A Messiah Who Asks Tough Questions
Text: Matt. 19:16-30
Introduction
1. Illustration: Video of a Father answering tough questions from his little girl. www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYUXLO1j_sw
2. Just as we have children who ask us tough questions, we also have a messiah who asks us tough questions.
3. Jesus asks us...
a. Are the basics enough?
b. Are you willing to go the extra mile?
c. Do you see the big picture?
4. Read Matt. 19:16-30
Proposition: Jesus is calling us to radical discipleship.
Transition: Jesus first question to us is...
I. Are Basics Enough (16-20)?
A. Keep the Commandments
1. There is nothing quite like a seeker. Someone who trully is seeking to understand life and the purpose God put them here for. However, some people can't deal with the answers they receive.
2. Some people are just looking for an easy way out. Like this young man who comes to Jesus and says, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?”
a. The fact that the man addresses Jesus as "teacher" indicates that he didn't fully grasp Jesus' identity.
b. However, there is nothing in the text to indicate that he was in anyway being insincere (Turner, Cornerstone Biblical Commentary: Matthew, 251).
c. The good deed the man must do is show his fidelity toward God's covenant by obeying his laws.
d. These laws were part of first-century Jewish culture, and the young man is convinced that he has kept them, as many of us have avoided breaking the laws of our society (Keener).
e. However, a closer look at the text shows what the young man was really asking.
f. Notice that good deed is singular and not plural.
g. In other words, he is asking Jesus for one thing that he can do to assure himself of eternal life.
h. He is looking for an easy way out; to pay up his fire insurance.
i. He is not interested in becoming a disciple, but rather to do one great deed that will get him off the hook.
3. However, Jesus never makes things that easy. He tells the young man, “Why ask me about what is good?” There is only One who is good. But to answer your question—if you want to receive eternal life, keep the commandments.”
a. The reason that Jesus asks this question is that he is trying to get the young man to focus not on his own good deeds but on the goodness of God.
b. The very fact God gives us commandments is evidence of his goodness. He gives them to us because he wants us to be in right relationship with him (Turner, 251).
c. Jesus gets the young man to focus on God alone as the Good, to whom he must come to gain eternal life.
d. Jesus is not denying he is good or that he is equal with God, but he is trying to get the rich young man to see that only in understanding God as good can he discover that good deeds beyond the law do not obtain eternal life.
e. Jesus takes the young man back to obeying the law as the expression of belief in the truly good being.
f. The good God has written his good will for his people.
g. Connected to the preceding discussion of entering the kingdom of heaven as a child, the rich young man should display obedience to the law as the source of all good, including eternal life.
h. This is not to earn life eternal; rather, it is humbly to obey the law in childlike faith in God's goodness (Wilkins).
4. Again, the young man really doesn't grasp what Jesus is trying to say. So ask Jesus, “Which ones?” And Jesus replied: “‘You must not murder. You must not commit adultery. You must not steal. You must not testify falsely. Honor your father and mother. Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
a. He wanted Jesus to assign some specific good deed to assure his salvation.
b. However, Jesus response indicates that it doesn't work like that. He tells him to keep the commandments, but the ones that he mentions are those that deal with being good to others.
c. In other words, you can't just do one good thing and look upon it as a "get out of hell free" card. You have to live a life of righteousness.
d. With unblinking confidence, the young man (identified for the first time as "young") declares that he has kept them all.
e. And he does not mean only those commandments cited by Jesus, for he understands these commandments as representative of the entire law. His obedience to the law is complete (Wilkins).
5. Yet, even the young man acknowledges that this is not enough. He tells Jesus, “I’ve obeyed all these commandments. What else must I do?”
a. The man boldly proclaimed he had kept all of these since childhood but still sensed he needed more.
b. He implied that there either must have been a commandment of which he had never heard or that something in addition to keeping the law was required to obtain eternal life.
c. It simply did not occur to him that he fell short in obedience to any part of God's known law (MacArthur New Testament Commentary – Matthew 16-23).
d. He sensed that something was missing.
B. Are You Missing Something?
1. Illustration: In A Slow and Certain Light, Elizabeth Elliot tells of two adventurers who stopped by to see her, all loaded with equipment for the rain forest east of the Andes. They sought no advice, just a few phrases to converse with the Indians. She writes, "Sometimes we come to God as the two adventurers came to me – confident and, we think, well-informed and well-equipped. But has it occurred to us that with all our accumulation of stuff, something is missing?" She suggests that we often ask God for too little. "We know what we need – a yes or no answer, please, to a simple question. Or perhaps a road sign. Something quick and easy to point the way." What we really ought to have is the Guide himself. Maps, road signs, a few useful phrases are good things, but infinitely better is someone who has been there before and knows the way."
2. We are looking for the easy way out.
a. Proverbs 16:25 (NLT)
There is a path before each person that seems right, but it ends in death.
b. We are looking for a quick fix.
c. We are looking for the least we can do.
d. We are looking for fast-food religion.
e. We want grace without repentance.
f. We want grace without discipleship.
g. We want a Messiah that doesn't cost us anything.
3. God accepts only total commitment.
a. Romans 12:1 (NLT)
And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.
b. We want to pay up our fire insurance and have ticket punched to board that Gospel Train.
c. We want someone to tell us "it's okay God will take you into heaven," but when Sunday morning comes we want to sleep in.
d. We want to do it our way instead of God's way.
e. We want sit back and be blessed, but we don't want to serve in the church.
f. We want to be assured we are going to heaven, but we don't want to pray and read our bibles because it is too hard and we are too busy.
g. But it doesn't work like that! If Jesus isn't Lord of all then He isn't Lord at all!!
Transition: This leads us to the next question...
II. Are You Willing to Go the Extra Mile (21-26)?
A. If You Want to Be Perfect
1. Jesus gets to the heart of the matter - the young man's heart needs to change.
2. Jesus tells him, "If you want to be perfect, go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
a. The word "perfect" here refers to spiritual maturity or development in godliness.
b. In addition to exchanging his earthly treasure for a heavenly one he needed to follow Jesus as his disciple laying up his treasure in heaven.
c. Jesus is indicating that this man's wealth was putting up a barrier that prevented him from completely loving God and his neighbor.
d. This radical demand for total commitment is an offer of the gospel of grace, calling the young man to renounce his reliance on his wealth and commit himself to the Kingdom (Turner, 252).
e. Loss of our wealth or fear of how our needs will be met can test us in this way; the needs of the poor can test us in the same way, as here.
f. Love for God demands a true love for neighbors that not only avoids harming them but also actively serves them.
g. The young man wants a teacher; he does not want a Lord who demands sacrifice.
h. The kingdom demands more than merely keeping many commandments; if we recognize Christ as our King, we must surrender to him everything we have and are.
i. Whether he then allows us to use some of what he has given us is his choice.
j. Disciples do not always lose all possessions upon conversion-but they lose all ownership of them, for they themselves belong to a new ruler (Keener).
3. However, in perhaps one of the saddest verses in all the New Testament, Matthew tells us, "But when the young man heard this, he went away very sad, for he had many possessions."
a. Jesus had identified why this man felt as though something missing, but he was not willing to surrender his weakness and totally follow Jesus.
b. When we invite our Lord to free us from sin, we are inviting him to rule our life; and while we may yet fall short in submission to his will, we must actively acknowledge his right to determine our lives, acting on the knowledge that he has begun to transform us by his Spirit.
c. The well-to-do young man of was like many "First World" Christians today.
d. We want God to affirm that we are religious enough without costing us anything more than we have already been offering him.
e. We trust only tentatively the value of heaven's kingdom and hence are prepared to sacrifice only little for it; but one who is not sufficiently convinced of the gospel's truth to sacrifice everything will not prove worthy of it (Keener).
f. The young man knows that Jesus has correctly pinpointed what is lacking in his life.
g. He knows what issues are at stake. His many possessions have captivated his heart, and he cannot exchange this god for Jesus.
h. So he goes away with great distress, knowing deep in his heart that his decision has eternal consequences.
i. He knew all along what he was lacking for eternal life, and when he is offered it by Jesus, he rejects the invitation to life (Wilkins).
4. Then Jesus, sensing a teachable moment, says to His disciples, “I tell you the truth, it is very hard for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. I’ll say it again—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!”
a. Jesus apparently employs a common figure of speech when he speaks of a camel passing through a needle's eye.
b. He uses the largest animal and the smallest opening that the disciples could think of.
c. Just as it is humanly impossible for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, so it is impossible, aside from the grace of God, for a rich person to get into heaven.
d. Despite what some have said over the years, there is no historical evidence that Jesus was referring to a small gate in Jerusalem that a camel could squeeze through on its knees (Turner, 252).
e. As much as we want Jesus to have said something else, he said that the rich and powerful could barely enter the kingdom at all (Keener).
5. This statement from Jesus dumbfounded His disciples and so they asked Him, “Then who in the world can be saved?” they asked.
Jesus looked at them intently and said, “Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But with God everything is possible.”
a. The disciple’s unbelievable question may be based on the idea that riches are a sign of God's approval.
b. Jesus was speaking out against the idolatry of greed and coveting riches. It is only through God's help that this idolatry can be overcome (Turner, 252).
c. Jesus knows that riches can keep people's eyes off of God.
d. But he also knows God's operation in the lives of people and says that even if it is impossible with humankind, if a rich person truly trusts God, God will make it possible.
e. The rich young man has a deep-seated recognition that something is lacking in his life.
f. Jesus points him to the inner problem, the wealth that is the ruling force in his life, and by exchanging his wealth for Jesus as his Lord, he will indeed become Jesus' disciple, enter the kingdom of heaven, and find eternal life.
g. But the young man finds this too difficult, so he turns away (Wilkins).
B. One of His Disciples
1. Illustration: In his book I Surrender, Patrick Morley writes that the church’s integrity problem is in the misconception "that we can add Christ to our lives, but not subtract sin. It is a change in belief without a change in behavior." He goes on to say, "It is revival without reformation, without repentance."
2. Jesus must be given first place in our lives.
a. Colossians 1:18 (NASB)
He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything.
b. Jesus must be more important than our possessions.
c. Jesus must be more important than our jobs.
d. Jesus must important than our families.
e. Jesus must be more important than our relationships.
f. Jesus must be more important than everything.
3. If there is anything in our lives more important than Jesus than we are committing the sin of idolatry.
a. Exodus 20:3 (NLT)
“You must not have any other god but me.
b. If what we own is more important…
c. If our social status is more important…
d. If our relationships are more important…
e. If our hobbies are more important…
f. If TV, music, computers, or anything else is more important then we have an idol in our life that is keeping us from Jesus.
g. It doesn't have to be shaped like a golden calf to be one!
Transition: Jesus also wants to ask us...
III. Do You See the Big Picture (27-30)?
A. Anyone Who Has Given Up
1. Jesus wants us to look beyond the superficial and see the big picture.
2. Peter asks Jesus, “We’ve given up everything to follow you. What will we get?”
a. Peter gets Jesus' point, but not fully. He rightly understands that the focus is not solely on the rich person but on all people, because it provides a pattern for anyone.
b. He and the others have left all to follow Jesus (Wilkins).
c. The disciples emphasize that they have forsaken all to follow Jesus, and he does not dispute their claim.
d. Nevertheless, even once we have committed our lives to him, we must watch and pray to be ready for still other tests.
e. Faced with loss of possessions, the rich young man walked away; faced with possible death, Jesus' disciples would later abandon him and flee.
f. Because families may oppose Christ's call to discipleship, a true disciple must be prepared to abandon not only possessions but also family for Christ's name.
g. Jesus himself and probably many in Matthew's Jewish Christian audience had suffered rejection by their families, a pain felt much more severely in that culture than in ours (Keener).
3. Again, Jesus wants us to see the big picture - the sacrifice will be worth it. He tells His disciples, "I assure you that when the world is made new and the Son of Man sits upon his glorious throne, you who have been my followers will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel."
a. Condemning Israel would bring no great pleasure to the disciples, but reward would, which was the point of Peter's request.
b. Jesus predicts a time of renewal when the Twelve will participate in the final establishment of the kingdom of God on the earth, when Israel will be restored to the land and the Twelve will rule with Jesus Messiah (Wilkins).
c. Not only would they make it to heaven, but they would also reign and rule with Him.
4. Finally He says, "But many who are the greatest now will be least important then, and those who seem least important now will be the greatest then."
a. In Matthew's context the lesson extends beyond the Twelve: those who sacrifice now and become least in this age will inherit the place of honor in the coming age.
b. The disciples' reward in the kingdom will be be equal with their sacrifice (Keener).
B. Reward
1. Illustration: After the preacher died and went to heaven, he noticed that a New York cabdriver had been given a higher place than he had. "I don’t understand," he complained to St. Peter. "I devoted my entire life to my congregation." "Our policy is to reward results," explained St. Peter. "Now what happened , Reverend, whenever you gave a sermon?" The minister admitted that some in the congregation fell asleep. "Exactly, " said St. Peter. "And when people rode in this man’s taxi, they not only stayed awake, they prayed" (Ray Heit, in Reader’s Digest).
2. God's reward will be greater than anything we can imagine.
a. 1 Corinthians 2:9 (NLT)
That is what the Scriptures mean when they say, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.”
b. There is nothing here on earth that can compare with what it waiting for us.
c. Riches can't compare.
d. Fame can't compare.
e. Possessions can't compare
f. Relationships can't compare.
g. Sex, drugs and rock n roll certainly can't compare.
h. What God has prepared for us is beyond our wildest dreams!
3. However, God's reward is also here and now.
a. John 10:10 (MSG)
A thief is only there to steal and kill and destroy. I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of.
b. God not only wants to bless us in heaven; He wants to bless us now.
c. He wants us to have life filled with joy.
d. He wants us to have life filled with peace.
e. He wants us to have life filled with love.
f. The world cannot offer it.
g. The world cannot copy it.
h. Only Jesus can offer you real life!
Transition: The world offers you a piece of dirt painted gold, but Jesus offers a life that is 14k solid gold all the way through.
Conclusion
1. Jesus asks us...
a. Are the basics enough?
b. Are you willing to go the extra mile?
c. Do you see the big picture?
2. Are you trying to get by with just the basics?
3. Are you willing to go the extra mile?
4. Are you seeing the big picture?
5. Do you realize that what God has for you is so much better?
