Getting Rid of Distractions

INTRO

Matthew, also called Levi, was a tax collector, and it seems like money was a favorite subject for him. We’re going to look at money today, because dealing with money is difficult when you’re following Jesus. Matthew 19 begins by looking at questions on divorce (vv. 1-12), blessing the children (vv. 13-15), and then we get to our passage today when the rich young ruler talked to Jesus about getting into heaven. The story of the rich young ruler is in all three synoptic Gospels: Matthew 19:16-22; Mark 10:17-22; Luke 18:18-23. That means that all three see the story from different perspectives.

TEACHING

Matthew 19:16-20: Matthew wrote that “someone” came up to Jesus. He did not identify the man as a rich young ruler, as some of the other gospels did, but instead presented the man humbly. The man asked Jesus what good he needed to do to have eternal life (v. 16). Eternal life means to continue on forever in God’s presence. It’s the opposite of eternal punishment. The word “good” has no absolute standard, so how can anyone truly know what it means to do good. Morris said that “it was no ordinary teacher who could answer that question.”¹Jesus responded, “Why do you ask Me about what is good? There is only One who is good. If you want to enter into life, keep the commandments” (v. 17). This makes it looks like Jesus was pointing to eternal life through works. The young man then asked which commandments he needed to keep (an interesting thought since they are all God’s commandments). Jesus began to quote the sixth commandment–don’t murder, the seventh commandment–don’t commit adultery, the eighth commandment–don’t steal, the ninth commandment–don’t give false witness, the fifth commandment–honor your father and your mother, and finally, you need to love your neighbor as yourself–not one of the original Ten Commandments (vv. 18b-19) (Leviticus 19:18; Deuteronomy 6). Based on not breaking these commandments, in verse 20 the young man asked what he still lacked (Romans 3:20-22; 8:3-4; James 2:10).

Matthew 19:21: Jesus said if the man wanted to be perfect, he needed to sell everything he had, give it to the poor, and then he would have treasures in heaven (v. 21). Matthew 9:9 shows that Matthew walked away from everything to follow Jesus. He had to understand the young man’s struggle.

The thing that’s wrong in the American church today is that we want to follow Jesus, but we want to keep everything. We want our feet in both worlds––the Jesus world and our comfortable lifestyles.

Matthew 19:22: The young man left Jesus grieving because he had many possessions. At least he was honest about what he could not do. He did not fake his response. Luke 9:57-62, gives three examples of people who wanted to follow Jesus but couldn’t pay the price of the commitment. Distractions of stuff are killing the American church. We all have things in our lives that become distractions that pull us away from Jesus (Romans 8:7; 1 John 5:3).

Matthew 19:23-24: Jesus turned to His disciples and explained that it was hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven. He told them it would be easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God (vv. 23-24). Nelson’s Commentaryprovides several interpretations for “the eye of the needle.” One interpretation points to the difficulty of threading a camel hair rope through the eye of a needle; another suggests the camel trying to get through a small gate in the city wall of Jerusalem named “the eye of the needle.” A third interpretation is that Jesus described an actual camel, the largest animal in Palestine, trying to squeeze through the actual tiny eye of the needle. All three interpretations draw attention to the extreme difficulty a rich man could have.²

Matthew 19:25-26: The disciples were astonished, because a rich man was seen as someone who had been spiritually blessed. They asked, “Then who can be saved?” (v. 25). In verse 26, Jesus responded with the true word of hope for believers: “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (Mark 10:27).

Matthew 19:27-30: Peter said that the disciples had already walked away from everything to follow Jesus. He asked, “So what will there be for us?” (v. 27). Jesus responded that they would be rewarded in the Messianic Age when the Son of Man sits on His glorious throne with them sitting on the 12 thrones that are beside Him (v. 28). Then Jesus pointed out that all those who had left houses and family and fields behind to follow Him would receive 100 times as much when they inherited eternal life (v. 29). Jesus said, “But many who are first will be last, and the last first” (v. 30). Matthew 20:16 is a bookend to this teaching in Matthew 19: “The last shall be first and the first shall be last.”

CLOSING

Mark Twain said, “It ain’t these parts of the Bible that I can’t understand that bother me, it’s the parts that I do understand.”

When you radically trust God for your life, when you give up everything in your life to follow Jesus, you will be set free. Missionary Hudson Taylor said “he had never succeeded in making a sacrifice for God. Every time he gave up anything for God, he received so much blessing that he felt himself better off rather than worse off for having given up whatever it was.”

My takeaway: What am I holding onto that prevents me from radically following Jesus? When I’m willing to give up everything, I will experience God in a supernatural new way in my life.