Let me read it out loud for us.
Luke 18, verses 18 to 34.
And a ruler 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 commit adultery.
Do not murder.
Do not steal.
Do not bear false witness.
Honor your father and mother.
And he said,
All these I have kept from my youth.
When Jesus heard this, he said to him,
One thing you still lack.
Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor.
And you will have treasure in heaven.
And come, follow me.
But when he heard these things, he became very sad.
For he was extremely rich.
Jesus, seeing that he had become sad, said,
How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God.
For 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.
Those who heard it said,
Then who can be saved?
But he said,
What is impossible with man is possible with God.
And Peter said,
See, we have left our homes and followed you.
And he said to them,
Truly I say to you,
There is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children
for the sake of the kingdom of God
who will not receive many times more in this time
and in the age to come eternal life.
And taking the twelve, he said to them,
See, we are going up to Jerusalem.
And everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets
will be accomplished.
For he will be delivered over to the Gentiles
and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon.
And after flogging him, they will kill him.
And on the third day, he will rise.
But they understood none of these things.
This saying was hidden from them,
and they did not grasp what was said.
This is God's holy and authoritative word.
So before we start, I just want to apologize.
I don't have remote access right now to the slides,
so you're not going to see slides.
You'll just see that screen the whole time.
But I'll try to read to you the things that you need to know as it comes up.
We've all experienced in our life various forms of
and varying degrees of privilege.
In our world, privilege opens doors.
It gives you access to places and people that others might not have access to.
It tips the public perception in our favor.
It confers power on those who possess it.
But in our passage for today,
we learn something about God's kingdom that is surprising.
It teaches us that God's kingdom is not like any other kingdoms of this world.
It's an upside-down kingdom that even the rich and the powerful cannot enter.
In fact, it is impossible to enter the kingdom of God
except through faith in Christ the King.
That's really the main point of our passage.
And first, we're going to go through and talk about
the upside-down kingdom in verses 18 to 30.
And then we'll talk about an unlikely king in verses 31 to 34.
A ruler approaches Jesus in verse 18 and asks him a question.
And Luke usually tells us when he uses that word ruler
what kind of ruler it is,
whether it's a ruler of the synagogue in Luke 8
or a ruler of the Pharisees in Luke 14.
And when he doesn't specify it,
he's usually referring to the members of the Sanhedrin.
The Sanhedrin is the highest Jewish ruling council.
It rules on religious matters and political matters
and legal matters in the Jewish society.
It's the highest ruling body among the Jews.
And later, they're mentioned in Luke 23 and 24 as well
and simply referred to as the rulers.
And so it's probably a member of the Sanhedrin
that has come down from Jerusalem to interrogate Jesus.
And this would explain why Jesus assumed
that this ruler knows the commandments of God in verse 20.
And so if we consider that,
this ruler is a VIP in every measure.
He had religious standing.
He had political standing.
He had social standing.
And as we find out in verse 23,
he had economic standing.
Since he was extremely rich.
He has all the privilege that you can imagine in this world.
And he asks Jesus,
good teacher,
what must I do to inherit eternal life?
And to hear someone like this address Jesus,
to address him as good teacher,
and to seek his spiritual direction,
really must have been quite flattering to Jesus,
if you think about it.
Right?
Here is this great member of the Sanhedrin,
seeking Jesus out,
asking for his advice,
calling him good teacher.
But Jesus responds with a correction in verse 19.
He says,
Why do you call me good?
No one is good except God alone.
In the original language that this is translated from into English,
the personal pronoun me is in an emphatic possession.
It's in the front for emphasis.
So really we should read it as,
Why me do you call good?
No one is good except God alone.
And when he says that,
Jesus is not denying that he is, in fact, good.
He is good.
He is the Son of God,
the second person of the Trinity,
the triune God who alone is good.
He's a member of that,
so he is good.
But Jesus is here intentionally challenging
the rich ruler's shallow understanding of moral goodness.
Because this ruler only sees Jesus as a rabbi,
a human teacher,
and yet he is calling him good teacher.
This is what I call the PGP delusion,
the pretty good person delusion,
which is very common.
It's an epidemic.
Everyone that you talk to thinks they're a pretty good person, right?
Of course, then what's the need for hell,
and what's the need for heaven
if everybody's a pretty good person?
And many people in this world see themselves that way,
and especially religious teachers,
esteemed religious teachers like Jesus
were considered good people.
But this member of the Sanhedrin
really should have known better
because Psalm 53,
part of the Jewish scriptures
and part of our Old Testament,
says this,
The fool says in his heart,
There is no God.
They are corrupt doing abominable iniquity.
There is none who does good.
God looks down from heaven on the children of man
to see if there are any who understand,
who seek after God.
They have all fallen away.
Together they have become corrupt.
There is none who does good,
not even one.
This is what the scriptures that this ruler believes says.
There is not one man in this world
that is good in an absolute sense,
that God is good.
Only God is perfect.
Only God is good in that way.
Yet here is this ruler thinking
that he can attain eternal life
by doing good.
He thinks he can make the cut.
And Jesus kindly but firmly reminds him
that no human being
can be called good
in an unqualified sense.
That's precisely why Jesus had to come to save us.
As Jesus said in the preceding passage,
it's not those who trust in their own righteousness
that are saved,
but those who humbly entrust themselves
to what only God can do
to Christ's work of salvation on the cross.
Like a child,
it's only they who will be saved.
So we are not good people.
We are not good people,
but the good God has sent his son
to be the good teacher
to show us the way of salvation.
And so this ruler really unknowingly
is acknowledging a profound truth.
Yes,
Jesus in fact is good
in a much more profound sense
than you understand.
He is the son of God,
the chosen one,
the messianic king,
and he has come to save you.
And if this ruler really understood that
and knew who Jesus was,
he should have left everything behind
to follow him.
But as we see in the following verses,
he doesn't have that faith in Jesus.
This ruler's question
is exactly the same question
that the Jewish legal scholar
asked Jesus earlier in Luke chapter 10.
And Jesus answers that question
in much the same way
by pointing them back to God's law.
It says in verse 20,
you know the commandments.
Do not commit adultery.
Do not murder.
Do not steal.
Do not bear false witness.
Honor your father and mother.
And these commands come from
the Ten Commandments,
the famous Ten Commandments,
which is a summary
of the entire Old Testament law.
The first four of the Ten Commandments
deal with how we ought to love God
with our whole heart.
And the second half,
the last six of the Ten Commandments
deal with how we should love
our neighbor as ourselves.
And that's why the command
to love God with our whole selves
and love our neighbor as ourselves
is called the greatest commandment
because it sums up
the entire law of God.
And Jesus here only lists
the second half of the Ten Commandments,
the parts that deal with
our love for neighbor.
And that's not because
loving God is not important.
It's not because that's less important
than loving our neighbors.
In fact, we can't love our neighbors
rightly unless we love God.
But it's because,
as Jesus taught in Luke 10,
our love for God
is concretely expressed
in our love for neighbor.
1 John 4, verses 20-21
put it this way,
If anyone says,
I love God
and hates his brother,
he is a liar.
For he who does not love his brother
whom he has seen
cannot love God
whom he has not seen.
And this commandment
we have from him,
whoever loves God
must also love his brother.
Similarly,
our love for God
whom we cannot see
is evidenced,
it's demonstrated in
our love for the neighbors
whom we do see.
And so here,
Jesus uses the last commandments,
the second half
of the Ten Commandments
as a test.
Interestingly,
the Tenth Commandment
which says,
you shall not covet
is omitted from Jesus' list.
It's possible
that Jesus sees that
as the one command
that the rich ruler
is failing to keep,
but I don't think
that's what's going on
since Jesus doesn't
explicitly say that
in this passage.
I think it's more likely
that he's just listing a few
as representative
of the entire Ten Commandments
which happens frequently
in other parts of Scripture.
They'll list three or four
of the Ten Commandments
and say that
that represents the whole.
And the rich ruler's response
in verse 21
exposes his prideful delusion.
He says,
all these I have kept
from my youth.
Now,
when he says that,
he's not saying,
well,
I was a really bad kid,
but hey,
I cleaned up my act
when I grew up.
That's not what he's saying
because Jews believe
that the people
were only held accountable
for their moral actions
from their youth.
It's around 13 years of age.
And so what he's saying
in essence is,
well,
then I'm blameless
because I've kept it
from my youth.
He's saying,
well,
if that's the standard,
then I don't have anything
to worry about.
I'm all set.
And when Jesus heard this,
it says in verse 22,
he said to him,
one thing you still lack.
Sell all that you have
and distribute to the poor
and you will have treasure
in heaven
and come and follow me.
Jesus contrasts
the one thing
that the rich ruler lacks
with all that he has.
He seemed to have it all.
Political power,
social clout,
religious standing,
and extreme wealth,
which is the focus
of this passage.
But the abundance
of his wealth
was precisely
what caused
his spiritual lack.
As 1 John 3, 17 says,
if anyone has
the world's goods
and sees his brother
in need,
yet closes his heart
against him,
how does God's love
abide in him?
Similarly,
the rich ruler's
lack of generosity
toward the poor
revealed the lack
of love
for his neighbors.
Now,
does that mean
all of us
have to give up
all private ownership,
all of our possessions,
in order to get
into the kingdom of God?
I don't think
that's what this means.
I don't think
this means
that Christians
can't have
or use money at all.
It does not mean
that in order
to get into heaven
we all have to take
a vow of poverty
and beg for a living,
which some Christians
in church history
have done.
And we can see
this clearly
in the following passages,
which we'll look at
next week,
about the story
of Zacchaeus,
who is a rich tax collector
who does get saved.
And Jesus doesn't tell him
to give up all of his possessions
and follow him.
There's a reason
why Jesus makes this
the criterion
for entry into the kingdom
for this particular man,
for this rich ruler.
It says in verse 23,
But when he heard
these things,
he became very sad
for he was
extremely rich.
Jesus knew
that the love
of money
was the one thing
that held
this rich ruler
back from
wholeheartedly
following God.
Jesus' invitation
to follow him
is the standard way
to describe discipleship
in the Gospel of Luke.
A disciple
is someone
who follows Jesus,
who learns from him
by watching him,
imitating him,
and listens to his instruction.
And instead of responding
with joy
at Jesus' invitation
and gladly leaving it all
behind to follow Jesus,
this is an opportunity
of a lifetime.
And yet instead,
he turns away sad
because he loves
his money
more than he loves
Jesus.
He was unwilling
to relinquish
his extreme wealth.
This is a picture
of what Jesus
warned us about
in Luke chapter 16
verse 13.
No servant can serve
two masters,
for 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
God and money.
This rich ruler
was trying to serve
both God and money,
and Jesus makes it clear here
that you have to make
a choice,
either one or the other.
Even though this
rich ruler
was otherwise
a law-abiding Jew,
even though he was
blameless in some
other respects
of the law,
he lacked one thing.
Money was the one thing
he could not renounce.
And this is a choice
that faces all of us.
What is the one thing
that you lack?
What is the one thing
that you're not willing
to give up for God?
Who is the one person
that you love
more than you love God?
Is your academic performance
or your career advancement
the first priority
of your life?
Is ensuring the future
success of your child,
making sure that
she outshines
all of her peers,
is that the overriding
goal that takes
precedence over
your child's
and your family's
and your own
wholehearted pursuit
of God?
Is appeasing
or pleasing
your boyfriend
or girlfriend,
your husband
or wife,
your parents,
your boss,
or your professor
or advisor,
is that more important
to you
than pleasing Christ?
or as what's in view
in this passage,
is earning
and saving money,
more and more money,
so that you have
financial security
and a deposit
to enjoy life
in the future.
Is that
your most pressing concern?
All of these things
must be second
to Jesus.
Jesus must be first.
If you're going to call
Christ your Lord
and King,
we have to subordinate
all of our other
allegiances to Him.
Notice this.
I take comfort
and warning
from this passage often.
Notice that Jesus
does not negotiate
the terms of discipleship
as this rich ruler
turns away in sadness.
He's uncompromising.
He doesn't say,
oh, hey, hey,
just don't go just yet.
Let's talk some terms.
I see that you follow God
in a lot of other ways,
so here,
I'll lower the bar
for you a little bit.
It's okay
if you don't leave
your money behind,
if you still love it.
Just follow me a second.
Jesus does not do that.
He doesn't say,
I'll turn a blind eye
to that one thing
that you still lack.
He says,
one thing you still lack,
sell all that you have.
That's the only way
He can test
His true allegiance.
Sell all that you have
and distribute to the poor
and you will have
treasure in heaven
and come follow me.
You cannot follow me
until you renounce
your love of money.
You cannot be my disciple
as long as money
is more important
to you than me.
If your greatest desire
in life
is for earthly treasure,
then you cannot
by definition
have God
as your greatest treasure
and that's what it means
to be a Christian.
If we live
for the treasures of earth,
we cannot expect
to have treasure in heaven.
And seeing that
the rich ruler
had become sad,
Jesus laments
in verse 24
how difficult
it is for those
who have wealth
to enter the kingdom of God.
It's hard
for wealthy people
to enter
the kingdom of God.
It's highly unfortunate
that we live
in one of the richest parts
of the entire world.
24-7 Wall Street
which publishes
financial news
and opinion pieces online,
they reviewed
median household income
for all the data
from the U.S. Census Bureau
for 381 U.S. metro areas,
the cities
and he concluded
that Boston,
Cambridge, Newton,
this metro area
is one of only
five U.S. metro areas
where most households
earn at least
$85,000 a year.
It's one of the five
richest cities
in the entire country.
What that means
is this,
it's hard
for our neighbors
and our friends
to enter the kingdom
of God
because of their wealth.
Do you really get this?
As Christians,
we should know better
than to dream
of getting rich
and living large.
It is difficult.
That's what you daydream about.
If you daydream about
getting rich
and living large in life,
that is a spiritual emergency.
you're in grave trouble.
It's difficult
for those who have wealth
to enter the kingdom of God.
Why in the world
would you want to be rich?
Don't desire to be rich.
1 Timothy 6 says very clearly,
those who desire to be rich
fall into temptation,
into a snare,
into many senseless
and harmful desires
that plunge people
into ruin
and destruction.
For the love of money
is the root
of all kinds of evils.
It is through this craving
that some
have wandered away
from the faith
and pierced themselves
with many pains.
Thus falling into temptation,
into a stare,
into many senseless
and harmful desires
that plunge people
into ruin
and destruction,
does that sound
enjoyable to you?
There will be people
from our circles,
from our church,
that succumb
to this temptation
in the years to come.
Brothers and sisters,
let's not fall
into the temptation.
Don't desire to be rich.
It breaks my heart
every time I go sit
at a Starbucks somewhere.
I invariably find somebody
scratching lottery tickets.
And sometimes
they're not wealthy.
Sometimes I see poor people
that have asked me
for money
that I've given money to
scratching lottery tickets.
That's where their hope is.
Yet it's dragging them away
from the Lord,
from eternal treasures.
If you work hard
and steward your resources well
and wealth is the incidental result
of that,
great.
In that case,
use your money generously
for the kingdom of God.
Give sacrificially
to the advancement
of the gospel.
Give liberally
to the poor.
Do that.
But don't ever desire
to be rich.
Don't ever love money.
Jesus continues
his explanation
in verse 25.
For 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.
The camel
is the largest animal
native to that part
of the world.
It can be about
seven feet tall,
complete with a giant
hump or two
in its back.
So you can imagine
trying to get that
through an eye of a needle.
And it's supposed
to be a silly image
but also a shocking image
that warns us.
It's impossible
for the camel
to go through
an eye of a needle.
And so is Jesus saying
that rich people
can't be saved?
Well, that can't
possibly be.
So Jesus must be
trying to say something else.
That's kind of how
we tend to rationalize it.
In order to improve
Jesus' teaching
and make it more
palatable to our sensibilities,
some people suggest
that there was
in Jerusalem,
in ancient Jerusalem,
a certain gate,
not the main gate,
but a side gate
that was so low
that in order for a camel
to enter through it,
it had to kneel
and humble itself
and it had to
unburden itself,
take whatever is
on its back off
before it can go
through the gate.
And some people say
that that's what this means.
Well, it doesn't mean
that it's impossible
for rich people
to get into heaven.
What it means is
that you have to
kind of lay it aside
and then enter
the kingdom of heaven.
That's what this
is referring to.
It's a romantic speculation.
The only trouble
with that interpretation
is that there's
no evidence whatsoever
in all of history
for such gate
existing ever
in Jerusalem.
And it seems
to have been invented
in the 11th century
and it was a speculation
based on
an earlier teaching
that was allegorizing
this text.
The point of Jesus'
illustration
is not that,
well,
it's actually
pretty easy to get into
as long as you just
lay aside your wealth
and enter in.
The point of this
teaching is that
it's impossible
for the rich
to enter the kingdom
of God.
A camel cannot go
through the eye
of a needle.
And that's confirmed
by verses 26 to 27.
Those who heard it said,
then who can be saved?
But Jesus said,
what is impossible
with man
is possible
with God.
That's precisely
Jesus' point.
It's impossible
for the rich
to enter the kingdom
of God.
The allure of money
is so strong,
the distractions
that it creates
is so numerous,
the temptations
that it multiplies
is so enticing
that it's impossible
for the rich
to be saved.
As Bible scholar
Daryl Bach
puts it,
wealth can shrink
the door of the kingdom
down to an impassable
people.
The self-focused
security
of the wealthy
is a padlock
against kingdom entry.
In fact,
we can broaden
that further.
It's impossible
for any man
to enter the kingdom
of God
with his own merit
and in his own strength.
But here
is hope.
What is impossible
with man
is possible
with God.
He's saying
God alone
can wean rich people
away from their
love of money.
God alone
can wean us
away
from the various
idols of our hearts.
As Jesus
speaks of salvation
as something
that is humanly
impossible in this way,
Peter seeks
assurance from him.
In verses 28
to 30,
he says to Jesus,
See,
we have left our homes
and followed you.
And he said to them,
Truly I say to you,
there is no one
who has left house
or wife
or brothers
or parents
or children
for the sake
of the kingdom
of God
who will not receive
many times more
in this time
and in the age
to come
eternal life.
As we saw
earlier in Luke chapter 5,
Peter,
James,
John,
Levi,
all left
everything behind
to follow Jesus.
And that's the key.
It's not leaving
everything behind
that saves you.
It's laying it behind
so you can cling
to Jesus
and follow him
that saves you.
And many ancient Jews
were disowned
by their families
for following Christ.
And this happens
today
to many Christians
in parts of the world
where they face
ostracism and persecution
for following Jesus.
So to some believers,
following Christ
may literally mean
having to leave
house or wife
or brothers or parents
or children
for the sake
of the kingdom of God.
But for most of us,
this is not literally true.
But even if this is not
literally true for you,
to be a Christian
is to be a person
who has left house
or wife
or brothers or parents
or children
for the sake
of the kingdom of God.
in the sense
of subordinating
all of these
responsibilities,
commitments,
allegiances
to following Christ
first and foremost.
You might own a house.
You might have a spouse,
a sibling,
parent, or child.
But none of them
must be the controlling
center of your life.
Your priorities
and purposes
must be submitted to
and oriented
around Christ.
And that requires
sacrifice.
But it's worth it.
Because look at the rewards
that Jesus holds out to us
in two parts
in verse 30.
We will receive
many times more
in this time,
that's the first stage
of our reward,
and in the age to come,
eternal life,
that's the second stage
of our reward.
Now these two stages
correspond to the
already but not yet
nature of the kingdom
of God
that we have spoken
about multiple times
throughout the gospel
of Luke.
The kingdom of God
has come in a real way.
It's broken into our world
through the coming
of Jesus.
And it's established
by Him.
However,
it's not fully
consummated yet
that will happen
when Christ returns.
So because we live
in this already
but not yet reality,
we in this time
already experience
many times more
the blessings of God.
But in the age to come
we will experience
eternal life.
And Jesus assures us
of this.
He says,
Truly I say to you,
He's saying,
I assure you,
I guarantee it,
there is no one
who has left house
or wife or brothers
or parents or children
for the sake
of the kingdom
of God
who will not receive
many times more
in this time
and in the age to come
eternal life.
Those who give Jesus
the primacy
that is due to Him
in their lives
become part of
the family of God,
the church.
And as the church
lives out its calling
as the family of God,
as they share their lives
and possessions
with each other,
we may lose our homes
as our exclusive
private property
but we gain
a hundred more homes
in the homes
of our Christian brothers
and sisters.
We may lose
our spouses,
siblings,
parents,
and children
but we gain
hundreds more
in the family of God.
And some of you
have already experienced this.
You have found
in the church
the family
that you have never had
in your birth homes.
That's what Jesus
is talking about.
He said earlier
in Luke 8 verse 21,
My mother and my brothers
are those who hear
the word of God
and do it.
We receive many times
more in this life
and in the age to come
we will also be given
eternal life.
In short,
Jesus is assuring us
whatever you give up
for God,
no matter how much
you sacrifice
for the sake of the kingdom,
what you gain
from the Lord
will be far greater.
And for many of us,
following Christ
and being devoted
exclusively to Him
also will make us
more devoted
people in our homes,
in our families.
because we're putting
God's priorities first
instead of being selfish
in our homes.
Perhaps you're not
a follower of Christ yet.
You're weighing
the costs of discipleship
and you're wrestling
with that one thing
you still lack.
Keep thinking about that.
What is that one thing?
You're considering
whether or not
you're willing
to pay that price
to follow Christ.
Perhaps you've already
counted the cost,
you've decided
to follow Christ,
but you keep
being lured back
by the treasures
of this world
in your backsliding.
The costs
of following Christ
are high,
but they're nothing
compared to the rewards
that Christ
holds out for you.
Last summer,
I saw
that an American,
not American,
sorry,
Amsterdam,
a Dutch art dealer,
and historian
named Jan Six.
He purchased
a painting
at Christie's.
It's a famous
British auction house.
And the painting
was entitled
The Portrait
of a Young Gentleman.
And the artist
behind the painting
was reputedly
one of the disciples
of the great
Dutch master Rembrandt.
And the pre-sale
estimate of this
painting was
$20,000 to $27,000.
Crazy, right?
How a painting
could be that expensive.
But get this,
Jan Six paid
$172,000 for it.
About seven times
the value
of that painting.
So you might say
that he was ripped off.
But the art dealer
was on to something.
The young gentleman
in the portrait
is wearing
a velvet coat
with an ornate
white lace color.
And Jan Six observed
that the way
the lace color
kind of curls
at its edges
as if you can put
your finger under it.
It was a clear
giveaway that this
was no ordinary painting.
That no disciple
of Rembrandt
could have
painted such a thing.
He believed
that it was also
a little bit too early
to have been done
by a follower
of Rembrandt.
And so he
gandered out,
shot out $172,000
to buy it.
And it has paid off
in spades
because the portrait
is now being hailed
by art historians
as the first
previously unknown
painting of Rembrandt
to surface
in nearly half a century.
It was actually
by the Dutch master.
And guess how much
the last Rembrandt painting
was auctioned off
for at Christie's,
the exact same place?
$33 million.
The art dealer
paid a very high price
for that painting,
but what he gained
was far greater.
He was willing
to pay the price
because he knew
what it was
really worth.
Likewise,
only those people
who see God
truly
as the infinite,
priceless treasure
that he is,
they're the only ones
that can forsake
earthly treasures
to follow him.
Truly,
I say to you,
no one
who has left house
or wife
or brothers
or parents
or children
for the sake
of the kingdom
of God
who will not receive
many times more
in this time
and in the age
to come
eternal life.
Some of you
are in the midst
of this
suffering
and sacrifice.
You live daily
in the trenches
of bearing the costs
that you have counted
to follow Christ.
But when it's hard
for you,
remember what you
are gaining.
Remember what you
laid aside
these things
for.
Remember why
you are fighting
for holiness.
Remember why
you are saying
no to the pleasures
of this world.
Remember why
you are saying
yes to disrepute
in this world
because you see
Christ is worth it
because he is
the priceless treasure.
And you will have
him
now
and his family
now
and in the age
to come
for eternity.
you will get
to enjoy him.
But how
does this change
take place
in us?
How does that
reorientation
take place
since it's impossible
for the rich
to give up
their riches?
Taking his
twelve disciples
aside,
Jesus instructs
them in verses
thirty-one to thirty-three,
see we are going
up to Jerusalem
and everything
that is written
about the Son of Man
by the prophets
will be accomplished.
For he will be
delivered over
to the Gentiles
and will be
mocked and shamefully
treated and spit upon.
And after flogging him
they will kill him
and on the third day
he will rise.
The Son of Man
is a term
that Jesus
frequently uses
to refer to himself
indirectly
and it highlights
the fact that
he is not only
the Son of God
but he is
as he's described
in other parts
of the gospel
but he's also
the Son of Man.
He's God
who took on
human flesh,
took on humanity.
So he could
identify with us.
So he could
take on our sins
upon himself
and represent us
to God the Father.
And this is now
the fourth time
Jesus is predicting
his imminent suffering
and it's a reference
to his death
on the cross
and all of these things
will be fulfilled.
He will be delivered
over to the Gentiles
in chapter 23.
He will be mocked
and he will be shamefully
treated.
He will be killed
on the cross
but on the third day
he will rise
again
victoriously
from the dead.
And interestingly
each of the four
predictions
of suffering
that Jesus
makes in the
gospel of Luke
they assign
responsibility
for his death
to different
human parties.
In chapter 9
verse 22
he said
it's the Jewish
elders
and chief priests
and scribes
who are to blame.
And then in chapter 9
verse 44
he says
the hands of men
are to blame.
And then in chapter 17
verse 25
he said
this generation
is to blame.
And here
in chapter 18
verse 32
he says
the Gentiles
the non-Jews
the nations
are to blame.
Now these four
predictions
then implicate
Jews
Gentiles
this generation
and humanity
in general.
People throughout
history
have tried
to single out
Jews
or Gentiles
or Pontius Pilate
or people
of Jesus'
generation
for being
exceedingly wicked
and ignorant
and for killing
Jesus
but that's only
partially true.
They were all
guilty
yes
but we
are all
guilty
because it's
for our sins
that Jesus
had to die
on the cross
and we see
that agency
in what
Jesus says
here.
He says
see we are
going up to
Jerusalem
and everything
that is written
about the
Son of Man
by the prophets
will be
accomplished.
that's a
passive
it's called
a divine
passive
the agent
of that
accomplishment
is God
himself.
He wrote
about it
through the
prophets
hundreds of
years before
and he
is now
bringing it
to fruition
and to
fulfillment
through the
hands of
men.
It's God
who is
doing it.
Remember
what Jesus
said earlier
no one
is good
except God
alone.
We all
lack
something
there's one
thing
we still
lack
maybe more
than who
can be
saved.
That's
the natural
follow-up
question.
And Jesus
answered
it's impossible
with man
but possible
with God
and how
will you
God
make this
possible
and Jesus
says
I will
die
on the
cross
for your
sins
so that
people
who will
never
otherwise
return
to God
can come
and find
forgiveness
and find
eternal
life.
that's
what we
read in
the assurance
of pardon
today
in Psalm
130
if you
O Lord
should mark
iniquities
O Lord
who could
stand
but with
you there
is forgiveness
that you
may be
feared
I wait
for the
Lord
my soul
waits
and in
this
word
I hope
my soul
waits
for the
Lord
more than
watchmen
for the
morning
more than
watchmen
for the
morning
O Israel
hope
in the
Lord
for with
the Lord
there is
steadfast
love
and with
him
is plentiful
redemption
and he
will redeem
Israel
from all
his
iniquities
none of
us can
stand
before God
but God
had promised
that he
would himself
come
to redeem
his people
and that's
what he does
through his
son Jesus
the son of
God comes
as God's
representative
he
he comes
as our
king
and he
who should
reign over
us
who should
subjugate
all of
humanity
to his
authority
instead
goes to
the cross
to die
for our
sins
so that
we might
believe in
him
and willingly
follow him
as this
rich ruler
did not
do
it's so
countercultural
and it
defies the
expectations of
the disciples
in such a
way that
it says
they didn't
understand
any of
this
in verse
34
I mean
not that
they didn't
understand
the words
that were
coming out
of Jesus
mouth
they understood
exactly what
he was
saying
that he
was going
to suffer
and die
but they
didn't
understand
how this
was supposed
to be
the
fulfillment
of the
promises
of God
and the
prophecies
of redemption
and salvation
Jesus had
to do
that
because
it's
impossible
to get
camels
through the
eye of
a needle
becoming
a political
I guess
just a
king that
will overthrow
the Roman
empire
on behalf
of the
Jewish
people
that would
free them
from political
oppression
but they
would not
have delivered
them from
their spiritual
oppression
their slavery
to sin
and death
he would
not
wean
their hearts
off from
the idols
of their
hearts
it's
when we
confess
Jesus
Christ
as our
Lord
and believe
in our
hearts
that he's
the one
who died
and was
raised
for our
salvation
that's
when we
become
one with
Christ
through
faith
so that we
become
partakers
of his
death
and resurrection
and they're
born again
into the
family of
God
and filled
with his
spirit
that's
the only
way
that camels
go through
an eye
of a
needle
and it's
when we
live in
light of that
objective
reality of
what Christ
has done
that we
more and
more subjectively
experience that
freedom
in our
experience
so have you
beheld the
glory of the
Lord Jesus
Christ
do you love
him
more than the
idols of the
earth
you have to
look at the
cross where
Jesus bled
for you
look at the
empty tomb
where Jesus
was raised
from the
dead
victoriously
before you
then let
go of the
idols of
this world
let go of
your love
of money
and take
hold of
Jesus for
salvation
that's the
only way
I want to
conclude by
sharing a
verse from
one of my
favorite hymns
it's called
hast thou
heard him
seen him
known him
a 19th
century hymn
written by
Ora
Roman
it goes
this way
what has
stripped
the beauty
from the
idols of
the earth
not a
sense of
right or
duty
but the
sight of
peerless
worth
teen
swear
where
sunt
we
are
STEVE
we
do
you
I
you