Rev. Patrick Vincent
“If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.” – Jesus (Matt. 16:24)
The stern, unbending demand of Christ is still true today:
Deny Self; Disown, disdain one’s flesh.
Take up your cross; (Luke adds, “daily.”) We cannot escape suffering, but through Christ, we can endure it.
Follow Jesus; to be in the same way with, accompany Him.
“that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ” – Eph. 4: 14-15
Two things here:
Point 1: Children are naïve because they don’t know any better. They can be fooled so easily. Pulling a rabbit from a hat is total wonder to them. That is cute for a child, but for a Christian to be this naïve is disaster. Paul prays that we are not fooled so easily. Now this is not an age thing; all youngsters are not necessarily immature and all oldsters are not necessarily mature. Anyone just warming a pew for 30 years can be every bit a baby Christian as a completely new convert.
Believers of both groups, grow up! Living things grow! If you have a plant that is not growing, what is it? Dead! And that growth is maturity into Our Lord Jesus Christ who is , of course, the head.
Point 2: We are to speak. That is, we are not to be silent. Its so easy to just back off, “be nice,” and not say the thing that needs to be said for fear of offending someone. This is not a problem Jesus had (check Matthew 23 for a royal riot act).
That is where love comes in. When we speak; it is with truth in love. Only words containing both have real impact. Just all truth is mean. Just all love is meaningless. Truth in love is just what the Doctor ordered.
If someone asked you how to get to Heaven, you’d probably say “by grace through faith in Jesus (Eph. 2:8-9),” right? So why did Jesus give the Law to the rich young ruler when he asked the same question (Mark 10:17-22)?
This passage used to scare me. Will I have to sell all my stuff and give it to the poor?
No, no – that’s not the point.
The point is Jesus was exposing where the young ruler put his faith and it was IN HIS ABILITY TO KEEP THE LAW. (The Law THEN was the 10 commandments, NOW is any human effort or religious tradition). He thought rule-keeping was his ticket. His faith was in himself.
I’m not rich, young, or a ruler – but I identify with this guy, don’t you? Self-righteous, works-based faith is a constant struggle. What would Jesus say to me? “Throw away your device and follow Me.” Abraham was asked to give up Isaac (Gen. 22). What would He say to you?
The Law cannot save (Gal. 4:21). It’s not faith-worthy. It’s a ministry of death bringing God’s wrath ( 2 Cor. 3:7 & Rom. 4:15). Likewise today, putting your faith in your works, only brings God’s wrath. The Law is there to reveal our sin and point us to Jesus (Rom. 6:14). Like a mirror: it reflects you (warts & all), but cannot clean you. No one uses the mirror to clean their face. The mirror just shows you how dirty you are (Rom. 3:20). The Law crushes self-reliance, it is not a reason for it.
Mark 10:21 is a tender moment: Jesus looks at the young ruler and loves him. He’s trying to take him from Sinai to Calvary. He does the same for us. He knows us the best and loves us the most. After all, we’re all little Prodigals and Pharisees.
The young ruler boasted in keeping “all” the Law, so Jesus showed how he had missed the FIRST ONE! (Exd. 20:3) He placed his possessions before God. Look, if you rely on human effort, there will always be cracks (Gal. 3:10). Like a chain holding you over a fire; remove just one link and it all falls apart (James 2:10). Anything you make into a Law and then use to condemn others – will be used to condemn you.
“Everything that isn’t gospel is law. If its not rooted in the good news of the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus is damnable, crushing, despair-breeding , Pharisee-producing law. We’ll get either shallow self-righteousness or blazing rebellion or both.” – Elyse M. Fitzpatrick, Give Them Grace
This passage doesn’t scare me anymore. I am not under the Law. It is obsolete (Heb. 8:13). I am under GRACE (Rom. 8:2). Relying on tradition & religious rituals makes Jesus of no effect (Mark 7:13). It blinds us with a veil that only Jesus can remove (2 Cor. 3:14-16). Jesus came to set us free from this nonsense (Gal. 5:1).
Luke’s account says when the young ruler left, Jesus was saddened (18:24). Jesus didn’t force anything. It was his choice. Jesus loves us enough to let us reject Him. However, if we do, it grieves Him.
Please don’t make the same mistake as the rich young ruler. Put your faith totally in Jesus today.
Are we the light of the world or have we become the lite of the world?
(Matt. 5:14-16, John 8:12)
I came across this quote from Matthew Henry and was greatly moved.
“The grace of faith is most holy, as it works by love, purifies the heart, and overcomes the world, by which it is distinguished from a false and dead faith.”
Our faith, which is a gift (Eph. 2:8), is used best when it is running on love (1 Cor. 13). These acts of love operate like a divine filter sifting out the muck & guck saturating our hearts. The by-product of this heart-purification overcomes the world. “The world” is not only our society which gets darker and more violent with each passing day (Gen. 6:11), but also the carnal tendencies ingrained in our sinful nature (Matt. 15:19).
This present darkness will be overcome by our purified hearts acting in love from a holy faith that is an act of grace freely given to us from Jesus.
This wonderful and miraculous feat (choosing acts of love by the grace of faith) is what distinguishes a false & dead faith from a true & living one (James 2:14-26).
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You are rich. You live in America, which means:
You knew all that.
I’m not here to give you a guilt trip over your stuff. Who am I to talk? I’ve watched “Hoarders” and thought… how close am I to that?! I’m also not here to tell you to sell all your stuff and give it to charity (but you gotta admit: that would be pretty epic).
I’m just trying to get you to see your stuff for what it is: stuff.
Even though you have all those things, and even though (by the world’s standards) you are rich, if you don’t have Jesus, you don’t have diddly-squat.
WITHOUT JESUS – you are completely bankrupt. WITHOUT YESHUA you are as broke as a joke.
Jesus said, “apart from Me, you can do nothing” (John 15:5).
The world’s wealth indicators could be lost in an instant: one fire, one flood, or one thief. If your happiness and sense of accomplishment were tied to those objects, then – there it goes.
If you lose all your stuff and even if you lose your health, but you HAVE JESUS, then – you are rich beyond compare:
32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? – Rom. 8:32 (also note Rev. 3:21!)
Real wealth is knowing the LORD and being known by Him (1 Cor. 8:3). Real riches are only found in Him (Matt. 6:19-24).
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Ref:
Got your verse for the new year:
But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you – Matt. 5:44
Just imagine if everyone embraced it.
Yours in Christ
It’s not my job to get you to believe in Jesus.
It’s not my job to “sell” you on Him. It’s not my job to make Him as appealing as possible so maybe, if I’m lucky, (fingers crossed!) you’ll give Him a try.
It is my job to tell you about Him. It’s my job to help you realize what Paul realized when he said, “Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” Phil. 3:8 (New Living Translation)
It’s really up to you.
King Agrippa told Paul that he was “almost persuaded.” (Acts 26:28,29) Almost doesn’t cut it. “Almost” might as well be “Not At All.” Paul gave his witness and then it was up to Agrippa. The ball was in his court. And he dropped it. Big time.
It’s not my job to get to you to believe in Jesus, but I’d be happy to help! Jesus is with me to the end of the age. (Matt. 28:19-20) Is He with you?
May God’s Love be with you always
My wife and I had an interesting conversation yesterday morning about the 11th hour. I believe we will be surprised with who’s in Heaven when we get there.
“Wait, what? Am I in the wrong place…How did YOU get here?!”
Right? I mean, we all think: this person is holy and that person obviously is not or this person is saved and that person obviously is not. But scripture tells us another story.
Let’s look at the cross. There were two thieves on each side of Our Lord that day. Now, you didn’t find yourself at the business end of a crucifixtion for nothing! Suffice it to say, these two were probably what we would consider “not holy” and definitely “not saved.” However, at the last possible moment one of them accepted Jesus into his heart and Jesus saved him! Talk about saved at the last moment! Thank God for that kind of Mercy and Grace, right? I don’t know about you, but I need it everyday!
Quickly let’s also look at Jesus’s teaching about the 11th hour and “Idle-all-day” people (Matt. 20:2-16). Some workers work all day long and some only work for one hour, yet all were are paid the same amount. My favorite part of this parable is that the lord of the vineyard KEPT going out every hour to look for labourers! He looked for people who were idle… all day! Jesus will never stop! Even until the last hour of the day, He will search for you! His love is relentless!
In Ecclesiatetes 7:8, Solomon tells us better is the end of a thing than the beginning. I’ve ran marathons, that statement is very true! Sometimes it’s how you finish that makes the difference. Goal-setting resolutions can never match the unbelievable blessing of God’s divine intervention to have Mercy on us!
So you see, it’s never too late. God is waiting on you, not the other way around!
God Bless!
