OPEN: On April 1st 1976 British astronomer Patrick Moore made an announcement on BBC Radio 2: “At 9:47 a.m. today there will be a ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ astronomical event occurring.”
The planet Pluto would pass behind Jupiter, he said, temporarily causing a gravitational alignment that would counteract and lessen the Earth’s own gravity. Astronomer Patrick Moore explained that if people were to jump in the air at the exact moment that this planetary alignment occurred, they would experience a strange floating sensation.
When 9:47 AM arrived, BBC Radio 2 began to receive 100s of phone calls from listeners claiming to have felt the sensation. One woman even reported that she and her 11 friends had risen from their chairs and floated around the room.
It was an April Fool’s joke.
Then about 7 yrs ago (2005) April 1st the media reported that NASA had discovered water on Mars and that they had actual pictures on the official NASA website. Those who went to the website to check it out, saw this picture: (picture of a glass of water balanced on a chocolate Mars bar)
April Fools!
APPLY: Now, what is it that makes an April Fool joke funny?
(Someone shouted out “fools”, which is technically correct, I guess)
It’s when someone can be fooled into believing something that’s not true.
In the incidences I just cited (about Jupiter/Pluto and about Mars) people were made to believe something about the HEAVENS that wasn’t true.
And in our story today, we encounter a young man who believed something about HEAVEN that wasn’t true.
And what he believed made him worse than an April fool.
What he believed might very well have made him an Eternal Fool.
Now, before we get to what he believed that was NOT true, let’s first understand what he believed that WAS true.
Notice what this man does
“As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him” (vs. 17)
He RUNS up to Jesus.
Why does he do that?
Well, when was the last time you ran?
If you’re like me, you ran because you were in a hurry.
You needed to do something/get somewhere and you needed to run.
This man RAN to Jesus because he needed to get somewhere… to Jesus
And he needed to get something – something he was sure Jesus had.
But what was it that Jesus had that this man needed so badly?
Well, look at his first question:
“What must I do to inherit eternal life?" verse 17
Now, that’s kind of a bizarre question for him to ask
I mean - think about it.
This man would seem to be a shoe-in for salvation.
· He’s young, rich and professional
He’s not a near-do-well. He doesn’t live off others. He may very well, be handsome, and likable and an accomplished businessman.
· But he’s HUMBLE (he kneels before Jesus).
· And he’s EAGER to know what he needs to do to please God.
· On top of that he’s a highly MORAL man.
He strives to keep the 10 commandments. In fact he believes he’s kept those commandments ever since he was a boy.
Even Jesus likes him.
Mark 10:21 says that “Jesus looked at him and loved him.”
This rich young ruler is so impressive that when Jesus says: “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." Mark 10:25 - and seems to use him as an example of the difficulty of entering heaven - His disciples can’t understand it!
They ask: "Who then can be saved?" Mark 10:26
I mean – if this guy can’t do it, who can????
But this rich young ruler BELIEVED all the right things
1. He believed that he was lost (He doubted he had eternal life).
2. He believed that he needed to DO something to please God (“what must I DO?).
3. And he believed that Jesus could give him the answers he so desperately sought.
But his problem was – he was a FOOL.
He walked away from the only one who could answer his question.
And he walked away because he believed something about Heaven that was not true.
What he believed was that he could get into heaven while putting his money before God. But he was seriously and foolishly wrong about that.
ILLUS: One man once observed:
“I always point out that the man’s sin was not that he had money, but rather that money had him. In a sense his god was wealth. He was self sufficient.” (Paul Humphrey, Sermoncentral.com)
How do we know money was his god?
Because Jesus pointed it out to him (and to us) in a very clever way.
Jesus says to this young man “You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.’" Mark 10:19
You can almost sense the relief in the young ruler’s response
"Teacher," he declared, "all these I have kept since I was a boy." Mark 10:20
He’s thinking to himself “Hey this is a shoe-in. I’ve got it made. I’ve studied for this test – and I’ve passed!”
But in his sudden excitement, he missed the one commandment Jesus had left out.
Do you know which one it was? “Thou shalt not COVET” Exodus 20:17
This rich young ruler was a covetous man.
His money and his possessions were important to him.
And they were SO important they were robbing him of his closeness to God.
Money can blind you to God
Jesus said: "No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money." Luke 16:13
No one can serve both God and money!
Why not?
Well, there are two basic reasons that is true:
1st - God won’t stand still for it. The very idea of placing anything between yourself and your loyalty to God is something He will not tolerate. To love your money (or anything else) more than you love Him is idolatry.
2nd – The love of money will enslave you and rob you of God’s peace.
That’s why 1 Timothy 6:9-10 says
“People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”
ILLUS: Ray Stedman once wrote: “I have been privileged to travel extensively and to speak oftentimes to rather wealthy audiences. I was in Hollywood, Florida… on the so-called "gold coast" of Florida. Every morning I taught the Scriptures to a crowd of five hundred or more.
These people, I was told, represented well over a billion dollars’ worth of accumulated wealth.
I had the opportunity to talk with many of them individually.
I found that most of these, by their own testimony, though they had all the money to buy anything they wanted, had arrived at the place where they were suffering from what someone has so aptly called "Destination sickness" – the malady of having everything that you want, but not wanting anything you have, and being sick and empty and lonely and miserable…”
ILLUS: Someone else has noted that, for those who devote themselves to money “… money seems to eat them away, inside out. Inside they lose their joy and spontaneity and generosity of impulse. Outside, they seem to wither, to become pale and drawn and fragile looking. It is difficult, of course, to decide how much of the aging process. But certainly not all old men look as ravaged as Howard Hughes did or as desiccated as Rockefeller or Mellon or J. Paul Getty. These men all complained of fatigue, sleepless nights and digestive ailments. They all appeared wispy and mummified.”
(Herb Goldberg & Robert Lewis Money Madness William Morrow & Co.)
These people were empty, because money had taken the place of God in their lives.
They didn’t HAVE their money… their money HAD them.
And that is why I believe this rich young ruler RAN to Jesus.
He was sick from his money.
He was empty and lonely and miserable because, a loving and merciful God had been crowded out by COLD HARD CASH.
ILLUS: A little over a year ago, comedian Stephen Colbert backed the Obama administration’s assertion - that if the rich didn’t give more to the government that would be “morally troubling” - by saying “Jesus actually said rich people should sell all their possessions and give the money to the poor” (referring to the story here of the rich young ruler).
Colbert was implying that Jesus was a socialist who believed ALL rich people should give up their money to the government - who then would give it to the poor on their behalf.
But Jesus wasn’t being a socialist here.
Granted, the Bible does tell the rich “… to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share” (1 Timothy 6:18), but NO WHERE else in Scripture are the rich told to sell all they had and give it to the poor.
So why would Jesus tell this man to do that?
Why ask this rich young ruler to do something no other rich man is Scripture is ever asked to do?
Because he was sick.
He needed the medicine Jesus is prescribing.
His money was killing him spiritually.
His money was robbing him of peace with God.
And the only treatment that would heal him was radical surgery.
But this young man was a fool.
He walked away.
He became like the man who was dying of terrible illness, and went to a world-renowned Physician. But ultimately he refused to take that medicine - preferring his illness to the cure. The cure didn’t please him… so he preferred to die from his sickness.
He was a fool because… he had great wealth… and it had him.
He wanted to hang onto the temporary wealth of this world, when he could have received a 100 times more than that in heaven. He felt his wealth WAS his security… and he felt it could obtain heaven for him.
In fact, there’s a clue to his thinking in his very question:
“What must I do to INHERIT eternal life?”
He’d probably inherited his wealth… so why not heaven?
ILLUS: One person quipped “People say that money isn’t the key to happiness, but I always figured if you have enough money, you can have a key made.” (Joan Rivers)
But the Bible teaches us that there is no man-made key would ever get us into heaven.
You can’t buy your way.
You can’t work your way in.
Ephesians tells us “…it is by grace you have been saved, through faith— and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast”. Ephesians 2:8-9
You can’t DO enough to be good enough to get into heaven.
And you can’t make enough to pay enough to get into heaven.
There is no way you or I can buy or make a key to unlock the pearly gates.
(pause) But there IS a key.
Do you know what the key is???
The key was Jesus’ blood.
His blood made the key that bought your way and mine into heaven.
As one person so ably put it: “The key to heaven was hung on a cross.”
But now, the rich young ruler couldn’t use that key yet, because Jesus hadn’t gone to the cross yet. And so, until Jesus died for him on the cross… Jesus called for this man to follow Him.
Jesus didn’t ask just anyone to “follow Him”.
This was a special offer made to this young ruler.
“Go, sell all that you have… and follow me.” Jesus said
But the rich man wouldn’t follow Jesus – because he was a fool.
Someone once said that they didn’t suffer fools gladly (see footnote)
They were implying that certain people were fools, and they didn’t want them around.
I’m not inclined to want fools anywhere around me.
They are difficult people.
But here – in our story – is a rich young fool, and Mark tells us that Jesus loved him anyway. And Jesus loved him enough to tell him what he needed to hear.
So what do you need to hear this morning?
What do you need to hear from this morning’s sermon?
You know there are people who believe that this young ruler asked the wrong question.
There are some who say he shouldn’t have asked what he could DO, because you can’t DO anything to obtain eternal life.
They appeal to that passage out of Ephesians we quoted earlier: “…it is by grace you have been saved, through faith— and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast”. Ephesians 2:8-9
And they say: “See, salvation is a gift. You can’t earn it by works! You can’t DO anything to obtain eternal life?”
But that’s not true.
Granted, it is true that you can’t DO anything to purchase salvation.
But it is also true that God expects you to DO something to receive it.
ILLUS: For example: Notice that Jesus didn’t rebuke this rich young ruler for asking what he could to inherit eternal life. No, quite the opposite. Jesus told him exactly what he could do. He basically told this man that he was living wrong. He was worshipping his money, and he needed to repent and give his idol away and come follow Him.
The rich young ruler was asked to DO something.
ILLUS: When John the Baptist was baptizing people down at the Jordan he didn’t rebuke the crowds for asking what they could do to be forgiven. The crowds came asking him what they could DO to obtain forgiveness, and he replied:
“The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same."
Tax collectors also came to be baptized. "Teacher," they asked, "what should we do?"
"Don’t collect any more than you are required to," he told them.
Then some soldiers asked him, "And what should we do?
" He replied, "Don’t extort money and don’t accuse people falsely— be content with your pay."
John never rebuked the people for asking what they could DO.
He told them to repent - change their lives - and prepare for the coming Messiah.
ILLUS: Then, after Jesus died, the crowds at Pentecost asked the very same question
Peter had just preached “Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ."
And when the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, "Brothers, what shall we DO?" Acts 2:37
But Peter didn’t rebuke them… instead Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Acts 2:38
You need to DO something to lay hold of Eternal life.
You need to Repent… change your life.
You need to remove anything that stands between you and God, and turn yourself totally over to Him. Then, you must be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins.
ILLUS: Just this last week we baptized a 9-year-old boy into Christ. His name is J.J..
J.J. knew all the answers to the questions I posed to him, but his father was concerned that his young son viewed baptism as a “magic act” that would make all kinds of marvelous changes without J.J.’s having to do anything at all.
So after I baptized him, I had a little talk with J.J.
I explained to him that Galatians 3 says that when we are “baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.” Galatians 3:27
I then explained to him that none of us can make it into heaven just as we are. We’ve sinned. We’ve all messed up. I have, the Elders have, the Sunday School teachers have, his mom and dad have. But Galatians is telling us that when we’re baptized into Christ we cover ourselves with Jesus.
(At this I put my hands over his face like a mask, and said) That means that when I come before the judgment seat… all God is going to see is Jesus. He won’t see “me” – He won’t see my sinful past and bad decisions or actions. All He’ll see is Jesus, because I’m clothed in Jesus" (that’s one of the beauties of baptism by immersion, because it best conveys that truth).
“So, J.J., do you think Jesus would lie?”
“No,” he said
“That’s right,” I replied. “And because you’ve now been ‘clothed’ in Christ, you shouldn’t lie either, should you?”
“No,” he said.
“And J.J., do you think Jesus would cheat?… do you think Jesus would hurt anyone?”
“No,” he replied.
“That’s right,” I replied. “And you shouldn’t either should you? Because when you were baptized you were clothed in Jesus, right?”
“No,” he replied, “I shouldn’t.”
Then I drove J.J. home. While we were driving along, J.J. shared how a young boy in his neighborhood wanted to fight him. And I could sense the youthful pride in his voice… he could whip this neighbor boy. So I asked him “J.J., what do you think Jesus would do with this neighbor boy? Do you think He’d fight him, or would he do something else?”
J.J. was quiet for awhile and then said “I don’t know.”
“Well, J.J. why don’t you pray about that? Then you do whatever you think Jesus would do about it, ok?”
The beauty of baptism is that it drives home the fact that in our salvation, we are changed into the image of Christ. We put on Christ (Galatians 3:27, KJV). And that was the truth J.J. needed to hear.
CLOSE: I want to close with this illustration:
The story is told of a wealth businessman was visited by an angel and granted one wish by an angel. The man gave this a lot of thought and then finally asked for copy of next week’s newspaper. He wanted to see what the stock prices for individual stocks. Do you know why he wanted that information? That’s right, with knowledge of the how the stock market would behave a week in advance, he could buy low and sell high… and make a killing on the market.
So the angel snapped his fingers, and lo and behold – there was a copy of next week’s newspaper.
The businessman was ecstatic! He began to greedily read down the stock prices, gloating over the profound riches he would enjoy.
But then, he happened to look over on the next page of the newspaper and saw the obituaries.
Guess what it was that he saw on that obit page?
It was his name.
He was going to be fabulously wealthy, but it wouldn’t make a bit of difference. Because in a week he’d be dead.
That businessman was a fool.
He asked for the wrong thing.
He thought he was wise for asking for the next week’s newspaper.
But in reality, he should have asked “What must I do to inherit eternal life.”
That’s why we give an invitation at the end of every service…
Footnote on “suffering fools gladly”: The original phrase comes from the KJV rendering of 2 Corinthians 11:19, where Paul was mocking the Corinthians for doing that very thing.
