Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro

10,000 Sermon Illustrations (Blessings of America)

Blessings of America

We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown.

But we have forgotten God.

We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.

Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.

A. Lincoln, Proclamation of a Day of National Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer, 1863

Does that sound like a description of our country today?

This was President Abraham Lincoln’s proclamation for a Day of National Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer, over 150 years ago in 1863.

During our nation’s hardest times, like the depression of the 1930s, giving was greater than it is today, when unemployment is almost gone and wages and home values are so much higher.

With the great blessings our nation has enjoyed for over 245 years, we seem to have fallen prey to dangerous treasure - things from our worldly kingdom that are more important to us than God’s kingdom.

Jesus said where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

Series

As we continue our series: The Crown & The Cross sermon, Mark’s Gospel shows Jesus as a man with a clear message and mission, and the reader is called to actively response to the message.

Jesus’ responses always helped his listeners better understand God’s heart and his statements are typically clear commands for us to follow.

In the first half of Mark the emphasis was on Jesus as Messiah the King who deserved the crown.

Now in the second half the focus is on Jesus preparing for His life’s mission to suffer and die on the cross - and to rise from the dead.

He is preparing his disciples for what lay ahead.

Jesus is also speaking to us today about what it takes to be a true follower.

Last week Jesus answered a question about divorce by explaining God’s Marriage Plan for a man and a woman to come together and remain together for their whole lives.

And then he used the example of a child’s pure humble faith as the key to entering God’s kingdom.

In today’s text, a man comes with a life changing question.

Jesus’ response brought great sorrow and astonishment.

He warned his listeners about dangerous treasure.

It’s not just the risks we take to find great treasure, but the high price of holding on to it without seeing the real cost.

Our parallel passages are in Matthew 19 and Luke 18.

You can turn to Mark 10.

PRAY

READ Mark 10:17-31

A Man's Life-changing Question

v. 17 says a man ran up to Jesus and begged him to answer a pressing question.

“What must I do to inherit eternal life?”

Mark simply calls him “a man” and we discover he has great wealth and property.

Our parallel passage in Matthew 19 tells us he was young man.

Luke 18 tells us he was a ruler.

So, putting the picture together, we have a rich young ruler.

Someone with money and political power who is surprisingly young.

Maybe he inherited it - we don’t know.

In the middle-eastern culture of that day, men did not run.

They walked slowly and dignified.

But he is excited and anxious to get the answer to this pressing life-changing question.

Notice the wording “Good teacher.

What must I do?”

In his mind, and just about everyone else’s too, it was not what a question of what must I know or believe to be saved.

It is a matter of what do I have to do - he is thinking it’s about my actions or works not simply faith.

Jesus' Answer & Warning about Dangerous Treasure

Jesus’ Answer

v. 18 Jesus answered with a question, as usual.

“Why do you call me good?”

No one is good except God alone.

This word for “good” was reserved for describing God by the Jews.

You didn’t call people “intrinsically good.”

Jesus was not denying being God, but rather he was probing to see if this young man actually saw him as God himself.

Jesus then lists five of the commandments.

These are the ones about how we treat others.

And he modifies the command “Do not covet” to do not defraud or take advantage of others.

This young man had enough property and wealth that coveting was not a problem - but perhaps accumulating his great empire had come from defrauding or cheating the poor or powerless.

in v. 20, the man says, I have kept all of these from my youth.

Jesus doesn’t challenge him.

v. 21 gives us a beautiful picture of God’s unconditional and compassionate love.

It says Jesus looked at him and loved him.

His wealth had nothing to do with it.

Jesus valued him as a person, knew that even with his vast wealth he was empty inside, and Jesus wanted to see him saved.

Jesus didn’t seek him for a disciple because of his wealth and power.

In fact, he told him to give that all away.

Just come to me empty handed and follow me.

Jesus knew his heart.

He knew he was working hard to keep the Law - the moral code.

He knew he was wealthy and had everything he could possibly want.

But Jesus also knew he was missing the most important thing - total devotion and love for God.

“Go sell all you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come follow me.”

v. 22 has been called the saddest verse in the Bible.

This young man is the only person who came to Jesus happy and went away crushed.

He is the only person Jesus called who answered “no.”

When Jesus called his twelve disciples, they immediately followed him.

They were drawn to God even though they didn’t yet recognize him as the Messiah.

The young man was disheartened.

It means deeply depressed, crushed, like a sunny sky turned black.

He walked away because he had such great possessions.

He was rich!

Loaded.

His treasures were too much for him to give up.

Contrast this with last week’s message - the children coming to Jesus had nothing but they needed nothing.

They came to Jesus empty-handed knowing only that they needed him.

This young man, has everything the world has to offer, money, property, political power.

Yet he can’t gain the ultimate treasure of eternal life with his hands and heart grasping so tightly to all his worldly treasure.

That’s why this treasure is so dangerous.

We think more treasure will fill us and meet all our needs.

While this young man said he was able to keep all the commandments Jesus listed, his heart attitude made him unable to keep the first commandment, one that Jesus did not quote: “Do not worship any other gods besides me” .

The young man did not love God with his whole heart as he had thought.

In reality, the man’s wealth was his god, his idol, his treasure.

If he could not give it up, he would be violating the very first and most foundational commandment: Love God more than anything else.

The task of selling all his possessions would not, of itself, give the man eternal life.

Jesus is not commanding poverty for him or anyone else.

But such radical obedience would be the first step for this man to become a disciple.

Jesus’ words were a test of his faith and his willingness to obey, and sadly this excited young man could not give up his worldly treasure and fully trust God instead of trusting himself and his stuff.

Jesus’ Warning

In verses 23-27 Jesus gives further warnings about the dangerous treasures of this world.

He shocks them saying “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God.”