Don't Walk Away
“There Is Only One Who Is Good”
(Matthew 19:16-30, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, February 3, 2008)
Matthew 19:16-30 16 And behold, a man came up to him, saying, "Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?" 17 And he said to him, "Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments." 18 He said to him, "Which ones?" And Jesus said, "You shall not murder, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, 19 Honor your father and mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself." 20 The young man said to him, "All these I have kept. What do I still lack?" 21 Jesus said to him, "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." 22 When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. 23 And Jesus said to his disciples, "Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. 24 Again I tell you, 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." 25 When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, "Who then can be saved?" 26 But Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." 27 Then Peter said in reply, "See, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?" 28 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. 29 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. 30 But many who are first will be last, and the last first.
Introduction – More than a teacher…
The passage before us tells us the story of a prominent man who was paying Jesus a very high compliment. He finds himself strangely rebuffed by the Lord. Something similar is recorded in John’s gospel about an older man named Nicodemus, who also wants to say that Jesus is a great teacher. Of course Jesus is a great teacher, but what do you think… Is that all He is to you? Nicodemus not only called Jesus by the title “Rabbi,” he even said that he knew that Jesus had to be a great teacher from God, because of the miraculous signs that Jesus had been performing. Even this was not enough. Jesus said to Nicodemus, “Unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus needed a spiritual blessing from outside of himself to even have the life to see Jesus for who He is – more than a teacher from God. A teacher from God speaks the Word of God faithfully, and we are thankful when we have that benefit, but Jesus was more than a teacher from God. He was the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Men like Paul, Peter, Calvin, Whitefield – they are teachers from God, and even many lesser men and women are teachers from God, but Jesus died for our sins.
What good deed must I do to have eternal life? (16-19)
In Matthew 19:22 we are told that the man questioning Jesus here was young and that he had great possessions. This man does not seem to be sent by the enemies of Jesus in some effort to cause trouble. There is every indication that his question is sincere. “What good must I do to have eternal life?”
This is a very common question among those who think that there is some way to earn our way into heaven. Many suppose that if the weight of their good deeds is more than the weight of their bad deeds, God will let them into heaven. Others, perhaps like this man, don’t seem to have any sense of the weight of their sin at all, and they simply wonder how big the good deed needs to be in order to merit heaven.
The simple answer to this question is that God demands perfect obedience, and He never relaxes that standard. Paul says that the wages of sin is death. Any sin on our account is an insurmountable obstacle. Looking at this positively, heaven is the place where the righteous dwell. We need complete righteousness without any sin. Before Jesus answers His question, He asks this: “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good.” That one who is good is God Himself. He is the only one who is good. The requirement for eternal life is perfect obedience and the only one who can give this is God himself, because God is the only one who is good by God’s standard, which is the only standard that matters for eternal life. God has set a standard for heaven that only God could keep. We needed God to come and keep God’s standard for us, and then to take the awful debt of our sin away. How could that ever happen? Only through the provision of Jesus, God the Son, as our substitute.
Jesus does not state all of this right away of course. What He does say is this: “If you would enter life, keep the commandments.” Jesus is not saying anything different here than what we already know. He does not say that we should try our best, or that we should do some great good work that would be enough, or that we should do more good than evil. He simply says that we need to keep the commandments. Perfectly. No sin. Perfect obedience. The young man asks for clarification and Jesus gives some sample commandments from the summary of the commandments in the law, that part of the Ten Commandments that focuses on our duty to love our neighbor as ourselves. This should cause the man to realize that he has not given his all, and neither have any of us. The good follow-up question would then have been this: “Is there any other way?” But that is not what the young man asks.
What do I still lack? (20-22)
Instead he says, “All these have I kept.” This shows an appallingly low view of the Law of God. That is not a great surprise. The Pharisees had been teaching an interpretation of the Law that included many man-made rules that were designed to be keepable. The people who followed that way could be sure that they were keeping the law. That was the idea. “All these I have kept.” The true understanding of God’s Law is what we have in the Sermon on the Mount. The Law is about more than outward obedience. Murder is a matter of hate in our hearts as well as a vicious offense of physical violence. We have not kept the Ten Commandments.
What do you say to a person who is convinced that He has perfectly kept the Law of God? Discover the man’s idol and simply ask him to throw it away as a matter of choosing God above the idol. If you claimed that you have always obeyed the Ten Commandments, and if Jesus was with you knowing the idols of your heart, what would He have to ask you to give up that would send you away sorrowful? The point is not that everyone has to give up all their possessions in order to be a Christian. The point is that the man had not obeyed the Ten Commandments from his heart all his life, and that it is hard for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of heaven, because many rich men, and not a few poor men and women incidentally, have an idolatrous attachment to money.
Before we move on to the disciples’ reaction to this incident, I want you to notice something wonderful from Mark’s account of what happened here. Mark says that Jesus, looking at this rich young man, loved him. And if you are a little boy who thinks it just might be that you love the idea of a new mountain bike more than Jesus, or if you are a young woman looking for the right man, and you are thinking that you might love the idea of being happily married more than Jesus, or if you are a parent who worries that maybe you love your child more than you love Jesus, I want you to know something. If you are truly one of His disciples, then He is looking at you right now and He still loves you. The call to loosen your grip on your idols is not the call of one who hates you, but one who loves you, and one who is here to help you. Don’t walk away from Him. He loves you. Let go of your idols.
Who then can be saved? (23-26)
It is not at all easy to get into heaven. Let me reiterate again what I said earlier. God requires perfect obedience, and demands that we have absolutely no sin. Idols in our pockets will certainly exclude us as we stand before Almighty God. A camel cannot go through the little hole in a sewing needle, and people that love money, husbands, children, or anything else in this world more than God are sinning against Him, and they cannot get into heaven. What an outrageous statement I just made. You might be wondering how anyone could ever be saved. That’s exactly what the disciples were wondering too.
Jesus tells them plainly: “With man this is impossible.” He does not say that it is unlikely. He say it is impossible. But then He adds our only hope: “With God all things are possible.” When Jesus tells us that the way to heaven is to keep the commandments, we need to ask this question: “Is there any other way?” There is another way of righteousness that is not by your works, but by God’s works, and you do not get that other way of righteousness by some great achievement of holiness on your part, but by faith in Jesus Christ. There is no one good but God. What if God sent God to be perfectly good for you? What if God sent God to erase the debt of your big sin by paying for it Himself through the death of His Son? This is the only possible way for us. With God. With God it is definitely possible. With man it is impossible.
What then will we have? (27-30)
So what should you do with the idols in your pockets? Well, they are weighing you down. Unfortunately they seem to have some staying power. They seem equipped with some kind of elastic band. You throw them away one day and they are knocking again on the door of your heart the next day. The Christian life is in part an honest recognition of remaining idolatry, and a willingness to say “yes” to following Christ and “no” to idols by the power of the Spirit of God, a power that proceeds from the death and resurrection of Christ for you.
There is a new world that is breaking into your heart even now. In that new world we reign with Christ. By the power of God, give up whatever weighs you down now and you will find yourself abundantly blessed in the new world. Giving up things cannot secure Your way into heaven. Only God can do that. He may turn things around in ways that you don’t expect, but that is His right, because eternal life is His gift to us, not something that we could ever earn.
If you insist on earning your way, remember that the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. This Jesus is a great teacher. But He is much more than that. He is God our Savior.
Questions for meditation and discussion:
1. Is the man’s initial question to Jesus a good question? How do you react to Jesus’ answer?
2. Why do you suppose that Jesus lists only commandments regarding our duties to one another?
3. What do you make of the disciples’ reaction to this conversation and Jesus’ teaching on this matter?
4. What is the new world that Jesus speaks of here? In what sense might we say that it is already here?
(Matthew 19:16-30, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, February 3, 2008)
Matthew 19:16-30 16 And behold, a man came up to him, saying, "Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?" 17 And he said to him, "Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments." 18 He said to him, "Which ones?" And Jesus said, "You shall not murder, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, 19 Honor your father and mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself." 20 The young man said to him, "All these I have kept. What do I still lack?" 21 Jesus said to him, "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." 22 When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. 23 And Jesus said to his disciples, "Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. 24 Again I tell you, 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." 25 When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, "Who then can be saved?" 26 But Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." 27 Then Peter said in reply, "See, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?" 28 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. 29 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. 30 But many who are first will be last, and the last first.
Introduction – More than a teacher…
The passage before us tells us the story of a prominent man who was paying Jesus a very high compliment. He finds himself strangely rebuffed by the Lord. Something similar is recorded in John’s gospel about an older man named Nicodemus, who also wants to say that Jesus is a great teacher. Of course Jesus is a great teacher, but what do you think… Is that all He is to you? Nicodemus not only called Jesus by the title “Rabbi,” he even said that he knew that Jesus had to be a great teacher from God, because of the miraculous signs that Jesus had been performing. Even this was not enough. Jesus said to Nicodemus, “Unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus needed a spiritual blessing from outside of himself to even have the life to see Jesus for who He is – more than a teacher from God. A teacher from God speaks the Word of God faithfully, and we are thankful when we have that benefit, but Jesus was more than a teacher from God. He was the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Men like Paul, Peter, Calvin, Whitefield – they are teachers from God, and even many lesser men and women are teachers from God, but Jesus died for our sins.
What good deed must I do to have eternal life? (16-19)
In Matthew 19:22 we are told that the man questioning Jesus here was young and that he had great possessions. This man does not seem to be sent by the enemies of Jesus in some effort to cause trouble. There is every indication that his question is sincere. “What good must I do to have eternal life?”
This is a very common question among those who think that there is some way to earn our way into heaven. Many suppose that if the weight of their good deeds is more than the weight of their bad deeds, God will let them into heaven. Others, perhaps like this man, don’t seem to have any sense of the weight of their sin at all, and they simply wonder how big the good deed needs to be in order to merit heaven.
The simple answer to this question is that God demands perfect obedience, and He never relaxes that standard. Paul says that the wages of sin is death. Any sin on our account is an insurmountable obstacle. Looking at this positively, heaven is the place where the righteous dwell. We need complete righteousness without any sin. Before Jesus answers His question, He asks this: “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good.” That one who is good is God Himself. He is the only one who is good. The requirement for eternal life is perfect obedience and the only one who can give this is God himself, because God is the only one who is good by God’s standard, which is the only standard that matters for eternal life. God has set a standard for heaven that only God could keep. We needed God to come and keep God’s standard for us, and then to take the awful debt of our sin away. How could that ever happen? Only through the provision of Jesus, God the Son, as our substitute.
Jesus does not state all of this right away of course. What He does say is this: “If you would enter life, keep the commandments.” Jesus is not saying anything different here than what we already know. He does not say that we should try our best, or that we should do some great good work that would be enough, or that we should do more good than evil. He simply says that we need to keep the commandments. Perfectly. No sin. Perfect obedience. The young man asks for clarification and Jesus gives some sample commandments from the summary of the commandments in the law, that part of the Ten Commandments that focuses on our duty to love our neighbor as ourselves. This should cause the man to realize that he has not given his all, and neither have any of us. The good follow-up question would then have been this: “Is there any other way?” But that is not what the young man asks.
What do I still lack? (20-22)
Instead he says, “All these have I kept.” This shows an appallingly low view of the Law of God. That is not a great surprise. The Pharisees had been teaching an interpretation of the Law that included many man-made rules that were designed to be keepable. The people who followed that way could be sure that they were keeping the law. That was the idea. “All these I have kept.” The true understanding of God’s Law is what we have in the Sermon on the Mount. The Law is about more than outward obedience. Murder is a matter of hate in our hearts as well as a vicious offense of physical violence. We have not kept the Ten Commandments.
What do you say to a person who is convinced that He has perfectly kept the Law of God? Discover the man’s idol and simply ask him to throw it away as a matter of choosing God above the idol. If you claimed that you have always obeyed the Ten Commandments, and if Jesus was with you knowing the idols of your heart, what would He have to ask you to give up that would send you away sorrowful? The point is not that everyone has to give up all their possessions in order to be a Christian. The point is that the man had not obeyed the Ten Commandments from his heart all his life, and that it is hard for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of heaven, because many rich men, and not a few poor men and women incidentally, have an idolatrous attachment to money.
Before we move on to the disciples’ reaction to this incident, I want you to notice something wonderful from Mark’s account of what happened here. Mark says that Jesus, looking at this rich young man, loved him. And if you are a little boy who thinks it just might be that you love the idea of a new mountain bike more than Jesus, or if you are a young woman looking for the right man, and you are thinking that you might love the idea of being happily married more than Jesus, or if you are a parent who worries that maybe you love your child more than you love Jesus, I want you to know something. If you are truly one of His disciples, then He is looking at you right now and He still loves you. The call to loosen your grip on your idols is not the call of one who hates you, but one who loves you, and one who is here to help you. Don’t walk away from Him. He loves you. Let go of your idols.
Who then can be saved? (23-26)
It is not at all easy to get into heaven. Let me reiterate again what I said earlier. God requires perfect obedience, and demands that we have absolutely no sin. Idols in our pockets will certainly exclude us as we stand before Almighty God. A camel cannot go through the little hole in a sewing needle, and people that love money, husbands, children, or anything else in this world more than God are sinning against Him, and they cannot get into heaven. What an outrageous statement I just made. You might be wondering how anyone could ever be saved. That’s exactly what the disciples were wondering too.
Jesus tells them plainly: “With man this is impossible.” He does not say that it is unlikely. He say it is impossible. But then He adds our only hope: “With God all things are possible.” When Jesus tells us that the way to heaven is to keep the commandments, we need to ask this question: “Is there any other way?” There is another way of righteousness that is not by your works, but by God’s works, and you do not get that other way of righteousness by some great achievement of holiness on your part, but by faith in Jesus Christ. There is no one good but God. What if God sent God to be perfectly good for you? What if God sent God to erase the debt of your big sin by paying for it Himself through the death of His Son? This is the only possible way for us. With God. With God it is definitely possible. With man it is impossible.
What then will we have? (27-30)
So what should you do with the idols in your pockets? Well, they are weighing you down. Unfortunately they seem to have some staying power. They seem equipped with some kind of elastic band. You throw them away one day and they are knocking again on the door of your heart the next day. The Christian life is in part an honest recognition of remaining idolatry, and a willingness to say “yes” to following Christ and “no” to idols by the power of the Spirit of God, a power that proceeds from the death and resurrection of Christ for you.
There is a new world that is breaking into your heart even now. In that new world we reign with Christ. By the power of God, give up whatever weighs you down now and you will find yourself abundantly blessed in the new world. Giving up things cannot secure Your way into heaven. Only God can do that. He may turn things around in ways that you don’t expect, but that is His right, because eternal life is His gift to us, not something that we could ever earn.
If you insist on earning your way, remember that the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. This Jesus is a great teacher. But He is much more than that. He is God our Savior.
Questions for meditation and discussion:
1. Is the man’s initial question to Jesus a good question? How do you react to Jesus’ answer?
2. Why do you suppose that Jesus lists only commandments regarding our duties to one another?
3. What do you make of the disciples’ reaction to this conversation and Jesus’ teaching on this matter?
4. What is the new world that Jesus speaks of here? In what sense might we say that it is already here?
posted by Pastor Magee at 7:00 AM
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