Make Disciples Who Make Disciples - David Palmer - Lk 18:18-19 - 05-15-2022 - Week 36

The rich ruler 
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Transcript

 Making Disciples Who Make Disciples Ministry year 2021-2022 Kenwood Baptist Church Sermon Series Pastor David Palmer May 15, 2022 
TEXT: Luke 18:18-30

 I'm happy to be here right now because Jesus Christ has a word for us this morning. I want to ask you a question as we get started. Is there anything that you love more than Jesus? I just want you to ponder that for a minute. Is there anything that you feel like you must have more than you must have Him? Is there anything that you feel like you cannot do without more than you feel you cannot do without Him? I can lose everything if I have Him. What's the most important thing in my life? What do I feel I must hold onto? What do I need? What do I have to have if I have anything? Our passage allows us to overhear a conversation. We weren't there, and yet the Bible allows us to be there by recording this for us. It's a conversation that starts in Luke 18:18, and it happens with a ruler. The man is identified as a ruler, probably meaning that he's a member of the Sanhedrin, the ruling council in Israel in the first century. The Sanhedrin was comprised of Sadducees and Pharisees. These are people who have a high social position. As we'll see in the passage, it's a man who also has great wealth. He comes as a person of societal influence, and he comes to Jesus and addresses Jesus as “Good Teacher.” It's a compliment he seeks to give to Jesus, probably wanting to relate to Him as a peer or as someone with a familiarity with him. The question that he asks is a question that I wish I heard more often. I wish more people asked me what they need to do to inherit eternal life. Has anyone ever asked you that? Has anyone ever said with a certain level of urgency: “What do I need to do to inherit life?” To receive an inheritance is a profound moment in our lives. I remember receiving an inheritance when my father died, and I remember receiving a portion of inheritance from one of my extended relatives whom I had never imagined I would receive an inheritance from. He Page 2 of 9 owned a trucking company in New York. He was my great-grandfather. I had known him only as a child, and then when I was in graduate school, wondering how I would pay for the next semester, I got a call that said Grandfather Frank passed away and all of his-great-grandchildren received a certain amount. I thought: “Wow! That’s going to pay for the next semester. God bless Great-grandfather, Frank!” He remembered his family all the way down. To receive an inheritance is to receive a blessing from someone else. It's to receive a gift that was prepared for you. It's a family gift. It's a legacy of love, and it is the way in the first century that Israelites often talked about heaven. They often talked about heaven as eternal life or as life in the world to come. Here is this world, and there is a coming world, and I want to be a part of it. The Bible has two times – the former days and the latter days. Sometimes they are called this world and the world to come. Did you know that there is a coming world? It is going to have some continuity with this world and it is going to be very different, and whatever you have in this world, whatever you try to obtain, secure, retain, or acquire, pales in comparison to wanting to have a part in the world that is coming. And this man asked Jesus: “What do I need to do to make sure I am inheriting that coming world, a world prepared for us by our Heavenly Father?” It’s a great question. It's a question I wish I heard more often. Jesus’ reply to this great question is a little bit surprising. Jesus asked him a question, which is a very rabbinic thing to do: If you get a question, ask a question. If somebody asks you a question that you don't know how to answer, just ask them a question. But in this case, Jesus asked him a question that seems to have a little bit of an edge to it. He says in Luke 18:19: “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone.” Jesus reframes the conversation. He exposes a set of assumptions in the man. Jesus reminds us that the point of comparison is divine, that goodness is not a scale among mortals. Did you know that only God is good? Psalm 34:8 says: “Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!” Psalm 100:5 tells us: “For the LORD is good; His steadfast love endures forever, and His faithfulness to all generations.” Psalm 145:9 declares: “The LORD is good to all, and His mercy is over all that He has made.” The Lord not only is good, but the Lord does good. In Genesis 32:9, Jacob says: “O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O LORD who said to me, 'Return to your country and to your kindred, that I may do you good.’” Page 3 of 9 Then, Jesus appeals next to a shared understanding. He tells the man in Luke 18:20: “You know the commandments: 'Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother.’” Sometimes we wrestle to memorize the 10 Commandments in order, and that's helpful. I have a dear friend who has hand gestures that go with the 10 that really help her to lock it in. In this case, Jesus provides a variation. He references commandments 7,6,8,9,5, and that's fine. It’s just a quick burst of: “Well, here are five of the 10 Commandments in a sentence or two,” and the man's response is a little surprising. He says in Luke 18:21: “All these I have kept from my youth.” How do you hear that response? What does that show about him? To me, it sounds a lot like the person who, when we’re talking about Jesus, says: “I grew up in church,” as though his parents just dropped him off here and then we fed and clothed and nurtured him. It’s almost like you're an object, that you were just placed here in the sanctuary or the atrium and you just got larger. “I grew up in church.” Growing up in church doesn't make you a wholehearted, dedicated follower of Jesus, any more than just being dropped off at Great American Ballpark turns you into a Reds fan. Jesus says: “You know the commandments,” and the man responds: “All these I have kept from my youth.” Now the passage changes. Are you ready for this? This next verse changes everything. When Jesus heard this, He said to him: “You are missing just one thing.” That's it. The ESV says: “You lack one thing.” The text says in Luke 18:22: “[One thing is missing.] Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” Sell everything you have. Give it away to people who really need it. Come, follow Me.” That's a strong challenge. Did you feel that slight bit of grammatical discontinuity in the fact that Jesus says, “You are missing just one thing,” and then Jesus gives four imperatives? Did you hear that? The grammar lovers among us are saying, “Wait, that was four things.” But are those four things really just part of one thing? According to Jesus, they are. I love the ESV translation. No translation is perfect. I wish they had rendered this slightly differently, though, because they render it: “One thing you lack.” The text says: “One thing is missing.” You told me you grew up in church, you know the Bible, but there's just one thing that's missing – just one thing. Beloved, what is the one thing that you have to have? Jesus tells the man to sell everything he has and give it away to people who really need it and then come and follow Him. What is he missing? He is missing a wholehearted following after the Lord. That's what's missing. In Mark's version of this story, Mark reports that when Jesus looked at him, He loved him. Mark Page 4 of 9 uses a verb that says that Jesus “looked inside of him.” Jesus looked inside this man just as He can look inside of you and inside of me, and He knows that there are certain things and certain situations in which David Palmer will be tempted to say: “I have to have this more than I have to have Jesus.” We all have temptations like this, where deep in our soul we feel like: “I have to have this, and if I have Jesus also, that's great.” There are certain attachments that we make. They can be made with relationships. “I must have this relationship.” They can be positions of influence or social standing. It can be the relentless pursuit of wealth—to think that if I have this, I'm safe and secure. It can be our own religiosity, our church attendance. It can be a number of things that can be in front of a primary commitment to Jesus, and Jesus, in His great love for us, in His ability to see inside of us, says: “I'd like you to get rid of that and give your whole heart to Me.” That’s challenging. It feels risky; It feels very risky. Did you notice that even though Jesus says: “One thing is missing,” there are four imperatives? In between the four imperatives is a huge promise: “Sell all you have, give it to people who really need it, and you'll have treasure in heaven. Come follow Me.” The God of the Bible, the One who is revealed in the Bible, has great concern and generosity towards the poor, towards those who are in need. Deuteronomy 14:29 says” “And the Levite, because he has no portion or inheritance with you, and the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, who are within your towns, shall come and eat and be filled, that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands that you do.” God's people are instructed to be generous, to give a second tithe to the people in need in the community, that they would eat and be filled, and God would bless the work of their hands. Sometimes poverty can descend upon us like an armed man. You can end up poor for a lot of reasons, reasons not in your own control. If that happens, God tells us In Deuteronomy 15:7-8: “If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, but you shall open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be.” Deuteronomy 15:10 says: “You shall give to him freely, and your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him, because for this the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake.” We are blessed by God in response to how we respond to needs around us. In Deuteronomy 26:13, we see: “Then you shall say before the LORD your God, 'I have removed the sacred portion out of my house, and moreover, I have given it to the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and Page 5 of 9 the widow, according to all your commandment that you have commanded me. I have not transgressed any of your commandments, nor have I forgotten them.” This man, for all of his high position, his wealth, his protest that he obeyed God's commands, Jesus shows him that he's missing something really, really significant. He's missing something significant in God's commands. I love Proverbs 19:17: “Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the LORD, and He will repay him for his deed.” That is an astonishing statement, that God would say that when you help someone in the community in need, it's like you're loaning God money – the God who doesn't need anything, and He will repay you. Jesus knows this man’s religiosity and his societal position, but really the heart of it is that his vast means are surrounding his identity, and they are more important than Jesus' call to “Follow Me.’ Jesus’ challenge to this ruler is not received. In Luke 18:23, we see that when the ruler heard these things, the text says he didn't just become sad, he became very sad. He became very sad because he was very wealthy, and his vast wealth was more important to him than a wholehearted commitment to Jesus, For you, it may be your vast wealth that's holding you back, and you may feel a very strong identification with this person in this passage, but let me tell you that whether it's your vast wealth or whatever it is that is loading you down and is in front of your wholeheartedly following Jesus, Jesus wants you to get rid of it. He wants you to get rid of it, not because He needs it, but because He knows that it's holding you back from following Him. That’s what’s so appealing about this image. Jesus isn't asking you to give up something for a bad reason. He's asking you to give something up so that you have a heart that's available to be given to Him, and He knows that that will be better for us in the short, in the medium, and in the long term. Jesus saw that the man became very sad, and then He spoke to the crowds. He said in Luke 18:24: “How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” It’s really difficult for people who have wealth to enter the Kingdom of God. It is difficult, according to Jesus. Wealth has a way of messing with us. It has a way of seeming like the most important thing. It has a way of saying: “This is what my life must be about.” It has a way of saying: “I am secure because of this.” It has a way of presenting itself to you as something that you have done apart from God's blessing. It is very dangerous. It's dangerous because it makes promises that wealth can't keep. It claims our highest loyalty, and as a society, we really tend to hold onto it. John Lee is the head of the Geneva School in Manhattan and wrote a very detailed article about giving in the United States. It is sobering. Let me give you a couple of highlights. Where in the United States are people the most generous? Where would you think? The three Page 6 of 9 most charitable and giving cities in the United States are all in Idaho: Pocatella, Idaho Falls, and Jackson. The average Christian in those three cities gives $17,977 as the average. Another surprise. The second most generous city in the United States is Las Vegas, with an average giving rate of $10,410. The largest cities in the United States—New York, LA, Chicago, Houston, Phoenix, and Philadelphia—don't even make the top 50. Eighty-four percent of millennials give less than $50 a year, even though they say that charitable giving ranks high on their priorities. According to Nonprofit Source, only 5% of church members give regularly. This is devastating. Households that make more than $75,000 a year are the least generous. Do we need to hear this passage? Does wealth take hold of our hearts in a way that it shouldn't? A study done at the University of Notre Dame, called The Paradox of Generosity, says, after detailed study, that only 2% of people follow the biblical guide of giving 10% away. Why is that? I was taught to tithe as a young Christian, and it's been a really important and holy part of my life from college to now, and I love giving. I love giving because God has given to me. The heart of the Christian message is that God so loved the world that He gave His Son, and God who gives invites us to give in participation in His Kingdom. I got to know and talk with a pastor yesterday, and I found out about his journey into seminary. He said to me: “I was really starting to feel a call to seminary, but I had no idea how I'd pay for that.” He continued and said: “I was in church and someone came up to me and said, ‘Have you ever thought about going to seminary?’” When he answered: “Yes, I have,” the person said: “That's good, because God told me that I was supposed to pay for you to go to seminary, and I just want to make sure I was hearing that right.” So he paid for the whole thing and the books, which are expensive! God gave and we’re missing out, Beloved, if were holding on to what He's giving thinking we have life there. We won’t. Jesus says in Luke 18:25: “For 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.” This is a funny image. I’ve had the three camel rides in my life, all of them very memorable. One was up to the top of Mount Sinai, one along the North African coast in Tunisia, and another one in in Israel—all special. Camels are big and kind of like a creative moment of God, don’t you think? It’s almost as if God said: “I’m making the animals. Check this out. Here's an animal whose knees go the other way; here's an animal that gets up backwards.” I saw a dear friend almost get tossed off a camel because he didn't know the camel gets up with the back legs first. He was wide-eyed. They are actually really amazing animals, and they have the coolest eyelashes on the planet. They have really thick, robust eyelashes that keep the sand out of their eyes. They are impressive. This is a funny image. Our Lord is creative and vivid in His teaching, and He says: “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.” Page 7 of 9 The Bible can be trusted in the details, like the verb I mentioned last week used for tossing the offering. The Bible can be trusted in the details here, because the other Gospel writers that mention this use different words for the needle. Luke uses the word for a needle that is the kind of needle that a doctor uses. Isn’t that interesting? Luke was a doctor, and when he reports this, he uses the technical word for a medical needle. The point is, camels are heavy laden and it's difficult to try to squeeze them through the eye of a needle. It is supposed to make you laugh and to get your attention. Sometimes you may have heard that the eye of the needle is the name of a secondary gate, or small gate, in Jerusalem. There are the large main doors and then there's a small door that's a secondary door. Sometimes people say that's the eye of a needle and the camel has to be stripped of its baggage to go through that secondary door. You may have heard that; you may have not. The first person ever to call this door “the eye of a needle” was in the 15th century, so there's no ancient evidence of this. This is one of those things that is probably not true. So I want you to think of that as Jesus says: “Eye of a needle, camel going through, that's going to be hard, that’s kind of funny.” Jesus, after issuing such a direct challenge, knows how to keep us with Him.” The disciples respond and say: “Well, who can be saved?” That's another great question. And Jesus encourages us all in Luke 18:27: “What's impossible with man is possible with God.” God is the One who makes it possible for you to say: “You know what? That doesn't matter to me at all, compared with knowing Jesus Christ.” When you start to feel that way, that is the power of God working in you, and that's His presence working in us. It is impossible on our own; it is possible with God. Peter says: “We left everything,” and Jesus says to him in Luke 18:29-30: “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the Kingdom of God, who will not receive many times more in Page 8 of 9 this time, and in the age to come eternal life.” In other words, the world that's coming and your participation in it is dependent really on one thing: our wholehearted commitment to Jesus and living that way. Wholehearted commitment to Jesus is challenging, but it is life-giving. William Borden inherited the Borden dairy family fortune, and when he graduated from high school, his parents gave him a trip around the world as a graduation gift. As he traveled all throughout Asia, Middle East, and Europe, he felt a growing burden for hurting people, and he felt a rising conviction to be a missionary. As he traveled around the world and felt this rising conviction to be a missionary, he wrote two words in the back of his Bible. Those two words were: “No reserves.” He came back from the trip and enrolled at Yale University. His classmates noticed that he was far ahead of them spiritually. He had a settled purpose and consecration. He saw that many of his peers at Yale lacked purpose for their lives, and during his first semester, he started a small group Bible study and prayer meeting on Yale's campus. By the end of the first year, 150 freshman were going to the small group Bible study. His morning prayer group and Bible study grew across campus, and by the time of his senior year, 1000 out of 1300 students were attending. His outreach was not only to the campus but to people in need in the community. He felt the call increasingly in his life to go overseas in missions. When he graduated from Yale, he turned down some high-paying jobs, and he wrote two more words in the back of his Bible. Underneath “No reserves,” he wrote: “No retreats.” He did graduate study at Princeton, and when he finished, he set sail for China. He felt a call to reach the unreached Muslim peoples in the western part of China. He stopped on the way there in Egypt to learn Arabic and to get ready for service. After he was in Egypt, he contracted spinal meningitis and within one month, he died. He was 25 years old. Just before he died, he opened his Bible and he wrote two more words. Underneath “No reserves,” “No retreats,” he wrote: “No regrets.” His death was carried by every American newspaper. A wave of sorrow went around the world. Borden not only gave away his wealth, but he gave his life in a way that seemed a privilege rather than a sacrifice: “No reserves.” “No retreats.” “No regrets.” Jesus' challenge to us this morning is to make Jesus Christ first in your heart, and the Spirit will guide you. What do you have to give away so that you can give Him the first place? You know that. Ask Him to show you that, so that your life can be lived with no reserves, no retreats, no regrets. When wealth presents itself as a solution to your needs, it can’t keep that promise. Hear Jesus’ word this morning: “One thing you lack.” Sell what you have, give it to the people Page 9 of 9 who need it. Come and follow Me.” I think many of us are missing out on the joy of participation in the Kingdom. There is an entire legacy of consequence for that man who was moved by the Spirit to pay for the pastor’s seminary education. When we give to the Lord, His kingdom advances. I want to challenge you to be a regular giver, to be a person who lives in response to God: “What You have given me, I love to give away,” For some of us, it's going to be a real start just to say: “I see that person in need right there, and I'm giving my time and my resources.” For some of us, it's going to be: “I am involved here. This is my church, and I'm going to be a regular supporter of what's happening here.” For others, it is going to be: “God is speaking to my heart. I'm a little scared, but He's telling me I need to sell something that I've been owning and feel good about, and God is telling me I'm part of the solution for the little bit that remains for the Magnify campaign.” If He's prompting you to do that, then just obey Him. I want to tell you the story of a woman that most of us don't know. Her name is Anna First. She worked at the valve company in Montgomery, just around the corner. She never married, and she was in our Homebuilders Sunday School class for many, many years. She was very quiet, and she went to be with the Lord. Then her estate lawyers called the church and said: “Anna remembered Kenwood in her estate planning.” We were really touched by that. I didn't know what to expect—she was a single woman who worked for a valve company. The lawyers came and gave us this letter. We opened the letter, and it was a gift of several hundred thousand dollars! I wrote in my prayer journal: “Lord, please show me what You want us to do with that. Part of this building project is funded by that gift, and part of the giving toward missions and outreach is funded by that gift. So, Beloved, we are invited by Jesus this morning to have Him be first. If you need to get rid of something and you're not sure what to do with it, ask Him to show you where the need is around you and get rid of that so that you can wholeheartedly come and follow Him. Following Jesus is what will allow you to inherit eternal life. Let’s pray. Lord Jesus, thank You for this morning, for Your presence among us, Your real presence. Thank You, Lord, for our worship team’s offering their gifts and talents to You. Thank You, Lord, for all those who are serving You this morning around this church building among students and children. Thank You, Lord, for the joy of being in Your presence together and Your receiving our worship. Receive the gifts we've offered to You. Multiply them and extend Your kingdom. Lord, I pray for the things that hold us back. I pray against them, that, Holy Spirit, You would stir us to let go of some things in this world so that we might take hold of You. We love You. We thank You that You are our great reward and that there is nothing in this world that can satisfy us like You, Lord Jesus. We praise You. In Jesus’ Name, Amen