How to Live Forever (Mark 10:17-31) | 9/29/19
Mark 10:17-31 9/29/19 | Will DuVal
According to legend, in the year 1512 AD, Juan Ponce de Leon received a charter from King Ferdinand of Spain to set sail for the New World in search of the coveted FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH, a mythical spring believed to restore eternal YOUTH to all who drank or bathed in its waters. Now, historians have since disputed the veracity of that popular legend, and while we now know that FAR from discovering a fountain of youth, Ponce de Leon ACTUALLY discovered modern-day FLORIDA, which ironically is better known today for being Heaven’s waiting room... all that notwithstanding, we humans have a profound preoccupation with the pursuit of IMMORTALITY. Skeptics postulate that’s where religion came from in the first place: our ancestors invented gods and a belief in the afterlife out of a deep need not only to make sense of THIS life, but a desire to extend BEYOND it, in hopes of a life to come. And this yearning for perpetual life is still a dominant motif in the stories we tell today: think of the Harry Potter books – you’ve got NOT ONLY Voldemort’s twisted desire to avoid his death by splitting his soul into 7 hellish horcruxes; but you’ve ALSO got HARRY’S OWN resurrection in Book 7, and the idea that LOVE has the power to defeat death; by the way, kids – this is what we do EVERY week here in “big church”: I spoil the endings of ALL the best books and movies, so now you don’t have to bother reading and watching them, you can devote your life WHOLLY to the Lord.
How about the quest for the Holy Grail? Monty Python... Indiana Jones...
Gollum’s “precious” ring from Lord of the Rings...
From the Epic of Gilgamesh of antiquity, to Twilight today, we are OBSESSED with this idea of immortality. The anti-aging industry is a multi- MULTI- billion dollar a year business. We ALL want to cheat death, and live... FOREVER! ETERNAL LIFE.
Show of hands: how many of you, here this morning, would like to believe, whether you do or NOT, you’d LIKE to believe that death is a comma, not a period; and that there really is such a thing as life after death?! Well guess what – you’re in luck. You came to the right place this morning. Because in Mark 10:17-31, Jesus is going to divulge the secret... to ETERNAL LIFE. A man comes to Jesus in v17 and asks “How can I inherit eternal life?” And Jesus offers him TWO options, the only two WAYS by which a person can live forever.
So would you stand with me as you’re able for the reading of God’s word, from
MARK 10:17-31:
And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 18 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. 19 You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’” 20 And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.” 21 And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” 22 Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
23 And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” 24 And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how difficult it is[b] to enter the kingdom of God! 25 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.” 26 And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him,[c] “Then who can be saved?” 27 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.” 28 Peter began to say to him, “See, we have left everything and followed you.” 29 Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, 30 who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life. 31 But many who are first will be last, and the last first.” This is the word of the Lord...
#1 - The first way to inherit eternal life, #1, is by B(eing) PERFECT. (vv17-20)
This would-be follower of Jesus sure SEEMS perfect, doesn’t he?! Look back with me at vv17-20. This guy was the most OVER-qualified candidate, by the world’s standards, for the position of disciple EVER! Mark tells us “a man ran up and knelt before Jesus and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”” Think about that:
he “ran up” – John MacArthur notes: “Middle Eastern men of status did not run. Running... exposed the legs, and was considered undignified and even shameful.” (730-731) So if this guy was RUNNING after Jesus, he was MOTIVATED! He cares about JESUS more than his REPUTATION.
then he “knelt before Jesus” – If 1st c. men of status didn’t RUN, they CERTAINLY didn’t KNEEL before others, UNLESS it was someone of HIGHER status. Luke 18:18 informs us that this man was a “RULER”. Jesus, by contrast, was homeless. We don’t even hear of Jesus’ own DISCIPLES ever kneeling before him. So this is an act of extreme HUMILITY; this man cares about Jesus more than his PRIDE.
then he “asks” Jesus a question – remember, he’s a RULER. He’s used to giving orders all day long. But here he is, admitting he doesn’t have all the answers, that perhaps he hasn’t yet inherited eternal life: “JESUS – how can I know for SURE?” He’s deferential. He’s Reverential. He cares about more about Jesus than his POWER.
And lastly, he’s READY. He is a man of ACTION. He’s not just looking to take the easy way out. He says, “Jesus – what can I DO.” I’m ready to do whatever it TAKES to get this eternal life. And in that moment, before Jesus shows him the price tag, I truly believe he thought he was willing to do anything. He cares more about Jesus than his convenience. He’s motivated, humble, reverential, and ready.
And let’s round out his character portrait with what we hear about this guy in v22: he “had great possessions”. Luke says he was “extremely rich”. And Matthew adds he was a “YOUNG” man too. (19:20)
So you put ALL that together and here’s the picture: imagine I get done preaching today, I’m walking out to the football field, and a visitor CHASES after me to catch up to me and chat. Now note: this has NEVER happened to me. I’m no Jesus, but typically if I’m engaging with newcomers here it’s because I’M the one chasing THEM down in the parking lot. And I WILL do that, by the way, visitors, so please save me the sweat and come introduce yourself afterward.
Now, culturally for us, no one’s gonna KNEEL before me, but let’s just say this guy makes it REALLY clear in our interaction that he is HUMBLE, he’s teachable, he’s never experienced anything like MY preaching before, he wants MORE, he wants IN; he’s CONVINCED that God is doing something exciting here at West Hills and he wants to be a part of it, he wants to be discipled by me personally; so he starts ASKING me – not TELLING me, what HE wants out of a church; he doesn’t wait and expect ME to ask HIM all the questions about himself, cuz after all, he’s the visitor here, I’m the one who’s supposed to be really grateful that he would sit there and listen to me for a half hour; No. He is thanking ME. He’s asking ME questions, he’s hungry, he’s soaking it up. Wants to go deeper. He’s heard one sermon and he’s ready to become a member. Submit to my pastoral authority. He wants to know what he can DO – he’s ready to roll up his sleeves and get to work; start SERVING the church. And I happen to notice he’s wearing a $5,000 suit. I look down and realize we’re standing beside HIS Rolls Royce. This guy can write one check and our HVAC unit is fixed; $50,000 is a rounding error in his checkbook. He can single-handedly fund missions trips, new staff positions, church plants, for YEARS to come. Church budget quadruples overnight. Oh, and did I mention: He’s YOUNG, and he’s already the CEO of one of the biggest companies in St. Louis. He’s got YEARS ahead of him to influence people for the Kingdom, and he’s got the power and connections to do it. Basically the picture painted of this guy in Mark 10 is every pastor’s DREAM congregant. There is absolutely nothing NOT to like about having THIS guy at your church. The PERFECT congregant, you might say.
But remember, 1 Sam 16:7 – “man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” True faith, for Jesus, is ALWAYS a matter of the HEART. And Jesus looks on this man’s HEART and recognizes that he can have ALL the right
ENERGY and enthusiasm (he’s RUNNING),
the right POSTURE (he’s kneeling)
the right DEMEANOR (he’s asking instead of ORDERING)
and even the right DESIRE (he’s ready to get BUSY; Jesus: just tell me what to DO!)
But what is he missing? The right... HEART. What’s in this man’s HEART? An undivided love for the LORD? A genuine heart of REPENTANCE? He’s going to display exactly what’s in his heart in v.20, when Jesus calls him to obey the commandments and he replies, “I’ve kept them ALL since my youth”! REALLY?! ALL the commandments? I imagine Jesus thinking to himself: “Maybe you MISSED my earlier sermon... when I explained that looking at a woman with lust in your heart is the SAME THING as adultery... that getting ANGRY with your brother is as good as MURDERING him... that you ought to love your enemies and PRAY for those who persecute you.”
Jesus takes one look at this man’s heart and diagnoses him with a FATAL self-righteousness complex. This man has it all together. He’s PERFECT. And he’s SURE of it. That’s probably why he’s so CONFUSED and CONCERNED about his eternal standing with God. Something that Jesus has just been preaching worried him; MAYBE the man had divorced his wife... Jesus just got done RAILING against divorce in vv1-12, even though it had become a commonly accepted practice in 1st c. Judaism; maybe Jesus hit a nerve there... maybe it was when Jesus declared in v.15 “whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” And this guy is thinking, “Wait a minute: I’m like the OPPOSITE of a child. They’re small and powerless, I’m big and important; hold on Jesus. how can I inherit eternal life then?
And what is Jesus’ response? It’s TWO-fold:
First, He confronts the man about calling him “GOOD”.
And SECOND, He reminds the man of the 10 commandments. Let’s take each of those in turn.
First, Jesus’ question - “Why do you call me ‘Good’” - does 2 things:
It establishes the moral standard for goodness. Capital “G” goodness. What is it, or WHO is it, rather, that sets the standard? GOD. GOD is the standard. Jesus says NO ONE is good, but God alone. On a sliding scale of completely Perfect to utterly IM-perfect, God to Satan, Jesus confirms that EVERYONE is at best only varying degrees of “less than perfectly Good”, because GOD is the standard by which we’re judged. God doesn’t grade on a CURVE. It’s not enough to be better, or THINK you’re better, which ironically is itself a SIN, than your NEIGHBORS. Your co-workers. Your family and friends. You can be the best person you know. Mother Theresa. And if you’re not PERFECT, you fall short of God’s standard. Because God’s standard... is GOD. Jesus said so in the same sermon on the mount: “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Mt 5:48) Anything less than that isn’t good ENOUGH. Not for HEAVEN. Not for GOD.
And #2 - Asking the man why he calls JESUS “good” is a subtle way of inviting this man to RECOGNIZE Jesus’ true identity. Jesus is right: no one IS good except God alone. And yet Jesus allowed himself to be called a “good man” in John 7:12 without objecting. Jesus called HIMSELF the “good shepherd” back in John 10. Jesus claims the label “good”, because he IS God. And here in Mark 10, he is essentially asking the guy, “Do you get it? Do you know who I am? That I am God in human flesh? The Incarnate Word of God who was “in the beginning WITH God”, and who WAS God, Jn 1:1-2. Because if you just think I’m another “good teacher”, then you’re in trouble, buddy. You need more than a good TEACHER, you need a capital G-Good SAVIOR a fully-God, fully-man Savior who is God enough to fulfill the Law for you, yet human enough to atone for your SIN; you need THAT kind of Savior, and you’re in LUCK, because I’m HIM, but I’m testing to see if you recognize it. And sure enough, the man immediately PROVES he doesn’t in v20: “Teacher, I’ve kept all the Law MYSELF”. Jesus, I don’t NEED you, I don’t NEED a Savior, because I’m Good. Jesus just TOLD him that NO ONE is good; yet, in this man’s mind, HE is good. At least good enough. Friends, that’s called being self-righteous. Self-justified. And according to JESUS, it means this man stands self-CONDEMNED.
Paul tells us in Romans 7:7 that the Law is a moral MIRROR that God holds up for us, to help us realize we’re sinners in desperate need of grace – “if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin.” And yet, what is THIS man’s reaction, when Jesus holds the mirror up for him in v19: “You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery...? He replies: “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.””
Can I ask you something, friends? If you’re here this morning and you haven’t yet trusted in JESUS to be your righteousness, what is the answer that YOU plan to give God when YOU stand before the judgment seat of God after you die - 2 Cor 5:10, Rom 14:12, we all must give an account for every deed done in the body - Is your plan to convince a holy, perfect, JUST God, that you have kept ALL the Law, that you NEVER sinned, a single day in your life? Or let me ask you: how GOOD do you think will be good ENOUGH for a holy, perfect, sinless God to let you into a holy, perfect, sinless Heaven that was created for holy, perfect, sinless people?
I’ll TELL you how good is good enough, biblically: perfection. If you are PERFECT, as your heavenly Father is perfect, then you have no need of a Savior, to forgive your sins... cuz you don’t have any! Otherwise, James 2:10 says “whoever keeps the whole law but fails in even one point has become guilty of all of it.” If you’re not perfect, then in God’s eyes, you might as well have broken the entire law. THAT’S how a perfectly holy, perfectly JUST God sees your sin: Rom 3:10-12 “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God.
12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.””
If you’re here this morning and you’re perfect, congratulations, you have EARNED eternal life. But for everyone else, thank God, that He mercifully provides a SECOND way of living forever.
#2 – And that is, by being NEEDY. (vv21-31)
Beginning with v21, we hear: “And Jesus, looking at him, loved him...” Jesus LOVED him. Jesus didn’t call him a brood of vipers, or flip over tables on him. Jesus saw this man’s heart, and he felt COMPASSION. Because Jesus sees the WEIGHT that this man is suffering under. Trying to be his own savior. Trying to be good enough to DESERVE God’s favor. That weight is CRIPPLING. NO ONE should try and take track #1 into heaven, because no one has ever made it IN that way. “ALL have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”. The ONLY person who COULD have stood JUSTIFIED before God by virtue of His own perfection to enter into Heaven decided instead to willingly TRADE his perfection for your IM-perfection so that YOU might be DECLARED righteous, not by a righteousness of your own, but by HIS imputed righteousness. Attributed righteousness. Jesus swapped the files, our criminal records. He didn’t have a record, totally clean rap sheet. Yours was INFINITELY long and horrible. You’ve sinned against a perfect God every day of your LIFE. And Jesus swaps the files. Takes YOUR punishment on the cross to satisfy God’s righteous hatred of sin and freely gives YOU His righteousness to satisfy God’s righteous demand of moral perfection. And all you have to do to GET it, is sign off on the file transfer. Faith is saying, “God, I believe you are who you say you are. I believe I am who you say I am. And therefore I believe I NEED Jesus to be FOR me, who you say HE is. THANK YOU.” Thank you, JESUS, for paying the price I owed but couldn’t pay. For giving me a righteousness I NEEDED but couldn’t AFFORD. THANK YOU.
But Friends, that REQUIRES, being NEEDY. The rich young ruler has never NEEDED for anything a day in his LIFE. At least not that he RECOGNIZES. So Jesus tells him to do something, v21: “go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven” Why? 4 reasons, I think:
Jesus wants the man to feel NEEDINESS. People who have never needed for anything can’t know Jesus, because he came for the NEEDY. And Jesus wants to HELP this man, but he can’t help him until he’s in a state of helpLESS-NESS; unable to help HIMSELF. Realizing he NEEDS help. He must learn dependency.
Jesus wants to expose his true SINFULNESS. This man fancies himself a good, upstanding, sinless guy. Self-Justified according to the Law, the 10 commandments. Yet his REFUSAL to obey Jesus’ command here proves a couple things: first, he doesn’t REALLY love his neighbor as himself, commandments 5-10, that Jesus rattled off above, they’re all about HORIZONTAL love, love of neighbor; the fact that the man won’t share with those in need proves he’s greedy and selfish and HAS violated the second half of the 10 commandments. And what’s more, the fact that he consciously CHOOSES to hold on to his money, instead of obeying JESUS, proves that he’s actually violated the FIRST half of the 10 commandments as well! #s 1-4 are all about what it means to “love the Lord your GOD”. VERTICAL love. #1 in particular: the greatest commandment of ALL: “You shall have no other gods before[a] me.” Ellery memorized it THIS way: “God is #1!” But NOT for this rich young ruler. He makes a conscious choice: my money is more important than GOD. Remember earlier, when I said he loved Jesus more than REPUTATION. More than his own PRIDE. More than POWER. More than convenience. Guess what, Jesus found his weak spot. The one thing he loves more than Jesus: his STUFF. But Jesus says: ““No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” (Matt 6:24) This man makes his choice: he’s gonna serve his money. And back in Mark 10, v22, we read: “Disheartened... he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.” What a SAD, sad picture. I bet swimming in his huge pile of money like Scrooge McDuck that afternoon never felt so EMPTY. So FUTILE. So hopeless.
And that leads us to the third reason Jesus tells him to sell everything: to give himself a platform to make this really important, really controversial statement about wealth. Notice: v24 – “the disciples were amazed at his words”; again in v26, repetition for emphasis: “they were exceedingly astonished” by this teaching. Why? Because in 1st c. Jewish culture, it was taken for GRANTED that wealth and power were signs of God’s favor and blessing. They’re reading OT passages, ESPECIALLY the Proverbs, like
Prov 3:9-10 “Honor the Lord with your wealth
and with the firstfruits of all your produce;
10 then your barns will be filled with plenty,
and your vats will be bursting with wine.”Prov 10:22 “The blessing of the Lord makes rich,
and he adds no sorrow with it.”Prov 21:20 “Precious treasure and oil are in a wise man's dwelling,
but a foolish man devours it.”
MacArthur explains: “Those who were wealthy had the means to pay for more sacrifices than did the poor. They also could afford to give more alms and buy more offerings than other people, and the Jews believed that almsgiving was key to entering the kingdom. The apocryphal book of Tobit said, “Alms deliver from death, and shall purge away all sin. Those that exercise alms and righteousness shall be filled with life” (Tobit 12:8–9; cf. Sirach 3:30). Thus, in the Jewish religious system, it should be easy for the rich to enter the kingdom of God, not impossible.” (p.740)”
But Jesus teaches just the opposite. Wealth makes it HARDER to get into heaven. Why? MacArthur (p.737) lists 2 reasons; 2 DANGERS of material wealth:
#1) wealth gives false sense of security
1 Tim 6:17 – “As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.”
If the ONLY other way for imperfect people to get into heaven is by realizing and confessing our NEED, being wealthy, having enough in this life, needing for NOTHING, seemingly, can make that REALLY really difficult, can’t it?
And #2) Wealth is dangerous because it’s easy to become consumed w the things of this world, and where treasure is, your heart will be also
Matt 6:19-21 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust[e] destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
1 Tim 6:10 “the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.”
Lk 12:15-21 “[Jesus] said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” 16 And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, 17 and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ 18 And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ 20 But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ 21 So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.””
Over and over and OVER again, Jesus keeps repeating: be REALLY REALLY careful with money. With stuff. Because the more of it you have, the more tied to THIS world you become. But YOU, if you belong to ME, no longer BELONG to this world. Your citizenship is in HEAVEN now. Store up treasure THERE. Do good, be righteous. THAT is the Father’s will. You cannot take your money with you when you die, friends. When your soul is required of you, whose things will your money be? Remember Jesus asked it this way in Mark 8: “what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?” (36) You wanna talk about INVESTMENTS - That’s just bad INVESTING. He says, “Lay up treasure where moth and rust can’t destroy.” ETERNAL security. INCORRUPTIBLE wealth. That is wise financial planning!
The fourth and final reason, and most important reason, that Jesus instructs this man to sell all he has and give it to the poor is PRECISELY because Jesus knew it was the one thing preventing him from turning and trusting in him for eternal life. Jesus says in v21 “ONE THING you lack”. Why? Because everyone who wants to live forever has to sell all their possessions and live a life of material poverty? No. Because that just happened to be this man’s IDOL. The thing he worshipped instead of Jesus. And as we said, there are unique DANGERS with money that make it a really really common idol for people. So let’s not hastily rip this passage out of context: I’d be remiss not to challenge us specifically on the point of WEALTH. Do you love your money, and ALL the things it affords you in this life: comfort, security, power, status, not HAVING to be needy, not HAVING to trust in God to provide, because you can provide for yourself – do you LOVE all that, more than you love JESUS, friends?
Maybe not, for you. Maybe you’re like me. Money, wealth, stuff have never been idols for me. Doesn’t make me any better than you. Just means I’ve got a WHOOOLE lot of other, even more jacked up idols that I struggle with, that I fight against, that compete with Christ for primacy in MY OWN heart. Let me ask you this morning: what’s your one thing? That if it’d been YOU chasing after Jesus, kneeling before him... what would he have asked YOU to give up?
Do you love your FAMILY more than Jesus? Remember, he said, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.” (Lk 14:26)
Do you love your JOB more than Jesus? And the security IT affords you. The sense of belonging at WORK. Sense of identity, of purpose that you find there.
What’s your one thing, friend?
Story of Ruofan – response: “I think you understand Jesus more than most Christians I know”
Jesus says, “Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, 30 who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.”
I’ll close with this BEAUTIFUL quote from Jim Elliot, the famous missionary and martyr, who gave his life to share the gospel with the Huaorani people in remote villages of Ecuador: “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose” (Elisabeth Elliot, Shadow of the Almighty [New York: Harper & Row, 1979], 247).
How will you live forever, friends? Are you hoping to be GOOD enough, to get into heaven? Is your hope in THIS life, in worldly things; Paul says, if for this world alone we hope, we are to be PITIED. Don’t you HOPE there’s another world to come? A BETTER world? There is. But there’s only ONE way in. One FEASIBLE way. With man, it’s IMPOSSIBLE. But with God, ALL things are possible. And all you need... is need. Let’s pray.