Immanuel Sermon Audio
Luke 18:15-43
If you didn't, there should be one in front of you, in the seat in front of you or underneath you. It would like you to take it out and find the gospel of Luke chapter 18, Luke 18. There's an outline in your bulletin if you'd like to follow along on the outline. The passage we're looking at this morning is perfect when you think about the variety of people who expressed their faith in Jesus and were baptized this morning. We had different ages. We had men and women. We had adults. We had teenagers. We had youngsters and that fits right in with the big idea of the passage and I'm just going to jump in and give it to you. The big idea of the verses we're looking at this morning is this. The decision to follow Jesus plays out differently for different people but it always involves repentance, faith, and a commitment to put Jesus at the center of your life. And when I say that it plays out differently, what I mean is that when a sixth grade girl becomes a follower of Jesus, that's going to look different in her life than if a fifty year old man becomes a follower of Jesus. Or if a eight year old becomes a father of Jesus, it's going to look different in different lives but there's some things that you ought to see regardless of the person, regardless of the situation, regardless of the age, regardless of their background, and those things are repentance, faith, and a commitment to put Jesus at the very center of your life. And so we're going to read this passage. Last week, I mentioned this to you, last week we looked at verse 15, 16, and 17, they provided a good contrast with the Pharisee who went and prayed at the temple but they also fit well with the passage this morning, and so we're going to read those verses again. Look with me beginning in Luke 18, verse 15, and we're going to read all the way to the end of the chapter. This is the Word of God. Now they were bringing even infants to Him that He might touch them. When the disciples saw it, they rebuked them, but Jesus called them to Him saying, "Let the children come to Me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it." And a ruler asked Him, "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" And Jesus said to Him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. Do know the commandments, do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not bear false witness. Honor your father and mother." And He said, "All of these I have kept from my youth." When Jesus heard this, He said to Him, "One thing you still lack, sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, and come, follow Me." But when He heard these things, He became very sad, for He was extremely rich. Jesus saying that He had become sad, said, "How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God." It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. And those who heard it said, "Then who can be saved?" And He said, "What is impossible with men is possible with God." And Peter said, "See, we have left our homes and followed you." And He said to them, "Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God who will not receive many times more in this time and in the age to come eternal life." Taking the 12, He said to them, "See, we are going up to Jerusalem." And everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. He will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. And after flogging Him, they will kill Him. And on the third day, He will rise. They understood none of these things. The saying was hidden from them and they did not grasp what He said. As He drew near to Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging and hearing a crowd going by, he inquired what this meant. They told him, "Jesus of Nazareth is passing by." And He cried out, "Jesus Son of David, have mercy on me." And those who were in front rebuked Him, telling Him to be silent, but He cried out, "All the more Son of David, have mercy on me." And Jesus stopped and commanded Him to be brought to Him. And when He came near, He asked Him, "What do you want me to do for you?" He said, "Lord, let me recover my sight." And Jesus said to Him, "Recovery your sight. Your faith has made you well." And immediately He recovered His sight and He followed Him, glorifying God and all the people when they saw it gave praise to God. Let's pray. Father, we believe that this is Your Word. We believe that it is true. We believe that it is powerful. We believe that it can change us. And we ask this morning for wisdom to understand what Luke is saying to us, what Your Holy Spirit is saying to us. We ask for wisdom to know how to apply it to our lives. Father, I look across this room and I see all of these people. Some know Jesus, some do not. Some have followed Him for years, some for days. And I pray that You would give us understanding as to what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. You would give us a greater appreciation for what Jesus came to do and accomplish on our behalf. We pray it all in Jesus' name. Amen. Very simply this morning, what I want us to do is to walk through this passage. And I want you to see the four major scenes. Each scene, Jesus has an interaction with an individual or with a group of people. So I want to just walk through these four scenes. I want you to see what Jesus has to say to these different groups. And as we go, we'll think about how it might apply to our lives. So first of all, the children. You need to see this. Salvation is a gift that we receive with open hands. When you look at Jesus interacting with these children, you're reminded, salvation is a gift. We receive it with open hands. These children are the epitome of humility. They don't come to Jesus with anything to offer Him. They're sandwiched right in between a Pharisee who goes to the temple and brags in his quote unquote prayer about how much he has done for God. And then on the other side of these children, we read about a man who comes to Jesus and his question is, we'll get to him in a minute, what do I need to do to inherit eternal life? And sandwiched between these two men who think they have done something or need to do something in order to get to heaven someday, Luke tells us about these kids. They don't have anything to offer Jesus. They don't have anything to give him. And Jesus makes a point in looking at these children and he says in verse 17, if you don't receive the kingdom of God like a child, you will not receive it and you will not enter it. Open hands, not coming with closed hands to bring something to God, but open hands ready to receive something from God. One more thing I want you to think about as you look at these children. What's Jesus doing right now in the story of Luke? We're in Luke chapter 18. If you've been around for a while, you know that Luke 19 10 says he came to seek and to save the lost. So he's on a mission to do that. If you've been around, you know that Luke 951 says Jesus set his face to go to Jerusalem. He made the decision at one point in his life, this is my final trip to Jerusalem. I'm going and I know that when I get there, I'm going to die. And then we read in Luke 18 verse 31, Jesus says, we're going to Jerusalem, reminder. I'm going to die. You think about that. Jesus Christ, sometimes we think of him as Superman walking around. He was really human and he's literally walking one step after the other on his way to Jerusalem and he knows without a shadow of a doubt, not like there's a possibility or a chance or the odds are against it, he knows that when he gets there, he's going to die. I don't know about you, but if I'm making that walk, that's what's on my mind. That's all I'd be able to think about. Jesus, with literally the weight of the world upon his shoulders, has time to stop and hug babies. They don't do anything to assist in his mission. They don't have anything to offer him. They're not going to somehow encourage him and what he's about to do. They're just kids. They contribute nothing to Jesus. Yet even in this crisis moment where he's walking, he's marching to his death, he stops and he has time to play with children. He cares about people and it may not be today, but there's going to come a time in your life. Maybe it is today, where if you're honest, you say, I don't really know that I believe that God cares for me right now. My circumstances, my situations, my troubles, my difficulties, the things that I'm facing, I'm not sure that he cares and when you start to think that way, you need to come back to this story and you need to say, no, he does care. With the weight of the world pressing down on his shoulders, with a cross waiting him at the end of the road, he stops and he plays with kids. Not because he's trying to increase his pole numbers, not because the paparazzi are there taking pictures, and politicians like to take pictures with babies, he cares about the kids. He cares about you. Second person you see Jesus interact with is the rich ruler and here's what you see when you look at this story about the rich ruler. Following Jesus involves a joyful readiness to repent of sin and put Jesus at the center of our life. When I put this on the slide and I put it on your bulletin, I almost made you write in the words joyful readiness because that's important. We're not just saying, will you grin and bear it and act like you're miserable and repent? That's not true repentance. What you see in this story is that following Jesus involves a joyful, willing, glad, delighted readiness to put sin behind you and to put Jesus at the center of your life. So this man comes to Jesus. The story begins in verse 18 and he says, good teacher, what must I do, what must I do to go to heaven when I die? I don't want to go to hell, I want to go to heaven, what do I need to do? And he addresses Jesus as the good teacher. Jesus responds with the question and the question is, why do you call me good? That's a strange question because at first glance it sounds like did Jesus not think that he was good? Surely that's an easy Sunday school answer, was Jesus good, yes or no, yes, I think Jesus was good. And it sounds like he's putting that into question. He's not questioning whether or not he is good, but he knows that this Jewish man who just came to him addressed him as good teacher and he knows that a self-respecting upright Jew would only describe God as good, not another human being. So he knows right off the bat, when this man opens his mouth and says good teacher, he knows that his theology is not quite right. He doesn't have God on the pedestal that he needs to have him on and he's got human beings a little bit too high. And so he's questioning this man's assumptions. He wants him to think about the things he assumes to be true, that Jesus or some other human being could be good and that he needs to do something to go to heaven. So Jesus puts him on the defensive and Jesus says, don't you know about the commandments? Jesus refers to commandments 7, 6, 8, 9, and 5 in that order. 5 to 9 mixed up order and he says, you know, do what the commandments say. And what does the guy say to Jesus? It's a little bit outlandish. Well, now that you mentioned that, I've done all of those things from my youth. Well how about that? He has obeyed commandments 5 to 9 since he was a teenager. How Jesus managed not to laugh at his face, I have no idea. Or how Jesus, we know he was sinless, so somehow he was able to restrain himself from just slapping the guy across the face. But he didn't do that. He says, huh, you think you've obeyed commandments 7, 6, 8, 9, and 5? Okay, look what Jesus says in verse 22. He says, one thing you still lack, and understand Jesus is not saying, okay, you're right, you've done all that, but there's just one last final thing. It's more like, oh yeah, you think you're Mr. Morrill, Mr. Fancy Pants, Mr. Spiritual Guy? Well, let me tell you one thing you do certainly lack. One thing that you do lack is that you need to get rid of all your stuff. You need to sell all you have, distribute it to the poor, and then you'll have treasure in heaven. And when you've done that, then I want you to come and to follow me. This is Jesus. I told you he didn't reach out and slap the guy across the face. He didn't do that physically with his hand. But what he did is he took commandments one, two, three, four, and ten, and he just gave this guy a backhand right across the cheek. He thinks he's done five to nine perfectly. Those commandments, five to nine, all deal with our relationship with other people. None of them say anything directly about our relationship with God, and he thinks he's checked all those boxes off, and Jesus says, really, well, let's go back to commandments one, two, three, four, love God more than anything else. Don't put anything in God's place, don't use God's name in vain, worship God faithfully once a week, and let's tack on number ten, don't want what other people have, and he takes those other five commandments and he just gives this guy a backhand. And what he's saying to him is, you've lost your mind if you think you've obeyed the ten commandments. Now for a second do I believe you've obeyed five to nine, but clearly you have an issue with money and it's your idol. That's what you love more than anything else. And sometimes we get nervous when we read this passage and we leave church thinking, am I supposed to go home and have an estate sale? Do I need to go home and just put it all on the market? What am I supposed to do here? Look, Jesus is looking at this man who is so wrapped up in his own idolatry. He can't even see it. He loves money and stuff more than anything else and so what Jesus is saying is, if you're really going to follow me, you're going to have to get rid of that. Right now that money and that stuff is standing between you and me. And I'm not telling you that you ought to just get rid of it and be so sad that you had to have an estate sale, I'm telling you you need to be joyfully ready to repent of your idolatry and put me at the center of your life. Will you do that? Yes, or will you do it? No. And the text says, Luke tells us that he was very sad, very sad, not just sad, very sad. Why? Because he was extremely wealthy. He really liked his stuff and he went away very, very sad. We're going to come back to what Jesus said to the disciples in just a minute. Third, I want you to think about the blind man. It's a blind man in Jericho. True faith humbly seeks mercy and it centers on the Messiah and it overflows in worship. That's a lot, but there's a lot going on in this passage. True faith humbly seeks mercy. We talked about that last week. It's centered on the Messiah, meaning it's not just some vague notion of God, this being up there. He's just sort of exists. We don't know much about him, but it's focused on Jesus the Christ, the Messiah, and it overflows and it results in worship. In my opinion, other than Jesus, who you have to say is the coolest guy in the passage, the blind guy is a distant second, but he's second. I really like this blind guy. He's blind. He lives in Jericho. Look at verse 37. In verse 37, they told him that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by Jesus of Nazareth. In look what he says in verse 38, he says, "Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me." Do you know that's the only time in the gospel of Luke that Jesus is called the son of David? He's called the son of man a lot. Jesus refers to himself that way. He's called other things in the gospel of Luke, but this is the only time he's called Jesus' son of David. And here's what I think is fascinating. Put yourself in Luke's shoes. After Luke and you want to tell this story about Jesus going in and the story is, you're tracking with me, Jesus heals the guy. That's the end of the story, right? The guy can't see when Jesus comes into town, when Jesus moves on to the next town, he can see. That's what you want to say. But he includes these interesting details that when Jesus is walking in, everybody says to the blind guy, "Jesus of Nazareth is about to walk by." And when he cries out to Jesus, he doesn't call him Jesus of Nazareth. That calls him Jesus son of David. Luke could have left those details out, and you and I still would understand that Jesus healed him. He put those details in to teach us something about this blind man's faith. Jesus of Nazareth is coming. That would be like saying, "Landing from Amarillo is preaching," or he's married to Brooke from Odessa. It just talks about geography. Has nothing to say with Jesus in who he truly was or what he had come to accomplish. And so he hears Jesus from Nazareth is coming, and he cries out, "Jesus, son of David." He's calling him the Messiah. Jews understood that the Messiah was going to come from David's line. And even though this blind man can't see his fingers in front of his face, he sees more clearly than anybody else in town that the Messiah is about to walk by. He gets it. So he doesn't call him Jesus from Nazareth. He calls him Jesus, the son of David. And Jesus walks up to this man, and there's an interesting back and forth. Jesus says, "What do you want me to do?" Well, I'm blind. I would like to be able to see. And Jesus says, "Then see." If you want to see, see. And look what Jesus says in verse 42, "Recovery your sight, your faith has made you well." What does that mean? Your faith has made you well. I think the default answer would be for us to say, "Well, he had faith that Jesus could heal him." His faith made him well. And I think that's part of it. But I think when you read this story in the context and you look at these titles, "Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus, Son of David," you understand, his faith was a lot more than that Jesus was some sort of miracle worker, wonder worker. He believed the Messiah had come. And the Jews understood a couple of things about the Messiah. They understood that when he came, Isaiah talks about this, the lame were going to leap like deers, the blind would receive their sight, the mute would open up their mouths and praise. And he says, putting all this together, "You're the Son of David. You're the Messiah. When the Messiah shows up, this is what's going to happen. I'm blind. I don't want to be blind. And you're the Messiah. Let's put two and two together, and I want to see." His faith was not some wonder worker, some trick artist came to town, and he would be able to see things. His faith was that the Messiah was in his presence. And like I said, he's blind, but he sees more clearly than anybody else in the passage. Now back to the disciples, and we'll end with this. Right in the middle, there's this interaction with the disciples, and here's what you learned. Salvation is never obtained through our "sacrifices." Rather, salvation is found through the substitutionary sacrifice that Jesus made for sinners. And I put the first word in quotes so that you understand, we really don't sacrifice anything when we follow Jesus. That's part of understanding that he calls us to joyful repentance, and we'll talk about that in a minute. So it's not through our so-called sacrifices, what we give up, but it's through the substitutionary sacrifice that Jesus made. So go back with me to Jesus in the rich young ruler. Jesus says, when the man walks away very sad, verse 24, how difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God. In fact, verse 25, Jesus says it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. And when the disciples heard that, they were shocked. They, like most of the people who lived at this time, believed that if you had money, it was a sign that God loved you. If you didn't have money, it was a sign that God was angry with you. So they hear Jesus say that rich people can't get in any more than a camel can go through the eye of a needle, and in their minds, in their logic, they're thinking, if the rich guys don't have a chance and God loves them, how does an ordinary Joe have a chance? And the answer was, in their minds, he doesn't have a chance. If the rich guys that God loves aren't going to make it, how in the world am I going to make it? And Jesus says, well, let me tell you what it's like. Your odds are kind of like a camel going through the eye of a needle. And I know that maybe you've read or you've heard explanations about a special gate in Jerusalem called the camel's gate, and these camels, listen, Jesus is just talking with hyperbole and exaggeration. And can I tell you what he's saying? You don't have a chance. You don't have a chance. Is a camel going to go through the eye of a needle? Nope. Are you going to make it to heaven on your own? Absolutely not. It's not going to happen. Who can be saved? Jesus says, with you, it's impossible. I don't care if you're rich, poor in the middle, with you, it's impossible. With God, all things are possible. But don't miss what he says in verse 24, because this is a head scratcher. When he saw that the man became sad, Jesus said, how difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God. Do you have wealth? I guess it depends on your perspective, right? I read several sources this week that said, this seems to be a consensus, that by the year 2016, which by the way is not that far away, hard to believe, by the year 2016, the richest one percent of the people on planet Earth will control the exact same amount of money as the poorest 99% of the people on Earth. That's kind of hard to wrap your mind around, isn't it? If you say there's 100 people on Earth and you want to know how the wealth gets divvied about, one person has as much money as the other 99 combined. One percent to 99, you look at that and you say, well, those 1%ers don't have a chance. Most of us would like to think we wouldn't be in that 1%. Think with me just for a second. There's a website I found this week and after I found it, I showed it to Corey and he told me that he shared it with some of you guys a few months back. The website is called the Global Rich List. Guess what? You're on it. You didn't sign up, you didn't put your name on here, but this website, you go to it and the first thing it asks is, do you want to do this search by income, how much you make a year, or by wealth, how much stuff you have right now? You can do it either way and so I typed in, let's pick USA dollars, we live in the United States, we're going to do it by income and I just picked a number, a nice even round number 50,000 bucks. If you have less than that, you make less than that a year, I'm not trying to make you feel poor. If you make more than that, I'm not trying to make you feel rich. I just picked a middle of the road number, $50,000 a year income and I hit, show me my results and this is the first thing that came up on the Global Rich List. You are in the top 0.31%, that means you're in the 1%. The top 1% and you see there's you up there at the top left, all those gray people to the right, those are the people who make less than you and all those non-existent people to the left, those are the people who make more than you. Statistically they don't exist and in case you were wondering, you can go home knowing that you are the 18,652,583th richest person on planet Earth. Here's what else I found out on the Global Rich List. Put this next one up. In an hour, you make about 2604. I know that small print, you maybe can't read it, but it says, "The average laborer in Ghana, West Africa, makes 8 cents an hour compared to your 2604 and you make 50,000 in one year." If that's your yearly income, 50,000 in one year, well, if you lived in Indonesia and you were an average wage earner, it would only take you 67 years to earn $50,000. By 2082, you would have then made $50,000. Here's what else I found on the Global Rich List. If you wanted to buy a Coke, you need to work for a minute and 22 seconds. But if you lived in Zimbabwe and you wanted to buy that same Coke, you're going to have to work for an hour and seven minutes. Go to the next one. You make $50,000 a year. In Kazakhstan, that salary would pay the salaries of 188 doctors for a year. I don't put all these numbers up here so that you go home with some sort of guilt complex. If you go home with a guilt complex, you missed it. You totally missed it. I put them up here so that you understand, look what Jesus says in verse 24, "How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God." When He says that, He is talking to you and He's talking to me. Be real about it. Don't despair about it because there is hope in the very next verse where Jesus says, "Look, who then can be saved with you? It's impossible. With God, all things are possible. You can't do it on your own, whether you have money or don't have money. With God, it is possible." Peter jumps in, thankful for Peter. We love Peter. He says all the stupid things we wish we could say. And Peter says this in verse 28, "He's just scratching his head. You feel bad for him. He's trying to figure it out. Jesus says the rich people is going to be hard for them like a camel through the eye of a needle." And they say, "Well, then who's going to go to heaven?" He says, "Well, it's only possible with God." And Peter's thinking, "I don't understand this because He was a man of some means you understand. He owned a boat. He owned a fishing business." And so he's trying to scratch his head and think about this and he says, "Yeah, but okay, you sent the rich young ruler away sad. He wouldn't get rid of his stuff. But what about us? Because when you told us to follow you, we followed. We dropped the nets and we followed you. So where does that leave us, Jesus? Now you may not have literally dropped your fishing nets to follow Jesus, but maybe you and I would turn around and say, "Look, I know we're in the top 0.31% of the net. We're in the world." And that's just an accident of geography and where we were born, you know, that it is what it is. But Jesus, we give our tithes. We walk into church every Sunday. We put the envelope in the box as we walk in. We give our offerings. We're going to bring Christmas boxes to send the kids around the world. In a couple of weeks, you'll see groceries stacked over on this side to feed families here in Odessa. We give all this stuff. We're going to take emissions offering. So Peter says, "Hey, we dropped the nets to follow you. You and I asked this question." And we say, "Yeah, but it's not like we're totally worshiping our money. We give it away. We tithe. We give offerings. We give all this stuff." What about us? And Jesus' answer is pretty simple. He says, "Look, I understand, Peter, that you've left some things behind." And he would say to you, "I understand that you've given some things up and that maybe just because you have money doesn't mean you worship money like this rich young man who went away sad." And Jesus says, "Look, I'm a pretty good accountant. When you quote unquote sacrifice, I'm going to pay you back." Not in this life, you understand this is not your best life now, but Jesus says, "In the life to come, I'll settle accounts. Nobody's going to be complaining that they didn't get brought up to even with the things that they gave up. I'm going to give you more than you've quote unquote sacrificed for me." Don't worry about that, Peter. But then look what he starts to talk about right after that in verse 31. He takes the 12 and he says to him, "Just to remind them, just talk about the sacrifices they've made." So let me just remind you about something important. You remember we're going to Jerusalem, right? And you understand that everything written about the Son of Man is about to be fulfilled. Have you ever read Isaiah 53? Have you read what it says will happen to the Messiah? He will be beaten, he will be killed, he will be crushed, he will be cut off. It's about to happen, Jesus says. Verse 32. He's going to be delivered over to the Gentiles, they're going to mock him, they're going to treat him shamefully, they're going to spit upon him, they're going to flog him and three days later he will rise from the dead. This is Luke 19, 10 and we're going to look at it next week, but this is it. I've come to seek and to save the lost. We're going to Jerusalem and all the things that have been written are about to happen. How can a person be saved if the rich can't go to heaven anymore than a camel can go through the eye of a needle? Jesus says it's impossible with you, but all things are possible with God. And I'm God come to rescue you, to die for you, to take your punishment, to take your place, to be the sacrifice that gives you life, left to yourself, it will never happen. But with me, it's possible. Jesus is saying in this passage, I don't care if you're a young child, I don't care if you're a wealthy, influential ruler, I don't care if you're a church-going person, I don't care if you're a blind man sitting out by the side of the road. There's one way in, one way, and it's made possible by the fact that the son of man came to seek and to save the lost. He made the only sacrifice that matters, and he is not asking you to give up anything. When he calls you to repentance, he's not asking you to make a sacrifice. He's not saying give up something that you love so much for something lousy and cheap. He's not saying give up something valuable for something worthless. He's saying give up the filth, give up the little g-gods, the idols, give up the money that will never save you or make you happy. Get rid of all the stuff that's standing between you and me and do it joyfully knowing that what you're getting in return is something so much greater. It may not look like it in this life, but in the life to come, he says it will be added back to you above and beyond and over and on top of anything you can ever imagine. He's calling you to repentance, joyful, glad, willing repentance. He's calling you to faith, not just faith that he's good, not just faith that he's powerful, but faith that he's the Messiah. He's the son of David, not just Jesus from Nazareth, he's the promised one. He's calling you to put him at the center of his life. And as you sit here this morning, I have no clue what it is that you need to get rid of. Maybe you do need to go home and have an estate sale. Maybe you do need to go and end a relationship. Maybe you do need to go and get rid of something in your life that's standing between you and Jesus Christ. Just understand this. It's not a sacrifice. You're not losing out or missing out. You're getting something of eternal, eternal, eternal value. Let me pray for you. Father, this morning, as we think about the words that Jesus spoke to these folks, we pray that you would impress them on our hearts. We pray that you would help us to understand what true faith looks like, what joyful repentance looks like. What does it mean for us to put Jesus at the center? Father, I pray that no one today would walk away sad, that no one today would walk away like this rich young ruler clinging to their idols, but that we would come to you with open hands to receive the greatest gift that you have provided for us through Jesus Christ, the greatest gift that anyone could receive. Father, we love you. We praise you that the Son of Man came to seek and to save us while we were lost. As we respond to you, as we pray, and as we sing, be honored and be glorified. We ask it in Jesus' name, amen.