You Are the Rich Young Ruler

To me, one of the most intriguing stories in the entire Bible is where a man of God confronts another man of God about sin. And God actually told this man of God to confront the other man of God about his sins. And the way God inspired him to do it is a story that most of us have read quite a few times. But I want to cover it in just seven verses. If you will, turn with me to 2 Samuel 12. We will start. 2 Samuel 12.1. I read from the New King James. Then the Lord sent Nathan to David. And he came to him and said to him, There were two men in one city, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had exceedingly many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing except for one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and nourished, and it grew up together with him and with his children. It ate of his own food and drank from his own cup and lay in the bosom, and it was like a daughter to him. And a traveler came to the rich man who refused to take from his own flock and from his own herd to prepare one for the wayfaring man who had come to him. But he took the poor man's lamb, prepared it for the man who had come to him. This is Nathan's story to King David. You must realize King David was not only king, he was a judge. Then David's anger was greatly aroused against the man, as he said to Nathan, as the Lord lives, this man who has done this shall surely die.

You must remember David was a man of passion.

And he shall restore fourfold for the lamb because he did this thing and because he had no pity. Then Nathan said to David, you are the man. And we know the story of how David had taken another man's wife and had that man killed.

It touches each and every one of us when you read that. Because of the way it's laid out to David and then how Nathan says, you are that man. Well, today, brethren, I give you a story, a true story. And that is where the title comes from today. Because it is a story of the rich young ruler that happens to take place in the Gospels three times in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. And I bring it up because as we read about David's story, this is a story for us. Because whether you want to admit it or not, brethren, you are the rich young ruler. You are the rich young ruler. Because this is a story of us, about us, and for us. Perhaps you might say, wait a minute, I'm not rich. Really? Where I will go tomorrow? In Haiti, if they were to be in your shoes, they would be rich. Do you realize that if you sleep in a house, you have running water, you eat three meals a day? You have indoor bathroom, you have a closet for clothes, and three pairs of shoes. You are in the top 5% in the entire world.

You are part of the richest 5% in the entire world. Say you're not rich? A year or so ago, they all on the news almost every week, they had a story about the 1% here in America. The richest 1% in America of how they could not relate to anyone and how everything was made for them. You realize that the top 1% in America makes $421,926 a year. I consider that rich. I don't think we have anybody making $400,000 and $21,000. I doubt you'd raise your hands because you would become a bank probably in here. Yes?

Okay, so we're not part of the 1% and Neil is not. I'm not. But do you realize, and let this sink in, that if you make $32,400 a year, you are in the top 1% in the entire world. If you make $32,400, you are part of the richest 1% in the entire world. Do you want to argue that you're not rich? How about young? Well, you'd say, well, it's so rich, it's the young, it's a rule. You can't mean I'd be rich. You say, well, I turned 60 next month. I don't consider myself young, but compared to God, I'm pretty young.

I'm a babe. If you get up and walk around and you've been to some homes that take care of people, and they can barely get out of bed, or they're bedridden, I spent a few days with my father-in-law, who's 95. I'm young. I can get up and do things that he can't do, and many in here. We can drive, we can walk, we can talk, we have our faculties. We're young.

Ruler. It's interesting that when Christ spoke at this time that a big part of the world at that time, and for many years after, especially during the Roman rule, many were slaves. A big part of his audience were slaves. Now, you're not a slave, but this word, ruler, can actually mean leader, teacher, guides, are one that oversees. Most of us have a house that we oversee.

Do we not? Slave oversees someone else's stuff. We don't. Rich young ruler. Guess the question is, do we really need to relate to this incredible story? Well, we don't have a house. We don't have a house. We don't have a house. We don't have a house. We really need to relate to this incredible story that we're going to. I think we do, because as I was putting this together, I realized it was written for me. And I needed to, as David was confronted, you are that man.

Could I be the man that Jesus asked? That poignant question that we'll get to today. I'd like you to turn with me, if you will, to the book of Matthew. I'll be reading from the New King James Version. So here we have three different narratives of the same event that took place. Matthew tells one story, Mark tells another, and then Luke went back behind them all and, did what? Went and interviewed people and put this historical account together. We're going to look at those three accounts, and I'd like you to notice, because it did help me a great deal, I'd like you to notice not what they all have in common, but what is different about each one.

Because it helps to tell the entire story. It helps us to get a real picture, a real understanding of, frankly, one of the most important stories in the Bible to a true follower of God. Let's go there. Matthew 19. And as what I was taught many times in my pastoral care classes and theological classes, one of the most important things to understanding the Bible is what? Context, context, context. Not taking one verse out and just making a whole doctrine out of it.

Not taking just one part and then separating it and making your whole church after this one verse. But you study the context. What came before? What comes after? I think it's very important for us in this very first story here that we see that. Because in Matthew 19 and verse 13, what happens just before this?

It said, Then little children were brought to him, that he might put his hands on them and pray, but the disciples rebuked him. But Jesus said, Let the little children come to me and do not forbid them, for of such is the kingdom of heaven. And he laid hands upon the children. And then our story in verse 16.

Let's read it and then let's go back and look at it. Now behold, one came and said to him, Good Teacher, what good things shall I do that I may have eternal life? So he said to him, Why do you call me good? No one is good but one.

That is God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments. And he said to him, Which ones? Jesus said, You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness. Honor your father and mother, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself. The young man said to him, All these things I have kept from my youth, What do I still lack?

What do I still lack?

Jesus said to him, If you want to be perfect, go sell what you have and give it to the poor. And you will have treasure in heaven, and come and follow me. But when the young man heard that scene, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. He was very rich. He was rich. He was young, and he was a ruler. Now let's go back. We have the story, and Mark is there. It's a first-hand account. It's like you being somewhere, and somebody starts telling you about something, and you go, Wait a minute, I was there. That's not how it was. This is how it was. So, Matthew is actually telling about what? The children? And that Christ is blessing the children, and his disciples, Oh, you're too busy for that? And he goes, No, no, no, no. Let them come to me, because of such is the kingdom of God, those who want to enter to the kingdom of God. And so, that had to be quite a scene, as his disciples had to walk back and sit down, and they were just corrected, and all these children. And then, what's the next word? Now, behold! Another translation said, Wow! Look at this. Why? Because it was a leader who came forward to Christ. Remember how the Pharisees and Sadducees, they, you know, they were always trying to put him on the spot. But here, behold, this leader was coming forward. And so, it either had to be a Pharisee or a Sadducee, right? Because those were the rulers at the time. And we know it wasn't a Sadducee, because the Sadducees did not believe in an afterlife. Only the Pharisees, right? Stephen knows this. So, it had to be a Pharisee. And a Pharisee was coming forward, and behold, it was like, man, somebody actually not putting him on the spot, but they're, they actually care. They actually want to ask him this. Wouldn't this be nice, because there hadn't been anyone else of the Pharisees. And then he comes up and says, good teacher.

Good teacher. Now, that's something to say. And then Christ tells him, there's nothing good but the Father. Wait a minute, this is Christ! He's perfect, but He's in the flesh. And you compare Jesus Christ in the flesh to God in His glory? Not even close. Christ is telling us this. And then He said, if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments. And then He says what? Which ones? Which ones? He's a Pharisee! He knew which ones! Which ones? He's a Pharisee! He knew which ones!

Which ones did not Christ mention?

How about the tenth one? Right? Coverning? Obviously He's got some stuff. He couldn't give up His stuff, right? He's rich, and He says, all you want? I mean, if somebody said to you, Michael, you want to be in the kingdom of God? Go sell your car today. If Christ told you that, what would you do? You'd write you a sign up right now for sale! I would! If I could just have that, I'd be like, what else? He didn't do that. So you go back to the first, and the greatest commandment is what?

Have no other gods before Me. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul, your might, your being. Have no other gods before Me! And He said, just sell everything! You can't. I can't. How about something else?

You see? This is a story about us, for us, and it causes us to ask those questions. And it also shows a little bit into the mindset, because Christ gave those commandments, and He said, oh, all of it I've kept for my youth! I'm good like the teacher, because that's what they thought. I'm good! And He already got their lesson that, no, nobody's good. What do I still lack? I would love, I don't know about you, I would love to be able to ask that question of God. I would love to get the answer. I would love to get the answer, if it could be just that simple. Is it that simple? We talk to God every day. When's the last time you ask, what do I still lack? It's quite, quite a story.

And He said He left and went away, for He had great possessions. And you would say, okay, poor guy's just lost. Was he? What Christ said afterwards? Left that door wide open. And brethren, that door's wide open for us. Let's read, verse 23. Then Jesus said to His disciples, assuredly I say unto you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. And again, I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. When His disciples heard, they were exceedingly amazed and said, who then can be saved? Because they looked at this guy and said, He is religious. He's, wow, He's got holiness written all over Him. And He's rich too. And you're saying that He can't. But Jesus looked at them. It isn't like something He muttered. He looked at His disciples and He looked at them and said to them with men, this is impossible. But with God, all things are possible. Why are you here? Why will you be in the kingdom of God? Because all things are possible. The disciples had written this guy off. God didn't. Christ didn't write Him off. They may have a problem, but nothing's impossible when God's involved. This is a TV commercial. Plays in the United States here. Had various people, actors, and so forth. And they, this hits you, often. And it's the same. What's in your wallet? Haven't you heard that? What's in your wallet? I think it's a Capital One card. And this card is just, you know, you have this card. You're gonna get, you know, your life is transformed. And if you have any other card, it's like, ew, you just need that one card. Well, I'm sorry, but this is not that card. I don't have a Capital One card. But that commercial, you can't help but remember it, right? Because they say that.

I want to drive that point home today because of what this says in verse 20. What do you still lack? What do you still lack? I hope you will ask yourself that question this week. I had to ask myself that question and take it to him. Because we can get so routine in our lives that we forget just how high God wants us to be. Here he said, perfect.

I asked this woman right here, she lives me, but this is far from perfect.

But are we going there? Are we working our way to perfection? Scripture saying, become you perfect.

You are the rich, young ruler. Turn with me to the second account and mark 10, please. Mark 10. Now, we went and looked at Matthew, so remember as we go through this account and mark, let's look at the differences and see what we can really learn. Mark 10 verse 17. As we go up earlier, what does it show in verse 13? Here's the story. It's about the young children and laying hands upon them and such is of the kingdom of God. So we know this is the same story. But look what happens in verse 17. Now, as he was going out on the road, we didn't hear that, did we? He was going out on the road. Where was he? He was in Perea. He was in Perea. If you've got a map in the back of your Bible, you can look and see where Perea was on basically on the other side of the Jordan. And you can see from the story below that he goes from there to works his way to Bethany. But he's out on the road now. And that's what Matthew didn't tell us. Now, as he was going on the road, means he was leaving, one came running and knelt before him. Okay, here we've already seen that it was a Pharisee because they were rulers and they believed in eternal life and an after-death experience. So here you have this rich young ruler slash Pharisee came running, running with their big old fancy robe and everything real nice. Rulers didn't, religious leaders didn't run. They walked very proudly. Everybody else ran. Servants run. And what did he do? He not only ran, he knelt down on his knees. That's what it meant. And came before Christ. Pharisees, if they were anywhere around, going, what's wrong with his nut? Has he lost his mind? Because you didn't do that. What do you think the disciples saw? Now, we go back to the Matthew story when he said, behold! Now, he didn't sell about him kneeling, but we know it's a story. It's an added perspective that Mark gives. So he's going to be, oh wow! This guy, he came running and he's kneeling. This is something they had never seen. And guess what? I don't think they'll ever see it again. Their minds. And he asked him, good teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? So Jesus said, why do you call me good? No one is good but one. That is God. You know the commandments. Do not commit adultery. Do not murder. Do not seal. Do not bear false witness. Do not defraud. There's something else in there. Honor your mother and father. And he answered and said to him, teacher all these I have observed from my youth. I've been good all my life. I'm probably a good example to everybody. And Christ is saying, really?

Then Jesus, looking at him. This is not in any of the other accounts. Looking at him, what does it say? Loved him. Loved him. Now we know Christ loved everybody, but this is a term of endearment. This was, there's something here that actually Mark is believed to be Peter's account, that saw. And he said he loved him. The word agape. Was there a previous relationship here? Let's go work on this.

When you go up to 20, he said, all these I have kept. And Jesus said, keep the commandments. Well, here it's very poignant as we talked earlier. He was missing the tenth, and Christ didn't mention the tenth. And he missed the first because this money was all about his life, isn't it? Did he have idols?

He said he was one of God's teachers, but yet he really wasn't. Take the Lord's name in vain.

Did he enter the Sabbath, as the Pharisees did, and have the best seats sitting up front, like my wife does? See, she moved in the back today. She knew I was going to mention this. No, but the Pharisees did that. And so here he came in as Mr. Righteous. Ever done that? Let's not answer that one right now. Came in as... Yes. Ah.

What was being said was important, but what was in his money patch was more important. Christ is what? Proving this. Would you really want Christ to bring that out about you and bring out your major flaw? And then tell anyone about it? No! Much less, three different times? We all have the opportunity to see this.

Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, One thing, one thing! Man, I wish that's all I liked. But I've looked at myself and I like more than one thing. Now, maybe you don't, but I do. I like more than one thing. But how great it would be if Christ had said, You like that one thing!

You drive a white car, you need to drive a red one. No, this was big.

Go your way. Sell whatever you have and give it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. The Greek word for treasure is the thors, which means a storehouse, a place of great riches.

You will have treasure in heaven and come. Here's a different one. Take up the cross and follow me. Now, you may hear, Oh, it's my cross to bear. And you hear that in Christianity all the time. Oh, I've had some problems, or I have a child that's not acting right, or my husband's giving me a problem, my wife's giving me a problem. It's just a cross I have to bear, and people just throw it around. That's not what this is saying. And to Christ's audience at the time, they knew what stars cross stake meant, because they had all seen the condemned person put half of that stake that they were going to be hung on, carrying it to their death, to the place of crucifixion. So he's saying, sell everything you got and be now willing to die with me. They knew what he said.

But he was sad at this word, and he went away grieved, for he had great possessions. As one translation said, he was very rich. So he wasn't like, oh, I'm comfortable. No, he was very rich.

Let's go to the third account. Third account in Luke. If you will, go with me to Luke 18. Still New King James. As we know, this is historical account.

Here we see the same little children in verse 15. And you'll notice here in Luke 17 and 18, where this takes place is Luke is given a chronological order as he gives this account. You see many, many, many parables that Christ used to teach, and you see the Pharisees are gathered around. And he gives a lot of the, and I reckon even puts the name as a Pharisee, because he actually gave one the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. He could have said the sachet, but he went with the Pharisees because they were the richer of the two groups. But he said here in verse 18, 18-18, now a certain ruler asked him, so here the other two just said one person. This, Luke actually puts in that he was a ruler, but before that we didn't know that. So he was rich. Both accounts say he was young, but now we know he's a ruler.

And he didn't say A for any reason. Now, A certain ruler, specific ruler. Did you get that? A certain ruler, not just a ruler, but a certain ruler. Kind of pinpointing maybe who this guy is. Now, a certain ruler asked him, saying, good teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? So Jesus said to him, why do you call me good? No one is good, but one. That is God. You know the commandments. Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not bear false witness, honor your mother and father. And he said, all these I have kept for my youth, which we heard before. So when Jesus heard these things, he said to him, you still lack one thing. Sell all you have and distribute it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven and come and follow me. But when he heard this, he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich. God would ask him, God in the flesh, ask him to exchange the treasure on earth for treasure in heaven. To take the treasure from this world, get rid of it, and he would give him treasure in the kingdom of God. For what? Forever. And he could not do it.

Very rich. Very rich. Now, I bring you the case today that I believe by studying these three accounts, we find out who this rich young ruler was.

And it's my belief. I can't base my salvation on it. After looking at this story, there was only one man this could fit, and he was the Pharisee Nicodemus. Nicodemus, who a year from about this time shows up to claim Jesus Christ's body and became one of the followers of Christ, actually gave so much of his money at that time for the burial, ten times the normal amount of the sage and all the spices that they use for a normal man. What will keep you out of the kingdom of God, brother? Matthew said, 633, Christ said, seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. What will keep us out of the kingdom? Can we change? Can Christ point that out to us? What do you think? Will we listen? I think this individual listened.

It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. There's been many stories about that, and there was actually a place in, I forget which place it was, in the desert out there where there were rocks, and there was kind of a watering hole behind it, and the only way a camel could go through that narrow passage was to the camel would have to get on its knees and work its way through these rocks into this place to drink. Not as impossible as it is taking a needle and seeing a camel go through that needle. But with God, all things are possible. Man's not supposed to walk on water, much less too when Peter jumped out there. Right? Various stories. It's impossible to raise people from the dead. It wasn't for Christ. So are we close to finding out that one thing that we might need? How close are we? It starts by asking the question, doesn't it? Because this individual, if it's Nicodemus, said, What do I still lack?

Think about today's world, the rich. What do they do with their money? Think about it. They buy stuff for themselves. I need a boat. I need another car. I need a sports car. I need a bigger house. I need what? I need tickets to go see the dolphins. Well, maybe not. Bad as they are. The rich. What do they do with their money? Well, we see, don't we? The young. What do they do with their time? Right? When I was younger, I, you know, God was something that I knew was real, but He wasn't going to take up a lot of my time. I had important stuff to do. Maybe you didn't. I did. When you're young, you're, man, I feel good. You can even go without sleep for a few nights, and you get one night's sleep. You're just, ah, yeah! And you've got sports to play. You've got things to go see. You've got concerts to see. You've got women to go see. You've got all this stuff when you're young. And it's just like you don't have enough time for it all. And think about our rulers today. What do they do with their prestige, their power? Is there that much to help the poor? That's what was Christ saying. He didn't say, oh, give me all the money! He didn't say that at all, did he? Why? Because God doesn't need your money. Christ didn't need his money. He knew his father owned everything, and he owned everything. But he wanted to help people, and it came to the point about others. Christ wanted his leaders, his future leaders, to think about others. We need to prepare for the kingdom now. For in his kingdom, according to this book, we will all be rich. It says you will inherit all things. Young, we're all going to live forever. Eternal life is what he's promised. How young do you be? How long how long how young do you really want to be when you inherit eternal life? Does it matter? You're going to live forever and then rule? We will rule with Christ. It says for a thousand years, and then the rest of the kingdom. These are three accounts to help us prepare for forever. They help us to see.

See who we really are and see what God sees, and are we willing to change? Are we willing to pray to him this week? God, what do I still lack? And when he tells you and reveals, because just like he revealed it to this rich young ruler, he will reveal it to you through his spirit. You are the rich young ruler. What do you? What do I still lack?