Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “It is hard for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!” 24 The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, “Children, it is hard to enter the kingdom of God! 25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” 26 The disciples were even more amazed, and said to one another, “Well then who can be saved?” 27 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; with God all things are possible!”
Christ is risen; He is risen, indeed. Hallelujah! Amen!
Somebody up there must really like me. Have you ever heard somebody say that? Have you ever said that to yourself? You know, things are going great. All things seem to be falling into place. And at that moment, you think to yourself, “It must be because of my clean living or following good advice. That’s why all the good things are happening, that’s why all the dough is rolling in. Somebody up there must really, really like me!”
Be honest, you’ve felt that sometimes, haven’t you? We all have.
It wasn’t much different in Jesus’ day. Jesus and His disciples lived in a society where it was taught by the religious leaders that wealth was a sign of God’s blessings. Those who were rich were considered blessed by God. To many in the ancient world, worldly wealth was a sign of heavenly blessings. There was an assumption, sure, that those who were rich, they were supposed to share their wealth, especially with those who were poor, but the riches themselves, they were a sign of God’s favor; a sign that you were indeed blessed.
So, that’s why Jesus’ teaching was so strange to the disciples back then; maybe it’s strange to you too.
In our lesson today, Jesus had just encountered a moralistic, wealthy guy who had it all. This guy who came to Him was very good by people’s standards and he was rich to boot. He asked Jesus, “How can I, the one who is obviously blessed, get this thing called eternal life?” I think that he was pretty sure that Jesus would say, “You’ve got it man. You’re rich. You are a good guy by all people’s standards and you really try hard.” I think he was waiting for the “A-okay” for Jesus to say, “You’re in. Of course, God wants folks like you to be with Him forever.”
This rich guy, this relatively good guy too, he wasn’t prepared for Jesus to have him make a choice between heavenly wealth and earthly wealth. He wasn’t ready to hear that the only thing that matters in this life is faith in Jesus, following Him, trusting in Him for your life and salvation. He wasn’t ready to hear, that if your wealth gets in the way of that kind of trust and faith, get rid of it.
And no one was ready to hear Jesus say, “It’s hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” Aren’t they the ones who are first in line, Jesus?
The disciples were shocked; so shocked that Jesus had to tell them all this twice. Maybe you are too. How does this thing work, to be blessed by God? Isn’t it all up to us? Isn’t the fact that things are going great a sign that I’m doing great with God? Isn’t it also true that suffering, grief, and struggle, they are signs that I’m under God’s judgment or at least not part of His care and concern? Isn’t that how it works? And why does Jesus make all this sound impossible for us anyway rich or poor? Camels can’t fit through the eyes of needles, no way; thread can barely fit through there.
So Jesus, I think He is laying it all on the line for us all. He’s saying that He knows what it takes to get to heaven. He knows what’s eternally valuable. He knows all about living life abundantly now and forever. He knows that with us alone all this is impossible; but He goes on! “With man this is impossible,” He says, “but not with God; with God all things are possible!”
Here’s another way to say it; from Jesus’ point of view, there are certain things in life that are so precious, there isn’t enough money in the world to take its place.
Unfortunately, people then and people now, still don’t get this. I just saw some research that made me realize how messed up people can get about what really matters. It’s so easy in this world, as sinful people, to totally devalue what is precious and to desire what truly is worthless.
In their book, The Day America Told the Truth, authors James Patterson and Peter Kim revealed some shocking statistics on how far people in this country would be willing to go for money. When asked about what they’d do for $10 million; here it goes:
I always find it amazing, but not shocking, that sinful people would trade things that are precious for things that don’t last.
And that’s exactly what happened with the rich man and Jesus. When Jesus said, “Give up your wealth, follow Me, and you’ll get your answers,” He couldn’t do it. This temporally rich man would walk away from the very One who is the eternal Way, Truth, and Life just for a little cash in hand. Wow!
Jesus pulls no punches when talking about your life with Him either. Another time Jesus said this, “Life does not consist in an abundance of things!” (Luke12). So, who are you going to believe today?
He cuts through the fog of our faulty sense of what ultimately matters and He tells the disciples that faith in Him is what makes life worth living, now and forever, no matter what comes your way.
I’ve seen this truth over and over again in my ministry. I’ve seen people with all kinds of struggles, troubles, and challenges, and yet have great faith in Jesus as their Lord and Savior, the One who will provide for them. And, I’ve also seen people with great wealth, who aren’t sure what life is about and who helplessly realize that nothing in their hands can make it work the way it is supposed to be.
When I was a missionary in New York City, I used to regularly lead a Bible Study on Wall Street, 9 Broad St., New York City. There was money there I’ll tell you. But, many of those who literally gave up everything to have it all found out that even when they climbed the mountain of success, there wasn’t anything up there at the top that filled the heart, the soul. It’s like a quote I read the other day of a man who dealt regularly with wealthy folks. He said, “I found that most of these, by their own testimony, though they had all the money to buy anything they wanted, had arrived at the place where they were suffering from what someone so aptly called ‘destination sickness’ — the malady of having everything that you want, but not wanting anything you have, and being sick and empty and lonely and miserable because you can do anything you want to do. But want you want to do really doesn’t matter!”
So, let me say it clearly today. Stop worrying about whether or not Someone up there likes you. As if your life is about living in the uncertainty of whether you are blessed or cursed, favored or unfavored depending on your socio-economic status, health report, or popularity.
And hear some real good news of Jesus today. Today’s the day that you can know and believe that Someone up there loves you and has sent His Son to die for you so that you might have the riches of His grace, forgiveness, and life, now and forever.
That kind of certainty, that kind of confidence that God in Heaven loves and cares for you, that sounds incredible, even way too good to be true! And honestly, if you are like me, you know in your heart that you aren’t perfect, that you are sinful, that no matter how much or how little money you have, you know in your heart you are undeserving of all of this anyway.
That’s why Jesus doesn’t play the are-you-good-enough game, because your life with Him is too important to Him. He gets right to it, saying, “You’re right, knowing that Someone up there really loves you, it’s impossible on your terms, but with God, all is possible.”
Incredibly, I’ve also found that people really don’t like hearing even this at first; that it all depends on God. Some even think it’s unfair, unjust, even too easy! Many people have even been bothered by these statements of Jesus. They’ve tried to explain Jesus’ statement as being something other than what it plainly says. People have tried to suppose that Jesus was teaching that it was hard, but not impossible, to make it into heaven on our own terms. They tried to explain the needle and the camel this way, that there was a gate called the eye of the needle and a camel would have to kneel down, humble itself, work hard, get rid of its burdens and possessions in order to crawl through. Now that sounds more spiritual, doesn’t it?
It’s just not what Jesus meant. The disciples, they got it. They knew He was saying, “Getting into the Kingdom was impossible on their terms.” They were struggling with that, but at least they asked Jesus “Well, if it’s impossible Jesus, now what?”
Well, the now what is what Jesus had come to do, what Jesus had come to give them and people like you and me. He’s not merely a Teacher, a Rabbi, a socio-political Leader; He’s the Savior, God at work doing the impossible for you! The Good News of this text, the Good News of the Bible itself is that God has come to deal with our impossibilities, so that our life with Him will indeed be possible.
Life is not about groping in the darkness, giving it your best shot, and hoping Someone up there likes you. Life is about seeing God at work for you, trusting in the fact that Jesus has come so that you might have life and salvation as a gift. Life is about knowing that the Lord of Heaven and earth really, really loves you and wants what’s best for you no matter what is going on in your life right now.
When Jesus talks about wealth and riches, He is usually doing it to see what you value, what is precious to you, and He’s trying to tell you that the most precious thing you can have in this life and the next is a faith relationship with God the Father through Him. Everything else flows from that. Everything else is to be used or shared to give Him glory and to serve those He sends into your life.
The very Gospels were written to show you that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing Him gives life in His Name to you. And though the miracles in the Bible attest to that, the wisdom of the words demonstrate that, but nothing showed His glory as the Son of God, the world’s Savior, more than His death on a cross and His resurrection from the grave. He is the eternal Way, The Absolute Truth, The Fullness of Life. Don’t put any earthly price on this, you can’t pay it. Don’t bargain with God on this, you can’t earn it. This is the impossible made possible by the work of God in Christ alone for you!
I love how Dale Evans, wife of cowboy star Roy Rogers, you still remember them, don’t you? Well, she said it best when she said it one time, “All my life I searched for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, but I found what I really needed was at the foot of the cross.”
Because of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, you can confidently believe, even order your life, with a joyful certainty that the Lord of Heaven and earth, the One up there; He really loves you and He wants you to know His blessing and His guidance in life now and forever.
With that, Jesus can even turn the whole idea of blessing upside down. If you think that the disciples are confused about this wealth and blessing thing, wait until you hear what other things Jesus had been teaching them. Yes, He tells them that He is the Messiah. Yes, He tells them that He is the Son of God (He’s forgiving people’s sins, for goodness sake). Yes, He tells them, and any who will listen, that He has come to give us life, abundantly; but then He says, “in order to do that, I must suffer many things, be given over to unjust leaders, to suffer on a cross, to die, and then be raised again to liberate the world.”
That, too, doesn’t make much sense to the disciples. How can a humbled Messiah be the blessing of God?
All this is confusing until you get to know the Savior, Jesus. He’s the One who declares in the middle of all their confusion, “Look at Me, with Me alone there is blessing in all things. When it comes to favor with God, believe in Me! Trust in Me.”
Being a believer in Jesus means you know that Someone up there, really, really loves you and now you can go and live in that confidence each day, until you see Him face to face in the world to come! Wow!
Camels can’t get through the eye of a needle. Impossible! Sinners cannot buy their way into the Kingdom of God. Impossible! In fact, I don’t think I’d want to go to heaven if pride-filled sinners could buy their way in or bargain their way in anyway.
D.L Moody once said it this way: “It is well; it’s very good that a man cannot save himself; for if a man could only work his way into Heaven, you and I would never hear the last of it. Why, if a man happens to get a little ahead of his fellow man and scrapes a few thousands of dollars together, you’ll hear him boast of being a self-made man. I’ve heard so much of this sort of talk that I am sick and tired of this whole business; and I am glad that through all eternity in Heaven we will never hear anyone bragging of how he worked his way to get there.”
Yes, camels can’t get through the eyelets of a needle and, no, sinners can’t buy their way into the Kingdom of God; but the impossible is made possible by the work of Jesus Christ on the Cross, to forgive your sin, to take away your do-not-enter status, to grant you His access, even His blessing. Not impossible, but incredible and true.
You don’t have Someone up there who merely likes you; you have Someone right here who loves you with an everlasting love, with the very riches of Heaven at His disposal. Put your faith in Him.
And one last thing. I’ve heard people say that Christians, you know; believers in Jesus, that they think that they are better than everyone else. They think they are saints. No, that’s not how it is. Christians know that to be a saint is to receive all this, to be given all this as a gift, one that you can have too. And our life in Him, we’re just trying to reflect Him so that you can see His love for you too. That’s it. Simple as that. Or as a young boy said as he looked at the stained glass windows in the chapel, these windows which had some saints on them too, he said, “I think a saint is a person who lets the light shine through.” The light comes to all of us by grace and we know that we’re just pass-throughs too in Him for others!
Someone up there really loves you. I pray that you know this, are confident in this, and begin to live your life as His child, now and forever. Impossible? On your terms, yes; but, with Christ, it’s a done deal. Amen.
LUTHERAN HOUR MAILBOX (Questions & Answers) for October 18, 2015
Topic: What Is The Reformation?
ANNOUNCER: Now, Pastor Gregory Seltz responds to questions from listeners. I’m Mark Eischer. Pastor, whenever we come around to the end of October, we hear about this celebration all about the work of Martin Luther. What is the Reformation?
SELTZ: Mark, it’s good to hear this question especially as we approach this special day in the church every year, October 31st. But this coming year, 2017, in Germany, they are going to be celebrating the 500th year of Martin Luther and he was one of the most influential persons of the last 500 years. So, issues like freedom, personal worth, forgiveness, grace, abundant life; many of these issues that people take for granted today, they have their roots in the work of this monk named Luther.
ANNOUNCER: This all got started back in 1517 when Martin Luther nailed the list of ninety-five debating points to the door of the castle church in Wittenberg and that became the start of the Reformation.
SELTZ: Right, Mark, but let’s get our listeners up to speed on the background. Luther, an Augustinian monk, formulated ninety-five statements for discussion about some very important religious teachings and he posted them on the church door of the city of Wittenberg.
ANNOUNCER: Which is like posting it on the community bulletin board.
SELTZ: Yeah, and his goal was to start a dialog about the true nature of the Gospel, the teaching in the Bible about the forgiveness of sin with God.
ANNOUNCER: At that time, some in the Church of Rome were selling something called indulgences, which they claimed forgave sins.
SELTZ: They were, and that disturbed Luther a great deal because he was a pastor. He knew that nothing we could do would buy God off. Holiness, forgiveness, eternal life, they were way more precious than something sinners could just pay for. Luther also knew that such false teaching actually created a bondage to sin and pride, and that the Bible only proclaimed a forgiveness of sin that God could accomplish that He offers to all by grace alone; a gift through the work of Jesus Christ.
ANNOUNCER: So he wrote up these ninety-five statements in order to discuss these things.
SELTZ: Yeah, and the title was ‘The Ninety-Five Theses on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences.” In that document, Luther emphasized that only God could forgive sins, that all people are called to true repentance, and here’s the key, the focus was to be on the cross of Jesus Christ, not on humanly invented traditions that gave false hope.
ANNOUNCER: But that document was not received well in some quarters.
SELTZ: It wasn’t at least by the church leaders. But the people, though, were very enthused about what Luther was saying and these ninety-five theses spread like wildfire throughout Germany and Europe. But we need to remember this, Luther did not want to break from the church; he wanted to call the church back to a faithfulness to the Bible, God’s grace and a focus on faith as a gift that puts us in a relationship with our Savior.
ANNOUNCER: That’s summarized as what we call the three Solas of the Reformation: Sola Scriptura, Sola Gratia, and Sola Fide, which means Scripture Alone, Grace Alone, and Faith Alone in Christ Alone.
SELTZ: That’s right, and Luther rediscovered that, if you will, as he translated from the Scripture; original Hebrew for the Old Testament and the Greek in the New Testament, and he found the true meaning of Scripture again rather than merely just consulting church leaders and what they said about it. He highlighted verses like Romans 1:16-17, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, it is the power of God” or ‘The just will live by faith.” Also Ephesians 2: 8-9, “For by grace you have been saved through faith.”
ANNOUNCER: Some people might go so far as to say that Luther discovered the Gospel.
SELTZ: In actuality, the Gospel discovered him; just like it does to us today. The Good News of the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation through Christ; it changed his life, it changed the church. But it’s really a powerful testimony about what reading the Bible can do.
ANNOUNCER: What happened after October 31st, 1517?
SELTZ: It actually didn’t get much better right away. He was excommunicated by the Roman Catholic Church. He had to go into hiding for a while; his life was threatened. But many heard the Gospel. They believed and they rallied around him and that’s where this new movement was created in the church and society.
ANNOUNCER: And the term Lutheran actually began as a derogatory term for Luther’s followers.
SELTZ: Yes, Mark, but the followers eventually wore that title with pride. Later, The Augsburg Confession became a full, public confession of the teachings that defined this movement for generations. In fact, today we reap the benefits of Martin Luther and the Reformers still.
ANNOUNCER: And that’s something to be celebrated, especially here in this 500th anniversary of the Reformation. Thank you, Pastor Seltz. This has been a presentation of Lutheran Hour Ministries.
Action in Ministry for October 18, 2015
Guest:
Dion Garrett
ANNOUNCER: You’re listening to The Lutheran Hour and this is Action in Ministry. In today’s message, Pastor Seltz, we heard that we so easily take our focus off those things in life that really matter both for this life and for the life to come.
SELTZ: That’s why it’s important to know the one thing that will really never pass away and that’s the source of true, lasting contentment.
ANNOUNCER: And for more on that, Pastor Dion Garrett has written for us a phenomenal resource, a booklet titled, An Ingrates Guide to Contentment.
SELTZ: I like that title.
ANNOUNCER: Pastor Garrett, thank you for joining us today.
GARRETT: Thanks for having me.
SELTZ: Pastor Garrett, it’s very humbling to realize that so much of what we do and what we have is all going to be gone someday. People aren’t really going to care what car we drove or what accolades we had; but the struggle is real. We do feel that these things really make life worth living. I’m sure you got all of this figured out, right?
GARRETT: No. No.
SELTZ: We’re all struggling with that. But, seriously, why do we get stuck in this pattern?
GARRETT: The title of the book is descriptive of me. I’m an ingrate. I’m the last person on earth who should write a book.
SELTZ: You’re confessing it out there.
GARRETT: I am, but that also means I’ve dug into this and I’m trying to figure it out. But we are ingrates by nature and so, for some people, maybe they’re put off by the title and say, “Hey, that’s a little harsh.” No, it’s okay. This is all of us. We are all ingrates by nature, but there is something more that God wants for us.
ANNOUNCER: And in the booklet you tell us of someone that we read about in the Bible who found the key to being content.
GARRETT: Yeah, the Apostle Paul, St. Paul, he was a guy who said he figured this out. I remember the first time I read that just being blown away because he described the circumstances and he said, “I’ve been well-fed. I’ve been hungry. I’ve had plenty. I’ve been in want. And yet in all of these things I’ve learned the secret of being content in any and every circumstance. I remember reading that and saying, “Gosh, what’s the secret?” I need to understand what this is because if you could offer people that, from my own experience, they would take it. We all want to figure this out. We’re frustrated with the lack of contentment.
SELTZ: Yeah, it’s an incredible offer and Paul was persecuted and eventually killed for his faith. He certainly was not content with the state of the world. He wasn’t content with his circumstances; and that’s why I love how you look at this and how you spell it out for us; contentment versus dissatisfaction. They go hand in hand and the booklet shows how they can either be good or bad.
GARRETT: Yeah, if you think of contentment as I have to be okay with everything the way that it is, you’re missing it, because there is some stuff we should not be okay with and there are some things that should drive us to a serious discontentment. So, Paul felt that way. He was not happy about the state of the world. That’s why he traveled around the world and shared the Gospel with people. Jesus was not happy with the state of the world, that’s why He was sent. That’s why He came; to fix it. And so there are things that should create a discontentment inside of us that are actually for the good of people, they are close to the heart of God, they make a difference, and then there are other things that we feel discontented about that are actually….we just need to learn to have peace with those things because getting more isn’t the answer. It’s just going to be destructive. And so there’s this balancing act of what are the things that we should be content about and what are the things we should feel discontentment about.
ANNOUNCER: And interestingly enough, the Bible and even secular research reached the same conclusion.
GARRETT: Yeah. All truth is God’s truth and sometimes we could save ourselves some research money by just trusting the Bible. But then research has backed us up that having more things doesn’t make anyone happy.
SELTZ: Getting back to the Apostle Paul, the key to all that is that he found out what really matters is eternal and free.
GARRETT: Yeah, I remember the first time reading through Philippians and reading Paul’s words where he talks about his titles and his accomplishments and it’s all the stuff that we seek after. It’s all the things that we would say makes for a good life and then he pauses and he says, “But all of that stuff is rubbish. I count it as loss compared to the gain of knowing Christ and being found in Him.”
SELTZ: That’s the key to it all and that’s the secret that we’ve been talking about today and, again, this is a great resource, Pastor. We want everybody out there listening to have that. Thanks for this Christ-centered perspective that kind of roots us in the joy of the Gospel. Thanks for being here with us.
GARRETT: Hey, it’s my pleasure. I’m humbled. Thank you.
ANNOUNCER: The name of the booklet is, An Ingrate’s Guide to Contentment. For your free copy, call The Lutheran Hour toll free: 1-855-john316. That’s 1-855-564-6316. Or go online: lutheranhour.org and look for the tab that says, Action in Ministry. Our email address is: info@lhm.org.
Music Selections for this program:
“A Mighty Fortress” arranged by Chris Bergmann. Used by permission.
“Hope of the World” From The Concordia Organist (© 2009 Concordia Publishing House)
“Almighty God, Your Word Is Cast” From The Concordia Organist (© 2009 Concordia Publishing House)