Matthew 19:16-26

In this sermon Josh Turansky teaches from Matthew 19:16-26. He teaches about the rich young man's encounter with Jesus, emphasizing that true discipleship involves identifying and surrendering one's "one thing" or idol—which often serves as a source of security, hope, and meaning—and reorienting one's entire life to Jesus, because while entering the kingdom of God is impossible with man, all things are possible with God.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Give it your Bumbles remedy. You can turn in your Bumbles to Matthew 19. Matthew 19, we're gonna pick up where we left off last week from Matthew 19. We're gonna be stumbling in verse 16. So I just want to encourage you, find Matthew and your Bumbles. We're gonna read it together in just a minute. Let everybody get seminal again. I'm gonna give my little announcement about turn off your beeps and buzzes on your devices and everything that makes noises. Turn it off. We've been reading through the book, um the biography of Jesus through the Matthew lens. It's a gospel, it's in the New Testament of the Bible. If you're new to the Bible, that's fine. There's there's uh midway through, we get to the life of Jesus, and there's four accounts of the life of Jesus: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. They're all telling the um historical account of Jesus from different angles. And we're learning what it means. What is it? This is the actually the question, the question that we're looking at is what does it mean for me to be a follower of Jesus in my life? And so Matthew's giving us the life of Jesus and the teaching of Jesus, all with the intent that we would learn to be followers of Jesus. This book of Matthew was written for people who were hearing about Jesus, and it's just a um it's a tool that was used. It was a record that was put down by an eyewitness of Jesus, one of the disciples, so that new Christians understood who Jesus was and how to follow him. So we're gonna read through 10 verses together, 16 through 26, and we're gonna be asking that question: what does it look like based on this text for me to follow Jesus? The story that we're gonna look at this morning is about a rich young man who comes to Jesus with a question, what good thing must I do to have eternal life? So we're we're given an account of a conversation that Jesus has. And in going into this conversation where we're kind of like watching Jesus talk with this guy, we gotta be honest with ourselves that most of us, if not all of us, are not wealthy young men. Right? So there is a bit of a gap between us and this story. So we're gonna be looking and engaging in this story, trying to understand, like the disciples, like where where do we fit in? What is this story as Jesus is working with this guy? What does it mean? Most of us don't feel rich. We know what it's like to count every dollar, or to wonder where the next meal is going to come from. And as we're going through this, you may hear and think, how is this relate to me? But Jesus' words are for all of us, especially those who feel left out, overlooked, are weary in their struggle. He's not just talking about bank accounts in this text. He's talking about what we hold on to for security, for hope, and for meaning. For security, for hope, and for meaning. And that's the question I want to open up with for you. As you consider your own life and a paradigm shift of being a follower of Jesus, um, what is what is at stake in your life to lose? You see, this young man had a decision to make, and it upset him because he realized between the eternal life that he so desperately wanted, and himself was this object of security. His hope, his identity, his sense of meaning came from his wealth, and it was put on the line by Jesus, and this was upsetting to him. And so the question is, what do I cling to? What do I think? If I lose this, I'm gonna lose everything, and it's too costly for me to give this up in order to know Jesus. It may be an identity, it may be um uh something that we derive a sense of security from. It may be that it's like that one thing. This is that one thing. Like it's like I like those Christians, they're interesting. I like the things that Jesus talked about. I mean, loving your enemies and fairness, the value of human life. I mean, there's a lot of good things in the Bible, but there's just this one thing that I'm not willing to surrender in my life, and it's keeping me from Jesus. And so that's gonna be the interaction. Let me kind of give you the story here. I'll read it to you and then we'll we'll unpack it a bit. Just then someone came up and asked him, teacher, what good must I do to have eternal life? Why do you ask me about what is good? He said to him. There is only one who is good. If you want to enter into life, keep the commandments. Which ones? He asked him. And Jesus answered, Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, honor your father and your mother, love your neighbor as yourself. I have kept all of these, the young man told him. What do I still lack? If you want to be perfect, Jesus said to him, Go sell your belongings and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come follow me. When the young man heard that, he went away grieving because he had many possessions. Jesus said to the disciples, Truly I tell you, it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven. 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. Well, when the disciples heard this, they were utterly astonished, and they asked, then who can be saved? Jesus looked at them and said, With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible. God, as we go through this text, we want to listen for the work of your spirit, you know, the voice of your spirit, just like Brother Nate was talking about, your spirit working in us, that we would see how you're wanting to crucify, put to death our flesh, and you're wanting to lead us into life. So, Lord, as we walk through this text, give us understanding, Lord, you know our specific story. And the the dangerous territory is that you will speak to us individually. And we give you permission to do that. We give you permission to work in our lives. We pray that you, Lord, you'd get through the hardness, the unbelief, the things that separate us from you. We want to give you permission to work, and we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. And so let's let's walk through this. Starting in verse 16, we have this person, someone, and and and if you want to look at this account, you can go to Mark and Luke. So you have it in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. They all give different different um pieces of the narrative. It's not in conflict, but there's different ways that the guys, each biographer tells their story. But here it's someone came up and asked him, Teacher, what good must I do to have eternal life? Now we already know from the text that he's already doing the Ten Commandments, and we're gonna walk through that in a minute. But he's asking for what do I do that is good to have eternal life? And this question even those who do everything right can feel like something is missing. This guy has money and he's ethical. He has this more, he's following the Ten Commandments. I mean, this is like you would want this person as your friend, right? They're well off. They follow the Ten. I mean, like, that's a good person, right? And yet he has, for whatever reason, engaging, watching Jesus, he comes and he's asking how to get eternal life. And he knows that there's like a good that must be done, and yet it's it's missing there. This man's question echoes a deep human longing for meaning and security. And you may be able to relate in some way or another with this sense of like, man, you know, I I do good things in my life. Like, I'm not screwing over people, and and I'm, you know, I'm generally a good person. And then maybe like, you know, you you have what you need to live life. You got housing and clothes and food, and but yet there's this sense of like, no, there's more to it. And that's what this man represents. And so Jesus replies to him in verse 17, Why do you ask me about what is good? He said to him, There is only one who is good. Now this continues on, but let's stop there for a second. He's gonna first challenge the um this guy up front. This is important to understanding the story, because the guy said, What good must I do? And he says, Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. Now, as the story continues, he's gonna show that he's a kind of a good, we would say that's a good person versus like a rotten, crummy person, right? Because he's following the law. But Jesus challenges him right off the bat on his his paradigm. This is really important because you know the last verse of this, it's this like, yeah, what's impossible with man is possible with God. And so what we're seeing here is God in the flesh interacting with somebody who it's very difficult for him to enter the kingdom. And there are things in your life that keep you from Jesus. Maybe you're in a place where like you're you haven't yet become a follower of Jesus and you're just kind of on the spiritual journey and you're just like stuck on whatever it is. I want you to watch how Jesus works with this young man because we're getting this window into the process that God takes a person through in order to bring them to the gate, the narrow gate entering into the kingdom of heaven. For the rest of us who are already followers of Jesus, we have relationships with people. When we look at them, it's just like, man, they are a tough cookie. I don't know how they're ever gonna become a follower of Jesus. Man, I just don't even, I don't even know what's gonna happen with that person. And so here in the beginning stages of this, Jesus is upsetting the very premise of what is good. Right? And and and so one of the things you need to be open to, whether you're on your spiritual journey or you're a follower of Jesus, working with other people on their spiritual journey, is like the premise of what is good. How many times have you heard people say, well, well, God is gonna, I'm gonna get to heaven if there isn't an eternal life, like I'm gonna die and go to heaven because I've been a relatively good person. And then they're kind of comparing themselves to others. Have you heard that before? The idea of like, you know, if you if you weigh out all the good things I've done versus the bad things I've done, you know, it's like I'm a good person. So so Jesus here in this text, he's confronting that misconception because many people just think their standard of good is good enough. But Jesus is like, no, no, no, no, no. You need to understand that no one is good but God. There's only one who is good. In fact, in Romans, Paul writes, it's a letter written by Paul, he says that everyone has sinned. They've violated God's holy standard in one area of their life or another. Everyone has sinned and they fall desperately short of God's glory. And that goes back to the very beginning of the Bible, that humanity is in this state of rebellion against the good. Do you remember in Genesis 1 when God creates the heavens and the earth, and then he creates the land and the sea? After the end of every day, what does he say about the things he created? It's good. It's good. And yet you get to chapter 3, and humans are not willing to stick with what is good in its way. And humanity's like, no, I want to reject God and his instructions for how humanity ought to be. I want to do it my way. And humans, universally, no matter what gender or race or has been saying to God, I want to do it my way, I want to reject the good. And so it doesn't matter if you go before God and say, look, I'm better than this guy over here. That's not God's standard. Because the standard for good, according to God, is that He is the only one who is good. So Jesus starts there, but then he progresses and he says to this young man, if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments. So he's saying, okay, there is, if you're Jewish, you go back to the law, and we see this long, beautiful history of the good, of um the good life that God prescribed for the nation of Israel. He says, Enter into life, keep the commandments. And then he's going to walk them through it. Um he says, Well, which ones? And Jesus says, Well, do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, honor your father and your mother, love your neighbor as yourself. So Jesus goes through this, you know, a number of the commands, both prohibitions and then um admonitions or commands of what to do in response to this young man's question. We see this, this um, we see this long list that Jesus gives here and this standard of righteousness. And the interesting thing is his response is to say, what? I have kept all of these. I have kept all of these. What do I still lack? So Jesus is has engaged, he's continuing to gauge the morality of this man, his sense of morality, and the fact that there's a lack. And this is really important as we go through this process of understanding what it means to follow Jesus, it doesn't mean being a better person. If you're coming to church and you're thinking that this idea of how to be a how do I become a follower of Jesus is like, well, I need to clean up my act, you're totally missing it. You're totally missing it. The invitation of Jesus is this invitation to become a follower of him. Everything else is downstream. And what needs to be, in a sense, deconstructed in the way that this man's paradigm is deconstructed is this notion of good, of doing good. He's doing all the Ten Commandments and he's rich, and he's like, I'm still lacking. Like, what is lacking from my performance? What's lacking from my performance that's keeping me from eternal life? Okay, good. So we're moving. This guy's moving a little bit closer, right? We're like we're checking off stuff. So we get to Jesus' response. He says, What do I still lack? And Jesus says to him, If you want to be perfect, Jesus says, Go and sell your belongings and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come and follow me. What is in this passage essentially is this man's, what we say would say is his one thing. You see, he's happily not killed people, he's happily remained faithful to his spouse, he's happily honest, but his possessions, his wealth, that one he's holding on to. And Jesus here brings it up and he says, I want you to take what you have and sell it. Notice it's not just garage sale it, but it give it, sell your belongings, and then the proceeds are gonna go to the poor, and and then you're gonna have treasures in heaven. But then do you see he says, then come and follow me. We often talk about, and we did it last week in our class, we talked about how do you become a follower of Jesus. Listen, we use the term repent and believe. Repent is this word that means make a U-turn in your life, reorient your life back towards Jesus. This man needs to, it's not so much an issue of his possessions as much as that the orientation of his life is that he has a lot of stuff. And that he likes having a lot of stuff. It's his identity, it's his sense of comfort, it gives him a place in society. And for him, repentance means go and sell all that stuff, give it to the poor, and then faith for him is this following, coming to Jesus and following Jesus. Let's see how he responds. When the young man heard that, he went away grieving. He went away grieving because he had many possessions. This struck at the heart of the man because of uh it wasn't like Jesus was asking him to double down on the good stuff that he was already doing. It if it went to the heart, just an idol that he had in terms of his wealth. And our hearts, John Calvin said that our hearts are idle factories. We are good worshipers. Now you may come in here and be like, I don't like singing. I'm not a worshiper. I want to just get to the sermon, or I just want to get to the food after church, or I just like hanging out with people. But here's the reality: when we're not here, we're worshiping other stuff. We are inclined to be worshipers. And the things that we worship are a rival to the authority of God in our life. They are competing for God's role in our life. And what Jesus is asking of this young man is just to recognize that he is a worshiper of his own wealth and to relinquish that and to turn the orientation of his life to Jesus. And the question that the Spirit of God poses to each of us this morning is in the core of who we are, what are we worshiping? What is rivaling a life fully dedicated to God? Jesus Has this interaction with others, he's a little bit more successful with two others that come to mind. One is the woman at the well. She's there, she's a Samaritan woman, she's getting some uh water, and Jesus asks this woman for a drink, and it engages her in the spiritual conversation where he says to her that I will give you um water, living water, that flows up from your innermost being. I'm gonna give you a drink where you'll thirst no more. She says, I want that. And he says to her, Well, go and call your husband. And she says, I don't have a husband. And Jesus is like, You're right. You've had five husbands, and the one you're with now, you're not even married to him. Jesus has this spiritual insight into her private life that she's had a tumultuous set of relationships. And so as Jesus is engaging her in this invitation, as he's engaging her in this invitation, he's putting his finger on the one thing in her life that is keeping her, or it is distracting her, or it is an obstacle in the way. And Jesus kind of highlights that. Well, she receives this like prophetic word that Jesus speaks to her, and she's like, Man, you you know everything that I've done. And so she goes and tells the town, this guy told me everything I'd done, he must be the Messiah. And it ends up that a bunch of people in this town become followers of Jesus because they're like, Man, if he knows her secrets, he must be God. There's another guy who's also uh rich, who was a tax collector named Zacchaeus. And he hears Jesus coming, and he's tiny, he has to climb up to a tree to see and to hear Jesus, and he's hearing the message that Jesus preached, and it affects his heart, and he's like, I'm ready to turn, I'm ready to repent. I'm ready to turn. He invites Jesus to his house, and he tells Jesus, in front of his like friends and his family, Jesus, I am going to repay back the people I cheated. What I cheated them and more so. And he demonstrates this incredible repentance in his life where he is not in he's not acting like this young man. Instead, he's fully receiving, and there's this demonstration, there's this just demonstration of repentance that occurs in his life. But we have this guy, he leaves grieving. Now, we don't know the rest of his story. Maybe this was it. Maybe he just was like, nope, stakes are too high. I like my money too much, I can't, I can be an ethical guy, I'm gonna take my chances and just hope my goodness is good enough to get me into heaven. Was it good enough? If that's no, because God's standard is perfect. We cannot, and here's the problem. If you think that you're good enough to get yourself into heaven, then Jesus didn't need to die on the cross. Right? Like that would be a foolish sacrifice for God to send his son into the world to die on the cross when it was just like, well, you just be good enough, we all get in. Those terms don't work. Right? We're in this impossible place in our guilt, our moral guilt before God, where we need it, we needed a payment for our sin, and that's what Jesus provided. And so again, we're watching Jesus walk a young man who idolizes his wealth, walking him through a process to the heart of the matter. And that's what you and I need. That's that's what you and I need. Really, a spiritual experience is when the Spirit of God interacts with our hearts and we just get to the heart of the matter. And let me tell you, we need that every day. This is not just for like the decision of like, am I gonna follow Jesus or not? What we need to do every day is we need to wake up and we need to say, Spirit of God, confront me. Just like just like Nate was saying, that flesh that we have is at war against the work of God in our life. And we need to just say, Spirit of God, confront the things that are at war in my life with your plan. Because, man, when I do it my way, it just produces death. But when I'm willing to surrender my life to Jesus and to let his plan occur in my life, flourishing, life, healing occurs. So we go on. In verse 23, Jesus now turns to his disciples and he's gonna say the same thing twice. He says, Truly, I tell you, it'll be hard for it, it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven. And then we're like, well, well, how hard? What what what kind of hardness are we talking about? And he says, Again, I tell you, it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. I mean, how often do camels go through eyes of needles? They never do. It's impossible. And so we get this type of response from the disciples. The disciples hear this and what do they say? They're utterly astonished and asked, well then who can be saved? It's interesting because Jesus is talking about rich people and how difficult it is for them to be saved, but the the disciples hear this and they're like, well then who can who can be saved? Like, I mean, you're just basically discounted everybody in in how they hear it. And Jesus' response is to simply say, it is impossible with man. It's impossible with man, but with God, all things are possible. It's interesting, and we'll close with this. We live in a very capable society. We we live in a very wealthy society. The um abilities, like people get stuck or have problems, there's different things that come up, but we are a very capable society when it comes to sickness or illness. I mean, we have select diseases that kill us, but generally, like, lifespan, you know, is increasing. Um the opportunities that people have are increasing. The the freedoms, the liberties that people have are increasing. Um educational levels of people are increasing. I mean, we just live in a very capable society, and yet Jesus is creating a category of what's impossible. And it is essential. One of the aspects, I mean, remember the question at the beginning: what does it mean to follow Jesus? One of the things that's essential is to recognize that as capable as we may be, there are categories of the impossible but yet good. There are things that you're intended to experience and yet it is impossible for you to experience them. That is important for you to understand. Because if you're locked into the pursuit of the next good thing, and you just think it's another podcast or another self-help book, or it's just a productivity system that you may inherit. And then it's just like, okay, I've been I've got it, I'm on my way to eternal life. You're missing the picture. Jesus rightly identifies there are the things that are impossible with man, but they become possible with God. Yes. Okay, there's two parts of the question. Okay, so first of all, the that's the remember we talk about this when we go through the Bible and we're reading through the Bible, all of a sudden we feel like a speed bump. Right? So you're verbalizing for all. Okay, so you're not the Lord Jesus doesn't matter. Yeah, okay, before I answer the question though, before I answer the question, I just want to affirm that you're reading it well. You're reading the Bible. Oh, you're at least like my experience of reading through this text is like your experience, where I'm reading along and I feel this speed bump of like, well, why? Why do you okay? So here's the thing. Okay, let me try to answer the question and my own wrestling with this, okay? So Jesus says, look, it's impossible for a rich man to enter, right? Why? Yeah. So are you asking? So the question, are you asking the question, why is it impossible for rich people, or why would Jesus engage the guy in a conversation if he already knows it's impossible?

unknown 31:38

So Bill Gates can't go to heaven because he's rich?

SPEAKER_01 31:41

Yes, that's exactly he's saying it's hard. He's saying it's hard for him. Why is he saying it's hard? I appreciate you asking the question because that's the question is why is it hard for why is Jesus saying it's hard?

unknown 31:58

You can give be giving and be rich.

SPEAKER_01 32:00

You can be giving, like be generous, right? You be yeah, yeah. But that's not how you get into heaven. Yes. What were you gonna say? Okay, so you can't serve God in money, right? Yeah, what were you gonna say? You can't worshiping the thing. Yeah, so the thing becomes an idol in the heart. Here's what I think. Listen, Felicia. Here's what I think, Felicia, is that um Jesus is saying, here's the gap between entering the kingdom of heaven and the and the human being. There's a reason why wealthy people have a problem. They have a particular problem because they're self, they can be self-sufficient. They can rely. Because you gotta wait till next week. Because in next week, when we get into the text we're gonna read next week, there's a whole bunch of people, including Zacchaeus, who do overcome their personal um obstacles. There's two sides to this. Hudson and I, we were talking about this all the way in this morning as we're driving into the city. Because you've got the sovereignty of God at work, and then you have the whole category of, well, where's humans participating in this? Notice the question, um, if we go back here in the text. No, that's the song. Okay, do you see this? It's harder for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. It reminded me, I was thinking about this because early on, Felician, when you came to church, we were going through the narrow, the wide and narrow gate. Remember that passage? And it says, Broad is the gate that leads to destruction, narrow is the path, narrow is the gate that leads to life, right? And so Jesus has been teaching that there is this narrowness to the gate. There is this challenge, there is this hardness to entering into the kingdom. Here, Jesus is he's calling out wealth and saying the wealthy person has it harder, I think.

unknown 34:08

Why though?

SPEAKER_01 34:09

Because I think, think about like a wealthy person. Okay. Yeah, because look at this guy.

unknown 34:17

It's not fair. If I'm successful going to college and doing the right thing and doing the right thing in the best hand, and I make my money, I should be able to go to heaven just like this over God has no idea.

SPEAKER_01 34:27

I think he wants you to go to heaven, yes. Yes. Okay, hold on just a second. Hold on just a second. We got Kathy's gonna share her testimony. This is important. Hold on. Shh. Okay, go ahead. Hey, Felicia, hold on just a second. Give her a turn.

unknown 34:49

When I when I was making it, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:25

And that's where the difference is coming. That's beautiful. I mean, that's that says it. I think that that is says it exactly. Because I and I know in my own personal experience. Yeah, amen. I know in my own personal experience, and it's this is frustrating. Like, I don't, I'm not frustrated with Felicia's internal angst. I'm frustrated at myself with what Felicia is saying because when I'm doing good, I don't feel close to God. But when I'm suffering or things are hard, it just brings me right back close to God. Why am I why am why am I like that?

unknown 36:04

God wants you to do good, though.

SPEAKER_01 36:06

He does. And and I'm not gonna go so far as to say that he wants you to be wealthy, but he's gonna teach, and we're gonna get into the Proverbs, he's gonna talk about stewardship, stewarding over stuff. So there's no prohibition. He's not prohibiting wealth accumulation here. What he's saying is that the rich person has a peculiar challenge in entering the kingdom because the cost to them of entering the kingdom is like this young man, it's gonna cost him like you need to be willing to let it go. Now, I have we have in our church people who are um well off, they've done well in life, they follow Jesus, and they have not worshipped, they've made a choice. I'm not gonna worship my wealth, I'm gonna worship Jesus. So this text is not saying, look, if you want to be a follower of Jesus, you've got to let go of all your money. It says you need to be Jesus the primary thing that you worship. You need to change the orientation of your life. There is many things other than wealth that we worship, where we get hung up on, where we're like, man, I don't want to follow Jesus because it's gonna cost me this thing over here. And Jesus is engaging his disciples. He's highlighting this one scenario, but with this woman at the well, it was another scenario. He's what Jesus is doing is he's I guess the word process comes to mind. What does it look like for God to work with us and process us? He doesn't just come and like slap us over the head, he asks us questions like he did with this Rick Chung ruler to highlight, to bring to the surface where we're at. And that's what the Spirit of God's doing in your own life. Wherever you're at on your spiritual journey, God's interacting with you and he's putting his finger on the one thing that's that's tripping you up, that's keeping you from entering in fully to what he has. We're gonna have to stop there. I love the interaction. Oh my gosh, we could you guys get me started, and oh my gosh, it's so fun. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for your word. Thank you so much for letting us read your word. Lord, what you need of us is what we are singing this morning of just soft hearts, surrendered people. Not not, you don't care about what's in our bank account, you care about our hearts. That's what you want, is you want to get to our hearts. Lord, I pray that you would look into this room and you would see a people whose hearts are yielded to you. Lord, are we surrendered to you? Are we willing to let go of the things that we hold on to? Please, Lord, let it be the case that we are. Help us to let go of the things that keep us. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.