“Goodness and Perfection”

(Matthew 19:16-22)

Series: God’s Fulfilled Promise [on screen]

Rev. Matthew C. McCraw, EdD

First Baptist Church, Bartow, Florida

March 29, 2020

The Passage

Matthew 19:16-22

16 Just then someone came up and asked him, “Teacher, what good must I do to have eternal life?”

17 “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.”

18 “Which ones?” he asked him. Jesus answered: Do not murder; do not commit adultery; do not steal; do not bear false witness; 19 honor your father and your mother; and love your neighbor as yourself.

20 “I have kept all these,” the young man told him. “What do I still lack?”

21 “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.”

22 When the young man heard that, he went away grieving, because he had many possessions.

Introductory Comments:

I’m so thankful that with the gift of technology we were able to worship together through music. Now, we will worship through the study of God’s Word. 

Open your Bibles or turn them on and find your way to Matthew 19:16-22 as we prepare to study God’s Word. 

In the 1990s Michael Jackson released a song called “Bad.” There’s a music video associated with the song and I enjoy watching it both for musical entertainment and because it’s kind of funny how much is put into the video in order to make Michael Jackson look bad: there’s leather, chains, crazy dancing, and even what looks like will turn into a wild gang fight. However, they all start dancing instead. 

Well, in today’s passage we learn about a man who is asking what it takes to prove, not that he is bad, but that he is good. 

He asks this question of Jesus and Jesus offers two responses.

As we journey in this passage, I want to ask you to pause the sermon video for just a moment and have a word of prayer to ask God to speak to you as we study His Word together. 

(prayer)

I want you to imagine for just a minute that you’re walking up to this man to ask him a question about what it means to be good. Only, you don’t know that this man is not only a wise teacher, he’s not only a moral human being, he’s not just a healer, this man is the only man to have ever lived his entire life while being perfectly good and perfectly righteous. Not only that, this man is actually God. However, you don’t know any of that. 

Well, this is the scene surrounding this wealthy young man’s question that he asks of Jesus.

Let’s look now at these three truths that we will discover:

First, . . .

I. How to be good (vv. 16-19) [on screen]

Let’s look at verses 16-19. 

16 Just then someone came up and asked him, “Teacher, what good must I do to have eternal life?”

17 “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.”

18 “Which ones?” he asked him. Jesus answered: Do not murder; do not commit adultery; do not steal; do not bear false witness; 19 honor your father and your mother; and love your neighbor as yourself.

First of all, this man starts off with this assumption that he can do enough good in order to inherit eternal life. Jesus doesn’t argue that point. Instead, Jesus presents the standard of goodness and then tells the man what he must do to be good. 

Check it out:

Look at verse 17. Jesus says, “There is only one who is good.” Obviously, implying that God alone is good. 

Now, Jesus is not interested right now in pointing out to the man that He (Jesus) is God and is, therefore, good. That’s not His point.

Jesus is giving this man the standard of goodness. God is good. God is the standard of goodness. 

No human being who has ever lived on the planet (except Jesus Himself) is truly good. 

The apostle Paul echoes this sentiment when He reminds us in Romans 3:10, “There is no one righteous, not even one.” [on screen]

King David said of h