Date: 4.6.17
Text: Luke 18:18-43
Title: Appearances are deceptive
Place: Rhema
File: Luke 18b Rhema
Preacher: Stephen Taylor
Appearances can be deceptive can’t they?You see a set of railway tracks and you think they meet somewhere in the distance. But they never actually do. You look at an iceberg and it looks big but when you see under the water you realise that it is not big it’s absolutely huge. You see a duck gliding along the water and it looks effortless but underneath you know it’s working really hard.
Appearances can be deceptive, especially when it comes to following Jesus. For in Luke 18 we will meet two people whose outward appearances are vastly different to their inward reality. We will meet a rich man who looks like he can see but who is actually blind and a blind man who looks poor but who is actually rich. And throughout the whole passage we will be challenged to follow Jesus because if we leave everything behind to follow him we will have more than we ever wanted! It is all a bit strange. Appearances can be deceptive.
- A blind rich man (verses 18-27)
So let’s start with our rich man. He is a young man according to Matthew who seems to have it all. Luke describes him as “a certain ruler” so it seems he had a position and power in either the synagogue or in the community. We find out later that he is rich, he is a man of great wealth. And he is someone who from youth has kept the commandments.
So he is a pretty impressive fellow. The sort of guy that stands head and shoulders above the people around him. And notice that he comes to the right person and he asks about the right subject. He comes to Jesus, Jesus doesn’t come to him. And he asks Jesus about eternal life and that is what Jesus has come to give. So if we were to judge this book by the cover, then there is a lot to like about this fellow.
Yet Jesus must have some sort of x-ray vision because he can see right through him. You see despite his appearances this young man had it all wrong. He had a wrong view about eternal life. He thought that he had to do something to inherit eternal life. What must I do to inherit eternal life he asks Jesus.But you don’t do anything you receive it. You don’t inherit it as if once you are in a Jewish family it becomes your entitlement. It is a gift of grace.
And he had a wrong view of sin because when Jesus answers his question what must I do to inherit eternal life by quoting things we should do from the ten commandments like do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, the young man replies that I have done all of these things since my youth. He thought he was without sin.
So he thought that he came before Jesus full of righteousness. Now appearances can be deceptive. Here is someone that has come to Jesus, praised Jesus, humbled himself before Jesus and asked Jesus about salvation. He is rich and powerful, aren’t they both blessings from God? Surely here is someone at the front of the queue to heaven, isn’t he?
Just think about it for a moment what would you say to him? If this man were to come up to you today and ask you this very same question would you assure him that he is on the right path? Would you say you just need to let Jesus into your heart? Would you tell him something general like you need to repent over your sins and trust in Jesus? Would you make it easy for him or hard on him? Well let’s go back to our passage. What does Jesus say?
“You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor and you will have treasures I heaven. Then come, follow me.” Sell everything, Jesus doesn’t tell anyone else in the whole Bible to do that. Give all you have to the poor, where else in the Scriptures does he demand that of anyone else? He doesn’t! But that is what this man needs to do if he wants to follow Jesus. In order to follow Jesus he must sell all that he has.
For Jesus has by this time called many people to follow him. The disciples were to follow him. The crowds have to hate their mother and fathers and follow him. And for this man, Jesus puts his finger on the problem. For him to follow Jesus he must give up all his riches. His great wealth was the one thing that was holding him back from the kingdom.
Did you know that American missionaries went to Japan after WWII and they found that multitudes were coming forward to be saved. Yes I believe in Jesus. Yes I will give my life to Christ. But over time it seemed these decisions were superficial. The missionaries dug a bit deeper and found out that in the Japanese culture you are taught that when you are conquered, you have a moral obligation to accept the God of the ones who conquered you. So yes they were adding their worship of Jesus to their worship of Buddha and Confucius.
So the missionaries changed their invitation to: deny Buddha/Confucius, and accept Christ as the only true God. What happened from then on was that only a few became believers!
You see for this man, the rich young ruler, his wealth, his great wealth was a barrier to total trust. He valued eternal life but not over life itself. He sought God’s salvation but he didn’t want it more than anything else. His problem was not that he had money, but that money had him. So to get rid of his riches was incredibly hard and so his face falls and he goes away sad because he had great wealth.
For this man, his money was the thing between him and God. For others of us it might be our family, our career, our pride, our homes. Everyone has something they must give up or someone they need to put lower down the pecking order in order to follow Jesus. If as Jesus says, the law can be summarised as saying Love the lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your strength and with all your might then anything that you are tempted to love more than God needs to go.
I was reading recently about the retired American basketball player David Robinson. A man who has made a lot of money through basketball but has given a lot back through supporting the most vulnerable in his community in both a physical and a spiritual way.
Interviewed about these things he said, "These aren’t sacrifices for me. If I’m clutching on to my money with both hands, how can I be free to hug my wife and kids?"
He’s onto something there isn’t he? Sometimes we are holding onto somethings so tightly, that it gets in the way of our family and often it will also get into the way of our relationship with God as well. For the rich young ruler the thing that he was holding onto was his wealth. And he wasn’t willing to give that up even for eternal life.
So when he heard the demands of Jesus he became very sad, because he was a man of great wealth and he couldn’t afford to give it all away. For Jesus never makes salvation easy. Sure there is nothing we can do to inherit eternal life. Sure it is a gift of grace but it has deep implications, massive implications. How does the hymn writer put it, “Love so amazing so divine, demands my soul, my life, all.”
Jesus continues “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God.” He might have said how hard it is for the powerful to humble themselves. How hard it is for the intelligent to believe the foolishness of the gospel. How difficult it is for the young to give the whole of their live away. How tough it is for the old to change the direction of their life at the end.
But he continues, what is impossible for men is possible with God. God can get that camel through the eye of the needle when man can’t. God can land that Jumbo jet on the head of a pin. God can do the impossible. God can be both just and gracious at the same time.
Now I am sure your experience has been similar to mine. God throughout my life has exposed my loves, my idols, brought them to the surface and asked me, are you willing to give them up in order to follow me? When I was working it was a choice between a big promotion and a move to Singapore or the call to follow Jesus into ministry. Did I love Jesus more than money, power and travel? Then when in college I got Chronic Fatigue, did I love him more than my health. My first appointment was Tweed Heads 1000 kilometres from my girlfriend at the time, away from all my family and friends. What I put him before love?
And as time has gone on. Will I put Jesus before my wife and family? Before my comforts? Before my sport and leisure time? My outward appearance seemed to indicate that I was following Jesus but inwardly Jesus was working on my heart, working on my soul, encouraging me to give it all up and to really follow him.
What about you, is he working on you in some way this morning? Is it money? Is it family? Is it career? It is your independence? Your self worth? Your pride? Is there anything stopping you from following him? Going where he is calling you to go? Friends it is impossible for you to give it up. But with God it is as easy as pie. Give it him. Follow him. No matter what.
Appearances are deceptive you would think some like this rich man are rich because God has blessed him for his faithfulness but riches are not the sign of faithfulness, obedience is. Following Jesus is. Some Churches are rich in a material sense but are poor in a spiritual sense. Some Churches seems to have youth and vigour and life but they are superficial. It is all about following Jesus. A rich man who is blind and
A blind man who is rich (verses 35-43)
For at the end of our passage, book ending the story of the rich young ruler is someone who is almost the opposite. He is not rich, he is a beggar. And he is a beggar because he is blind. And he is sitting down in his usual spot at the entrance to Jericho when he hears a commotion. And so he asks the people around him what is going on. And he is told, Jesus of
Nazareth is passing by. Jesus of Nazareth.So the blind man calls out to Jesus.
But the blind man did not call him, “Jesus of Nazareth,” as the crowd did. No, the blind man called him, “Jesus, Son of David.” The Jews believed that God would send a Son of David to be the Saviour of his people. By calling Jesus the “Son of David,” the blind man was declaring him as the promised Saviour. So it is the blind man could see the truth about Jesus.
And secondly, the blind man could see his own need. He cried out to Jesus, “Have mercy on me!” The Greek word for mercy means, “to show kindness or concern for someone in serious need.” The blind man had several needs. First, it is likely that the blind man wanted physical healing. He was blind, and he wanted to see. He had heard of Jesus healing blind people, and he wanted Jesus to show mercy to him and heal him too.
But, the man’s greatest need was not physical it was spiritual. He knew that he was a sinner in need of a Saviour. So, when the blind man asked for mercy, he was asking not merely for physical healing or financial assistance, he was asking for spiritual help.
And that is what Jesus gave him. He gave him healing of sight. But he also gave him healing of sin. And the blind man is so thankful that he praises God and follows Jesus. The rich man was not willing to give up his riches and follow God. But the blind beggar is willing to give up his future and to turn from his past in order to follow God.
John MacArthur suggests that the following five lessons can be learned from this incident.Firstly, the Lord does not ignore the cry of those who truly call on Him. No matter what situation you are if you seek God’s mercy he will give you mercy. Secondly, the Lord is profoundly compassionate. He cares for us. He responds to our cry for help. Thirdly, the Lord has power over all disease. Whether it is blindness or cancer. Hearing or grief. Fourthly, the Lord came for more than just to heal disease; He came to save the lost and transform them into obedient worshippers.
And lastly, MacArthur says, the passage calls for self-examination. What about you? Are you part of the crowd? Or, are you a follower of Jesus Christ? Are you someone who hears what Jesus says to us and goes away sad or goes away rejoicing?Appearance can be deceptive. The one who had virtually nothing is the one that has salvation. The one who has everything in this world may miss out on the riches of the world to come.
Appearances can be deceptive the rich man is actually blind. The blind man is actually rich and the disciples they may think they have nothing but in reality they have everything. They say to Jesus “We have left everything to follow you.” There is that word again follow. They have left their boats and their incomes, their family and friends to follow Jesus. They are no longer well off, they are dependent upon the generosity of others.
But don’t be fooled by their outward appearances, Jesus says “no one who had left home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the Kingdom will fail to receive many more time as much in this age, and in the age to come, eternal life.”The disciples who have followed Jesus are not poor, they are not without friends and family, they have more now in this life than they had before.
That has been my experience. When I went to Tweed Heads to be a minister I left behind a girlfriend and my family and while there I got a wife and my own kids and about 200 grandparents and parents, brothers and sisters and children. Being part of God’s family has been an incredible blessing to me and to others. And I see it when people clean one another’s homes for each other, baby sit their kids, make one another meals, again and again God asks us to give up things for him and he returns them in spades
Appearances can be deceptive because we are called to follow a King, a Messiah who was rejected. Who was mocked and spat upon, flogged and killed. Outwardly this king looked like he was a failure but he successfully died to pay the penalty for our sin. From a human point of view it has all the markings of a defeat but in reality it was God’s greatest victory.
And friends if we are following this Jesus we too will be led to the cross before the resurrection. It will be at times in our biggest failures that God will have his greatest successes. It might be in sickness, pain, poor health, even death where as we follow Jesus we find ourselves losing homes, brothers and sisters, family, blessings. And yet this is just the entrée because in the next life we will have life eternal and God will give us more homes, more family, richer blessings.
The preacher Ravi Zacharias tells the story about a boy that loved collecting marbles. He lived next door to a little girl who had a lot of chocolate. One day she said to him: “If you’ll give me all of your marbles, I’ll give you all of my chocolate.” He said he’d think about it. The next day, he hid a few of the marbles in his room and offered the rest to the little girl for her chocolate. That night, he couldn't get to sleep. He tossed and he turned and he turned and he tossed all night because he was so troubled.
And what do you think troubled him so much he couldn't sleep? What troubled him was the thought: “Did she really give me all of her chocolate?” In our story this morning, we met a man who wanted everything God could give.In response, Jesus asked him for everything he could give”
But remember Jesus didn’t hold anything back for us. And he won’t hold anything back in the future. But in the meantime he calls us to follow him. Will you go with him? Will you give up whatever he asks because you want to be close to him? Will you love him? And will you follow him wherever he leads?