Sermon Tone Analysis
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*How Much Are You Willing To Give?*
*Good Friday Service*
*April 2, 1999 Matthew 27:26-56*
* *
*Scripture Reading: Mark 10:17-31; 1Cor.
15:45-49*
*Responsive Reading # 640, Hymnal*
*Introduction:*
Why do we call Good Friday good when Jesus was put to death on the cross?
It was a bad thing that happened to Jesus, but it worked good for those he died to save.
We call this Good Friday because of that tremendous accomplishment that Jesus did for us at his own expense.
He completed the work he came to do that cost him his life.
But it was also the ‘joy set before him’ as he took satisfaction in his accomplishment that saves our lives.
His joy was that we might benefit at his expense.
He gave all he had.
How much are you willing to give?
The story of the rich young man in Mark 10:17-31 tells us what he expects of us.
But he does not expect anything of us that he did not expect of himself.
This is the great test of leadership.
The right to rule is born upon the waters of what we are willing to demonstrate to our followers.
People learn best by example.
In Mark 10 we see that the rich young man wanted to inherit eternal life.
In addressing Jesus, he called him good.
Jesus brought his attention to the fact that only God is good.
The lesson was that in addressing Jesus, the man was addressing God.
This God he was addressing was indeed good as Good Friday would eventually show.
But this young man wanted to know what he must do.
In fact, he thought he had done it all, since he had followed what he thought were the commandments, and he wanted affirmation of eternal life from Jesus, whom he called, “Teacher”.
Now the Teacher was to fulfill his role as teacher in showing the young man his shortcoming, his besetting sin if you will.
It is to those besetting sins that we are all too blind, as was this young man.
This may be especially the problem of the young who are less prone to discern their shortcomings in the exuberance of youth.
Jesus tells him in love to give away all he has to the poor.
Note that Jesus responds in compassion to his youth.
But he does not withhold the hard truth.
Perhaps Jesus is silently smiling as he knows how hard it is for man to keep God’s laws to their full intent and that the young man just thinks he has kept them.
But the answer Jesus gives him tells it all.
It is the cost of following him.
He must give away all he has.
Jesus doesn’t ask him to do anything he himself is not willing, or about to do.
Jesus gives away all he has on the cross.
You see, this young man is rich.
He is rich in worldly goods.
He is very wealthy.
He is placing his security in his wealth.
No wonder he asks what he must do to inherit eternal life.
He has no assurance of eternal life because he is holding on to this one.
We all do that in some sense.
We are all lost.
That is why Jesus mentions the illustration of the camel and the needle – it is hard, even impossible, for the camel to pass through the eye of a needle.
We are impossibly lost, rich or not.
But we must all become poor in order to become rich.
Blessed are the poor in spirit for they will inherit the kingdom of God and the pure in heart for they will see God.
But the thing we must notice here is in relation to Good Friday.
Jesus, as the Son of God, is incredibly rich.
He gives up all his richness and becomes poor for our sakes, that we might become rich through him.
He gives away all his wealth to the poor.
But the rich have no need of his wealth since they are rich in their own eyes and won’t give it up.
Their wealth is an illusion.
Jesus explains to his disciples that it is impossible for man to save himself, only God can do that.
The rich man refuses to accept the advice Jesus gives him.
He remains incredibly poor when he could have had all the wealth of heaven that he had just asked about.
When we ask questions, do we really want the answer?
Or do we just want someone to affirm our error?
Jesus affirms for his disciples their own standing in this eternal inheritance, since they have left all to follow him.
He assures them of heaven’s riches at his expense.
That, by the way, is a definition of grace: God’s riches at Christ’s expense.
How do we get that out of this?
Note the last verse, Mark 10:31, “But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.”
This final sentence of explanation puts things in perspective for the disciples, if they understood it.
He warns them against pride.
They may have done what the rich man didn’t in leaving everything and following Jesus.
But the disciples cannot get what Jesus offers them until he goes first.
It will be his accomplishment on the cross that paves the road to heaven for them.
They don’t fully understand all this yet.
They will need to hear this message over and over again, just like us.
But we can come to a greater understanding of it by looking at 1Cor.
15:45-49.
There it calls Jesus the last Adam, a life giving spirit.
The first Adam is made of dust as are all who follow him genetically.
The last Adam is the God-man Jesus who came to perfect the first Adam and his line from sin and make him a spiritual man just as Jesus is.
Just as dust begets dust, so spirit begets spirit.
So Christ Jesus is the last Adam, the perfect one.
It is he that will share his perfection for us on the cross, showing us how to obtain it.
He is the last that goes first upon the cross in order that the first may be last in following him in death to self.
He is the spiritual man that dies like the natural man in order that the natural man may be a spiritual man.
We only have what we are willing to give away.
“Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it,” he says.
Jesus, in whom we all have life because he sustains life (Col.
1:17), is willing to give his life that we may keep our lives eternally.
The point of the story in relation to Good Friday is that Christ was willing to give away his riches for our poor sakes.
He was willing to do what he asked the young man to do.
How much are you willing to give?
Respect is an important thing.
Without respect we are like nothing, of no account.
There is no reason to live.
Without any respect we might as well die.
Jesus did.
It matters very much how he died and why he died.
But let us look at the cost to him.
*I.
Jesus gave up his self-respect: in the governor’s palace (vv.
26-31)*
* *
A. He was sentenced by earthly authority when he possessed heavenly authority (Rom.
13:1; Col. 1:16; Heb.
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