Mark 10:13-31 - Accepted Kids and Rejected Politicians

Hello, and welcome back to Tabernacle Talk, the end of another week. And I hope that it's been an encouragement to you.

I know it's been a challenge to me as we've gone through these videos over the past several days. These are the portions of scripture and the portions of Mark's Gospel, where Jesus really differentiates himself.

And he says, I am not just one of the cogs in your religious structure. I'm completely outside of that structure.

I am God alone, and it's my doctrine, my gospel, my thoughts, my ethics that ought to drive your life, not just the religious actions and things that you've been going through.

And nowhere is that more true than here in Mark chapter 10 and beginning in verse number 13. It says this, people were bringing little children to him in order that he might touch them, bless them. But the disciples rebuked them.

When Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, let the little children come to me. Don't stop them because the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.

Truly, I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God, like a little child, will never enter it. After taking them in his arms, he laid his hands on them and blessed them. So here, people have a desire for Jesus to bless their children.

And these are little ones. And the response of the disciples is, no, like Jesus has more important things to do with his time than to deal with little kids. Like he's got to be the one that will tell everyone about his big kingdom and all of that.

The disciples' mindset was these are unimportant to the mission of Jesus. And Jesus, this phrase here, that he was indignant, he was fiercely angry. This is the only time that this particular Greek word is used of Jesus.

That even as he interacts with the Pharisees, as he interacts with the Romans, as he interacts with even some of the foolishness of the disciples, that while Jesus is trying to tell them about his death, burial and resurrection, they're finding about

who's most important. None of those things bring out this response, like a complete dismissal and lack of love for those that frankly couldn't do anything for the disciples. These weren't going to be the people that were bankrolling Jesus' ministry.

These weren't going to be the people that would go and perhaps preach to many, you know, dozens or hundreds of people. These weren't going to be the ones that went back to different political spaces and advocated for certain things.

These were, if you will, I'm putting air quotes here, useless. These were those that could not do anything for Jesus. But Jesus loved them.

He wanted to bless them. He told the disciples the same type of thing that he had told them before, when he had talked about the faith of children, their innocence, the fact that God values them highly.

He says, guys, I literally just talked to you about this. He says, let the little children come to me. Don't stop them because the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.

These kids, the ones that they receive things from others, they receive things from God or their parents without pretense. They're not insistent on maybe having to earn something.

If I give my son a gift, he's not going to say, okay, how much for this? He's not going to say, okay, well, what do I have to do to earn it? He's just going to receive it freely.

And here Jesus says, this is what the kingdom of God is like. It is an open handed joy and delight and freedom to know God and to experience his presence. He says, this is what the kingdom of God is like.

And then he tells them a challenge to the disciples. He says, truly, I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.

He says, there is no salvation for you other than through childlike, innocent, pure faith, a faith that says, God, I don't have any greatness to bring to you. I don't have like a long list of my demands that I demand I be led into your kingdom.

I demand a relationship with you because of this and this and this. He says, it's just simple faith like a child. And verse 16, after taking them in his arms, he laid his hands on them and he blessed them.

Now there's a story that happens from verses 17 and on that is put by Mark here in strong contrast. So you have these little kids being brought to Jesus and Jesus welcomes them in. He says, the kingdom of God belongs to these people.

And then a different type of person, a different approach to Jesus is what we find in verse 17. As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up, knelt down before him and asked him, good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?

From some of the parallel passages in scripture, we would read a few other things about this person. He was a ruler. He was one that had some political power, had people that were under him as subjects.

So he was a ruler. He was a young man. He was not an old man.

I will see as we read through the rest of the passage, if any of that type of thing comes up, I think there is one thing in Jesus' reply to him that necessitates why Mark mentions that he was young. So he was a ruler, he was young, and he was rich.

He had many possessions. So he comes to Jesus, he says, good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And if you've been around Bible Christianity for a minute, the answer is not.

What do I do to inherit eternal life? It's what has Jesus done so that I can have eternal life? Or perhaps as the jailer in Philippi would say, what must I do to be saved?

Like that question. The answer is you don't have to do anything. Jesus has accomplished it all.

What it takes on your end? Repent and believe the gospel. That Jesus's payment for your sin was 100% of what God required.

It's not Jesus and baptism. It's not Jesus and confession or sacraments. It's not Jesus and after everything that you can do, then Jesus covers the end of it.

No, it is salvation by Jesus alone. But this man comes, he says, good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? So then Jesus kind of gets to the heart of what the guy's saying.

He says, why do you call me good? Jesus asked him. No one is good except God alone.

So he addresses the first part of it first. He says, okay, I want you to understand, I am God. Are you intending to call me God?

That is who I am. I'm the son of God. I'm the prophesied son of man from Daniel 7, the one who would reign with God forever.

He says, do you know who I am? Number one. And then number two, then he says, you know the commandments.

Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not defraud, honor your father and mother. So he says, hey, you know the commandments. And he said to him, teacher, I have kept all these from my youth.

I think it is interesting here. He drops the good. He does not call him God.

Before he called him good teacher, Jesus says, good is reserved for God. And so he says, oh, yeah, teacher. I have kept all of these from my youth here.

The fact that he is young might color how he thinks about these things that he goes. Oh, yeah, I've never killed anyone. I've never gone into a marketplace and stolen something.

I haven't committed adultery. I've taken care of my parents, kind of obeyed them as much as I could. I haven't lied in a court of law.

And Jesus, he hears him say these things in verse 21. Looking at him, Jesus loved him and said to him, You lack one thing. I'm sure this gave the man some excitement.

He goes, Oh, great. Awesome. I'm going to have eternal life.

And he says, go sell all you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Basically says, put your treasure on layaway. Don't enjoy it now.

Enjoy it forever. And then Jesus says, then come, follow me. Verse 22, but he was dismayed by this demand, and he went away grieving because he had many possessions.

Then when it came to this man's soul, Jesus knew there is something between my lordship and this man's soul. Something else is in charge, and this man does not want to follow me. He does not want to make me his lord.

His possessions are his lord. And so that's the question that he asks him is, hey, what would keep this man from following Jesus? What would keep him from that relationship with God?

And the answer was his stuff. He loved, perhaps, house or horses or riches or servants more than he loved Jesus. And I'm thankful that God doesn't often ask us that question in the same way of, okay, what do you love most in this world?

And do you love it more than you love me? I'm thankful God doesn't often pose that question to us. But, it is a question that we should consider, that as we look at our life, we ought to ask, is there anything that if God said, give this up for me?

Is there anything that we would say, no Lord, like I'm not going to give that up. I love my house. I love my money.

I love this relationship. I love this job. I love this boat or whatever it is.

I love this thing or this person or this activity too much to give it up. And if the choice is between you and it, I'm choosing it. This is the question that was posed to this rich young ruler.

This is not to be understood in the realm of if you keep all of the commandments and sell all of your possessions, then you can have eternal life. That's not what Jesus is doing here.

Here he's interacting with a particular person, and he brings two things to his attention. Number one, his deity, who he is, and the man's sin. In this case, it was covetousness.

It was greed. It was a love of possessions that far surpassed a love of God.

And so confronted with who Jesus is and what Jesus called him to do, which was to make him his Lord, the man both did not proclaim Jesus as God and did not proclaim him as Lord.

And I'd ask you today, do you view Jesus as God and as your Lord, the one who made you, who created you, who created everything? And do you view him as the one that's in charge of your life?

If you do not believe those two things, that Jesus is God and Lord, then you are not a Christian. You might know a bunch of the Bible.

You might have attended church for decades and decades, but you are not a Christian if Jesus is not your God and your Lord. May we always have a heart that says, I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back.

This young man just wanted Jesus to kind of pat him on the back and say, oh yeah, you're keeping every commandment. Great job. You're awesome with God.

But we can keep all of the ten commandments. Here, I think it is interesting. We can keep kind of that, what's called the second table of commandments.

So all those things that have to do with people. And we can still have idols in our hearts. We can talk with Jesus.

We can learn from him. We can call him our teacher, and yet not have a relationship with him. Verse 23, Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, how hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God.

Here, he's not saying that money literally makes it more difficult for you to enter the kingdom. He's saying people that have riches, they trust in it.

It's a God that when choosing between the invisible God and their visible God of money or possessions or wealth, they often choose the God that they can see. And so he says, man, how hard it is for them to enter the kingdom of God.

Verse 24, the disciples were astonished at his words. This was something that was very new. They viewed wealth as a particular gift of God, that if you were wealthy, it was because God loved you and he had favor for you and he was blessing you.

And that's not how Jesus viewed it. Like he did view it as God had given the wealth, but it was not a sign that there was a relationship with God. It was just a sign of the kindness of God.

Verse 24, again, Jesus said to them, children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God. 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.

Here he says, it is a miracle when a person enters the kingdom of God.

And for those that maybe have built up tremendous idols to their own comfort or security or pleasure or status, it is hard to drag down those idols and say, I'm turning everything over to King Jesus.

And sometimes that might be a literal thing that you give to the kingdom of God. Certainly, we're encouraged to do so all throughout Scripture. But here the thought is, but what is your master?

What are you surrendered to? In the choice between God and money, which one would you choose? And here the camel was the largest animal that there would have been there in Palestine.

It says, man, it is so difficult. Verse number 26, they were even more astonished, saying to one another, then who can be saved? They thought, okay, those with money are the most blessed by God, the ones most highly favored by God.

And if those people aren't the ones that are in closest relationship to God, then who is? Verse number 27, looking at them, Jesus said, with man it is impossible, but not with God, because all things are possible with God. They say, who can be saved?

Who can get eternal life if not the rich? And Jesus says, it's through God. God's the one.

It's that faith, even in verse 24, when Jesus had talked to them initially. He says, children, how hard it is. He's giving them the answers as he's going through.

He says, it's that simple faith. It's not about what you do or what you earn. It's through belief in the God who does the impossible.

Peter, verse 28, began to tell them, look, we have left everything and followed you. So Peter, he's not quite totally there in his thing, but he's part of the way. He knows, okay, well, Jesus, we have left everything and followed you.

This rich young ruler hasn't. So does that mean like we're, are we on the good path or are we going to be saved? Because we did leave everything and follow you.

Truly, I tell you, Jesus said in verse 29, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for my sake and for the sake of the gospel who will not receive a hundred times more.

Now at this time, houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children and fields with persecutions and eternal life in the age to come. But many who are first will be last and the last first.

So here Jesus says, guys, I know that you've given up a lot, but I want you to know that there is a eternal investment portfolio that when the kingdom comes on earth, just like it currently is in heaven, he says you will receive blessings a hundred

times over what you have given. He says in this life, you'll experience some joy, you'll experience some new spiritual family relationships, you'll experience God blessings. He says you'll also experience persecutions.

He says it will come with trouble. He says and eternal life. He says there's going to be a whole mix of good and bad that you receive in this life, but what's coming is eternal reward, eternal satisfaction and joy.

But then he lets him know. But guys, don't think that you're going to be the top dog because I've given the most. He says many that are first shall be last, and the last shall be first.

He says the kingdom of God doesn't work like this world's. It's not hustle culture. It's not what can you earn from God.

He says it's all his grace. That's how he operates. Thank you for tuning in today, and I hope that this word from Mark chapter 10 would challenge you to know Jesus, to have a simple faith in him, to believe in him as God and as your Lord.

May you follow him today. May nothing be as dear or as precious to you as Jesus is. He is worth it all.

And whatever you give up for him, you will gain any turnover reward that is so much better than anything that you left behind. Thanks for tuning in. See you on Monday.