If you would, turn with me in your Bibles back to the gospel of Mark as we pick up partway through Mark chapter 10. You can find that on page 846 in the pew Bibles located in the pew in front of you. Mark chapter 10. We’ll pick up tonight in verse 13. And I want us to see two things from this passage. I want us to see kingdom values – what matters in the kingdom of God, and how that shapes kingdom virtue – how we live as members of the kingdom of God. So kingdom values and kingdom virtue. Before we read God’s Word, let’s pray and ask His blessing and help as we study it tonight. Let’s pray.
Father, we pause, we bow before You yet once again this evening and we come as we turn to Your Word and we ask that You would do the impossible tonight in our hearts, in this room, in all those who hear Your Word – that You would open up our ears, that You would give us ears to hear, that You would soften our hearts, that You would clear the distractions, and that You would help us to hear Your call that we would see Jesus, His beauty, His uniqueness, His grace, His love and mercy, and that we would follow Him more closely in all that we do. We pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.
Mark chapter 10, verse 13:
“And they were bringing children to him that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, ‘Let the children come to me; 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 he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them.
And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and 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. You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’’ And he said to him, ‘Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.’ And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, ‘You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.’ Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, ‘How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!’ And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, ‘Children, how difficult it is 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 they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, ‘Then who can be saved?’ Jesus looked at them and said, ‘With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.’ Peter began to say to him, ‘See, we have left everything and followed you.’ Jesus said, ‘Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.’”
The grass withers and the flowers fall but the Word of our God endures forever.
First, kingdom values. Now all that this passage is asking us to do, we could even say demanding us to do really, is to reorient or to recalibrate everything we value. That’s all. Think about what the normal things are that we value, all the normal things that our culture celebrates – popularity, success, wealth, power, beauty, immediate gratification. Now look at all those things through the lens of these verses and ask yourself, “Will any of it last? Is any of it significant in light of eternity? Does any of it have value in the kingdom of God?” Because you see, there is a vanity, there is a fleetingness to so much of what we find in life under the sun, isn’t there? And yet, yet how often do we find ourselves worried about how we might be missing out, busy keeping up with our peers, we’re stressed about the balance of our bank account or our investment portfolio, fearful of what others might think about us or about how we look?
And you see, these were the same concerns that were present in Jesus’ day and people had their own idea about what mattered. They valued what everyone else valued. They probably didn’t even really think about it because it was just the way it was. But then here comes Jesus, and here comes Jesus to question all of that. He came in conflict with the ways of the world. He came proclaiming and demonstrating something totally different. And He said, “Turn. Repent. The time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God is at hand. The kingdom of God is at hand!”
And you can tell how that impacted His listeners. You can tell how much Jesus and the kingdom of God clashed with the conventional expectations of the day by the amount of words that we find in the verses that we just read that express vivid emotion and strong feelings. In verse 13, we’re told that the disciples “rebuked” those who were bringing children to Jesus. And in response, Jesus was “indignant” with them. He was frustrated with His disciples. We find in verse 22 that this rich man, he was “disheartened.” He went away “sorrowful” which led the disciples in verse 24, they were “amazed” at Jesus’ words. And even more than that, by the time we get to verse 26, we are told that the disciples were “exceedingly astonished” at what Jesus said to them. If we were to go ahead just the next verse, you notice that Jesus is walking with His disciples and we’re told that they were “amazed” and those who followed were “afraid.” Later on in that same passage, we’re told that the ten disciples were “indignant” at James and John. There’s all this vivid emotion, all of these strong feelings. In other words, if you want to know how much the kingdom of God disagrees with the status quo, just look at the admonition, at the amazement and the astonishment that we find in these verses.
First, it’s about the children. We love children. It’s probably one of the best parts of our Sunday evening worship, isn’t it, having the children come up front for the children’s devotion. Or having our children lead us in song in the prelude and the offertory like they did this evening. We love it. Except, except you know, that if you have young children in a church service or at a ballgame or in the grocery store or at a restaurant or really anywhere, you know that you are going to be busy, to say the least. And pretty distracted. And maybe the people around you will be as well.
We were walking into a football game a couple of weeks ago and we were behind a young family as we were going into the stadium, and the youngest little boy in the family looked up at his dad and he said, “Can we go home now?” We were going into the game and he was already done! It was going to be a long game for him; it was going to be a long game for his whole family most likely!
Why is that? It’s because children take a lot of attention, they take a lot of time, they take a lot of effort. And they don’t’ really do much, and that’s why they’re viewed sometimes as they were in Jesus’ day as insignificant, as perhaps a nuisance. Some people might think of children as better seen and not heard. Some might even say they are better neither seen nor heard. And Jesus’ disciples, they thought that children were not worth Jesus’ time and attention.
But what does Jesus say? He says, “No. Do not hinder them.” He says in verse 14, “Let the little children come to Me, for to such belongs the kingdom of God.” You see, He absolutely rejects the disciples’ instincts and He welcomes, He receives those who are thought to be unimportant or inconsequential in some way. And we’re told in verse 16 that “He took them into His arms and He blessed them.” You see, in doing that, Jesus, He is using an example of a child to demonstrate what matters in the kingdom of God. And what matters is not a sense of sophistication or decorum but an openness, a receptiveness to Jesus and to His kingdom. Verse 15, “Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.”
Now speaking of the children coming down front on Sunday nights, I’m usually pretty jealous. You know why? It’s because of their jerseys. I love their jerseys and I love that they can just wear their jerseys to church! I wish I could wear a jersey wherever I wanted to wear a jersey, but I can’t – because why? Because there are certain dresscodes, there are certain expectations that come with being a middle aged man and the way that I am supposed to look when I go out in public. Children don’t have that really. They’re not as concerned about what people think. I love when I see toddlers wearing baby Jordans! There’s nothing better than little Jordan 1 sneakers on a little toddler! But you know what, they don’t care! They’re just wearing what their parents put on them, which is something of what it means to receive the kingdom of God like a child, because when little children receive a gift, what do they do? They don’t care about the name brand, they don’t care about what’s trendy, they don’t care about a status symbol; in fact, they may not even care that much about the gift itself as they do about the wrapping and the box that it came in.
Think about when toddlers have mom or dad come to pick them up in the nursery or when mom or dad comes home at the end of the day. They don’t care about what is socially acceptable. They don’t care about what is proper or cool. They just want to be in their parents’ arms and to be in their presence with them. Well so it is with receiving the kingdom of God with a childlike faith, without pretense, without reservation. And as Jesus teaches His disciples, His disciples, you see, they have to be admonished because they weren’t thinking like that.
And then from there, we’re told that Jesus begins to set out on His journey and He’s met by a man who approaches Him and really, if you think about it, he approaches Him in what seems like a posture without pretense or reservation because we’re told that this man, he ran up to Jesus. He fell down before Him and he asked Him what is a very serious question. Verse 17, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” But as we trace this story through this passage, we find that this encounter actually leaves the man disheartened and it leaves the disciples in amazement. Because this man, this man who seems so eager, he seems so qualified even, he would rather have what? He would rather have his wealth. He would rather have his possessions than Jesus and the kingdom of God.
In fact, almost everything about this man is the polar opposite of what we find when we compare him with the children in the verses just before this. Because we find that this man, he comes right up to Jesus. He can approach Jesus. There’s no rebuke; there’s no resistance from the disciples. He must be legitimate, at least in appearance. But what do we find him doing as he comes from Jesus? What does he expect from Jesus? It almost seems like it’s something merely academic. He thinks of himself as coming on equal footing with Jesus in order to engage Him in debate perhaps, and he calls Jesus “Teacher.” He comes and he asks Him a question. That’s not the way it was with the children though because the children are brought to Jesus simply so that Jesus could touch them and bless them.
And again, they don’t do anything do they? In fact, they’re not big enough to do much of anything because we’re told that when Jesus received them, “He took them up into His arms.” You could translate that word as “hug.” They were small enough for Jesus to carry them. But what does this man? He wants to do something. He wants to think about what he can do to inherit eternal life and he thinks he’s done it. He says, “Teacher, all these, all these commandments – Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not defraud, honor your father and mother – all these,” verse 20, “I have kept from my youth.” You see, he feels like he has something to show for himself unlike the children.
And he has something to show, including their possessions. The children, they came empty handed, didn’t they? They had nothing of their own. That’s why they have the ability to receive, those like children have the ability to receive the kingdom of God because they come empty handed. But this man, he’s not able to receive it because he’s not ready to let go of his stuff. He lacked one thing. Jesus says to him, “Go, sell all that you have and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and come, follow Me.” He didn’t want to. He didn’t want to sell what he had. He didn’t want to give to the poor. He didn’t really want treasure in heaven or an inheritance of eternal life. What he wanted, you see, was to have eternal life almost as an accessory to everything else that he had. He wanted to make religion, in a sense, to fit into his chosen lifestyle with all of its built in comforts and options and benefits.
Now make no mistake, this is a demanding call, isn’t it? It’s a costly invitation coming from Jesus, but it is coming, as we find in verse 21, it is coming from a place of love. It is coming from a place in which Jesus is trying to expose the grip that this man’s possessions have on his heart. And at the end of this encounter, he went away sorrowful. He was troubled. Why was that? Because he had great possessions. Because, as Jesus says in verse 23, it is difficult, it is difficult for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God. It’s amazing. It’s amazing that Jesus would say something like that and make that demanding of a call on someone’s life.
And maybe it’s amazing to us tonight as we sit here in this place, but it is something that we need to hear. And you know what? It’s something that we’re not going to hear anywhere else. In fact, if I had to guess, I would say that if you have given any thought this week to your finances it was probably more about how to grow your finances, how to grow your wealth, rather than to diminish it. Would that be correct?
I remember hearing an interview with NBA hall of famer, Charles Barkley. And he said that he does not align himself with any particular political party, but he did ask his grandmother one time, he asked her why they were Democrats. And her answer was, she said, “Charles, the Republicans are only for rich people.” And Charles said, “Grandma, I’m rich!” In other words, what that conversation implies is that people vote according to their financial interests. Well Jesus isn’t up for a vote and His kingdom does not operate according to normal, worldly and political standards. And that’s amazing to the disciples, and again, perhaps to us as well.
And He goes even further and He says something in what is a sort of proverb, maybe a parable even. Verse 25, it’s memorable words from Jesus – “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.” Now Jesus is obviously speaking in extremes. He’s speaking with hyperbole for effect, and it works. It obviously has the desired effect because we’re told in verse 26 that “His disciples were exceedingly astonished.” Now we don’t find that very often. We find that people are astonished at Jesus’ teaching, they were astonished because “He taught with authority and not like the scribes,” but here they are “exceedingly astonished” by what Jesus says. This was extra astonishing. This was over the top from Jesus.
Because do you know what is difficult to thread through the eye of a needle? Thread! Like a little piece of string. This is probably no shocker to you, but I do not sew, but on the off occasion, the rare occasion that I have tried to, attempted to reattach a button, I have come close to giving up before I’ve really even gotten started. You know why? Because it’s so hard to get that string through the eye of a needle. You kind of have to lick it. You may even need a magnifying glass to do it. It seems so difficult, so tough. But a camel? A camel? That’s absurd! Can it really be true that it’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter into the kingdom of God? And if that’s true, then who could be saved – verse 26. Exactly. Who can be saved? And if wealth is such a distraction, and if working hard and earning a living and turning a profit and saving up for later, if that not only has no bearing whatsoever on eternal security and it may in fact be a hindrance to it, then who could possibly have any hope? You see, it’s so opposed to what comes naturally to us. It is in such conflict with how we normally think and how the world usually operates that it seems – what? It seems impossible.
You know, I felt it a couple of weeks ago on a Sunday night preaching on the passage in the gospel of Mark on the topic of marriage and divorce, knowing that it’s uncomfortable, knowing how hard it would be for many people hearing some of Jesus’ teaching on that topic. What about now? What about this? I know it’s relative, but think about how much most of us, all of us, have even in comparison to this rich man. Probably so many more comforts. I wonder if that makes you uncomfortable because it does me. Somebody has said before that he often asks himself when he’s studying Scripture and he opens up a passage and he asks a question, “What here makes me mad? What is it that bothers me in this passage?” Because as we come with sinful hearts, distracted thoughts, there’s oftentimes something, there should be something that pushes up against us. This should bother us. Jesus’ disciples were bothered. They were bothered by what Jesus said. They were admonished. They were amazed and they were exceedingly astonished. I wonder if you are too?
Because to the extent that this does not make us in some way uneasy, I don’t think that we have really understood what Jesus is saying in these verses. And we probably need to read it again. We have not really understood the audacity of the values of the kingdom of God because after all, it’s oftentimes hard enough for us to accept something as minimal as the concept of a tithe. We should think this impossible because it is. “With man it is impossible, but not with God.” And Jesus says in verse 27, “All things are possible with God.” But you see what we find in these verses is that the kingdom of God is countercultural. It’s radical. It’s upside-down. It’s unconventional. It’s supernatural. It’s death and resurrection kind of kingdom.
You know the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, that “though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you, through His poverty, might become rich.” Death and resurrection. Jesus, on the cross, by His death, came to the lowest of poverty, even to the point of death. But by His resurrection gives victory and life and grants the impossible to us by His grace. You know the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s a death and resurrection kind of kingdom. And the way to reign is to become like a child. And the way to treasure is to give. And what is impossible to man is possible with God. And the first will be last and the last will be first.
These are the values of the kingdom of God, and if those are the values of God’s kingdom, then don’t you think it will affect in significant ways how we live? The kingdom values lead to kingdom virtue. That’s the second thing I want us to see, the last thing I want us to see in this passage – not only kingdom values, but kingdom virtue. What Jesus, what He teaches here has implications for all of life, make no doubt about that, but let’s just keep the focus on money and on the virtue of generosity. Generosity is a Biblical virtue. Generosity is a Biblical virtue of grace. In fact, if you were to look and take the Hebrew and the Greek word for “grace” in the Old and the New Testament, they both contain the concept of showing favor of giving a gift. In other words, grace is generosity. You know the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ that those He was rich became poor, so that you by His poverty might become rich. You know the generosity, in other words, of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And generosity is a virtue that is cultivated in those who have been shown God’s grace, His favor. Psalm 37:21, “The righteous is generous and gives.” Proverbs 14:21, “Blessed is he who is generous to the poor.” First Timothy 6:18, “God’s people are to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share.” It’s one of those beatitudes that comes from the lips of Jesus that is not found in the gospels in Acts chapter 20 that we read, “Remember the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, how He Himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” Generosity is every bit as much one of the fruit of the Spirit, even if it’s not explicitly listed in Galatians chapter 5, and even if, on occasions, it gets overlooked in the instruction of the church. And this is generosity; this is generosity as we find it in Mark chapter 10 – Generosity is sacrificial giving without the presumption of status or merit but with the expectation of abundant reward. That’s generosity. Sacrificial giving without the presumption of status or merit but with the expectation of abundant reward.
We find here, Peter says in verse 28, “See, we have left everything and followed You,” to which Jesus replies, “Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for My sake and for the Gospel who will not receive a hundred fold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mother and children and lands with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.” You see, what the rich man was not able to do, Peter and the others had done. For the rich man, following Jesus called for more of a sacrifice than he was willing to give. But Peter and the others had left everything to follow Jesus. They didn’t get everything right. They still had ways to go in learning the ways of the kingdom. But they had made a great sacrifice, hadn’t they? And Jesus affirms that. He affirms their sacrifice; He affirms their commitment. They are, in a sense, an antithesis of the rich man we find in this passage.
And this is saying to us that discipleship costs something. That this kind of generosity is something that you feel. It’s something that you notice. It’s like what David says when he is preparing to build the altar in the place that would eventually become the temple. He says, “I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God with that which costs me nothing.” And I know people in this room who are extremely generous, some of the most generous people in the world who live generously and sacrificially and do it regularly. But still, isn’t this a good reminder to us because it’s always a good thing for us to recalibrate. Maybe our income has increased. Maybe our expenses have decreased. Are we still giving sacrificially? Are we still being generous?
And here is where I think we need to take in the full picture of this passage and remember the children that we looked at in the very beginning because it is possible to be generous, to give sacrificially even, and to think that it should merit some kind of significance or status. Because plenty of people have their name of a building, they have their name on the top of a donor roll, but they expect to have some say in the decisions made or maybe a place at the table or maybe a playing time on the field for their child or grandchild. And that can happen in the church as well.
Someone recently gave me a book from the library of a former church member and it had a copy of an old bulletin from 1937 from this church. It was our 100th anniversay celebration. Do you know what time the evening service started that night? Seven-thirty! We have an hour to go before we even get things started! There wasn’t a sermon that night; there was an address on Calvinism and the civil government, which doesn’t sound very celebratory to me! But on the front it said this. It said, “First Presbyterian Church – Welcome – All Pews Free.” What? What is that about? Well it’s a reference to a tradition, to a practice in the past, in church history, in which churches would sell or rent pews. Now don’t think that that did not open the door for giving which would secure a better seat and perhaps a better status in front of others. But we’re not like that. All pews are free!
You see, receiving the kingdom of God is like a child, and generosity is without the presumption of status or merit. But – and this is what we need to see as well – it does come with the expectation of reward. And Jesus promises a hundredfold. Verse 30, He says, a hundredfold now in this time for those who sacrifice in order to follow Him. And I have written down a good and proper J.C. Ryle quote about that, about those who sacrifice on account of the Gospel who benefit from relationships because of their relationship to Christ much better than those natural relationships in this world. But you know what, as we were singing our song as I was coming up here before preaching, “Jesus, I My Cross Have Taken,” it struck me just singing that song, I’ve been singing it for a long time. And you see the name at the bottom of the hymn sheet is Bill Moore. Bill Moore was my youth director back in the 1990s. In fact, I talked to Bill’s mom; she’s here this evening. I talked to Betty earlier this morning. And I see Tracy Ford over there who nudged me all those years ago towards ministry. Having Zeb up here in the pulpit preaching, we’ve been singing that song together since our youth group days. And you know, doing all of that, these are my people and my heart was full – full of joy. And that’s the kind of relationships, those are the kinds of blessings that Jesus is talking about for those who sacrifice for the sake of His kingdom. I think there is a call there not only to be generous with our resources but to be generous with our lives, with ourselves, and to give of ourselves to one another so that we experience that blessing.
“And in the age to come, eternal life.” But it’s also the age to come, it’s eternal life that starts in the here and now. Because how else, how else do we cultivate the lasting virtues of gratitude and contentment and compassion and dependence upon God and heavenly-mindedness than by generosity, by actually giving? Not just thinking about it, intending to do it, but actually doing it. There is a great gain in godliness. There is a great gain in generosity. And we can have an expectation, an eagerness even that a lifestyle of generosity, that with that is great blessing, a reward to those who are giving. Just think about it. Just think about the blessings that God will provide to you through your generosity – stronger faith, spiritual fruit, eternal relationships, kingdom impact. Malachi 3 – “Put Me to the test, says the Lord of Hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down on you a blessing until there is no more need.” Take God at His word there.
And I’ll close with this. I’ve told you before about Peggy. Peggy had lived for a time in New Orleans. She had been homeless for a time in New Orleans. And she worked in the Super Dome cleaning up after games and events. She lived in the Super Dome for a time after Hurricane Katrina hit. But eventually she made her way up to Jackson and she lived in a seniors and disabled apartment not far from the church. And we had a Bible study there a few years ago and Peggy came faithfully. And one day, Peggy came with an envelope, and it was an envelope with cash in it. It was her tithe. It was her offering to the church. And at first, I wanted to refuse it and to tell her to keep it because she needed it more than the church did. But then I remembered Paul’s words to the Philippians where he says, “I do not seek the gift but I seek the fruit that abounds to your benefit.” In other words, in the giving that he sought from the Philippian church, they would receive a fruitfulness from it and a blessing from it.
And you see, if I had refused her gift, if I had given it back to her, I would have refused her being able to make a tangible display of gratitude to God and to others. And if I had refused her gift, I would have refused her expression of faith and dependence upon God to provide, even though she didn’t have very much. And I would have refused her practice of contentment and a cultivation of a heart and a posture and a practice of generosity. You see, Peggy taught me something. She taught me something I will never forget about the true reward of being generous and doing it sacrificially.
How do we do it? How do we avoid the danger of wealth, of riches, of possessions, of materialism? Well, it’s by getting kingdom values, resurrection values in our hearts by faith, and then by giving, by giving to God and others in the kingdom virtue of generosity.
Let’s pray.
Father, we pray that You would work in all of our hearts, that You would help us to hear what Jesus has to say to us tonight, that You would help us to orient our lives completely around what He calls us to, and that You would receive all the glory for it. And we pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.