Mark 10:13-31
Date: April 9th 2023
Speaker: Samuel Crites
Scripture: Mark 10:13-31
Exegetical Outline
Main idea of text: Jesus uses children and a rich young ruler to teach the disciples that only the selfless enter the kingdom of Heaven.
13-16: Jesus rebukes the disciples because they are preventing children, who have a right to the kingdom of God, from coming to Jesus.
17-22: A rich young ruler seeks Jesus out to inherit eternal life, but he cannot give up his riches and leaves disheartened.
23-31: Jesus teaches the disciples that only those that are selfless can enter the kingdom of Heaven, inheriting the Church and eternal life.
Homiletical Outline
Main idea of sermon: Those that are selfless inherit the Church and eternal life.
Selflessness demonstrated in the contrast between children and the rich young ruler.
Similarities
Loved by Christ
Contrasts
Seeking to gain Christ vs. Seeking to gain benefit
Having no hope vs. hoping in own effort
Receives kingdom of God vs. retains kingdom of Man
Blessed by Christ vs. Opportunity for Christ to bless others
Selflessness Defined
Selflessness as the cost
Difficulty of selflessness
Hopelessness of selflessness (Only God saves)
The reward for selflessness
The Church
Eternal life
John Newton was an evangelical Anglican minister that was born in 1725 and died in 1807. He pastored as a parish priest in Olney, Buckinghamshire. Most Christians know him as the author of arguably the most influential hymn that has ever been written, “Amazing Grace.” In his youth, before he was a Christian, he was in the slave trade. He sailed slave ships and even found himself as a slave at one point in Sierra Leone. After being rescued, he captained a slave ship for about 5 years. When he was finally converted, he became an Anglican minister and an influential abolitionist.
While these might be the most well-known fruits of his ministry in our time, they are not what he was most well-known for among his peers. John Newton was most well-known for his letter writing ministry and pastoral care for other ministers, regardless of their denomination. Newton was a pastor of pastors. He made friends with and cared for young pastors and ministers by writing them letters. One such young pastor was John Ryland, Jr. of Northamptonshire. Ryland, who was 28 years younger than Newton and a Baptist, was one of Newton’s closest friends. For four decades, Newton and Ryland corresponded about all aspects of life and ministry.
I bring these men up as an illustration to lead into our sermon today, because Newton is a model for the Church of selfless charity. The occasion for Newton’s first letter to Ryland was a selection from Ryland’s book that was published in Gospel Magazine in 1771 along with a couple sarcastic poems that Ryland had written mocking Arminians. The elder Newton wrote to Ryland to rebuke him for his crass poetry and what Newton viewed as a young, untested man wading into a theological conversation without the experience or charity that was required of a minister of God. Newton’s letter is kind, but firm. Towards the end, he writes this:
Now my dear young man, I hope, yea, I believe you will not account me your enemy for thus faithfully with you. I am generally pretty fully employed, yet have found time to write you a long letter. Why, because I love you not? Nay rather because I love you and wish you prosperity. You will perhaps find many ready enough to say smooth and pleasing things to your face, but I hope you will know how to value an admonition from a friend.
This letter of rebuke kicked off a 40 year long friendship between Ryland and Newton that was motivated by nothing more than genuine Christian affection. Newton selflessly saw a young brother in error and reached out to give him some genuine pastoral advice. It didn’t benefit Newton in any way other than to fulfill his Christian duty to love his brother.
This is what we are going to see in our sermon text today. In Mark 9, Jesus taught his disciples that the last will be first and the first will be last. In our sermon text today, we are going to see him reteach that same lesson of selflessness to his disciples. Let’s read Mark 10:13-31:
Mark 10:13-31
13 And they were bringing children to him that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them. 14 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. 15 Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” 16 And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them.
17 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?” 18 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. 19 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.’ ” 20 And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.” 21 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.” 22 Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
23 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!” 24 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! 25 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.” 26 And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, “Then who can be saved?” 27 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.” 28 Peter began to say to him, “See, we have left everything and followed you.” 29 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, 30 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. 31 But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”
The main idea of our sermon today is: Those that are selfless inherit the Church and eternal life. Christ’s ultimate lesson to the disciples is that there is a type of selflessness that is required to enter the kingdom of God. This selflessness is so radical that it has the disciples despairing whether it is possible for anyone to even enter the kingdom of God.
Our sermon will have three parts. The first two episodes in our sermon text, Jesus and the little children and Jesus and the rich young man, are meant to be illustrations for us to compare. We are supposed to look at what is similar and different between the children who do receive the kingdom of God and the rich young man that leaves disappointed. This is the foundation on which Christ builds his teaching on selflessness to the disciples in verses 23-31, so the first part of our sermon will explore that comparison to see what we can learn about true selflessness. The first goal of our sermon is to define what is the selflessness that is required to enter the kingdom of God.
The second part of the sermon will explore the challenge of selflessness. The disciples liked the rich young man. Unlike the children, he is the kind of person that should be coming to see the king: rich, young, from high society. But he is turned away. At first glance, it seems that the cost to follow Christ is too high because it costs him all his worldly possessions. This causes the disciples to despair. If it costs him everything, it must be impossible for anyone to enter the kingdom of God. Christ quickly corrects them. The problem is not that the cost is too high, the problem is that the cost is impossible to pay. Without the intervention of God, Jesus says, no one can enter the kingdom of heaven. Praise God that the disciples are setting out on a journey that will end with God himself intervening on behalf of the world at a place called Calvary. To achieve the selflessness that is required to enter the kingdom of God requires an act of God.
The third part of the sermon will consider the reward of selflessness. Christ promises the disciples two rewards: one to be received in this life and one in the age to come. For those that lose house, family or land in this life they will receive houses, families, and land a hundredfold with persecutions. Where is the House of the Lord? How do we fellowship with the family of families? Where can we go to get a foretaste of that evergreen country where the sun does not set and fruit is always ripe? Those that are selfless in this life are rewarded with the Church now, and in the age to come, they will receive eternal life. Not like the rich young man wanted: an eternal life on his own terms. The selfless will receive an eternal life in loving communion with God’s people and Christ himself. We should read our entire sermon text through Christ’s final admonition in verse 31: But many who are first will be last and the last first. Brothers and sisters, the great reward for God’s people is that those that are truly selfless will receive the Church today and eternal life in the age to come.
Comparison of Children and the Rich Young Man
Let’s compare the children and the rich young man and see what we can learn about selflessness. There is one similarity and two differences between the children that want to come to Christ and the rich young man.
First, let’s look at the one similarity. Both the children and the rich young man were loved by Christ. As the disciples are preventing the children from coming to Christ, he looks at the children and has compassion on them. They are being mistreated by the disciples. In verse 14, we see Jesus rebuke the disciples and call the little children to himself. We get to see the tenderness and kindness of our Savior as he draws these little children in. He takes them in his arms like a shepherd with little lambs and he blesses each one of them. Christ’s genuine affection for the children is evident and probably not a surprise. Of course Jesus loves a bunch of little children.
What is more interesting is that the same gentleness and compassion that Jesus has for the children is also directed at the rich young man. In verse 21, Mark tells us that Jesus looked at the rich young man and loved him. Jesus is trying to help the rich young man, not because it benefits Jesus, but because he genuinely loves the rich young man. This young man is in error. He has fallen prey to a self-centeredness that if it is not rectified will lead the rich young man away from eternal life toward an eternal destruction. Like John Newton with the young John Ryland, Jr., Jesus is the example of selflessness for us to see. He has nothing to gain from helping the rich young man other than that his love compels him to seek the rich young man’s ultimate good.
So, here we can see the first lesson of selflessness. We do not learn it from the children or the rich young man, but from Christ himself. To be truly selfless is to love other people. Not to love them as an object to be possessed, for our benefit, but to love for their own good. Christ does each of them deliberate spiritual good: to the children he gives a blessing; to the rich young man he is honest with him. It isn’t what the rich young man wants to hear, but it was what he needed to hear. Proverbs 27:5-6 says:
Proverbs 27:5-6
5 Better is open rebuke
than hidden love.
6 Faithful are the wounds of a friend;
profuse are the kisses of an enemy.
Church, this is how Christ has loved each one of us. When we first come to Christ, he does not allow us to continue in our sin. The good news of Jesus Christ is first offensive. He tells us that we are sinners, enemies of God. But in his selfless love for us, he died while we were still his enemies to pay the penalty for our sins. As he calls us to selflessly love others, know that you can’t white knuckle obedience. The first step to selflessly love other people is to remember how Christ has loved you. Spend time regularly reminding yourself of how scandalous it is that the Creator of the universe would suffer and die to save a sinner like you. As you come to a greater understanding of the grace that you have been shown, you will be able to selflessly be gracious to others.
Now that we have made a positive comparison between the children and the rich young ruler, namely, that Christ loved them both. Let’s look at two ways they are different and glean what we can about selflessness from these contrasts.
First, the children and the rich young man are seeking the blessing of Christ in different ways. The children are brought to Christ by other people. In their innocence, they come to Christ because they are trusting the adults in their lives. In truth, they are not seeking Christ at all. When they meet him, it is the happiest of surprises. Not only is he welcoming and kind to them, but he blesses them. They trust him because they have found that he is a good caretaker of their souls.
The rich young ruler on the other hand is not seeking Christ. He was seeking his own personal gain. You see in verse 17 exactly what the rich young man is after. He asks, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” This is a classic “What do I give the person who has everything?” situation. The rich young man has everything: material possessions, religious piety, the respect of his peers. The one thing that he is missing is eternal life.
When I say that the children and the rich young man are seeking different things, I do not mean that the children are not standing to gain from their interaction with Christ. This is where we can learn something about selflessness. The children received the blessing, but they received the blessing on Christ’s terms while the rich young man wanted the blessing on his own terms. You can see the rich young man’s self-centeredness. The children were not even aware of the blessing and when they received it, it was the happiest surprise of grace. The rich young man, on the other hand, knew about the blessing but wanted to receive it on his own terms. He says, “I have kept all of the law since I was a youth.” This is not the admonition of a humble man, but a challenge to judge his righteousness by his own personal piety.
Church, the irony of the situation is that the rich young man did not keep the law. Look at verse 21.
Mark 10:21
21 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.”
What is the one thing that the rich young man lacked? Whatever he lacked, Jesus implies that if he had it, he would truly keep the Law.
Turn quickly with me to Matthew 22. In verse 34, Jesus is challenged by the Pharisees. They ask him, “What is the greatest commandment?” Listen to what Jesus says in verse 37:
Matthew 22:37-40
37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
Notice the last verse: “On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” When Jesus tells the rich young man that he lacked one thing, he lacked the most important thing. The rich young man did not understand the two greatest commandments. He did not truly love God.
He thought he kept the law by keeping the lesser commandments, but notice the subtlety of Christ’s argument. Keeping the moral aspects of the Law was not sufficient for righteousness, because the essence of the Law was still unfulfilled. To fulfill the Law, Jesus says, “Follow me.” How does that make sense? If keeping the Law means loving God, and the rich young man can fulfill the Law by following Christ, then Jesus must be God. Sacrificing everything to follow him must demonstrate that he loves God with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength.
The problem with the rich young man is that he wanted to follow God his own way. He wanted to have a list of dos and don’ts. Jesus loves him too much to allow him to try to make it to God on his own. He knows that the rich young man’s efforts will never lead him to God. It is only if he comes to God through Jesus that he will find the eternal life that he is looking for.
Those that are truly selfless play by God’s rules, not their own. They have realized that all their efforts in the past have only ever led them further away from God. Think brothers and sisters, when has your own wisdom ever made you truly satisfied? When have you tried to go your own way and made your situation better? If some of the younger Christians in this room had the courage, they could ask the older Christians here to share the greatest blunders of their walk with Christ. I bet those stories would start with some version of, “I thought I knew better.”
Selflessness turns to God, not merely looking to receive a blessing, but looking to receive that blessing with the humility to trust God to give the blessing in the way that seems best to him. The rich young man left disappointed because he was seeking the wrong thing and he was doing it in the wrong way. We do not know best. Only God knows what is good for us. The selfless person listens to God because they have reached the end of their self and are ready to put all their hope in him.
The second difference between the children and the rich young man is that the children receive the kingdom of God and the rich young man does not. The children received the blessing that they did not even know existed and the rich young man sought for it, but could not find it.
What makes the children so special? They didn’t even do anything. They just showed up, offered no value, and got what the rich young man had been working for his whole life. The rich young man had built a veritable kingdom on earth that merely lacked endurance. If he could just overcome that pesky thing called death, he would be able to enjoy his possessions for all time. He could not receive the kingdom of God, because he didn’t truly want the kingdom of God. His heart was already full of lesser loves. There was no room for a love outside of himself, because he couldn’t conceive that there was anything outside of what he already had that could bring him more joy.
The children did not have this problem. They came to Christ with nothing, so the prospect of gaining Christ seemed like a pretty good deal to them. They had found the one thing that was truly worth having because they had nothing to distract them. From this we can learn that selflessness means that you are not the center of your world. Your greatest joy is external, it is not in here but out there. Said differently, those that are selfless are not self-centered.
It is like gravity. In order for our solar system to function, it needs something at its center that is so massive that it’s gravitational pull keeps everything orbiting as it should. For the rich young man, the center of his universe was himself: his own desires, his own possessions, his own righteousness. He wanted Christ as a means not as an end. To be truly selfless means we have to remove ourselves from the center of our lives. Only when Christ is the gravity that orders your universe, can you enter the kingdom of God. Only the selfless can enter the kingdom of God, because it actually is a kingdom. You cannot be the king of the kingdom of God.
So far, we have seen that selflessness requires us to love other people, to humbly approach God on his terms not ours, and to submit to his authority in our lives. This is what Christ means when he says that in the kingdom of God, the last will be first and the first last.
There are many today that misunderstand what Jesus is teaching. They understand Jesus to be a liberator, overthrowing oppressive regimes and ushering in a socialist society. Those that read Scripture through this Marxist framework miss one crucial point: in the kingdom of God, Christians want to put others first. Christ is not righting the scale of socio-economic class distinctions. He is changing the hearts of sinners to truly want to put others above themselves.
To be a Christian is to genuinely desire to love God and love others. To be set free from the slavery of the self to look outside our own wants and desires to the needs of others, but such selflessness comes at a cost.
The difficult challenge of selflessness.
Let’s now turn to consider what Jesus teaches his disciples about how challenging it is to achieve the selflessness required to enter the kingdom of God. When the rich young man turns away from Christ, Jesus used the opportunity to teach his disciples. Let’s look at it again. Read with me beginning in verse 23:
Mark 10:23-27
23 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!” 24 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! 25 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.” 26 And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, “Then who can be saved?” 27 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.”
At first glance, the problem of entering the kingdom of God seems to be about money, and many have understood this text to mean that Christians are supposed to be poor. But that is not what Christ is teaching his disciples. If we read carefully, there is more going on than the fact that wealth can be a stumbling block to entering the kingdom of God.
In verse 23, Christ says that it is difficult for those that have wealth to enter the kingdom of God. In verse 24, the disciples are shocked by his teaching and he says, “Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God!” This leads the disciples to despair that anyone could be saved in verse 26, and Jesus responds by saying, “With man it is impossible.”
Now before we read further, think about what Jesus just said about entering the kingdom of God. He literally said, it is impossible for men to enter the kingdom of God. Did you see that? A man, working by his own efforts, will never enter the kingdom of God. The rich young man’s problem is not that he is rich. It is that he is so self-centered that he thinks he can make it on his own. He lacks the selfless God-centeredness to turn to God for help. We know this is true because God the Son, in human flesh, stood before him and said follow me; and he turned away.
The challenge of selflessness is that it is impossible. The selflessness that calls us to love other people, that requires us to humbly approach God on his terms not ours, and that forces us to submit to his authority as the Lord of our lives, the selflessness that characterizes all of God’s people is impossible for man to achieve. No one will ever be selfless enough to enter the kingdom of God.
There will always be something. It is different for each person. For the rich young man, it was his wealth, but what was it for you? For those in the room that are not Christians, consider your life. You are on this earth for such a short time in the scope of eternity and yet you know you were created for something more. This is why people go to the Grand Canyon or search the stars. We were made for something greater than ourselves. There is a longing in your heart that nothing has been able to fill. Jesus is saying in the Gospel of Mark that he is that desire. You were made to follow him, to be loved by God and to love him in return. The message of the Gospel is not that you have set your sites too high, but that you have set them too low. We are too easily pleased by money, travel, achievements, fame, but while they please for a season, they will never satisfy. You will always need more.
The standard God requires to enter the kingdom of God is absolute perfection. God knew that man would not be able to meet that standard. So, God sent his Son, the perfect man, to meet the standard for us. This is what Christ alludes to when he says that all things are possible with God. The disciples know they are on their way to Jerusalem to watch Christ be rejected by the elders and the chief priests, suffer, die, and rise from the dead. What they don’t understand is that this act of selflessness is the means by which God will do the impossible. We gather every Sunday, and especially this Easter Sunday, to celebrate this impossibility. God became man, died on a cross to take the punishment that belongs to others, and rose from the dead, conquering sin and death to offer eternal life to all that will trust in him. God demanded a perfect sacrifice and miraculously provided for his people.
In the first part of our sermon, we saw that selflessness is essential to enter the kingdom of God. By comparing the children and the rich young man, we saw that only those that are selfless can follow Christ. They must be selfless to love others, have the humility to approach God, and to submit to his reign in their lives. In the second part, we have seen that such selflessness is impossible. Without the intervention of God, no one will ever be selfless enough. We are slaves to our pride and our selfishness. The good news is that what is impossible for man is possible with God. The mission Christ is on is to accomplish this very thing as he makes the ultimate selfless sacrifice in order to open the access to the kingdom of God to all that will follow him.
The reward for selflessness.
What is the reward for selflessly giving up everything to follow Christ? In this last part of the sermon, let’s look at what Christ promises to those that sacrifice for the kingdom of God. Read with me Mark 10:28-31:
Mark 10:28-31
28 Peter began to say to him, “See, we have left everything and followed you.” 29 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, 30 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. 31 But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”
What Jesus is teaching the disciples is a hard lesson to learn. First, their expectations are flipped upside down when Jesus accepts children into the kingdom of God and not a wealthy aristocrat. Then, Jesus basically tells them that it is impossible for them to enter the kingdom of God. Peter’s reaction seems reasonable at this point. He is somewhere between despair at not sacrificing enough and wondering if the sacrifices they have made are worth the cost to follow Jesus.
Instead of directly answering Peter’s question, Christ encourages him by explaining the reward for their sacrifice. Christ knows that these men have sacrificed to follow him as his disciples. They have given up house, family, or lands to follow him or sacrifice for the sake of the Gospe. He reassures these men by promising them two rewards. One reward is received in this life and one reward is received in the age to come.
The first reward is a little more difficult to interpret than the second reward. Many have interpreted this passage of Scripture to support the prosperity Gospel. The prosperity Gospel says that God has promised his people health, wealth, and prosperity. Through acts of faith, Christians can earn the favor of God. It just so happens that those acts of faith tend to be financial contributions to the ministries of the prosperity preachers. Jesus is not promising his people 100-fold increase to wealth and prosperity in this life in verses 29 and 30. He is actually promising something far more valuable.
The first reward that we receive in this life for sacrificing for Christ sake and for the sake of the Gospel is the Church. If you sacrifice your house to follow Christ, you will have a place in the house of God. If your family leaves you because you follow Christ, you will be given fathers, and mothers and brothers and sisters beyond number in the family of God. If you lose your land to follow Christ, you will be given an inheritance in God’s kingdom on earth, the Church. The Church is the reward for those that selflessly follow Christ in this life.
This is a sweet and precious truth. Most Christians miss the joy that Christ intended you for you in being a part of a local Church. Christ meant the church to be the balm that soothes the sting of the sacrifice that it is to follow him. Many of the older saints in the room know how hard it is to follow Christ. The cost is not always paid on the front end. Certainly, there are some of us younger Christians that could tell stories of friends they lost in college because they decided to follow Christ, or of challenges at work because we were discriminated against for our faith. But this past week, I was at a pastors conference listening to one of my heroes in the faith share how gut wrenching it is to have an adult child walk away from the faith. Another one of my mentors had a wife that rejected Christ and did everything she could to tear their family apart. She pitted his three sons against each other and against him. He has held his family together by grace and sacrifice. Where is a Christian to go when the cost of following Christ is so high? When the wounds seem to be so deep and crippling?
Jesus tells us in Mark 10 that we are to go to the Church. It is the Church that is meant to bear those hardships with us. In the Church, every spouse that has walked away, every child that has rejected the faith is replaced with a hundred brothers, sisters, and mothers. Church is not merely something we attend on Sundays, it is the gift of Christ to his people to compensate for the cost of discipleship. Have you ever thought of the Church that way before? The church should be as dear to us in this life as our own family, because in the next life, they will be all we have.
The second reward for sacrificing for Christ’s sake and for the sake of the Gospel is easier to understand. The promise of the kingdom of God is eternal life. The sacrifices of this present life pale in the scope of eternity. Consider how small the entirety of your life is in comparison to the unending age to come. How much more will the pains of this life fade in the unending light of glory? In the same way that Christ means for the Church to be a gift that soothes the aches of this life, the promise of the age to come is meant to be a present comfort.
When the trials and sacrifices of this life weigh down on us, it is the promise that those sufferings are temporary that will be a comfort to us. There is a day coming when we will no longer suffer, we will no longer want, we will no longer be separated from our Savior, but we will be with him. We will be with the Good Shepherd who knows our every need and will perfectly care for every one of us.
That hope is not only a comfort to God’s people, but it is a shield in the battle. Verses 29-30 are in our sermon text, because it will cost you everything to live for the Gospel. One day we will be the Church triumphant, but today we are the Church militant. The Church in the middle of the battle that is this world, where our Enemy works against us. Remember this promise from our Savior when you are facing the cost of discipleship. When your friends leave you, when your employer pressures you to accept the latest woke ideology, when your professor paints you as the enemy of society for holding to a biblical understanding of manhood and womanhood, remember this promise. There is a day coming where you will receive your reward, when all wrongs will be set to right and your suffering will come to an end. Until that day, brothers and sisters, persevere. Cling to this promise of eternal life as a shield as you fight to make it to the end.
Eternal life is what the rich young ruler thought he wanted, but the truth is, he would hate eternal life. Those that are self-centered cannot understand the joy of an eternal life devoted to the needs of others. Christ reminds us of this in verse 31. That eternal land of life will be the eternal land of love where we will be freed from our selfishness to enjoy God and our brothers and sisters for eternity. You will be happy to be the last in that far country because your enjoyment will be proportional to your selflessness.
At the beginning of our sermon, we saw that selflessness is the standard required to enter the kingdom of God. It is through selflessness that we can love other, humbly receive the blessings of God, and submit to his authority in our lives. Then we saw that such selflessness comes at a high cost and is impossible for men to achieve. We need the intervention of God to free us from our self-centeredness. And finally, we saw that the reward for selflessness is twofold. In this life, Christ rewards the sacrifices of his people with the gift of the Church, and in the age to come, he will give his people an eternal life to enjoy God and each other forever.
Conclusion
John Newton began his relationship with John Ryland, Jr. with a rebuke to a young man, overzealous in his poetry and arrogant in his theology. Newton’s genuine love and affection for the young Ryland demonstrated a selflessness that sparked a forty year long friendship. We have almost 100 letters of encouragement, pastoral wisdom, and affection that Newton sent to John Ryland, Jr. Unfortunately, we do not have any of Ryland’s letters that were sent to John Newton. However, their friendship can be seen in a letter that Newton wrote to Ryland late in his life.
I love to have a letter from you now and then. I read, last night, the nine to you in the Cardiphonia. The remembrance of past times revived and gave me pleasure. We began when you were a lad and I a curate and we have gone on till you are grown into a doctor and I am dignified with the title of rector. Our friendship, now grown old, will I hope continue to the end, whatever changes may yet await us; yea, and subsist and flourish in a better world.
The root of this enduring friendship was selflessness. Newton is an example to us of true disciplemaking. He stood to gain nothing from the younger John Ryland, Jr. He only wanted to do deliberate spiritual good to his younger brother in Christ. Even though we do not have any of Ryland’s letters, can you imagine the thankfulness that he felt for Newton at the end of his life?
This is the gift Christ has for his people. He has freed us from self-centeredness so that we are able to truly love each other as brothers and sisters in the Church. And when this life is over, those friendships and affections will not end. They will be amplified in an age that will never end and only grow richer and deeper as we discover new ways to love God and each other.