Matthew 19:16-26- Follow me

Matthew 19:16-26

Isaiah 64:1-12

Follow me!

Well, let us dive straight into the text today, look at verse 16 with me:

And behold, a man came up to him (that is Jesus), saying,

“Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?”

Let us break this down, because there is a lot going on in that one verse…..there is a lot going on in that question.

Isn’t that the case with most questions?

There are layers of understanding of where the question came from.

Here, it simply sates that a man came and asked Jesus a question.

In verses 22, we know that this man was young and he was wealthy- (he had many possessions), and in Luke 18, which records the same story for us, we are told that this man was also a ruler.

And so it is safe for us to assume that this rich, young ruler….didn’t think at that stage of his life, that he was coming to the end of his life on this earth. He wasn’t in the same position that the thief on the cross next to Jesus found himself in, who knew his time was up, he knew he had nothing going and so in a last gasp of desperation he called out to Jesus.

This rich, young, ruler, wasn’t desperate and he wasn’t urgent.

This rich young ruler approached Jesus at the “prime of his life”. He had a good job, had lots of money and he was young…….. oh……….to be young……..

And so I tip my hat to this rich young ruler…He didn’t wait until he thought the end was near, he didn’t wait until he found himself in a desperate situation, but he approached Jesus as he was in the prime of his life.

In Ecclesiastes 12:1 king Solomon wrote, “Remember also your creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, “I have no pleasure in them”.

Friends, how precious it is to live for Jesus in the days of your youth?

Sadly, I, like many youths, teenagers, young adults, thought I was missing out on real living by following Jesus, and so I, like many others, walked away from my faith, before God graciously brought me back into the flock. Oh how I wish I hadn’t waisted those days of my youth following this world. I settled for shallow, hollow, cringe worthy things of this world, rather than following Jesus.  I went for the shiny wrapper of this world which just didn’t deliver.

Young people, don’t follow my example of my youth, I waisted it, on things that I thought were awesome at the time, but they weren’t. If you want a fully sick life, follow Jesus (that’s me trying to be cool, but I am simply too old now)

Anyway , back to the story: this rich young ruler, approached Jesus and called him teacher……..teacher…….

Yep, Jesus was and is a teacher, he is the best teacher you will ever learn from. And so this rich young ruler, clearly wanted to learn from Jesus, hence why he called him teacher.

And obviously, Jesus is much more than a teacher……but he is a teacher.

And then this young rich ruler asked Jesus a question which I don’t think he or we fully understand.

He asked “What good deed must I do to have eternal life?”

What sort of eternal life was he thinking about?

Was he thinking about eternal life on this earth?

Was he thinking about eternal life in the next life, whatever that looked like?

I wonder if people still ask this question today?

If people think about living eternally on this earth, I am not sure everyone would ask this question. I know there are many today, who deliberately don’t have any children because they don’t want them to live in this world and so you would assume they wouldn’t want eternal life.

Although, I would assume, I hope most people would still want to live forever, otherwise we wouldn’t have hospitals, medicines, vitamins, gyms, and so on…..people want to prolong life and perhaps most people still would like to live forever.

And so this rich young ruler asked a question that we all perhaps ask ourselves, what is the one thing, the one good thing I can do, which will mean that I will live for ever?

Perhaps if I just eat my vegetables every day, I will live forever.

Perhaps, just one glass of wine a day, I will live forever.

Perhaps, if I just infuse myself with my son’s blood, I will live forever.

Perhaps, if I do something really awesome for my community- re-build the bight bridge, I will live forever.

Perhaps, if I make really big donation to the church, I will live forever.

And so this rich young ruler, who was in the prime of his life, who had all the resources he needed at his finger tips to perform one good, awesome deed, asked a question that we may all ask at some point in our life…..

What good deed, what one thing can I do, which means I will have eternal life?

I know Donald Trump talked a little about this. He calculated that if he could help end the war in Russia and Ukraiane soon and perhaps save thousands of lives, perhaps he could make it to heaven. That would be his one good deed to gain eternal life.

But what answer did Jesus give to this question?……well, Jesus didn’t give him an answer straight away…..but I will………. this is the answer which the scriptures give us again and again.

It is answer that Jesus eventually gets to in verse 26 when he said “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible”

Are you ready, get your pen out, you need to write this down.

What is the one good thing you can do to get eternal life?

Nothing…….

Nothing………

There is nothing you can do to gain eternal life, there is no good work, there are not countless good works you can do to gain eternal life……nothing……it is impossible.

There is no amount of money you can give to charity, there is no great community project, there are no list of rules that you can keep……….all you can do- and I use the words “can do” loosely, is trust that it has all been done for you, at the cross.

Repent and believe that Jesus lived a prefect life of obedience for you, died as a perfect sacrifice to cover your sins and rose again to show us the eternal life we have in Jesus.

Now, even though Jesus didn’t give this answer to this rich young ruler straight away since he really wanted to get to this young man’s heart, Jesus did give a hint that eternal life was not found in any of your good works, but found in Him and Him alone.

Look at the start of verse 17 with me:

And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. 

The rich young ruler asked Jesus what good deed he must do, and Jesus immediately points him, not to a deed, but to a person.

He said only one is good, and that is God.

Jesus was hinting that if this man was seeking what was truly good, he should have been seeking God and not a deed, and ultimately he should have been seeking, Jesus, the one whom is much more than just a teacher but God himself.

Friends, the scriptures remind us, that even our good works, our best works, done with the best intentions, are but filthy rags.

Listen to these words from Isaiah 64:6

We have all become like one who is unclean,    and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.We all fade like a leaf,    and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.

This rich young ruler, who was at the prime of his life, thought that he could achieve eternal life through his righteous deeds.

And Jesus knew this is what the rich young ruler’s heart was harbouring. Jesus knew that this rich young, ruler had pride in his heart, that thought he could save himself, he thought he could gain eternal life by his own efforts, and so Jesus teased this pride out of him.

Look at verses 17-20 with me

If you would enter life, keep the commandments.” ¹⁸ He said to him, “Which ones?” And Jesus said, “You shall not murder, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness,¹⁹ Honor your father and mother, and, You shall love your neighbour as yourself.”

Notice, Jesus didn’t give him the answer straight away- he didn’t say- there is nothing you can do, but he first, exposed his heart.

He told him, if you want to enter life: keep the commandments.

Friends, this is absolutely true, I should have told you this before, not only is there nothing you can do to gain eternal life, but also there is another route you can take- you can keep all of God’s laws perfectly and then you will gain eternal life.

Keep all the 10 commandments perfectly and keep the commandments of Jesus from his sermon the mount, who got to the heart of the ten commandments- just keep all of those laws perfectly and you will gain eternal life.

Now, if you think that is a little overwhelming, let us, as Jesus did, just start with the horizontal laws, the ones where you show love to your neighbour, do not murder, do not get angry with your brother or sister, do not commit adultery, do not lust, don’t steal, don’t even covet what others have, do not lie, do not gossip, do not write nasty things on Facebook, honour your parents, look after them in their older age…..and if you can do that for a starters, then you are on the path to eternal life.

How did you go with that list?

The rich young ruler did alright, he made a quick checklist in his head and ticked them off………yes done………

And it was at that point that his heart was exposed, just look at verse 20

The young man said to him, “All these I have kept. What do I still lack?” 

Not only did Jesus expose his self- delusion- really, he had always kept those laws, really, he never once rolled his eyes at mum or dad, really, he never lied, he never held back the whole truth, really……..surely he was deluded…..but Jesus also exposed his arrogant, proud heart…….because he not only concluded that he had kept all those commands, but he wanted to do something more, something big and awesome which put him a cut above others, something which he could really hang his hat on………,

It was like he said, yes Jesus, I have done all of them, now give me one more big thing, that shows me and the world that I truly am a righteous man.

Friends, we have to be careful when we are thinking about our legacy.

We often want to leave a lasting impression on the world, we want to complete that one big project, we want to write that one great book, we want to do that one big thing, and often we want to do it so that people will remember our name.

Just listen to the words from Isaiah 64:6 again.

We all fade like a leaf,and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.

Friends, I am convinced that the people we meet in heaven, will be people whom we have never heard of in this life. The people who just get about lifting up the name of Jesus while keeping their name quiet. People who just quietly get on with doing good deeds in the name of Jesus without having the spotlight on them.

This rich young ruler wanted to do something great in order to gain eternal life and again Jesus didn’t tell him the answer of NOTHING….., but he actually gave this man what he wanted, he gave him one big grand task he could do to gain eternal life.

Look at verse 21 with me:

Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me

The big task that Jesus gave this rich young ruler to do, was to follow Jesus.

It wasn’t to sell all his possessions and give to the poor, although that was part of it.

The one big thing, he had to do, to have eternal life, was to follow Jesus- and for this rich young ruler, that meant for him, letting go of his other god, which for him was money.

Jesus made it clear that you cannot serve both god and money- you have to choose one.

For the rich young ruler- He chose money, which really exposed where his heart was at.

This rich young ruler wanted eternal life on his terms, he wanted to gain eternal life by keeping the horizontal commands of loving your neighbour, which would have impressed the world, but also by keeping all his wealth and allowing money to be his master.

Now, let us be clear, Jesus doesn’t demand that we all have to sell our possessions and give all our money to the poor, if we want eternal life, although it would be a good practice which the early church practiced, but Jesus does demand this from us this:

if we are to follow him, he wants us to follow him with our whole hearts and that means we give up our idols, be it money, be it career, be it family, be it health, be it whatever, if we are to follow Jesus, he wants us to put him first.

Now as sad as this story was, for this rich young ruler, at least he was genuine.

He never made hollow promises, he chose money and he knew that if he chose money, then he couldn’t wholeheartedly follow Jesus.

Friends, Jesus is all or nothing.

He wants all of you, or he wants none of you, he doesn’t want some half-baked job.

You are in or you are not.

And if you are waiting for some compromise, some kind of it’s ok for you to keep doing that, it’s ok for you to keep serving money and Jesus, because you are the star of the team, because you are so talented and Jesus is lucky to have you, you have so much to offer………then it’s not going to happen.

To follow Jesus will cost you something.

It may cost you your possessions, it may cost you a promotion at work, it may cost you relationships, it may cost you even family, but I hope you can trust Jesus when he tells us in his word, “it is worth it”- it is all worth it, it is eternally worth it”

The reality is friends, those things which we find our temporal joy and satisfaction in now, such as money, such as a house, such as our career, such as our family, none of those things can sustain us eternally, they can barely sustain us in this life.

The reality is, Jesus not only sustains us eternally, but he sustains us now.

We can have Joy, satisfaction, peace in Jesus now, as His Holy Spirit lives in our hearts.

I pray that my Joy, your Joy, will be fixed in Jesus and His Joy will be greater than any other Joy we may experience. And friends, if you find your Joy in Jesus overflowing, it will bring greater Joy to all other areas of your life.

Let us pray.