INTRODUCTION: It’s been said: Why do you Christians place so much emphasis on Jesus? Why are you so “intolerant”? Why can’t you be more accepting and admit that other religions can also know God? Why can’t you Christians believe that people from other religions can be just as morally good as Christians? Why do you always talk about Jesus when it takes being a good person to go to heaven?
Those are interesting questions. Why do we place so much importance in Jesus? Why Jesus?
When the Fox Network first came on the air about 18 years ago they had a sitcom called Second Chance. It starred a young Matthew Perry, who is best known as Chandler on the sitcom Friends. Perry starred as a teenager named Chazz who got into all kinds of trouble. Fortunately he and his mother had a 40-something year old boarder by the name of Charles. Charles would teach Chazz important moral lessons and direct him in ways that helped him to develop into a “good” man.
Did I mention that St. Peter made appearances on the show to help Charles help Chazz? Why would Peter do that? Well, you see, it was because Charles was Chazz. In the pilot episode of Second Chance, Charles is killed in a car accident. When Charles stepped on a mechanism at the Pearly Gates to determine if was going to heaven or hell, the gates of heaven opened to welcome him and the angelic choir sang. The problem was that the gates of hell also opened and the torturous sounds of crying and yelling could be heard. Oh dear! Charles wasn’t good enough for heaven nor was he bad enough for hell. That was certainly a dilemma! What was St. Peter going to do?
He cleverly came up with a solution of sending Charles back in time to his teenage self so that he could direct himself into being good enough for heaven. If Chazz could be good enough Charles would get to go to heaven. We find a similar idea of being good enough to go to heaven in our contemporary culture and also in our Bible text.
I. SITUATION: Jesus is approached by a rich young man who believes he’s going to go to heaven because he’s “good.” He says that he has kept all the Commandments. Yet this rich young man asks Jesus if there is anything else he needs to do in order to be saved and have eternal life. He’s trying to play it safe.
But surely he’s done just about everything necessary! He’s never murdered anyone. He’s not had sex outside of marriage. He’s never stolen anything. He’s never lied about anyone. He’s never cheated. He’s honored his parents. What more could there be? Clearly, this all meant he was good enough to go to heaven. What more could God want?
The rich young ruler was like a lot of people are today. We live our lives. We go to work. We try to be honest. We help out when someone needs it. We live basically good, moral lives. Don’t steal. Don’t kill. And because of that we think we should go to heaven.
I’ve known people, and I’m sure you have too, who say they don’t need to be Christians or go to church because they’re just as good as “Uncle Joe” or “Aunt Fanny” who goes to church. In fact, some people say that they are morally better that “Uncle Joe” or “Aunt Fanny.” And you know what? They just might be. The fact is a lot of people believe that their private morality will get them into heaven. They basically believe that if they are honest, and don’t cuss, smoke, chew, or go out with girls who do, they’ll be saved.
II. COMPLICATION: Do you see the problem here? We think that doing good things makes us good. But Jesus points out that no on is “good” except God. The point should be taken that no matter how many commandments we may obey, we will never be good enough! That’s because we are not going to keep them all for our entire lives.
We find in the text that the rich young man and indeed not kept all the commandments either, even though he claimed he had. Which one do we see evidence of him breaking right there in the text? The first commandment: “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.’ At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.” He put his money before the LORD God, this man had been deceived into thinking he was better than he actually was.
There’s a story about a mangy looking guy who walks into a very classy restaurant and orders a steak. The waitress says: “I’m sorry, but I don’t think you can pay for your meal.” The guy admits, “You’re right. I don’t have any money, but if I show you something you haven’t seen before, will you give me my supper?” The waitress, both curious and compassionate, says, “Only if what you show me isn’t risqué.” “Deal!” says the guy and reaches into his coat pocket and pulls out a hamster. He puts the hamster on the ground and it runs across the room, directly to a piano. The hamster then proceeds to climb up the piano, and starts playing Gershwin songs. The waitress says, “You’re right. I’ve never seen anything like that before. That hamster is truly good on the piano.” The guy sits back and enjoys a fine steak supper with all the trimmings. Shortly thereafter, he asks the waitress, “Can I have a piece of that fine blueberry pie I see on the dessert cart over there?” “Only if you got another miracle up your sleeve,” says the waitress. The guy reaches into his coat again and pulls out a frog. He puts the frog on the table, and the frog starts to sing up a storm! A stranger from a nearby table runs over to the guy and offers him $300 for the frog. The guy says, “It’s a deal.” He takes the three hundred and gives the stranger the frog. The stranger runs out of the restaurant with dollar signs in his eyes and a big smile on his face. The waitress says to the guy, “Are you some kind of nut? You sold a singing frog for $300? It must have been worth millions!” “No,” says the guy. “The hamster is also a ventriloquist.”
That frog wasn’t quite as good as the stranger who bought it was led to believe. The frog’s goodness was fraud. Like that frog’s, our goodness is also often seen to be grander than it actually is.
Sure it’s easy to look good when we compare ourselves to murderers and rapists and terrorists. But what happens when we compare ourselves to the truly good one-- the Living God?
In our text we find that even though the rich young ruler believes that he is good and has obeyed God perfectly, we find that, in fact, he puts his money before the LORD God. The rich young man was self-reliant, assured of his own goodness, and trusted in himself-- he said he always obeyed the 10 Commandments, therefore he was worthy to be saved. But the fact is he placed his riches before following Christ, which we have just seen violates the first Commandment. The rich young man was the “first” Jesus speaks of when he says that “the first will be last” (Mark 10:31).
After his encounter with the rich young man, Jesus turns to the crowd and says, “Dear children, it is very hard to get into the Kingdom of God.” And he continues by saying, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person t enter the Kingdom of God” (Mark 10:24-25 NLT). That’s really telling him Jesus! You sock it to him! Now before we start socking it to Bill Gates or Ross Perot, maybe we better look at ourselves.
I grew up with three younger brothers. My parents built a new four-bedroom, two-bathroom ranch-style house when my youngest brother was born because the trailer we lived in was too small for all six of us. Due to house payments, insurance, clothes for us kids, groceries, heating gas, school costs, and all the other expenses, my parents struggled with finances. My father worked hard to bring home the money and my mother worked hard raising us boys. We always had something to eat and clothes to wear, but we were not what we would consider rich by any means.
My youngest brother Ryan had a school friend named David. Now David had never been to our house, but one night he came over to spend the night. When David walked into our house his eyes widened and his mouth dropped. He could not believe how rich we were! Two bathrooms!? Four bedrooms!? A dining room separate from the kitchen!? From David’s perspective we lived like royalty. And compared to him-- we did. David’s family was quite poor so, of course, we were rich!
But even the poorest in America are often rich compared to the poorest people in most parts of the world: people living in clay shacks and tents because they cannot afford solid permanent structures made from wood or brick or concrete; parents watching their children starving to death every day because they cannot afford to feed them; people dying of cholera and hepatitis because they do not have access to clean drinking water. So we need to realize that just perhaps we are among the rich Jesus was referring to when he said, “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” (Mark 10:25). So, because we are among the rich people Jesus talks about, does that mean we can’t be saved?
Has anyone ever heard the hypothesis that “the eye of a needle” Jesus is referring to was not an actual sewing needle? Some have proposed that Jesus was actually speaking of a small passageway at Jerusalem that was referred to as “the eye of the needle.” People who hold to that idea claim that camels could fit through it, but they had to be unloaded and kneel down in order to squeeze through it. Therefore it was possible for the camel to get through “the eye of a needle” but it was very, very difficult.
With that in mind, some people might argue that they can, indeed be good enough to go to heaven, it is just difficult to do. Let me say, that’s utter nonsense! It’s bunk! It’s rubbish! So far as we know, there never was a passageway in first century Jerusalem called “the eye of the needle.” There is no literary evidence. There is no historical evidence. There is no archaeological evidence. It did not exist.
So what is Jesus saying? He is saying that a camel has a better chance of going through a sewing needle than for you or me to be good enough to go to heaven! In other words, it’s not going to happen. I can’t even get a piece of thread through a needle, let alone a whole camel! It is humanly impossible. The word of Jesus to his first century audience is his word to us: We are not worthy of the Kingdom of God! No matter how good we think we might be-- we’re not. The fact is, when compared to God, we are nothing but filth! The prophet Isaiah addressed this when he wrote in Isaiah 64:6: “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a lead, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.” In other words, if anyone things that his or her good deeds outweigh his or her bad deeds enough to go to heaven, that person is full of bologna!
The fact is that we human beings are not good. We rebel against God. We sin! And because we sin, as Dr. Wayne Grudem points out: (1) “We deserve to die as the penalty for sin”; (2) “We deserve to bear God’s wrath against sin”; (3) “We are separated from God by our sin”; and (4) “We are in bondage to sin and to the kingdom of Satan” (Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994], 580).
That all seems like pretty bad news. So is no one here saved and going to heaven? Is everything hopeless? I never said that!
III. RESOLUTION: Jesus does not end his teaching in Mark 10 by leaving us without hope. He tells us that there is a way: “Humanly speaking, it is impossible [to be saved]. But not with God. Everything is possible with God” (Mark 10:27 NLT). That’s the emphasis of the text: humble faith in God is what saves us. As one commentator points out, Jesus is showing that “nobody lies outside the saving purposes of God” (Alister McGrath, Understand Your Bible from Adam to Zion: A Clear Explanation of God’s Word [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1997], 292).
When place our text in its fuller context and look back a few verses in chapter 10 we see an example of what it takes to be saved: the children. And what do the children have to do with going to heaven? Well, let’s take a quick look. The children Jesus was referring to were dependent. They depended upon their parents for food, clothing, shelter, love, and safety. The children trusted their parents. And the children were considered to be on the low rung of society. We even have a modern saying that goes “children should be seen and not heard.” That implies children were among the “last” that Jesus spoke of when he said the “last shall be first.”
So we see that we need to be childlike in faith, trust, and humility. We need to learn how to become dependent upon God. We need to give up our pride “and recognize [our] humble position before God and others” (Allen Black, Mark, The College Press NIV Commentary [Joplin, MO: College Press, 1995]183). We need to learn how to rely upon God’s goodness. We need to learn the only way we can become good and do it! And what is that way? We become good by accepting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. It’s his goodness that makes the Christian good because no one is good except for God alone. The apostle Paul writes in 1 Timothy 1:15-16:
Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners-- of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life.
As we have seen in our text, the rich young man believed that he had earned God’s favor by being “good” in his obedience to the commandments. However, the rich young man would be saved only if he put his confidence in the saving grace of God. We have also seen it’s a popular belief today that people are saved because they are “good.” But “only God is truly good” (NLT). Can a “truly good” person save himself? The answer to that question would be “yes.” The problem is, however, that there is not a single person on the face of this earth who is a “truly good” person. We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
If you’ve ever lied (even a “little white lie”), you’re not “truly good.” If you’ve ever sexually lusted for a person who’s not your spouse, you’re not “truly good.” If you’ve ever gossiped, you’re not “truly good.” If you’ve ever cheated, you’re not “truly good.” There has been only one person to ever walk this planet who has been “truly good,” and that person is Jesus Christ the Son of God. The truth is it is only by depending upon the grace of God through his Son that we can be saved.
What about those questions that were asked earlier?
Why are Christians so “intolerant”?
The answer is because God calls us to be “intolerant”! Intolerant of sin, intolerant of evil, intolerant of lies, intolerant of all which is contrary to God.
We are not to accept that which is evil.
When we do tolerate that which is evil, God will hold it against us. In Revelation 2:20-22 God says to the church at Thyratira, “I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways.”
In the context of Revelation we find that this strong warning goes out to a church who has tolerated an evil and false teacher who is compared to the treacherous Jezebel of the Old Testament.
The Lord opposes tolerating evil so much that he tells us that those who follow antichristian teachings will struck dead (v. 23).
While we are never to tolerate evil, we must remember to love and reach out to those who commit evil. God wants them to repent.
God doesn’t enjoy pouring his wrath out on people, but unless they turn away from evil and follow him his justice will be served because God does not tolerate evil.
In Habakkuk 1:13 we read about God, “Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrong.”
As followers of God, we dare not tolerate evil and wrongdoing.
Why can’t you be more accepting and admit that other religions can also know God?
Because the world’s religions cannot lead to God. The Bible is very clear: there is only one way to truly know God. That is through Jesus Christ, his one and only Son.
In Acts 4:18 the apostle Peter says about Jesus, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”
Why can’t you Christians believe that people from other religions can be just as morally good as Christians?
No knowledgeable Christian have ever said they couldn’t be as morally good.
This ties back to what we see in our text today-- moral goodness is not what saves us because we can never be good enough. It is God’s grace through Jesus Christ which saves us. The moral goodness argument is naïve and has no basis in the reality of salvation.
Why do you Christians always talk about Jesus when it takes being a good person to go to heaven?
Once again, the whole point is being missed. No one is good enough to go to heaven.
We talk about Jesus because no one is good enough to go to heaven without him.
So, why Jesus? Why do we Christians emphasize the importance of Jesus? What does Jesus do to fulfill the needs of sinners? Well, first, he is our sacrifice for sin so we don’t have to truly die. Second, he is our payment for sin so that he bears God’s wrath instead of us. Third, he is our reconciliation with God so we don’t have to be separated from him anymore. And fourth, he is our redemption so we don’t have to be held in bondage to sin and Satan.
Have you been depending upon your own goodness to get you into heaven? If you have, then to be quite honest, you’re in trouble! It’s only by the grace of God through Jesus Christ we can go to heaven when we die. And that’s good news! God has not left us alone. He has not automatically condemned us to hell. He has given us the way to eternal life-- Jesus Christ.
Jesus is the possibility of salvation in our text: “Humanly speaking, it is impossible [to be saved]. But not with God. Everything is possible with God” (Mark 10:27). If you have not received the hope of eternal life by the goodness of Jesus Christ, today is the day to do that. Today is the day to follow him-- to begin a new life-- to be called a child of God.
