Mark 10:17-31 - Discipleship & Possessions (Preaching Lab Week 2)

Good morning. This is always a really weird

view for me. I'm so used to seeing all of the

back of your heads because I sit in the sound booth most of the

time, but it's good to see all your smiling faces.

So, morning. Like Cole said, we've been here

for a while. My wife Carly and I have been

here for the past seven years. If I have not crossed paths with

you yet, please come find me after.

I'd love to change that up. I'm also sorry if my family took

any of your seats this morning. They're taking up a few rows.

I did promise I'm not going to embarrass them too much, so I'm

not going to point it out. You know where you normally sit.

I did, however, get approval to embarrass one member of my

family, my mother. She's always so gracious with

me. But if you end up hanging out

with my mom ever, or see her after, you might start hear some

stories about me. Chances are they are all true,

unfortunately for me. But there was a story that I

felt was particularly important for our passage today, or at

least it applied. So she likes to tell the story

of when I was my oldest son's age, So anywhere from three to

five. I was at that age.

I really loved shoes. Not just any shoes.

They had to be my shoes. OK, that could be light up, be

whatever most kids do. Most most kids get obsessive

about one thing. And yes, I'm trying to justify

myself here, but it just really liked my shoes.

And it became a problem because when my mom would take me and my

older, of my two younger sisters to the store, she'd pop me out

and say, OK, you need to follow me now so we can get what we

need done. Well, a few minutes, a few steps

in, I'd be walking along and be like, Oh yeah, I got my cool

shoes on today. Now most kids are smart enough

to just stop and do this. I'm not that smart.

I kept walking in a parking lot. You can see how this would

become an issue. But a few steps.

A few more steps in. I'm just looking at my shoes,

minding my own business, and right into somebody's side

mirror multiple times. This is I wish that I could say

I learned I did not. This was, if the stories are

true, quite a while. There was just a nice big old

red Welt on my forehead. I don't have much recollection

of this. You can probably guess why, and

I wish that I could say that this is no longer an issue.

It's not. It's still an issue.

My parents, being the great parents that they are, actually

bought me a new pair of work boots this year.

They are the same ones that I've been wearing for the past three

years. These ones just don't look like

they got in a fight with an angry wood chipper and my first

day walking into work. Does anybody want to guess what

I'm doing? These are nice.

I'm going to mess these up so bad.

Pretty sure my Co workers were all looking to see if I was

looking for my last brain cell. Keep that image in mind for you

looking at your shoes. It will come in play later.

We've got a lot of ground to cover this morning.

I've got I think 14 verses, so a lot.

But I'm excited to see what God has for us in this.

We've already actually covered a lot of where I'm going to go

this morning, so it's not going to be new.

But I'm hoping that what I have this morning will allow you to

see Jesus more clearly and out of love, follow him more

closely. So if you are able, either in

body or mind, would you go ahead and stand as we open God's word

together? I am going to be reading Mark

10/17/31 Seventeen through 31, excuse me, and we're going to be

reading out of the NET. It will be on the screen behind

us. There are bibles in front of you

if that's easier for you. Now as Jesus was starting out on

his way, someone ran up to him, fell on his knees and said good

teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?

Jesus said to him, Why do you call me good?

No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments.

Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not

give false testimony, Do not defraud.

Honor your father and mother, the man said to him.

Teacher, I've wholeheartedly obeyed all of these since my

youth. As Jesus looked at him, he felt

what church love for him and said you lack one thing, go sell

whatever you have. Give the money to the poor,

meaning you will have treasure in heaven.

Then come and follow me. But at this statement the man

looked sad and went away sorrowful, for he was very rich.

Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples how hard

it is for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God.

The disciples were astonished at these words.

But again Jesus said to them children, how hard it is to

enter the Kingdom of God. 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. They were even more astonished

and said to one another than who can be saved.

Jesus looked at them and replied, this is impossible for

mere humans, but not for God. All things are possible for God.

Peter began to speak to him, looking.

Look, we have left everything to follow you.

Jesus said, I tell you the truth.

There is no one who has left home, or brothers, or sisters,

or mothers, or father, or children or fields, for my sake

and for the sake of the gospel, who will not receive in this age

100 times as much Holmes, brothers, sisters, mothers,

children, fields, all with persecutions and in the age to

come eternal life. But many who are first will be

last and the last first. You guys can be seated.

Dear Lord, we thank you for this morning.

We thank you for the opportunity to sit under the preaching of

your word. Lord, I have a lot that I feel

like I could say, but they're just words.

And like we sang this morning, if you are not here, I don't

want to be. Please use this in whatever way

you see fit. Amen, right.

Pretty common passage, right? We at least most of us have

heard of it. I did poll my coworkers.

Most of them are not Christians, and most of them actually knew

what the story was as well. Right away we're introduced to

the main character. He's rich, he's young, and he

comes before Jesus with a question.

But there's something missing, isn't there?

What's his name? Anybody.

Anybody want to give him a name? Is I?

He got a name for him. He's preoccupied.

Sorry, Fred. We'll go with Fred.

I like it. So there's no name.

Not in any of the other gospels either.

No account of this story. He's got no origin story, no

outward appearance that needs fixed.

Nothing. Nothing to tie him even

concretely to the timeline of Jesus he's just mentioned here.

Now whether that's because the disciples didn't think it was

important that we knew who he was.

They didn't actually catch his name.

Something that's important to realize when you see a character

without name is that the author. So John Mark in this case wants

us to see ourselves in this person.

He's almost holding up a mirror and saying, hey, this is you.

And he's not allowing for what CS Lewis would call

chronological snobbery, which is this idea that because we're

here, they're there, we have time between us.

We know the beginning, the middle and the end.

So we assume that, OK, we know this, we're not gonna make the

same mistakes. John Mark does not allow for

that, he says. You're still gonna make this

mistake. Learn from it.

And if you've been with us for the past few months, as we've

been going through Mark, almost a year now, isn't it?

This isn't a new concept. We're reminded of this pretty

often, but that is important. So hold on to that as well as we

go forward. So back to our guy, Fred.

So we're introduced to this man and we find out that he's

wealthy, he's young and he knows the law.

We can assume a couple of things.

We can assume a couple of things about from these descriptions.

Option A, his family has handed around generational wealth to

him to inherit. Or Option B and this one is the

one that resonates a little more.

Personally, he worked hard, pulled himself up by his

bootstraps, and God has blessed his laborers with excess.

We don't really know. Both are plausible.

But he comes up to Jesus and he says in verse 17, Good teacher,

what must I do to inherit eternal life?

There's a lot in that question, but let's bring it into the

current era. What he's asking is essentially

the same thing that each one of you and I is asking on a daily

basis. Jesus, what do I need to do to

get the good life? And Jesus being Jesus sees right

through that question. Almost seems as though Jesus has

had enough of the pleasantries though, right?

It's like, why do you call me good?

Seems like a little bit of an odd response, but he has a point

to it and he has a reason, and he addresses it for a reason.

Why do you call me good? Don't you know that only God is

good? Immediately Jesus reminds us of

our humanity and he actually aligns himself with us.

He does not claim to be God. He does not claim that which is

rightfully his, which is He has God, so he is good.

But he wants to remind us of our humanity.

He wants to remind us of what happened in Eden, that because

of our sin we are all marred by it for the rest of eternity.

Unfortunately without him. Sorry, my notes are all over the

place this morning. I should have organized a little

better. Let's go to verse 19.

Just doesn't stop there. You know the commandments.

Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not

give false testimony, do not defraud and honor your father

and mother. Now, you guys have all been in

church for a while. You know that that list is

enough for us to fail pretty quickly.

It just is. Especially if we've been hearing

what Jesus had been teaching at this time.

He breaks each of those down. So what is he doing as he's

somehow now pointing to the law and saying, Oh no, this can get

you in front of God. Absolutely you can be getting in

front of God because of this. No, what he's actually doing is

he's starting to peel off the layers and the rich regularly

doesn't seem to quite get it yet.

We we probably don't, if we look at it just on face value, but

it's going to start peeling back those layers piece by piece.

Verse 20, the young man responds.

Teacher, I have wholeheartedly obeyed all of these things since

my youth. Now when I read this as I was

preparing, started to try and imagine what this guy sounds

like a little bit since we don't know much about him.

And when I read this, what I hear, and it just feels like

there's a layer of honest to goodness, tired in that, in that

sentence. And I wonder if you can hear it.

Jesus, I'm doing everything that I can.

There are a lot of laws, and I'm keeping all of them.

I'm an upstanding citizen. I'm caring for the widow and the

orphan, serving when I'm needed, tithing the prescribed amount

and more, caring for my neighbors.

I can do this. Just give me one thing that

proves that my efforts are worth it, that resonate with anybody

coming to church on Sunday morning and fighting for joy

while realizing there's a mountain to climb when we get

back to work this week, or even a mountain to climb When you get

back home this afternoon. Trying to meet all of the

expectations that you have for yourself everywhere you go,

along with the expectations that everybody else has for you.

So I'm an electrician, for those of you who didn't know, and

being a blue collar guy in the trades, this is actually the

biggest trap that I fall into on a weekly basis.

And it's this trap that says that I can earn my spot before

God If I work hard enough, if I do enough quiet time, if I kill

enough of my sin, pray often enough, serve every opportunity

in the right ministries, preach a good enough sermon, I might be

able to squeak into God's favor. All of those things are good

things, and they are actually worthy of your time.

But church? If they are the currency that

you are using to buy your ticket in front of the throne, you will

find that you are bankrupt every time, every time.

These things that we do are only the symptoms of our faith.

They are not the price to attain it, and I know that you all know

that as well. But our actions often proves

otherwise, don't they? We go home late from work again

because we think a few more hours on the paycheck will make

it worth it. So we don't feel like we're

drowning because God helps those who help themselves first,

right? We go to another solitude

retreat because we feel like a little bit more time with God

will make up for all the time that we've spent avoiding him on

our daily lives. We give all of our time and

effort to the church with no boundaries and at the expense of

our families, because that's what a good Christ follower

would do, right? I think that the worst part of

that, though, is we can see that car mirror coming and we still

run into it. We still are trying these things

and expecting that we can avoid it.

We're expecting a different outcome.

Even if it's subconscious or we put a churchy spin on it, many

of us are still trying to earn it, no matter how much we

verbally acknowledge that. That isn't how it works.

But as we were reminded this morning, thank God there is

grace and hope. Amen.

Jesus doesn't leave him there and he's not going to leave us

there either this morning. This is where the loving and

gentle scalpel comes in and Jesus uses it to separate and it

hurts but it's good. Verse 21 As Jesus looked at him,

he felt love for him and said you lack one thing, go sell

whatever you have, give the money to the poor and you will

have treasure in heaven. Then come follow me.

Jesus is about to do open heart surgery.

Jesus response is not something that this man or we can actually

do to inherit the Kingdom. If you guys go sell all that you

have, you're going to have treasure in heaven.

He says that, but it's not going to get you there.

There's still something more to it.

It is practical in nature what Jesus is saying.

Remember, Jesus did not come to abolish the law, only to

complete it, so it is still important.

The practical is what he is using to get to the spiritual,

and this is a chance for all of us to get our eyes off of our

feet and look up. Our efforts in the practical

will point us in the right direction, but they will not

carry us home and family. This is where the truth gets a

little uncomfortable. Most of you know this, but it's

still uncomfortable when we look at it.

If you haven't realized yet in your walk, Jesus makes claims of

absolution on all of us. Loyalty claims, and he makes

them in every area of our life. Here's what I mean.

He says that he is either our king or we are nothing.

Jesus can't be added to our lives.

He is either our life or we do not have life.

He's it. I'm not talking about just

discussing Jesus. Every opportunity that we get ad

nauseam. Talking about how our lives need

to be so saturated and infused, so incredibly secure in him and

what he has done. That every decision, every

relationship, every thought, every ounce of our being is

submitted and carried out imperfectly through the lens of

our love for our King. And that's what Jesus is getting

at here. He opens this man's chest and

puts his finger on the problem. He doesn't go into some diatribe

about how it's not possible that this man has ever fully

accomplished the law. We know it's not possible.

He did too. But he also doesn't pretend like

that law is actually going to get him anywhere near his goal.

He reaches in and lovingly says, hey, there's something sitting

on my throne. He does this with overwhelming

love and care, but it's still uncomfortable.

If we apply this to our lives today, it's almost as if he's

saying, hey, everything you have is in the way.

Give it up. Imagine this with me for a

second. You're the rich young ruler, and

you have this life that you've built around you and you've

worked hard for it. You've poured hours of blood,

sweat and tears into everything. You've prayed for, one thing and

one thing alone. Could be a career, could be your

home, your children, all of it. And he says, this is in the way.

It's not me. How do we respond to that?

I think most of us can see a lot of times that wool white knuckle

hold on to it screaming, no, this is mine.

But we have an example in Abraham and Isaac, don't we?

Abraham trusted that even though God was asking him for his one

son, the only son that he would ever have with promise, back.

And he trusted him and trusted that God is the God who keeps

promises. And I see how most of the time I

respond, I respond with no this is mine.

This is the one thing I get. This is what I want, even if

it's the one thing that I've wanted, or one thing in a long

list of things that I'm fighting for, right?

Keep moving forward. We see what will happen on our

own power, because even though Jesus has opened the hearts of

light, he still gives each of us the opportunity to choose him

over our things in verse 222. But at this statement, the man

looked sad and went away sorrowful, for he was very rich.

He walks away. We're left wondering what will

become of him. Will we turn around and take up

the invitation anyway? Will he walk away from his faith

entirely because what he's being asked is too hard?

As I've read this over and over again, there's a lot of me that

just hopes that he turns around. He realizes that all of his

stuff is just going to rot and rust and burn and not last and

go to somebody else. Even that the one thing that's

standing in front of him is actually the only thing that

will last at the end of the day. And there is actually hope for

that. We don't, like we said, we don't

know who he is. We don't know how the story

ends. That could still be a

possibility, but left to our own devices, without the Holy

Spirit, we do see how we will react.

We will walk away, we'll keep our eyes down on our shoes, and

eventually we will walk right into traffic.

The passage gets kind of clunky right here because there's this

weird transition, and I've been really looking on a way to tie

this up nicely. There's just, there's not.

It's it's awkward. It's painful.

Fred just walks away without a word and everyone is left

standing in stunned silence. Because what What do you do?

You just walked away, but Jesus isn't done.

Verse 23 Jesus looked around and said to his disciples how hard

it is to enter the Kingdom of God.

The disciples were astonished at these words.

But again, Jesus said to them children how hard it is to enter

the Kingdom of God. It is easier for a camel to go

through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the

Kingdom of heaven. So they were astonished saying

to one another who can be saved. Jesus did open heart surgery on

this man, but he's not done. He actually turns the mirror on

his disciples. He makes the next cut and holds

the mirror up to them as well. How hard it is to enter the

Kingdom of God. Christian life is hard, and

actually Jesus would argue that it's impossible without him.

Jesus doesn't shy away from what happened and he doesn't

sugarcoat the truth either. Jesus tells his disciples in

more words that there is no hope in our efforts.

The rich, or even just those who seem to be blessed with the

Kingdom in this life don't have a chance on their own.

Our odds are so small that it would actually be easier for a

camel to be shoved through the smallest doorway in the universe

in one piece than for us to earn our way into the into God's

presence. So what's the point?

Why even try? If those who have seemed to earn

God's favor here don't have a chance, then what hope do we

have? Disciples are actually asking

the same question of Jesus, but they have another layer on top

of it. That's even harder for us to

understand. What hope do we have?

We are God's chosen people. You're saying that there isn't a

chance? It's impossible.

Look at his response. This is impossible for mere

humans, but not with God. All things are possible with God

left to the law. In our own efforts, doing all

the Christianese things that we do will give us a moral life.

It will make us look really good on the outside.

It will even actually point us in the right direction.

Laws there for a good reason. But it's not going to get us

anywhere. It's not going to reanimate

this. Our dead hearts, and sadly, no

matter what we try to cram into them, none of that will either.

We need to get our eyes off of our shoes.

Thank God we are not in a completely and utterly hopeless

state. It is impossible for us.

We've established that it's impossible for us, but it is not

impossible for God. Our salvation, our entrance to

the Kingdom, is solely dependent upon him and what he

accomplished. Jesus reminds us of the most

fundamental part of our entire faith, and we actually said it

this morning. In liturgy.

It's grace. It is by grace and grace alone

that we will see God. The disciples don't fully

understand this yet. There's several miles of walking

before they get to Calvary where they will start to understand.

But we do know the end of the story.

And yes, I understand we talked about not doing chronological

snobbery, but I'm going to breaking my own rules this

morning. Church.

We know the truth, and the truth is that we are in desperate need

of reminding of this every morning.

At least I know that I am. His mercy is new every morning.

His Grace is new every morning. But His grace in what the truth

of the matter is that works, will earn our salvation for us.

They just aren't ours. There's a pastor that I admire,

so I cannot take credit for that.

He reminded me of that, and it's helped me attempt to wrap my

brain around grace. We are saved by works.

They're Jesus's works. In fact, the only thing that you

and I contribute to our salvation is the sin that held

him to the cross where he paid for it.

I can't do it. You can't do it.

He did it. We are saved and made secure by

the work of Jesus. When we place our faith solely

in Him, not in our own efforts. When we do place our faith in

Him and Him alone, our failures are made into victory.

The grave that we live in is turned into a garden.

Our sins, all of them are forgiven.

And when I say all of them, I mean past, present and future

because of the love of God for us and because of where Jesus is

heading. In Mark 10, we're given the

righteousness, the perfect nature, the perfect track record

of Jesus, and we are brought into the family of God and

called Children of the Most High.

He did it, and because of him all things are possible, even

and most specifically, turning dead sinners into living,

flourishing children, Dirk reminded us last week.

And it hit home. God does this and he delights to

do it and he does it again and again and again, joyfully and

happily. There's a whole nother section

that I am not going to get to today because I think that

that's probably where we're going to land the plane this

morning a little bit. But for those of you who are in

here saying, OK, I'm giving up and I'm following Jesus, He sees

you and he says that you're going to get it back 1000 times

more. When you get a chance.

This week, read through 20 verses, 28 through 31.

There's beautiful promises in there for each of you.

But there is a word of warning that I do have with that because

I know my propensity. When you read those promises,

remember that the things he is going to give you are not the

reward, he is. The things he's going to give

you back in tenfold are just icing on the cake.

They're going to make following him easier and more loving, but

they are not the reward. In closing today I do have some

application and I did want to get back around to the story.

So it makes a little bit more sense when I would run into the

side mirror of a car, or just a car as a kid, my mom, being the

loving parent that she is, would do what any loving parent does.

She'd come back, kneel down and make sure I was OK, probably

giggling a little bit because we did this again.

OK, but she would remind me of something.

Chad, stop looking at your shoes.

I know that they're really cool, but you need to get your eyes

off of your shoes and follow me, because that is what will keep

you safe. And this is actually what I

think Jesus is saying to us this morning in this passage.

Yes, there's a lot more. I have a notebook full of what I

would call red string on where this passage goes.

We can nerd out about it at some other time, but this right here,

it's so easy for us for me to be distracted by the things, the

good things in life. Get your eyes up and on.

Jesus, your steps to follow him are important, but not as

important as the finished work that he did.

So thought experiment for each of you.

Imagine with me for a second your favorite pair of shoes.

Go for it. Brand new, out-of-the-box, first

time wearing them. Yes, much like I did the other

day. These shoes are actually the

life that God has given you. They are a gift.

They are not the gift. As we move to follow Jesus,

there are going to be times that we look down and get so focused

on our shoes that we forget to follow Him and it will lead us

to run into things. Sometimes it'll lead us in the

wrong direction, and all the time it leads us closer to

danger. Get your eyes off your feet,

repent and follow him. Looking at my own life, there

are actually times that my shoes have actually gotten in the way

of me taking another step to follow Jesus at all.

In those times like me, you probably will need to rip them

off and run after him with no shoes on.

So I actually put idea or boots on that idea.

These are some of the ways that my shoes have gotten in the way

of me following Jesus. This list is in no way

comprehensive, and it is left vague for a reason.

I'd love to talk about it at some point, but I don't have the

time to fully elaborate on all of them.

So here we go. If our pursuit of joy and

contentment in Jesus has turned into the pursuit of joy in spite

of Jesus, take off your shoes, repent, and follow him.

He is our reward, not the happy feelings of doing the easy

things that he asks of us. If our theological worldview has

caused us to resort to tribalism and caused us to treat others in

an unloving way, take off your shoes, repent and follow him.

Theology did not create God, and in reality it's a stick figure

drawing of who he actually is. If our social causes have

prohibited us from extending the same grace and mercy that we

have received in Christ to both our friend and our enemy, take

off your shoes, repent, and follow him.

In Jesus all things will be made new.

Amen. And the Kingdom will be

restored. These things are not going to

happen because of us. They're going to happen because

of him. I did debate on this last one,

but I'm going to do it anyway. We're moving into another

politically heavy year. Tensions are high already, which

is fun if our political party causes us to see any other human

being as anything less than the very image of God, no matter our

disagreements on good things to disagree with.

Take off your shoes, repent, and follow him.

Remember that our politics, no matter how important, are not

going to save us. But Jesus will, and he is

returning someday to do it this week.

My challenge to you is take some stock of your life, both

internal and external. Follow your money and follow

your things. Because a lot of times that will

tell you where your heart is and whether your eyes are on your

feet or not. Taking internal stock, I would

actually encourage you to get with your fighter group or

community group, or even just with the Holy Spirit by

yourself. That may look like getting away

for some time and praying with an open journal.

It may also look like asking your fighter group what they see

you struggling with the most, what they see that may have

climbed up on Jesus's throne, and then asking and praying

together that God would dethrone it.

Be gutsy for the Kingdom. It's worth it.

Look at your life. Pray earnestly for the Holy

Spirit to show you if there is anything sitting on Jesus's

throne. If there is, and last

encouragement is actually the same as before, dethrone it

while there is time. Get your eyes off of your feet.

Repent and follow him. Jesus, Thank you again for just

the opportunity that you've given me to stand up here this

morning for. Thank you more for your grace,

Lord. In my life that is the one

constant that has been there, and it is the only reason that I

can stand here today. Whereas we go through this week.

I pray that we would fall more deeply in love with you and that

that would cause us to chase after you with everything that

we have.