Introduction
Father, we come before you this morning as beggars needing spiritual food. You are our Creator, and we are your creations. We confess that we are blind and want to see you, deaf and want to hear from you. Send the Holy Spirit to convict us of sin, to show us the glory of Christ’s death and resurrection, and to change us to be more like him. It’s because of Jesus’ obedience to you and punishment in our place that we can approach you without fear – amen.
The text that we’re about to examine this morning talks about a very specific aspect of the Christian gospel, or good news. Before we look at the text, then, we should examine it in the context of the whole message of the Bible – the gospel. But before we even do that, we need to remember a few things that we all know.
This world is not the way that it’s supposed to be. We all know this. Something is wrong with suffering, sickness, war, poverty, loneliness, selfishness, hunger, purposelessness, and death. And those things exist because we do not treat the One who created us as if he created us and owns us. We do not give him the glory he deserves, devote ourselves to him, love him, or even really thank him for the good things he gives us. We collectively, and you and I as individuals, are the cause of the sufferings of this world – as well as our own.
Here’s the good news. God, in love, sent his Son Jesus into the world. Jesus never sinned. Jesus was punished by God, though, as if he were. Jesus came back to life. Jesus now reigns over – that is, he controls, all of creation. One day he will return to fix the world – and he will judge every human – every sinner - who has ever lived.
But now – God gives full acquittal and pardon to everyone who repents and believes in Jesus. For everyone who repents – Jesus’ suffering counts in their places – as their substitute. In other words, for everyone who repents, God damned Jesus instead of damning you – and you stand not condemned – but pardoned and given entry into Jesus’ eternal kingdom.
For everyone who repents. Luke 18:18-33 is about repentance. It’s about the fact that repentance is necessary for entry into eternal life.
Let’s define repentance before we go on. Repentance is turning from sin and turning to Jesus as our Lord. Or in other words, it is a changing of direction – from doing whatever we want, to seeking to do what Jesus has commanded in his word. Or in still other words – and here is what I want to focus on this morning – repentance is the turning away from things of this world, this life, to make you happy – and seeking to know Jesus – because knowing Jesus is what you believe will make you happy. It is vital that you understand this: repentance is necessary to have eternal life, and repentance means that you stop pursuing anything but knowing Christ Jesus to make you happy.
Some of you may object to this, because salvation is by faith alone! That’s true. To be more precise, justification, or God’s declaring a sinner to be righteous on the basis of Christ’s righteousness, is received by faith alone. However, repentance and faith always go together. They are very much related. Three reasons:
First, faith is a part of repentance. Repentance involves the mind; it involves what you believe and who you trust. The call to repent is the call to stop trusting yourself and to begin to believe in Jesus.
Second, faith and repentance have the same cause: the new birth. That is to say, God creates a new heart, or soul, or mind in a person – and the result is that the person turns to Jesus and believes in him. If you want to read more about this, look at John 3 or Romans 6. For now, I’ll just cite 1 John 3:9: God said, “No one who is born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God.”
Third and finally – do you honestly think that someone can really believe in Jesus – believe that he is God – our creator, worthy of worship, the reason that all things exist, the one who loves sinners, the one who is infinitely holy – and not seek to live for him?
So our text for today describes repentance. Repentance is necessary to enter into eternal life. Let’s be more personal. For you to live forever with Jesus Christ, you must repent. Here’s the theme of the passage: repentance is a gift from God that receives eternal life with Jesus. In other words, if you want to live forever with Jesus, you must repent; and repentance is the result of God changing the human heart and soul and will and mind – it is a gift.
You all are in different places in life. Some of you are seeking to live lives of repentance, but life is hard. Holiness is hard. This passage should give you encouragement, because repentance is a gift from God – and because God promises his Kingdom to those who repent and believe in Jesus!
Some of you have begun to live a life of repentance and are struggling. You wonder if you can do this. You need to hear that you can’t; but Jesus can.
Some of you think you have repented, but your life shows no signs of change – no signs that Jesus is truly your Lord. You have a false security and no basis for believing that you will enter eternal life. You need to hear from this passage that you need to repent.
Some of you are potentially just exploring Christianity. It’s my hope and prayer that you see Jesus as worthy of your devotion this morning, and that you do repent so you can spend eternity with him.
This is where we’re going this morning. We’re just going to walk through the story. As we do, I want to highlight a few things. First, we’re going to look at two things that prevent repentance, and thus eternal life. Second, we’re going to look at the power for repentance. Third, we’re going to look at the promises given to those who repent. So first, 2 things that prevent repentance; second, the power for repentance; 3rd, the promises of repentance.
The first thing that prevents repentance
Let’s look at God’s word. Read 18a. Now – why did this guy associate Jesus with goodness? Chances are he had either heard him or seen him first hand – or at least had heart about him. Perhaps he’d heard about the radical nature of his ethical teachings, like ‘love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you.’ Maybe he’d heard of or even seen Jesus’ miracles! Maybe he’d seen the blind see, the lame walk – maybe even the dead raised. Maybe he’d seen Jesus’ compassion – Jesus reaching out to spend time with people that everyone else hated – the poor, the dirty, the diseased. Maybe it’s one of those things that interests you most about Jesus – how otherworldly his standard for righteousness is – how great his miracles were – how amazingly compassionate and merciful he is…
Whatever he had experienced of Jesus, he knew enough to ask this question: read 18b. That means that this man knew that he did not have eternal life – or at least had good reason to doubt it. And he wanted it.
At the time that Jesus walked the earth, the Jewish people had some very specific expectations of God. They thought there would come a day when God would judge the world, punish and destroy Israel’s enemies, establish peace, replace poverty with prosperity – and even get rid of death. They expected a completely fixed world – and they were right to expect that; the Old Testament speaks of it over and over again. And they were right to want it – all those things are good things! I’d expect we want a lot of the same things: struggles over money to be done away with, relationships to be healed, health and death to be non-issues…
How does Jesus respond to this request? Read v. 19. Now… that’s a little weird, but Jesus is pointing out two things. We’ll get to the second later – but for now, we need to understand the first.
The first thing that Jesus points out to this man is this: you are not good. Only God is good, and so you are not good. And now here’s the first thing that prevents people from having eternal life – they believe they’re good. If you believe you are good, you will not repent, and you will not get eternal life.
Jesus continues to respond. Read v. 20. So Jesus gives this guy some examples of things God commanded. Now – they’re just a few examples out of a whole big body of commands. He’s listing a few so this guy will know that he has to keep them all to get eternal life.
And the man responds: read v. 21. I wonder if he’d missed out on some of what Jesus had taught. For instance, he said, “I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart, and if your right eye causes you to sin tear it out and throw it away, since it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to be cast into hell” – Matthew 5:28-29. The one who lusts is guilty of adultery and earns hell.
Or Matthew 5:22-22: “You have heard that it was said to those of old,’ you shall not murder, and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment, whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘you fool’ will be liable to the hell of fire.” The one who is angry is guilty of murder and earns hell.
The man claims to have never stolen anything – but God says in Ezekiel 18 that indifference to the poor is stealing.
And what about the other commandments? God said, “you shall not covet” (deut 5:21). Did he really think that he didn’t covet? Do we? God said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (deut 6:5) – and no one does that. No one can love God as God deserves to be loved – with everything that we are, all of our intentions, thoughts, emotions – everything.
This man knew he did not have eternal life – that something was missing. But he thought that he had obeyed God’s commands!
Had he missed what God said in Genesis 6? “The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually… God saw the earth, and it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.” God says that we are so evil that every intention of our thoughts is only evil all the time.
Or what about in Psalm 14:2-3: “The LORD looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside, together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.” This man was corrupt. He did not seek God. He did not do good, nor does anyone else.
And he was so evil, so wicked, so depraved that he thought he was… not. Jeremiah 17:9 says, “the heart is more deceitful than anything and desperately sick.” So wicked was this man that he was lying to himself – convincing himself that he was not. And that was his first problem. He was wicked, but believed he was good. And he was not getting eternal life.
But I wonder if any of us do the same. Some of you may believe that Jesus will accept you into his kingdom because you’re a good person. Or at least, you think so. But you’re not, and he will not grant you eternal life.
Some of us, on the other hand, know that forgiveness and right standing with God are based on nothing but Jesus’ obedience and death and resurrection – but tend to forget it – and then seek to add to Jesus’ goodness with our own – try to make ourselves acceptable rather than simply trusting in Jesus’ acceptableness. And when we do that – we don’t experience the life that Jesus gives.
We lie to ourselves. We convince ourselves that we’re good people. We’re nice. We don’t cheat on our spouses. We haven’t murdered anyone. We’re better than people that show up on the news – you know, people who are really evil. We convince ourselves that we’re good spouses, good parents, good children, good employees. We think that our attendance at church will save us. Or maybe we think that because we serve the church, help the poor, vote the ‘right’ way – whatever that means, and try to take care of the environment that we’re good people. Or we think we’re good because we listen to worship music. Or watch the right movies. Or maybe we think we’re good because we know the Bible well. Or at least, we think so. Or maybe we even think we’re good because we know we’re not good.
And the reality is this: if we are basing our acceptance before God – our movement from being under his wrath to under his love – on any of those things, we do not have eternal life.
Good Shepherd United Methodist Church: hear God’s word. Everyone in this room is wicked. Everyone in this room is doing evil continually in thought, deed, and even feelings. No one in this room is good. Hear this: you are wicked. Each one of us continually earns hell all the time. And if you do not realize that you will never, ever, run to the one who can save you from it.
But if you do realize it, if you do realize that you deserve to be punished by God, then repent, and trust Jesus, and the punishment that fell on him counts for you, and God accepts you and gives you eternal life.
So know this: believing you are good will prevent you from having eternal life. But if we reject that notion – if we reject the thought that we are good and rely on Christ’s goodness to substitute for our wickedness, God looks at Jesus and considers us righteous!
The second thing that prevents repentance
Let’s move on in the text: read v. 22. Just so you know, you are not called specifically to sell all you have and give it to the poor. This was a command specific to this man designed to reveal something we’ll get to in a minute. Though, I will say this: if the command to do so causes you a great deal of anxiety – it may indeed be a command to you.
That said, the main command here from Jesus is this: “Follow me.” That is to say – if you want eternal life, follow me. The young man was being commanded specifically to physically ‘follow Jesus.’ Jesus is not physically here right now, though he is certainly spiritually present. So what does it mean to follow Jesus? Here are five aspects of following Jesus to heaven.
First, it is personal. It’s follow ME. Eternal life is life with Jesus. Heaven is heaven because Jesus is there. In John 17:3, Jesus says, “this is eternal life: knowing you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” In Luke 22, when Jesus had his last supper with the disciples, he promised he would eat it again with them in his Kingdom – and that’s what we look forward to when we celebrate communion – that we will one day have a meal with Jesus. If you want to go to heaven for any other reason more than Jesus – better health, seeing relatives, golf, pie – you do not want heaven. The command to follow Jesus there is personal. It is directed at him.
Second, the command to follow Jesus is continual. You can’t necessarily see this in English, but in Greek, the verb tense indicates something that is a continuous state of being. It is talking about a lifestyle completely dedicated to following Jesus.
Or in other words, if you made a decision at some point to follow Jesus, but haven’t really kept it up – you really have no basis for believing that you have eternal life. Though now is the time to commit yourself to following him!
Third, following Jesus means being dedicated to learning from him. We saw before that we lie to ourselves. Rom. 1:18 says we naturally suppress truth. We need to continually learn truth from Jesus. How does that happen? This book. Being taught and being read and being discussed. Following Jesus leaves no room for intellectual laziness.
Fourth, following Jesus involves seeking to obey him – to obey what he’s commanded in this book. Ben Franklin was not a Christian, but frequently listened to Christian preachers, because he intellectually enjoyed their presentations. Jesus said in Matthew 7 that everyone who hears Jesus’ teaching but doesn’t obey is like someone who builds a house on a foundation of sand – such that it gets destroyed when the storms come.
Fifth, and very importantly, following Jesus involves publicly identifying with him. This man would’ve been easily spotted back in the day, if he were following Jesus, as a follower of Jesus, because he would’ve been… following Jesus. Always with Jesus. At this time, Jesus was already hated by many. He was always pointing to righteousness and pointing out our sin – and many hated him for it. Associating oneself with Jesus meant – and still means – that the world will hate us.
This suffering for Jesus led to his death. Read vv. 31-33. And it is our participation in Christ’s death that forgives our sins! Doesn’t it make sense that if we would have God identify us with Christ’s death and his obedience for our entrance into his Kingdom through faith, that we would publicly identify with him in life – such that we would suffer like him and show him to the world?
So following Jesus can be described in five ways – personal – it’s following JESUS, continual – it’s all the time, intellectual – it involves learning and believing, practical – it involves obedience, and public – it involves identifying with Jesus publicly.
So Jesus told this man – and he tells us – to follow him. But he also told this guy to sell his stuff and give everything to the poor. Why? Because how this man responded to Jesus’ command would demonstrate what his treasure was – what his delight was – his stuff – or Jesus. Do you want to follow your stuff? Or do you want to follow ME?
Notice the man’s response to Jesus’ command to get rid of his stuff – read v. 23. He became ‘very sad.’ Losing his stuff would have crushed him. He did not see Jesus as valuable – his stuff was more valuable.
This is the second thing that prevents repentance – and thus prevents us from eternal life – not seeing Jesus as good. Not seeing him as valuable. Not seeing knowing him as our greatest treasure.
Why would we view Jesus as our delight? He’s the creator of all things – Col. 1:16! He governs all things – Col. 1:17! His rules are the very definition of goodness – don’t worry, God controls all things and loves you – Matt 6:25ff!
He loves us so much that he became a human, and he obeyed his own laws. He not only never lusted, but he never looked at a woman with anything but a desire for her to become a worshiper of God. He only ever got angry when God’s glory was maligned – going silent to his own death for us. He never stole, even though he was poor in this world – but in reality owns everything that exists. And he truly was dedicated to the pleasure and glory of God in all things all the time.
He died in our place for our sins – taking the wrath of God in our place for what we deserve (Rom. 3:25). He has authority over death and rose from the grave (John 10:18). He gives eternal life to all who repent and believe (1 Peter 1:3). He will return to this world to judge and fix everything that is wrong with it and to be enjoyed by all his followers (2 Thessalonians 1).
And if you don’t know Jesus – or don’t know him as enjoyable – as the aim of all of your affections and delights – then read this book! It’s about him. God says in Ps. 34:8 – ‘taste and see that the Lord is good!’
So it is by treasuring Christ that we repent, and God gives us eternal life with him. But we need to beware treasuring things other than Jesus – replacing him with stuff. Because if we do not treasure him above the stuff he created, we commit idolatry – replacing the Creator with stuff he created – worshiping stuff, not God – taking things that are good, and making them into gods. If we do not treasure Christ, we will not get eternal life. And if we have treasured Christ, we must persist in seeking him and delighting in him and knowing him now.
But how can we know what might get in the way of our treasuring Jesus? Now we get at the heart of the matter – and why Jesus told this man to sell all his stuff and give away his money. What was the man’s response? Being very sad. He was crushed, and he did not follow Jesus (we see in Matthew).
Is there something in your life, that if God removed it, you would be crushed? You would be unable to follow Jesus?
Do you worship entertainment? Does it rob God of time spent serving him, learning from him?
Do you worship sex? Not just by breaking God’s laws – pornography, sex outside of marriage, lusting after cheerleaders during a football game – or even just simply seeking enjoyment in sex more than from knowing Christ?
Do you worship rest? Do you do the work of learning from Christ, praying to Christ, serving Christ? It is work – or are you lazy?
Do you worship health? Do you think that freedom from pain and physical wellness will satisfy your soul? Do you spend your time longing for those things more or for Christ?
Do you worship your reputation? Identifying with Christ publicly results in awkwardness. It results in you losing your identity as a strong person, courageous person, sweet person, nice person, good person, smart person – whatever it is you want to be known as, identifying with Christ means that Christ is being recognized – not you.
Do you worship comfort? Is the time and money you have here spent on simply trying to have the most pleasure you can? Or are you giving for the sake of the gospel? Have you considered the work of missions? Or are you busier considering the work of the golf course or the decorations you saw on some show on TLC or home and garden or the latest movie you want to see…
Do you worship food? I was flipping through a cookbook, and I saw a whole section on ‘comfort food.’ Last I checked, God the Holy Spirit is supposed to be our comforter, not food. Food is good and God should be thanked for it – but it is not our comfort or our joy.
Do you worship family? Look at what Peter says in v. 28 – read it. I saw a story on TV about a teenager who was morbidly obese and needed heart surgery, or he’d die. And the surgery was risky – there was a chance that he’d die anyway during the surgery. And his mother wept – and said that if he died she had no reason to live. No reason to live! And it is because, though death is certainly bad and should make us sad – she was worshiping her child. He was her god.
Do you worship your house? Your kids? Your spouse? Your retirement? Your job? Sports? This young man worshiped his possessions… do you?
Do you want to go to heaven for other reasons more than Jesus? You fear death, you want to enjoy entertainment forever, you want to be reunited with family?
What do you pursue? Where’s your energy go? What do you dream about? Because if it is primarily something other than or someTHINGS other than Jesus, you are an idolater. You aren’t following Jesus, and you don’t even really want eternal life – because really, eternal life is life forever with him.
And that is the second thing that may prevent us from having eternal life! If we do not see Jesus as good, as delight-worthy – we won’t seek to follow him to be with him!
BUT – if you stop seeking happiness in this world or the things of this world and seek to know Jesus, and you make it your life’s goal to seek to know Jesus, he has given you eternal life. Your sins are forgiven. You will enter his Kingdom. You will be with him forever.
The power that causes repentance
At this point some of you are probably saying, “I have decided to follow Jesus – but I struggle. It’s so hard to seek to treasure him and to not love the things of this world”
Some of you may be thinking that you thought that you had made a decision to follow Jesus – maybe you prayed a prayer or something – but are now realizing that you never really did.
Some of you may just be realizing that you never truly followed Jesus.
And some of you may be thinking about friends or family that have never followed Jesus.
And Jesus has some really, really good news for all of us. But it’s couched in really bad news first. So here’s the bad news. Read vv. 24-25.
So here it is – it’s impossible for rich people to enter into Christ’s kingdom. It’s impossible for rich people to repent. Camels cannot fit through eyes of needles. (You may have heard something about a gate called the ‘needles’ eye’ – that’s not a reality. Jesus was talking about a sewing needle. A camel cannot go through the eye of one of those.) You might say, ‘well I’m not rich.’ Two things – 1) yes you are. You’re an American. 2) The fact is, you may not have a ton of money, but you do have something. Whether it’s material, or relational, or a reputation, or family – you have things. And Jesus is saying that it’s impossible for those of us with attachments in this world to turn from this world to seek our pleasure in him.
Do you experience that? That it’s difficult to follow Jesus? Maybe you’ve never really followed Jesus, and what he demands seems impossible.
And the disciples catch on to that, and desperately ask this: read v. 26.
But catch Jesus’ answer - read v. 27.
It IS impossible for us to repent. But God is able to bring about repentance. God is able to produce the will and the strength to follow Jesus. It is impossible for you – but God created the heart and soul and can renew them and energize them and cleanse them and remake them!
And here is the third thing you need to get from this – the power for repentance comes from God. Get this! The power for getting eternal life is from God. God promised in Ezekiel 36:26-27: “I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules”! God creates hearts that treasure Christ – that reject idols – that obey him! He is able!
So what should we do? How is this practical? It is so immediately! Come to Jesus! Follow Jesus! And he will give you eternal life.
You might not have any idea what that looks like – Hebrews 4:14-16 can help. Verse 14 says this: “Since, therefore, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God…”
Or in other words, we are sinners who needed our sins punished – and God punished Jesus instead of everyone who repents and trusts him! And because of Jesus, we stand guiltless, blameless, righteous, even though we don’t act that way – because Jesus is our substitute and mediator and intermediary!
And he goes on to tell us, “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace” – why with confidence? Because Jesus has been punished for our sins – we have nothing to fear from God! He sees Jesus when he looks at us! The author continues, “to find mercy and find grace to help in time of need” – he’s talking about prayer! Come to God, confident because of what Jesus did – and he will give you the strength to persevere! To work! To strive! You stand forgiven in Christ, so ask God for strength to follow Christ and he will surely give it!
And if you have never decided to follow Christ – now is the time. Today is the day! Don’t delay. Christ died and was raised and stands ready to forgive you for all of your sins – and he says to you, “Follow Me!”
And the road that we would travel is an impossible road. But the strength to walk it is from the one who created it, and who created you. Let us draw near to Christ!
The promise of eternal life
Let’s go on in our text. Read v. 28. Maybe some of you identify with Peter’s question here. You’re thinking that this road following Jesus is hard. Or maybe you’re wondering what’s in it for you.
But look at Jesus’ response. Read vv. 29-30.
This is the fourth thing you have to get from this text – it’s the promise of eternal life. For all – if you give up treasuring and loving this world, and you seek and desire and follow Christ – you gain, first, a new family on earth, and second, eternal life with Jesus!
First, again, you get a community around you – relationships – where others treasure Christ, are working hard to follow him. You get their encouragement and love and you get to encourage and love them and you get to push each other towards Jesus more and more – and they are the deepest and best relationships you could ever imagine. You’ll pray for each other, weep with each other, and remind each other of Jesus.
And second – and best of all – you give up treasuring this world for treasuring Christ – you repent – and you get eternal life with Jesus – seeing his face – enjoying him forever. Luke wrote a sequel to this book – it’s Acts. And note the beginning of it in 1:9-11: “as the disciples were looking on, Jesus was lifted up and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven!”
If you will follow Jesus – you will one day see him, and you will enjoy him forever!
Conclusion
And that is a fitting end. Let’s recap. Eternal life is life forever with Jesus. To get it, we must live a life of repentance. We must recognize that we are wicked people who need a savior. We must stop seeking pleasure in this world, and we must start seeking happiness in knowing Jesus.
And that is only possible because God is the creator of new hearts. God creates repentance – changes minds, wills, hearts, emotions. And when we repent, the damnation that we deserve is removed from us, because it already happened to Jesus in our place, 2000 years ago. And he lives again.
And as soon as we repent, God considers us blameless. He gives us a new family. He continues to be our strength as we seek to follow Jesus. He gives us the promise of being with him and enjoying him and worshiping him forever.
And so, Good Shepherd United Methodist Church – and you as an individual – hear this word from Jesus, the Lord and Maker of all that is: Follow me!
Let’s pray: Father, there are those in this room who don’t know you and those who do. All of us need to live our lives turning from this world and turning to Jesus. Only you can accomplish that. And we have the right to ask this of you because Jesus died in our place for our sins, and rose because his death has acquitted everyone who believes. So we ask you to bring repentance and life to us. Because of Jesus we pray, amen.
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