INI

Matthew 19:16-29 | Series B

Lent 2, 2022

WE NEED A LOVING SAVIOR!

Who shows us that we absolutely need him

Who accomplishes for us what is impossible for us to accomplish

Who leads us to truly value what is truly valuable

16 There was a man who came to him and said, “Teacher, what good thing should I do that I may have eternal life?”

17 Jesus said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? Only one is good. But if you want to enter life, keep the commandments.”

18 “Which ones?” the man asked him.

Jesus said, “‘You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not give false testimony. 19 Honor your father and mother.’ And, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”

20 The young man said to him, “I have kept all these. What am I still lacking?”

21 Jesus told him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” 22 But when the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had many possessions. 23 Jesus said to his disciples, “Amen, I tell you: It will be very hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24 Again I tell you: 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.”

25 When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and said, “Who then can be saved?”

26 Jesus looked at them and said, “With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

27 Then Peter answered, “Look, we have left everything and followed you! What then will we have?”

28 Jesus said to them, “Amen, I tell you: In the renewal, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 29 Everyone who has left homes or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields, because of my name, will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.

WE NEED A LOVING SAVIOR

This morning I want you to picture something in your mind. In a bit, I will ask you to close your eyes for about a half a minute.

When you do, I want you to think about a picture you have seen of Jesus, one where he is doing something incredibly loving. Maybe it’s from a Bible history book, or a print you’ve seen hanging on a wall somewhere. Maybe you have a picture of a loving Jesus from your own imagination. That’s good too.

So, now close your eyes, and in your mind, think about that picture of Jesus. The loving and caring Jesus.

Pause for 30 seconds

1. Open your eyes.

Some of you might be thinking of Jesus with the lamb across his shoulders, Jesus as the Good Shepherd. Or maybe a picture of Jesus on the cross, or Jesus on the cross looking at his mother and the disciple John. Or maybe you pictured Jesus surrounded by little children, as he reached out his hands and blessed them.

Did any of you think of Jesus with the young, rich man? The one we are talking about in our reading this morning? Probably not. While it’s not mentioned in the verses we read from Matthew, the gospel of Mark, records these words, just before Jesus made the statement that turned the man’s world upside down: Jesus looked at him and loved him (Mark 10:21, NIV)

Yes, everything Jesus said and did in the verses before us today is yet another example of Jesus’ love, his love as our Savior.

A loving Savior is exactly the we need and exactly what we have. So please join me today in this thought:

WE NEED A LOVING SAVIOR

Who shows us that we absolutely need him

Who accomplishes for us what is impossible for us to accomplish

Who leads us to truly value what is truly valuable

As we look at these verses…

1—Jesus shows us that we absolutely need him

The young man who approached Jesus with his question absolutely needed the Savior, even if he didn’t think so.

16 There was a man who came to him and said, “Teacher, what good thing should I do that I may have eternal life?”

His problem is pretty obvious. He had way too much confidence in himself. So, Jesus engaged him. Jesus opened the door for him to tell him what he was really thinking about his own perfection.

But if you want to enter life, keep the commandments.”

18 “Which ones?” the man asked him.

Jesus said, “‘You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not give false testimony. 19 Honor your father and mother.’ And, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”

20 The young man said to him, “I have kept all these. What am I still lacking?”

Before we look at Jesus’ answer, remember, here is where the gospel of Mark inserts this note, Jesus looked at him and loved him (Mark 10:21, NIV) Jesus’ line of questioning was not to accomplish what a prosecuting attorney tries to do, getting an uncooperative witness to admit what he was trying to hide. Jesus wasn’t trying to get him into a “gotcha” situation or embarrass him.

Rather, in love, Jesus led the young man to say in his own words what he honestly thought, so that Jesus words would have maximum impact.

Looking at what he said, it sounds like the young man thought he was living oh so close to perfection, but he couldn’t be sure. If Jesus could only help him find the last piece of the puzzle of real righteousness, he’d have the certainly he was looking for.

Confident he was close to perfection, you can imagine him leaning forward to hear the word from Jesus, the master teacher. “What is it Jesus? What is that little thing I need to do that will be the secret to real certainty?”

21 Jesus told him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

Mark’s gospel records that the man’s face fell (Mark 10:22 NIV) You can imagine what the disciples saw. His eyes wide open. His confidence, shattered. There was likely a long moment of silence, but the look on his face said it all, “Oh no! This can’t be.” Why?

23 Jesus said to his disciples, “Amen, I tell you: It will be very hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24 Again I tell you: 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.”

Luke’s gospel indicates Jesus spoke these words while the man was still there. These are the last words the rich man heard from Jesus.

22 But when the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had many possessions.

You see, Jesus saw his rich friend had two problems, two absolutely fatal spiritual attitudes. They were destroying him, blocking him from the kingdom of God and eternal life. The first, he really never thought he had done anything wrong. The second was he was fatally entangled by his own riches.

In response to his fatal attitude about wealth, Jesus talked about a camel going through the eye of a needle. There’s the picture. In your mind’s eye, think of full-grown camel, the size of horse. Now in your mind’s eye hold a needle in your fingers. Turn so you can see the light through it and ask yourself, how am I going to get this camel through this needle? Impossible!

That’s exactly why the disciples became concerned. They all chimed in to ask the obvious question:

25 When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and said, “Who then can be saved?”

26 Jesus looked at them and said, “With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

When it comes to keeping all the commandments, perfection is required, but perfection by sinful humans is impossible. And wealth makes the impossible even more impossible. That was true for this rich young man, it was true for all of Jesus chosen disciples, and it’s true for us today.

Think about riches. Jesus once warned of what he called the deceitfulness of riches (Matthew 13:22) He taught that wealth was deceitful, tricky.

Wealth can take us down spiritually, in so many ways.

Wealth can command way too much of our time and energy. Think of the hours spend with it, working for it, saving it, spending it, investing it. We have 24 hours in a day! If we aren’t careful, too many of them will be devoted to wealth and money. Then how much time do we have for our family, or for devotional and prayer time with God or for gathering with other Christians to build God’s kingdom? Wealth is tricky!

With wealth, comes power and influence. If we are wealthy, there will always be people who will gather around us and who will be willing to do all kinds of things in the hope we will be of some benefit to them. It also means they may be unwilling to criticize us when we are wrong, and we are left with the feeling that we are more correct about our decisions than we have a right to be. Wealth is tricky!

Think about ads and commercials. So many promote a theme of discontent. You won’t be healthy, happy, pretty, strong or even as wealthy as you could be, if you don’t buy what the add is selling. If you don’t have the money for it, well you are out of luck.

Wealth may give allow us to think too highly of ourselves; think ourselves smarter than others and better than them, because they don’t have what we have.  Wealth is tricky!

It’s incorrect to say money is evil in itself. The famously misquoted Bible verse is 1 Timothy 6:10 doesn’t say “money is the root of all evil.” It reads like this: The love of money is a root of all sorts of evils. By striving for money, some have wandered away from the faith and have pierced themselves with many pains. Wealth is tricky! In fact, since the love of money we can fall into its trap even if we are poor!

If we aren’t careful, money will become our master. We need to keep it as our servant. We need to see as a tool to accomplish the things God wants us to get done.

In other words, God wants us to use wealth to love people. If we love money, we are going to use people.

It was a loving Savior who delivered this difficult message to this young man. Jesus tried to help him see that money wasn’t going to save him. Nor was would his best efforts to keep the commandments going to save him. He needed Jesus to save him.

25 When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and said, “Who then can be saved?”

26 Jesus looked at them and said, “With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

Jesus said this so we understand

WE NEED A LOVING SAVIOR

2– Who accomplishes for us what is impossible for us to accomplish

With God, all things are possible. Does that sound familiar? It’s what the angel Gabriel said to Mary, when he said, “Do not be afraid, Mary, because you have found favor with God. ³¹ Listen, you will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to name him Jesus. ³² He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.

³⁴ Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”

³⁵ The angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So, the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. ³⁷ For nothing will be impossible for God.”

God does the impossible. Mary, conceiving even though she was a virgin, fulfilling a prophecy made by the prophet Isaiah, 700 years earlier? Impossible right? But Gabriel promised God the Holy Spirit was going to make the impossible happen.

God does the impossible. A human baby who was also the Son of the Most High…born the Son of God! A person who was fully human, who was also fully God. Impossible right? God did the impossible with the birth of Jesus.

God does the impossible. Jesus, God and human, lived a life of perfect and loving obedience to all every level of God’s law. Impossible for humans, but for Jesus, he does the impossible, tempted in every way, just as we are, yet was without sin. (Hebrews 4:15)

God does the impossible with Jesus. His perfect and holy and loving life can be held before God so he sees people as perfect and holy and perfectly loving. Impossible right? But God does the impossible because Jesus is the Lord, our righteousness (Jeremiah 33:16)

And one more impossible deed. A just and holy God who deeply wanted to forgive the sins of a self-righteous and money loving youth.

Impossible right? No, it’s possible if God provides a Savior with such unimaginable love for people like the rich man in our text and even for those who hated him so much so they planned this death. It’s possible if Jesus would go to the cross and endure unimaginable suffering under the hands of his Father. It was possible,

What more, it is accomplished. Before his death, Jesus cried, it is finished. Jesus declared he had done the impossible. He had made the atonement to take away the sins of the world.

And three days later, did again did the impossible. He rose from the dead to demonstrate he could do anything he said he’d do, and announce an eternal victory over death.

Because Jesus did the impossible, the way to salvation is this. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved. (Acts 16:31)

That’s why Jesus could talk to Peter and the rest of the disciples with authority about eternal life. He came here to accomplish the impossible, and did it.

What’s more he has a valuable lesson for us when it comes to setting our priorities.

You see, our LOVING SAVIOR, is the one we need.

3– He leads us to truly value what is truly valuable

The young man had left. Jesus had settled the disciples fears by promising that he as God was fully capable to save them, to do the impossible for them. Peter had pressing question.

Jesus had told the young man to sell his possessions and give them to the poor. Then he would have treasure in heave. Jesus also continued and invited him to follow him, just as Jesus had done for each of the twelve disciples.

27 Then Peter answered, “Look, we have left everything and followed you! What then will we have?”

I don’t know about you, but I don’t consider this as one of Peter’s greatest moments. It kind of sounds like he’s saying, “What’s in it for us, we who have listened to you and are following you right now?”

Jesus is patient with Peter.

28 Jesus said to them, “Amen, I tell you: In the renewal, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 29 Everyone who has left homes or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields, because of my name, will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.

To the twelve disciples, Jesus is reminding them they were the chosen leaders of his church. The “twelve tribes of Israel” is the term the Bible uses to describe people who believe in Jesus over all time and in every place, his church.

Jesus was grooming and training them to carry his message to all the world, and in heaven, their efforts will be recognized by every resident.

Think about it. You and I heard the message of salvation from people. Those people came to know Christ as Savior from others. If we could track this message transfer from person to person, back generation by generation, it would all go back to these twelve chosen leaders of the Jesus.

In heaven Peter and all the disciples will meet us. They will see how God blessed their resilience and dedication to proclaim Gods Word. In us, they will see the eternal impact of their work. We will be living proof that their sacrifice was as a hundred times worth it.

That is what Jesus wanted to teach the rich young man.

Had he gone back to his home, given instructions to sell his possessions and come back to follow Jesus, he would have learned so much.

This incident occurred as Jesus was going to Jerusalem the final time.

Had the wealthy young man accompanied him, he would have heard of the wealthy family of Lazarus, Martha and Mary, and how Mary bought expensive perfume to anoint Jesus as a way to honor him for the sacrifice of his upcoming death. Had he followed Jesus he would have heard about how Nicodemus, himself a ruler and no doubt wealthy, used his status to approach Pilate and ask that Jesus body be taken from the cross, and given to his care. Had he followed Jesus, the young man would have heard how Joseph of Arimathea, the wealthy individual who had a tomb hand-carved out of the limestone cliff. He was the man who offered it to Nicodemus as a grave for Jesus. Scripture recounts scores of wealthy people who remained wealthy and used their wealth to serve in God’s kingdom. God had made the impossible, possible for them.

The young man would have learned that.

And he would have been guided to a correct attitude toward keeping the law, by seeing Jesus during his arrest, his crucifixion, resurrection, his ascension and the glorious arrival of the Holy Spirit. He would have seen firsthand how his right standing with God came not from himself, but from Jesus, and believing in him.

And he would have found treasure in heaven, learning to value the things that are truly valuable.

What is that treasure?

Face it. When the Bible describes heaven using words from the physical world, he describes it as a place with streets paved with bars of gold bullion; with an entry gate, not made from limestone from Kasota stone, like the one you see in St. Peter, but made from a single luminescent pearl, so huge that to enter the city, your walk right through it. Heaven is a place where there is no hunger and is no thirst, because whatever need we have for food and drink will be satisfied by the best of foods and the choicest of beverages. The room that Jesus has prepared for us will be one with a perfect view. We will see the eternal majesty and glory of God.

So, when Jesus speaks of treasure in heaven, it can’t be things. No, the real treasure? People!

I have to believe some of our greatest joys will be meeting the people who helped us in our Christian walk, and thanking them, even if we didn’t appreciate what they said or did at that time.

I likewise have to believe we will find great joy in seeing how the prayers we offered, the times we shared the gospel, the ministries we supported…how our words, actions, gifts all impacted lives and helped people to see the love of Jesus, and helped them to see the glory of God. This is the treasure that never spoils, fades or rusts away, and it never loses its satisfaction.

Friends,

For God to accomplish what is impossible for us, it takes a Savior.

For us to learn to value what is truly valuable, it takes a Savior.

It takes a Savior, who loves you wholehearted. You know that Savior! He is your Savior. His name is Jesus. Amen.

March 13, 2022

By Pastor Curt Seefeldt