The Place of Possessions (Part 1)
Matthew 19:16-30
February 17, 2007
NOTE: THE ME/WE/GOD/YOU/WE FORMAT USED IN MY MESSAGES IS BORROWED FROM ANDY STANLEY’S BOOK, "COMMUNICATING
FOR A CHANGE."
Me: When I was 7 or 8 years old, living in Pine
Ridge, my life was forever changed by a show on TV called, “The Littlest Angel,” starring Johnny Whitaker from “Family Affair.”
It’s the story about a young boy who dies after falling off a cliff, then goes to heaven to become an angel.
While he’s in heaven, he gets into all sorts of trouble as he gets fitted for wings and generally learns what living in heaven is all about.
I can’t get into all the details of the story, but basically the littlest angel’s offering of a beat-up box of earthly possessions becomes the star of Bethlehem to announce the birth of the Messiah.
But here’s what really hit me: the kid hadn’t planned on dying, and all of a sudden there he is before God.
I remember bawling my eyes out and crying, “I want to go to heaven when I die!” And the hardest part was, I wasn’t sure I would.
Again, I was only 7 or 8, but I knew in my heart that there was a chance I wouldn’t get in and from that time, I became attentive to things in church. I didn’t want to blow it when the time came!
We: Obviously, I’m not the only person who has ever struggled or feared what would happen when we die.
Probably everyone in here has wondered about that, even if you grew up hearing about Jesus and what He did on the cross for you.
And I can guarantee you that there are people who will die this week and not have the most essential question of life answered.
I would guess that everyone wants to know that their eternity is settled, and even if we have a religious background, we’d like to have some assurance of heaven.
God: Our passage today tells the story of a young man who had the same issue on his heart.
He wanted to know for sure that he would spend eternity in heaven when he died.
Matthew 19:16-30 (p. 696) –
16 Now a man came up to Jesus and asked, "Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?"
17 "Why do you ask me about what is good?" Jesus replied. "There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments."
18 "Which ones?" the man inquired. Jesus replied, "’Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, 19 honor your father and mother,’ and ’love your neighbor as yourself.’"
20 "All these I have kept," the young man said. "What do I still lack?"
21 Jesus answered, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."
22 When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.
23 Then Jesus said to his disciples, "I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24 Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."
25 When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, "Who then can be saved?"
26 Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."
27 Peter answered him, "We have left everything to follow you! What then will there be for us?"
28 Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 29 And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life. 30 But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.”
There is just waaaay too much to cover in this passage today, so we’re going to take at least three weeks on this.
In fact, I think there are three main lessons we can learn from this passage, and here they are:
1. There is nothing we can do to gain eternal life. Eternal life is found only in Christ.
2. When possessions get in the way of following Christ, it can affect our lives – for both now and for eternity.
3. There is reward for following Jesus – eternal life and the “replacement” of those things that are “lost.”
Today we’re going to focus on the first of these lessons, and over the next few weeks we’ll look over the other two.
Our time today will focus on verses 16-22. Here we have this rich young man, who Luke tells us is a “young ruler,” which means he was probably one of the lay leaders of the synagogue or maybe even a Pharisee, and that because of his position in the community, he probably gave a fair sum of money to the poor.
In any case, our passage tells us the guy had some dough but that he had a question of eternal significance.
He comes to Jesus and says, "Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?"
Now Jesus had just got done saying that the kingdom of heaven belongs to those who come to Him with a humble, childlike faith that says we trust in Him totally and completely to take care of us in terms of the kingdom.
But this guy comes to Jesus with a question showing that he either didn’t hear what Jesus just said or that he didn’t get it.
He wants to earn eternal life; and he apparently thinks there are some good things he can do, beyond the law, to ensure that he would make it into heaven.
Many Jews believed that that a specific act of goodness could win them eternal life; and this young man wants Jesus to tell him what that act might be.” (Adapted from The Expositor’s Bible Commentary.)
In response to his question, Jesus says that he needed to obey the commandments, then proceeds to list some of the ten commandments and then added what we call the second greatest commandment, “love your neighbor as yourself.”
Now this guy thought he had all this under control, because he said that he had done all that stuff.
But notice his question: "What do I still lack?" He knows that there has to be more than just being a good boy.
There is something in his heart that’s telling him there’s more to life than just trying to check off a bunch of do’s and don’ts. He knows he’s still missing something and that Jesus can tell him what it is.
Maybe he’s thinking, “Maybe if I help enough old ladies across the street so they don’t get trampled by the camels…”
Or maybe he’s thinking, “I could get some signs that say, ‘Caesar go home!’ and organize a protest against the Romans…”
Then Jesus lays it on the line: “Get rid of your money and possessions and follow me.”
Whoa! That’s a pretty hefty deal, isn’t it? Our passage tells us that this guy was wealthy and Jesus is saying that he should get rid of it if he wants to get into heaven.
I think it’s important to note something here:
The task of selling all his possessions would not, of itself, give the man eternal life.
But such radical obedience would be the first step for this man to become a follower of Jesus.
This guy thought he needed to do more; Jesus explained that there was plenty more he could do, but not in order to obtain eternal life.
Instead, he needed an attitude adjustment toward his wealth.
By putting his treasure in heaven and following Jesus along the road of selflessness and service to others, this young man, full of promise and potential for God, could be assured of his eternal destiny.
This man’s many possessions made his life comfortable and gave him power and prestige.
So when Jesus told him to sell everything, he was touching the very basis of the man’s security and identity.
This guy found out that he couldn’t meet the one requirement that Jesus gave—to turn his whole heart and life over to God.
The one assurance he wanted, eternal life, was out of his reach because he thought the price the price was too high.
He came to Jesus wondering what he could do; but he left seeing what he was unable to do.
How tragic—to be possessed by possessions and miss the opportunity to be with Jesus. (Adapted from The Life Application New Testament Commentary.)
I think it’s also important to note here that Jesus isn’t saying that possessions are bad. There were rich people around Jesus, and if fact, we read that there were wealthy people who supported Jesus and His disciples so they could focus on the ministry.
He’s saying that when possessions get in the way of your allegiance to Christ, it’s bad. And if they get in the way of you’re putting your faith in Christ for eternal life, then it can have eternal consequences.
We’re going to talk about that more next time, but I want to hit it here very quickly in case you don’t make it back to the second part of this.
So here’s the bottom-line of what Jesus is saying here in these verses:
You can’t buy your way into heaven with either money or religion.
You: And because of this truth, there’s a question that everyone has to answer. And the answer needs to be decided before you leave your life on earth, because once that final breath is gone, it’s too late.
What are you trusting to get you to heaven?
Let’s just look at what this rich young man was counting on and look at them from our time here and now:
> Are you depending on your money to buy your way into heaven?
I was telling a man about what Jesus says about getting to heaven, and I asked him if he thought he’d get in.
“Absolutely – God’ll let me in for sure, because I give away turkeys to poor people at Thanksgiving.”
Now that’s a very noble and good thing to do, don’t get me wrong. I’m sure that there are many people who are grateful that my friend had the kind of money that let him be so generous. And Christians can maybe learn something from him.
But you know what? The Bible is very clear that doing good deeds won’t get us to heaven.
The rich young man was probably giving to the poor, and there is no question we should do that when we can.
But we can’t trust in that to get us to heaven.
> Are you depending on your “religion” to get you to heaven?
Remember, this guy was a ruler according to Luke – he was a religious guy who helped at the synagogue and may have even been one of the religious big-wig Pharisees. But Jesus said it didn’t matter.
Today, we could say that going to church every week and reading your Bible every day won’t cut it.
> Or are you depending on Christ alone for forgiveness of sins and a hope in heaven?
You see, what separates you from heaven isn’t your lack of money for charity or your lack of religious activity.
What separates you from God and the relationship that He wants with you is a word that the world doesn’t want to talk about , and that word is “sin.”
Sin is that stuff that you know you shouldn’t do but do it anyway, or that you don’t do that you know you should. And in our hearts, we know it’s sin.
The Bible says that if we die with that sin in our lives, then we face an eternity away from Him in hell.
But Jesus said that whoever believes in Him will have their sins forgiven and have a home in heaven.
“But I believe in Jesus! I’ve gone to church and even read parts of the Bible!”
Do you really believe? When the Bible uses the word “believe” it means, “I believe that Jesus is my only hope of forgiveness and a home in heaven. I have no back-up plan, because there is no back-up plan. All my trust is in Him and what He did for me. I can’t get there on my own effort, no matter how hard I try, no matter how good I am, because I know that no matter how good I am, I’m not good enough. That’s why Jesus had to die.”
Is that what you mean when you say you believe?
If not, then you need to change your thinking – just like the young man with Jesus. He needed to get past what He was leaning on and come to Christ – in humble, childlike faith.
Billy Graham said: “Many people argue, "I do believe in Christ. I believe in the Church, and I believe in the Bible. Isn’t that enough? No! You must RECEIVE Christ. I may go to the airport. I have a reservation. I have a ticket in my pocket. The plane is one the ramp. It is a big, powerful plane. I am certain that it will take me to my destination. They call the flight three times. I neglect to get on board. They close the door. The plane taxis down the runway and takes off. I am not on the plane. Why? I "believed" in the plane, but I neglected to get on board. That’s just it! You believe in God, Christ, the Bible, and the Church - but you have neglected to actually receive Him in your heart. Your belief has been an impersonal, speculative thing, and you have not entrusted yourself to Him. (SermonCentral.com. Contributed by Stephen Wright)
So how do you tell Jesus that you’re believing in Him the way He says we need to? I’m going to say a simple prayer that you can say with me in your heart, and you can leave here today knowing that your sins are forgiven and that you have eternal life.
(Prayer)
We: The enemy is selling a lie to the world, and that is that getting right with God, if there even is one, is a matter of just doing the best we can and trusting that God’ll cut us some slack if we don’t quite muster up to the standard.
The problem, of course, is that we can do absolutely nothing to get right with God on our own, as we’ve just spent the morning discussing.
The purpose of Aberdeen Wesleyan Church is to help people restore their relationship with God through faith in Christ.
We want to help as many people as possible discover the truth that Christ has done the work so people can have their sins forgiven and be assured of a home in heaven.
And it’s up to us to show people that truth – in our words, our actions, and in our attitudes.
So I want to challenge us who have placed our faith in Christ and claim to love and follow Him: will they see the truth of Christ and His salvation in you?
Will they see that your trust is in the work of Jesus on the cross or will they see that you’re hedging your bets by being as “religious” as possible just in case Jesus wasn’t enough?
I hope they see you trusting Jesus. I hope they see you living for Christ out of love and gratitude, not out of a sense of obligation or fear.
The world sees plenty of “religion” and they don’t like it. They don’t like it because it’s phony.
But one thing I’ve noticed – those outside of Christ really do appreciate those who live for Christ because we honestly believe and love Him.
And when they see that love really working out in every area of our lives, they begin to gain respect for us and for Christ, and they are much more willing to listen to us when we tell them about Him.
Live a life of trust in Christ – making it plain that you have no hope outside of Him and His sacrifice for your sins.
And may they see, as the rich young man did, that the things they’re putting their trust in fall way short, and that you can show them what it really means to gain eternal life.
Let’s pray.
