
Family?
Relationship?
Sin?
Stuff?
Security?
Status?
Are you willing to drop the seashells to embrace the starfish?
What is the starfish?
“Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”
What you give up for following Jesus will be returned to you!
I don’t think that what Jesus is saying here is that you will be rich and full of materialistic things, but that when we follow Him we will be transformed enough to be content.
Persecutions! Sign me up!
But the greater reward for giving up things is, eternal life!
Life that begins now, in this life, but in the life to come as well.
First shall be last and last shall be first - this shows that this life is not a race to wealth, fame, possessions, etc.
But that it’s about following Jesus with all that we are and all that we have!
As we move into communion today, I encourage you to think about the things that you are attached to.
Think about what Jesus may be asking you to give up, in order to follow Him.
Bread - Jesus’ body - His life
Juice - Jesus’ blood - His death for salvation