Reading Assignment: Matthew 19:13-26
Key Verse: Matthew 19:26
Truth: Who possesses eternal life?
Overview:
1. Children who believe.
2. Repentant believers.
Prayer:
1. Thank the Lord for a heart of repentance and faith if that is your heart.
2. Seek the Lord for such a heart if that is not your own attitude.
Transcript
Let’s pray.
Father, we thank You for Your presence with us. Thank You that You called us to draw near to You because in Christ You have given us an open way into Your presence. Thank You that in the hearing of Your word, we hear Your voice, and we get to learn from You, who You are, and who we are to be in light of Your holy character. You created us to be Your image-bearers, and that's our earnest desire, that we would more and more conform to Your likeness in Christ. And so we pray that this morning You would teach us, that You would bless everyone who hears and reads this lesson. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
The next passage to be read is Matthew 19:13-26 and the key verse is that final verse, verse 26, where Jesus says these words, “With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” In that verse, when Jesus says this, He means true repentance and faith. This is what Jesus was calling a particular person to in this context. But before we get to that, let me point out the main truth that emerges out of this passage. This time around, I’m going to pose the main truth as a question, and it is this: Who possesses eternal life? There are two answers given in this passage. The first part has to do with children. As we saw previously in Chapter 18, these are not just any old children, these are children who believe. Children who believe possess the kingdom of heaven. Secondly, Jesus encounters a man who is quite unwilling to repent and place his faith in Christ, and Jesus shows that the kingdom of heaven belongs to those who do respond to Jesus with repentance and faith in Him.
Let’s begin with part one. Verses 13 through 15 is where we see this encounter with children. Matthew tells us that some children were brought to Jesus so that He might lay hands on them and pray for them. This was a very common practice among the Jews of Jesus’ day, to bring children to the rabbis and have them bless them. But here, the disciples were a bit annoyed by this, because Jesus was obviously a very important person, and many people needed Him for healing and teaching. To have a bunch of children come to Him seemed like to them that Jesus would be wasting His time on lesser things. They thought this was a bit of a nuisance and so they rebuked the children, or perhaps the parents. But here we see Jesus’ response. He said, “Let the children alone and do not hinder them from coming to Me, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” Now those words should be understood in light of Jesus' prior teaching in Chapter 18 about children who believe. It should be stated that not all children believe; but children who are taught the truth of God, they naturally do believe. Children are a bit like a blank canvas in this regard. Whatever strokes you put on that canvas is what they embrace. And this is very much the way it is with faith. Because children naturally believe, if they are told the truth, they will believe. And Jesus points out that the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these who believe. And so Jesus does lay His hands on them and bless them. Then He departed from there. What this shows us is that Jesus welcomed children and He didn't see them as a nuisance as the disciples did. This shows us a couple of things. Number one, we should absolutely be sure that we tell children the truth of God because they are like a sponge. Whatever we tell them, they will believe. And if we tell them the truth, we set them on the right pathway to life. Secondly, we should also, along with Jesus, not see children as a nuisance. We should see them as opportunity for the glory and the honor of God through faith. We should feed them the truth of God, because they will believ,e and we will be setting them up for a future of spiritual fruitfulness and life. Well, that's the first part on children who believe. They possess eternal life.
Secondly, Jesus teaches us about repentant believers. This section starts with an individual who comes to Jesus with a question. The other gospels tell us that he knelt known before Jesus and asked Him, “Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may obtain eternal life?” Other gospels also tell us that this man was young, rich, and wealthy. I mean, this guy sort of had everything. He had youth; he had power as a ruler, and he had money. But he sensed that he was still far from God, and so he came to Jesus to inquire of Him, “What must I do? What good thing shall I do that I may obtain eternal life?” First of all, Jesus responds by establishing who really is good. I think theologically we would all know how to answer the question, who really is good? There's only one who is good, it is the LORD. And this is exactly Jesus' response. He says, “Why are you asking Me about what is good? There is only One who is good (referring to God); but if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.” Here's what Jesus was teaching this man. He was teaching him that he is not good like God; therefore, in order for him to have the right to enter into God's presence, he would need to get right with God. Jesus here focuses on the repentance side of things, but this man, of course, would need to have his sins forgiven. He would need to be justified through faith in the only God who gives the gift of forgiveness and righteousness. But at this point, Jesus focuses on the call to repentance. He's also going to call him to faith in a minute. And so, He says to him, “keep the commandments.” Then the man answers Jesus, “Which ones?” Jesus then replies with a big chunk of the ten commandments: “You shall not commit murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness. Honor your father and mother. And you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” That final part is actually not part of the ten commandments. But of course, the second tablet of the 10 Commandments really is the exposition of that command that we find in the Book of Leviticus, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” The young man then answered Jesus, “All these things I have kept. What am I still lacking now?” Now, this was a false assessment of himself. And perhaps he knew it or maybe this was just really a straight up lie. But regardless of what his motivations were, Jesus calls this man's bluff. He tells him to give up all his possessions, give to the poor (that is, love your neighbor as yourself), and to follow Him. That last part is the call to faith. It is a call to trust in Him so as to become His follower and disciple. This was Jesus's call to faith and repentance. He was telling this man to get right with God and to place his faith in Him: “You come and follow Me. Give up everything and follow Me.” This is Jesus's general call to all, that they should come to Him and that they should repent.
In fact, all those who are saved will indeed trust in Christ and follow Him. They will give their devotion to Christ as Lord and cease loving other things more than Him, including their possessions. Even as Jesus taught us back in Chapter 6, you cannot serve God and wealth. Well, what's the outcome of this man? Well, this is what we read in verse 22, “when the young man heard this statement, he went away grieving (not because he felt conviction); for he owned much property.” He went grieving because he loved his wealth much more than eternal life. He loved his possessions more than the Lord and more than what the Lord commanded of him to love his neighbor as himself. This man would rather hold fast to his riches than to repent and follow after Christ. Jesus shows us here that we cannot have it both ways. We cannot love our possessions and embrace Jesus as our Savior and Lord. Christ must be the Lord and master over our lives if we are going to have Him as our Savior. If we trust in Him, then we will listen to Him in whatever He tells us, even if it means giving away our wealth. Jesus knew this man’s heart, that he adored his possessions. So Jesus challenges this man to place his faith in Him by giving up his wealth.
Then Jesus also teaches another lesson on how wealth can so easily get in the way of true repentance and faith. And so after the man left, Jesus said to His disciples, “Truly, I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.” Then He illustrates this, “I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle (which is obviously an impossibility) than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” What Jesus shows us is that the straight and narrow pathway to heaven is not wide enough for our luggage full of gold and silver and every other possession. We cannot carry our possessions with us into heaven. We must leave them all behind or we cannot enter at all. Well, what does this mean practically? Well, let me first say, the issue of wealth is not the issue for every human being, but it is for some; and it is especially the case for those who have much. And this is why Jesus says it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Because those who have much hold fast to that which they possess. And they have a hard time parting ways with their possessions to serve and honor the Lord. This means that all repentant believers who trust in Christ, we live every day yielding all our possessions to the Lord. We say to the Lord, “Lord, do whatever You will with these possessions which You have entrusted to me. I am Your steward, just a manager of Your possessions. What I own does not belong to me, they are Yours. Expend them at Your pleasure. Help me never to get in the way of what You want to do with these possessions.” This is to be our attitude before the Lord, because we trust in Him, and because we really believe that what we possess all belong to Him.
Now, as the disciples thought about the amount of wealth this man owned, they wondered if anyone would ever give up a wealth of that degree to follow Christ. So here was the disciples’ reaction after they hear this teaching, “Who can be saved?” Jesus explains that only God's grace can lead people to true faith and repentance. So Jesus looked at them and answered, “With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” When Jesus says this is impossible, He means true repentance and true exercise of faith in the Lord. That is impossible for men. But with God, this is truly possible. Now, Jesus elaborates on this further in His interactions with the disciples afterwards in the following verses, which is what we will cover next time. But the point here is that faith and repentance are impossible for men by themselves. It is only when God's grace has given a person a heart to trust in Christ, that they really can exercise true saving faith and be saved. This is to say, salvation is the gift of God. Repentance and faith are the gifts of God. The Bible resounds with this truth, that salvation is by the supernatural work of God, that no man can believe and repent of himself; it is only by the grace of God that people believe and repent. And Jesus affirms that all those who believe and repent indeed possess eternal life.
There are quite a few truths that emerge out of this passage. Jesus welcomed children to Himself because children who are told the truth believe. Secondly, God alone is good, but no man is. And therefore, man is called to repent and believe. We also saw that wealth can get in the way of repentance. Only God's grace can lead people to true repentance and faith.
What might we pray about from these lessons? If the Lord has given you a heart of repentance, you should absolutely give thanks to Him and give Him all the credit for leading you to faith and repentance. He gave you that heart of faith and repentance. That is a wonderful gift of God. It did not come from yourself. It came from the Lord.
Secondly. If you find that there is resistance to the Lord and you do not wish to repent, then you should seek God's mercy and ask Him to give you a new heart. You should also examine your own heart to see what is holding you back from giving to the Lord everything. I think there are some good probing questions to ask yourself. What use is money when all is said and done? When you reach the end of your life, what will money or possessions mean to you? What will the enjoyments that money can buy mean to you when you must face God and give an account of your life? All the enjoyments that money can buy will mean nothing to you then, because we can't take anything with us into eternity. And so we ought to be thinking about where we would stand before God. And Jesus shows us there's a pathway to life. It is to repent, it is to believe in Him. It is to love the Lord more than wealth and to serve the Lord rather than wealth or any other thing that might be tugging at the affections of your heart. If you know the Lord, you know He is the most worthy of all of our affections and all our service, and all our devotion. And if you know that, then that is God's grace at work in your life.
Let me pray for us and we’ll wrap it up.
God, thank You for teaching us that salvation is truly impossible with men, but that with You, all things are possible. And thank You that in Your grace, You give to those whom You love a heart of faith and repentance. What a gracious God You are! We are all rotten in and of ourselves. We do not wish to bend to Your will, and we do not wish to seek Your kingdom and Your righteousness. But we thank You that in Your wonderful grace, You change our hearts and You change our perspective, so that we would indeed repent and believe in Christ and follow after Him. God, we confess that You are more precious than silver and gold, and that there is no one who is more worthy of all our devotion than You. I pray that in our hearts we would resonate with that reality every day, that we would honor You as our one and only singular God, and the only object of worship and our greatest devotion. Thank You for teaching us this morning. Thank You for Your patience with us, and how You wait for all to come to repentance, because You desire for none to perish but for all to come to repentance and faith. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
Lord bless you all. We have one more session this week. See you Friday morning. That is it for today. Bye.