Sermon Tone Analysis

Scripture Reading

Introduction

As Christ continues his journey towards Jerusalem, he continues to teach his disciples and followers what it means, and what is required, in order to participate in, or become partakers of the kingdom of heaven.

In Luke 18:9-14, the subject matter was “True Righteousness” and justification before God, as Christ compared the Tax Collector and the Pharisee in their approach to God in prayer.

In Luke 18:15-17, the focus was on humility in entering the kingdom of heaven, and that in order to receive the kingdom of heaven, one needs to “become like a child”, and receive as a child – in other words in utter dependence upon God, in order to obtain the kingdom.

In the present passage, we are again directed to what it means, or what is required in order to participate in the kingdom of God, but the focus in our present passage is a death to self, along with an utter dependence upon God through Christ.

We find an emphasis in our passage today on the importance of denying oneself, denying of selfish desires, denying of pride of the heart, and humbling oneself before God in order to obtain salvation.

But we also find an emphasis on the extent of God’s grace, and the emphasis on the fact that our salvation is only by the grace of God.

Notice firstly…

1.

A Good Desire (v.18)

In verse eighteen, Luke relays for us an account of a man who had a very sincere desire for a very noble outcome to his own life.

We read in that verse,

Luke 18:18

18 A certain ruler asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

The desire of this man who approaches Jesus is to inherit eternal life.

Luke tells us that this man was a ruler.

Matthew’s Gospel tells us that this man was young.

All three of the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) tell us that he was very wealthy.

As this man comes to Jesus, he comes with an extremely noble desire.

Here is a man who, as we will see, has sought to live his life to the glory of God, by obeying the commands of God.

He clearly had a very high regard for the law of God that was taught to him probably from a young age.

This was a man who had been taught about God, and about the fact of eternal life.

This idea of life eternal was part of the Jewish thinking, from passages such as Daniel 12:2…

"Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt.”

(Daniel 12:2)

Here was a man that had a sincere desire to inherit this eternal life.

There are many such people alive in our world today that have such commendable and noble desires in their hearts.

This is not true perhaps of the atheists and agnostics in our world.

Nonetheless, it is very much true of those who will acknowledge God in any form.

In fact, according to Solomon in Ecclesiastes 3:11, God has set eternity in the hearts of men.

There is this natural understanding of and perception of, perhaps even longing for, eternity.

People today, like this young ruler, have these noble desires to inherit eternal life.

People have these noble desires to be with God and to see him.

The big question is, am I on the right path to inheriting this eternal life?

We must note as we come to this passage, however, that it is not the desire itself for eternity that leads us to inherit this eternal life.

It is not even the amount of effort that we may put in to obtaining eternal life that will assure us of this eternal life.

Sincerity of Desire, and efforts (if they are misdirected) will not necessarily grant us this eternal life that we long for.

What is important is, are we submitting ourselves to the will and the ways that God has laid out for this eternal life to be inherited?

Are we humbling ourselves before Him as God, and submitting to His ways, and His decrees?

As this man approaches Jesus with this question about inheriting eternal life, he is obviously approaching Jesus with a very high regard for who Jesus was as a teacher.

He sees Jesus as a Rabbi, as one who is to be looked up to, and even perhaps is the one who can give them an answer of finality in this quest that he has to obtain eternal life.

In other words, here is a man who had a great deal of respect for Jesus.

Notice then, secondly…

2. A Guiding Standard (vv.19-21)

As Jesus is approached by this young ruler with this question, he begins by speaking to this young man’s own preconceived notions.

Jesus knew this man and where he was coming from.

The context of the narrative over here shows to us that those who were observing were very much aware of the fact that here was a rich young man.

Perhaps it arrived with an entourage of people.

Perhaps it arrived with his flashy clothes and clearly demonstrating that he was extremely successful in life.

Perhaps it was just well-known that this man was very wealthy.

I simply say this in order to convey the fact that I am quite certain that Jesus discerned right from the outset what this man was about.

As he begins to engage with the man, notice his approach.

The first thing that he does is not to address the actual question asked.

Rather, Jesus addresses the manner in which this man addressed him.

Luke 18:19

19 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered.

“No one is good—except God alone.

​As soon as we hear these words, we might be tempted to go down a path of understanding that doesn’t tie in with the rest of Scripture, particularly in terms of the teaching of who Jesus is.

Some people will use this verse in order to emphasize that Jesus is not God, and He’s not equal with God.

He said it so clearly himself.

That’s not the emphasis of what he is saying.

I think beyond that, we need to see that Jesus was not saying that you can never refer to man as good in any way.

Context is important!

If we look elsewhere in Scripture, we find various places where man is referred to just in a general sense as “good”.

For example, in Proverbs 14:14 we read…

"The backslider in heart will have his fill of his own ways, But a good man will be satisfied with his.” (Proverbs 14:14)

A very pertinent passage that brings out the use of “good” vs. “evil” is Ecclesiastes 9:2…

"It is the same for all.

There is one fate for the righteous and for the wicked; for the good, for the clean and for the unclean; for the man who offers a sacrifice and for the one who does not sacrifice.

As the good man is, so is the sinner; as the swearer is, so is the one who is afraid to swear.”

(Ecclesiastes 9:2)

The context there, of course, is that all men ultimately face the same final destiny in this world – whether a good person or a bad person.

And very obviously, the manner in which the term “good” is used is going to be important.

Even Jesus himself used the term “good” in referring to people in a general sense…

"“The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart.”

(Luke 6:45)

I don’t believe that Jesus was saying that everyone is always evil all the time.

I do believe that he was distinguishing between those who in a general sense, to some measure, were good, or at least better than others in terms of their hearts.

You can think of this in terms of King Josiah in the Old Testament, who walked in the ways of God… He was certainly a good king in comparison to his father King Amon, who did evil in the sight of the Lord.

With that in mind, and given that Jesus himself has no issue with calling someone good within the proper context, we need to understand then that Jesus was actually reading this man and seeking to address something of the heart of this man, even in this interaction, and His statement that God alone is good.

In all likelihood, Jesus was rejecting the simplistic view of “goodness” implied in the ruler’s statement.

In other words, he was using the word “good” in a very reductionistic sense.

Clearly there was a very simplistic view of this man’s words.

He was attempting to flatter Jesus by addressing him in this manner.

As we go on, we will find that this man uses the law, obedience to the law, as His standard for good.

He would have seen himself as good.

This man would have viewed the Pharisees and Teachers of the Law as good.

And so, Jesus directs the man’s attention to the true standard of good… that is God!

Now, the fact is that Jesus himself was good.

He was the very Son of God, and He was the one that ought to have been listened to, obeyed.

He was truly the good teacher.

The question is, would this man listen to the good teacher for who He truly was.

As Jesus continues to address the man, notice that he turns his attention to a series of commandments.

Again, note that Jesus is, in a certain sense, speaking to the place where he knew this man’s heart was, to ultimately show him in a powerful way that his heart really was not in a good place.

Luke 18:20

20 You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.’”

Jesus list here 5 of the 10 commandments, all of them related to one’s treatment of their fellow man.

Christ does not point to what’s usually referred to as the first table – man’s responsibilities towards God.

A possible reason for that is simply that love for God is evidenced through one’s love for fellow man (as 1 John 4:12 teaches us) and so he was really focusing here on what could visibly be seen.

What is so striking about the commands that Jesus lists is that he leaves out the one commandment that probably was most appropriate and applicable to the heart of this man that he was confronting – that of covetousness.