Focus: Simple Living
Function: To help people understand what it means to be us.
Form: GOK
Intro:
Jesus said, Foxes have holes, Birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head. Luke 8:37.
I heard a Televangelist once preaching on this passage and he said, it isn't at all what you think. Jesus was rich. He had a front man who went before him into every town, arranged suites of rooms at the finest hotels so that Jesus and his followers could live in Luxury. He said, After all, Jesus was the King of the Universe. He didn't own a home because he could rent the finest apartments and suites wherever he went.
That is not at all what Jesus meant.
Today we are looking at simple living and our text is from Luke 18:18-30, the story of the rich young ruler.
There are two ways to interpret this passage, and both are valid.
We see the mistake of the young man right from the beginning when he takes salvation upon himself and asks Jesus how he can earn eternal life.
And, we see the shock on the faces of the apostles when they hear Jesus say it is harder for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to inherit eternal life.
The disciples are amazed, and Jesus' reply is thus: “With God, all things are possible.”
It is certainly a good lesson on what grace really is. How only God can save a soul. How there is nothing that a rich man can do to purchase his own salvation. It teaches that before God, the rich and the poor alike are in the same boat.
And for many, that is the only meaning of this passage.
It is true for many of us in our Western Culture.
Because, if the rich man really did need to prove to God that he loved God more than his riches, and giving them away was the only way to prove it, then that places a lot of us in the same boat.
How does the Bible describe a rich man? Married men, raise your left hand. The gold ring is proof in James.
It sure is comforting if that is all it means.
Then you get to 1 Corinthians 13, where Paul says” “If I give everything that I have to the poor and do not have love, it profits me nothing.”
I like the way The Message places that: “Without love, I am bankrupt.”
And all of that is so true. Psalms states that there is nothing the rich can give to ransom their soul.
And here is this man, he wants to be able to get to heaven, and at the same time, he wants to keep up his lavish lifestyle.
It is important to note that in Israel at this time, there was no such thing as a middle class.
The rich were extremely rich and the poor were desperately poor. That was true across most of the Roman world. Rome itself had 2/3rds of its population living as slaves.
The poor were mistreated everywhere.
Jesus is asking this man to join the ranks of the poor and see what life is really like for the majority of people.
So, does the story end there?
Did Jesus make an impossible scenario for this rich man because He has class prejudice against the rich?
Lazarus was rich, but he only gave away half of his wealth to the poor. Jesus said “Salvation has come to this house today.”
Jesus loves the rich. But they are not special, they are not entitled, they are not better people because they are rich. Riches does not automatically indicate that this person is blessed by God.
Because that would contradict what Jesus said when He said: “Blessed are the poor.”
There are two key phrases in this passage: “then you will have treasure in heaven” and “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of th needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.”
Now, many of you have probably heard that perhaps Jesus was talking about a certain gate in the Jerusalem wall. The gate was called the “needle gate.” It was tiny, and only small camels can go through it, and that is with difficulty.
The sermons I have heard that justify riches without concern, or responsibility toward the poor, they all reduce this phrase to something less than what Jesus intended. They do that by saying, Jesus didn't mean something impossible, he just meant something difficult.
But that is not the way it reads. And those who make that possibility are guilty of misleading people about what Jesus actually meant.
But why mention that at all? If it were possible for the camel to go through, albeit a small camel, then is Jesus saying the moderately wealthy -smaller camels- can make it but the very wealthy -larger camels- cannot make it?
This reference, A camel through the eye of a needle means exactly what it means at first glance.
You all have a piece of cloth, and some yarn to make your initials with. We forgot to give you the needle. Everybody take one of these. You see, it is impossible to thread the yarn through the nail.
You can't thread the needle when the needle is a nail. It is an impossible situation.
That is why Jesus explains it to say, ONLY with God is it possible.
Anybody who says the story means that it might be possible doesn't understand Jesus teaching about us, in relationship to wealth.
It is impossible to be saved if money is more important that serving God.
God, is a jealous God. Men and women cannot serve two masters. People cannot serve both God and money.
Folks, there is no getting around this. Jesus either meant it, or he didn't.
Now, I mentioned there were two significant phrases, the first is “the eye of the needle....”
The second is: “then you will have treasure in heaven.”
This is the key for the young man seeking salvation.
We know we cannot earn it by good works. We know we cannot buy it with money.
We looked at how Jesus described Citizenship in His Kingdom as a pearl of great price.
The last Sunday of this month, we will be looking again at the Kingdom of God compared to the Kingdoms of men and our first allegiance must be to God's Kingdom.
In this passage, God is saying, put me first, before your wealth.
And throughout the scriptures, He points out how we do that.
John the Baptist preached fiery messages that inspired the people.
In droves they came before God, convicted by the Holy Spirit and were ready to do anything.
“What must we do,” they asked? “What does repentance look like,” they questioned?
And what did John say? “Be content with your wages. If you have two coats, give one to someone who has none.”
In 2nd Corinthians, Paul says: “you people are doing pretty well financially right now, so why don't you give some money to the people in Jerusalem who are doing badly?” He goes on to say: “In God's economy, your abundance is given to cover their lack.”
How we use our money, how we live with it indeed describes whether or not we have treasure in heaven, or treasure here on earth.
That is why we teach simple living.
I have a dear friend, Dave Shoeff. They had 5 kids. Every time they saved enough money to buy a new set of bunk beds, they discovered someone else who didn't have enough money to feed their family.
They looked at the need for a new bed compared to the need of others to eat and took seriously Jesus' command to love our neighbor as ourselves.
They knew for themselves, if it was a choice between new beds and food, they would indeed buy food. So, they kept giving the bed money away.
Now they needed the beds. And God provided. But they first practiced simple living, for the welfare and benefit of others instead of themselves.
How we spend our money, how simply we live, does indeed demonstrate the reality of our faith.
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