Two Journeys

In 1 Corinthians 9:15-27, Paul teaches the rights and responsibilities of a gospel minister, including financial support as a right and selfless sacrifice and self-discipline as responsibilities.

The post 1 Corinthians Episode 12: The Responsibilities of a Gospel Minister appeared first on Two Journeys.

A call to set our hope fully on the future Kingdom of Christ, desiring deeply the honors and rewards He will give at that time.

Turn in your Bibles to Mark 10: 280-31. You might also want to refer over to Matthew 19: 27-30, the parallel passage. This is a very unusual week for me. Yesterday as I was thinking about the sermon, I felt that I had swung and missed the text, so I did what a lot of pastors do, but I never want to do, which is write Sunday’s sermon on Saturday. I know that that's a common thing, but it's just not... So I don't work well under that kind of stress, but I wanted to go a different direction, but some of the points would be similar.

A week ago, my daughter Jenny sent me a text. She asked if I'd be willing to bring a pack and play to church. That's a portable crib so that they could use it this week. So I texted her and said, "What's in it for me?” Now, my kids know I do this kind of thing from time to time, my wife will ask me a favor and I'll say that, "What's in it for me?" I just like playing with that a little bit. She texted back something like this, "Not much. I'll owe you a small favor within reason." So she gave me a kind of a coupon I can turn in, but nothing big. That's how that went. If you look at Matthew's version of Peter's question, you can hear a kind of an echo there. In Matthew 19:27, Peter answered Jesus, "We have left everything to follow you. What then will there be for us?" Or putting it more personally, “what's in it for me?” That's the name of my new sermon, “What's in it for me?”

It is a little bit shocking because it seems so selfish, so worldly, so mercenary. We feel like we should be at a higher moral level doing everything we do for Jesus without any thought whatsoever of personal benefit, without any thoughts of rewards. Soldiers who fight ardently for love of country are patriots, but soldiers who fight for money are mercenaries. We feel like we're called to a higher level in terms of virtue in our service to Christ, a more perfect standard. As I was reflecting on this, it brought me strongly back into one of the most significant insights of the Christian life I've ever had, that I've ever received from another teacher, another pastor in the word of God or a book that I've ever read. The kind of insight that has the power to change your entire ethic, your entire approach to life.

It has been for me that insight has to do with the combination of my desire, my relentless desire for personal blessedness, personal happiness, something to come to me to make me happy and, as clearly revealed in the scripture, God's relentless desire to be glorified, to be central, to be above all things. The author of this insight, of course, is John Piper book, Desiring God. Peter's desire for reward and Jesus' response in Mark 10 and in Matthew 19 for me was, I don't mean to be facetious, but kind of a portal into Piper. It kind of went through a warm hole as I was riding my bike yesterday back into those themes and what Piper calls Christian hedonism.

Let me walk through the calculus of Christian hedonism. “What's in it for me” reminds me of things I've said often about the flesh, the essence of the flesh, which begins from infancy. Some of you have newborns. I've heard how it's going for you and you are well aware of what I've called that fanatical commitment to self-interest that we see at 3:00 in the morning in an infant that isn't really used to being alive yet and isn't enjoying it. It’s a fanatical commitment to self-interest, and that seems directly contrasted with the call of Christian discipleship.

Christianity seems at least at one level to be all about self-denial. We follow a savior who left the comforts of heaven to come to a cursed planet, to live a life of poverty and sorrow. Who lived every moment to bless other people, then willingly lay down his life even on a cross, even with that exquisite physical suffering and the infinite eternal spiritual suffering of being our substitute, continually saying no to himself. Did He ever ask in any sense “what's in it for me?”?

No. In fact, He called on his disciples, as we've already seen in Mark's gospel, to a life of self denial. Mark 8:34, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross. Follow me for whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life from me and the gospel will save it." At the end of this same chapter, Mark 10, Jesus says, "Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant. Whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the son of man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many."

That doesn't seem like a life of “what's in it for me”, but Jesus gives a rather perplexing answer. It is perplexing at a lot of levels, but right away just the fact that He doesn't rebuke Peter at all. I mean, you think it'd be an opportunity to say “you're thinking all wrong here. What kind of question is that? You shouldn't be thinking about rewards. You should be willing to serve. Leave everything for me and not worry about what's in it for you.” Actually He goes into detail about what the apostles will get having left everything both in this age and in the age to come.

Mark 10: 29-30, “'I tell you the truth,’ Jesus replied, ‘no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields from me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age, homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children in fields, with them persecutions and in the age to come eternal, life.’" It's even more developed in Matthew's account. Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel and everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or mother or father, children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life."

How do we harmonize this? How can we understand this yearning for rewards? What's in it for me? What do I get? A desire, a strong desire for personal blessedness, something to come back to us in the Christian life. John Piper has sought to harmonize these things in Desiring God, indeed in his whole ministry. He puts it this way. There are two irrepressible forces in the universe as we study scripture. First, God's desire for his own glory in all of his creation and in all of his creatures. Second, our desire to be happy. The standard evangelical appeal pits the one against the other as if only one of those two can be fulfilled. It's either we're going to live for the glory of God or we will live for our own happiness, our own blessedness, and we have to make a choice., and pray God, it's the right choice.  Either God gets the glory or I get the joy. Not both. The normal evangelical appeal is will you surrender to God's will for your life? Are you going to keep pursuing your own personal happiness? 

Then there are subthemes in the same kind of approach like Christian worship, like we should all come here on Sunday and say, “Lord, we want you to know this is all about you today. We're here for you. We want to make you central. We want to put you first. It's not about us. We want you to be glorified in my worship today, I don't want anything out of this.” It seems so holy and then also Christian service. When you serve other people, don't ever think what's in it for you. The point is their happiness not yours. You are not the point. Their needs are the point. Our selfish joy and service should never be our goal. Rather, it's an accidental byproduct of a life well lived for Christ. Kind of bump into happiness along the way as you're serving others.

 Piper exposed the fundamental flaw in this. It's deeply flawed actually, and he drew out quotes to help establish it. First of all, on the second desire, the repressible force that we all have to be happy. It's just a fact. We're wired this way. Blase Pascal put it this way, "All men see seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend toward this end. The cause of some going to war and of others avoiding it is the same desire in both attended with different views. The will never takes the least step, but to this object. This is the motive of every action of every man, even those who hang themselves."

He's not saying it’s good or bad, he's just saying it is. It just is what is. CS Lewis in his powerful sermon, “The Weight of Glory” said, "If you asked 20 good men today what they thought the highest of the virtues, 19 of them would reply unselfishness. But if you ask almost any of the great Christians of old, well, he would've replied love." You see what's happened, a negative term has been substituted for a positive. The negative ideal of unselfishness carries with it the suggestion not primarily of securing good things for others, but of going without them ourselves as if our abstinence and not their happiness is the important point. If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit this notion has crept in from Kant in the stoics which is no part of the Christian religion.

In other words, it's like true virtue is making sure you personally derive no pleasure whatsoever from an act. An action is moral only if it's done from effectively sheer duty, disinterested benevolence, disinterest meaning I don't get anything out of it. Benevolence is something good done not for you, but he other person. If you seek, if you desire, or if you should happen to receive any blessing from it, it's actually morally ruined to some degree. Rubbish says John Piper, that's complete rubbish. It's not Christianity. Yes, it is true that God has a relentless desire to be glorified in all his creation and by all his creatures. God created all things for the praise of his glory, and when redemption is finished, the entire universe, the new heaven, new earth, the new Jerusalem are going to be radiating with the glory of God. But our desire for personal delight and happiness is not an enemy to that. Not at all. 

Actually God created it for that. He created that drive for personal fulfillment and pleasure and happiness and satisfaction to find its residence in God. So Piper adjusted the Westminster Shorter Catechism in “What is the chief end of man?” The chief end of man is to glorify God by enjoying him forever. God is most glorified in us when we're most satisfied in him. That's his well-known slogan. The more we say to God, I want you, I want as much of you as I can get. I'm hungry for you. The more God's glorified, especially in worship, the better. I know that sounds all holy and all that, but imagine coming to God and saying, “God, I want you to know I don't really personally have any needs today, but you apparently are kind of needy. You need my worship, so I'm here to give you my worship. Hope you're satisfied with it.” I can see God saying, “Can I just tell you something about what's going on up here in heaven? First of all, before anything was made, I was fine, perfectly blessed within the Trinity. Secondly, I'm made out of fullness, not out of emptiness. I don't need any of my angels or people that praise me, but I just want you to know I got 100 million angels up here who doing a phenomenal job. You guys are pathetic. I don't need you to worship me. You need me and you need to worship me, so come hungry and I'll feed you.” 

That's what true worship is. It's seeking our pleasure vertically in worship is what it's all about. It's saying to God, “You are what I want. You're what I need.” Then horizontally the same thing. It's like, can you imagine serving another person and saying, “I want you to know I get nothing out of this exchange. Hope you're blessed by it.” Piper likens it to an anniversary, like giving your wife flowers and saying that to her, “I want you to know I'm not enjoying this moment at all. I'm not getting anything out of this horizontally. I hope you enjoy the flowers I bought you.” What he calls dutiful roses. That's corrupt. Love is where I find my blessedness in your blessedness, right? I find my happiness in making you happy. It makes me happy to make you happy. It makes me blessed to bless you. That's why I'm a cheerful giver, because I'm excited about blessing you. Vertical and horizontal. That's what we're talking about here.

Rather than being shocked by Peter's question- “We've left everything to follow you. What then will there be for us?” - we should delight in Christ's stunning promises or rewards, both in this life and in eternity. We should yearn for him. We should be yearning for him. We should want as much as He wants to give us in that next world. C.S. Lewis put it this way, “the New Testament does have lots to say about self-denial but not self-denial as an end to itself. We are told to deny ourselves and take up our crosses in order that we may follow Christ and find our lives in him.” It says it right there in that passage and nearly every description of what we shall ultimately find if we do so contains an appeal to desire for us. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered to us like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea.

We're far too easily pleased with what? What are we far too easily pleased with? The answer in the Bible is always the same, idols, creatures, created things going after them as our ultimate purpose in life. That does not satisfy. That's what the rich young ruler was doing. So that's the context.

Let's look at Peter’s question in context. Remember last week, the rich young ruler, seemingly the perfect seeker coming, but he was fundamentally a flawed man. “As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him, fell on his knees before him and said, good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? "Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good except God alone." Then Jesus uses the law of God to expose his need for a savior. “You know the commandments. Do not murder. Do not commit adultery. Do not steal. Do not give false testimony. Do not defraud. Honor your father mother.”Unfortunately, the man thinks he passed all that test. He's basically a good person just needing a little bit more to get him over the hump. "Teacher," he declared, "All these I have kept since I was a boy." Then Jesus probes his soul, searches him. “Jesus looked at him and loved him. ‘One things you lacked, he said. ’Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.’" Based on my introduction of the sermon, that's an appeal to what Piper called Christian hedonism. Give up what cannot satisfy you. Give up what you cannot hold onto to gain something that will bring you eternal happiness.

That's the invitation here, but the man can't take it. He's shattered. He leaves. “His face fell. He went away sad because he had great wealth.” Jesus then seizes the opportunity to teach about the eternal dangers of wealth. Jesus looked around, said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God.” The disciples are amazed at his words, but Jesus said again, "Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God. It is easier for camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." The disciples are doubly stunned by this. They're wiped out by this. It goes against their theology of wealth and blessedness.

They wonder about salvation. The disciples were even more amazed and said to each other, “Who then can be saved? Jesus looked at them and said with man, this is impossible, but not with God. All things are possible with God.” Now Peter steps up and connects the dots. I think he's picking up on the treasure in heaven phrase, the treasure in heaven. He says, "Well, what about us? We've left everything to follow you." Mark just has that simple statement, he doesn't have the rest. “We have left everything to follow,” but there's an implied question, “are we in on that treasure in heaven thing?” Matthew's version is broader. He openly says it. "We have left everything to follow you. What then will there be for us?"

Let's remember how the apostles had in fact left everything for Jesus. He doesn't deny that at all and how significant it was. Remember back in Mark chapter 1, “As Jesus walked beside the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake for their fishermen. ‘Come follow me,’ Jesus said, ‘And I'll make you fishers of men.’ At once they left their nets and followed him. When He had gone a little farther, He saw James, son of Zebedee, and his brother John in a boat preparing their nets. Without delay, he called them and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him." It's a big deal walking away from your livelihood, stepping out in faith to follow Jesus like that.

And Matthew, the tax collector in Matthew 9:9, "As Jesus just went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector's booth. 'Follow me,' he told him. And Matthew got up and followed him.” Matthew walked away from his lucrative tax booth. That took courage and sacrifice. Matthew 8, "A teacher of the law came up to him and said, ‘Teacher, I'll follow you wherever you go.’ Jesus said, ‘Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nest. The Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” “I don't know where I'm going to sleep tonight. I don't know how we're going to eat." Remember how his disciples were walking through the grain fields on the Sabbath and picking heads of grain and rubbing them together in their hands to eat them? Why? Because they were poor. It was a big deal what they did.

All right, so we've left everything to follow you. What then will there be for us? Jesus promises earthly rewards first, and He asserts this with a solemn oath. "Truly, truly. I say to you." He says this a lot, but whenever he says this, it's serious. It's a very serious statement. I'm making a vow to you. Or you can take this to the bank, heaven and earth will pass away, but this promise will never pass away. You can take this to the heavenly bank promising this to you.

Think of an illustration. Imagine the royal prince during a war. He's captured, but he manages to escape and he's being chased. He's a fugitive, making his way through a territory. He comes to a farmhouse where there's a simple peasant who lives with his family. He reveals who he is and asks if he can borrow the family's one horse to ride on and get away from his pursuers. Then he writes the man a note and he signs it and he seals it with his signet ring using wax from the candle on the man's table. He promises not only the return of the family horse, but 20 gold pieces, a change of clothing for everyone in the family, and the permanent status as friend to the royal household. All of that written out, signed with a signet.

Jesus also in his humiliation is speaking of a future time when He will sit on a throne of glory. “I won't look then what like I look now and I'm promising you, and you can take it to the bank.” Mark focuses on earthly rewards initially. "I tell you the truth, no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields from me in the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age." In this present age, homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and fields. Why does He list that? He’s telling them that what they give up, they’re going to get back and 100 fold. This is a promise made to the apostles who have left their home base and have ventured out in faith to serve Jesus and the gospel. And not just them, but 20 centuries of missionaries, of traveling evangelists and servants of the gospel who have physically left places to go. There's a spiritual leaving that I want to talk about at the end of the sermon, but they physically left. I read years ago about John Patton, the missionary from Scotland to the New Hebrides Islands in the South Pacific. In my opinion, he traveled oversea farther than any missionaries ever traveled from his home to his mission site, 13,000 nautical miles. It was a long journey. The parting scene between him and his father is just gut wrenching. His father was an incredibly godly man who deeply loved his children, and his children deeply loved him, and his father walked with him to a point where they had to part and say goodbye. This is the account. It says, 

  "My dear father walked with me the first six miles of the way. His counsels and tears and heavenly conversation on that parting journey are still fresh in my heart as if they had been but yesterday. But tears are on my cheeks as freely now as they were then. Whenever memory steals me away to that scene. For the last half mile or so, we walked together in almost unbroken silence. My father as often was his custom as carrying his hat in his hand while his long flowing yellow hair was yellow then, but later years white as snow streamed like a girl's down his shoulders. His lips kept moving in silent prayers for me and his tears fell fast, when our eyes met each other in looks for which all speech was vain. We halted on reaching the appointed parting place. He grasped my hand firmly for a minute in silence and then solemnly and affectionately said, 'God bless you, my son, your father's God prosper you and keep you from all evil.' Unable to say anymore, his lips kept moving in silent prayer, as tears flowing. We embraced and parted. I ran off as fast as I could and when about to turn a corner in the road where he would lose sight of me, I looked back and saw him still standing with head uncovered where I had left him gazing after me, waving my hat in a due. I was around the corner and out of sight in an instant, but my heart was too full and too sore to carry me further. So I darted to the side of the road and wept for a time. Then rising up cautiously, I climbed the to dike if he yet stood where I'd left him. Just at that moment, I caught a glimpse of him climbing the dike looking out for me, but he did not see me. And after he had gazed eagerly in my direction for a while, he got down and then set his face toward home and began to return there. His head's still uncovered and his heart I felt sure still rising in prayers for me. I watched through blinding tears till his form faded from my gaze, then hastening on my way, vowed deeply and offed by the help of my God to live and act, so I was never to grieve or dishonor such a father and mother as he had given me.” 

I mean, how do you say goodbye like that to go to a mission site? He never saw his father again. That was like a funeral. So what then will there be for us if we do that? If we leave, what will there be for us? If you look at Jesus's promise for the earthly part, it's you will get what you need to do your mission. I think that's what He's saying. You'll get what you need. This is not prosperity gospel stuff. This is not health and wealth, this is not Joel Osteen's Your Best Life Now. We're not going that direction. He's not saying you'll permanently own other people's homes. Instead, it's Hudson Taylor's spiritual secret. God's work done in God's way will never lack God's supply. That's what it is. God's going to give you what you need and He's going to give you encouragement along the way that you're part of a vast family of God and that family is going to take you in and care for you and meet your needs and you will not be at a loss.

That's what He's promising. No one who has left homes or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age, homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, fields, He says. 

This relates I think to the practical promises and preparations made in Matthew 10 when Jesus first sent the apostles out on the first missionary journey. Remember how He said, “Don't take any bag for your journey. Take no tunic or extra sandals or a staff or any bag of gold or silver because the worker's worth is keep. And whenever you go to someplace, find some home there and stay there at that home until you leave. And then at the end of that, he promises rewards for the host family. “Anyone who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a profit's reward. Anyone who receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man's reward. And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones, because he is my disciple, he'll never lose his reward.” So any help given to the traveling missionary and the traveling servant of God gets eternally rewarded.

We have clear examples of this in the Book of Acts. Think about Peter. Remember how Peter had that vision of a sheet let down with all kinds of animals when the messengers were going from Cornelius's house and that was the beginning of the ministry to the Gentiles. Well, he was staying at somebody else's house. Simon the Tanner at Joppa, that wasn't his home. He was up on the roof and he got hungry and they were making him lunch. That was really nice of Simon, the Tanner's wife, to make Peter lunch. That's an example of the very thing we're talking about here, isn't it? Or about Paul? How many times has it happened with Paul, the resources for the ongoing mission are in the mission field itself. Paul goes over to Philippi and there's a rich woman there named Lydia. She hears the gospel. The Lord opens her heart, she comes to faith, and then she invites Paul and his missionary team to stay with her at her estate. Acts 16:15, "When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home. If you consider me a believer in the Lord, please come and stay at my home. And she persuaded us, stay there." That's one of the hundred homes or more, right? It's provision for those that are traveling out doing the gospel work. Or again, Paul in Romans 16:23 says, “Gaius, whose hospitality I and the whole church here enjoy sends, you his greetings." Who's Gaius? I don't know, a host person.

It also extends to family relationship. You leave your mother, you'll get a hundred mothers. You're like, I don't know if I want a hundred mothers or a hundred fathers or a hundred brothers. It doesn't matter. You're going to get them. He says here, Romans 16:13, "Greet Rufus chosen in the Lord and his mother, who's been a mother to me too." So Rufus' mother, Paul's adopted mother. I just picture her making him chicken soup. Rufus' mother, Jesus said, "You'll get a hundred times as much in this present age." I've seen this in my life. My wife and I sold almost everything we owned and went to Japan. And when we got there, we were greeted by Japanese Christians and host people who cared for us. I've seen it in China, I've seen it in Kenya, South Africa, Germany, Poland, Macedonia, Greece, England. That's my story. I've been in so many host families. They've fed me. They've given me their guest room. They've let me use their car. I've seen the promises. In India I stayed at the home of dear Christian family there.

 Now this is general benefit for all Christians. We're part of a universal church, aren't we? We're part of a big family of God. We've got brothers and sisters all over the world. You haven't even met them yet. As soon as you meet them, you're going to find out that they love the same Jesus you do. They read the same Bible you do. You're part of a vast family of God. That's what he's talking about here. Now he also added, and with them persecutions, let's be honest, it's not going to be easy for you as you travel around. With them persecutions, you're going to suffer. You're going to go through very, very difficult times. 

In Matthew’s Gospel, He promises more clearly eternal rewards. In Mark’s gospel He says, “and in the age to come, eternal life.” Let's not minimize that. How could we? What is eternal life? “This is eternal life,” said Jesus, “that they may know you the only true God in Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” You're going to be lavishly blessed in your relationship with God for all eternity. That's what you get. But what else? Stop right there. That's enough. That's God. Remember what God said to Abraham in Genesis 15:1, "Fear not Abraham. I am your shield and your very great reward.” What do I get, God? You get me." Oh, that's enough. And I'll give you some other things too. But the other things aren't the point. You get me in the age to come, eternal life.” 

He does get specific in Matthew's Gospel, in some interesting ways. He says there will be the renewal of all things when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne. The renewal of all things, it's an interesting Greek word, only used twice. A new genesis, a new creation, a new heaven, a new earth. He talks about it in terms of the soul. He washed us with the rebirth and regeneration by the Holy Spirit. That's the conversion [Titus 3]. But here we've got this. "And at the renewal of all things, when the new heaven and new earth comes in and I sit on my glorious throne, then you who have followed me, the twelve apostles will sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel."

What does that mean? I don't know. I'm not preaching on Matthew; I'm just alluding to Matthew today. But I don't know, it's just some kind of... Some people think it's millennial kingdom, some people, it's just positions of honor, positions of authority, positions of glory. That's what you get far beyond anything you ever gave up.

This is part of Jesus's regular pattern of promising rewards. He doesn't just do it once or twice. He does it again and again and again. "Blessed are you, when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad." Why? "Because great is your reward in heaven." Wow. I mean, He goes down to our personal disciplines and our benevolence. When you give to the needy, don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Don't announce it with trumpets. Don't seek horizontal acknowledgement in this world. Don't go after that. But your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. And when you pray, don't announce it and make everyone see how holy you are. Go into your room, close the door and pray to your father's unseen, and your father sees what is done in secret. What does He say? He'll reward you. The same thing with fasting. He'll reward you. He talks about rewards all the time.

He says at the end of the Bible, Revelation 22:12, "Behold, I'm coming soon. My reward is with me and I will give to everyone according to what he has done." If we're not supposed to think about rewards, why does He talk about them so much? He talks about them a lot. He says, "I am coming soon and I'm bringing a huge bag of eternal rewards and I'm going to reward each of you according to how you've lived your life according to your service to me." 

I think we should earnestly desire them. You should say, well, I don't know. Should I be saying what's in it for me? I'm not recommending that you say that, except as a joke, but there's nothing wrong with thinking I am interested, Jesus, in what you have to give me for my life of service. I'm interested in it. Actually, I don't just think it's not like some guilty pleasure. I think it's actually imperative to the way we think about God. Hebrews 11:6 says so. "Without faith, it is impossible to please God because anyone who comes to him must believe that He exists, and that He rewards those who diligently seek him or earnestly seek him.” So you have to believe in a rewarding God. But look at the verse in Hebrews 11:6.

"He rewards those who seek him." He doesn't reward them with something other than himself. He rewards them with himself. We must believe that. Therefore, desiring rewards is only mercenary if it's somehow disconnected from the thing itself. C.S. Lewis put it this way, "A woman who marries for money is mercenary because money is not the natural reward of love. But a woman who marries because she expects that the man who will become her husband will make her happy and bring her lasting joy in multiple experiences of love is not mercenary. That's the essence of why you get married."

In fact, it is actually wrong to serve Christ and say, “I don't care what you give me" when He has made these promises of lavish reward, that's actually wrong. Just as it is wrong for a person about to get married to say to their prospective spouse, I want you to know I don't care if you make me happy in our future marriage. That doesn't matter to me. Even if I knew that our marriage would make me miserable for the rest of my life, I would go ahead and marry you. I'd be like, what's wrong with you? That's twisted. I'm not going to say that to Jesus. “I don't care, Jesus, if you make me happy, if I follow you, I don't care if I'm eternally unhappy. I'm still going to follow you.” That doesn't make any sense. It's not the way the New Testament's written. Not at all.

So we therefore should want the reward. We should actually store up as much of the reward as we possibly can. “Do not store up treasure on earth where moth and rust destroy and thieve break in and steal, but store up treasure in heaven where moth and rust do not destroy and thieves do not break in steal. Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” You're supposed to store up treasure and you're supposed to have your heart there and think about it. 

What are the rewards? There are three Cs - crowns, commendation, and capacity. I’m just going to go over this quickly. First of all, crowns. It's like you’re getting a crown? Maybe, I don't know. I don't know about each of you individually. If any of you individually comes to me and says, “Do you think I'm getting a crown?” I will say, I don't know. But there are crowns and what are they? Emblems of honor for faithful and courageous service to Christ. Like in Revelation 4:4, "Surrounding the throne were 24 other thrones and seated on them were 24 elders. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their head." So there they are, crowns, emblems of honor, connected in some way to them, to their person. Or again, Paul in First Thessalonians 2 said, "For what is our hope, our joy, or the crown in which we will glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he comes? Is it not you? You are my crown,” he said to the Thessalonians. He led them to Christ. He planted that church. "You are my glory and my joy." He said the same thing to the Philippians. "Therefore my brothers, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown." That is how you should stand firm in the Lord, dear friends. The people you lead to Christ, they are your crown. The people you serve. You help plant a church, that's a crown. Pastors, elders. Peter says, who've served faithfully as under shepherds, under the good shepherd, the chief shepherd. It says, when the chief shepherd appears, First Peter 5:4, "You'll receive a crown of glory that will never fade away."

Peter wrote that to motivate elders and pastors to serve faithfully because they're going to get a crown of glory that'll never fade away if they do. I know that those 24 elders were casting their crowns down constantly before the throne of God and of Christ. That's their way of saying, everything I have received and achieved came ultimately from you and by your grace for your glory. All of my crowns are a subset of your glory. That's how it's married together. It's not a separate thing, but crowns.

And then commendation. What's that? Praise from God that God would speak well of what you did in your life. Most famously, in Matthew 25, his master replied, "Well done, good and faithful servant. You've been faithful with a few things. I'll put you in charge of many things. Enter into the joy of your master. Well done, good and faithful servant." That's commendation from almighty God. Or 1 Corinthians 4:5, says, "Judge nothing before the appointed time. Wait till the Lord comes. At that time, the secret motives of men's hearts. All of that will be revealed and at that time, each will receive his praise from God." Those three words, “praise from God.” I know heaven's all about praise for God. And well it should be. We're going to praise God, but there is praise from God should you want that. I'm asking brothers and sisters, should you want God to praise you? You actually should. You should want him to say, well done, good and faithful servant. You should want him to honor you. You should want him to praise you because He won't do it amiss. He won't do it lightly. It will be so meaningful to you to have your Father express pleasure in how you lived your life. Praise from God. That's commendation. 

Then finally, capacity. This is the hardest to understand, but I think it's true. God is infinitely glorious. No creature can fully take him in. But the more faithful you serve in this life, the more of his heavenly glory you will be able to understand and take in. How do I think this way? I think of God's glory as an infinite ocean. All of us are like vessels or various volumes, like a thimble, a cup, a bowl, a bucket, a vat, a super oil tanker, different volumes, but the ocean's infinitely greater than any of them. All of them 100% full, But they just have different capacities. So when He says, “Well done, good and faithful servant, you've been faithful with a few things. Now I'm going to put you in charge of many things. Enter into the joy of your master.” What He's saying is, “share my joy together. I want you to feel my joy of the service you've rendered. I want you to come into me and experience my joy and my delight." In Luke 6:38 it says, "Give and it will be given to you. A good measure, press down, shaken together, running overly poured into your lap. With the measure you use, it will be measured to you."That's where I get the different volumes. 

What's poured into our lap? What is the reward? It's God. You get more of God and He always has more to give you. So how much of God do you want in heaven? That's the question. There's going to be some judgment day surprises. Look at verse 31, "Many who are first will be last and last, first." People we thought were great, maybe weren't as great as we thought they were, and some obscure brothers and sisters are going to be elevated like the widow that gave the copper coins. Jesus said what? She put in more than anyone. Many who are first will be last and last, first. Therefore, Paul says in First Corinthians 4:5, "Judge nothing until the appointed time.” Wait till the day, and at that point, we'll find out. George Whitfield, one of the greatest preachers of all time, wanted this to be his epitaph on his tomb. He said, "Here lies George Whitfield. What sort of man he was the great day will discover." That's pretty simple. In other words, here lies George Whitfield, what he was like you'll find out on Judgment Day. That's the point, the final day will reveal how we actually serve the Lord. 

First and foremost, if you're an unbeliever, you walked in here as an unbeliever, it's not for you to be storing up treasure. The Bible actually reveals if you're not yet a Christian, you're storing up wrath every day, so come to Christ, trust in him. Trust in his precious blood. This is what He says to you in John 6. When you come and ask him, what must we do to work the works of God? This is the work of God: to believe in the One He has sent. Believe in Jesus.

Then you can start storing up treasure in heaven. For you Christians, I would just say in your own way, say “what's in it for me? Help me to understand heavenly rewards and store them up. Help me to store up as many as possibly can.” 

I want to speak specifically about the dynamic here of leaving things for Jesus. Some of you will be called, and you don't even know it right now, to leave your home, your country, your family, your friends, and go somewhere overseas, some other place to serve Christ. You're going to be called to do something you never thought you could do. Drink in the promises here. God will take care of you. He will meet your needs. Do not be afraid, but step out in faith to go do great things for God. He will provide for you. God's work done in God's way will never lack God's supply. He will take care of you. Most of us are not going to be called on to leave our familiar surroundings, but we are to live lives of aliens and strangers in this world, to venture out by faith in serving him. Some of us, some in this church are going to leave this church in the next year to go church-plant. You're going to join our church-planting effort. You're going to stop coming here on Sunday mornings and go to another place. It's not because I hope you don't like us, it's because God's calling you to do a work, to venture out. Be willing to do hard things, be willing to venture out, be willing to risk things in your service to Christ.

 Close with me in prayer. Father, thank you for the time we've had to walk through this deep, powerful, complex topic. I thank you for the truth of the word of God. Help us, Lord, to seek your glory, to seek you as hungry and thirsty. You are our God. Earnestly, we seek you. We desire you as in a dry and weary land. You are all we need, all we want, and that we would go after you. Fill us, oh Lord, with a yearning to store up treasure in heaven. Treasure being intimacy and closeness with God and with Christ. Help us to be willing to risk things or be willing to go places we never thought we could go and do things we never thought we could do to serve you. In Jesus name. Amen.

What is in following Christ for us? We should deeply desire the honors and rewards promised in the future Kingdom of Christ.

The post What’s In It For Me? (Mark Sermon 51) appeared first on Two Journeys.

In 1 Corinthians 9:1-14, Paul teaches that churches should be willing to pay their gospel ministers for their hard labor.

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Pastor Andy Davis refers to John Owen's work to explain the connection between mortifying the deeds of the body and living in Romans 8:13.

The post Class in Romans: Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers appeared first on Two Journeys.

Jesus probes a man's soul and exposes his idolatry, but if God transforms the heart, the impossible becomes possible and accomplished.

Turn in your Bibles to Mark, chapter 10. We continue our account here, in verse 17 through 27. On November 8th, 1895, German physics professor Wilhelm Röntgen stumbled on x-rays while he was doing some experimentation on electrical tubes that were emitting radiation. Soon after he discovered these x-rays, he discovered the medical application, when he made a ghostly picture of his wife's hand on a photographic plate. The next century saw the explosion of non-invasive medical diagnostic devices and techniques, such as MRI, CAT scans, ultrasound, EKG, EEG, infrared imaging, and the like. Just ask my daughter, "What's that device that they roll you in and they surround you, and you're like claustrophobic?" She said, "That's the MRI. Oh yeah, I remember that.” Perhaps you've been through that experience. Non-invasive means that the body is not being cut, but something is passing through the body, able to give the physicians a sense of what's going on inside.

I have a sense of that happening in our text today. Jesus is the great physician of the soul. In Revelation chapter one, He is depicted as, radiantly glorious in his resurrection glory and having eyes of blazing fire. Eyes of blazing fire. The apostle John said, "When I saw him, I fell at his feet, as though dead." Jesus, very incisively, in Revelation 2 and 3, looks at the seven churches and seems almost to look right through them, and understands what's happening in the hearts and minds of each person. Now, Jesus, as the physician of the soul, says in Luke 5, "It's not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick. I've not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."

In today's account, we see Jesus looking right through the rich young ruler, perceiving what his genuine spiritual sickness was, probing to the very core of his corruption. And in so doing exposes, I think, one of the most common idols there is in the world, greed, materialism, lust for money, a common problem. But more generally, this morning, we have the opportunity effectively to lie under the eyes of blazing fire ourselves, and allow Jesus to look right through us and tell us what's wrong with us.

Perhaps no passage captures this process better than Psalm 139, 23-24, "Search me, oh God, and know my heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there's any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." That's after the psalmist said, you already do that. "Oh Lord, you have searched me and you know me." But he's inviting God to do that, he’s asking for it. For us to go to Jesus and say, "Would you please look at me? Look right through me with those eyes of blazing fire. Show me what is wrong with me.” Especially on this issue of materialism, of greed, to have that exposed is painful but necessary. To see ourselves in this rich young ruler, to realize that Jesus is demanding that we lie under his penetrating gaze.

If you look at the text, three times in the text, it is said that Jesus looked at someone. Verse 21, "Jesus looked at him and loved him." Verse 23, "Jesus looked around at his disciples and said." Again in verse 27, "Jesus looked at them and said." Three times, it's this idea of Jesus looking. I don't think it's an accident. It's a sense of the holy gaze of Almighty God, of Jesus, looking right at us.

Is there anyone here who's willing to make a statement like this? “I thank you, God, that I don't struggle with materialism. I thank you, God, that I look on my money exactly how you want me to look at it. I thank you, God, that I don't have a problem with greed. I don't suffer from that central idol there is in the human right. I thank you, God, that I'm not like others.” Is anyone here that wants to make that statement? I know I don't. So we need to allow Jesus that time to search us now in the text, to look at us and to look right through us. 

We see it in the account of a seeker, a so-called perfect seeker, who approaches Jesus. All of us have a desire, a hope to be evangelistically active. Some of us might say, "Oh God, bring me someone just like this." I mean, talk about low hanging fruit. This is the perfect seeker, right? What made him seem like the perfect seeker? First of all, he's rich. We want the rich people to come. He had great wealth [verse 22]. Think of all the poor people he'd be able to help, all the missionaries he could send out, the church budget, he could support with his finances.

He was young. In Matthew 19:22, He calls him a young man, he had years ahead of him. All that youthful zeal, and energy, and health, and the vigor of his life still laying ahead of him, most likely. We're told in Luke 18:18 that he's a ruler, “A certain ruler came, and asked him, ‘Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’" He has a position of influence with which he could use to shape and mold the future direction of his community. He's a rich young ruler. Also, he's pious. He's deeply concerned about his soul. He says he's kept all of God's commandments from childhood. We'll get back to that in a moment. 

 He was seeking. He feels there's something missing in his life. He's not satisfied with his life or with his piety. He says, "What must I do to inherit eternal life, or what do I still lack?" Usually, a rich, young, powerful individual like this, doesn't feel that they have any lack. They have the world by the tail and feel very comfortable with where they're at in life, not this man.

He's respectful, even worshipful toward Jesus. Look at verse 17, "He fell on his knees before him and said, good teacher.", et cetera. He's not ashamed to be seen with Jesus. We don't know when it happened, but somewhere in here, the Jewish authorities, religious authorities, decided that if anyone said Jesus was the Messiah, they'd be put out of the synagogue. Nicodemus came to Jesus at night, not wanting to be seen. This man has no concern about that. He openly falls down in front of Jesus, not ashamed. He's eager for eternal life. His eyes are on eternity. He's wise enough, finally, to come to Jesus for answers on this. There’s no better source of wisdom.

There's so many things about it. He seems to be exactly the kind of person we'd want to talk to about spiritual things, right? But Jesus takes a very surprising approach with this man. Like I said, he seems to be low hanging fruit. That shows how wrong we can be about people. 1 Samuel 16:7 tells us, "The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart.” We see that, don't we, in this text? We see Jesus looking at this man's heart, and finding a serious problem there. Randy Alcorn, in his book, Money, Possessions, and Eternity, talks about this exchange, of this encounter. 

"We would certainly handle the situation differently.", Alcorn writes. “First, we would probably commend the rich young ruler for his interest in spiritual things. Then we might tell him, just believe, that's all. Just ask God into your life. You don't really have to do anything. When he said, "Okay, I believe.", which no doubt he would since it cost him nothing, we would consider him at that moment a follower of Christ. Think how blessed we would feel knowing that God's kingdom was greatly enhanced by the conversion of this well-known wealthy young man. Soon, there would be articles and books about him. He'd be on TV and radio talk shows. He'd be put on mission and church boards. He'd speak at rallies, and receive invitations to share his testimony in churches and conferences across the country, likely making him a richer young ruler. Notice that Jesus didn't tell the young man to give 10% to the poor. If he was truly an obedient Jew, he already did that. Neither did Jesus say, set up a trust fund, keep the principle intact and give the interest to the poor. The young man would gladly have done that. Instead, Jesus stopped him dead in his tracks by telling him to ‘give up everything and follow him.’”

So at least a sidebar here is, we need some help on our evangelism. We need to learn how to handle people differently. Jesus must perform deep surgery on this man's soul, in order to bring him to salvation. He must expose and excise the idol of greed in his heart, and even deeper than that, he had to show him his corruptions and his deep need of salvation. 

He begins by attacking this man's conception of goodness. “Good teacher," [verse 17], he asked, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’" We throw this word “good” around all the time. He's a good man, we say very easily. In one of these accounts, he also speaks of good deeds for salvation. Matthew 19:17, "Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?" So putting it all together, what good deed must I do to get eternal life? It's rich in the word “good.”

One of the most common misconceptions that people have, is that they can earn salvation by their good works. That they can pay for their sins by doing good things that God will be impressed with. The concept is that if our good deeds outweigh our bad, then we'll go to heaven. It's a complete lie from Satan. There are fundamental problems with it across the board. So Jesus has to address his conception of goodness and ours too. "Why do you call me good?", Jesus answered. "No one is good, but God alone."

First of all, Jesus is not claiming there, to not be God or to not be good. He asked him, why do you call me good? Jesus is good, perfectly good, and He is God. But that's not it. He's not saying I'm not God, and He's not theological nitpicking. He's actually going to the core of this man's conceptions and corruptions, and also ours. We tend to think of ourselves as basically a good person. Would you call yourself basically a good person? You could imagine talking to somebody about that, and they'd probably say, "Yes, I'm a good person. I occasionally do some things that are grossly out of character. I mean, from time to time,” they would say, "But I'm basically a good person.” What do you think that's going to look like on Judgment Day? Basically a good person? What a lie. As though we're 98% there, and just need a little more to get us over the hump. Do you get the sense this rich young ruler feels that about himself? He’s mostly there? Is there something I lack, some last thing, that could polish it up, like put a ribbon on the box, finish it off, something like that? 

But the goodness that Jesus conceives of here, I could think of in terms of perfect purity, an absolute perfection of character. That's how Jesus is conceiving when He says no one is good but God alone. I think of it in terms of like 1 John, 1:5, "God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all." I think that's the way Jesus is thinking about goodness here. God is pure goodness. I don't think there's anything wrong with using the word good the way we usually do, the Bible does. It speaks of Barnabas as a good man full of the Holy Spirit. There are other verses that use it, but here Jesus is zeroing in on that sense of perfect purity. God is light and in him there's no darkness at all, and no one is good, but God alone. What that means then is, that none of our works are good. Not really.

Picture in your mind, a pig farmer coming in from mucking out the pigsty. He's caked in nasty smelling mire from head to toe. Imagine coming in like that, and offering to help his wife by folding the laundry or cook dinner, or iron her clothes for Sunday morning. Or wrapping a gift that they're going to give for a wedding reception that evening, or doing anything at all. Do you even want him in the house? Picking up and fondling his kids, picking up their toddler and hugging him or anything at all? How disgusting. He can't help but soil everything he touches with his filth.

That's what the Bible says of us, when it comes to our good works. Very famously, Isaiah 64:4, "All our righteous acts are like filthy rags." They are all defiled by us. We defile everything we touch. Jesus is saying to this prideful man who thinks of himself as basically good, the standard for heaven is perfection, perfect goodness, and you don't have it. The only ones then, who will be welcomed into heaven, are those who know that they don't have perfect goodness, who are spiritual beggars. As Matthew 5:3 says effectively, "Blessed are the poor in spirit." Blessed are the spiritual beggars, for theirs of the kingdom of heaven. We're not standing there saying, "I thank you, God, that I'm so good."

We see how Jesus wisely deals with each person according to their needs, which He alone knows. He doesn't deal with everyone the same way. There's not a cookie cutter approach to evangelism. For example, in John 6, when a crowd comes to Jesus, and asks him basically, the same question, "What good deeds must we do to get eternal life?" The very common questions, the way people tend to think. Jesus said, "The work of God is this, that you believe in the one he sent." It's a different approach there. Same doctrine, but he just handles people differently.

In this case, what Jesus does is, He applies the law. He takes the law of God and applies it to this man. He needs to humble him and show him his need for a savior. I don't think this man thinks he needs a savior, and so, he takes the law and he applies it. That is the purpose of the law, to show us our need for a savior, to expose our corruptions. So in verse 19, Jesus says, “You know the commandments. Do not murder. Do not commit adultery. Do not steal. Do not give false testimony. Do not defraud. Honor your father and mother.” So just pause, just a lesson for evangelists, which should be all of us. Use the law of God to show people their sins, and in order to use it, you have to know it.

I would commend that you memorize a simple listing of the Ten Commandments. Memorize also, the two Great Commandments. The ten and the two get the job done. Especially, Jesus's commentary on some of the Ten Commandments in his Sermon on the Mount, which He'll mention in a moment. That law, the Ten Commandments, and then his summary of all the laws, the two commandments, will catch every sinner, if you know how to use it, and we need to be able to do this. We need to do law work. The Puritan's called it law work. Without that law work, people will not seek a savior. They'll not seek salvation. They don't think they need it.

It says in Romans 3:20, "Therefore, no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law, rather through the law we become conscious of sin." Through the law we become conscious of sin. That's what the law does. Notice that Jesus zeroes in on the horizontal laws. I find that interesting. He goes horizontal, “the love your neighbor as yourself” aspect, not vertical, “love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength”. He's just very wise. He knows what He's doing. He goes horizontal with this man.

Four of the laws come from the Ten Commandments, “Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.” Those commandments come from the Ten, but one of them do not. Defraud does not. Where's that come from? That's an interesting addition. Please don't imagine Jesus didn't know the Ten Commandments. He knew the Ten Commandments very well, and He doesn't say, "Let me quote the Ten Commandments." He doesn't say, "By the way, this is coming from the Ten Commandments." He just quotes them. But He says, "Do not defraud." I wonder why He adds that in with these other very famous laws, which do come from the Ten Commandments. It is possible that this guy got rich by dealing improperly with other people in business dealings, that he is defrauding people. It is possible.

If you look at that list, is it really possible that he has perfectly kept all those commandments? Can we even imagine that that could possibly be true? But this is exactly what he says. Look at verse 20, "Teacher, all these I have kept since I was a boy." Wow. The Jews of that time tended to look on the laws, something that you could keep. It was an external standard that only the worst people violated. The religion of the Pharisees and the Scribes was of this sort, the whitewashed tomb religion that was external. This rich young ruler really did believe that this was true. He actually felt he had kept these commandments from childhood. But think carefully, had he perfectly obeyed these?

Look at the one that says, honor your father and mother. Let's zero in on that one. Should we bring in mom and dad? Should we talk to them about how it was with this rich young guy when he was growing up? Perfect? Besides which, what part of your body do you use to honor, to honor your father and mother? It's done in the heart. It's a heart religion. Like the tenth commandment, which He just doesn't list here, but He's going to get to, “you shall not covet.” What part of your body do you use to do that? It's your heart. Jesus knows very well that these commandments are meant to search our hearts, not just our external behavior. Jesus takes these, this heart focus, and applies it to murder in the Sermon on the Mount. “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not murder.’, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment. But I tell you, that anyone who is angry will be subject to judgment.” You've murdered with your heart. How many times have you done that, murdered somebody in your heart? “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery. But I say to you, that if you even look at a woman lustfully, you've committed adultery in your heart.’”

 Is Jesus wrong to go so far with the law? No. The 10th Commandment, coveting, is a heart prohibition. It's a heart issue, so is honoring. Honoring your father and mother is something you do with your heart. He's just being consistent, and they were being inconsistent thinking they could obey, “you shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery”, just by external patterns. This guy thought he had them. But did he have, as Psalm 24 says, “clean hands and a pure heart”? Who may ascend the hill of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? Who has clean hands, that's right behavior, and a pure heart? That's how Jesus applies the law.

I would say in your evangelism, you need to do the same thing. Probe their heart with the law. Use the Ten Commandments and Jesus’ legal opinion on the Ten Commandments. Would you say that Jesus' legal opinion on the Ten Commandments is relevant to you? It is, because He's the judge that will be sitting on your case, and his definition of the law matters, because He's going to be evaluating His law, his way, and He's looking at your heart. Jesus can do that. Jesus has this ability. He has this spiritual diagnostic, these eyes of blazing fire, not X-rays, not MRI, not CAT scan, not ultrasound, just His eyes. He just looks at you, and He knows you.

Remember in John 1, that encounter with Nathaniel? When Jesus saw Nathaniel approaching, he said, "Now here is a true Israelite in whom there's no guile." There's no treachery. No trickery. "How do you know me?", Nathaniel asked. "I saw you while you were under the fig tree." Whoa. I looked at you and I know you, eyes of blazing fire. It says later in John 2, that Jesus would not entrust Himself to all these people that were coming clamoring after Him at the feast. He would not entrust himself to them, because He knew all men. He didn't need man's testimony about man, because He knows what's in a man. How? By looking at them. So Jesus, by looking at this man, knows him.

Jesus decides to work with him. Look at verse 21, "Jesus looked at him." Again, that significant phrase, but then He says, "and loved him." Jesus looked at him and loved him. "One thing you lack.", He said, "Go sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come follow me." I find the statement, Jesus looked at him and loved him, to be amazing and significant. It connects with what I just said. Jesus knows a person's true state, true heart condition, eyes of blazing fire. It also is significant to me, that it says Jesus loved him. Jesus doesn't just throw around His love. This actually gives me hope for this man. Though I have no proof at all that the man later changed his mind, it's always possible, isn't it? Even in our text here, Jesus is ultimately hopeful. He doesn't end hopeless, He ends hopeful. With man, this is impossible, but not with God. With God, all things are possible. That's a very positive ending to this story. I have some hopes. Maybe we'll find this rich man in heaven, having later repented of his sin and walking away from Jesus. I'll circle back on that more in a few moments.

He gives this diagnosis, “one thing you lack.” We should not imagine the only thing he lacked, but it's the key issue. He's going to go to the key issue, “one thing you lack.” You lack faith enough to love God with your possessions, and to love your neighbor with your possessions. That's what you lack. Your fundamental problem's a lack of faith, and then He gives this shocking command, “Sell everything you have and give to the poor.” His materialism is essentially selfish, horizontally toward the poor, and even worse, vertically toward God. It's idolatrous.

Greed is idolatry [Colossians 3:5]. This command is similar to the treasure hidden in the field. Remember, the man went and sold everything he had and bought the field, or the pearl of great price. That man sold everything he had to buy that one pearl. It's also clearly related to the call, the general call of discipleship, which Jesus gave in Mark 8:34 through 37, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it." What good would it be for a man if he should gain the whole world and lose his soul? Or what could a man give in exchange for his soul? It's the same thing. You've got to give up worldly things and follow me, and He makes him a promise. If you do that, if you sell everything you have and give to the poor, you'll have treasure in heaven. How beautiful is that? What is that? What is that, “treasure in heaven”? I don't know. But it sounds good, doesn't it? That sounds like something we should want. I'm going to talk about it more, God willing, coming up, not in this sermon, but just beautiful treasure in heaven.

He's kind of calling this man's bluff. “You really care about inheriting eternal life, things in the future? Okay, let's go with it. Sell everything and you'll have it. You'll have something you can inherit eternally, treasure in heaven. Then, come follow me. So you'll get treasure in heaven, where moth and rust do not and thieves do not break in and steal. That treasure will be with you for all eternity.” As Randy Alcorn said about money, you can't take it with you, but you can send it on ahead. I love that. So you'll have treasure in heaven. Then, the beautiful invitation, “come follow me.” The real treasure is intimacy with Christ, a relationship with Christ, an exciting lifetime of following Christ, "Come, follow me". 

But then the man made that tragic decision, he became despondent. He became dejected. There's different translations. His face fell. He was sad. “And he went away sad, because he had great wealth.” Now, this is the opposite of the guy with the treasure hidden in the field. Remember, he in his joy sold everything he had and bought the field. This guy is the opposite. Why? Why is he sad? I mean, he's getting what he wants, right? But it doesn't make him happy. He's holding onto his money, but he is not happy with it.

He was forced, by Jesus, to make a choice. No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money [Matthew 6:24]. He forced this guy to choose, and he chose money, and that was sad, it's tragic, and the fact that he went away is even more tragic. It's one thing to be sad and effectively say like that man did, "I do believe, help my unbelief." I want to do it. Help me. Help me do that. That's hard. It's a hard ask. He doesn’t, do that, no. Instead, he walks away.

Now, as I said, is it possible he later changed his mind went? Jesus told a parable about that. There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, "Son, go and work in the vineyard." "I will not", he said. But later, he changed his mind and went. Then he went to his other son and said, "Son, go and work today in the vineyard." "I will, sir.", he said, but he did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father? That's the whole parable, the parable of two bad sons. It's not a great parable. We don't look good in that parable. It's like, which am I? Which would you rather be? But he did ask in the end, which did the will of the father? So I have at least some hopes, that this guy had time perhaps to change his mind. Many assume that this rich young ruler's in hell now, because of his bad choice, and he may well be. But in that Jesus looked at him, and loved him, and spoke so hopefully about God's power to change people's hearts, I have at least some hopes.

Then Jesus teaches us about wealth and salvation. Jesus looked around and said to His disciples, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God." The disciples were amazed at His words, but Jesus said again, "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 man to enter the kingdom of God." The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, "Who then can be saved?" Jesus looked at them and said, "With man, this is impossible, but not with God. All things are possible with God.”

This is a teachable moment. He wants to address their faulty views of worldly wealth. First of all, again, He looks around at them with that penetrating look, the eyes of blazing fire, “search me, oh God, and know me.” Jesus is looking right at them. Then He teaches on the difficulty of the rich entering the kingdom of heaven. Now, why? Why is it hard for the rich? Hard, difficult, significant obstacles, Jesus is saying. Why is that? Money is a substitute savior. That's what an idol is. It's a substitute savior. It's a counterfeit God.

Why do I say that? Rich people trust in their money rather than God to protect them from harm, it gives them security. Rich people delight in their money rather than God, it gives them pleasure. Rich people focus on getting more money rather than seeking God, it gives them purpose. That's what an idol is, something that gives you security rather than God. Something that gives you pleasure rather than God. Something that gives you life, direction, and focus, rather than God. And money is the number one thing there is like that in the world. So rich people often think they don't need anything else. As Jesus said to the people of Laodicea, in Revelation 3, "You say, ‘I'm rich. I've acquired wealth and I don't need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked."

The disciples are shocked. They're stunned. Like most Jews of their day, and we saw this in the Book of Job, they assume that material prosperity is a surefire sign of God's blessing. So the wealthier you are, the more blessed by God you are. Jesus actually seems to say the rich people are in a worse condition. It's harder for them. And when they're stunned by this, Jesus double down. "Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God, it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." Now, some preachers have sought to explain this and reduce its impact. One theory is, that there was a particularly narrow gate in Jerusalem called the Eye of the Needle, that a camel could get through, only if it unloaded all its pack and stooped down. But there's literally, no archeological evidence that such a gate existed. Furthermore, it makes no sense. There's like 14 gates into Jerusalem. If you're a merchant, are you going to take the time to unload your camel, and get your camel to crawl through this tiny gate? Go around to a big gate. You don't have time for that.

Another theory is that it's a mistranslation. The Greek word for camel is kamílos, and the Greek word for rope, rope or cable is kamílos. As if the idea is you have to pair down the rope strand by strand until at last, it can fit through the eye of the needle. Where do people come up with this stuff? Jesus is not talking here about something that's difficult. He actually is talking about something that's impossible. So just stick with that. It's impossible.

The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, "Who then can be saved?" If rich people can't be saved, who can be saved? Jesus looked at them again, that third time in the text it says, looked at them. Jesus looked at them and said, "With man, this is impossible, but not with God. All things are possible with God." Only by God's transforming, supernatural, sovereign grace, and energetic work in your soul, will you be saved. That's true of everybody, rich and poor alike, everybody. There is no one righteous, not even one. No one who understands, no one who seeks God, they all have turned away. They have together become worthless. There is no one who does good, not even one.

That goes back to my earlier statement. If my good deeds outweigh my bad. . .. You don't have any good deeds of yourself, none. There's no one. That's Romans 3, 10-12. Therefore, it is impossible to come to God unaided. Jesus said it in John 6:44, "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him." It's impossible. No one just ups and decides, I'm going to come to Jesus. It just doesn't happen. However, when God works on you, when God grabs hold of you with a grip of his sovereign grace, determined to save you, you can't not come to Jesus. You're going to come. He says in John 6:37, "All that the Father gives me will come to me." So it is impossible to come if the Father doesn't draw you. But if the Father draws you, it's impossible not to come.

Though it is hard, in one sense in the text, even impossible, in another sense in the text, for the rich to be saved, God is able to work the change in human hearts, so they can see the emptiness of wealth and turn away from it toward God and toward Christ. Friends, didn't that happen with Zacchaeus? Isn't that exactly what happened with Zacchaeus? Wasn't he every bit as covetous? Wasn't he swindling people and defrauding people, and using the power of Rome behind him to take from his neighbors? And didn't salvation come to that house that day? Jesus said it did. That's good enough for me. So it is possible for a rich person to turn away from the wealth, and to trust in Christ. Has this happened to you? Has the grip of sovereign grace taken hold of your heart, driven out idols and made you focus on Christ as your true treasure? Have you been saved through faith in Christ, knowing you don't have any good works? Knowing you have no other hope. Have you trusted in Christ for the salvation of your soul?

The lessons come from this. Just look at the phrases and let's learn the lessons. First of all, no one is good, but God alone. Understand the depravity, the natural depravity of your own heart and of human hearts. No one is good, but God alone. Understand the perfect moral beauty of God. God is perfectly good. Meditate then, on the pervasiveness of sin in your life. Cry out to the Lord for grace. God's grace is the only force strong enough to make an evil person like you or me, good. Worship the God who is good. Meditate on his goodness. Meditate on the perfection of his character, the beautiful moral character of God's goodness. Then look at the phrase, “if you wish to enter life.” You have to enter life. You have to repent and come to Christ. You start outside life in spiritual death. You have to come. You have to enter life through repentance and faith in Christ. Are you alive or dead spiritually?

Sell your possessions, give to the poor, and you'll have treasure in heaven. We know this is not a universal command given to everyone. He doesn't give it to everyone, but it's here in the Bible. The accounts in all of the gospel accounts, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, we have it again and again. The Holy Spirit wants us to look at it. Too many Christians are caught up in the idolatry of wealth. I think it's one of the most dangerous spiritual forces facing First Baptist Church of Durham. We're a wealthy church. We give a lot of money to the church and the missions, and we could be prideful.

But is there a searching here of our hearts that needs to happen? Is there a great danger that we are in concerning money, concerning materialism? How could we excuse ourselves from the force of this text? So quickly say, well, I know He is not calling on me to sell everything I have and give to the poor. But is He calling you to do anything differently with your money? Anything differently at all? I would commend Randy Alcorn's books. The Treasure Principle is a shorter version than Money, Possessions, and Eternity. He's got EPM, Eternal Perspectives Ministry, in which he can give good counsel on this.

Jesus said it's hard for a rich man to be saved. 1 Timothy 6:9 and 10, "People who want to get rich fall into temptation, into a trap, and many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil." Some people eager for money have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs Good counsel, 1 Timothy 6. Read it. 1 Timothy 6 is a good chapter for rich Christians. Be generous. Store up real treasure in heaven by giving money away. Don't let money grab hold of your heart. Be honest about materialism.

And finally, with man, this is impossible, but with God, all things are possible. Realize, our salvation didn't originate with ourselves. We can't save ourselves. But God has sovereign power to save sinners like you and me.

Close in prayer. Father, we thank you for the truth of this amazing encounter here. Thank you for the things that it teaches us and how it probes us. I thank you, that you have the diagnostic ability to just look right through us with eyes of blazing fire, better than an x-ray, better than MRI, or a CAT scan, or ultrasound. Lord, you have that power. Search us, oh God, and know us. And show us, especially on the issue of materialism, on the issue of money, help us to be generous to the poor in need, generous to missions, generous to others that are going through trials and need financial help. Help us, oh Lord, not to be enslaved to money. But more than anything, oh Lord, help us to realize, you are the only one who is good, and only in you can we be good. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Jesus probes a man’s soul and exposes wealth as his idol, but with God, the heart can be transformed and the impossible become possible.

The post Jesus Probes the Heart of a Rich Seeker (Mark Sermon 50) appeared first on Two Journeys.

In 1 Corinthians 8, Paul teaches on meat sacrificed to idols, urging mature Christians to curtail their freedoms for the sake of weaker brothers and sisters.

The post 1 Corinthians Episode 10: Food Sacrificed to Idols, and the Limits to Christian Freedom appeared first on Two Journeys.

In chapter 8 of the Book of Romans, the main topic is the power of indwelling sin and the final triumph for those in Christ.

The post Class in Romans: Romans 8 Overview, Pt. 2 appeared first on Two Journeys.

A sermon to encourage parents of little children in their important responsibility to evangelize and disciple them from the first moment.

Turn in your Bibles to Mark 10, as we continue our study in the Gospel of Mark. The central work of the Bible is to bring readers to saving faith in Jesus Christ. It does this by presenting the infinite glories of Christ on the one hand and the infinite neediness of us sinners on the other.

This morning we're studying a passage of scripture which presents Jesus's zeal for little children. He's eager for little children to come to Him, and He's angry at anyone who would hinder them from coming. Beyond that He wants to help all prideful sinners to become, in some sense, like little children themselves so they can find salvation in Christ. Concerning the infinite glories of Christ, this passage fits into a theme that I've delighted in many times before, which is the amazing combination of Jesus as infinitely majestic, awesome, powerful, lofty, and glorious on the one hand, and also, infinitely lowly, meek, humble, accessible, and gentle on the other.

This fits in with last week's Easter sermon, which I preached on Jesus' stunning, amazing, majestic ascension to heaven. Lifted up from the surface of the earth, higher and higher through the atmosphere until at last the cloud hid Him from the unblinking gaze of the apostles, who were craning their neck to see Him. Then as the Book of Hebrews and the Book of Ephesians reveal, the journey continues as Jesus passed through the Heavenly realms, presented once for all His blood in the Heavenly temple. He then took His seat, the seat of majestic glory at the right hand of God, far above all creatures to rule over all things. That was last week.

This week I think we can picture Jesus using our imaginations on the ground, smiling, laughing with little kids, crawling all over Him, hugging Him, kissing His face, and Him touching their little Heads. Him speaking tender words to them, and they're drinking it up. They're attracted to Him like a magnet. They can't stay away. This is Jesus at His meekest, His gentlest, His lowliest, with time enough for any little child.

This theme of Jesus's infinite majesty on the one hand combined with His infinite lowliness of heart on the other, has long captivated me. When I was a teen in a public school in Massachusetts, I was in a Roman Catholic Church. I wasn't converted yet. But someone had given me a picture of Jesus holding a little lamb in His arms, and I had it in my high school locker. I saw it every day as I opened my locker and looked at it. I was always attracted to the person of Jesus, though I wasn't yet converted.

It wasn't until later in my life I found the Bible verse that that best pictured. It was Isaiah 40:11, “He tends His flock like a shepherd. He gathers the lambs in His arms and carries them close to His heart. He gently leads those that have young.” It's a picture of Jesus in His infinite condescension, His gentleness with little children. But the very next verse in Isaiah 40, verse 12, says this, “Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand or with the breath of His hand marked off the heavens? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on the scales or the hills in a balance?”

This is the infinite greatness of Almighty God, the creator, who created the universe and rules it with awesome power meticulously. Before whom the nations are like a drop from the bucket and like dust on the scales. Side by side, Isaiah 40:11 and 12, consecutive verses. Jesus in His incarnation pictures both aspects, both aspects. Just the same as the Apostle John found Jesus infinitely accessible, tenderhearted, when He pillowed His Head on Jesus's chest at the Last Supper, but then later, on the island of Patmos, saw Jesus in His resurrection glory and fell at His feet as one dead.

Jonathan Edward zeroed in on this concept in the greatest sermon I ever read that He preached, for me anyway. Based on Revelation 5, that passage, as you know, where Jesus takes the scroll out of the right hand of almighty God. Jonathan Edwards zeroes in on Jesus, who's portrayed in that passage as the lion of the tribe of Judah who has triumphed. Edwards talks about the attributes of a lion. It's majestic roar, it's power, it's domination, but then John sees a lamb looking as if it had been slain. Edward zeroes in on a lamb, in general, just weak and lowly and meek. This is particularly so because it's a lamb looking as if it had been slain. 

This what Edwards wrote in that sermon, 

"Christ, as He is God, is infinitely great and high above all. He is higher than the kings of the earth; for He is King of kings and Lord of lords. He is higher than the heavens, higher than the highest angels of heavens. So great is He, that all men, all kings and princes, are as worms of the dust before Him; all nations are as the drop of the bucket, and as the light dust in the scales; yeah, and angels themselves are as nothing before Him. He is so high, that He is infinitely above any need of ours; infinitely above our reach, that we cannot be profitable to Him at all; and above our conceptions that we cannot comprehend Him. Christ is the creator, the great possessor of Heaven and earth. He is sovereign Lord of all. He rules over the whole universe and does whatever pleases Him. His knowledge is without boundary. His wisdom is perfect and none can circumvent it. His power is infinite and none can resist Him. His riches are immense and inexhaustible. His majesty is infinitely awe-inspiring. And yet He is one of infinite condescension. There's not a single person who is so low or inferior, but Christ's condescension is sufficient to take a gracious notice of them. He condescends not only to the angels, humbling Himself to behold the things that are done in the heavens, but He also condescends to such poor creatures as are men; and that not only so as to take notice of princes and great men, but of those who are of the lowest rank and degree the poorest of the world. Even the lowest most humble person on the face of the earth, Christ does not despise. He welcomes little children to sit on His lap. He extends His hands to horribly disfigured lepers and notorious outcast sinners. He speaks to a rejected Samaritan woman and a hated Jewish tax collector. And He does more than just speak to such people. He desires to join Himself with them forever in a perfect spiritual marriage so that He is perfectly one with them."

Now, I could keep going with the Edwards sermon, it would be a great sermon, but it wouldn't be my sermon. But do you not see the infinite majesty of Christ as a lion and the infinite condescension of Him as lamb looking as if it had been slain?

This morning as we come to this sermon, Mark 10:13-16, we see that side of Jesus. He's inviting little children, and through the ministry of the Holy Spirit, through the ministry of Mark the author, He's inviting little children in every generation, in every nation on earth that reads this account to come to Him, and He will tenderly receive them. In so doing, He also encourages all caregivers of children, especially parents, to bring their children to Jesus while they're young. To not despise them but to take full advantage of their tender hearts to pour the gospel into them. He invites all older hardened sinners, that's the rest of us, older veteran sinners, to become like little children constantly, so that they can find salvation through faith in Christ. That's what's in front of us with this text.

Listen again to the words, “People were bringing little children to Jesus to have Him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, He was indignant. He said to them, ‘Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them; for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God, like a little child, will never enter it.’ And He took the children in His arms, put His hands on them, and blessed them.”

Let's look at the actors in this drama. You got the parents, you got the children, you got the disciples, and you've got Jesus. Let's walk through them. First the parents, now the text just says, "They," they were bringing children, so probably not all of them were necessarily parents of the children, caregivers of some sort. It could be grandparents, it could be aunt or uncles, it could be friends, but I would say the norm would be parents. The parents are bringing children, for the most part. They cherish their children and they desire them to be blessed. They want to do them good. Mark and Luke use the Greek imperfect tense, implying this was a continual process. They were bringing their children again and again. This was regular. This wasn't just a one-off, this was happening all the time. Having heard about Christ's ministry, still short of understanding who He really is, still they want Him to bless them.

In the Talmud, which is Jewish instruction based on the law of Moses, it teaches Jewish parents to bring their children to prominent rabbis for this kind of ritual, a hands-on blessing. The more prominent the rabbi, the conception would be the greater the blessing. Jesus, obviously well-known, has done miracles. Ordinarily, a Jewish father would bring His children to the rabbi at the synagogue, and they would put their hands on them and bless them. But with Jesus being so prominent, there was an attraction there. Parents were bringing children from all around to Jesus for Him to do this, to touch them, bless them, and pray for them. Matthew adds the prayer aspect [Matthew 19:13]. So that's the parents.

Let's talk about the children. The Greek word is “paideía,” it implies very young children like toddlers. Luke actually expands it in Luke 18:15, people were bringing babies, infants to Him. Even the most tiny human being at the very, very beginning of life, barely able to open his or her eyes is precious to Jesus. He would not despise that moment, but would take that infant in His arms to bless them.

We need to understand Jesus does not have some sentimental view of children. "Oh, they're little angels sent from heaven." Sounds like someone who never had one of those angels sent from heaven. They don't always act like little angels sent from heaven. Jesus has no such sentimental conceptions of children. He knows that they’re children of Adam. He knows that they come into the world fanatically committed to self-interest. He knows that as soon as they understand the law, they will sin, because of that inbred sin nature. But He also understands that children have a unique inbred desire to know God, and a yieldedness to obeying Him, though they cannot see Him. So that's the children.

Let's understand the disciples. Verse 13, the disciples rebuked the people that were bringing the children. How many times do you read the gospel and say, "What were the disciples thinking?” But aren't we thankful that we have true accounts of the things they actually did? Why did they rebuke the parents? We don't know, but we could imagine that they're frustrated by the interruption. Children can feel wrongly to us, feel like an interruption. You had plans, children come, and now you're interrupted. It shows how selfish we can be. But perhaps they felt the children were an interruption. Perhaps the children were crying or making noises. In any case, I think their attitude is the teacher's time is too important for children, too important a waste on little children.

Oftentimes, you'll see some great figure in society, a political leader, CEO of a company, an athlete, a musician, a movie star with a coterie, a kind of a band around him or her and you can't get close to that person. Their bodyguards are putting the hands up. You're not going to get close. Especially those important people, great men, great women have no time for anyone who cannot further their agenda. They don't have time to waste. They're people of focus, people of achievement. They're going places. They don't have time for anybody that's not going to further their agenda. This the kind of mentality.

Little children, they often think, sadly, are a complete waste of time. They don't want children themselves. They take steps that they won't have children. If they do, they frequently don't spend much time with them. Sadly, I was reading about royal families in Europe in the 19th century and how little time those children spent with their king and queen parents. Very tragic, very sad stories, like for example, King George and Queen Mary in England spent less than 30 minutes a day with their growing children, 30 minutes a day. They were completely cared for by nannies. When the children would come in the presence of their parents, they were terrified of them and shrank back and wanted to be with the nannies. It's very sad. Many people look on children as an unwelcome intrusion from the vastly important business of their lives. Perhaps, the disciples felt the same way when they rebuked the parents for bringing the little ones. "Our master's too busy, saving the world to hug your children" kind of thing.

Now, if Jesus doesn't check this attitude on their part, it's going to lead to significant problems in the future of the church, because of God's plans. God intended to make up His church mostly of people who are not wise, influential, of noble birth, the lowliest of the low are for the most part going to make up the church. We read about it in First Corinthians 1. If they're going to have this attitude toward children, they're probably going to extend it to anybody who can't further their own powerful agenda. You know how the rulers of the Gentiles lorded over others, and they're tempted in the same ways. "God chose the lowly things and the despised things and the things that are not to nullify the things that are," Paul tells us, First Corinthians 1:30. Jesus has to deal with this or they're going to have an arrogant, lofty attitude toward anyone that they despise that they don't think is worth their time, beginning when children. He has to address this attitude.

Let's look at Jesus. Jesus's reaction here is amazing. He's mildly angry with them. This is one of the emotional times of Jesus. Jesus had a rich, full emotional life, and this is one of the times He got righteously angry. Look at verse 14, “When Jesus saw this, he was indignant.” Some of the translations say indignant, the Greek could go over to vex, annoyed, irritated like a rock in the shoe kind of thing. "You're rubbing me the wrong way." You get that feeling with Jesus, "This is really annoying me," talking about the apostles.

One of the most incredible things about Jesus to me, practically, is a combination of how important His mission was and how brief a time He had to do it, perhaps three years, and yet, how unbelievably interruptable He was. How in the world do you harmonize those things, to be amazingly effective, efficient, and also constantly interruptable? But again and again, not just children, but people with various needs, He just stops for them all the time. It's incredible. He was never rushed. He lingered over people, listened to them fully, dealt with them individually. This includes the children here. He cherished them, He was not annoyed with them. He said to them, "Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them; for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”

Let's walk through what He says. Let's begin with the rich invitation. "Let the little children come to me." As I mentioned, mysteriously, the God-given bent of a little child is God-ward more than at any other time in their lives. One commentator put it with great tenderness talking about this passage, "As the flower in the garden stretches toward the light of the sun, so there is in the child, a mysterious inclination toward the eternal light.”

Have you ever noticed this mysterious thing that when you tell the smallest child about God, s(he) never asks with strangeness and wonder, what is God? who is God?, I've never seen Him? But listens with shining face to the words as though they were soft loving sounds from the land of home. Or when you teach a child to fold its little hands in prayer, it does this as though or a matter of course, as though there were opening for it, that world of which they'd been dreaming with longing in anticipation. Or tell them, these little ones, the stories of the Savior, show them the pictures with scenes and personages of the Bible and see how their pure eyes shine, how their little hearts beat." It's beautiful.

So what does “Come to me” mean? "Let the little children come to me," what does that mean? I think it means to come to Him for salvation. Jesus said, as we sang earlier this morning, Matthew 11:28, "Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest." I mean it's clearest in John 6:35 where you have a Hebrew parallelism, where Jesus said, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty." There it is. To come to Jesus equals to believe in Him. It's what it means to come to Jesus, to believe in Him. Or as He says in John 7:37, on the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, "If anyone is thirsty, let Him come to me and drink." You're coming to Jesus to feed spiritually, to drink spiritually. You're coming to Him to receive mercy and to receive forgiveness of sins. That's what it means to come to Jesus. So let the little children come to me for all that. Let them come.

What does that mean? Encourage their God-ward bent. Encourage their God-given desire to be near Christ. Feed their spiritual appetites. Let them do what their little heart wants to do, before the world, the flesh, and the devil hardens them. You could imagine some soft yielded wet clay left out on a hot rock, and after a while it's just dried up and hard. That's what happens to all of us, the world, the flesh, and the devil harden us. But they haven't had that yet. There's a softness, a yieldedness to their hearts.

Let them come near to Christ for eternal life to know Him and to love Him. Feed their spiritual appetites, and while they're doing it, feed your own. Little child yearns to come to Christ. Let them do so. They have an inbred longing for spiritual things. We have to feed that appetite. We can't feed it too much. Parents are constantly worried about too much with their kids, and they should be. Parenting's hard.

I'm not going to be able to cover every aspect of parenting. I guarantee some of you parents will wonder at the end of this sermon, "Why didn't He talk about X?" So come and ask me that question. "Why didn't you talk about X?",and I will ask you, "How long do you want this sermon to be?" I'm focusing on salvation, bringing your children to Christ for salvation. But there's a concern for too much: too much sleep, too much food, too much sugar, too much screen time, too much, too much. There is no such thing as too much Jesus. There's no such thing as too much God. It's impossible. Therefore, as parents of young children, we ought to be, number one, eagerly pursuing Christ ourselves, because there's no such thing as too much Christ for us either. Putting our love for Jesus on clear display in front of our children. Secondly, we ought to be fanning their own love for Christ into a flame more and more. There is no danger of too much Christ.

Then it says, "Do not hinder them," a strong warning, a prohibition. He's talking to His disciples initially right there in context. He's telling His misguided disciples, "Stop doing that. Stop hindering those people. Stop stopping the parents or rebuking them. Don't do that anymore." The Greek word can mean forbid, but it can also mean hinder, making it difficult, putting stumbling blocks before the children. "Don't do that. Don't hinder them."

How do we do that? How do we hinder children from coming to Christ? First and foremost, nothing's more significant than this, we hinder them from coming to Christ by not preaching the gospel to them, by not telling them about Jesus. No one is born in the world knowing anything about Jesus. Faith comes by hearing the word through the word of Christ [Romans 10:17]. So the biggest way a Christian parent can hinder a child from coming to Christ is by not taking full advantage of the access you have to that little human being, the constant daily access, and pouring the gospel into their hearts. They'll sit for hours to listen to you during that early phase of their lives. You'll get tired of talking to them about Bible stories before they get tired of asking you to do so, at that early age.

Also, at that early age, they are very able to memorize scripture. My brain is old and tired and it's getting older and tireder with every passing year. You guys know what I'm talking about, some of you older people. Kids, they drink it up. They can memorize, don't waste it. Have them memorize key scriptures, so that they're key truths that are imprinted in their minds.

Parents can hinder their children by stifling their emotion for Christ. You should be fanning their affections into a flame. You should make much of the pictures they draw during worship or when they're studying the Bible, just celebrate them. We hinder them by quenching the spirit. The spirit might be moving. They're asking questions, things that seem out from left field to you, but that's exactly where the child is at that moment. You hinder by not taking that moment seriously and addressing what the spirit's doing in their hearts.

We hinder by exasperating them in discipline. It says in Ephesians 6:4, “Fathers, do not exasperate your children or provoke them to wrath, instead, bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” That's what we're told to do as parents. So harsh or unfair or erratic discipline can hinder a child from coming to Christ.

We hinder it by being skeptical or negative toward their budding spirituality, by doubting that anything's really happening with them spiritually. We hinder by curtly cutting off their childish questions or worship or enthusiasm which can crush a little child's heart. So do not hinder them. 

Then He says, "For of such is the kingdom of God." This is the nature of the kingdom. The kingdom of God is the focal point of the Gospel of Mark, the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the son of God. That's the good news. Then a few verses later, as Jesus begins as public preaching ministry, Mark 1:15, He says, "The time is at hand, the kingdom of God is near Repent and believe the good news." People must enter the kingdom of God by repentance and faith. Jesus says, "Of such is the kingdom of God." This means the kingdom of God is made up of those who are infants or little children in God's sight. He sees them that way.

First, the infants themselves. Let's talk about that. John MacArthur said this, "It's not that small children are regenerative and then later lose their salvation if they don't receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. No, it's rather that His atoning death is applied on their behalf if they die before they're able to choose on their own. It may be that infant mortality rate is so high in many countries where the gospel has not yet penetrated, because the Lord is taking those little ones to Himself before they can grow up in a culture and in a religion where it's so difficult to encounter the gospel and believe."

For myself, I don't believe in infant damnation, rather infant salvation. I think there are a lot of reasons why. However, there are no proof texts on it. I think the Lord is basically telling us, "Trust me on this. Trust me on this." There aren't any verses I can show you. But I do point you to Judgment Day. The depictions of Judgment Day are always, the court is seated, the book is open, and the judge. People are judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. It's a public vindication of the justice of God. Therefore, I think that's the one silver lining in infant mortality around the world.

So the infants themselves, but beyond that, older people, including younger children and moving up, who are like children in God's sight, who make themselves like little children in order to be saved. John Calvin says, "The passage broadens to give kingdom citizenship to both children and those who are like them." So he means a childlike faith, a childlike yieldedness to Christ. Humble, lowly, faith-filled people enter the kingdom of God, arrogant people do not. Jesus taught that repentance and faith was becoming like a little child. Matthew 18:3, "I tell you the truth, unless you are converted and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." Years ago I met the president, at that time, of Child Evangelism Fellowship, CEF, his name was Reese Kauffman. He said this interesting thing which stuck with me. He said, "We spend so much of our efforts in evangelism of adults trying to get them to a humble, childlike state necessary for them to find salvation in Jesus.The children are already there. Use it. With adults, we have to cut through years of hardness and pride and sin habits to get them to see their need for a savior.”

Then Jesus touches them, blesses them, and prays for them. Verse 16, “He took the children in their arms, put His hands on them and blessed them.” As I said, Matthew 19:13, He prayed for them. Here we have that beautiful picture, the power of the incarnation. Jesus frequently touched people to heal them. He loved to touch people, to heal them. He reaches out here and touches these little babies. That was part of His desire to bless them. In an ancient Jewish ritual, patriarchs would touch their children. Do you remember the touching scene of Jacob with Manasseh and Ephraim, where He put His hands on their head and blessed them and spoke prophetic blessings over them? It's that kind of idea of a touching and a patriarchal blessing. But how much more Jesus, the Son of God... How many of you parents would love to have Jesus physically touch your children and pray for them and bless them?

I've read stories about orphanages in other countries where the babies are never held. It’s tragic. I mean, they're fed physically, but they're never picked up. They're never held. The Ukraine, sub-Saharan Africa, some of the AIDS clinics, China, I mean there's tragic stories about these orphanages. They're just underfunded, they don't have enough people, and the babies are just never held. Children need to be physically touched, and that touch can be a form of pre-evangelism. I want to commend a verse for you that I had studied and it's fascinating, Psalm 22:9, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" But in the middle of it David says this, "Yet you brought me out of the womb; you made me trust in you, even at my mother's breast." What's interesting is the Hebrew doesn't have the “in you.” It is true that David is speaking to God, "You made me trust," but it just says, "You made me trust at my mother's breast." The baby wasn't trusting in God. The baby didn't know the word trust, just feeling his or her needs being met. Feeling warm, love and protection without knowing the word love, protection, it’s just an experience, but that was a form of pre-evangelism that then later gets transferred over to Almighty God, who loves you better than your mother did. See? That physical touch and care is a form of shaping their world and preparing them later to come to Christ.

What applications can we take from this? How do we put this command into practice? First I want to just say a word to all you older veteran sinners, that's all of us. Become like a little child and come to Jesus. Humble yourself. See your need for a savior. See your need for forgiveness. Don't be haughty. Don't be arrogant. Become like a child and Jesus will save you. Unless you're converted and become like a little child, you'll never enter the kingdom of God. You have to be converted into a childlike state to be saved. But then even if that's happened for you years ago, you have to keep doing that. You have to keep humbling yourself like a little child. This is an ongoing part of our Christian faith. The Holy Spirit inside you cries out, "Abba Father," which means daddy. There are times that we're so physically hurting, like through a disease, or crushed by some circumstance that you need your daddy, your spiritual Father to care for you.

Charles Spurgeon was beset with gout, and it was like an electric shock. He was crawling on the ground in agony, weeping for the pain. He cried out, "Abba Father, if I had a child," he said in his prayer, "who was hurting like I am right now and I could take away the pain. I would do it. Daddy, would you heal me?" That's how bad the pain was. He basically couldn't be articulate. That's how much He was hurting. There are going to be times in your life when you're going to be like that. You cry out, "Abba Father." 

Look at Jesus's interaction.  Remember the woman with the bleeding problem? She'd been bleeding for 12 years. She touched the hem of His garment, her bleeding stop, she was healed. Then Jesus said, "Who touched me?" At the end of that whole encounter, do you remember what He said to her? "Take heart, daughter, your faith has saved you." He called her daughter. She'd been bleeding for 12 years. Jesus was in His early 30s. They're probably peers, age-wise, but they're not peers, were they? Because Jesus is the ancient of days. He called her daughter.

The paralyzed man that was lowered down, "Take heart son, your sins are forgiven." There is that sense in which we are going to be like little children before Him. One famous theologian was asked to sum up his theology. He was nearing the end of his life. He said, "I'll sum it all up in this. Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. Little ones to Him belong; they are weak, but He is strong." When you're on your deathbed, you're going to be like that. So become like a little child, and He will save you. That's all of us.

Now to caregivers of children, especially parents, but also others. FBC, I don't know if you've noticed, but  we’ve been blessed with lots of children. Like on Sunday mornings, have you noticed? Some of you have noticed. It's a lavish blessing. Thank God for it. Thank God that we have lots of little kids to raise in the gospel.

How many of the baptisms have we had begin with this testimony, "I was raised in a good Christian home."?  I would say probably 80% of them, maybe more. We all would like more of the other type. Those are good. I wasn't raised in a good evangelical home, although I did know about Jesus from an early age, I didn't know the gospel. But my kids all, and I baptized all five of them, they all said, "I was raised in a good Christian home." Thank you. Yes, yes, you were.

That's the number one way around the world. I would say probably three quarters of the people who are genuinely born again walking the face of the earth had at least one Christian parent pouring the gospel into them from an early age. That's anecdotal, I don't know, but I think that's probably right.  So let's let the little children come -and let's not hinder them for the kingdom of God. We should be continually bringing our children. How do we do this? Let me speak this quickly to your parents. First of all, receive your children thankfully. Thank God for your children. Be thankful for them constantly.

Realize that your children are infinitely more His than they are yours. Don't idolize them. You have a stewardship role toward them. There’s nothing wrong with saying, "My son," "My daughter," but don't think wrongly, they're more God’s than they are yours. Don't think God ever did you wrong by taking them away if He should. God has that right. Don't be idolatrous and charge Him with wrongdoing for taking back to Himself what was His all along.

Be thankful. Be thankful to God for your children. Love them deeply. Let your heart frequently melt for your children. Be willing to make sacrifices for them cheerfully. Deeply, yearn the best for them, especially in eternity through the gospel. Understand them positively and negatively. Positively, they're in the image of God. They have immense potential and they have those soft yielded hearts. A window of opportunity, positively.  But then negatively, they are sinners. They're fanatically committed to self-interest. They have the seeds of rebellion in their own hearts. Don't romanticize them. They're childish. “When I was a child, I thought like a child,” they're going to say childish things. Understand them. Then teach your children constantly. Deuteronomy 6, "These commands that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home, and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.” Saturate their minds in the word of God.  Saturate them, especially with the gospel, God, man, Christ response. God, the creator, the lawgiver, the judge, the sustainer. We, created His image. We, human beings, made to have a relationship with Him. But we're sinners. We violate God's laws. Christ came. Who is Jesus? He was born and lived a sinless life. The miracle stories. Tell them these stories. Pour the gospel into them, and then say they need to repent and believe.

Be Christ-centered daily. Make Christ the center of your talk, as a father or mother. Talk about Jesus. Out of the fullness of the heart, the mouth speaks. Talk about Him.

Discipline your children. The rod of reproof, Proverbs talks about it. Whatever that means, literal, physical, just you need to deal with their sin nature. The hardest part for me about Christian parenting is the mixture of old covenant and new covenant principles you got to do all the time.  There's got to be blessings and curses, blessings for obedience, curses for disobedience. You've got to have laws and rules in your home, and they have to follow them. But then you've got to tell them the gospel, that the law's not going to save them, and that they need to find mercy and grace through faith in Christ. Just wisely mix those together. Pray for your children daily.

Charles Spurgeon said this, "How can we bring children to Jesus Christ to be blessed? We can't do it in a physical sense. For Jesus is not here, He's risen. But we can bring our children in a true, real spiritual sense. We take them up in the arms of prayer. We daily cry, ‘Oh, that he or she might live before thee, Lord.’" We cry out and pray.

Model Christ for your children. Involve them in church early. You're bringing your children here, keep doing that. You can't calculate the value of just 18 years of weekly preaching and singing and Christian fellowship. Bring them to church and encourage them along the way.

I just want to say, finally, a word to workers here, children workers at our church. Thank you for your service. Thank you for what you do. Many hands makes light work, so ask if the Lord would have you involved in children ministry. It's a vital ministry. Thank you for what you do.

Close with me in prayer. Father, thank you for the time that we've had in the word of God today. Thank you for the truth that Jesus gave us here so plainly, that we have to be converted to become little children and the kingdom of Heaven and the kingdom of God is made of such as these. Thank you for the great privilege of Christian parenting. And thank you for the truth of the word of God. We thank you that Jesus shed His blood so that we who are little children, can find forgiveness and find acceptance in His arms. In Jesus' name. Amen.