Series: The King and His Kingdom
Valley Community Baptist Church
Avon, CT
Texts: Matthew 19:16-26
March 28 & 29, 2009
Rev. Kevin Haskins
The Quest for the Kingdom
Last year the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life conducted a survey in which
people were asked about their religious beliefs and practices. Here are a few of those
questions and responses:
• Do you believe there are clear and absolute standards for what is right and wrong?
o 39 percent of all respondents – “Yes, there are.”
o 51 percent in evangelical churches – “Yes, there are.”
• Do you think there is a heaven?
o 75 percent of all respondents – “Yes, there is a heaven.”
o 86 percent in evangelical churches – “Yes, there is a heaven.”
• When asked “Who will be saved?” respondents could select “Only my religion
leads to eternal life.” or “Many religions lead to eternal life.”
o 70 percent - “Many religions lead to eternal life.”
o 57 percent in evangelical churches -“Many religions lead to eternal life.”
o 36% in evangelical churches - “Only my religion leads to eternal life.”1
People clearly do not agree about what leads to eternal life. C. S. Lewis noted
in his book Mere Christianity that many people who have some vague belief in God have
the idea that entering eternal life is like striking a bargain with God. They’ll perform their
side of a contract or pass an exam and somehow put God—the Gatekeeper—in their debt.
Seeing that they have passed the exam, He has to let them cross over into eternal life out
of what Lewis calls “mere justice.” Those who hold this belief may picture a scenario not
totally unlike the humorous exam faced by the men in this clip, men who are looking for
the Holy Grail.
[Show Bridge scene clip from DVD – approximately 3 minutes]
Just so you know, the airspeed velocity of an unladen European Swallow is 24 miles an
hour.2 Really it’s true. There’s something else that’s true. Like the rich young man in our
passage, most of us want to know if there is something more to life. We want assurance
that our future or the future of someone we love is safe, secure, and cared for. So let’s
look at three questions that, when answered truthfully, will end in a successful spiritual
quest.
Let’s first look at the question,
I. How Do I Get Eternal Life?
Matthew 19:16 says:
Now a man came up to Jesus and asked, "Teacher, what good thing must I
do to get eternal life?"(Matt.19:16)
We know from the other Gospel accounts that this man is young and wealthy. He
has a lot going for him. But he wants more. So he comes to Jesus, admitting, I want
eternal life. I have a deep desire for it. I’m being diligent to seek it, now…can You tell
me how to get it? This young man has grown up in a religion with traditions, traditions
that trained him to think that you have to do things to gain divine approval. He believes
that he needs to do some righteous act beyond the law to guarantee eternal life. In the first
century, people who lived by the commandments looked for that one big thing they could
do that would assure them of the life to come.
But Jesus replies,
“Why do you ask me about what is good? /Jesus replied./ There is only One
who is good.” (Matt. 19:17a)
This first part of Jesus’ response may sound to the man as if it has no connection
whatsoever with his question. Jesus explicitly states that only God is good, something the
man would clearly know. But Jesus implies something more; that the man and his works
are not good. The rich young man’s question revealed that he privately believed he was
good and that he had the capability to accomplish something morally and intrinsically
good in God’s eyes. In effect Jesus is saying, “The standard of goodness is God and his
will, not you and your effort. Friend, your concept of "good" is your problem.”
Why? Why is our understanding or standard of “good” so crucial? When you and
I believe that goodness is something relative (e.g., I’m okay, I’m better than most people,
or I’m not such a bad person compared to so and so…), we downplay the strength and
grip that sin has on us. We think we’re okay, when we’re not. We consistently
underestimate our need for God’s absolute goodness.
I don’t know about you, but when I think I’m okay and that I am doing an okay
job of handling life, I don’t press hard toward God, I don’t seek Him desperately, I don’t
depend on Him consistently, I don’t love Him wholeheartedly – I don’t come to Jesus
with a humble and unencumbered trust.
If God alone is good, if He is the standard of what is good, then we must conform
to God’s will in order to do what is good. This is exactly what Jesus tells the man; He
directs the young man to follow God’s will as expressed in God’s commandments.
If you want to enter life, obey the commandments.
"Which ones?" the man inquired.
Jesus replied, " 'Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not
give false testimony, honor your father and mother,' and 'love your neighbor
as yourself.'" (Matt. 19:17b-19)
At first, it appears as if Jesus is telling the man that eternal life comes through obeying
the Mosaic Law. Is that true? We know that Scripture is always the best interpreter of
Scripture. And Romans 3:20 assures us that this is not what Jesus means. For no one can
ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply
shows us how sinful we are. (Romans 3:20 New Living Translation)
Then why is Jesus pointing the man to the commandments? Jesus is not introducing the
Law to show the man how to be saved but to show that he needs to be saved.3 The man
has no sense that he has offended a holy God. He does not see that when compared with
God’s good and holy standards, he is coming up short.
This is not the first time Jesus uses the commandments to drive the point that
outward religious acts do not change the heart. In Matthew 5, the Sermon on the Mount,
Jesus raises the very same points of the law… murder… adultery… stealing… loving our
neighbors…. With each point of the law Christ says that we are declared guilty when
God’s truth shines its light into our hearts. We are declared murders, when our hearts are
angry with that person who has hurt us; that we are declared adulterers, when our hearts
lust for someone immorally; that we are declared guilty not just when we don’t love our
neighbor, but when we don’t love the people who hate us.
While this man has been sincere in his effort to keep the law, he has confined his
righteousness to external obedience.4 And that leads us to the young man’s response and
our second question.
II. What Do I Still Lack?
“All these I have kept," the young man said. "What do I still lack?"
(Matt 19:20)
This young man doesn’t understand God’s heart. He doesn’t see how far he is
from the humble, child-like dependence to which Jesus calls each of us. Yet his question
does show that even he recognizes that outwardly keeping even Biblical commands has
not brought him God’s approval. He knows something is missing, so Jesus responds by
instructing,
"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." When the young
man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth. (Matt. 19:2122)
Why does Jesus tell him to sell everything? Is Christ telling him that selling his
possessions will guarantee eternal life? And does this imply that you and I need to sell
everything if we want eternal life? No. Again, Scripture best interprets Scripture. This is
not something that we find Jesus asking others to do. So why is He telling this young man
to sell everything? We have a clue in the phrase, “and you will have treasure in heaven.”
Jesus used that phrase before. In Matthew 6 Jesus is quoted as saying:
…store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not
destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure
is, there your heart will be also. (Matt 6:20-21)
Jesus is exposing the competition in the man’s heart. Jesus demands that HE be
the object of the man’s ultimate commitment, that everything else take a back seat. This
is a test of the man’s core beliefs—those convictions deep in his heart, what he really
believes. The test simply put is, Will he or won’t he be wholly and fully devoted to Jesus
and to Jesus alone for eternal life? Will he move beyond trusting something else for his
well-being? Will he move from simply admiring Jesus as a good teacher to being a fully
devoted follower of Jesus?
What does the young man choose? He goes away sad… Scholar David Bivins
notes,
God will probably test our commitment to Him at its weakest, most
vulnerable point or points, those areas in our lives that we have made more
important than Him. The weakest link in the rich man’s commitment to God
was his love of possessions. Therefore, he was asked to give up his
possessions. God probably will test us in a similar way. He will do this for our
good, to strengthen areas of weakness in our lives that prevent us from
achieving spiritual maturity.
That is what Christ wants for you and for me: intimacy that flows from our
undivided confidence in Him; spiritual maturity that develops when we are wholeheartedly devoted to Him.
What about you? Where would Christ look if He is looking for your weak and
vulnerable point? What self-protective idol is preventing you from being Christ’s
wholehearted follower? He is saying to us, Will you move from simply admiring Me to
being My fully devoted follower? Will you move beyond worry, beyond fear? Will you
move beyond being a slave to sexual desire and unhealthy habits? Will you or won’t you
be fully devoted to Me alone?5
That brings us to our third question.
III. Who Can Be Saved?
As Jesus watched the man walk sadly away, He then said something surprising:
… I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.
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. (Matt. 19:23-24)
In the ancient Jewish culture, many thought that the rich were going to be in
God’s kingdom. Not because their wealth could buy their way in, but because their
wealth seemed to be evidence that they had God’s blessing and approval. But Jesus says,
Just as it is impossible for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, it is impossible,
apart from God’s power, for any person to enter God’s kingdom. And this is exactly how
the disciples understood Him.
When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, "Who
then can be saved?" (Matt. 19:25)
Their preconception about wealth is being tossed out, and they are amazed. “If the
wealthy, who are so clearly blessed and approved by God, can’t get into the kingdom,
then who can be saved?”
Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God
all things are possible." (Matt. 19:26)
Jesus lays out two truths for His disciples: the inability of man and the grace of
God. We cannot save ourselves. But, God has taken our failure into account and has
provided the way of salvation in Jesus Christ.
If God has taken my failure into account, and God is not limited like I am, then I
have hope—both for myself and for those I love. We each have friends or family who
admire Jesus. John Piper writes, “All things are possible with God, including [saving] the
hardest sinner and the most spiritually callous person I know. It should give you hope for
your wayward son and your unbelieving dad and self-sufficient brother, your alcoholic
neighbor and the secular people you work with, your Jewish friends and the kids you go
to school with.”
Can you answer for yourself the question how to get eternal life? Who are you
trusting in to get it? Yourself? or God? And if you’ve trusted God for eternal life, have
you moved from being Jesus’ admirer to being Jesus’ follower? To what in your heart
would Jesus point and say, Get rid of it. Choose. That or Me.
Let’s pray.
1
http://religions.pewforum.org
http://www.style.org/unladenswallow/ The four capitals of Assyria were Ashur, Calah (or Nimrud), Dur
Sharrukin (or Khorsabad), and Nineveh. The ruins of all four ancient cities fall within modern day Iraq.
3
Wiersbe, Warren W.: The Bible Exposition Commentary. Wheaton, Ill. : Victor Books, 1996, c1989.
4
NET Bible notes; www.bible.org
5
John Ortberg, Renovare’ Conference 2008 CD.
2