1. Intor
1.1. What do you say? Hindu
2. Children 13-16
3. Rich ruler 17-31
3.1. note - Note the term "children" in verse 24
3.2. Mark 10:18–19 (ESV) — 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.’ ”
3.2.1. He’s sent away. Why? He looks at the young man and says, “Morality and goodness are not enough. Why do you call me good?” Jesus is not saying he’s not good, if you look carefully. He knows the rich young man is talking to a rabbi. The young ruler doesn’t know who Jesus is. Jesus sees him talking to this rabbi, Jesus, and calling this rabbi a good person. Jesus says, “Do you know what your fundamental problem is? You do not understand the dangers of goodness.” Keller, T. J. (2013). The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive. New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church.
3.2.2. Jesus doesn't deny he's good - he might be.
3.2.3. Some of you have been like that. Some of you have been a goody two-shoes all of your life. You’ve been very moral. You’ve been very decent. Yet you do not know whether you have eternal life. That’s the way it always is. Moral and decent people always sense there’s something missing. So he comes to Jesus and says, “I have an idea, and I don’t know really what’s missing. What else must I do? What have I left out?” Keller, T. J. (2013). The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive. New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church.
3.3. Mark 10:25 (ESV) — 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.”
3.3.1. More money you have the harder it is to get in
3.3.2. Contrary to the understanding of that day
3.3.2.1. In Judaism at the time, your wealth was an indication of God’s favor. If you were prospering financially it meant God must like you because you’re a good and upright person. If you were not prospering financially, if instead you were in the throes of financial distress or you were becoming impoverished, at the time the idea simply was, “Well obviously you’re not living right.” Keller, T. J. (2013). The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive. New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church.
3.3.2.2. ex. In The Sound of Music there’s one of the more maudlin songs, I think, in it. There’s a place when Christopher Plummer and Julie Andrews find one another and they’re about to be married and they realize their lives are going to be so happy. They sing a very strange and maudlin song, but it gets the point across. Do you remember? It says, “Somewhere in my youth or childhood, I must have done something good.” Keller, T. J. (2013). The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive. New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church.
3.3.2.3. ex. advice and rebuke to Job - you lose it all cause you have sinned
3.3.3. note the tie of the ruler to his self exhaltation beause he's rich
3.3.4. great point on money
3.3.4.1. The point: Neither the simplistic idea that if you’re doing well God must like you, nor the idea that if you’re doing well you’re a wicked oppressor … The left and the right have a tendency to oversimplify the issue of wealth. If you’re wealthy it’s because you’re working hard and you’re diligent, right? That’s one way of looking at it. The other way of looking at it is if you’re wealthy it’s because you’ve taken all that wealth away from other people, so if you’re wealthy you’re always an oppressor. Both of those approaches are unbiblical. Why? Because Christianity is always more sophisticated than its alternatives. It’s always more nuanced. It never gives you the pat answers that all alternatives to Christianity give you. Instead, what we’re told is that wealth can come and can go because of matters outside of your control, but the one thing the Bible is constant about is wealth is a more spiritually dangerous position to be in than poverty. It’s more spiritually dangerous Keller, T. J. (2013). The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive. New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church.
3.3.5. we say
3.3.5.1. “If I have that, then I’ll be worthwhile.”
3.3.6. OT - test of idolatry of money - tithe
3.3.7. interesting stat
3.3.7.1. All statistics show that the less money you have, the more you give away. All statistics show that the less money you have, the greater percentage goes to charity. Everybody knows that. You can look it up. All the research shows it. People who make less than $15,000 a year tend to give away four or five percent of their income to charity. People who make over $100,000 a year tend to give away less than one percent. That’s the way it has always been. Keller, T. J. (2013). The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive. New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church.
3.3.8. if you overly save - you care about money. Must have it
3.3.9. If ou overly spend - you use it to define you
3.4. what is money but power? greatness
3.4.1. What do you think money is? The more money you have, the more of the world you control. The more things you possess, the more you have to take care of. Money is something that has to be taken care of. Money brings into your power more things for you to take care of. That is one of the reasons why money actually gives us so much dignity and satisfaction. It gives us dignity and satisfaction because it gives us things to take care of. Keller, T. J. (2013). The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive. New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church.
3.5. issue
3.5.1. Not about money, but abbout attitude
3.5.1.1. What Jesus is saying is the trouble with this man is not his money as such. When he talks to Zacchaeus he tells him to give away half of his money to the poor to pay off his debts. Other times, when he talks to Nicodemus, who was also very wealthy, he doesn’t bring up money at all. So it can’t be it’s the money as such. Rather, it’s the man’s attitude toward his money Keller, T. J. (2013). The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive. New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church.
3.5.1.2. Money itself is not a bad thing, but it has become your trust. It has become the thing that makes you feel like you have a place in the world. It has become your defining factor. It defines you. It’s what makes you who you are. It has become your identity. We have to get rid of it, or you and I can’t do business. Keller, T. J. (2013). The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive. New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church.
3.6. Note the issue - Mark 10:21 (ESV) — 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.”
3.6.1. The issue is not money, but the issue is worth, of value - who are you? Ar eyou defined by money or by me?
3.6.2. “Give away all your money.” He says, “Give away all your money and follow me,” which is his way of trying to say, “I want you to see that if you have me you have everything you need.” Keller, T. J. (2013). The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive. New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church.
3.6.3. ***lso says - give it to the poor. why?
3.6.3.1. Cause you give it to the rich and they can pay you back. Scratch your back
3.6.3.2. Do you see - such is the kingdom of God= where you identity, your worht, your value is definved by nothing but Jesus
4. Jesus and his confession (32-34)
5. 35-45 right and left hand
5.1. theme
5.1.1. note the question of what do you want me to do for you
5.1.1.1. Mark 10:35–36 (ESV) — 35 And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” 36 And he said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?”
5.1.2. note the answer
5.1.2.1. Mark 10:37 (ESV) — 37 And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.”
5.2. vs 41 - indginant
5.2.1. Note here again the word
5.2.2. Always about struggles of pwoer
5.3. Mark 10:44–45 (ESV) — 44 and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. 45 For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
5.3.1. Be a slave
5.3.1.1. What does this mean?
5.3.2. For even the son of man
5.4. ransom
5.4.1. means we're in bondage
5.4.1.1. he Bible says, regardless of what you think or how you feel, you’re in bondage. If you don’t know you’re in bondage, it proves you really are in bondage. I mean, it’s one thing for someone to have tied you up, and there you are struggling. You know you’re in bondage. You know you’re in bonds. It’s another thing for someone to have knocked you out and tied you up. You’re completely overcome. You don’t even know you’re in bonds. The person who doesn’t know they are in bondage is the most complete prisoner of all Keller, T. J. (2013). The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive. New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church.
5.4.2. Paul - you are nto your own, but bought with a price
5.4.3. idea-
5.4.3.1. One person who’s an expert in the history of the time and the Greek language says the word lytron took its origin from the practice of warfare where it was the price paid to bring a prisoner of war out of his captivity and slavery. Here’s how that worked. We did not have POW camps back then. If you attacked another country and you were a soldier and you lost, what were the consequences of that attack? How were you punished? You either died in battle, or else you were put into slavery. You were put into abject bondage and terrible, grinding slavery. It was the punishment. The only way you would ever escape that was if someone from your other country or someone else came and paid a (usually) enormous ransom price to the captors. Jesus says, “That metaphor, that model, is critical for you to understand what I have done for you.”
5.4.3.2. ILL: Mahatmas Gandhi, the great Indian leader, had written in his autobiography about Jesus at one point. Here’s what he said about Jesus. He said, “I could accept Jesus as a martyr, an embodiment of sacrifice, and a divine teacher … His death on the Cross was a great example to the world, but that there was anything like a mysterious and miraculous virtue in it my heart could not accept.” Keller, T. J. (2013). The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive. New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church.
5.4.3.2.1. But it was more t
5.4.3.3. ILL: Carson - passover
5.4.3.4. justice - God can't jsut let it go - payment. Justice
5.4.3.4.1. Otherwise, how do you find good and evil?
5.4.3.4.2. Jistice so important to understanding love
5.4.3.5. NOTE: Not Son appease angry God, But God appeaseing God This was a sacrivice for both father and son. Both hurt, both wonded - the eternal love of God and bond broken here. We only get the view from earth. But don't think that the father is happy at his son's suffering.
5.4.4. substituionary in nature
5.4.4.1. cup = God's wrath and jdugement
5.4.4.1.1. Isaiah 51, it says, “You will drink the cup of God’s fury, and you will stagger.”
5.4.4.1.2. Ezekiel 23, it says, “You will drink the cup of ruin and desolation, and you will tear at your breasts.”
5.4.4.1.3. Jesus - let this cup pass from me
5.4.4.2. he took our cup!
5.4.5. verses
5.4.5.1. 1 Timothy 2:5–6 (ESV) — 5 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.
5.4.5.2. 1 Peter 1:17–22 (ESV) — 17 And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, 18 knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. 20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you 21 who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. 22 Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart,
5.5. End result is what
5.5.1. They too will serve others - FREE HEART because of a redefubed worth
5.5.1.1. Mark 10:39 (ESV) — 39 And they said to him, “We are able.” And Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized,
5.5.2. Worth and value not in what they think
5.5.2.1. Mark 10:40–43 (ESV) — 40 but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.” 41 And when the ten heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John. 42 And Jesus called them to him and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. 43 But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant,
5.5.3. So we serve - so critical - we serve others, we avlue others, we loev others, we don't demote others
5.5.3.1. Mark 10:40–43 (ESV) — 40 but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.” 41 And when the ten heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John. 42 And Jesus called them to him and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. 43 But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant,
5.5.3.2. That is why proof you are saved is your love for others. It's not that you earn it, but that you show you are ransomed
5.5.3.3. *** See - the children - what did they bring? nohting. Not yet. They were indespensible. what is parent? Fruitless thankless labor of love - but that's exactly the disciples - love for others that transforms them
5.5.3.4. JESUS - think commuion - whom did he serve? Jduas, whose feet did he not wash? None!
5.5.4. That's the beauty of the gospel, the beauty of doctrine - being ransomed and substilitionarily atoned for is not just theological lingo - it's the vbaseis for the most fundamenta living
5.5.4.1. In our marriages
5.5.4.2. in our freindships
5.5.4.3. in a world looking for value!!!
6. 46-52 Bartimaus
7. conclusion
7.1. California sin ship -- now exposed
7.1.1. us. cna' thid it. will come out.
7.2. children - they not ony are dependent ... but the odd thing is, they have no value but just come and expect to be loved
7.2.1. ILL: Kids do something bad and want to kill them and you are yelling and frustrated and what do they do? They just put their arms up. they want to be held, to be loved, to be nurtured... and loving parents do that.
7.2.1.1. They on one hand teach them what is right and wronog abut at the end of the day, loving parents knows all there is to know about that kid and just holds them and loves them.
7.2.2. This is so true of Jesus - when we stand at bay, it's hard to recognize how much we need christ. our worth. our value. But listen, the invitation is for you to come and know his love