Matthew 19:16-30 | "When Good is Not Good Enough"

This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

Please take your Bible and make your way to the Gospel of Matthew in chapter 19.

We are working our way through Matthew's Gospel, and we come this morning to a familiar passage of Scripture to many of us, known as the rich young man or the rich young ruler, depending on which gospel account you are reading.

It begins in Matthew chapter 19 and verse 16.

Matthew 19 · chapter mention

Our plan for our gathering this morning is to bring our hearts, our minds, and our souls to the remembrance of the Lord Jesus.

When we conclude, that remembrance will hopefully motivate us to gather together for lunch, even if it's a blackened hot dog.

To feast together because of Christ.

To fellowship together as brothers and sisters brought together by our common faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

So to accomplish that goal, I want to invite us together to have a fresh encounter with the Lord Jesus.

We have the privilege of experiencing that encounter along with a young man who sought out Jesus long ago.

Only he left the encounter with Jesus saddened.

Our desire, our goal is to leave with joy and with hope for the eternal life that we find only in Christ.

Look with me at Matthew 19, beginning in verse 16.

Matthew records for us, and behold, a man came up to him, saying, Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?

Jesus said to him, Why do you ask me about what is good?

There's only one who is good.

If you would enter life, keep the commandments.

He said to Jesus, Which ones?

Jesus said, You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness.

Honor your father and mother, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

The young man said to him, All these I've kept, what still do I lack?

Jesus said, If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.

And come, follow me.

When the young man heard this, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

And Jesus said to his disciples, Truly I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven.

Again 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 God.

And when the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, Who then can be saved?

But Jesus looked at them and said, With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.

And Peter said in reply, Look, we've left everything.

We've left everything and followed you.

What then will we have?

Jesus said to them, Truly I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands for my name's sake will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life.

The many who are first will be last, and the last first.

Amen.

I don't know that it's appropriate to apply that to who's first in the lunch line.

Seriously, though, this account challenges the modern church in an uncomfortable way.

I can't tell you how many times I have spoken with churchgoers, regular attenders in a church, who say quite confidently that their eternity is guaranteed, their entrance into God's heaven is assured because they've been a pretty good person.

They've done a lot of good things.

They've been good people.

By all appearances, this young man here in this account would fit well in today's church.

Being Jewish and obviously faithful to the law of Moses, he believed that he had lived a life of obedience, a life of goodness.

But in some way that we're not privy to, he seems to be uncertain.

Maybe there's one thing that he's not quite done, just right.

Maybe there's something that he's left out.

And so he's short a little bit.

And at least we can give him that.

He's persistent in trying to be good enough to do enough good things.

But like many with whom I have talked, this young man was disappointed to learn that he cannot trust in his own goodness or in his own efforts to please God.

He can only trust in the goodness of the Son of God.

Let's look briefly at how Matthew walks us through this encounter with Jesus.

It's all dialogue.

It's all back and forth, either between Jesus and the young man or Jesus and the disciples, but it's helpfully divided into three sections.

The first section I'll call the encounter with the one who wanted to be good.

The second section I'll call the instruction from the one who is good.

And the third section is the instruction for those who hope for good.

But that's easy enough to see, so we won't spend a whole lot of time on those descriptions of the parts of this discussion.

Instead, I'd like to focus on the principles that we gain from each of those three sections that are pulled from this dialogue with the prayer that we encounter Jesus in a fresh way by placing ourselves in the shoes first of the young man who had this encounter with Jesus.

And then placing ourselves in the shoes of the disciples.

So Jesus and his disciples then encounter a young man who wanted to be good enough to gain entrance into God's eternal kingdom.

We've been singing so far this morning about Christ as King.

Here is the king in front of him, communicating with him, dialoguing with him.

And he says, How do I get in?

How do I become a citizen of the kingdom?

Matthew's narration of the interaction lays out a series of contrasts for us that enable us to get right to right to the heart of the conversation between Jesus and this young man.

And you remember, this was written by Matthew a few decades later to the early church.

So the first people that are reading this, the intended readers, are those who were gathered together in the church, not only those who have been committed to Jesus, but also those who might be interested in Jesus, those who might be interested in what this church is all about.

Put it differently, this is intended for you.

So the first contrast that we notice here is that God has fashioned eternity into the human heart.

But sin has come in and wreaked havoc by fashioning a misplaced focus into the human heart.

Sin comes into our lives and seeks to trash what God has made.

Sometimes it's by twisting what God has done, sometimes it's by replacing what God has done with something else.

Sometimes it's by tweaking what God has done.

Sometimes it's by deceiving us about what God has done.

So, for example, Ecclesiastes chapter 3, verse 11 tells us that God has put eternity into our hearts.

Ecclesiastes 3:11

There's a sense in which every human being knows this is going to go on forever.

There is an eternity that is ahead of us.

That verse in Ecclesiastes 3.11 finishes with, yet so that man cannot find out what God has done from beginning to end.

We have a natural created bent to sense somehow, to somehow know this world is not the end.

There's more.

But sin has corrupted that divine intent.

You see, God's design was for us to trust in his eternal purpose and his eternal plan, yet sin has transformed that good creation so that we think somehow eternity is in my grasp if I just do enough.

If I just work hard enough, if I do enough good things, if I am just kind enough to everybody I meet, well, except for that one person, that's I don't have to work.

We think that somehow we are sovereign over what comes next.

Somehow, in some way, I can control eternity.

Well, it's sinful pride to think that his eternity is within our grasp.

When God has made us to know that he established eternity.

So it's beyond us.

Eternity is beyond us unless God steps in to do something.

So when this young man comes to Jesus and says, What good thing must I do?

we see sin at work in him.

Sin twisting what God had fashioned in him.

There's another principle that we see, and that is that God incorporated eternal life into his commands.

But sin twisted that into wrong perceptions in our human heart.

So Jesus makes a statement here that to our ears, at least to those who have been involved in church most of their lives, might be a little surprising.

Jesus says, Well, if you want to enter into life, just keep the commandments.

Obviously, speaking to a good Jewish man, he would be thinking of the Ten Commandments, the ten words of Exodus chapter 20.

Exodus 20 · chapter mention

The commandments that Moses trudged down the mountain carrying and that were put into the Ark of the Covenant.

The ten laws that guided all that happened within ancient Israel.

And Jesus begins to list some of them.

And he says, If you would enter life, just keep these commandments.

Wait a minute, I thought you just said that doing good is not good enough.

How do we make sense of that?

Well, we have to understand first that Jesus is right.

If you look back at Leviticus chapter 18, verse 5, it says, You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules, for if a person does them, he shall live by them.

Leviticus 18:5

That's repeated in Nehemiah chapter 9, two or three times in Ezekiel chapter 20.

Nehemiah 9 · chapter mention Ezekiel 20 · chapter mention

It's even found in the New Testament.

The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans chapter 10, for Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandment shall live by them.

Romans 10 · chapter mention

It's repeated in Galatians chapter 3.

Galatians 3 · chapter mention

Now, here's what happens: Sin deforms God's word in many ways.

One way is by making us feel good with just a bit of truth.

Just partial truth.

Last night Allison and I had an interaction.

I don't even remember what it was about.

And she said, no, you're not listening to me.

You didn't hear all that I said.

Yes, man, it happens in my home too.

I'm guilty.

But we we often live and act as though we know it all, right?

When we sometimes we only have a bit of the truth.

We're missing a bunch of what's going on.

And the young man rested in the commands of God from the perspective of doing.

What must I do?

What yet am I lacking in what I'm doing?

But the Bible gives us a fuller picture than simply keeping God's rules and laws.

It shows us the right reason for keeping God's rules and laws.

You're familiar with one of them.

It's in Deuteronomy chapter 6.

Deuteronomy 6 · chapter mention

You shall love Yahweh your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, with all of your might.

It's repeated multiple times.

One of them is Deuteronomy chapter 11, verse 13, where God says, If you indeed obey my commandments to love Yahweh your God and to serve him with all of your heart and with all of your soul.

Deuteronomy 11:13

That's why Joshua would repeat in Joshua 23, 11, be very careful, therefore, to what?

To do the law?

No.

To love Yahweh your God.

See, doing good things is not good enough when our effort fails to love God first.

This young man was missing a part of God's truth.

Because sin, when it deceives the heart, makes us think that we've done enough.

Then when we've done enough, we're good enough.

It makes us focus on our effort on what we do rather than on faith and trust.

The young man focused on doing good instead of striving after the one who is good.

You see, God's standard has always been faith.

Salvation comes by faith.

But sin twists our perceptions of reality, especially when we don't get the whole picture.

And it makes us think that if I just focus on being a good person or doing good things, I'm going to be accepted by God.

Hey, if I've been a good person this week, I can come and take communion at church and be know be fine.

This, by the way, is one of the errors in our evangelism.

Maybe Anton will cover this in Faith Equip coming up.

It's easy for us to talk of Jesus in a way that we leaves people with the wrong impression.

We leave people with the perception if I'm just if I just do what Jesus says, I'm okay.

So it becomes an evangelistic effort to get people to do.

We need to be clear in our speaking of Jesus that it is trust in Christ that saves, not our own goodness.

Why is that?

Because over the third principle we find here, God established the standard for eternal life.

But sin makes us focus on something different.

Sin makes us focus on the here and now, on the temporal, on the temporary life in which we are right now.

And it makes it feel so good and so tempting that it draws us to it rather than to eternal life.

Habakkuk wrote in Habakkuk 2.4, the righteous shall live by his faith.

But this young man's heart had been so deceived into believing that his efforts to do good and to be good somehow gained him a better standing with God.

He was convinced that God would look on what he did in this life to be qualified for the next life.

But Jesus looked at this young man and knew that his heart was drawn more towards what this life has to offer here and now than he was to trust in God with all of his heart, soul, and strength.

See, the young man's strength was not in his God.

His love was not in Yahweh his God, his love was in his wealth.

So in the end, when Jesus asks him to live by faith, which meant to give up what held his trust in this world and to set his trust in Jesus for all of eternity, the end result is a demonstration that the pull of what this world has to offer is far stronger than what Jesus has to give.

This is one of the greatest challenges for the modern church from this account.

Think through the most important elements of your life.

Just make a mental list.

What are the most important things in your life?

Children, family, job, retirement account, a paid-off home, peace, comfort, health.

Now ask yourself, if Jesus told me to give that up and to follow him, would I do it?

I was thinking about this morning as this this morning as I was drinking my cup of coffee.

If Jesus said, I want you to give up your coffee to follow me.

That's a simple little thing.

Coffee's important! Amen.

Thank you.

At least I got one.

Wait for coffee to come back to the four-year.

What if what if like the prophet Amos?

God said to you, I want you to leave your job and follow me.

Amos says that very clearly.

Amos says, I was a shepherd.

I was a shepherd, and God took me from the hillsides and told me, I want you to go and preach.

Would you do that?

Would you like Peter and his brothers and his cousins?

Drop your nets on your boat and jump off and run to the shore and follow Jesus, leaving all of that behind because he said, Come, leave that behind.

Follow me.

Where is your heart drawn?

What draws your heart?

Is it drawn to Jesus or is it drawn to something from this life?

And if it's drawn to something from this life, then how strong is that pull?

If the pull of something in this life is stronger than the command of Jesus, then sin has entered your heart and your life and has twisted your perceptions of what is right.

Now we move on then to the instruction from one who is good.

Jesus says, Why do you ask me about what's good?

There's only one who's good.

Jesus is making the subtle implication that he is God in the flesh, and so he is good.

He's come to the right place.

The young man has come to the right place to ask the question.

He's come to the one who is good.

So what does Jesus say?

How does Jesus respond to this young man who's asked a very important question?

I want into the kingdom, Jesus.

I want into eternity.

Whatever it takes, I want in there.

What do I need to do?

Do I need to write a check?

Maybe some casual help, gold or silver?

What is it gonna take, Jesus?

And Jesus responds shockingly.

His instruction begins with this.

He says, The kingdom is entered through a narrow gate that's found on a narrow road.

The young man belongs to God's chosen people.

As the Apostle Paul would say, in Philippians, I think it is, that he's blameless in keeping the law.

He's put in great effort to not willfully sin.

He's wealthy.

And that culture meant that he was greatly blessed.

That was the implication.

If you were wealthy, if you were rich, the disciples and everyone else, for that matter, would have looked at this young man with awe and respect, wishing to be like him.

If only I could be like him, because God has blessed him like he's blessed Bill Gates and Elon Musk and all the other billionaires.

Because wealth is obviously a sign of God's pleasure with somebody.

The belief was that his richness, his wealth was God's blessing for his law keeping.

He was good.

Therefore, God blessed him.

That was the common thought.

But Jesus says being good is not good enough because only one is good.

Let me restate that differently.

There's only been one good person who's ever walked this earth, and they killed him.

So Jesus says, listen, it's 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 an illustration by contrast.

Some of you might be old enough to remember the days when we were told from preachers and pastors that the needle, the eye of the needle, was a gate in Jerusalem.

And that's that's incorrect.

That was a failure in archaeology at the time.

There was no such thing as a needle gate.

This is simply an illustration by comparison, thinking about the largest animal that they might encounter, a camel, versus a tiny space, the eye of a needle.

I was intent on bringing a needle here this morning.

Just didn't didn't get to it.

The intent was to illustrate the difficulty of this concept in visual images.

We have records of ancient documents doing the same thing with things like an elephant or a rhinoceros, depending on where in the ancient world you might be.

And this illustration shocks the disciples.

They're astonished.

You see, the camel stands in for the rich man in this illustration.

The perception is that he's already blessed.

He's among the most blessed of God's people because he's wealthy.

He's all but a shoe-in for the kingdom of heaven.

But Matthew's readers are not surprised, for Jesus has already told us that that's not the case.

He's already told us about the narrow road, hasn't he?

He's already told us about the narrow gate on the narrow road.

He says, wide is the road that leads to destruction.

And there are many who find it.

But the road to life is narrow, and there are few who find it.

The disciples are still learning this lesson.

And it's a lesson we're relearning today.

To put this in modern church terms, we might ask, or say, not all who say they are Christians will enter the kingdom of heaven.

Why?

Because they believe they are Christians by their goodness, not because of Christ.

When someone believes that they are already blessed by God, that they are already all but in the kingdom, it's nearly impossible for them to discard that trust in themselves and to put their trust in Jesus.

You see, when sin turns the human heart away from God through misplaced focus, through wrong perceptions, and through the pull of temporary pleasures, the narrow road feels impossible and the narrow gate feels even more impossible.

Which is why Jesus tells us that the kingdom of God is not entered by human accomplishment.

You don't gain it by human achievement or by any kind of fleshly activity.

Squeezing a camel through the eye of a needle is impossible.

If I were to bring a camel up here, I'm not one of those preachers, but if I were to bring a camel up here, all of you, even those of you in the back of the balcony, could see it.

You would be able to understand this, this is a big big animal.

This is large.

But if you can imagine my imaginary needle that I forgot to bring, if I held a needle up here, how many of you could see the eye of the needle?

Maybe not even those in the front rows.

The image is meant to communicate impossibility.

Getting a rich person to trust in Jesus is impossible.

Getting a person who thinks they are good enough into the kingdom is impossible.

Getting a person who believes in their good deeds to trust wholly in Jesus is impossible.

But there's good news.

Because God does the impossible.

All things are possible with God.

My friends, never trust yourself in evangelism.

When you tell somebody about Jesus, never trust yourself because you are not the one who threads a needle with the camel.

You can't do that.

Only God does that.

We merely bring the camel to the eye of the needle and say to the camel, true life is found on the other side of the needle.

Go through the eye of the needle because Jesus is on the other side.

The camel looks at you and goes, What?

It's true.

You want life?

Go through the eye of the needle.

You see, the kingdom is forever barred to all who trust in something other than Christ.

My friends, if your trust is in anything else, you're not getting through the gate.

Because God says in Hebrews 11, verse 6, without faith, it is impossible to please God.

Hebrews 11:6

If your faith is not in Christ Jesus, it's impossible to please God.

There is no way through the eye of the needle without trusting that Jesus is the narrow way.

But think of that.

Think of that.

Jesus made a way.

When there was no way, Jesus made a way.

When God saw no way, God made a way.

On the other side of the needle, it looks impossible because it is.

Physics demands the impossibility.

Yet Jesus said that if he would be lifted up on the cross so that whoever believes in him might have eternal life, he was right.

Because that is what Jesus wanted the young man to do.

Look to Jesus, not to your bank account.

Now let's look briefly at the reaction from those who hope for good.

Verse 25, when the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished.

Not just amazed, astonished, not just astonished, greatly astonished.

This knocked them over.

They're beside themselves.

If, from their point of view, the most blessed kind of person, a wealthy person, if that kind of person is all but barred from eternity with Jesus, then we live in a hopeless world.

It's sort of like hopeless Solomon in Ecclesiastes.

What good is there?

Everything's vanity.

If even the most blessed person, from their perspective, can't get into the kingdom of heaven if it's impossible, then why try?

What hope is there?

And if we live in a hopeless world, then following Jesus doesn't really matter.

But we already know that God has made us to sense eternity, right?

To sense forever.

We live for a handful of decades with the sun rising and the sun setting each day.

Nothing really changes.

Some people appear more blessed and others appear cursed.

But if those in the best of situations don't have a clear advantage, then what advantage do any of us have?

What hope is there if there is no difference?

You see, sin has twisted our mindsets in another way.

Sin built the expectation of continuity into the human heart.

We always expect things to be the same.

I'm going to wake up tomorrow and it's going to be the same thing as today.

I'm going to wake up wishing that my back didn't hurt, that the coffee was right there beside my bed and I didn't have to get out and make it.

Every day starts the same.

The sun comes up, the sun goes down.

And we start it all over again.

We've become accustomed.

We've become accustomed to the evolutionary belief that time rolls on and on with very few changes, if any, and there are micro changes here and there, and we all keep going on day after day.

That mindset is instilled in us that everything's the same.

We can all feel this sense of hopelessness in our culture, our country, in our world.

We look at the way things are going, and it's just awful and it's only going to get worse.

And sometimes we even sense that hopelessness in following Jesus, don't we?

Maybe we're caught up in our own sin.

Maybe we're just in a special time of discouragement and hardship.

And we ask, is it is it really worth it?

Time just rolls on and on and nothing really changes.

Is giving up all that matters for Jesus really worth it?

What does Jesus say?

He says, in listen, verse 28, truly I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the tribes of Israel, and everyone else will receive a hundredfold and receive eternal life.

That phrase in the new world is only found a couple of times in the New Testament.

Literally it means in the regeneration, in the recreation, and the remaking.

Whether you believe in the melding of evolutionary thought with Scripture or not, there is one thing that is undebatable in my mind.

The universe that is will not continue forever.

Because Jesus is about to make it new.

Someday He will make it brand new.

He will regenerate it.

Therefore, when you feel helpless and hopeless in following Jesus or in life itself, remember that Jesus spoke of the hope of making all things new.

And that begins to point our hearts and minds away from what the young man represents to all that is found in Jesus.

Because sin has built pride into the human heart.

But God's going to make sure that Jesus is the most glorious one forever.

See, this is what the young man missed.

He went about life making his wealth, his possessions, the most glorious thing in life.

And what he missed was that Jesus is the most glorious thing.

You might not see that now, especially if you don't have faith in him, if you're still on the unbelieving side of the needle.

You may look through that eye of the needle and see Jesus and say, What?

Why would I go through that for Jesus?

But look at what he says.

In the regeneration, when everything is made new, the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne.

Oh, you're going to sit on thrones too, but notice they're not as glorious, they're not glorious.

Only Jesus.

Notice how Peter set himself and the other disciples apart from the rich young ruler.

There's an element of pride.

He says, listen, Jesus, we are not like that guy.

Have you ever done that?

So thankful I'm not like him.

Jesus.

He went away sad.

He wasn't willing to leave behind everything that was important to him to follow you.

But we have.

We've left everything for following you.

Not just our money-making opportunities, life.

Whatever we can make of life for ourselves.

We left it all behind for you.

They weren't trusting in themselves because they had abandoned all for Jesus.

So Peter asks, what will we have?

Well, Jesus says, You're going to have a place in the new creation.

Your place will be prominent, your place will be authoritative, but it will be a place in the shadow of my glory.

Do you see that all of this is about Jesus?

And it will forever be all about Jesus.

And the sooner you realize and recognize and submit to the reality that it is all about Jesus, the better your life will be.

Only when you are okay with all of the glory, all of the praise and the honor forever belonging to Jesus.

And that all of your good deeds and all of your own goodness are through him and for him and in him, will you ever see that abandoning all that this life has to offer and making your way through the eye of the needle as the most eternally blessed action that you could ever take, only then will it make sense to you.

For it's then that the eye of the needle becomes your eye to see Jesus as high and lifted up on a cross as the ransom for your sins.

Notice finally that sin has instilled our nature with a desire for immediate gratification.

Jesus says, It's not yet, Peter.

It's not yet, Christian.

Don't get discouraged when life looks hard.

Don't get discouraged when life is full of pain and hardship and suffering.

Because Jesus says, No, that's when you have hope in me.

I'm going to make all things new.

Your reward is not yet, your reward is in eternity.

When you put your faith and your trust in me, when I am first in priority, when I am first in your attention, when I am first in your heart, when you love me, with all of your heart, with all of your soul, with all of your mind, and with all of your strength, then your reward is coming, but not yet.

And notice that you and I are not left out, are we?

Verse 29, and everyone.

Everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name's sake.

Does he mean we have to give up our mortgages?

Like you might want that, but no.

This is not not about literally giving things up.

This is about the place of priority.

This is about what takes priority in your life.

Is Jesus first in your life?

The rich young man would not inherit the life he sought because his net worth blocked his view of the eye of the needle.

Maybe we could say it differently.

His net worth blocked the narrow gate from his view, and he couldn't see his way to it.

So his only blessing would be what his wealth could buy him in this life.

But all who look to Jesus, even if it means abandoning all that this life has to offer, will be blessed beyond measure when Jesus makes all things right.

So the bottom line question of this whole encounter is will you see Jesus?

Are you willing to thrust aside the things that block your view of the one who matters most?

Are you willing to discard, if necessary, those things that block your view of the eye of the needle?

My friend, maybe you're standing on the other side of that eye of the needle and you're seeing for the first time with clarity, yes, I see.

I need what's through that eye of the needle.

Then go.

Cry out to Jesus in the depth of your being, Lord, I believe.

Forgive my sin because I've trusted in you, high and lifted up.

Let's pray together.

Lord Jesus.

We confess to you that we all place too often things in front of us that block our view of you.

Forgive our sin.

And give us eyes to see the things that need to be shifted in life, that need to be reprioritized, things that need to be abandoned even.

Lord, we want to see you with eyes of faith.

Lord, may we may we be granted by your spirit faith to see the impossible, that life is found through the eye of the needle.

Not because of what we do, but because you call us to life through faith in you.

And when all is said and done, may we be able to say it's not because of anything that I have done.

It's not because of any goodness that I possess.

But only because I saw Jesus.

And he said, Come and put your trust in me.

Amen.

That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.

Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.

You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.