First shall be Last

The Kingdom of God

Is it possible that it comes down to one thing? If we could know what the one thing is, couldn’t we fix our future in the kingdom?

English Standard Version Chapter 10

The Rich Young Man

Jesus takes us on a journey of someone else. Today we can individually connect or disconnect from this story according to our personal lives. We can also assume that someone here today needs to relate to this story.

English Standard Version Chapter 10

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?”

Now how many here are thinking, “O don’t ask that question?”So, he who is concerned with his salvation must ask the question, right? But we all know that if we ask the question we also open the door to the answer. 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.’ ”

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Mk 10:18–19). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

Notice that in the answer Jesus begins by letting the answer give grace. IN other words, Jesus is saying that even he is not perfect, or even he is not good. Only the Father is good. I believe Jesus is giving us grace to know that he is not asking us to be perfect but that we should do what we know to be right. Do we not understand that we read the scriptures and we know what the Bible tells us and then we make a choice.

Look at the answer the man gives in response to the teacher. Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.”

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Mk 10:20). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

Does anybody here feel that they are justified today? Remember that this man asked the teacher what he needed to do and then later implies that he is okay. Checked that off my list of things to do. When I was a young man, boy, driving tractors and farming, I used to strain to listen to the radio while navigating those fields and open air tractors. One of the stations I could get had a man named Paul Harvey who broad cast a message called “The Rest of the Story”

English Standard Version Chapter 10

21 And Jesus, looking at him, loved him

Now I pause with that short word from Jesus because this is important to notice. He looked at the man and with love he explains what his one thing is. Have we now come back to the beginning of my message when I recognized that some of us might have seen this coming. Right? “O don’t ask that question?” 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.”

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Mk 10:21). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles. Maybe you know what your one thing is, maybe you don’t, but we often want to avoid this conversation because we don’t want to acknowledge what holds us back. 22 Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Mk 10:22). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

I want to ask you all a question at this time, “What is your one thing?” Will you walk away today disheartened? Jesus then discusses with His disciples what has just happened. How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!”

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Mk 10:23). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles. Have you been amazed today to know that Jesus knows what your thing is? 24 And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again,

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Mk 10:24). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles. 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?”

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Mk 10:24–26). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

Does it feel impossible? With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.”

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Mk 10:27). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

Before you begin to think you have given everything let me continue with the teaching for today. 28 Peter began to say to him, “See, we have left everything and followed you.”

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Mk 10:28). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles. Are you beginning to feel that there is a “Rest of the Story coming now?” 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.”

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Mk 10:29–31). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.