LOJ #196: the Poorest Rich Man Pt. 2

LOJ #196: ‘The Poorest Rich Man Pt. 2’

Andover Baptist Church-September 1st, 2013

Opening

A. Text for today is Matthew 19:23-30 and our sermon is a

continuation of ‘The Poorest Rich Man’

B. Scripture NET:

1. Last Week: Matthew 19:16-22

“16 Now someone came up to Him and said, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to gain eternal life?” 17 He said to him, “Why do you ask Me about what is good? There is only One Who is good. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.” 18 “Which ones?” he asked. Jesus replied, “Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, 19 honor your father and mother, and love your neighbor as yourself.”20 The young man said to Him, “I have wholeheartedly obeyed all these laws. What do I still lack?” 21 Jesus said to him, “If you wish to be perfect, go sell your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.” 22 But when the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he was very rich.”

2. This Week: Matthew 19:23-30

“23 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “I tell you the truth, it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven! 24 Again I say, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter into the kingdom of God.” 25 The disciples were greatly astonished when they heard this and said, “Then who can be saved?”26 Jesus looked at them and replied, “This is impossible for mere humans, but for God all things are possible.” 27 Then Peter said to Him, “Look, we have left everything to follow You! What then will there be for us?” 28 Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth: In the age when all things are renewed, when the Son of Man sits on His glorious throne, you who have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 29 And whoever has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for My sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life. 30 But many who are first will be last, and the last first”

C. Children’s Sermon (SLIDE)

1. Have a needle and thread

2. Have the kids come forward

3. ‘I have a needle and thread here, will you help me the

string through the needle hole?’

4. ‘It’s easy to miss the eye of a needle, isn’t it?’

5. ‘There is only one way to get that thread through’

6. ‘There is only one way that we can go to heaven, but

many people miss the way.’

7. ‘What is the way to heaven? Only through Jesus!’

D. Introduction (SLIDE)

1. I enjoy watching the show American Pickers

2. Many of the things they buy floors me (one man’s junk

is another man’s treasure)

3. The guys are always trying to get something for as

cheap as they can

4. I’ve never seen them offer the person more than the

person agrees to sell it for

5. They know that when they buy something they are

going to get more value out of it than they paid

6. It’s not like you will ever hear them say, ‘I’ll give you a

thousand dollars for that McDonald’s sack in the trash

with the sweet and sour stain on it’

7. That would be ridiculous, but that is exactly what Christ

Jesus does when He will reward us

8. He comes into our lives, pays for our sins through His

death on the cruel cross and then buys from us the filthy

rags that we call good works

9. That is nothing other than the grace of a loving God!

10. We can never, ever out give Him and we need to live

with that in mind

Sermon

READ: Matthew 19:23, 24 (Scripture slide)

A. ' Then Jesus said to His disciples…'

1. Last week we saw a man offered by Jesus discipleship if

he would come and follow Him

a. In order for him to do this, however, he would

have to leave his sizeable fortune by selling it and

giving it to the poor

b. Upon hearing this the man sadly walked away

from Jesus for the things of this world

2. One can imagine Jesus was saying this as the rich man

was still walking away

B. Jesus introduces what He is about to say with the words, ‘I tell

you the truth’

1. Jesus always speaks the truth for He is the Way the

Truth and the Life

2. No when Jesus says this it is an indicator to His

disciples who He is speaking to, to put their listening

cap on and to pay close attention to what He is about to

say

3. Last week I saw one of you sleeping, so my advice this

week, being that we are speaking about the Word of

God is to wake up and pay attention to what Jesus had to

say to all of us

C. Jesus follows this command to pay attention with a shocking

statement: ‘it will be hard for a rich person to enter the

kingdom of heaven!’

1. ‘will be hard’ could be translated ‘with difficulty’

2. Jesus wording seems to lend to the fact that a vast

percentage of those who are wealthy in the things of this

world will indeed not enter the kingdom of God

3. Whereas wealth is an advantage in this world, it appears

to be more of a hindrance of entering the one to come

4. No some of you are probably thinking, ‘This doesn’t

pertain to me, I’m far from rich. So whew thank

goodness I’m not rich!’

a. I would beg to differ with you on that point

b. In comparison to the lifestyle of the people of

Jesus’ day you and I are beyond wealthy

c. And even in comparison with the average wage in

the world, we are wealthy

d. The average person in the world today makes half

of what the average American makes

e. More than 1/3 of the world makes less than $2 a

day, which makes people making even minimum

wage in the U.S. look extremely wealthy!

f. How long did it take you this year to make $730?

It takes a 1/3 of the world a year!

g. So quit being in denial, this message is for you!

5. The question we have to wrestle with is way is it hard

for a rich person (which includes you and I) to enter

into the Kingdom of Heaven?

a. Well for the same reason the rich young ruler just

walked away from Jesus

b. Money, not the God of Heaven, was his king

c. The King of Kings was less important than the

roll of Benjamins in his pocket (roll of Caesar? I

don’t know)

d. There are people here today that would do things

for money you wouldn’t do for Jesus!

e. Oh when your pocketbook is screaming it’s hard

to hear the Kingdom call

f. The rich man then, and many people today let the

pursuit of money kill the voice of God in their

life, I hope that can’t be said of you

g. Money and the things of this world can be a

baited trap of the devil to get you off the track to

God

Matthew 13:22 (NET) “The seed sown among thorns is the person who hears the word, but worldly cares and the seductiveness of wealth choke the word, so it produces nothing.”

6. Our wealth can also lead to the delusion that we are self-

reliant and obscure our sight to our need for God

a. Jesus’ chastises the church of Laodicea in the

book or Revelation because of this type of

attitude

Revelation 3:17 (NET) “Because you say, “I am rich and have acquired great wealth, and need nothing,” but do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked”

b. It is the attitude that makes it hard for one to

become like a little child and trust Jesus instead

of themselves and their bank statement

c. It’s no wonder how throughout history the poor

seem more responsive to the message of the cross

than the wealthy (it’s much easier to give up

everything when you don’t have anything)

d. Recall the parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man?

Lazarus suffered in this life, but trusted God.

The Rich Man reveled in the things of this world,

but did not know God.

e. Wealth causes problems that those with less

resources don’t encounter

1 Timothy 6:9–10 (NET) “9 Those who long to be rich, however, stumble into temptation and a trap and many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is the root of all evils. Some people in reaching for it have strayed from the faith and stabbed themselves with many pains.”

f. If wealth is your god, you had best be fearful of

the consequences that entails

James 5:1–4 (NET) “1 Come now, you rich! Weep and cry aloud over the miseries that are coming on you. 2 Your riches have rotted and your clothing has become moth-eaten. 3 Your gold and silver have rusted and their rust will be a witness against you. It will consume your flesh like fire. It is in the last days that you have hoarded treasure!4 Look, the pay you have held back from the workers who mowed your fields cries out against you, and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.”

C. After saying this once Jesus reiterates it by including ‘Again’

(double wants us to pay attention as repetition was the

exclamation mark of Jesus’ day)

D. Jesus continues: ‘I say, it is easier for a camel to go through

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

kingdom of God’

1. To understand what Jesus is saying we have to unpack

the statement, so to speak

2. Can anyone guess what the largest animal the people of

Israel had contact with? The camel (in the U.S. Jesus

might have referenced the buffalo)

3. Now the smallest opening that a person would have

interaction with was the needle

4. How do you get a camel to go through the eye of a

needle? You don’t it’s impossible (no use going to the

zoo and giving one treats, it ain’t going to happen)

5. What is Jesus saying? Is He just saying that it is

impossible for a rich man to get into the kingdom of

heaven?

6. Actually it’s impossible for anyone to get into the

kingdom of God on their own merit

7. It’s impossible for anyone to get into the kingdom of

God without Jesus. Period.

8. Believe it or not the eye of the needle isn’t the narrowest

of things...the way to heaven is narrower for it is only

through Jesus

Matthew 7:13–14 (NET) “13 Enter through the narrow gate, because the gate is wide and the way is spacious that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. 14 But the gate is narrow and the way is difficult that leads to life, and there are few who find it.”

READ: Matthew 19:25, 26 (Scripture slide)

“25 The disciples were greatly astonished when they heard this and said, “Then who can be saved?”26 Jesus looked at them and replied, “This is impossible for mere humans, but for God all things are possible.”

A. 'The disciples were greatly astonished when they heard this…'

1. This is a hard thing for the disciples to grasp

2. ‘greatly astonished’ could be translated ‘exceedingly

struck out of their senses’

3. Jesus’ words literally pulled the rug out from under their

worldview (i.e. how they thought the world worked)

B. Anxiously they said, ‘Then who can be saved?’

1. They were worried about their salvation

2. You see the Jews believed, as some do today, that if you

are rich God has blessed you with those riches.

3. Riches were a way of God physically showing a

blessing to you

4. Now while every good gift is from God, not

everybody’s wealth is a good thing or a blessing

5. Now there is a lie out there, you see it on late night

television being exposed by gaudy charlatans selling the

snake oil that is the prosperity gospel, that is no gospel

6. According to Jesus, here, wealth can actually have

dreadful consequences that can cause eternal damage

7. The disciples who had seen rich people as blessed

couldn’t comprehend how then anyone could be saved

if the rich don’t make it

C. 'Jesus looked at them and replied, “This is impossible for mere

humans….'

1. Jesus fixed His gaze upon the disciples and tells them

that salvation is impossible for mankind

2. Who can be saved on their own merit? No one, not one

person here today, not you, not me can be saved by our

own doing

3. Man is incapable of doing good for we are at our core

wicked

Jeremiah 13:23 (NET) “But there is little hope for you ever doing good, you who are so accustomed to doing evil. Can an Ethiopian change the color of his skin? Can a leopard remove its spots?”

Romans 3:10 ‘There is no one righteous, not even one’

4. This is devastating news to those who think they are

good enough, right enough, holy enough to enter into

God’s kingdom unaided by the blood of Jesus

D. Praise Jesus, that He gave us the good news: ‘but for God all

things are possible’

1. God is not limited by our limitations

Job 42:2 (NET) “I know that You can do all things; no purpose of Yours can be thwarted”

Jeremiah 32:17 (NET) ‘Oh, Lord God, You did indeed make heaven and earth by Your mighty power and great strength. Nothing is too hard for You!’

2. Salvation is a mighty work of God

3. What is impossible by man’s works is possible by God’s

grace!

4. God is the source of righteousness for those who claim

His Son, in and of ourselves we don’t have a drop of

righteousness

5. While we are incapable of securing our own salvation,

Christ is perfectly able to save us!

Romans 10:13 (NET) “For everyone who calls on the Name of the Lord will be saved.”

Hebrews 7:25 (NET) “So He is able to save completely those who come to God through Him, because He always lives to intercede for them.”

6. Do you believe that statement? ‘for God all things are

possible’?

a. Sometimes I think abstractly, theologically we

are Christians, but live as practical atheists

b. God I know you can you do all things BUT…

c. When you believe this about God is one of the

most liberating of all concepts

d. Because that means God can handle our lives

READ: Matthew 19:27 (Scripture slide)

“Then Peter said to Him, “Look, we have left everything to follow You! What then will there be for us?”

A. 'Then Peter said to Him, ‘Look, we…'

1. Here again we see Peter speaking out as the unspoken

leader of the group

2. The ‘we’ being of course the other eleven disciples

B. Peter points out to Jesus they had ‘left everything to follow

You!'

1. While they hardly needed to point out anything to our

omniscient Savior Jesus, what he said was true

2. The 12 had left their occupations, their families,

everything to follow Jesus

3. Unlike many we have seen, including the rich young

ruler of last week, when Jesus told them to follow Him

they did!

Matthew 4:20–22 (NET) “20 They left their nets immediately and followed Him.21 Going on from there He saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in a boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets. Then He called them. 22 They immediately left the boat and their father and followed Him.”

Luke 5:27–28 (NET) “27 After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax booth. “Follow Me,” he said to him. 28 And he got up and followed Him, leaving everything behind.”

4. How would you respond to that very same call today?

C. Peter wants to know: 'What then will there be for us?'

1. ‘What do we get out of the deal of following You

Jesus?’

2. They go from worrying whether they will be saved or

not to whether or not they will be rewarded!

a. We too can sometimes be like spiritual ping pong

balls

b. God answers one prayer, or gets us through a

rough time and we forget about it

c. A little while later we start worrying about

something else!

d. We of little faith

3. This is, however, a pertinent question, it's an important

question, and it’s a powerful question