Two Updates

There are two brief updates that I have been asked to bring to you, one regarding the Church & Missions (C&M) budget and the other regarding Pastor John Piper’s ministry leave.

Review of Discipleship

Our text this weekend reminds us of “The Impossibility of Discipleship.” Before that, let me review what we have covered about discipleship over the last couple weeks.

1. A disciple is one who has been sovereignly called by Jesus Christ to follow him in faith.
2. Every disciple of Jesus is a called to make disciples through three essential components: proclamation (of the Word), prayer (for the power of the Spirit), and people.
3. Last weekend, we said the “cost of discipleship” is not payment to Jesus but renouncing everything as subordinate to the worth of Jesus Christ.

I used this illustration last weekend at the Sunday evening service Downtown. Let’s say you are a person living on popsicles and Cheetos, which incidentally is not healthy and will starve you to death sooner or later. Now one day, you get invited to an all-expense paid Thanksgiving banquet with turkey, stuffing, cranberries, assorted vegetables, squash, applesauce, pecan pie, apple pie, and French silk pie.

The cost of following Jesus is like the cost of going to this banquet. The cost for you in receiving this meal is not payment for the meal. Rather, for you to receive this meal, the cost is leaving your popsicles and Cheetoes. Likewise, the cost of discipleship is the cost of giving up your sins, your selfishness, and your idols for the surpassing value of knowing God in Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us. The essence of saving faith is treasuring God as a person in and through the person and work of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, more than everything else.

The Impossibility of Discipleship

My aim in this message is that we see that discipleship is impossible—following Jesus is impossible—apart from the grace of God to us in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Now, is this a Thanksgiving message? Yes. In Christ, we have much to be thankful to God for.

An Interrupted Journey

In the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, our text comes after the account of the disciples trying to prevent children from coming to Jesus. In Mark 10:14-15, Jesus rebuked the disciples and gathered the children to himself and blessed them. Jesus said, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” I believe Jesus is building on this same point in our text. Let’s look at it more closely.

Verse 17 says that Jesus was setting out on a journey. Where was he going? A few verses down Jesus makes clear the destination and purpose of the journey. Verses 33-34, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles. 34 And they will mock him and spit on him, and flog him and kill him. And after three days he will rise.”

The Rich Young Ruler

And so Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem to die for us and rise again when a man ran up, knelt down, and asked him a question. Mark tells us later that he had great possessions (v.22). Luke tells us that he was a ruler (cf. Luke 18:18) and Matthew adds that he was young (cf. Matthew 19:22). Hence, from the three Gospels we usually call this man the “Rich Young Ruler.”

From his knees, the Rich Young Ruler asks, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” (v.17). The impression I get is that there is no treachery here. This is very different from the Pharisees asking questions to trap or trick Jesus. It seems like he respects Jesus and has a sincere question.

Struck by the manner in which he was addressed, Jesus first questioned the young man, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone” (v.18). Jews commonly held that God was the one who was preeminently “good” to the degree that it was not common to ascribe goodness to a human being. Rather, “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good!” (1 Chronicles 16:34).

None of the Gospels really explicitly tell us what Jesus meant by the question.  It may be that Jesus was saying something like, “If you knew who I am, you would know how true your words really are.”

The Rich Young Ruler’s Question & Jesus’ Response

The young ruler had asked, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”  Jesus answers him with a statement concerning the man’s knowledge of the commandments. Verse 19, “You know the commandments.” This is a very puzzling answer. What is Jesus doing?

In Acts 2, when the crowd asked Simon Peter a similar question, he answered, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38).

In Acts 16, when the Philippian jailer asked Paul and Silas, “What must I do to be saved?” (Acts 16:30), they replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household” (Acts 16:31).

But in our text, when the Rich Young Ruler asked, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus replied, “You know the commandments” and then proceeded to list them in verse 19. He starts with the Sixth Commandment, “Do not murder,” and continues through the Ninth Commandment, “Do not commit adultery [Seventh Commandment]. Do not steal [Eighth Commandment]. Do not bear false witness [Ninth Commandment].” After the Ninth, where one would expect the next one to be the Tenth Commandment, “You shall not covet,” Jesus spoke instead an application of the coveting commandment when he said, “Do not defraud.” Jesus then continued by going back to the Fifth Commandment, “Honor your father and mother.”

The man replied in verse 20, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.” Do you really think he kept all these commandments from his youth? Perhaps at the outward action level he had not murdered anyone, committed adultery, stolen anything, been a false witness in court, and acted honorably toward his father and mother. In replacing the Tenth Commandment against covetousness with “Do not defraud,” I think Jesus is beginning to put his finger on this man’s relationship with money.

The Rich Young Ruler doesn’t yet realize that the commandments aim not only at the outward actions but also, more importantly, to the inward attitudes and desires of the heart. Thus, to be angry against someone is to commit murder in our hearts. And to lust is to commit adultery in our hearts. And anything short of the plain unvarnished truth is to bear false witness.

James 2:10 says, “Whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it.” You cannot depend upon keeping the law for salvation because, as sinners, we will always fall short. One of the intended effects of the commandments is to show us that we are sinners. No one is righteous, not one. No one can depend upon keeping the commandments to inherit eternal life because the commandments call for sinless perfection.

Jesus’ Response

In verses 21-22, Jesus reveals his compassion for this man, “And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, ‘You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.’ Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.”

Do not miss it. This is the love of Jesus. This is one of the ways Jesus talks to us when he loves us. He puts his finger on “what is lacking.” The Rich Young Ruler wanted eternal life and tried to live a good life, apparently with some observable success.

Well then, what was the one thing lacking? This is just like what Jesus said in last week’s text, Luke 14:33, “So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.” The one thing that is lacking is a treasuring of Christ over everything else. The Rich Young Ruler goes away sorrowful because he is unwilling to renounce his money for Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who loves him and will soon “give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).

The Rich Young Ruler is like a man drowning, clinging to his moneybox. He is unwilling to embrace the cost of letting the money go to grab the rope thrown by his rescuer. Or he is like a man dangling from a cliff by one hand, while holding a briefcase containing his financial portfolio in the other. He is unwilling to let the briefcase go to grasp the hand of his savior.

Because one thing is lacking, in love, Jesus says, “Go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” The one thing he lacks is coming to Jesus in faith, depending on Jesus more than he depends on his money. The thing he lacks is treasuring Jesus in faith, loving and valuing him more than he loves and values his money. If his treasure were in heaven—in eternal life with God and not in his money—he would be freed to love the poor with his money. The thing he lacks is following Jesus in faith—trusting Jesus’ word as a more dependable and trustworthy way to treasure in heaven than all his wealth and righteous living.

His possessions had become his idol. In the book What Jesus Demands from the World, Pastor John summed up what Jesus was saying to the Rich Young Ruler in this way, “Your attachment to your possessions needs to be replaced by an attachment to me…. Stop treasuring money, and start treasuring me.”[1]

The Impossibility of Entering the Kingdom

As the Rich Young Ruler walked away, verse 23 says, “Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, ‘How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!’” The disciples are flabbergasted. They were “amazed at his words” (v.24). Then Jesus said in verses 24-25, “Children, how difficult 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.”

Some have conjectured that Jesus was really talking about entering Jerusalem through a very small gate called the “Needle’s Eye,” adjacent to one of the main gates. Camel packs would need to be removed from the animal and then the animal would need to crawl and struggle to get through the narrow opening. However, there is no historical evidence for this. If we take the idiom in that sense, Jesus’ point would be this, “It is very difficult to enter the kingdom, but if you try really hard, you can follow me.”

What is the point that Jesus is making? I think his point is this. Just as it is impossible for a 1,200 pound, 7-foot tall at the hump, adult camel to fit through the small eyelet in a fisherman’s needle or sewing needle. So also, it is impossible for a rich person to be saved. 

The disciples got the point and were “exceedingly astonished” (v.26). They didn’t say, “Oh, I get it! If we get the camel to duck when he goes through the needle he’ll make it! It’s hard, but we can do it if we plan and work hard.” Rather, they said, “Then who can be saved?” (v.26). And Jesus replied with one clarifier, “Jesus looked at them and said, ‘With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God’” (v.27).

This is where we will stop on the “Impossibility of Discipleship.” You see, apart from God we can’t save ourselves, we can’t achieve eternal life, we can’t follow Jesus, and we can’t treasure Jesus more than everything. Sincerity is not enough. Oh, we can do some outward appearance management, but I am talking about holiness within. Jesus cited this problem with the Pharisees when he said, “Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness” (Luke 11:39). Because we are sinners, we are like dead people in our ability to save ourselves, to find eternal life and to follow Jesus. It’s impossible. And so God’s holy and righteous anger rests upon all of us as sinners.

Overcoming the Impossible

But God is the God of the impossible. Paul puts it this way, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ…. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:4-5, 8-9). The one thing lacking—the one thing that is impossible for us to do on our own—is the very thing God provides for us in Christ: the gift of childlike dependence, childlike faith, to receive the love of Christ and treasure him above all else.

Three Concluding Questions

Let me close with three questions.

1. Do you see the love of Jesus in this account? Do you see love in Jesus looking at the Rich Young Ruler and telling him he has an idol in his money? Jesus loves us by revealing our idols, by calling us to give up our idols and instead be attached to Jesus himself, and by going to Jerusalem to “give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).
2. Do you lack this one thing? Do you lack a treasuring of Christ? Ask God for the gift of childlike dependence, childlike faith, to receive the love of Christ and treasure him above all else. Pray and ask for help. Jesus says elsewhere that he gives the Holy Spirit to those who ask, so ask.
3. To whom are you most thankful this Thanksgiving? It is impossible to be saved and God, in his mercy, gives us the gift of faith. We are the most blessed, favored and graced people on the people. We should be the most thankful to God. I pray this Thanksgiving that you are most thankful to Jesus Christ, “who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood” (Revelation 1:5).

[1] Piper, John. What Jesus Demands From the World. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2006. pp.154–155.