TEXT: Luke 18:18-30

SUBJECT: Luke #69: A Good Deal

What’s the Kingdom of God worth to you? Make no mistake about it, it’s going to cost you something to enter the Kingdom—in fact—it’s going to cost you everything.

Being a disciple of Jesus Christ means you belong to Him in body and soul. It means anything He wants from you, you have to give Him: anything. Including the things that mean the most to you: things like your time and money, your family and friends, your schooling and career, your hopes and dreams. In short, it means you have no life of your own.

If this sounds extreme and demanding, it’s meant to. We have gotten way too comfortable with phony discipleship—with reducing the Christian life to being nice. We should be nice, of course, but discipleship is not about niceness; it’s about commitment to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. It’s about doing more than singing the words,

Today’s story underlines the point. Its main character is a fine man: he is pious, sincere, and humble. He respects the Lord Jesus Christ; he obeys the Law of God; he feels his need; and he wants eternal life and wants it badly!

But he does not find it.

Has the Lord become mean and stingy with His favors? No He hasn’t. Mark says He loved that man and Luke adds that He was grieved by the man’s fatal decision. The Lord is willing to give him what he wants—if only he would take it on God’s terms!

What must I do to be saved?

I must submit to the Lordship of Christ. My submission is never perfect, but this is not about perfection, it’s about submission. Will I yield to Christ? If I will, He will give me eternal life. But if I won’t, He won’t. The Lordship of Christ is not a paper doctrine! It is a necessary part of conversion! You cannot take Jesus as your Savior and reject Him as your Lord. He doesn’t offer Himself to you on these terms!

When God exalted Christ, He made Him

Note the pairings—Prince and Savior, repentance and remission. We cannot pick and choose, for God offers salvation to us only in Christ—His Christ, the Whole Christ!

The Rich Young Ruler wanted a Savior—there’s no doubt about that! I think he wanted a Lord, too: as long as His Lordship didn’t touch his money. On other things, he would gladly submit to His authority:

He had no problem on these things. But putting this Man in charge of his money—of all his money?—no, he wouldn’t do that. If he were a poor man, he might have, but

He would not give up the control of his money, even if it cost him his soul.

It’s no wonder the Lord was so grieved by the man. He got that close to the Kingdom, but he didn’t get in. Because he would not submit to the Lordship of Christ in one area of his life.

Please don’t mistake what I’ve said for perfectionism. I don’t believe in that and that’s not what I am saying. We all struggle in some areas more than others: envy is not a big problem for me, but laziness is. Maybe you’re hard working, but have a worse temper than I do.

But even our weakest areas of life can be under the Lordship of Christ. They are when we want to do His will, when we try to, and when we confess our sins and ask Him to forgive us when we don’t do His will. A weak disciple is still a disciple! If he isn’t, the Lord has no disciples! For all disciples are weak!

After the Rich Young Ruler went on his way, the Lord turned to His friends and said,

What does this mean? In Mark’s Gospel, the meaning in clear: it is hard for a rich man to be saved because he tends to trust his riches. Of course he does, for riches seem to secure our present and future happiness. Luke makes the point in the parable of the Rich Fool. Paul issues the same warning:

This is a true doctrine—and important. But it’s not what Luke is getting at here. He’s telling us that it is hard for a rich man to be saved because he doesn’t want to give up the control of his money. But his salvation demands just that of him!

Let me give you an illustration. A woman I know has always tithed or given ten percent of her income to the Lord. This was never a big problem for her—oddly enough—because she has always had low-paying jobs. Giving a check for twenty or thirty dollars a week was easy for her. But then her father died and left her a substantial amount of money. For the first time in her Christian life, she hesitated…she had always given in the tens of dollars, now she has to give in the thousands. She did it—but she told me she had to swallow hard several times to put all those zeroes on her check. Giving up control of five, ten, twenty dollars is pretty easy: but thousands and millions? That’s another story.

Money tends to make a man proud and a proud man doesn’t like being told what to do with his money! That’s why Agur says,

I wonder how many of us have taken the story seriously? I know you’ve prayed for money—and that’s not wrong. But have you ever prayed against money? You know the dangers of not having enough of it—but what about the dangers of having too much?

The temptation is real—and it doesn’t take millions to come under its spell.

The disciples are blown away by what the Lord has said. Except for Matthew, they were all poor men and it never occurred to them that too much might be a bad thing.

In fact, they all surmised that having money would make your salvation more likely; it would make discipleship easier. You understand why they felt this way: A rich man doesn’t have to work long hours or worry about paying the bills. Thus, he has more time to pray or read his Bible or do good works.

To people who never had any money, this sounds quite reasonable. That’s how the man in Fiddler on the Roof saw things—

But, of course, people who have money know better. They know that money can bring out the worst in a person—it can promote pride, self-sufficiency, contempt for others, hardness of heart, and many other things that hinder discipleship.

To give hope to the rich, the Lord says

The Lord’s grace and wisdom and power are so great that He can save even the wealthiest man. And He has—rarely, to be sure, but He has done it every now and then. See Job, Abraham, and Joseph of Arimethea, for example. And Paul, too, I would guess.

In summary: the Rich Young Ruler could not be saved because he would not submit to the Lordship of Christ. In some ways he would—most ways, in fact. But there was one part of his life that he would not give up the control—not even to Jesus Christ! And because he would not yield to Christ, he was not saved.

After hearing all this, the Apostles are rather pleased with themselves. They are not rich men, of course, and the little they had, they gladly gave up to follow Christ.

Peter wants a pat on the back for it!

He’s saying, we’re not at all like the Rich Man, why we’ve left a Fishing Empire behind to fish for men! Hooray for us!

But the Lord doesn’t go in for boasting. He tells Peter and the others that they haven’t sacrificed anything for Him. They’re not doing Him a favor, but it is He who is doing them a favor.

The joys of discipleship more than make up for the losses we suffer in following the Lord. In this life alone, it is far better to be a Christian than to be anything else. And, of course, in the life to come, the advantages are even greater.

We haven’t given up anything to follow Christ! No, in following Him we have gotten everything!

Will discipleship cost you anything? Sure it will: it will cost you your life. But, as strange as it sounds, in losing your life, you find it. In forgetting yourself, you find yourself. In becoming God’s slave, you become the freest man in the world.

That’s how it works.

So why don’t you become a disciple of Christ? Why don’t you turn over those favorite parts of your life to Him? You’ve got nothing to lose but yourself. And that’s a good thing.

The love of God be with you all. For Christ’s sake. Amen.