Pastor Timothy Patoka 21 Sunday After Pentecost: October 14, 2018 How Do I Inherit Eternal Life? Mark 10:17-27 st
1) With Man It Is Impossible 2) With God It Is A Guarantee If you want something for yourself, it’s probably going to be up to you to make it happen. This is a tried and true principle for everyone. If you want to make your future career more secure, it’ll be up to you to do what’s needed or get to know who’s important to make sure you’re the most qualified person for the job. If you’ve been eyeing up that vacation or luxury in life, it’ll be up to you to put the time and money aside so you can go out and enjoy that. If you want expand your social network or get to know your loved ones better, it’ll be up to you to make time for people in your life so you can accomplish your goals. Whether it be in 21 st century America or any other time or place, it’s a tried and true principle – if you want something for yourself, it’ll be up to you, in some fashion, to make sure it happens. We see this work-to-get-what-you-want mindset in our verses for this morning from the Gospel of Mark chapter 10 where a rich young man comes to Jesus with the question that so many have asked, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” (Mark 10:17b) Like so many others in our world, we inadvertently take this work-to-get-what-you-want mindset and apply it to eternal life. That in order for me to enjoy eternal bliss, I need to do something to deserve or earn that. But as Jesus shared with the rich young man, and he shares with us this morning as well, this work-to-get-what-you-want mindset has no place before God. For no matter where we come from or what we have, it will always impossible to inherit eternal life. Yet we need not be depressed. For all things are possible with God and, as such, we can trust in God’s guarantee of our salvation. 1) With Man This Is Impossible If we were to have met this rich young man from Mark chapter 10, I am guessing we would have liked being around him. Not only because he was rich and full of life, but also because he was a devout man. In Luke’s Gospel of the same account he is identified as a ruler (Luke 18:18), most likely the leader of the local synagogue where Old Testament believers gathered to read and learn God’s Word. While he would not have been the one preaching, he was the person in charge of the building’s maintenance and overall mission. His mind was set on God, which is why he comes running to Jesus, falls on his knees, and asks him the allimportant question, “Good teacher…what must I do to inherit eternal life?” (Mark 10:17b) If there was anyone who was best equipped to inherit eternal, it would be this rich, devout, young man. Yet not even he could do what was necessary to receive such a glorious inheritance.
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Pastor Timothy Patoka 21 Sunday After Pentecost: October 14, 2018 There were two problems this young man had: one in that he failed to obey all of what God’s law covers and two in that he had a misplaced trust. Jesus, in his initial response, tells him that there is only one who is good – God. God is the only who has never sinned. And Jesus illustrates how we all sin by listing a handful of the 10 Commandments, “You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honor your father and mother.” (Mark 10:19) The young man said he had kept all these since he was a boy. Whether he didn’t know that God’s law includes our thoughts and words or he forgot his past sins, we don’t know. But, as Jesus pointed out earlier, there is no one who is good, no one who can claim complete observance of God’s law, except God himself. st
But the rich young man had an even bigger problem. His trust for the life to come was founded in his riches, not in his Savior. Jesus knew that which is why he said to him, “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” (Mark 10:21b) Jesus didn’t say this because only the poor can enter heaven! He said this because for this particular young man, his riches were his god, the thing in which he trusted more than anything else. And it wouldn’t be until he willingly gave up his trust in riches by literally giving them away that he could then place his trust in the one alone who is good, in God alone. And when the young man realized how impossible it was for him to inherit eternal life, he went away with a fallen face and a saddened heart. For the chances of him doing it on his own was as impossible as a camel squeezing its way through the eye of a needle. Even though we all may not be as rich or young or devout as the man was who asked Jesus how to inherit eternal life, we can relate to his problems. Because the problems that Jesus pointed out and his work-to-get-what-you-want mindset is common to all people of all time. Who of us, when we read what God commands in his law, relegate to only our actions? Consider again the commandments that Jesus mentioned to the rich young man: “You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honor your father and mother.” (Mark 10:19) Who of us looks at these commandments at a superficial level? That as long as we haven’t ended somebody’s life, slept with someone else, or et cetera, we’ve been good? But as we need to remind ourselves, and as Jesus reminded the people in his Sermon on the Mount, God’s law does not only concern itself with our actions. It includes the thoughts and words leading up to those actions as well. The feeling of hate, the wandering eye, the child’s resigned sigh, the milking of the clock for hourly workers. We have not and we cannot completely obey God’s law. And neither can we trust in the things of this world to help us for the life to come. While we may be able to do for our future on earth with a well-funded nest egg or decades of full-time work ahead of us, we cannot trust in these things to help us with eternal life. Because no matter how rich we may be or how poor, no matter what experiences or possessions or academic 2
Pastor Timothy Patoka 21 Sunday After Pentecost: October 14, 2018 knowledge we may have, none of that betters our chances to inheriting eternal life. For there is only one who is good enough to inherit eternal life because of their actions. That’s not me, or you, or the rich young man. That’s God alone. And when we take that truth to heart, you know what soon happens? We walk away feeling the same as the rich young man did with a fallen face and saddened heart. For our chances to inherit eternal life are as impossible as it is a camel going through the eye of a needle. st
2) With God It Is A Guarantee Thankfully with God all things are possible, even the possibility of us receiving eternal life. And the reason why that is the case is because of what our good God has done for us – by sending his good Son to do that which is impossible for man. If you look back at those commandments, you see how impossibly good Jesus is. He never hated or caused bodily harm to another. He never lusted after another person. He never took what wasn’t his or cheated people out of what was owed to them. He never told a lie. He honored his parents, even when he was on the cross and appointed John to take care of his mother. Jesus knew that this world couldn’t give him anything he didn’t already have. His focus was always centered on why he came to this world – to live the perfect life that God’s law required so that he could give it up on the cross as the sacrifice for all sins. So that it could be possible for sinful humans to inherit the eternal life that Jesus has purchased with his blood. And this is where things get real. How do we inherit eternal life? Certainly not by ourselves for that is impossible. It is only through trust in the one who came to save, the one who gave his life up for us on the cross, in Jesus Christ that such an inheritance is possible. But it’s more than possible, it’s a guarantee because it comes from our good God. If your trust is founded solely in God’s own Son, then you have nothing to be afraid of. For when Jesus died on that cross, your sins were surely paid for. When your sinful life brings you stress, you don’t have to worry about the life to come. For you have the forgiveness of sins. You will be in the kingdom of God. You will be enjoying your inheritance for all of eternity! That’s the guarantee that God makes to you in his Word. It is this guarantee from God that transforms our attitude towards this life. Yes we will probably have to work towards something if we want to enjoy it in this life. But God doesn’t base our likelihood of inheriting eternal life based on how well we live on this earth. He bases it entirely on our faith, our trust, in who Jesus is. So while we may have concerns about what our lives will look 5, 10, 20 years from now, we don’t need to be concerned about how our life will be for eternity. For it’s going to be with God. But God’s guarantee has more implications than just where we’ll be spending eternal life. It also transforms our attitude towards the rules and things we have in this world. Yes we do not have to keep those 10 Commandments to inherit eternal life. But don’t throw them away. Look 3
Pastor Timothy Patoka 21 Sunday After Pentecost: October 14, 2018 back to them as 10 different ways you can show your thanks to God for guaranteeing you his goodness. Not only by not doing what you shouldn’t, but by doing what you can to help others. When you see your neighbor’s garage door left open, do what you can to protect their property so that others don’t sin by stealing what is there in plain sight. When you Google something that may bring content that causes you to lust, do yourself and your spouse a favor by turning on the SafeSearch filter so you’re less likely to accidentally commit adultery. I’ll let you think of ways you can do the same with the other commandments. And as you do that, don’t forget to consider the blessings that God has given you. Whether it be riches, talents, interests, or the real-life lessons from the school of hard knocks, look at all you have as potential tools you can use to bring glory to God and share with others what good things he has done for them. st
How do I inherit eternal life? That’s the question so many ask as did the rich young man in Mark chapter 10. He thought the answer was according to how this world works, that if you want something for yourself, you have to do something to get that. While that may be true for most things in this world, it isn’t when it comes to eternal life. For with man it is impossible. We cannot live according to God’s law in thoughts, words, and actions. We misplace our trust in things of this world which have no power in the world to come. We are as unable to inherit eternal life on our own as a camel is going to make it through the eye of a needle. But with God such things are possible for we have his guarantee because of the impossibly perfect life of his Son. Jesus lived as we cannot so that he could be the guarantee of our eternal life. And it those who have saving faith, who believe that Jesus Christ is their Savior, who are the recipients of this wondrous guarantee. And so, knowing that eternal life depends on God and not ourselves, we can now look at the rules and things in this world and use them to his glory. May the Lord ground us in his guarantee so that we may never doubt our inheritance that is eternal life. Amen.
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