Base text: Mark 10:17-24
The peace of the Lord be with you and your household. We give thanks to the Lord for one more time that He permits us in His presence, exposed before His Word so that we can walk according to His will.
The Rich Young Man’s Encounter with Jesus
In tonight’s teaching we will study the text from the Gospel of Mark, chapter 10, verses 17 to 24, where we find the account of the occasion when the rich young man approaches Jesus to ask Him about what he must do to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
The passage says: “As He was setting out on a journey, a man ran up to Him and knelt before Him, and asked Him, ‘Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.’ And he said to Him, ‘Teacher, I have kept all these things from my youth up.’ Looking at him, Jesus felt a love for him and said to him, ‘One thing you lack: go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me, taking up your cross.’ But at these words he was saddened, and he went away grieving, for he was one who owned much property. And Jesus, looking around, said to His disciples, ‘How hard it will be for those who are wealthy to enter the Kingdom of God!’”
A Valid and Current Question
The central question is: What shall I do to inherit eternal life? This question is similar to: What must I do to enter the Kingdom of Heaven?
It’s important to note that Jesus did not correct him at any point. He didn’t tell him: “You don’t have to do absolutely anything, entering the Kingdom is free by the grace of God.” This means the question is valid, but many times we haven’t handled it adequately.
I know we all say: “There’s nothing to do, because it’s not by works lest anyone should boast, it’s by grace, through faith.” It’s true that it’s a free gift, but reviewing the Holy Scriptures we realize that we haven’t fully understood what salvation is.
Man Cannot Buy Salvation
Indeed, man cannot do anything to buy salvation. Let us keep in mind what the apostle Paul established: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
So we cannot do absolutely anything to compensate for and earn God’s acceptance. But—and here’s the part we haven’t understood—man must demonstrate how worthy he is of the grace he has received from God. In that sense, yes there is something to do: these are works of dignity so that we can be deserving of the grace that God has given us.
The apostle Paul writes that “faith is not of all.” God gives faith by measure, but it’s not for everyone. “It does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.”
Although He came to seek and save what was lost, and gave His life for all without exception, not everyone is deserving of salvation. While man cannot do anything of his own to compensate for salvation, God expects us to show ourselves worthy of the salvation He is giving us.
Two Fundamental Questions from Genesis 3
To understand the rich young man’s question, we need to go to the book of Genesis chapter 3, where the account of disobedience and expulsion is presented. There are two questions we must answer first.
First Question: Why Were We Expelled?
In Adam and Eve we were all represented. It wasn’t just Adam who disobeyed; in them all of us disobeyed. We cannot point to Adam as the guilty one and Eve as the guilty one, because in them we were all represented.
The automatic answer is: “Because they sinned.” But let me tell you: sin is a consequence, it’s not the primary effect. Sin is the consequence of something deeper.
When the Lord asks “Adam, where are you?”, the man and woman were hiding. They said: “I heard Your voice, I was afraid, I hid myself because I was naked.” They hid because they had disobeyed God.
The reason we were expelled from the Garden of Eden is because we disobeyed God. Sin was the consequence of disobedience.
As long as we don’t understand that it was disobedience that caused the expulsion from the Garden of Eden, we won’t be able to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. How can we enter again into the place from which we were expelled if we’ve never understood why we were expelled?
How many people have approached Christ but not with the right motivation? “Save me from this situation,” but when God asks: “Are you willing to do My will?”, they respond: “No, what I want is for You to save me from this situation.” Many approach with an incorrect motivation. They want to be delivered, but not to do His will. They simply want the benefit, they’re not seeking to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
It’s disobedience that has caused, causes, and continues to cause all the chaos, disorder, and crisis. Many illnesses, scarcity, and difficult situations are the result of disobedience to God’s Word.
Second Question: Why Didn’t We Die That Day?
God told Adam: “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”
The question is: Why didn’t Adam and Eve die that day?
There are two answers:
First answer: Because of God’s mercy. The prophet Jeremiah says: “His mercies are new every morning. Because of the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed.”
There grace was born. Grace is the result of God’s mercy. Adam and Eve were the first who could experience God’s grace.
Second answer: In Genesis 3:17 it says: “Then to Adam He said, ‘Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, “You shall not eat from it”; cursed is the ground because of you.’”
The Lord diverted the punishment to the earth. Why? Because God was hoping that one day someone would rise up who would believe Him and recover what Adam had lost.
Do you understand now why Genesis 12 begins: “Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father’s house, to the land which I will show you”? God was waiting for there to be someone who would believe Him, who would recover what man had lost.
Why didn’t we die that day? Because of God’s grace and mercy, to give us the opportunity to one day recover what we had lost in the Garden of Eden.
The Answer: What Must I Do to Enter the Kingdom?
Now we’re ready to answer the question: What must I do to enter the Kingdom of God?
First Answer: The Kingdom of God Is Where Jesus Is
Let’s go to Luke 17:20-22:
“Now having been questioned by the Pharisees as to when the Kingdom of God was coming, He answered them and said, ‘The Kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed; nor will they say, “Look, here it is!” or, “There it is!” For behold, the Kingdom of God is in your midst.’ And He said to the disciples, ‘The days will come when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it.’”
The Kingdom of God is where Jesus is. If Jesus isn’t there, there’s no Kingdom of God. If Jesus is in your life, you are within the Kingdom of God. If Jesus isn’t in your life, you’re not in the Kingdom of God, even if you’re part of a congregation, because the Kingdom of God is not an institution. The Kingdom of God is the manifestation of God’s grace and mercy.
This is important to understand. Why? Because many times we’ve pursued God’s work, but we’ve forgotten the Creator of that work. We’ve pursued God’s blessing, but we haven’t wanted to attend to the One who gives that blessing. We’ve pursued healing, prosperity, all those benefits, but we’ve forgotten the Creator of all those benefits.
It’s not the manifestations we should pursue, but rather to be sure that we are where Jesus is and that Jesus is dwelling in our lives.
We have to move according to the understanding of God’s Word, because as James says: “Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.”
In John 14:6, Jesus says: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” We’ve read it, we know it, but we haven’t understood it.
Do you understand why Genesis 3 is important when the Lord asks: “Where are you?” Man had hidden himself, had moved away from the place where the Lord was.
Do you understand why it’s important to bring to light all things that are hidden? Because all things that are hidden separate us from God, withdraw us and remove us from the Kingdom of God.
This is the door of entry into the Kingdom of God. I cannot hide, I cannot distance myself, I cannot withdraw because I’m withdrawing from the Kingdom of Heaven.
That day, when the rich young man came to Jesus, Jesus reproached him from the beginning: “Why do you call Me good if you’re not willing to obey Me, if you’re not willing to heed Me, if you’re not willing to follow My instructions?”
In Luke 6:46 we clearly read: “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?”
I have to move to where Jesus is. If where I am Jesus isn’t there, I’m not within the Kingdom of Heaven.
What good does it do me to confess that I’m hidden? What good does it do me to know I’m naked if I’m far from Jesus? It does me absolutely no good.
What must I do? Number one: Move. Come out of your hiding place, come out of your cave, come out of the place where you’re hidden. Come out and rid yourself of shame, come out and rid yourself of everything that caused you to be hidden.
If you know there’s something that distances you from God, you have to let it go. Why will you persist in it? Keep in mind God’s grace and mercy, but also know that grace and mercy have a limit.
Grace and mercy don’t mean tolerance. Grace and mercy don’t mean permitting sin. One day grace and mercy will have a limit, and woe to us if we exceed that limit.
Second Answer: Strip Yourself of Your Nature
Let’s go to Matthew 16:24:
“Then Jesus said to His disciples, ‘If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.’”
How many instructions did you find here? Many would say three: deny himself, take up his cross and follow Me. But there are four instructions. There’s one more that we don’t want to see.
What’s the first? “If anyone wishes to come after Me.”
You won’t be forced. Do you want to follow after Jesus or not?
Almost always we’ve emphasized: “deny himself, take up his cross and follow Me,” but we’ve forgotten the first: Do you want to come after Jesus?
We have to strip ourselves of our nature. What is my nature? My nature is to distance myself from God.
Many people cannot deny themselves because they haven’t finally decided if they want to follow after Jesus. Many are there because they’re being forced to be there. Many are there because they were forced to be there, but of themselves they don’t want to be there.
That’s why the first instruction is: “If anyone wishes to come after Me.” It has to be a free, voluntary, and inalienable decision. We have to decide.
To deny myself means to strip myself of my human nature.
Adam was expelled and never said: “Lord, I disobeyed You.” Later, when Cain rose up against Abel, God spoke to him before he committed that horrendous crime. God told him: “If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it.” But Cain preferred to be expelled, preferred to leave God’s presence rather than say: “Yes, I disobeyed You.”
Many crises and chaos we’re living today are not necessarily the result of satanic intervention. They’re the result of obstinacy, of remaining proud, of remaining stiff-necked, of not admitting we were wrong.
It has to take 5, 10, 15 and sometimes many more years of chaos to finally realize that I was rebellious, I was proud, I was stubborn. Why didn’t I do it when in due time, in God’s grace and mercy, He was giving me the opportunity?
Because we prefer to maintain our sinful nature rather than renounce it.
“If anyone wishes to come after Me…” And the question is: Do you want to? Do I want to go after Jesus or not?
Many times the answer is no. I really don’t want to. What I’m seeking is the benefit, what I’m seeking are the promises, but I really don’t want to.
It’s necessary to renounce our nature. In John 12:24 we find: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”
As long as we maintain ourselves in this resistance, in this obstinacy, in this stubbornness, we won’t advance.
Haven’t you read that of the people of Israel it was said they were a stiff-necked people? Do you know what the neck means? The neck, that they wouldn’t lower it for anything. To lower the neck means to humble oneself, to lower the neck means to acknowledge: “Lord, I admit it, I’m the guilty one.”
What happened with David? When he took the census and that day 70,000 men died, David said: “It was not they who sinned, it was I who sinned. Stop, stop the slaughter.” That’s lowering the neck, that’s humbling oneself, that’s acknowledging.
“Lord, I want to walk in Your will, but to be able to walk in Your way, I have to renounce my nature. My nature is stubborn, obstinate, proud, rebellious. My nature is to rise up against You. I, Lord, cast it all aside.”
The apostle Paul, when he writes to the church at Philippi, says: “What things were gain to me…” He was the best Pharisee of his time, the most notable of all, the heir of Gamaliel, the scholar.
But he admits: “What things were gain to me, these I have counted as loss.” What does loss mean? It means dishonor, demerit. Today everyone points at me; before everyone praised me. All of that I counted as loss. Why? Because I cast aside my nature, that proud nature.
And even so, the apostle writes: “Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me—to keep me from exalting myself!” Even he acknowledged there was a tendency toward vanity.
“Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me. And He has said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you.’” And he acknowledges in humility: “When I am weak, then I am strong.”
Second answer: Cast aside your nature, cast aside your personality, cast aside your character, cast aside everything you are, that tendency, that natural characteristic, because the Kingdom of God cannot be inherited by the flesh.
Jesus taught: “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.”
Do you know why? Because for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle—a portal shaped like a needle—the camel had to bend down, kneel, lower its neck and almost crawling pass through there. He’s speaking of humility, of subjecting oneself, of submitting, of surrendering completely.
We still haven’t decided if I want to go after Jesus. I’m seeing how things turn out. I have to decide, I have to define myself: Do I truly want to go after Jesus or not?
Third Answer: Disconnect Yourself from the World
Let’s return to Mark 10:21:
“Looking at him, Jesus felt a love for him…” That’s why I took this passage, because it’s the only one that says Jesus loved him. “And loved him and said to him, ‘One thing you lack: go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me, taking up your cross.’”
Third answer: I have to disconnect myself from the world.
What good does it do me to have denied and surrendered my Adamic nature if as soon as I go out I reconnect with the source that contaminates me?
This is what has happened to many who when they reconciled with the Lord, as soon as they return to their same friendships, to their same environments, to their same customs, they connect with the source of contamination and after 1, 2, 3 months they’re sometimes even in worse condition than before.
To enter the Kingdom of Heaven, I have to disconnect myself from the world. I cannot live in the Kingdom of Heaven connected to the world.
Jesus said it: “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other.”
We want to live and have the benefits of the Kingdom of Heaven, but always fed by things that are part of the world. We cannot.
What happens is that we have ambiguous men and women manifesting double decision, double heart, double intention, moving according to circumstances, according to benefits.
We cannot live within the Kingdom of Heaven and at the same time be connected with the world. Why? Because the contamination that comes will produce such an apostasy that men and women would be fabricating a new gospel, an accommodating gospel, only of benefits, but not of responsibilities.
In Deuteronomy 8:17-18 it says:
“Otherwise, you may say in your heart, ‘My power and the strength of my hand made me this wealth.’ But you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who is giving you power to make wealth, that He may confirm His covenant which He swore to your fathers.”
The rich young man forgot that he was rich and wealthy because God had given him the capacity to acquire those riches, and he forgot about God.
Many of us pursue the benefits, but we’ve forgotten the One who gives the benefits we’re pursuing.
The life of faith in Christ Jesus doesn’t depend on enjoying blessings, prosperity, riches, benefits, while forgetting the One who gives all these things. That’s not the life of faith. That would be a commercial life, but not a spiritual life.
The rich young man’s question is a current question: What must I do to obtain eternal life, to enter the Kingdom of God?
Many of us have said without understanding: “There’s nothing to do.” When in reality God is expecting us to do something, but these are acts of dignity that demonstrate how worthy we can be of what God is giving us.
If we know how to value salvation as the greatest gift God has given us, we wouldn’t have a problem surrendering our sinful nature, we wouldn’t have any problem disconnecting from the world. But because we haven’t learned to value God’s salvation, we’re still seeking connections and positions within the world.
Three Concrete Actions
1. Move to Where Jesus Is
I have to move. Where is Jesus? I have to be where Jesus is, because where Jesus is, there is the Kingdom of God.
If I can talk about so many topics, but I can’t talk about Jesus, something is failing. If I can talk about many theological topics, but I can’t talk about Jesus, something is happening.
Why do people today have problems giving testimony about Jesus?
Why can’t we talk about Jesus? Because we don’t know Him. The only thing we have of Him are references. We’ve heard a lot, but they’ve become references.
We’ve heard that Jesus heals, but we’re not willing to receive healing from Jesus. We’ve heard that Jesus liberates, but we’re not willing to submit to liberation. We’ve heard that Jesus fed multitudes, but we’re not willing to share our fish and our loaves.
We’ve heard so much, but they’ve become references, stories, not experiences in our lives. Because when we’ve been in scarcity, in need, instead of turning to Jesus, we turn to a broken cistern that doesn’t hold water.
The Kingdom of God is where Jesus is. I have to move to where Jesus is.
The man born blind in John 9 had no problem, although he was blind and although he didn’t have a guide, going with mud on his eyes to the pool of Siloam, washing himself and returning. He had no problem.
But many of us do have problems, even having eyes to see, even having the Holy Scriptures: “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path,” which we quote from memory, but even so, having it, we have problems going and walking.
“Tell me something simpler, tell me something that’s not so complicated, tell me something that doesn’t require so much effort,” because we’re not where Jesus is.
This question is still resonating today: What must I do to enter the Kingdom of Heaven? And many of us have answered: “There’s nothing to do.”
Move. If Jesus isn’t with you, move. Leave where you are, move so you can be where Jesus is, so you can enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
2. Strip Yourself of Your Nature
I have to strip myself of this nature. Why? Because by nature I had a father named Adam, who preferred to hide. I had a father named Adam and a mother named Eve, who preferred to blame the next one, but never admit that all this began through disobedience.
It’s the tendency I carry in me, it’s the nature I carry in me and, therefore, before any situation I’m going to act as they acted, because I was present when they were before God.
I have to strip myself of this nature and I have to decide once and for all: Do I want to go after Jesus?
Do I truly want to go after Jesus, or is this turning out to be an imposition for me? Or is this turning out to be an obligation, but really what I’d like is to be somewhere else?
Do I truly want to go after Jesus? This is the question I have to answer.
3. Disconnect Yourself from the World
I have to disconnect myself from the world. I cannot live within the Kingdom of God connected to the world. Why? Because what I’m going to be fabricating is apostasy, and I’m going to be contaminating my existence and the existence of everyone around me.
“Go and sell all you possess and give to the poor.”
Why did Jesus tell him that? Because riches had absorbed him. “All these things I have kept from my youth,” but he knew something was lacking. He knew he wasn’t in the right place.
A Call to Action
Today I cannot blame a second or third person. Today it’s me and God, nothing more. The problem is me, the problem isn’t God. The problem is me, that I’m connected to the world.
It’s that the world still attracts me. It’s that contamination still enters through my eyes, through my ears. I have to disconnect myself from the world so that then: “Well done, good and faithful servant. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things.”
This is not for meditating. “I’m going to reflect on what you told me.” No, this is not for meditating. This is for taking action, and the action is not tomorrow. The action is today.
Conclusion
The rich young man’s question continues to resonate in our days: What must I do to inherit eternal life? The answer involves acts of dignity that demonstrate how worthy we are of the grace God has given us.
Three concrete actions:
- Move to where Jesus is — The Kingdom of God is where Jesus is. You cannot be in the Kingdom if you’re hidden, distant from Him.
- Strip yourself of your Adamic nature — Decide once and for all if you want to go after Jesus. Renounce your stubbornness, pride, and rebellion.
- Disconnect yourself from the world — You cannot live in the Kingdom of God while you remain connected to the source of contamination.
If we value salvation as the greatest gift God has given us, we won’t have a problem surrendering our sinful nature nor disconnecting from the world.
The action is for today.
The peace of the Lord be with you.
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