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The title of this sermon is How Can I Inherit Eternal Life?
 This sermon is provided by Steve Shaw
Sermon Topic: Teaching of Jesus
Sermon Synopsis: Come to Jesus and He will give you eternal life? This message has become the preferred evangelism method of our generation. But is it that simple? And is that the whole message? Can we really live forever if we just give Jesus our hearts?
Sermon Text:     Come to Jesus and He will give you eternal life? Have any of you ever heard that before? Most of you have. This message has become the preferred evangelism method of our generation.

But is it that simple? And is that the whole message? Can we really live forever if we just give Jesus our hearts?

I came to Christ in 2001 after reading a simple Gospel presentation located in the front of a Bible. It read something like this: “You are a sinner. Come to Jesus and He will forgive your sins and give you eternal life.”

I prayed this prayer and God entered my life, but I was lucky. Lucky? You might ask. Why was I lucky? Because I was seeking not eternal life, but rather forgiveness for my wrongs and a restoration of relationship with God.

But what about those who know nothing of sin? What about those who haven’t the foggiest idea what sin, or a sinner is? What about those people who think, I am a pretty good person – I mean I never raped or murdered anyone. I’m not like Hitler. What about those who just come to God seeking eternal life; to live forever?

Jesus addresses this question when confronted by the rich young man in Mark chapter 10. Today we will answer the question asked by the rich young man, what must I do to inherit eternal life?

THE STORY

The story begins in verse 17, as Jesus has just concluded teaching and is set to leave town. The passage reads:

“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?” – Mark 10:17

So here we have the question, what must I do to inherit eternal life? But before we go further into the text, let’s flesh out the story a little more. Who was this rich young man, and why would someone in his position, and of his stature, act so out of character and run after Jesus like a group of hot children on an August day chasing down an ice cream truck?

Let’s not overlook the fact that verse 17 says this rich magistrate also knelt before Jesus when asking this important question. Can you begin to imagine how this rich young man must have humbled himself to do such a thing? Young men aren’t known for humility. Especially rich and important young men. He must have known in his heart of hearts that Jesus Christ was God.

To answer the question, what must we do to inherit eternal life?, we must look at 3 aspects found in the reply of Jesus:

1) No one is good but God, (or everyone is a sinner) Mark 10:17
2) A call for repentance (or turn from your sin and turn to God) Mark 10:19-21
3) Submission to Jesus Christ (or allow Jesus Christ to rule and reign in your life) Mark 10:21b

NO ONE IS GOOD BUT GOD

Is there anyone good other than God? I want you to consider a couple of facts:

1) All the matter in the known universe weighs 100 trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion tons. And this is just the matter we can estimate exists. So here we have a picture of God holding up 100 trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion tons of matter with a thought, and we can’t hold 100 pounds off the ground for more than a few seconds.

2) There are 25 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 atoms in the graphite in a pencil. And all the known atoms add up to 10 to the 68th power – that’s 10 with 68 zeros after it. Can we even begin to picture how many atoms this? If you began counting when you were born, and could count 60 numbers in every second, and never slept, and kept counting until your died at the age of 70, it would take you about 4.5×10 to the power of 59 lifetimes to count all the atoms in existence. That is 4.5 with 59 zeroes after it. You would have to live forever to deal with that accounting job.

Do you see the difference in scale between an infinite and perfect God, and miniscule, imperfect man? Can you begin to fathom just how perfect God is compared to us?

Can you begin to understand just how the judgment and understanding of God is infinitely more knowing than ours?

In verse 18 Scripture says:

“And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.” – Mark 10:18

Is God exaggerating here? Most of us can’t get through an hour without committing a sin.

a) A study at the University of South Carolina found that the average person lies 200 times a day, or about once every 8 minutes. These lies include lying to ourselves, deception, and little white lies.

God has never lied. Never. In stating to the rich young ruler that “no one is good except for God alone,” Jesus is trying to make the man see that compared to a holy and perfect God, everyone is a sinner. Jesus was trying to get the rich young ruler to feel remorse from the weight of his sin.

Romans 3:23 reminds us: “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”

A CALL FOR REPENTANCE

In verses 19 through 21 in this chapter, Jesus reminds the rich young man of God’s holy and perfect standard. We read beginning in verse 19:

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.” – Mark 10:19-21

These verses show a second attempt by Jesus to unveil the rich young man’s sin. But notice something in verse 20: before Jesus completes reciting the 10 commandments he is interrupted by the young man. Can you imagine the boldness of this man? The confidence he had in himself?

The rich young man honestly thought he had perfectly kept all of God’s commandments. Now, I imagine this man had worked very hard to keep God’s law. I also imagine, and this is speculation, that the rich young ruler probably kept God’s commandments far better than any of us. It is also highly possible that the rich young ruler was unparalled in his community with regards to keeping clean. Most likely the rich young ruler was on a fast track to become a rabbi himself.

But Jesus knew better. The man’s sins were obvious. The first sin of the rich young ruler was pride. A pride so great that the man thought himself on par with God. Who here among us could stand and say, I have perfectly kept God’s standard?

Pride is one of the worst sins any of us can have, and pride is a sin that we all have. When we are consumed with pride we don’t know it. Our life is business as usual. It’s not like lying or stealing in that we don’t wake up saying, man, I made a huge mistake today.

We demand evidence that we are prideful, and when it is presented it is hard for us to see because our pride is our lens to the world. Pride is hard to unveil, and Jesus knew this. So instead of focusing on the rich young man’s pride, Jesus unveiled the one thing the man loved more than God: money. Verse 21 reads:

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 Jesus saying here? Jesus is telling the rich young man: If you want eternal life you can have it, but you must give up the one thing you worship more than God and that is money. Jesus was trying to expose the sins of greed, idolatry and covetousness.

Jesus was saying, oh how I love your hunger for God’s commands but can’t you see that you are a sinner? Can’t you see that no one can compare to God? Repent; turn from your sins with remorse. Drop your pride, humble yourself and sever yourself from the things that are causing you to sin, and turn to God.

Verse 21 states, “And Jesus, looking at him, loved him.” Jesus loved that the man hungered to keep the 10 commandments. He loved the man! Yet, this was not the way to inherit eternal life.

The way to inherit eternal life is to put down our foolish thoughts that we can ever know good and evil; right and wrong apart from a holy God. The way to eternal life is to stop putting our faith in ourselves, and to put faith in the only good and right and perfect and holy thing in all of existence: God.

But the rich young man refused to turn from his sins. He refused to repent. He loved his sin more than he loved God. He loved his money and possessions more even than acquiring eternal life.

Can we even begin to imagine how crazy this man was? How insane he was to give up eternal life, and instead choose to live out his life in riches, and give up all living for all eternity with God? Eternity is forever, and ever, and ever.

I can imagine how crazy this man was. We all can. It is the story of humanity, whether we choose to admit it or ignore it. We all have things we worship more than God.

Many teachers turn the story of the rich young ruler into a story against the perils of greed. This story is much more than that. It is a warning against loving, trusting and obsessing about the things of this world more than we love and trust the One who created them.

In the case of the rich young man, he refused to repent from his foolishness and serve the Lord because he loved his wealth and the comfort that came from it.

What prevents us from inheriting eternal life? What do we worship more than God?

For some it is:

a) Family. Many have a fear of what their loved ones would say if they found out they had a Jesus freak in the family. Can you imagine how foolish it is to give up eternal life simply because someone might say you love God?

b) Finances. A refusal to change their lifestyle and begin practicing financial modesty. 17 cable channels instead of 700. Dialup internet instead of broadband. A smaller house or car. Can you imagine how foolish it is to give up eternal life just so that you get the Food Network, or Discovery Science?

c) Addictions. An unwillingness to admit you need help with alcohol, or a food addiction, or a sex addiction, or an attention addiction. Can you imagine how foolish it is to stay hidden behind the walls of an addiction when the Creator of the Heavens wants to give you eternal life?

It is foolishness to run from eternal life, yet most of us do. We are scared. We fear that God isn’t big enough to handle everything. We fear God might not know as much about our situation as we do.

God knows what ails you; all the secret and hidden things. He wants you to come to Him with these things, not run away from Him.

SUBMISSION TO JESUS CHRIST

Getting back to the story, we have Jesus desperately trying to get the rich young ruler to see that he is a sinner, and the reality that no one is good except for God. Jesus then reveals the second qualification for eternal life. This is found in verse 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.” – Mark 10:21

The one thing the young man lacked was a repentant heart – a heart that knew it was sinning against a perfect God. If this man did repent – and Jesus encourages him to do so by turning from his sin – if this man did repent, the rich young ruler was to come, follow me.

The first step in inheriting eternal life is repentance. The second step is to follow Jesus Christ.

Come, follow me. Jesus gives us such a simple command; such a beautiful command; such a seemingly harmless command. Come, follow me. But the rich young ruler loved his money more than anything. Verse 22 reads:

“Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.” – Mark 10:22

So here we have the rich young ruler. He ran to Jesus and dropped to his knees, seemingly in humility, and begged to learn how he could inherit eternal life. And here, at the end of the story, Jesus turned him away because he would not repent and become a disciple of Jesus Christ. The man was depressed. Scripture stresses the point that the man was full of sorrow.

CONCLUSION

How can we be assured that we inherit eternal life? How can we be assured that our story doesn’t end like this; that our story is one that resonates in Heaven with God for all eternity?

For those who don’t know God, or have never tasted of his greatness, there are 5 things to consider:

1) Knowledge is not enough. Knowing that God is powerful, or knowing that God demands a repentant heart, or knowing that God requires you to follow Jesus Christ to inherit eternal life is not the same as repenting and following Jesus Christ. Knowledge is not submission. Submission is submission.

2) There is a difference between true repentance and false repentance. You can’t pretend you are sorry for your sin just to get the reward of eternal life. It doesn’t work that way. If you just can’t come to believe in your heart of hearts that you are incapable of making it through a day with lying, slandering or loving the things of this world more than you love God’s advice, you are just like the rich young ruler and Jesus will turn you away.

3) Religion is not submission. Knowing Bible trivia, or how to pray, or going to church, or practicing religious rituals is not repentance and submission to Christ. They will come into your life when Christ is Lord, but in and of themselves they will not give you eternal life.

4) A hunger to do the right thing can’t save you. You can work and work and strive and strain your entire life, but you will never live a perfect life in which you never sinned. Only perfect adherence to God’s law earns eternal life. No one is good except for God.

5) And lastly, as we have found out in this story, a passion to have eternal life does not grant you eternal life. Only repentance and submission to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior will give you eternal life.

But what about those of us who are believer’s in Christ? How can we know that we haven’t been fooled? That we haven’t been secretly turned away like the rich young ruler? How do we know that when we die, we have assurance of eternal life?

1) Ask God to reveal what is more important to you than eternal life, and then passionate pursue God’s help in fighting this sin.

2) Seek God’s counsel and Lordship in every area of your life. Allow God to rule and reign in your life. Ask God to guide you in your finances, marriage, work, and relationships. God sees all. Allow Him to rule over everything in your life.

3) Walk in humility. Always understand that what you know and understand of sin and life and God is amazingly limited compared to the knowledge and perfection of an infinite God. Walk, willing to learn, and be prepared! God will continue to smash to bits what you think you know and replace it with a deeper level of truth and understanding.

4) Come to God with sin. Don’t run from Him. When you make a mistake – especially big ones – don’t run from God. Do you think God can’t see you? Remember the story of Adam and Eve when they sinned in the Garden of Eden? Then ran and hid from God. Don’t be that foolish. God is currently holding together the atoms in your body with His will. God wants you to reconcile with Him, not run away. Your only punishment will be a deeper degree of humility.

5) Holy living! Holy living! Holy living! Hunger and thirst to please God. Beg Him to change you, so that your life becomes more pleasing to Him each day.

The story of the rich young ruler concludes as Jesus discusses the events of the day with His disciples.

Verse 24 reads:

“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!” – Mark 10:24

How difficult it is to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. God himself said that. God said that it is very difficult to enter Heaven; to gain eternal life.

Seems pretty hopeless, doesn’t it? It is not without hope.

Verses 26 and 27 state:

“And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.” – Mark 10:26-27

This story is not without hope. There is strong evidence that the rich young ruler in this story is also the author of this Gospel, Mark. The Gospel of Mark appears that it was written by the rich young ruler.

If it is so, Mark went home and weighed his choices. He then sold all he had and followed Jesus Christ.

May you find your hope in knowing that submission to Jesus Christ is not a burden, but a gift. How glorious it is to have an all-powerful Father in Heaven telling you, it’s not what happens in this life that matters, for I have something better in store just for you my sons and daughters.
Scripture reference: Mark 10
Sermon length: 30 minutes or less (16843 characters
Intended audience: General Congregation Style: Serious


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How Can I Inherit Eternal Life?