167 - Just One Thing?

You pick up your Bible and wonder, is there more here than meets the eye?

Is there anything here for me? I mean, it's just words printed on paper, right? Well, it may look like just print on a page, but it's more than ink. Join us for the next half hour as we explore God's Word together, as we learn how to explore it on our own, as we ask God to meet us there in its pages.

Welcome to More Than Ink. Hey, a lot of people think that they've been good enough, done enough good stuff to get into heaven. Well, how good is good enough? That's a really good question, and a young man asked Jesus that very question. He asked him that? Does he answer?

Jesus gives him a straight answer. Oh, I want to hear that, and we'll do that today on More Than Ink. Hey, hey, hey, hey. Yeah, here we are. I'm Jim.

And I'm Dorothy. And you have found More Than Ink, where we walk through the Gospel of Matthew together. And in the process, we hope that you glean some courage as well as techniques for reading the Bible for yourself. That's why we're here, because you can read these passages, especially the Gospels are so good at this, and you can glean some extraordinarily deep stuff and you don't have to be a college-trained theologian.

Well, but you can. It is helpful if you have a conversation with somebody else who is also reading it. Oh, yeah, big deal. So I am always encouraging people. Big deal. Read the Bible with a friend. Right.

And discuss what you see. Read, because two sets of eyes are better than one. That's right.

Two sets of ears are better than one. That's right. So you'll zero in on different things in the passage and help each other see new things. You know what also helps when you're doing it with someone else is that it allows you to ask questions. Yeah. So you read a passage and then you look at the other person and say, so does this mean that?

Right. And you can say, I don't know, let's find out. So it's really kind of like a joint exploration kind of thing. And the Lord invites us to investigate His word.

So that's something that is well done in a group or with a friend. So if you've been with us up to this point, I hope you've been encouraged to do that very thing. You can just sit down and read. So today we are doing that. We're sitting down and reading the last half of chapter 19 of Matthew's Gospel. We started at chapter one and here we are at chapter 19. And then again, these are passages that we are both very familiar with. But new insights come and new blessings come and my feeble brain that has forgotten pieces of it. And our listeners also are very familiar with these and yet in the reading, the fresh reading, we will gain some fresh insight.

Right, right. Because we'll ask some questions. So anyway, we're glad that you're with us.

We hope you're encouraged to do this alongside of us and offline with us. So today, if you are following with us, we're in chapter 19 of Matthew, we're starting verse 16 and Jesus is going to meet a very unique young man. And that's where we start off the morning here. Chapter 19, verse 16. Okay.

Here we go. And behold, a man came up to him saying, Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life? And he said to him, Why do you ask me about what is good? There's only one who is good.

If you would enter life, keep the commandments. Okay, let's stop there for a second. Yeah, let's stop there. Because isn't that an interesting response?

It is. I mean this guy, and we know he's a young man. We find that out in a second. We know that he's also from Luke's gospel. He's a ruler of some sort and he's and you'll find out in a second he's very rich.

So this that's why it's always called the rich young rulers section. Well, and in the other gospel accounts, he addresses the question a little differently because he's a good teacher, good teacher, which is why Jesus says, Why do you ask me what's good? Right. There's only one who's good.

Yeah. And isn't that an interesting initial response? You know, why do you call me? What good deed? Why do you call me good? Don't you understand, he says, that there's only one that's good, which in a way, if you're thinking on your feet, he would probably say to himself, Well, I'm asking for the good thing I need to do, but if there's only one good, is this kind of a losing proposition?

Oh, that's an interesting question. Can I actually be good if there's only one that's good? So Jesus has thrown a little monkey wrench in the beginning.

Can I even be good enough? Exactly. Yeah. Exactly. So it's an interesting response. And yet Jesus lets this play out.

He continues on. Yes, but you know, the question just exposes this kind of checklist mindset. Right. This guy's like, What one good thing must I do to get eternal life? And that's another way of saying to live life in the kingdom, right?

Yes, yes. To be within the life that God has designed for me. And he clearly has kind of an earning mindset.

What do I need to do to earn this final thing? So Jesus doesn't slap him down, he goes along with it. So let's see where he goes after this. Well, okay, so he says, If you would enter life, keep the commandments. Okay, so that's a good Jewish answer. That's a very Jewish answer.

Well, the guy's question is, well, which ones? Yeah, if you would enter life, keep the commandments. And that's actually right. You know, in other portions of Scripture, it says that if you're going to try and earn salvation, you need to do all of the commandments, all without a single loss. I have a couple of passages in front of me that speak to that. The one that came to mind first was Deuteronomy 30 verse 15 and 16, where the Lord says, See, I've set before you today life and prosperity, and death and adversity, in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in his ways, keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments that you may live.

That you may live, that you may live. So choose life, he says down in verse 19, in order that you may live and your descendants by loving the Lord your God and obeying his voice by holding fast to him, for this is your life. Jesus is almost quoting that when he says, You want life, keep the commandments. And it's interesting, too, because a lot of people today, especially secular ones who look at us, say, God's always restricting things. He's always being the bad guy and saying, No, don't do that, but this would be fun for me.

He's always a party pooper in many respects. But what that passage you just read and what he's saying right here is, you don't understand, when you have a loving Heavenly Father, the commandments he gives you are intended to benefit you, not to squash life, not to squash joy. They're meant to benefit you. And we know that's true when you have a loving Father on earth, when he says you really need to do this. He's doing it because he's concerned for your best. And so if you really want to pursue life, go with what he's asking you to do. What God has already said. Yeah, yeah.

Right. So you need to keep the commandments. But God's standard is utter and complete righteousness. Well, that's why this guy, I think he says in verse 18, he said to him, Well, which ones?

Which ones? Well, you know, that's an interesting question in itself coming from a Jewish list keeper, because the first and foremost commandment, as Jesus has already said multiple times, is love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul, your mind, your strength. And that's the great Shema that Jews repeated coming and going at their doors. I would have expected Jesus to say that right off the top.

But you'll find out, put that in your pocket, because that actually is the issue, but he's not going to say it directly. So let's read on verse 18, so Jesus answers, or the man says, which ones? And Jesus said, listen to his answer, you shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, honor your father and mother, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself. So those of you who know the Ten Commandments, well, that's an interesting list, isn't it? Because which ones did he leave out? It's an interesting list. Well, because we know when you look at the Ten Commandments, or as we know from studying Exodus on this program not too long ago, the Ten Words, and the Ten Commandments, out of the ten, four of them relate to God, and four of them are how you relate to man. Six of them are related to man. So it looks like what he's done is he's pulled out all these ones about relating to man.

Well, he's pulled out the ones that are externally measurable. Exactly. Yeah. Although he didn't mention the Sabbath at all, which is right in the middle of the Ten Words. Right, right. But that's a very God-related oriented thing.

The one that begins about the heart, right, you shall have no other gods before me. Jesus doesn't even go there. No, and that's what's conspicuous is what's not here.

Conspicuously absent. That's right. Because he says, what you need to do is these, and Jesus says, well, how about these? And he lists all the man-oriented commandments and leaves out the God-oriented commandments. So the young man says to him, verse 20, well, all these I have kept.

What do I still lack? So this young man feels himself in complete obedience in regard to these things. Yeah. And he knows from God's perspective, the demand is very high.

He's got to make sure he does them all. Because I've been a good boy. Right. So what do I still lack? I'm still lacking something.

I know this is not enough. And clearly, he wasn't listening to the Sermon on the Mount, because he says I haven't murdered, but if you've hated someone, you have. That's right. So he wouldn't have said this. But anyway, so what do I still lack? He feels like he's not, well, he listens to the list Jesus gives him, and he only gives him a partial list of the Ten Commandments. Right. So that ought to tweak him to ask, so what do I still lack? You're not telling me the whole picture here. So then he picks it up in 21. So Jesus said, if you would be perfect, complete. That's complete. Go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven and come, follow me. When the young man heard this, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. Yeah, okay.

So interesting. That's not one of the Ten Commandments, selling everything you own and giving it to kids. It's never that.

Yeah, I know. However, it turns out the Apostle Paul himself in Philippians claimed that he was perfect in these regards as well. Because in Philippians 3.

Yeah, when he talks about his previous life, he talks about before he came to Jesus, you know, zeal, I was a persecutor of the church, as to righteousness, I'm reading now from Philippians 3.6, as to righteousness under the law, blameless. Blameless. Blameless. How many of us can make that claim?

Right. And yet still Paul knew he had come up short. And this guy knows he's come up short. And Jesus says, you've come up short, and here's your problem. But what's the root problem of his wealth?

What's really getting in the way? That's what you have to ask yourself about why Jesus went this particular route. And this sort of self-discovery on his part about what's getting in the way.

Well at the root of this wealth is this fact that this guy doesn't really have a need for God if he has enough wealth. No. That's right.

So that's what's getting in his way. In fact, it made me think instantly when I read it this time, this is the first I've ever connected these, when you read the letters to the seven churches in the front of Revelation, when he writes the letter to the church at Laodicea, he says something really that lines up with this. He says that these are the guys who are neither cold nor hot. And so they're lukewarm, you know, I spew out of my mouth. And right after that, it says, for you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing.

Not realizing that actually you're wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. Right. So this is the same thing. So what the issue is is that when you have this kind of wealth, you feel like you need nothing including God himself. Right.

You don't need God. Right. And so it actually gets in your way. It's an impediment. It's a stumbling block. Which is why this young man goes away so sorrowful.

Because he realizes, well, he's not willing to give up his stuff and just go and be with Jesus. Yeah. Well, yeah. And very clearly so, our relationship with Jesus with God is meant to be one of a dependent love. And like the letter to Laodicea says, you don't realize that you're actually wretched. And so your wealth gets in the way. You think you've got everything you need if you've got wealth.

And I've always called wealth ego fuel. It allows you to do whatever you want to do. It allows you to be independent.

It allows you to be what Isaiah 53 says, all we like sheep have gone astray and we're independent. So Jesus is saying, look, if you want eternal life, you have to somehow build a need for God himself. That's what you need.

Well, you have to understand that your primary need is for God himself. Right. Right. And then now we're back in Deuteronomy. God says, that's why I took you out in the wilderness. That's right. So you'd know.

You need me to live. You live by every word that comes out of the mouth of God. So Jesus is going to illustrate that in a very memorable way going on from here. But before we do this, when he invites this man to come and be with him, that set me thinking of a couple of other gospel passages, one of which is in John 17, when Jesus says at the beginning of his prayer, verse three, this is eternal life, that they may know you the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you've sent.

That's really important. And in John six, after he feeds the 5,000, they come to him and say, well, what must we do to do the works of God? And he says, this is the work of God that you believe in him who God sent. Yeah. Yeah. And it circles back to this idea of believing Jesus and coming in to know God through knowing Christ. Yeah. And salvation is at its core a coming to relationship with God himself. That's right. Yeah.

In fact, if you take this whole section we just read and you contract it down, listen to how crazy this sounds. If you start out with him saying, what good deed must I do to have eternal life? And Jesus says, come follow me. Right. Ah.

Well, all this stuff was in the way. Come follow me. That's the end of his statement. So could it very well be that eternal life is connected to following Jesus? It is.

Well, and at this point he's very pointedly heading for Jerusalem and has already said I'm heading for my own death. Yeah. Yeah. Right? So the disciples, if they were thinking, might have put those two things together, although they probably didn't. Come and follow me.

You're going to die to yourself. He had already talked to them about that. Yeah. It's an interesting connection. Eternal life is about following Jesus. Yeah. That's right. I mean, it's right there if you take all the guts in the middle out.

That's what it is. It's a really, what you would expect is for him to say, what do I need to do to earn eternal life? And Jesus says, here's all those things and once you complete this list you're done. He says, no. You have to follow me. And the problem is, is your riches are getting in the way of you following me.

Yeah. And in fact, at the end, he does not follow Jesus. He turns away and walks the other direction. Well, it says he turns away and he was sorrowful for he had great possessions, but we don't have any more detail. We don't know. We don't know if he came back. If later he did. However, I think he did because of Mark's account. Because in Mark's account he had one little phrase in this section that Matthew leaves out because Mark, in Mark 10 21, and Jesus looking at him, loved him. Loved him.

That's right. And said to him, you lack one thing. So this part about loving him, I think that's, there we go. I think that's the point that's included in Mark so you'll know that this guy went away dejected but he realized that Jesus was saying this to him for his good because he loved him.

Because his wealth was getting in the way of the benefit and the life that comes from knowing Jesus. So, you know, that makes me think that this is a very real encounter, that something about the way Jesus said, come, follow me, is an authentic invitation. Yeah. Come, be one of us. Follow me.

Yeah. Come along. Come, follow me. Come, follow me in life. And yet, you know, just before we go on, it is interesting that in our secular culture everyone believes that if you have infinite wealth you will be infinitely happy. Sure. And yet here's this guy that has all this wealth and he goes away sorrowful.

And he's richer than anyone on the block. Yeah. So Jesus is going to unpack this. Let's unpack this. Tell this very famous story. For the disciples.

For 23. And Jesus said to his disciples, after this guy walks away, truly I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. Difficulty. And again I tell you, it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, well, who then can be saved? Uh, what?

But Jesus looked at them and said, with man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible. There we go. Okay. We got to stop there.

Yeah. Because a rich person, having a hard time, Jesus has great difficulty, it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person. We've already talked about, you know, rich people with a lot of stuff.

Because we see what- Self-sufficient, self-reliant, self-confident, don't need God. The stumbling block of wealth. But let's talk about this impossible picture. Yeah. What, the camel and the needle? The camel and the needle. Yeah.

What do you have to say about that? Well, a camel was the biggest animal everybody knew, right? The biggest animal that they had experience with. Big, clumsy, big, big animal. Right? Giant.

It's meant to be big. And a needle was a common household thing, and the eye of a needle would have been the smallest aperture that anybody had any daily experience with. Right, right, right.

So he says, it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. Right. Which is clearly impossible. Impossible. Right, right. And that's the picture he's painting.

Yeah, yeah. That's how serious a problem wealth is. And when you talk about wealth, the question we always ask ourselves is, well, am I wealthy? Do I cross that line for wealth?

Am I in the danger zone for wealth? And I think the apostles, Peter especially brings us up in a second, but the apostles realize, we're all wealthier than somebody else. Are we all?

Is it impossible for all of us? I think that's part of why they were greatly astonished. And for another reason as well.

Well, for another reason. Yeah, because for them in the common culture then, if you had wealth, you were blessed by God. You were regarded as that was God's blessing if you had wealth. That's sort of still present among us. That's in a lot of false religions especially. It doesn't necessarily follow.

Yeah, look how much God has blessed him. And so Jesus is saying, no, actually that's not a blessing. That's an impediment. That's getting in your way. That's a problem. Because you trust it and you don't need God.

You trust it. It's a very, very dangerous roadblock to relationship with God. So this idea of the camel through the eye of the needle is not just difficult. It's downright impossible. It's impossible.

And that's what he's saying. With man, it is impossible by human effort or human accomplishment or human possession to enter the kingdom of God. But with God, it is possible.

It's possible. And that's good news because as I thought through the rich men in the New Testament, there were rich men who came to Jesus who found salvation and they didn't have to sell everything they had. And I'm thinking like people like Joseph of Arimathea, I mean Zacchaeus himself.

He did do some restitution but I don't think he sold everything he had. Barnabas in Acts is a guy who sold a huge piece of land. And then even you go in the Old Testament, Abraham himself was rich, Solomon was rich, the son of David. So it is possible to have wealth and still have a relationship, a saving relationship with God. But God's the one that makes that possible, not these men. So you don't have to sell everything you have but God does make it possible for those who have wealth because they can do great things for the kingdom with that wealth. So this is something that was fresh for me on this reading. I took my concordance and I looked up impossible and see are there other things that Jesus said were impossible because he says this is with man, this is impossible to get into the kingdom of God by your wealth or your accomplishment.

And I turned up some interesting things. He had already talked about in Matthew 17, if you have faith, nothing is impossible. He told Mary at the conception of Jesus, with all things God is, with faith, all things are possible.

Do you believe that I can do this? Hebrews 10, 4, tells us that it's impossible that the blood of bulls and goats would take away sin. And farther on in Hebrews 11, 6, it says without faith it is impossible to please God.

So all of these passages point to faith as the thing that is central to entering the kingdom. It's impossible to get in by your wealth, by your effort, by your law keeping. Or by doing the right law.

By doing the right law. Yeah, yeah. So we're talking about impossibilities. Well let's push on, what do you say?

Okay. 27, then Peter said in reply, well see we've left everything and followed you. So what then will we have? It's like he's saying we're poor, are we okay? Well Jesus said to him, truly I say to you, in the new world when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel.

And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands for my name's sake will receive 100 fold and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last and the last first. So Peter was clearly wondering whether he was in the wealth category because we left everything behind. Or are we poor enough? Are we poor enough? We've left everything to follow you.

Are we poor enough yet? And Jesus doesn't let that distract him. He goes on just a marvelous thing about the fact that you guys just don't realize the great position you are in the kingdom of God, you're, how do you put this, you're valued by God himself. Well and there is a day coming when there will be rewards for those who believe me. Hebrews 11 says without faith it's impossible to please God. But if he comes to God must believe that he is a rewarder of those who seek him.

God does respond. But on the road into the kingdom if you're relying on anything but your faith in the Son of God it's not going to be sufficient to get you in. Yeah yeah and if you're expecting your position in the present, you know, the first, they're going to be last. It's going to be flipped. Well this is not the first time he's said this idea that the kingdom, the real kingdom of God is upside down and inside out from what the world expects. And it's no respecter of your accomplishments or position now.

You know the first will be last and the last will be first. Well and he says you'll receive a hundredfold and inherit eternal life as a gift to those who are heirs. It's not something you earn as a reward, it's a gift because you are an heir.

Because you're an heir. Yeah and it's interesting again if you compare Mark's passage. He says you'll receive a hundredfold now in this time. So what he's saying is that, you know, regardless of how much you give, God always gives more.

And it actually starts right now, not just at the end of time, you know, in the big coming of the kingdom of the day. So that's really what he's saying. You really cannot out give how much God will give back to you.

And that's what he's saying right here in a wonderful, wonderful kind of way. And I think Peter was just motivated to say, are we above or below the wealth threshold? Did we have walked away from everything?

Have we given up enough for you? And you know, in Ephesians 2, Paul talks about the fact that the foundation was built on the apostles. And we're talking about these guys right here. And then even in Revelation, in 21, you know, the wall, the city had 12 foundations and on them were the 12 names of the 12 apostles of the Lamb. So yeah, you know, you guys are okay. Your names are written in the book. You know, you're there. That was Peter's fear. You are part of the foundation of the kingdom of God in this world.

Right. So you don't have to fear the wealth line. You're okay.

You're okay. But even still, even for the rest of us, the wealth line is not really the thing you should be worrying about. You should be worrying about, do you know the Lord? Because he says a lot of people in the end will work a lot and they'll accomplish a lot. They'll do things in the name of the Lord even, but he'll say, but I never knew you.

The relationship is not there. So that's key. So again, remember that Jesus said, this is eternal life, but they may know God and the one whom you've sent, Jesus Christ. That's John 17, three. So this talking about this passage today, put me in mind of this, this famous quote from Jim Elliot, who was a missionary who was murdered by the people he came to serve. And he wrote earlier, he is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. Yep, there it is.

It's a perfect capsulation of almost this entire section of Matthew 19. Exactly. Exactly. Well, we're totally out of time.

Yeah. Next time we're going to roll into chapter 20 and we're going to cover a passage that I used to read in universities when I was a speaker for a business ethics and I would read the passage coming up next and I'd say, is this fair or unfair and have students vote and they'd say, it's the worst thing ever. That is so unfair.

You can't do that. And it's a parable. And it's a parable. But if you're curious about what that's all about, come back and look at it because Jesus paints an incredible picture about an employer and laborers and your first impression will be that's not fair.

That's not fair. So come back with us next time and we'll learn together on this great chapter 20 of Matthew here on More Than Ink. There are many more episodes of this broadcast to be found at our website, morethanink.org. And while you're there, take a moment to drop us a note. Remember the Bible is God's love letter to you. Pick it up and read it for yourself and you will discover that the words printed there are indeed more than ink. I missed my line. This has been a production of Main Street Church of Rhythm City.