A Study of the Book of Luke
Sermon # 50
“So How Does One Get To Heaven?”
Luke 18:17-27
Previously in Luke chapter eighteen, Jesus has just told the Parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, which is the two prayers of the two men which present two contrasting views of how to approach God; one on the basis of supposed good works and the other on the basis of God’s grace.
Now in verse seventeen, the Lord is still dealing with the subject of how one gets into the kingdom of heaven, Jesus now makes a jarring declaration,
“Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it." In this verse he sets forth the truth that for one to be saved there must be a recognition of one’s total helplessness, coupled with a corresponding dependence on God.
The young man that we are about to be introduced to may have the distinction of being the only man recorded in the gospels who came to the feet of Jesus and went away in worse condition than when he came. He came to the right person, asked the right question and received the right answer, but made the wrong decision.
In verse eighteen we read, “Now a certain ruler asked Him, saying, "Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" Here we are introduced to the story of what has come to be known as “the rich young ruler.” All the gospel accounts must be considered to get the complete picture. Mark says he is rich. Matthew says that he is young (Gr. Neaniskos – less than 40 yrs. of age), and Luke says he is a ruler.
Jesus immediately probes the motive of this man’s statement in verse nineteen. “So Jesus said to him, "Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. Jesus wanted this man to think about what he had just said. Is this mere flattery, or does he really believe that Jesus is God?
Jesus wanted this young man to face the hard facts that there are only two possibilities, “If you want to call me good, you must be willing to call me God. If you won’t call me God, then you can’t call me good!”
Jesus now turns to him and in verse twenty says, “You know the commandments: ’Do not commit adultery,’ ’Do not murder,’ ’Do not steal,’ ’Do not bear false witness,’ ’Honor your father and your mother.’" (21) And he said, "All these I have kept from my youth."
When Jesus reminded this young man of
God’s commandments, He in effect responded by
saying, “Been there. Done that!” It seems incredible to us that anyone would claim, as this young man did, to have kept all the command-ments perfectly. He, like so many others, did not understand that keeping the commandments was a matter of the heart, not mere outward actions. He saw himself as a basically good person. There are a lot of people in this world who are counting on their goodness to get them a place in heaven.
I want you to notice with four things that we learn from the rich young ruler.
First, His View Of His Goodness Was Superficial And Empty.
There are still individuals today who think that they are keeping the Ten Commandments. Perhaps you are on of those persons.
If that is what you think, then I want you
to do a little experiment with me. I am going to list the Ten Commandments for you and I want you to count off the ones you have never broken. Then at the end I want you to tally up the ones you have never broken and let’s see how good you have been.
(1)"You shall have no other Gods before Me." If
you have always put God 1st in your life. Nothing has ever taken precedence over Him… Count that as one you’ve never broken.
(2) "You shall not make for yourself a graven image and bow down to it." Now here is one that we all feel pretty good about. If you’ve never fashioned an idol and bowed down and worshiped it you can count that as one you’ve never broken. Aren’t you glad that one is in there? We’ve all got one.
(3) "You shall not misuse the Name of God." If you have never used the name of God or the name of Jesus in a profane way, never even used the popular phrases; "Oh, Go; Or Oh, my God!" If in all your life, you have only used God’s name with the highest respect, then count this one.
(4) "You shall keep the Sabbath Holy." Now, since we are Christian’s, we need to make that the Lord’s Day. If you have always used Saturday night or Sunday in a way that always honors God, you’ve never skipped church for your own pleasure or your own convenience, when you’re here you’ve never wished your were somewhere else.. then count this one. Amen or Oh me!
(5) "Honor your Father and Mother." If from the time you were a little child you never talked back to your parents, you always obeyed them and now that they are older you hold them with respect, then you can count that as one you’ve not broken.
(6) "You shall not murder." If you’ve never murdered anybody… Now, remember Jesus explained if you’ve ever hated anybody in your heart you’re guilty of murder. Perhaps you should not mark that one after all!
(7) "You shall not commit adultery." Now, here we’ve got to count Jesus’ admonition about the attitude of lust because this young man knew Proverbs 6:25, which warns against adultery, "Do not lust for her beauty.." (NLT) If you’ve never been unfaithful to your mate, if you’ve never so much as lusted after somebody that wasn’t your mate… count this one as one you’ve never broken.
(8) "You shall not steal." If you have never stolen anything, not even a quarter out of your mother’s purse, not an ink pen from work, nor an answer off of someone’s paper, then you can count this as one you have not broken.
(9) "You shall not lie." If you’ve never told a lie to get yourself out of a sticky situation, if you’ve never exaggerated a story, if you have never flattered anybody intentionally you can count this one as one you’ve never broken.
(10) "You shall not covet." If you’ve never been guilty of wishing that you had something or somebody that belonged to someone else you count that one as one never broken.
All right here is the test. How many could say with the rich young ruler, “I’ve kept all the commandments since I was a little child?” Raise your hand. 9? 8? 7? Anybody kept 6 perfectly? We’ve got a bunch of sorry people here! Me either… [I borrowed this idea from Timothy Smith’s sermon “Choose to Change.” (Luke 18:18-19:10) www.sermoncentral.com]
His View Of Goodness Was Superficial And Empty And …
Secondly, He Was Not As Good A Person As He Thought He Was.
In Romans 3:20 Paul tells us, "For no one can ever be made right in God’s sight by doing what his law commands. For the more we know God’s law, the clearer it becomes that we aren’t obeying it.” (NLT) God didn’t give these commands to make us better but so we would see our sin clearly. So we would understand our need for a Savior. But this young man was saying, "I don’t need to be changed..
He had not done as well as he thought in fact he had not made it past the very first commandment, “You shall have no other gods before me!” (Ex. 20:3). He was not willing to part with any part of the wealthy lifestyle, let alone all of it.
He Was Not As Good A Person As He Thought He Was….
Third, As Good As He Thought He Was He Still Knew It Was Not Enough
That is why in verse eighteen he had said,
“… what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" He knew deep down that there was still something lacking in his life. But even as he was thinking that he was keeping the law perfectly he still was aware of that he lack what was necessary to inherit eternal life. This is true of every individual no matter how impressive they may be on the outside. There is always something no quite right without the Lord. Outside they may look like they have it all together, but on the inside they are insecure and afraid.
Jesus made a severe requirement of him. Verse twenty-two – ”So when Jesus heard these things, He said to him, "You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me." Now, this wasn’t what the young ruler expected! He thought Jesus would maybe give him some extra prayers to say or more fasting each week; but sell everything? Jesus knew the problem wasn’t really money, the problem was priority… this man’s money was his God. Still, Jesus made the generous offer to him. "Correct that situation and have real treasure - eternal life."
He Knew That However Good He Was IT Was Not Good Enough…
Fourth, He was Unwilling To Do the One Thing That Was Necessary.
Look at this rich young ruler’s response in verse twenty-three, “But when he heard this, he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich.” Matthew and Mark tell us he not only was sad but that… "he went away sad.." This man came with great humility and asked the right question, but he did not like the answer and he rejected Jesus’ proposal! He was not willing to part with any part of the wealthy lifestyle, let alone all of it. He chose possessions over God. I can see this young man in my mind as he is walking away from Jesus, his shoulders are drooped, his head is hanging in dejection and he is obviously filled with despair. But on his right hand are still his rings. You see, he’s still got his wealth, he’s still got his pride.. and he’s still got his emptiness.
So can I ask you, “What is it that keeps you from completely giving yourself to Jesus? - Honoring Jesus as Savior and Lord? - Submitting completely to Him? Possessions? Prestige? Popularity?” Jesus is willing to change you but He won’t transform you against your will. He doesn’t chase after this man even though Mark tells us that Jesus loved him. And unless you submit to Christ and are willing to allow Him to change you, you will find yourself like this young man who refused to be changed, deliberately choosing to walk away from eternal life.
The Lord’s reaction is found in verse twenty-four, “And when Jesus saw that he became very sorrowful, He said, "How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!
Don’t be misled here, it is not possessing riches that keeps people out of heaven it being possessed by riches. By his actions he proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that his wealth was his god. The rich young ruler stands as a powerful warning too people today who want a Christian faith that does not change their values or upset their lifestyle. We still have people today, some in this church, who are content to just “play church,” they really do not want a faith that demands that they act differently or live differently. When life gets difficult they react in the same way as their unbelieving neighbors. The decisions they make in their lives do not reflect the beliefs that they say they have.
In verse twenty-five Jesus says, “For 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."
What does this mean about a camel going through the eye of a needle? What are we to make of this rhetorical overstatement? Some Bible experts say that Jesus is speaking of a small gate in the wall of a city, called a needle’s eye, that a camel could enter only by kneeling down and creeping through. However, other experts note that Dr. Luke used a word (rhaphis) referring specifically to a surgeon’s needle. It would seem that he expected the readers to understand the silly word picture he painted. It was not to show how difficult it was for a man to enter the kingdom of heaven on his own merit, but rather to show that it was impossible.
This interpretation would agree with the shock of Jesus disciples who according to Matthew (19:25) “were exceedingly amazed” or as Mark records (10:26) were “astonished out of measure.” Luke in verse twenty-six simply records that they responded with, "Who then can be saved?"
What Jesus was saying went against everything the Jews believed. They believed in a kind of Old Testament “prosperity gospel” taught by the rabbis who used Old Testament passages to equate God’s blessing with material prosperity. Today we see the same crass materialism in the “name it and claim it” theology of our day.
“Name it and claim it, that’s what faith’s about!
You can have what you want if you just have no doubt.
So make out your “wish list” and keep on believin’
And you will find yourself perpetually recievin’.”
Jesus is not promoting poverty here. Poverty does not deliver one from the love of money. Some who have no money are just as infatuated with it, and are miserable because they do not have more of it.
It would be easy to think that what the Lord had to say to the man in this story applies only to the rich. But the truth is, nearly all Americans are rich, at least by the standards of the rest of the world. (And again I will say that every person needs to take part in a Mission Trip, if for no other reason than that it will make you appreciate what you have.) For most of the world, our debts, our problems, even our payments would be welcome luxuries. This passage does have something to say to us, for with prosperity comes danger. Paul later tells Timothy (1 Tim 6:17), “Tell those who are rich in this world not to be proud and not to trust in their money, which will soon be gone. But their trust should be in the living God, who richly gives us all we need for our enjoyment.” (NLT).
So what are we to do? We are warned to be careful that we do not become consumed with our things. Whether we have a lot of money or not, we need to be careful that we do not find our significance in it. We are invite to invest our wealth; that is as our income rises we are to give to God’s work in such a way that it does affect our lifestyle, there should be things that we do not buy and places that we do not go because of our priority of giving to God. It is my greatest fear that just the opposite is true, we do not give as we should because it would cut into to lifestyle too much.
The core truth is spelled out in verse twenty-seven, "The things which are impossible with men are possible with God." We need to not lose sight of the fact that every salvation is a miracle of God. With God the impossible is possible, any can be saved but not everyone will because some refuse to give in to God.
