SPEAKER_00: Matthew 19, verse 16, and forward is our passage for this morning.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to imagine your ideal evangelism encounter.
SPEAKER_00: What would that look like?
SPEAKER_00: You know, we are active in evangelism, we want evangelistic conversations.
SPEAKER_00: Oftentimes the hardest part about an evangelistic conversation is starting it.
SPEAKER_00: We are very good in answering objections to Christianity.
SPEAKER_00: We're very good in responding to people who ask us questions about the Bible or ask us questions about the gospel, but it's much harder to initiate those conversations on our own.
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps you've had some awkward attempts at that.
SPEAKER_00: You know, you make your neighbors cookies and try to remember their name and give them the cookies and then just kind of hover there awkwardly.
SPEAKER_00: You notice I have a Jesus fish in my car.
SPEAKER_00: You want to hear about that?
SPEAKER_00: I have faith the gnats are gonna do well this year.
SPEAKER_00: You want to know what real faith is like, though?
SPEAKER_00: There was an election last week, but let me tell you about the election that really matters.
SPEAKER_00: Are they getting cheesier?
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: So imagine your ideal evangelism encounter, skips all those, and gets right to the heart of the issue.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe the person comes up to your house and knocks on your door, and you open the door and they say, Hello, can you tell me what I must do to be saved?
SPEAKER_00: That would be a pretty incredible evangelism encounter, wouldn't it?
SPEAKER_00: That doesn't happen every day.
SPEAKER_00: But it did happen one time, and that's what's described in Matthew 19.
SPEAKER_00: That's a passage we're going to look at this morning.
SPEAKER_00: This is the ideal evangelism encounter.
SPEAKER_00: It is a person who runs up to Jesus and asks him, What must I do to be saved?
SPEAKER_00: Now the background of this evangelistic conversation is important and it's interesting.
SPEAKER_00: This is the last week of Jesus' life and ministry, and he is preparing for his death, for the cross that's gonna come just around the corner.
SPEAKER_00: He's preparing to leave this world, and this is his last shot at instructing the Jews.
SPEAKER_00: The Jews are, especially his disciples, are very excited about what lies in the future.
SPEAKER_00: They're gonna enter Jerusalem in the next chapter.
SPEAKER_00: They're gonna walk into Jerusalem with the triumphal entry, and the disciples are optimistic that Jesus' presence in Jerusalem will usher in the messianic era, that Jesus will perhaps not even overthrow Rome, but will be recognized as the Messiah, as the rightful king of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: There's conflicting expectations among everybody, but they are stoked about what's gonna happen.
SPEAKER_00: And they want to see Jesus make his mark.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't do much ministry in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: He spent most of his time in Galilee or in the surrounding nations, but here at the end of his life, he's walking into Jerusalem, and expectations are high, and the disciples are excited, and they do not want Jesus to mess this up.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, here, in this conversation with what is known as the rich young ruler, it appears that Jesus does indeed mess this up.
SPEAKER_00: Think about what you would answer a question like that.
SPEAKER_00: Your neighbor rings your doorbell and asks you, What must I do to be a Christian?
SPEAKER_00: Think of how you would answer that question.
SPEAKER_00: Think of your evangelism training.
SPEAKER_00: Think of the four spiritual laws, or think of the, you know, the thing you diagram on a napkin with the, you know, the great golf fix and the cross separates the golf, or you know, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life kind of conversation.
SPEAKER_00: And you want to get to the gospel and the cross and the resurrection, and do you believe that Jesus died on the cross for your sins?
SPEAKER_00: Like you have this training and you have questions you want to ask, and you you want to get to the prayer at the end, and do you believe in Jesus and the Bible is true?
SPEAKER_00: kind of questions, and Jesus doesn't do any of that.
SPEAKER_00: It's like he failed evangelism school.
SPEAKER_00: And of course, you know how the story ends.
SPEAKER_00: Most of you do, I'm sure.
SPEAKER_00: The man walks away.
SPEAKER_00: Not only walks away not believing in Jesus, but one could easily argue he walks away not having heard the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel, in fact, hangs like a cloud over this conversation, but it never rains.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus never gets to what we would often describe as the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Now, before we get too far into this, I mentioned that he's uh known as the rich young ruler.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew calls him young, by the way, which he's a synagogue ruler.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Luke fills in.
SPEAKER_00: He's the man who leads a synagogue, Luke tells us.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew says he's young.
SPEAKER_00: Um and later on Jesus is going to call him rich.
SPEAKER_00: So that's where the rich young ruler gets gets from.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus calls him rich.
SPEAKER_00: You take the other accounts of him, he's the rich young ruler.
SPEAKER_00: This is everything that's important to people.
SPEAKER_00: And even make it more specific, important to Americans.
SPEAKER_00: Think of the things that our culture elevates.
SPEAKER_00: Our culture elevates power, our culture elevates riches, and our culture elevates youth.
SPEAKER_00: Not actual youth, like not like little kids' youth.
SPEAKER_00: We don't esteem that, but we definitely esteem like the 40-year-old who dresses like the 20-year-old.
SPEAKER_00: Like that's cool.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what this guy has going on.
SPEAKER_00: He is his youth, he's the target demographic, he's powerful, and he's rich.
SPEAKER_00: When I say powerful, he's a synagogue leader.
SPEAKER_00: This is the kind of person Jesus needs to have follow him.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we think, man, if only this or that politician would get saved, then this whole country would be different.
SPEAKER_00: You ever thought that?
SPEAKER_00: You know that most people outside of the Washington, D.C.
SPEAKER_00: area don't think like that.
SPEAKER_00: It's a humbling attitude when you recognize it.
SPEAKER_00: Most people in the rest of the country, well, in California, they would say, if this music, if this movie star gets saved, then there's hope for the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Then everybody would believe.
SPEAKER_00: If that person got saved, everybody would believe.
SPEAKER_00: And in the kind of the rest of the country, it's it's athletes, is my impression.
SPEAKER_00: Like if that athlete got saved, then the whole world would get saved.
SPEAKER_00: Then they would know the truth of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: But here in the DC area, it's if that politician gets saved, how powerful could that conversion be?
SPEAKER_00: The disciples have that attitude, specifically with a synagogue ruler, specifically with somebody who is rich and powerful.
SPEAKER_00: And so that's why this is the ideal evangelism encounter.
SPEAKER_00: Not only does this guy ask Jesus the question, what must I do to be saved, but he's the right guy.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, what a contrast with the paragraph before.
SPEAKER_00: The paragraph before, it's all the kids surrounding Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is getting ready to go into Jerusalem, and this is kind of his last shot at power and influence, and he's got kids around him.
SPEAKER_00: Kids are not rich, have you noticed?
SPEAKER_00: They're such beggars, those kids.
SPEAKER_00: They have no power, except maybe over their own parents.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is spending his time with them.
SPEAKER_00: The disciples are busy trying to get rid of the kids.
SPEAKER_00: Get these kids out of here.
SPEAKER_00: What if somebody important were to come along?
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus has the argument with the disciples earlier.
SPEAKER_00: That's the paragraph right before this.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, Stop keeping them away, let them come.
SPEAKER_00: He's laying his hands on them.
SPEAKER_00: It's in the middle of that context where the disciples are upset about all the kids that this guy, this rich young ruler, comes up to him, verse 16 says, and and Mark, I believe, adds, runs up to him.
SPEAKER_00: The guy is booking it in to see Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He gets by the blockade of the disciples, and of course, once the disciples realize who this guy is, they would usher him right through.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't need to wait in line like those smelly kids.
SPEAKER_00: This guy come right on in.
SPEAKER_00: This guy's important.
SPEAKER_00: And he comes up to Jesus, and you can almost picture the disciples like quietly praying that this goes well.
SPEAKER_00: Because, man, this would be so cool if this guy joins them.
SPEAKER_00: A man comes up to Jesus and he says, Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?
SPEAKER_00: Man, what a question.
SPEAKER_00: This is the right question, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: This is a very good question.
SPEAKER_00: Man's greatest need is eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: With apologies to Maslow, you know, your greatest need is not lodging, your greatest need is not shelter or food or self-esteem or any of those kind of things.
SPEAKER_00: Friendships can, whatever the hierarchy of needs is, set that aside.
SPEAKER_00: Your greatest need is the knowledge of what's going to happen to you when you die.
SPEAKER_00: Your soul is eternal, your body is not.
SPEAKER_00: You will die, your body will go into the grounds and be eaten by worms, but your soul will go somewhere and where?
SPEAKER_00: That's the big that's the question.
SPEAKER_00: That's the biggest question a person can have.
SPEAKER_00: What happens to you when you die?
SPEAKER_00: God has set eternity in our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: People are aware of the reality of the afterlife.
SPEAKER_00: They're aware that when they die, something's going to happen to them, either heaven or hell, and yet they don't know what.
SPEAKER_00: This is the greatest question a person can ask.
SPEAKER_00: What does it take to get to heaven?
SPEAKER_00: I love this question.
SPEAKER_00: He's asking the right person, too.
SPEAKER_00: He's not asking the other synagogue leaders.
SPEAKER_00: He's probably tried them.
SPEAKER_00: He's not asking the Pharisees.
SPEAKER_00: He's not asking the Sadducees.
SPEAKER_00: He's not asking the Herodians.
SPEAKER_00: They would say yield to Rome.
SPEAKER_00: He's not asking those people.
SPEAKER_00: He's found the guy who would know the answer.
SPEAKER_00: This is going to be humbling for a synagogue leader to ask that question in front of a crowd.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, right?
SPEAKER_00: The synagogue leader is asking Jesus what it takes to have eternal life?
SPEAKER_00: Imagine if you're part of a synagogue and you hear this question, it's like, yikes.
SPEAKER_00: Yikes.
SPEAKER_00: But he's he's so urgent.
SPEAKER_00: He has such a sense of urgency about him, he doesn't care what other people think.
SPEAKER_00: He he runs up.
SPEAKER_00: He's not even trying to do this slyly.
SPEAKER_00: Nicodemus at least came at night.
SPEAKER_00: No, this guy is busting out in the middle of daylight, running up to Jesus and asking him the question.
SPEAKER_00: I love it.
SPEAKER_00: People ask Jesus the strangest question.
SPEAKER_00: Some of them, some people waste questions on Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Like in the next chapter, you're gonna get somebody who's you know asking the craziest question.
SPEAKER_00: You know, the random person has seven husbands and they all keep dying, and you know, who's she gonna be married to in the afterlife kind of question?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's a ridiculous question.
SPEAKER_00: People burn through their questions, but not this guy.
SPEAKER_00: Right question, right person, right sense of urgency, and this is great.
SPEAKER_00: You're not gonna get more low-hanging evangelistic fruit than this.
SPEAKER_00: And of course, Jesus doesn't answer it the way we would answer it.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I say this facetiously.
SPEAKER_00: We know that Jesus doesn't mess up evangelism, and so I want to draw a couple lessons from this passage: evangelism according to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: This is evangelism according to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna draw four lessons on evangelism from how Jesus relates in this conversation.
SPEAKER_00: The first, good evangelism reveals God as holy.
SPEAKER_00: Good evangelism reveals God as holy.
SPEAKER_00: And that's where Jesus goes.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus focuses really not even on the question the man asked.
SPEAKER_00: Notice what Jesus focuses on.
SPEAKER_00: Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?
SPEAKER_00: As I said, that's a great question.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus zooms in on one word the guy used.
SPEAKER_00: Why do you ask me about what is good?
SPEAKER_00: Now, in the synoptics in Mark and Luke, the man calls Jesus good teacher, and Jesus says, Why do you call me good?
SPEAKER_00: And if you've spent any time reading the synoptics, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, they're called the Synoptics because they see the same thing differently, you know, different perspectives.
SPEAKER_00: This doesn't contradict, it's not that Matthew is wrong and Mark is right, or Mark is wrong and Matthew is right.
SPEAKER_00: Any conversation among people, things are repeated, things are said differently, you say things multiple times, and one person will remember one part of it differently than another person remembered it.
SPEAKER_00: Both people are remembering it truly, though.
SPEAKER_00: So the person did address Jesus as good teacher, and he did ask what good deed must he do to have eternal life, and Jesus does respond by focusing on the word good, which is a very strategic response by Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He does not even get to the actual question yet.
SPEAKER_00: Before he gets to what you have to do to get eternal life, he just has hold that question, please.
SPEAKER_00: Is as if Jesus said, put that on pause.
SPEAKER_00: I want to ask you about something different.
SPEAKER_00: When you came up to me, you kept using the word good.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know what that word means?
SPEAKER_00: Like, why are you calling me good?
SPEAKER_00: Why are you asking what good deed you can do?
SPEAKER_00: Big picture.
SPEAKER_00: Why do you think you can do a good deed?
SPEAKER_00: That's what he's getting at.
SPEAKER_00: You think I'm a good person?
SPEAKER_00: You think you can do a good thing?
SPEAKER_00: Really?
SPEAKER_00: Why can you do a good?
SPEAKER_00: How do you even know what good is?
SPEAKER_00: That's where Jesus is going.
SPEAKER_00: Now he's going there because he's trying to expose that God alone is holy.
SPEAKER_00: This is the basic starting point of evangelism.
SPEAKER_00: For evangelism to be effective, you have to communicate that the that God is holy.
SPEAKER_00: God is transcendent.
SPEAKER_00: God is not like us, he is not part of our creation, he is the creator.
SPEAKER_00: God does not borrow life, he does not borrow goodness, he possesses life, and he is good.
SPEAKER_00: That's so different than us.
SPEAKER_00: We borrow our life, not God.
SPEAKER_00: In the same way, we borrow goodness.
SPEAKER_00: We can't create goodness.
SPEAKER_00: God creates goodness.
SPEAKER_00: And God creates goodness by being good himself.
SPEAKER_00: God just is good.
SPEAKER_00: And so anything is good if it conforms to the character of God, and anything is sin if it is has a lack of conformity to God's character.
SPEAKER_00: That is not how we as humans operate.
SPEAKER_00: We are not capable of good.
SPEAKER_00: Now, you'll quickly respond with, hold on a minute.
SPEAKER_00: The other week I saw an old lady pushing her shopping cart across Backlick, and there were cars turning right there, and it was very dangerous, and so I stopped and I got out and I helped this old woman cross the road with her groceries.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that good?
SPEAKER_00: Or the other week I saw some guy drop$20 in the grocery store, and I tried to give it back to him and I gave it to the manager and they looked at the camera and they found who it was and they gave him the 20 bucks back.
SPEAKER_00: And after that, my neighbor forgot to take her trash can out, and so I took her trash can out for her because I know she was busy and she forgot.
SPEAKER_00: So aren't those good things?
SPEAKER_00: And yes, in a sense, those are good things, but but why are they good?
SPEAKER_00: That's really the question Jesus is trying to get at here.
SPEAKER_00: What makes those things good?
SPEAKER_00: What makes them good is because they conform to the character of God, not because they conform to you and your standard of goodness.
SPEAKER_00: Your standard of goodness is borrowed from God.
SPEAKER_00: God alone is good.
SPEAKER_00: Something is good if it corresponds to Him.
SPEAKER_00: You can do things that correspond to God, but not because you are good like God is good.
SPEAKER_00: Only because you figured out it's better to live in a world where people help each other than it is to live in a world where people steal.
SPEAKER_00: But that doesn't make you good.
SPEAKER_00: Here's a different analogy that is helpful for me to understand this.
SPEAKER_00: You see a river.
SPEAKER_00: You can jump in the river and you get wet.
SPEAKER_00: You could even say that you are wet now that you're in the river, but you don't create wetness.
SPEAKER_00: You you, by your own work, are not wet.
SPEAKER_00: You're not the author or the source of moisture.
SPEAKER_00: The river is what makes you wet.
SPEAKER_00: And more specifically, the river is wet because of its source, because of its fountain, where the water comes from.
SPEAKER_00: That's the source of goodness.
SPEAKER_00: The fountain is the source of goodness.
SPEAKER_00: You're just the swimmer.
SPEAKER_00: Goodness is the same way.
SPEAKER_00: You can do things that I guess are good, but not because you yourself are good, but because God alone is good.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, the Bible calls you to do good things.
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians 4, have good speech.
SPEAKER_00: 1 Peter 3, lead a life filled with good days.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew chapter 12, the good person brings forth good things out of the good that is stored up in his heart.
SPEAKER_00: So you have the capacity to do good things, and Jesus knows that, and the synagogue leader knows that.
SPEAKER_00: But you are not good in and of yourself, because you are not a fountain of goodness, only God is.
SPEAKER_00: And so that's why Jesus wants to back up.
SPEAKER_00: The guy says, What good thing must I do?
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says, Pause.
SPEAKER_00: Let me back up here.
SPEAKER_00: What does it mean to be good?
SPEAKER_00: James chapter 1 says that every good gift comes from God, from your heavenly Father, with whom there's no variation or shifting of shadow.
SPEAKER_00: That's where goodness comes from.
SPEAKER_00: Not from you.
SPEAKER_00: Why is Jesus making such a big deal about the salutation that was probably a normal, polite salutation?
SPEAKER_00: He's making a big deal about it because do you understand what this exposes?
SPEAKER_00: This guy thought he was capable of doing something good.
SPEAKER_00: That means they think he's good.
SPEAKER_00: You could give me a block of wood.
SPEAKER_00: And I could get the tools for wood whittling out.
SPEAKER_00: And I could ask you, what would you like me to carve for you?
SPEAKER_00: And you could answer, really, whatever you want.
SPEAKER_00: It won't matter.
SPEAKER_00: I can't carve anything.
SPEAKER_00: You could say I'd like an angel, I'd like a dog, a gargoyle.
SPEAKER_00: If you said I would like a log, I can do that for you.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter what you say.
SPEAKER_00: You know, if I'm grilling steak at my house, we have people over, I might ask, how do you like your steak?
SPEAKER_00: I'll even pretend to write down your answers.
SPEAKER_00: They're all coming off at the same time.
SPEAKER_00: You know that.
SPEAKER_00: Like they're all they're all going to be off the grill at the same time.
SPEAKER_00: And I hope everybody that I ask has a different answer because then maybe one of you will get what you wanted.
SPEAKER_00: The question, what good thing must I do, presupposes that you can do a good thing.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what Jesus is taking issue with.
SPEAKER_00: You cannot, my friend.
SPEAKER_00: You cannot do something by which you will get eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: So the foundation, it's the right question to the right person at the right time in the right way.
SPEAKER_00: It's on a wrong foundation.
SPEAKER_00: Conformity to God's laws is obedience.
SPEAKER_00: Conformity to God's nature is goodness.
SPEAKER_00: You don't want to conflate the two of them because it will lead you to think that by being obedient you can be good.
SPEAKER_00: Evangelism begins by exposing that God alone is holy.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what Jesus tells the person.
SPEAKER_00: Why do you ask him about what is good?
SPEAKER_00: There is only one who is good.
SPEAKER_00: Implication, God.
SPEAKER_00: Evangelism has to start there.
SPEAKER_00: It has to start with the fact that God is holy and we are not, which leads to the second step of evangelism according to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Good evangelism reveals God as holy, and secondly, reveals man as sinful.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus responds, he presses down here.
SPEAKER_00: He's stabbed the guy with the sword of the law, and he's going to keep pushing here.
SPEAKER_00: If you would enter eternal life, keep the commandments.
SPEAKER_00: Who knows what a Jew would have heard when Jesus says that?
SPEAKER_00: The Jews love to debate about this.
SPEAKER_00: This is an ongoing theological debate inside of Judaism.
SPEAKER_00: American Christians will have an ongoing theological debate about free will or something.
SPEAKER_00: An ongoing theological debate inside of Judaism is what is meant by the commandments?
SPEAKER_00: Is it the Ten Commandments?
SPEAKER_00: Is that what Jesus would have meant?
SPEAKER_00: Is it the 600 plus commands, imperatives, or prohibitions in the Torah?
SPEAKER_00: Is that what he meant?
SPEAKER_00: Is it from Leviticus, the love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, the greatest commandment?
SPEAKER_00: Is that what it's about?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, there was a debate.
SPEAKER_00: Are some of the commandments more important than others?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's this a raging theological debate that Jesus appears to walk blindly into here.
SPEAKER_00: He gives a pretty bland answer.
SPEAKER_00: Keep the commandments.
SPEAKER_00: You want to know what you have to do to inherit eternal life?
SPEAKER_00: Do what God says.
SPEAKER_00: Keep the commandments.
SPEAKER_00: And so, obviously, Jesus is not naive in how he answers it, but he gives that impression, which is why the rich young synagogue ruler, who would be very up to speed on this debate, asks him, which ones?
SPEAKER_00: He thinks, aha! This is going to be a good conversation.
SPEAKER_00: What do you mean by you say commandments?
SPEAKER_00: What do you mean, Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: 600 plus in the Torah?
SPEAKER_00: The Ten Commandments?
SPEAKER_00: What are you talking about?
SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus comes in all over the place here.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, Well, how about this?
SPEAKER_00: Don't murder.
SPEAKER_00: That's the sixth commandment.
SPEAKER_00: Or this, don't commit adultery.
SPEAKER_00: That's the seventh commandment.
SPEAKER_00: Don't steal.
SPEAKER_00: That's the eighth commandment.
SPEAKER_00: Don't bear false witness.
SPEAKER_00: That's the ninth commandment.
SPEAKER_00: Honor your father and your mother as yourself.
SPEAKER_00: That's the fifth commandment.
SPEAKER_00: Why is he going out of order?
SPEAKER_00: And if an Awana kid does that, if an Awana kid is rattling off the Ten Commandments and ends with the fifth commandment, maybe they're trying to avoid getting in trouble with their parents, or maybe they just forgot.
SPEAKER_00: Why is Jesus going six, seven, eight, nine, skipping ten, going back to five?
SPEAKER_00: What happened to one through four, by the way?
SPEAKER_00: Well, this is one of those passages you can just drown in studying and reading and taking in.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is not arbitrarily choosing these.
SPEAKER_00: There's an Order and rhyme and reason with all of this.
SPEAKER_00: He's not going to skip the Ten Commandments.
SPEAKER_00: You know, don't covet.
SPEAKER_00: He's going to circle back around to that one.
SPEAKER_00: Don't you worry.
SPEAKER_00: One through four, we'll get to in a minute.
SPEAKER_00: He's going to cover those also.
SPEAKER_00: But for now, he's going in this order to highlight the fact that he is skipping the first table of the commandments.
SPEAKER_00: He's skipping one through four in his answer.
SPEAKER_00: If he would have just started with five and gone through ten, you'd think he's starting in the middle.
SPEAKER_00: But by intentionally starting with six, going to the end, circling back to five, he's underscoring one, two, three, four.
SPEAKER_00: Now, the first four commandments are not like the next six, and there's a big difference.
SPEAKER_00: The first four commandments are about your relationship to God, basically.
SPEAKER_00: Only have one God.
SPEAKER_00: Don't bow down to idols.
SPEAKER_00: Don't take the Lord's name in vain.
SPEAKER_00: Rest on the Sabbath.
SPEAKER_00: This is one through four.
SPEAKER_00: And rest in the Sabbath, by the way, so that you remember in six days, Yahweh created the heavens and the earth, not you.
SPEAKER_00: So the fourth commandment is all about you realizing you're not God.
SPEAKER_00: God is God, not you.
SPEAKER_00: The third commandment, because of God's holiness, don't falsely say you're following him when you're not.
SPEAKER_00: The second commandment, don't worship idols because of the first commandment.
SPEAKER_00: Only God is real, only Yahweh is the true God.
SPEAKER_00: Have no other gods before him.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus sets that aside for a second.
SPEAKER_00: He's going to focus on this man's relationship with other people.
SPEAKER_00: If you're to ask somebody what's going to happen to you when you die, most people would say, I'm going to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because I am a good person.
SPEAKER_00: What makes you a good person?
SPEAKER_00: I always do what's right in my own eyes.
SPEAKER_00: And they won't say it exactly like that, but that's what the answer is getting to, right?
SPEAKER_00: I do what's right in my own eyes.
SPEAKER_00: I do what I think is best.
SPEAKER_00: I try to be kind to other people.
SPEAKER_00: You know, the most rank atheist is going to grant that the second half of the Ten Commandments are a good moral guide.
SPEAKER_00: If somebody says, I don't believe in God, would still say, but you can't steal from me.
SPEAKER_00: I don't believe that there's God.
SPEAKER_00: I don't believe in the Ten Commandments, but you can't commit adultery with my wife.
SPEAKER_00: And people get very specific about the Ten Commandments when it involves them.
SPEAKER_00: That's why they're so powerful at exposing how sinful people are.
SPEAKER_00: They're a good guide for moral living, sure.
SPEAKER_00: But you don't live by them.
SPEAKER_00: You think you're a good person?
SPEAKER_00: That's great.
SPEAKER_00: Is lying wrong?
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: Do you lie?
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: I thought you just said you were a good person.
SPEAKER_00: Is stealing wrong?
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: Have you stolen before?
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: I thought I thought you were a good person.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus has already preached a Sermon on the Mount.
SPEAKER_00: If you look at a person with lust in your heart, you've committed adultery with them.
SPEAKER_00: If you call your brother a fool, you're guilty of murder.
SPEAKER_00: He's already preached that.
SPEAKER_00: He's already established that those things are a violation of the Torah.
SPEAKER_00: So throw that on the list.
SPEAKER_00: Later on, we read this earlier in Matthew 20.
SPEAKER_00: Later on, Jesus is going to say, two greatest commands, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind.
SPEAKER_00: That's the first half of the tablet, the first part of the Ten Commandments.
SPEAKER_00: And then Jesus says, and love your neighbor as yourself.
SPEAKER_00: That's in Matthew 20.
SPEAKER_00: We read it for a scripture reading earlier today.
SPEAKER_00: That's the second part of the Ten Commandments.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, Jesus is focusing on the second part here.
SPEAKER_00: You know that because look what he tacks on here at the end of verse 19.
SPEAKER_00: Also, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
SPEAKER_00: He's driving home the point.
SPEAKER_00: He's talking about your relationship with other people.
SPEAKER_00: Do you do those things?
SPEAKER_00: You say they define what a good person is.
SPEAKER_00: Do you do them?
SPEAKER_00: And people would say, I try to.
SPEAKER_00: That's not the question.
SPEAKER_00: Do you, if you're saying you're a good person and you're saying this is the standard of goodness, do you keep your own standard, your own bare minimum standard?
SPEAKER_00: Make it whatever you want.
SPEAKER_00: Do you keep it?
SPEAKER_00: And the answer is no.
SPEAKER_00: You don't love your neighbor like you love yourself.
SPEAKER_00: You've got to be kidding me.
SPEAKER_00: You lie all the time.
SPEAKER_00: You have stolen, you have looked at people with lust, you've hated your brother.
SPEAKER_00: And you say, Yeah, but that's not most of my life.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's just not how justice works.
SPEAKER_00: Do you get that?
SPEAKER_00: A police officer pulls you over and you say, Yeah, I was going 20 over, but I want you to know, like 80% of the time, I'm not speeding.
SPEAKER_00: He writes you your ticket, you go to court, and you stand before the judge, and you're like, Your Honor, I want you to know, on my way to court this morning, I followed most of the traffic laws.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, case dismissed.
SPEAKER_00: No, our lack of conformity to the basic standard of righteousness shows that we are sinful people.
SPEAKER_00: We know lying is wrong, we lie.
SPEAKER_00: We know stealing is wrong, we steal.
SPEAKER_00: Lust is wrong and we lust.
SPEAKER_00: Hate is wrong and we hate.
SPEAKER_00: We fail to love our neighbors ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: If that's the second greatest commandment, it follows.
SPEAKER_00: The second greatest sin you can do is to fail to love your neighbors yourself, which we all fail at.
SPEAKER_00: And this is the point of the law: to break you and to crush you and to get you to realize your hypocrisy.
SPEAKER_00: I was on a flight once and had my own ideal evangelism encounter, I suppose.
SPEAKER_00: Um I was preaching at a church in California.
SPEAKER_00: I had some books on the tray table, and I was like actually trying to study and prepare for the sermon.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm sitting on the other side of the aisle with a uh well-known uh music artist.
SPEAKER_00: I won't share his name now, but and on my left side is his family.
SPEAKER_00: And so I'm wedged between this famous dude and his wife and 12-year-old daughter.
SPEAKER_00: And his wife starts trying to talk to me about uh what it's like to be a pastor and preaching, and really in my heart I was like, Can you be quiet?
SPEAKER_00: I need to prepare for my sermon.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't say that out loud, but it was all over my heart.
SPEAKER_00: And she asked me this question.
SPEAKER_00: She said, I was pastoring, I heard Emmanuel at the time, and she says, Does your church have a bookstore?
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: And she asked, Does your bookstore sell veggie tails?
SPEAKER_00: Because that teaches the Ten Commandments, and that's the most important thing you guys can teach your kids.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so that was her setup to me.
SPEAKER_00: Does your church have a bookstore?
SPEAKER_00: Do they sell veggie tales?
SPEAKER_00: Because veggie tails teaches the Ten Commandments, and that's the most important thing for your kids.
SPEAKER_00: And I I was stunned at that because I didn't even know where to enter at that point.
SPEAKER_00: Does our bookstore sell veggie tales?
SPEAKER_00: I have no idea, and I don't want to know either, so don't look fine and come tell me afterwards.
SPEAKER_00: But we may, I have no idea.
SPEAKER_00: But more to the point, does VeggieTales even teach the Ten Commandments?
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm thinking that, and then I had a very, it sounded like an okay response, but in my heart it was kind of a snarky response.
SPEAKER_00: I said, that's the most important thing you can teach your kids?
SPEAKER_00: Because she's sitting next to her 12-year-old.
SPEAKER_00: What are they?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, if that is the most important thing you can teach your kids.
SPEAKER_00: Any of them?
SPEAKER_00: And she said, love your neighbor as yourself.
SPEAKER_00: It's like, whoa.
SPEAKER_00: I don't even know how to grade that.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's wrong, but also right?
SPEAKER_00: Like more right than wrong?
SPEAKER_00: I don't even know what to do with that question.
SPEAKER_00: Do you keep the Ten Commandments?
SPEAKER_00: It's the most basic moral foundation.
SPEAKER_00: And you don't even need to know what they are.
SPEAKER_00: Just go with the short answer.
SPEAKER_00: Do you love your neighbor as yourself?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: Do you recognize how wickedly sinful you are?
SPEAKER_00: We're back where we started.
SPEAKER_00: Why are you calling people good?
SPEAKER_00: Why do you think you're a good judge on what goodness is when you're a wicked sinner?
SPEAKER_00: And that's the function of the law.
SPEAKER_00: That's the function of that's a good evangelist can do that, can expose someone to their sin.
SPEAKER_00: Because if you think you're good, you don't need a savior.
SPEAKER_00: A person who thinks they're relatively good has no need for a perfectly good savior because they're most of the way there themselves.
SPEAKER_00: You have to be crushed by the law before you look to God as a savior.
SPEAKER_00: You have to recognize you're dead before you need new life.
SPEAKER_00: You have to recognize you're blind before you go to the ophthalmologist and ask for eyes.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Jesus is doing here.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't re-preach a sermon on the mountain to the sky.
SPEAKER_00: He just, there's just a pause here, and you just feel sorry for him because look at what the guy says, verse 20.
SPEAKER_00: All these I have kept.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's incredible.
SPEAKER_00: Rule keeping drives you further away from the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: There's such an incredible form of self-righteousness here.
SPEAKER_00: It's staggering.
SPEAKER_00: This guy's so self-righteous.
SPEAKER_00: He thinks he's kept the law.
SPEAKER_00: It's amazing.
SPEAKER_00: But that's the function of evangelism: to expose a person to the reality that God is holy and then to convict them that they are not, that they are a sinner, who needs a savior.
SPEAKER_00: For evangelism to be effective, for a conversion to be actually genuine, the person has to cease having thought of himself as a good person.
SPEAKER_00: If someone thinks they're good and they're righteous and they're they're holy and they're, you know, basically a good person, you tell them about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: They may believe in Jesus, but they're not saved.
SPEAKER_00: Do you get that?
SPEAKER_00: They may say, yeah, the Bible's true.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, Jesus died on the cross and rose from the grave.
SPEAKER_00: I buy all that.
SPEAKER_00: But if they're not convicted of their own sin, that's not saving faith.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why Jesus goes right for the jugular here.
SPEAKER_00: Do you keep the law?
SPEAKER_00: And the guy says yes.
SPEAKER_00: Again, you just have to marvel at the kind of self-righteousness that comes with the powerful.
SPEAKER_00: It's such a shame.
SPEAKER_00: Thirdly, good evangelism reorients the world around Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: As I mentioned, Jesus does not respond to this by repreaching the Ten Commandments.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't get in a fight with the guy over the Sermon on the Mount.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't say, You're saying you never stole a single time.
SPEAKER_00: What about when you were a little kid, huh?
SPEAKER_00: Instead, he says, if you want to be perfect, that word perfect, teleos, mature, you want spiritual perfection, spiritual maturity, here.
SPEAKER_00: Go sell what you possess and give to the poor.
SPEAKER_00: I told you we'd get to the tenth commandment.
SPEAKER_00: You coveter, sell what you have, you rich ruler.
SPEAKER_00: Then you'll have treasure in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Come and follow me.
SPEAKER_00: We don't have time to unpack all this, but there are those that say Jesus is saying that everybody needs to sell what they have and give to the poor.
SPEAKER_00: The way to eternal life is by combating poverty and selling your possessions and giving to the poor.
SPEAKER_00: That's clearly not what Jesus is saying.
SPEAKER_00: That's I I find that ridiculous because the whole start of this conversation is can you do something good to have eternal life?
SPEAKER_00: So the conversation's not going to end with Jesus saying, no, you can't do anything good.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, do this good thing to have eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: That doesn't make any sense.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is exposing in this man's heart that he loves his cash over Christ, that he loves his possessions over Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Marvel at how radical of a response that is from Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: No person can say that.
SPEAKER_00: I couldn't tell you.
SPEAKER_00: You want to have eternal life, sell all you have, give to the poor, and follow me.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's ridiculous.
SPEAKER_00: People can't say that kind of thing about themselves.
SPEAKER_00: You can't tell anybody to sell all their possessions, period.
SPEAKER_00: Much less to do that, give it away and then follow you.
SPEAKER_00: But that is exactly what Jesus does.
SPEAKER_00: And the people don't respond by calling him an arrogance or by calling him a cult leader.
SPEAKER_00: This guy responds with sadness.
SPEAKER_00: I love how Jesus, this is where he gets to the first half.
SPEAKER_00: He gets to the tenth commandment and the first half of the tablet, the first four commandments right here, the love of the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind.
SPEAKER_00: He gets to it right here in one, he combines one through four with ten by asking, do you love Jesus more than everything else?
SPEAKER_00: That's the bottom line question.
SPEAKER_00: Do you love Jesus more than life?
SPEAKER_00: That's where Jesus goes with this guy.
SPEAKER_00: That is the basic question in all of evangelism.
SPEAKER_00: Do you love Jesus more than everything else?
SPEAKER_00: Are you going to give up your life to follow him?
SPEAKER_00: If you love your family more than Jesus, then Jesus will tell you, let the dead bury their dead, and you have to follow him.
SPEAKER_00: If you love your money more than Jesus, Jesus will say, sell everything.
SPEAKER_00: If you love your self-righteousness more than Jesus, Jesus will tell you a story about a good Samaritan.
SPEAKER_00: He matches everybody right where they're at and shows them their sin.
SPEAKER_00: And so it is with the rich young ruler.
SPEAKER_00: He loves his wealth over Christ, and Jesus says, you can't, it's a narrow gate.
SPEAKER_00: You can't fit in it with all your stuff.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus grabs the man's world and he doesn't just turn the man's world upside down, he reorients it all around himself.
SPEAKER_00: Notice that evangelism for Jesus was not leading a person to a prayer, was not downloading information.
SPEAKER_00: Evangelism for Jesus was reorienting the person's world around Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The person wants to walk away because he doesn't want Jesus at the center of his life, then you say bye-bye.
SPEAKER_00: You can imagine the disciples just incredulous at this.
SPEAKER_00: Here was a synagogue leader running up to you, asking you about eternal life, and you responded in that way.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 22, the young man heard this.
SPEAKER_00: He went away sorrowful because he had great possessions.
SPEAKER_00: Man.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see why we're back to the opening conversation here?
SPEAKER_00: You're going to start calling Jesus good.
SPEAKER_00: You better think about the implications of that.
SPEAKER_00: If he's good, you're called to love him more than anything else in the world, including your own life, your own possessions, your own family, your own self.
SPEAKER_00: This guy went away sad.
SPEAKER_00: He was unwilling to do that.
SPEAKER_00: He had a lot of humility to come to Jesus in the daylight in a crowd.
SPEAKER_00: But he loved his own life too much.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus turns to his disciples.
SPEAKER_00: This leads to our fourth, final observation.
SPEAKER_00: Evangelism according to Jesus requires divine intervention.
SPEAKER_00: Truly I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: I tell you, it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: It is appropriate at this point to look at a camel and to look at the eye of a needle and to say that's not going to work.
SPEAKER_00: I've heard people say, oh, there's a needle gate in Israel, and the camels would have a lot of possessions, and you just have to push really hard to wedge the camel through, you know?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: A camel is a giant animal, a needle is a tiny, tiny thing, and Jesus says, no pushing is going to help that.
SPEAKER_00: It's impossible.
SPEAKER_00: The disciples, the Jews, live in a world where your status in life is really revealed by your finances, your power, your wealth.
SPEAKER_00: The rich would go to heaven in their worlds, the poor would probably not.
SPEAKER_00: And now Jesus chews away a rich person.
SPEAKER_00: Disciples, and then says the rich people can't get saved.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he says.
SPEAKER_00: They can't get saved.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 25, the disciples heard this.
SPEAKER_00: They were greatly astonished.
SPEAKER_00: Again, we don't have time to go through all this, but when they say they're greatly astonished, this is so opposite their worldview, which says your money and your power chose God's favor on you, and Jesus runs away the synagogue ruler.
SPEAKER_00: And then so their question is, nobody then can be saved.
SPEAKER_00: How can anybody be saved?
SPEAKER_00: We've wasted three years, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Three years?
SPEAKER_00: At the end of three years, you're telling us a synagogue ruler can't be saved.
SPEAKER_00: What are we doing here?
SPEAKER_00: You're about to go into Jerusalem surrounded by little kids holding your hands, and you're running away the powerful, you're running away the rich, and you're saying that rich people can't even.
SPEAKER_00: What are we even doing here?
SPEAKER_00: You can almost feel their exasperation.
SPEAKER_00: It's going to break through in Peter's speech at the end of this chapter.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus looks at them, just says this.
SPEAKER_00: With man, it is impossible.
SPEAKER_00: You're right.
SPEAKER_00: The question, who can be saved?
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says, nobody.
SPEAKER_00: That's the point.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody can be saved.
SPEAKER_00: With man, it is impossible.
SPEAKER_00: Not push really hard like a camel through a skinny gate.
SPEAKER_00: It is impossible.
SPEAKER_00: But with God, all things are possible.
SPEAKER_00: This is your story.
SPEAKER_00: I hope you see yourself in it.
SPEAKER_00: You're born in this world thinking you're a good person.
SPEAKER_00: Thinking the world revolves around you.
SPEAKER_00: You grow up and you realize maybe it doesn't all revolve around me, but my world can still revolve around me and I'm still a good person.
SPEAKER_00: Then you have an encounter with the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: You realize He is holy and you're not.
SPEAKER_00: You're aware of your own sin.
SPEAKER_00: You're aware that you need a savior.
SPEAKER_00: You're aware you're not good enough for heaven and that you do not deserve it.
SPEAKER_00: And unless God saves you, you're going to hell.
SPEAKER_00: And lo and behold, you look at Christ, who led a sinless life and died on the cross for sin.
SPEAKER_00: And you said, Maybe I can be saved if he has taken my sin.
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord gives you faith.
SPEAKER_00: You didn't get that yourself.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord did this to you.
SPEAKER_00: He gave you faith.
SPEAKER_00: He opened up your eyes.
SPEAKER_00: He gave you spiritual life.
SPEAKER_00: You can't save yourself.
SPEAKER_00: But with God, he can save whoever he wants.
SPEAKER_00: With God, all things are possible.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we're thankful.
SPEAKER_00: The children who lacked everything possessed you.
SPEAKER_00: The ruler who lacked nothing lost you.
SPEAKER_00: We're here this morning.
SPEAKER_00: And we love you.
SPEAKER_00: And we know this is your doing.
SPEAKER_00: I pray for anyone here this morning that has never trusted you with their life, they've never surrendered their life to you, they've held on to their own way of living.
SPEAKER_00: I pray this morning they would repent.
SPEAKER_00: There's someone here who has held on to the illusion that they are a good person.
SPEAKER_00: I pray this morning that you would take that illusion away from them and cause their heart to love you instead of themselves.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want anyone here this morning to leave like this ruler.
SPEAKER_00: To leave loving the world more than Christ.
SPEAKER_00: We're thankful, Jesus, that you reorient everything around yourself.
SPEAKER_00: So I pray this morning that there would be lives here in this worship center that get reoriented around you, that you would turn them upside down and put yourself as their son right in the heart of their world.
SPEAKER_00: We know that you do this because you are a savior by nature.
SPEAKER_00: We give you thanks for this in Jesus' name.
unknown: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And now for a parting word from Pastor Jesse Johnson.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for joining us today.
SPEAKER_00: If you're in the Washington, D.C.
SPEAKER_00: area, I would love to see you at Emmanuel Bible Church.
SPEAKER_00: Our service times and church information are on our website at ibc.church.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about the Master Seminary and their Washington, D.C.
SPEAKER_00: location, go to tms.edu.
SPEAKER_00: I hope this resource has been a blessing to you and it helps you seek the Lord daily, serve others around you, and share the gospel of Jesus Christ with boldness.
SPEAKER_00: May the Lord bless you.