Text:\u00a0 Mark 10: 17-27<\/p>\n
I know a man who teaches firefighters and rescue personnel an important skill.\u00a0 A building collapses.\u00a0 People are buried in the rubble.\u00a0 And if you or I would come upon that scene, we might say:\u00a0 Who could be saved? It looks so hopeless.<\/em>\u00a0 But not always.\u00a0 Sometimes a person is helplessly trapped under that rubble alive.\u00a0 This man teaches others to find and rescue people from huge piles of concrete slabs. Times when you or I might say: Who could be saved?<\/p>\n Well here Jesus disciples were confronted with a situation they thought no less hopeless.\u00a0 Not a collapsed building, but a suddenly collapsed way of thinking.\u00a0 That happened when they heard Jesus talk to this rich young man.\u00a0 They wondered out loud:<\/p>\n WHO THEN CAN BE SAVED?<\/strong> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The man who came to Jesus this day was not a Pharisee looking to make trouble for Jesus.\u00a0 He did not come with a hidden agenda to trick Jesus and show him to be a fraud.\u00a0 And he wasn’t someone who treated the Ten Commandments like Ten suggestions on how to live.<\/p>\n No this was a religious man who came with a sincere question.\u00a0\u00a0 He wanted to be sure of the answer.\u00a0 And he believed he knew the answer, he lived that answer.\u00a0 He was looking to Jesus to confirm it. So Mark tells us he:\u00a0 ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. \u201cGood teacher,\u201d he asked, \u201cwhat must I do to inherit eternal life?\u201d<\/span> (17)<\/p>\n His question is a window to the man’s heart. He came to Jesus believing what many people do today.\u00a0 If you’re good enough, if you try hard enough, you’ll get into heaven.\u00a0 And he thought he was.\u00a0 For what did he say when Jesus pointed him to the commandments. 20 <\/sup>\u201cTeacher,\u201d he declared, \u201call these I have kept since I was a boy<\/span>.\u201d<\/p>\n Here I imagine this sincere young man expected Jesus to pat him on the back like a coach might. Way to go<\/em>.\u00a0 \u00a0Keep up the good work.\u00a0 You’re well on your way to life with God.\u00a0 <\/em>But Jesus said nothing of the kind.\u00a0 Instead he led him to see.\u00a0 In spite of all his riches, he was helplessly poor when it came to God.<\/p>\n Jesus started with this reminder.\u00a0 \u201cNo one is good\u2014except God alone.<\/span>\u00a0 And then he had him consider the commandments.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0It was as if Jesus was asking him:\u00a0 Are you that good?\u00a0 Have you kept them my young friend?\u00a0\u00a0 Do you think you are good enough to stand before God and be accepted?<\/p>\n But the man insisted he was. He sincerely believed that he was worthy of life with God.\u00a0 So Jesus had him look away from the thing he had said and done to his heart.\u00a0 For the Son of God knew this man’s heart as he knows ours.\u00a0 He can see who or what is most important to us.\u00a0 He can see what we treasure.\u00a0 So he showed this man:\u00a0 \u201cOne thing you lack,\u201d he said. \u201cGo, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n So often people read this and think, Jesus is teeing off on the rich.\u00a0 For what does he say to his disciples?\u00a0 \u201cHow hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!\u201d<\/span> \u00a0And it’s true.\u00a0 If we are well off, and many of us are by Bible standards, we need to pay attention to Jesus warning. There are spiritual dangers, temptations that come with being rich.\u00a0 So Jesus warns us elsewhere.\u00a0 Be on your guard against all kinds of greed.<\/span> \u00a0In fact, the proverbs teach us to pray:\u00a0 give me neither poverty or riches, Otherwise I may have too much and disown you.<\/span>\u00a0 Riches, having what we need in this life, can blind us to what we really need, who we really need.<\/p>\n Yet the problem is not what fills our living rooms.\u00a0 It’s not our net worth.\u00a0 It’s what fills our hearts.\u00a0 And here Jesus showed this man, it wasn’t really God, but his riches.\u00a0 He showed this man he had broken the first and greatest commandment.\u00a0 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and strength.\u00a0 For he loved what he had, more than God. \u00a0Jesus made it clear.<\/p>\n 22 <\/sup>At this the man\u2019s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth<\/span>.\u00a0 \u00a0Here you might wonder what’s going on.\u00a0 Why did the Jesus treat him this way?\u00a0\u00a0 Does the Son of God enjoy hurting people’s feelings?\u00a0 Not at all. Remember what Mark tells us in verse 21.\u00a0 Jesus looked at him and loved him.<\/span> That’s what this is all about The Son of God loved him enough to tell him the truth.<\/p>\n Well here the Holy Spirit who inspired this Word loves us enough to do the same.\u00a0 He challenges our pride that wants to think like this rich man.\u00a0 I haven’t murdered. I haven’t stole someone’s car. I haven’t abused my wife or children.\u00a0 And Lord, I’ve been faithful in coming to your house.<\/em>\u00a0 Through this Word, the Spirit challenges us when we are foolish enough to think.\u00a0 All this I have done.<\/span><\/p>\n For our Lord loves us enough to tell US the truth .<\/strong> He loves us enough to show us what’s inside our hearts. \u00a0For just imagine Jesus were to say to you, Go sell everything you have and give to the poor.<\/em>\u00a0 I think we know what our hearts would reveal.<\/p>\n But it’s not just there that Jesus could point. Jesus could have just as easily said to us:\u00a0 Don’t worry any more…or don’t lose your temper… or don’t be jealous … or don’t have lustful thoughts and you shall have treasure in heaven. <\/em><\/p>\n Jesus shows us the truth, doesn’t he?\u00a0 There is only One good and it’s not you and me.\u00a0 We are far from what God commands.\u00a0 And when we realize that, when we take it to heart, it makes our faces fall too.\u00a0 But you know something?\u00a0 Jesus doesn’t want us to go away like the rich man did.\u00a0 No he wants you to draw closer.\u00a0 He wants you to stay and learn what he teaches here:\u00a0 God loves us enough to make the impossible, possible.<\/strong><\/p>\n Jesus words stunned his disciples.\u00a0 Perhaps they knew this man He was the type of neighbor you’d like to have.\u00a0 a kind and decent man.\u00a0 He probably made the expected donations to the temple and the poor. He was a good citizen not like those we heard about in the days of Amos the prophet.\u00a0 He was honest in his dealings with others.<\/p>\n Yet Jesus showed that even he was lacking.\u00a0 How stunned his disciples were especially when they heard Jesus say: \u201cChildren, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God!<\/span> 25 <\/sup>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.\u201d<\/span> \u00a0Stunned by Jesus’ words they wondered out loud:\u00a0 Who then can be saved?<\/span>\u00a0 If not this man, is richly blessed, if not this man so religious, if he’s not deserving, then who?\u00a0 27 <\/sup>Jesus looked at them and said, \u201cWith man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Remember the scene I described earlier.\u00a0 A collapsed building, a small mountain of concrete slabs piled on each other.\u00a0 Or maybe a coal mine in which men are trapped hundreds of feet below.\u00a0 Hours go by, maybe days.\u00a0 How amazing to see people, even one person, survive what seemed so impossible.\u00a0 At times like those, I find myself praying a silent prayer of thanksgiving.<\/p>\n Yet it hardly compares to what our Lord has done for us and all people.\u00a0 Our God who can make camels go through the eye of a needle has done something even more amazing.\u00a0 He has made the impossible, possible.\u00a0 For God made it possible for sinners like you and me to be his dear children with the sure hope of life with him.<\/p>\n But don’t get the wrong idea.\u00a0 God didn’t decide one day to look the other way when it came to our guilt.\u00a0 He would not be true to himself.\u00a0 God must punish evil.\u00a0 But that leaves you and me in an impossible situation.\u00a0 Yet in his great wisdom, more than that, in his great love, the Lord has made the impossible, possible.<\/p>\n Think about that love.\u00a0 Would you be willing to give up the life of your child or best friend to save the life of your enemy?\u00a0 Would you be willing to let your child be punished for the ugly things that others have done.\u00a0 I wouldn’t.\u00a0 But God did.\u00a0 He gave up the life of his Son so that you and I could be his forgiven child.\u00a0 He gave his Son into death to wipe away your guilt and mine and make the impossible, possible.\u00a0 That you can now stand before God, lacking nothing.\u00a0 So who then can be saved?\u00a0 You then, can be saved.\u00a0 For God made the impossible, possible by the blood of his Son, Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n So don’t be like that rich man.\u00a0 Don’t go away sad. Don’t go away discouraged because Jesus stepped on your self-esteem.\u00a0 Rather leave this place knowing what God has done for you. Leave this place knowing how loved you are. And leave this place ready to follow Jesus, to be all the more what our Lord wants us to be.\u00a0 Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Text:\u00a0 Mark 10: 17-27 I know a man who teaches firefighters and rescue personnel an important skill.\u00a0 A building collapses.\u00a0 People are buried in the rubble.\u00a0 And if you or I would come upon that scene, we might say:\u00a0 Who could be saved? It looks so hopeless.\u00a0 But not always.\u00a0 Sometimes a person is helplessly trapped under that rubble alive.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermon"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=374"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":375,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374\/revisions\/375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nI.\u00a0 The Lord loves us enough to tell us the truth.
\nII. He loves us enough to make the impossible, possible.<\/p>\n