Video: The Truth About Money (3:03 min available on SermonCentral.com)
What every Christian Needs To Know About Stewardship: This is the concluding message on Stewardship. This is also the most important message about money. We have touched on it all along through out this series. Yes, we established that God owes it all, and we therefore are stewards or managers of the things in which God has entrusted to us.
It is important to see the reality of money and possessions.
ILL: When John D. Rockefeller died, one man was curious about how much he left behind. Determined to find out, he set up an appointment with one of Rockefeller’s highest aides and asked, “How much did Rockefeller leave behind?” The aide answered, “All of it.” [1]
We cannot take any of it with us when Jesus calls us home. Jim Elliot, a missionary who was martyred in Ecuador in January 1956 once wrote in in personal journal: “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” Can we begin to understand that Our Relationship with Money Impacts Our Relationship With God?
Our focal passage deals with one such individual, the story of the Rich Young Ruler. The same story is repeated in Matthew 19 where we learn the man was young, and in Luke 18, where we learn the man was a ruler. All three passages confirm that he was rich.
Mark 10:17–22 (NKJV)
ILL: The story is told of a prosperous, young investment banker who was driving a new BMW sedan on a mountain road during a snowstorm. As he veered around one sharp turn, he lost control and began sliding off the road toward a deep precipice. At the last moment he unbuckled his seat belt, flung open his door, and leaped from the car, which then tumbled down the ravine and burst into a ball of flames. Though he had escaped with his life, the man suffered a ghastly injury. Somehow his left arm had been caught near the hinge of the door as he jumped and had been torn off at the shoulder. A trucker saw the accident in his rearview mirror. He pulled his rig to a halt and ran to see if he could help. He found the banker standing at the roadside, looking down at the BMW burning in the ravine below. “My BMW! My new BMW!!” the banker moaned, oblivious to his injury.
The trucker pointed at the banker’s shoulder and said, “You’ve got bigger problems than that car. We’ve got to find your arm. Maybe the surgeons can sew it back on!” The banker looked where his arm had been, paused a moment, and groaned, “Oh no! My Rolex! My new Rolex!!” God gives us material possessions so we will enjoy them, not so we will worship them. [2]
Jesus said:
Matthew 6:24 (NKJV) “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.
Mammon is simply the Aramaic word for riches or wealth. The fact is very few people can properly handle wealth. William Mc Donald (writer of the Believer’s Bible Commentary) said, “It was true in the OT that riches were a sign of God’s favor. That is now changed. Instead of a mark of the Lord’s blessing, riches are a test of a man’s devotedness.” [3]
Such is this story of the rich young ruler, which is not unlike many today, rich or poor. The rich will worship their possessions, the poor will covet what they do not have. The results are the same: God is displaced by the worship of stuff. Let’s examine this rich young ruler, or I prefer to call him, “the man who had everything.” More on that later.
Mark 10:17 (NKJV) Now as He was going out on the road, one came running, knelt before Him, and asked Him, “Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?”
Our initial encounter with this man is impressive. Here a man of means, running to see this penniless intenerate preacher. His actions indicate that he overcome by the emotion of the moment. He is a good man, well respected. Obviously pious, very religious. There must have been some need to justify himself.
He ask the question: “what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?” As if there was some good deed, some monumental task, some quest or achievement he must do to get that assurance of eternal life. He was a man a means, and whatever that requirement or task was, he could well afford to do it. He was a believer of the big scoreboard in the sky. That quest is still being assumed today. What must I do to get more plus marks than minus marks on that scoreboard?
Let set the record straight. Eternal life cannot be earned, it is a gift:
Romans 6:23b (NKJV) . . . the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
First mistake however, he called Jesus “Good teacher.” The very word “good” in the Jewish culture of that day was never used, except in reference to God. Only God is good. Was he calling Jesus God? Even though Jesus is God, this man did not know that, He was either buttering Jesus up, or he was too lax with what was then considered a sacred word.
Mark 10:18 (NKJV) So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God.
Jesus corrects the man about his use of the word “good.” Jesus is not impressed that the man is rich, or is a ruler. The man’s devotion shown by running up to Jesus, showing respect by kneeling before him had Jesus’ attention. So Jesus asks the man a few questions. It is interesting to note the questions Jesus asks.
Mark 10:19 (NKJV) You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Do not steal,’ ‘Do not bear false witness,’ ‘Do not defraud,’ ‘Honor your father and your mother.’ ”
Jesus just hits the second part of the 10 commandments; that part that dealt with our relationship to others. He leaves out commandment number 10 which is “Do Not Covet.” But he includes an extra virtue, “Do not defraud,” which many wealthy people were guilty of doing. That is how many because wealthy, like the tax collectors, by defrauding people. But this man, who had everything, was a good guy.
Mark 10:20 (NKJV) And he answered and said to Him, “Teacher, all these things I have kept from my youth.”
I’ve heard it all before, why wouldn’t God let me into heaven, its not like I killed anyone, its not like I ever cheated on my wife, I never lied to anyone. Look, now that my parents are old, I’m taking care of them. Of course I honor father and mother. You see, this rich man was really a swell guy. What was there not to like? On problem this man had, he did not see himself as a condemned sinner, needing salvation, he was seeking affirmation for being the swell guy he was.
Mark 10:21 (NKJV) Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me.”
First thing to note in this watershed statement of Jesus is: “Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him” Jesus sees beneath our facade, our show of piety/religion. Jesus sees through us to our very core, our very souls. He knows just who and what we are and He loves us anyway. Not only that, Jesus sees what we could become if we would only turn loose of all our stuff, and let Him have complete control.
“One thing you lack” Jesus knew what this man needed. It was not his riches or his power. Jesus was calling the man to discipleship, putting aside any and all things that distract, any thing that takes our eyes off of Him. Jesus was calling the man to an unrivaled devotion to Almighty God.
“Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven” The question for this man is clear: where are your treasures? Is our treasures in heaven, that will be eternal, or are they here, that are here today and gone tomorrow? Earthly treasures we possess, when we die, not one red cent will go with us to the grave. Make no mistake, this call is not a call to poverty, it is a clear call to discipleship.
“come, take up the cross, and follow Me.” Many other translation do not have the phrase “take up the cross” but have it as a footnote. This phrase is not in the older and more reliable manuscripts. But we’re not to miss the significance of what is being said here. Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem to die on a Roman cross.
Following Jesus is not for the faint of heart. True discipleship demands our total devotion, with nothing else to pull us aside. Jesus had earlier made the following statement:
Mark 8:34–37 (NKJV) When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. 35 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. 36 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? 37 Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?
What question to ask. “What will a man give in exchange for his soul?” Now what follows has been regarded as one of the saddest verses in the Bible.
Mark 10:22 (NKJV) But he was sad at this word, and went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
This is the only place in scripture where one is called to discipleship and refused. This man kept all the commandments that Jesus listed but the first commandment: “You shall have no other gods before Me.”
The entire section emphasizes that riches make being a disciple difficult but the rewards of discipleship are worth more than material possessions. Jesus did not teach that wealth is evil. He did not teach that poverty is better than riches. He did not teach that only the poor can be saved. He did teach that discipleship is costly and that wealth often is a hindrance to repentance and acceptance of the gospel. [4]
Now do not miss this: Our deacon of the week read the passage that immediately preceded these verses this morning (Mark 10:13-16). You might ask what does Jesus blessing the children have to do with this story? Everything. Look what Jesus said about the children:
Mark 10:14b –15 (NKJV) “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of God. 15 Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it.”
How profoundly ironic is the kingdom of God. The children in the former story who possess nothing are not told that they lack anything, but rather that the kingdom of God is theirs; yet this man who possesses everything still lacks something! Only when he sells all he has—only when he becomes like a vulnerable child—will he possess everything. [5]
Jesus always demands that those who come to him put away their gods, whether they be possessions, position, power, a person, or a passion! [6]
Jesus was declaring that nothing must come between a person and their devotion to God. Some people may have to give up money. Others may have to abandon a cherished dream. Still others may have to surrender family. But one thing is certain: Jesus’ love comes before the command. Whatever he commands us to do is because of his love for us. [7]
Discipleship is costly in this life, but oh the treasure to come. Have you answered his call to forsake all and follow Him? What is standing between you and following Jesus?
Jesus does not want a part of you. He want it all. All you are and all you have. What are we holding back?
[1] Michael P. Green, 1500 Illustrations for Biblical Preaching (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2000), 238.
[2] Craig Brian Larson, 750 Engaging Illustrations for Preachers, Teachers & Writers (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2002), 340.
[3] William MacDonald, Believer’s Bible Commentary: Old and New Testaments, ed. Arthur Farstad (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1995), 1347.
[4] James A. Brooks, Mark, vol. 23, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1991), 161.
[5] James R. Edwards, The Gospel according to Mark, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: Eerdmans; Apollos, 2002), 312.
[6] R. Kent Hughes, Mark: Jesus, Servant and Savior, vol. 2, Preaching the Word (Westchester, IL: Crossway Books, 1989), 63.
[7] Rodney L. Cooper, Mark, vol. 2, Holman New Testament Commentary (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2000), 168.
