Impossible?
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
Have you ever faced an impossible situation and didn’t know where to turn next?
Have you experienced a health issue and there didn’t seem to be any hope?
Have you experienced a financial situation where you didn’t know how you were going to make it through?
Have you experienced a family situation where you did not know how it was going to get resolved?
In the book of Job we are reminded about the impossible situation that Job faced.
1 Job answered:
2 Today my complaint is again bitter; my strength is weighed down because of my groaning.
3 Oh, that I could know how to find him— come to his dwelling place;
4 I would lay out my case before him, fill my mouth with arguments,
5 know the words with which he would answer, understand what he would say to me.
6 Would he contend with me through brute force? No, he would surely listen to me.
7 There those who do the right thing can argue with him; I could escape from my judge forever.
8 Look, I go east; he’s not there, west, and don’t discover him;
9 north in his activity, and I don’t grasp him; he turns south, and I don’t see.
Job had lost everything, his family, his livestock, his crops, even his health. In spite of his situation he is still seeking out God.
Our Scripture text this morning presents us with a seemingly impossible situation. This is a familiar account from Jesus’ ministry, it’s the story of the rich young ruler. Matthew and Luke also record this story in their Gospel’s.
This is the story of the rich young man who comes to Jesus and asks what he must do to inherit eternal life. He asks a pretty straight forward question. He doesn’t beat around the bush; he doesn’t ask for advice on how to live a better life he simply asks “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
That’s probably not a question that most of us will ever be asked however it’s a question that we should know how to answer.
How would you answer someone who asked you how they could get saved?
· Would you tell them that they need to clean up their act and start living a good life?
· Would you tell them to start obeying the 10 commandments?
· Would you tell them to start reading the Bible?
· Would you tell them to talk to the pastor?
What you would you tell them?
Notice what the young man asks Jesus, he asks Jesus “what must I do?”
A danger in the church is the idea of doing as in if I do this that and the other thing then I’ll be good. That is not how it works. That is not how we become a Christian. We firmly believe that it is by grace alone and by faith alone that we are saved. Jesus did everything necessary for our salvation, we simply receive that free gift of grace by faith.
Jesus in this encounter reminds this young man about the 10 commandments. Remember that presumably this young man is a Jew. Based on what little we know about him he would know the Old Testament; he would know the requirements of the law. The cross was still ahead of Jesus so he couldn’t point the man to the cross he had to point him to the law.
The 10 Commandments are divided into two parts, the first is our relationship with God and the second is our relationship with others. It’s this second part that Jesus presents to this young man. Jesus says to him:
19 You know the commandments: Don’t commit murder. Don’t commit adultery. Don’t steal. Don’t give false testimony. Don’t cheat. Honor your father and mother.”
As a good Jewish young man he would have known these commandments backwards and forwards. He would have memorized them early in his life. In fact, he reminds Jesus when he says “all these I have kept since I was a boy.” Jesus wasn’t telling him anything new or dramatic.
I think that in the young man’s mind that Jesus was going to tell him something profound. Jesus tells him to obey the commandments. How disappointing that must have been for young guy. He was expecting something profound and he was reminded to do something he’d been doing all his life.
I have had people seek me out for advice many times. Often they already know the answer but they want to hear if I can say something profound to them. I almost always give practical real world advice. People often feel let down because they already knew the answer and I did not offer them anything new.
I’ve done the same thing in my life. I’ve asked someone for advice or a world of encouragement and they tell me what I already knew and I sort of felt let down.
I can understand how that young guy felt. Jesus didn’t tell him anything new. It must have been a letdown for him.
The very next sentence we might read right past without thinking about the implications of it. Mark is watching this situation play out and when later in life he sits down and records all these events he includes something that was unspoken yet it stood out in his mind. Mark writes there in verse 21:
Mark 10:21 (CEB)
21 Jesus looked at him carefully and loved him.
Stop and let that sink in for a moment. Jesus looked at him and loved him.
The word that is used there for love in the Greek is the same word that Jesus used when he said:
16 God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him won’t perish but will have eternal life.
It’s the same word that that the Apostle Paul used when he wrote to the church at Ephesus these words:
Ephesians 2:4–10 (CEB)
4 However, God is rich in mercy. He brought us to life with Christ while we were dead as a result of those things that we did wrong. He did this because of the great love that he has for us. You are saved by God’s grace!
6 And God raised us up and seated us in the heavens with Christ Jesus.
7 God did this to show future generations the greatness of his grace by the goodness that God has shown us in Christ Jesus.
8 You are saved by God’s grace because of your faith. This salvation is God’s gift. It’s not something you possessed.
9 It’s not something you did that you can be proud of.
10 Instead, we are God’s accomplishment, created in Christ Jesus to do good things. God planned for these good things to be the way that we live our lives.
Jesus looked at this young man who wanted to know how he could have eternal life and Jesus loved him. This was not some superficial love. This was a profound love that took Jesus to the cross where he died for that young man and he died for you and me. Jesus died for your sins and for my sins. Jesus loved him and he loves you.
If you hear nothing else that I say today, hear this. Jesus loves you.
It doesn’t matter who you are or what you may have done in your life. Jesus loves you!
He loves you and he wants to have a relationship with you! God loves you in spite of who you are and what you may have done.
I find great comfort in those words from Paul in that passage from Ephesians:
4 However, God is rich in mercy. He brought us to life with Christ while we were dead as a result of those things that we did wrong. He did this because of the great love that he has for us. You are saved by God’s grace!
I find comfort in those words because they remind me that it’s not about what I do but it is about what Jesus has done. It is because Jesus died on the cross for you and I that I can have eternal life. It’s because of God’s grace.
Jesus told that young man in verse 21:
21 Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
Can you imagine being in his sandals? Here is someone who has everything, he’s wealthy and Jesus who he must have looked up to as being from God and was telling the truth in his preacher tells him to go and sell everything and give to the poor and then come and follow him.
Can you imagine that?
Here is this young man who probably had everything he could ever want. The other Gospel writers refer to him as a rich young ruler. He had money, prestige, power, position. He had it all or so it seems. The one thing that he was lacking was assurance of eternal life.
What was Jesus really telling this guy? Was he really telling him to sell everything and give it all away?
One thing I notice is that we read into this story and add to the dialogue words that are not really there. In all three gospel accounts of this passage Jesus tells him to sell everything. Almost every time I hear a sermon on this passage the preacher says that Jesus told him to give it all away to the poor but the scripture doesn’t say that. Jesus doesn’t tell him to give the proceeds of the sale of all his stuff to the poor. Jesus simply says give to the poor.
One commentator wrote:
With the word of truth spoken in love, Jesus shatters the high hopes which the young man holds for human achievement. He thinks, as the third false assumption, that everything can be bought for a price, including eternal life. Jesus teaches him a basic lesson in economics. Price and cost are not the same. Price is written in dollars, but cost is spelled out in values.
No price tag can be put upon eternal life, but it does have what economists call an “opportunity cost.” Every time we buy anything, we are asking, “What opportunity am I willing to sacrifice in order to make this purchase?” For the poor man, a pair of shoes may be the “opportunity cost” for buying a loaf of bread. For the rich man, investment in a new enterprise may be the “opportunity cost” for the expansion of an old business. When Jesus applies the principle of “opportunity cost” to the value of eternal life, He pierces the heart of the young man. Everything is to be sacrificed, including the fruits of human achievement. In other words,
eternal life is a value that cannot be bought, but costs our all.[1]
Regardless of how you look at what Jesus said, he was asking the young man to be willing to give up all that he had to follow Jesus. In reality that is what Jesus asks of each one of us. He asks that in order to be a disciple of his that we be give up everything to follow him.
Why was this such an issue for the young man? For the Jews wealth was a sign of God’s special favor on a person and also a demonstration of a person’s spirituality. One writer said that:
True piety, according to the Jews, consisted of the practices of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Poverty-stricken people could pray, but only the rich had the food to fast and the money to give. In the economics of the Jews, wealth had become the stuff out of which spirituality was made.
Putting spirituality and wealth together eases a rich man’s entry into the kingdom of God.[2]
Remember Jesus is about radically redefining what it means to be a follower of God. He radically redefined for this young man how a person enters the kingdom. It is all about putting God first. Remember Jesus is the one that said that if anyone wanted to be his disciple that they had to deny themselves and then take up their cross and follow him.
Jesus turns his attention to the disciples to teach them based on this incident. He says to them beginning there in verse 23:
23 Looking around, Jesus said to his disciples, “It will be very hard for the wealthy to enter God’s kingdom!”
The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again,
24 His words startled the disciples, so Jesus told them again, “Children, it’s difficult to enter God’s kingdom!
25 It’s easier for a camel to squeeze through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter God’s kingdom.”
26 They were shocked even more and said to each other, “Then who can be saved?”
27 Jesus looked at them carefully and said, “It’s impossible with human beings, but not with God. All things are possible for God.”
Jesus presents a nearly impossible situation by saying that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.
Jesus presents to the disciples an improbable and even impossible situation. I think you can picture a sewing needle. How could you squeeze a camel through the eye of that needle? For us that’s an impossible task
In fact Jesus says there in verse 27
Mark 10:27 (CEB)
“It’s impossible with human beings
What is impossible, the camel going through the eye of a needle or a rich man entering the kingdom of God? To answer that look again at verse 24
24 His words startled the disciples, so Jesus told them again, “Children, it’s difficult to enter God’s kingdom!
He’s not asking a question; he’s making a statement.
He’s saying it’s hard to enter because we have to be willing to give up our everything in order to follow him. Go back to that passage I read from Paul where he said that because of God’s great love He
Ephesians 2:4 (CEB)
He brought us to life with Christ while we were dead as a result of those things that we did wrong. He did this because of the great love that he has for us. You are saved by God’s grace!
Jesus is talking about a radical change in our lives. It’s not about whether we are rich or poor. It’s about our willingness to give up everything we have in order to follow Jesus. From our standpoint that is impossible, but as Jesus said “all things are possible with God.”
Think about those names you have put on those slips of paper in our Treasure Chest up here. You might think that it is impossible for that person to come to faith in Jesus.
Why was it possible for you to come to faith in Jesus, and not possible for that other person?
With God all things are possible. There is no one beyond the grace of God. God the Holy Spirit is at work in their lives today.
What is the impossible thing that you are facing today? Have you turned it over to God?
How about you? What is your response to Jesus today? Have you given up everything to follow Jesus? Do the words of Paul ring true in your life? Paul wrote:
7 These things were my assets, but I wrote them off as a loss for the sake of Christ.
8 But even beyond that, I consider everything a loss in comparison with the superior value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I have lost everything for him, but what I lost I think of as sewer trash, so that I might gain Christ
9 and be found in him. In Christ I have a righteousness that is not my own and that does not come from the Law but rather from the faithfulness of Christ. It is the righteousness of God that is based on faith.
10 The righteousness that I have comes from knowing Christ, the power of his resurrection, and the participation in his sufferings. It includes being conformed to his death
11 so that I may perhaps reach the goal of the resurrection of the dead.
12 It’s not that I have already reached this goal or have already been perfected, but I pursue it, so that I may grab hold of it because Christ grabbed hold of me for just this purpose.
13 Brothers and sisters, I myself don’t think I’ve reached it, but I do this one thing: I forget about the things behind me and reach out for the things ahead of me.
14 The goal I pursue is the prize of God’s upward call in Christ Jesus.
Paul put behind everything that he had gained, all of his education, his genealogy, his prestige. It was all gone so that he could pursue his goal, the prize of God’s upward call.
This was not just some pipe-dream, this was because he knew that it was possible.
3 Bless the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! He has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing that comes from heaven.
Are you facing the impossible? Remember, you are loved by the possible making God!
[1] McKenna, David L., and Lloyd J. Ogilvie. Mark. Vol. 25. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc, 1982. Print. The Preacher’s Commentary Series.
[2] McKenna, David L., and Lloyd J. Ogilvie. Mark. Vol. 25. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc, 1982. Print. The Preacher’s Commentary Series.