Wednesday, April 27, PM

18 through 34 tonight. Let's begin with a word of prayer. Father, I thank you for the time you've given to us. Thank you for the meal, the opportunity to feast with brothers and sisters in Christ, to rejoice in the abundance that you have given to us, to fellowship for your glory in your name, and to now read the word together and to study and to consider your truth.

We pray that you would grant us grace and joy and ability by your Holy Spirit to follow the Lamb wherever he goes, and that we would sing the song of the redeemed. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.

Luke chapter 18. I'll be reading verses 18 through 34. Now a certain young ruler, or a certain ruler, asked him, saying, Good teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? So Jesus said to him, Why do you call me good?

No one is good but one, that is, God. You know the commandments. Do not commit adultery. Do not murder. Do not steal. Do not bear false witness. Honor your father and your mother. And he said, All these things I have kept from my youth.

So when Jesus heard these things, he said to him, You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, and come follow me. But when he heard this, he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich.

And when Jesus saw that he became very sorrowful, he said, How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God. For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.

And those who heard it said, Who then can be saved? But he said, The things which are impossible with men are possible with God. Then Peter said, See, we have left all and followed you. So he said to them, Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house, or parents, or brothers, or wife, or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who shall not receive many times more in this present time and in the age to come eternal life.

Then he took the twelve aside and said to them, Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man will be accomplished. For he will be delivered to the Gentiles, and will be mocked, and insulted, and spit upon.

And they will scourge him, and kill him, and the third day he will rise again. But they understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them, and they did not know the things which were spoken.

So last time we were looking at this passage, we considered the interaction between Jesus and the rich ruler. And we considered the response that Jesus gave to this man's question, dealing with the wrong presuppositions that this man had.

As he comes and says, Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? There are some obvious issues with his understanding. The wrong assumptions are baked into the question. Hard to answer a question full of wrong assumptions without first dealing with those wrong assumptions on the front end.

So Jesus does that. He says, Why do you call me good? There's no one good but God. He knows that this man looks at him, that the rich ruler looks at Jesus of Nazareth as a good teacher. He's not looking at Jesus as the Son of God.

This man has in his mind categories which do not exist. One category, namely, is good people, right? So that's a wrong assumption that man in and of himself, due to his efforts, or due to his experiences, or due to what he possesses, that some man can be good before the sight of God.

Or as the Bible tells us, there is none righteous, no not one. So that's a wrong assumption that this rich ruler has. He also has a wrong assumption that there's something that he can do to inherit eternal life.

There's some way to earn eternal life. This is also a wrong assumption. This is also a category that doesn't actually exist. So Jesus deals with these wrong presuppositions by correcting him about the no one is good except for God.

God is the standard. Man is not the standard. Don't look around at different men and try to find standards for what is right and wrong. Only God is the standard. And he reveals that standard in his word.

So let's look at his word and look at the Ten Commandments. And by this we can see that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And so Jesus confronts him with the law, namely the part about having no other gods before me and not coveting.

And this man of course is very greedy and he idolizes his wealth and he's unwilling to repent of that. Jesus exposes the unwillingness to repent in the life of this man. And this man goes away sorrowful because he was very rich.

And now Jesus takes this encounter and makes a teachable moment for his disciples. And when Jesus saw, verse 24, and when Jesus saw that he became very sorrowful, he said, how hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God.

How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God. What are the reasons for this? Well, when we look at the context, Jesus has rebuked his disciples for refusing the infants being brought to Jesus.

Some parents are bringing their little ones to Jesus that he would bless them. And Jesus wants to do that. He's willing to do that. The disciples think Jesus is more important, too important, too busy, and they're, and they're refusing the arrival of these little ones.

And Jesus rebukes his disciples and says, no, let the little ones come to me. Do not forbid them for if such is the kingdom of God. Explaining, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it.

Now, a little child, a little infant or a toddler, does not come with a resume. They don't have anything to offer. They're not going to contribute anything but extra labor and extra mess to a family or to a church family, right?

And Jesus says, this is how you enter the kingdom of God. This is how you enter the kingdom of heaven, humbly recognizing you've got nothing with which to impress God. This is one reason why Jesus says it is difficult for those who are rich, for those who have riches, to enter the kingdom of God.

For it is easy, it is a very normal temptation to consider one's wealth and have a sense of security, capability, have a sense of worth and capacity for making a big impact and so on. I've got something to offer if I have riches.

That is a normal, a common temptation, but it is also a false presupposition. So Jesus has warned about that. He's also told a parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. Both wealthy men. Pharisees were generally wealthy in that time and tax collectors tended to be very wealthy in that time.

Just ask Zacchaeus in the next chapter. Okay? Both wealthy men, both are in the temple and what happens there, the Pharisee pats himself on the back. He's a very capable, well-endowed man, but what about the tax collector?

He does enter the kingdom of heaven, but only in his abject humility before God. I've got nothing to offer. Be merciful to me, the sinner. So Jesus is just acknowledging that it is difficult for those who have riches to enter into the kingdom of God.

Now this is a surprise. It is a surprise to the disciples and Jesus is working against the cultural grain here because it was assumed that those who had great wealth were greatly favored by God and so the wealthiest were the closest to heaven.

So to make sure that the disciples don't miss his point as he's telling them something that is hard for them to believe, as he's telling them something that they are sure to find some way in their heads to equivocate and to make their way around, well surely he didn't really mean that.

To make sure that they don't miss it, he says the following. Verse 25, for it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. So now they can't squirm their way out of it.

Now they can't wiggle out of what he says. This is impossible for them to ignore now. He says, it is easier for the largest moving thing you have ever seen with your eyes to go through the smallest opening you've ever seen with your eyes than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.

Now he's got their attention. Verse 26, and those who heard it said, well then who can be saved? If the rich can't be saved, then who can be saved? Right? Well let's consider that question. Let's consider the dynamics of that question just for a little while.

Well who then can be saved? Now we've been talking about someone's wealth, indeed someone's wealth status, not just the fact that they have riches and then can do things with them. I do imagine that the rich ruler would have been willing to give 10 of his riches to the poor if that meant eternal life.

So he can do things, he wanted to do something to inherit eternal life, but there's also simply this matter of the status. The rich man, it's hard for him to enter the kingdom of God. Now how are we doing today in our culture in dealing with wealth and wealth status as it pertains such ideas as justification and salvation as a whole, sanctification.

How are the ideas of wealth and wealth status playing into how we understand being saved? Any thoughts? So in certain arenas of false teachers and mysticism, the name it, claim it, or the blab it, grab it group, you are truly spiritual if you have a lot of wealth.

Alright, see how much faith I have because I have all this money. Okay, so we have that at work and we have that false gospel being preached not only in America but also throughout the third world and marring the mission work.

Any other connections that we could make? That's right. So in a man left to himself, he's always going to invent some kind of legalism when it comes to salvation. So if it isn't, well the rich are the ones who are holy and close to God and not only savable but doing saved things, well then it's those who are not wealthy that are the holy ones, right?

So there's still wealth status is connected to these themes even in our culture. There is a great sense of justification by poverty, right? That if you're poor then it doesn't matter what you do or what you say or how you live, all of it is completely justified and acceptable.

Now the scripture doesn't say that. Scripture says that God does not show partiality and those he places in, puts in position of judge, of judges are not to show partiality to the poor or to the rich who obviously have a better opportunity to bend justice, not by the force of a mob but by graft, by bribery and corruption in that way.

So the Bible says that God is not, does not show partiality and he doesn't want those in his, working in his ministry of the civil government to show any kind of partiality either. Now of course it bleeds over into the teachings in churches that your wealth status has some sort of bearing on your justification, salvation or sanctification, right?

So that's part of the prosperity teaching, okay? So when we look at what Jesus is saying, Jesus is taking on the biggest cultural assumption had to do with wealth and salvation and he takes it head-on and totally blows it apart.

No, it is not true that the wealthy are closest to God. In fact, it's impossible. Don't think of wealth as being associated with salvation, Jesus says to his listeners. And we ought to recognize that in yet another dynamic in our culture wherein the very, very wealthy in our society are also justified in every sense of the term, in our cultural sense, in that the ultra wealthy can do no wrong.

If you're wealthy enough, you never get canceled, right? And if you're, and everybody who has wealth, not only are they fully justified and however they live and whatever they're into, that's perfectly fine.

After all, look at how much wealth they have. But they also are being put forth as saviors in our day, right? And Elon Musk himself is playing the part of savior, trying to save culture, trying to save free speech, or trying to save the planet, trying to save the future by the use of his money.

He's playing savior, okay? Now, Jesus says, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of the needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. Those who heard it ask a very sensible question, a wonderful question, a slow arcing pitch right down the middle.

Well then, who can be saved? What a great question. And Jesus said, the things which are impossible with God, impossible with men, are possible with God. So that which cannot be done by men can be done with God.

Well, the answer is, well, who can be saved? If, if the ones we think that are most likely to be saved by their own merits, by their own excuses, or by their own power, if they can't be saved, who can be saved, is impossible for men to be saved except with God.

Only God can save. If God doesn't save us, we ain't getting saved. You can be the wealthiest, most upstanding, kind, and generous, well-beloved person on the face of the whole planet, but you are not going to be saved unless God saves you.

It's impossible with men, it is possible with God, just like the old hymn says, it takes a miracle. It took a miracle to save my soul. Now, of course, Peter speaks up. Peter's the one who always speaks up.

Peter didn't like awkward silences, and Peter said, see, we have left all and followed you. You recall that many of them left their vocation, left their trades, left their, their family businesses. We have left all and followed you.

So he said to them, assuredly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or parents or brothers or wife or children for the sake of the kingdom of God, who shall not receive many more times, many times more in this present time and in the age to come eternal life.

So, putting things into perspective, what the rich ruler would have given up to follow Jesus would have been costly indeed. And what the disciples had given up to follow Jesus was costly for them as well.

But Jesus assures those who follow him, just like in the parables, what you're giving up to buy the field with the treasure buried in it, it's well worth the exchange. But what you're giving up to acquire the pearl of great price is quite worth the exchange.

I don't know if some of you have suffered the loss or the fracturing of relationships in your family and friends and acquaintances because you want to follow Jesus. I don't know if some of you have often left homesteads behind and places behind because you need to do the right thing and follow Jesus.

But what have we been given in Christ? What have we been given in the Holy Spirit? What have we been given in the joys and the fellowship and the family of the church? What have we been given? Bounty.

A bounty, haven't we? I know that I have. And not only in this present time, but in the age to come, eternal life. So if you find the math hard to do in the here and now, the valuation of what we gain in the following of Christ over and against what we give up, then at least consider of eternal life.

Consider the bounty of everlasting life with God in this exchange. I think it was A .W. Tozer who said that at the conclusion of every obituary of a child of God, the Lord himself declares, henceforth.

There's more to come. So far. So far. These are the blessings, but there's yet more to come. Alright, well, any questions or thoughts about our study tonight?