When Success Doesn't Satisfy, Part 1

Jesus offers hope when success doesn’t satisfy.  Sometimes we learn that when we hit rock bottom. Sometimes we learn it when we achieve what we thought we would never achieve and it’s empty.

Unfortunately, the most dangerous place is when you’re on the journey and you still believe that when this or that comes, then you’ll be happy. Because as long as you believe the lie… Success, in and of itself? Wonderful! Something that can fill your heart? Absolutely not.

Jesus is going to address very directly how to find hope; I mean, real hope, purpose, love, when success doesn’t satisfy.

We pick up the story in Mark chapter 10. If you have your Bibles, open to it if you will. And as you open, let me give you a little bit of the context. This is what’s happening in Jesus’ ministry. Imagine if you will, He’s becoming more and more and more popular. Crowds are swelling. He’s fed four thousand. He’s fed five thousand.  Some people have been raised from the dead. Miracles are happening. Everywhere He goes now there’s crowds.

We’ll see two groups in these crowds. One is people that think He’s, like, a rock star. They want to hear His words. They’re hoping to get a meal; maybe get in on a miracle. They’re following Him and listening.

There’s another group called the religious leaders or Pharisees.  They’re being threatened by their position and the more and more popular He gets the more and more they feel like they have to discredit Him.

If you would scan--you can do this because you can listen to me and read at the same time--through the beginning verses.  Some of the Pharisees come to test Jesus.  The way they test Him is they ask Him what they hope will be a divisive question: Is it right for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?

What they knew was there was one very famous rabbi who had said “yes” to that question and one rabbi, more conservative, who said “no.”  They wanted to get Him to say something that would divide His audience.  What Jesus does is talk about the importance of fidelity. He talks about how women are not to be used and abused.  A woman is not a sex object. He’s going to say, from the very beginning, there was a man and a woman and what God has put together, no one should pull apart.

Jesus even goes on to say that unless there are Biblical grounds, you’ve committed adultery.  He’s saying the marriage covenant is very, very important and it’s absolute.

It was a radical statement because at that time the normal Roman person would often have 20 wives. In the Greek culture, you would have three different women in your life.

You would have a wife to raise your family; you would go to the prostitute, they had all kind of temple prostitutes, male and female, and then you would have a mistress on the side. That was just was just life. Men used women. The Jews would proclaim a different level of commitment but their practice wasn’t a whole lot different.

Jesus is saying some things that are really counter culture.  The crowds are leaving and pretty soon some parents are bringing their little children to him.  They want them to be blessed.  The disciples want to get the kids out.  Kids aren’t important. They are thinking Jesus is only important people. This is the rabbi. He does miracles.

Look in your text where it talks about the children. Notice, Jesus is indignant.  He says to the disciples, stop it. You let those children come.  The children came and He prayed for them and He blessed them.  Then Jesus makes this amazing statement, “Unless you become like a little child, you’ll never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

The kingdom of heaven is synonymous, in this time, for eternal life and for having a relationship with God and having your sins forgiven.  What does He mean by unless you become like a little child?  Little children are dependent.  Little children are trusting. Little children are naïve and gullible.

You know, when their parents say, we’re going to go out for ice cream they don’t think they’re going to take them in the back yard and whip them.  We’re going to go for ice cream. Great! They just jump in the car. We’re going to celebrate your birthday tomorrow. Great!  Kids believe what you tell them.

Also recognize that they’re dependent. Little kids come and ask. When they get hurt, they don’t go, I can handle this myself. They just run, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy. Right?  Unless you become like a little child, the emphasis is humility. Children are humble, dependent and they recognize their need.

I want you to get the context. There’s mushrooming crowds. He’s spoken about the fidelity and importance of marriage and then He talks about humility.

Something happens. He’s ready to walk away and as He walks away a very aristocratic, smart, educated, moral man has been listening.  We pick up the story in verse 17 of Mark chapter 10.

It says, As Jesus started on His way, a man ran up and fell on his knees before him. Good teacher, he said, what must I do to inherit eternal life?

He’s been listening and he says, how do you get in on what you’ve been talking about? Jesus asks “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone.”

Now, very interesting point here. There’s two words in Greek for “good.” One means intrinsically good or all-together good. It’s about the character or nature of someone.  The other good means it’s beautiful, it’s nice, and it’s winsome. This man who walked up to Jesus uses the first word. In essence, what he’s saying to Jesus after watching him, the Scriptures are true only God is good inherently.

Jesus is saying, so do you really believe that I’m the Messiah?  You believe I’m God? You’re coming and is that where you’re coming from?  Now, make sure you’re clear on what you’re calling Me because there is only one who is good.

Jesus gives him a little test. He says, 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.

His response, Teacher! All of these I’ve kept since I was a boy. If you have your Bible and you have a pen, underline this next line. Jesus looked at him and loved him.

Whatever Jesus is going to say and whatever Jesus is going to do, He’s motivated because He deeply loves this man. “One thing you lack, He said, go and sell all that you have and give to the poor.”

Why?  Jesus explains, “And you’ll have treasure in heaven.  Here is the invitation. “Then come, follow me.”

At this, the man’s face fell. He went away sad because he had great wealth. And then Jesus looked around and said to His disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!” The disciples were amazed at His words.  But Jesus said again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God!  It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of the needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”  The disciples were even more amazed and they said to each other, well, then who can be saved? And Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible but not with God; all things are possible with God.”

Peter is listening to this realizing, you know, we have done what you’ve asked. There’s almost this unspoken question, what’s in it for us? The price tag’s pretty high.

Peter said to him, we’ve left everything to follow You. Jesus says, “I tell you the truth, no one who’s left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for Me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age.  (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and fields-and with them, persecutions) and in the age to come, eternal life.”

You might underline this because we want to skip this one, persecutions.

“But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”  Many who have big standings in this life and in this day, like the rich young ruler, will be last.  Many who are last and who don’t have the standing will be first.

Jesus offers hope. I want you to notice that when we look at those three stories, the issue with divorce, the issue with the children, and the issue of idolatry.

The Bible is never negative about people that have money. The Bible never speaks negatively about someone who happens to be rich.

But the Bible is very clear that money and stuff has the propensity to take root in our heart in the place of God.

The story is present in all three synoptic, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Success in the world’s value system happens three ways: sex, power, and money.

When He talked about divorce what it was really addressing is fidelity.  People were divorcing and remarrying because of sex.

When He talked about humility, He was talking about the opposite of power. And when He talked about idolatry, the idol was money.

Sometimes, when this story is told of this rich young ruler, I think he gets a little bit of a bad rap. Jesus offers hope to a man.

He’s wealthy, successful, moral, powerful, sincere, and intelligent. I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t mind that description for me. Would you?  The man was listening to Jesus teach. He watched Him with the children and he was aware something’s missing.

It’s not money. I’ve got money. It’s not religion. I’ve kept it from my youth. But something’s missing.  He had the self awareness and the humility to ask Jesus.

Jesus just got done teaching. He just blessed the children.  He is walking away.

This man in his Armani suit with all these peasants running after Jesus, slides in and falls at his feet.  He humbles himself in front of all these peasants and says, “What do I need to do to inherit eternal life?”

It says he ran. He fell at His feet. You know, we read that over real quickly. This is a guy who’s not embarrassed. This a guy who says, this Jesus has something that I need. Something’s missing and it’s not religion; and it’s not money; and it’s not intelligence; and it’s not power; and it’s not wealth.

But He’s got something I need. He recognizes his success has left him empty. Anybody here feel a little bit that way?

Let’s take a deeper look. Let’s look at the passage a little more carefully and see what was behind this. The successful man’s question reveals his perceived need when he asked the question, what must I do to inherit eternal life?

As I studied this passage, I noticed there’s a couple of assumptions that this young, rich, intelligent, moral man had.

Assumption number one:  he realizes something’s missing. Assumption number two: the means to achieve it was something you do. There’s something, I got to do more. I’ve got to perform. Any of us buy into that? The way you get ahead or the way you get anything from anyone--even God—is you got to do something.

Jesus gave a little test.  He begins to help him understand relationships aren’t about doing. They’re about being and loving that flow out into doing.

Jesus’ answer reveals his need in verses 18-21. First, it’s with a question. “Why do you call Me good? There’s only one who is good.”

You might jot in your notes, Exodus chapter 34. Remember when Moses said, show me Your glory. I want to see who You really are. And God says, no one can see My glory and live.

Moses, I’ll tell you what, there’s a place in this rock, you get in and I’ll pass by you and I’ll let you get a glimpse of My back and then as he did that, He declared who He was.

This is the LORD who is good.  He is slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness. When God uses one word to describe Himself, it is good.

When this man says good teacher Jesus says don’t use that word lightly because in the truest sense of the word there’s only one who is good. And now’s He’s testing. Is that who you believe I am?

Is this a declaration?  You’ve humbled yourself in front of these people. You’re a wealthy, intelligent, rich man who’s self-aware and who doesn’t mind being embarrassed.  You think you have the answer.  Are you really saying I’m the Messiah?

He’s going to get more than he bargains.  He takes him to the law.  When I was a kid, I always thought the Ten Commandments like in the cartoons with two big stone tablets listing five on one side and five on the other. But, actually, there are four on the first one and six on the other. The first set is about your relationship with God that’s vertical.

The first commandment is have no other gods besides me. The issue is idolatry.  The next one is you can’t have any graven images. In other words, you can’t worship anything that reduces God.  You don’t take the name of the Lord in vain.  The first four are all about your relationship with him. The next six are all about the relationships with people.

If you study this carefully, Jesus rattles off all six of the second set of commandments.  Jesus asks him how are you doing when it comes to relating to people?

The guy says, basically, hey if you’re giving out As, I’m an A student on the second tablet.  I’ve done all those.

Then He goes from there because He looks at his heart.  Please don’t miss this. Everything He asked him to do from this point on, He loves this man.  Sell everything that you have. If I’m really good and I’m the Messiah then let’s test this.

Sell everything that you have. Let go of what you’re hanging on to. Give to the poor. He wanted him to experience joy. Have you ever given to the poor?  Have you ever given maybe a single mom who couldn’t pay her rent and you secretly paid for it?  You experience this joy. Or, have you been in a situation you’ve been on a mission trip and you’ve been able to give some money to someone and it just changes the course of their life.

I remember going on one mission trip in the Philippines.  For $70-$80 over there, we could buy enough penicillin to saved six kids’ lives.  It was like, “Whoa!”

When people learn to give, you start living to give. Jesus wanted him to understand, it’s not religion and it’s not about all the things you don’t do.

Then and now so many people think following God is: I don’t do this; I don’t do this; I don’t do that; and I don’t do that.  I got news for you. People that are dead don’t do that either.

A lot of is what you do.  It’s loving and caring.  Jesus wanted him to experience what it’s like to release what holds you in and bring life to other people--the joy that would swell his heart.

We tend to think that life is this little tiny thing called time, and Jesus gave him an assignment that would change all of his eternity.

Jesus said when you sell and when you give you’ll have what?  You’ll have treasure in heaven!

This is real stuff. This is real reward. This is something that would pay out for him forever and ever and ever.

Then Jesus gives this personal, amazing invitation to “Come, follow me.”  You know these twelve guys that hang with me? You want in on the inner circle?  I want you to come.  I want to be close to you.  I want to do life with you.  I want to bless you.

But, there’s this obstacle. You can’t see it.  The fact that you could sense that something is missing; the fact that you responded to My teaching; the fact that you saw how I treated children; the fact that you know better than using women; the fact is, you are getting it. Now, let’s do some spiritual surgery so you can get the life that’s really life. Let Me cut out the idol in your heart. Great act of love.

The rich man’s response revealed the condition. The true condition of his heart and the god that he served. His face fell.  It was like, I want help; show me what I need to do! I don’t want that much help.

My security is my money. My god is my money. Money defines my success. This is a guy that made the list on the front of Forbes. This is a guy that people knew who he was when he walked in the room because of how many zeroes behind his portfolio

He goes wait a second. I want what You have.  See that sex, money, power mantra. He said, I can’t give up what I can see for what I can’t see.

So, his face fell and he went away sad. This man was a test. Jesus was testing him. God has unlimited resources. He could have given his money back to him the next day or the next week or the next year.

What we know for sure is that he would have had joy that his money could never bring. He would have security that his money could never bring. He would have a relationship with God and peace and rest in his soul that his money could never bring.

Isn’t that why he was running over and saying, Jesus. See, his money revealed his heart. Your money reveals your heart.