Rich Young Ruler Part 4 Evangelism And Notes - Mark 10:17-27 Series

Evangelism

Verse 23: Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is to get people into the kingdom. If only I had taken a different approach! I just blew it with that guy. He was interested, and now, after talking to me, he walking away.”

No, that’s not Jesus’ reaction. Did Jesus blow it? No. Keep this passage in mind the next time you experience some apparent ministry failure.

It’s hard to imagine a hotter prospect than this for evangelism. He’s asking the right question, he brings it to the right person and he comes in the right posture—on his knees. And he’s not lackadaisical about it—he comes running (which was undignified for a man of his stature). From a human point of view this is the best person who ever approached Jesus. Not cowardly like Nicodemus, coming at night. We find out he’s a man who is striving to follow everything the Bible says the best he can. In our day, a guy like that would be considered more than just an ideal seeker—he might be hired as a pastor.

The Guy Would Have Prayed a Prayer

What do you think most Christians say if this guy would have run up to them with this question? Pray and invite Jesus into your heart? Get baptized? There might be various different answers he would get.

But whatever answer someone gave him, do you think he would do it? A guy this desperate for eternal life—if you told him he had to fill out a card and walk an isle and pray a prayer—do you think he would do it? In a heartbeat. This guy knows his eternal destiny is at stake. I’m sure in his mind, as he’s running to catch up to Jesus, he’s thinking, I don’t care what he says—I’ll do anything. Whatever it takes.”

But if Jesus would have done any of those things—if he would have closed the deal while the iron was hot, this guy would have been weedy soil—one of those people who get converted, believe for a while, then fall away when the deceitfulness of wealth chokes out their faith.

Footnotes

Mark 10:17 As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. "Good teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" 18 "Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good-- except God alone.

Before administering the law test, Jesus gives the guy a big hint—no one is good except God. But even without Jesus’ hint, it’s not that hard. He should have known from the OT Scriptures that he was a hopeless sinner. He could have read Psalm 51, where David says, “Long before I committed adultery and murder, I was sinful from birth.” In Romans 3, Paul points to all kinds of places in the OT that make that point. "There is no-one righteous, not even one; there is no-one who understands, no-one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no-one who does good, not even one." "Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit." "The poison of vipers is on their lips." "Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness." "Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know." "There is no fear of God before their eyes." Every one of those is a quotation from the Old Testament.

Verse 19 The Commandments

19 You know the commandments: 'Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.' "

The Ten Commandments are divided into two tables. The first four are about your relationship with God, and the second table—the last six have to do with how you interact with people. When Jesus gives this list, he skips the first table, and starts with #6—don’t murder. Then #7, 8, 9, 10, then 5.

Now, saying it that way draws a lot of attention to #5, right? Jesus is using some examples to make us think of the entire law of God, but by pulling one commandment out of order and ending with that, he places emphasis on that one: honor your father and mother. What’s special about that commandment? Remember, the first step is always to look to context. Think about the book of Mark. Where has Jesus talked about the fifth commandment before in Mark? It was when Jesus was rebuking the Pharisees for breaking God’s law when they thought they were keeping it.

Mark 7:9 And he said to them: "You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions! 10 For Moses said,`Honor your father and your mother,' (there’s the 5th Commandment) … 11 But you say that if a man says to his father or mother:`Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is Corban' (that is, a gift devoted to God), 12 then you no longer let him do anything for his father or mother.