Law & Grace - Matthew 19:13-20 "Young ones & the apostles future"
Matthew 19:13-20 · Vern Peterman · Mar 4, 2012
Law & Grace, No. 57
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492635217634

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Good morning. Before we begin today's passage and do that, I want to first kind of revisit the subject of last week's passage for a little bit. And you also even have slides with regards to that that will be included. So here's a follow-up on last Sunday's message and passage. We addressed Matthew chapter 19 verses 1 through 12 on marriage, divorce, and singleness. And what we covered was fine. There are just some additional questions and clarifications I'd like to bring out.

Some have read that passage without an understanding of the history and the culture or of Israel and law or the church and grace and so in some Christians as a result have been quick to come out with judgment and condemnation on people and I think in some cases a wrong evaluation of the scriptures intent. So we want to clarify how we're to apply this passage to us in the body of Christ.

Christ supported, we talked about, there were two courts that you could choose from in Israel in those days. It was the court of Hillel and the court of Shammai. The court of Hillel said you could get a divorce for any reason whatsoever. The court of Shammai said you had to have four requirements, one of the four, that were allowable. I believe from the passage Christ supported the court of Shammai, that is the four allowable causes.

We'll talk about that in a minute. There is a three-page supplement. It's available on the cabinet to the right as you exit this room. And if need be, we'll make some additional copies. You can also download it from last week's message from the website as well.

Rabbi Hillel, who was the grandfather of the Apostle Paul's Rabbi Gamaliel, said that a man could divorce a woman for any reason at all. You don't even have to give a reason. Because they taught that indecency, as it was called in Deuteronomy 24, 1-4, decency meant any reason at all that was justifiable, even if it was just burning the dinner. That was good enough.

Rabbi Shammai, on the other hand, who supported the view that I believe Christ represents, said that divorce was allowed only for unfaithfulness or for abandonment, for lack of material support or denial of affection. And as a matter of fact, if a Jewish woman would come to the synagogue leaders and say, this man is not providing me in any of these things, They would have a series of fines that they would carry out against him. And when the series of fines was completed, then they got the whip. And he started actually beating the man for not providing these for the woman. These conclusions are based on Deuteronomy 24, 1-4 and Exodus 21, 7-11.

The Law of Moses did allow for divorce and Jesus didn't come to change that. And it did not limit remarriage of anyone who was lawfully divorced. And this is an understanding that people frequently don't get when they simply read the Matthew passage alone.

In our previous teaching on marriage, including the marriage seminars that we've been holding, we just a couple Saturdays ago held the fifth one. We had these four kinds of love. It's also a fairly large slide on your handout there. What's interesting is as the Apostle Paul taught these four kinds of love that were to be carried out from the Christian husband to his wife, failure in the last two met the qualifications for a valid divorce. But the Apostle Paul never goes there. He doesn't even talk about it. He talks instead about what ought to be going on in the Christian marriage. The love that the Christian husband is to have for his wife. He doesn't even mention divorce.

And that I think is a very important point. Even under the law, in this passage in Matthew 19, the Lord placed a strong emphasis on preserving the marriage. The emphasis on preserving it, whereas the Pharisees came to him with a question that almost sounded like it was commanded that you get a divorce.

That is why, because preserving the marriage is our Lord's emphasis, and that of the Apostle Paul, we teach on marriage and offer seminars and counseling all under grace and not the law. If someone fails in some aspect here, we have counsel. We have biblical insight, not whips, not the various things from the law. Grace is what we counsel with. In the last part of this passage in Matthew 19, Jesus says that the be fruitful and multiply command out of the book of Genesis twice, chapter 1 and chapter 9, does not mean that everyone ought to be married under law, right? But like the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 7, in other words Jesus and Paul agree, singleness and marriage are both described as gifts from the Lord and they may change over a period of time as well.

We have a seminar for singles. We had actually three of them the end of last summer and into the fall. And we've had actually five seminars on marriage so far this year. Excuse me, four so far this year. We had one actually in California that we did.

So if you're interested in more on the background on that, we do have the supplement available in the cabinet to the right. Be glad to talk with anybody if you have any questions on that. And as always, we do want to make support for the marriage available, not just be, as unfortunately some Christians are, not offering much help, but really ready with the condemnation. And we don't want to go there. Grace. Alright, now, back in today's passage here.

This passage in Matthew 19, 13-30, finishing the rest of the same chapter, In verses 13 through 15, Jesus says to allow the little ones to come to him, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to one such as these. So that was part one. The next part, verses 16 through 22, Jesus speaks to a rich young man, and as we'll find out from Dr. Luke, he's also revealed to be a ruler. They're not told what kind of ruler, but has some position of authority. In verses 23 through 26, he says that it's harder for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. then for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven which of course shocked him as we'll find out and then finally in the last few verses 27-30 he tells of the disciples future kingdom reign with him and the role that they'll have over the tribes of Israel okay let's talk about the little ones here verses 13-15 as Wayne introduced for us here the first half of the Chapter 18, the previous chapter, Jesus talked about the little ones that they were the prime examples of humility and not to be turned away. Half the chapter was on that subject.

Don't turn away the little ones so that the disciples get it. Did they understand that? No. They didn't get it. So as soon as Jesus spent half a chapter telling them, don't turn the little ones away, what did they do? They turn the little ones away, right? Start rebuking people for, don't bother Jesus. And here's what's strange.

It was actually customary for the rabbis to have little children come to them and the parents bring the children and the rabbis would have a blessing. And of course, rabbis have blessings for everything, right? So they bless bicycles and they bless boats and they bless meals and kids. So rabbis would have a blessing for everything, and that was typical.

I think perhaps what the disciples were thinking is, well, Jesus is sitting there, you know, having disagreements with these other rabbis, so he must disagree on this too. But they were mistaken, and they didn't get what he had said that had consumed the first half of chapter 18. So the disciples rebuke those who bring their children to see Jesus. They don't get it. They don't understand. Jesus tells them not to stop the little children from being brought to him.

Why? So he could lay hands on them, not in an aggressive sort of way, you understand, and pray for them. Okay? It was a means of blessing the children. And that was customary for the rabbis to do. And he said, yes, I should bless them. That's a good thing. But also because these children are examples of humility. That's his point underscored in the first half of chapter 18.

In addition to telling them not to stop the children from being brought to him to lay hands on them and to pray for them, Jesus also says that their humility is an example for those entering the kingdom. This is the coming reign of Christ on the earth in which we'll soon see the disciples will have a declared part. So Jesus did see the children that were brought to him. after the disciples got the right idea, and he did bless them all by laying his hands on them and praying for them, as he ought to have done. We might even wish we knew what Jesus prayed for each of them.

Wouldn't that be interesting to know? I don't know what he said, but I sure would like to. So, now the next part here is about what's called the Rich Young Ruler. As a matter of fact, Matthew and Mark and Luke each have an account of this. Luke is the one who adds the piece of information about the ruler. And of course, there's a nice little modern drawing of a rich young ruler who has some kind of fancy car there. Looks like maybe a Mercedes, but I'm not sure. No, no, no, no, I'm sorry. It's a Mustang. It's a Ford. OK. All right.

So here's the Rich Young Ruler. So this rich young man, Dr. Luke tells us is a ruler of some kind, a man of authority, comes to Jesus asking what one thing he may do to obtain eternal life, addressing him as good teacher. Now, this guy is really good at doing. So he figures, I'm good at doing, so what one good thing can I do, since I'm a human doing, right?

What one thing can I do in order to be assured of eternal life? So, Jesus first asked the man, why is it that you called me good? Now, it isn't because Jesus doesn't see himself as good. Jesus says only God is good, and of course, he is truly deity. But there's a reason why he talks about it. Jesus brings it up not so much in objecting. He doesn't say, I'm not good. What he says is, let's talk about good. And that's important. Because this rich young ruler doesn't have an understanding of something. You see, the man wants to know, what can I do? What can I do? that will just put a cinch on all have eternal life.

And the reason Jesus brings up good is this only God is good and only God is good enough to save anyone. You're not going to do anything to save yourself. So this man was a human doing rather than a human being, right? The real reason that Jesus brought up goodness is that only God is good enough to do anything to save anyone. Have you ever heard of someone expressing, you know, I think I'm good enough to get to heaven? Good luck with that, you know. The reality is, not going to happen. But that's what this guy was thinking, you know, I'm really good at doing stuff.

So if I can just do one more thing that will really put a lock hold on getting into heaven, I'd like to know what that is. So the rich man wanted to know if there was just that one act, I've been doing a bunch of stuff, and I'm really good at doing things. Is there one more thing I can do that will really put a lock on boy making sure that I'm going to have eternal life? So Jesus tells him, and I think this is actually even somewhat tongue-in-cheek, if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.

Oh, good. Yeah, fat chance, right? So, now this is going to be interesting. The man asks, which ones? Oh, well. So he asks, which ones are you talking about? Well, here they are in the land of Israel. Jesus is considered a rabbi. Really, he should know. Which ones? Except, except, there is reason for confusion. We'll see in a minute.

So Jesus starts listing off some of the Ten Commandments. And notice, he doesn't start at the top. He talks about the ones that have to do with human relationship. And then he adds, from elsewhere, loving one's neighbor. So Jesus quotes from Exodus 20, 1-17 where the human level commandments are given and adds that Leviticus 19.18 that says love your neighbor. So Jesus lays that out and now you think about it, all 613 laws. So Jesus just kind of gave an initial sample, didn't he? The Jews had 613 laws in the law of Moses.

All kinds of things. Little things about how you're supposed to build your house, and even how you're supposed to go to the bathroom, right? And things you're supposed to eat, things you're supposed to not eat, all that. All sorts of laws. 613 of these laws. Gobs and gobs of laws. Describes and the Pharisees added to those in great number. So it wasn't 613 laws as if that isn't enough. They had to have a whole bunch of additional laws that helped you understand how to carry out the law.

So for example, what's work on the Sabbath? Because you've got to know what's work, right? And so they would have various rules about the things that you could and couldn't do. You could only travel a certain distance, so that was called a Sabbath day's journey.

And that's as far as you could go. But then they also had ways to get around the law. And those were additional laws. So you can imagine this man being confused. Oh, one more thing. The Pharisees, you know, you hear about the group called the Pharisees. Do you know there are seven different groups of Pharisees? Different ones, and they taught different things. So you can imagine the man, you know, which ones? I have no idea where to start. Which ones? The rich young ruler responded that he had kept all those commandments, the ones that Jesus listed. Oh yeah, that's easy. No problem. I've got that. I've had those covered for a long time.

The rich young ruler was truly into doing everything right here on the planet. Because notice, the ones that Jesus gave to him were the ones having to do with human relationship. So, So Jesus said to the rich young ruler, if you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and come and follow me. Oh, good. Oh, no. Why?

The rich young ruler had accomplishments of riches and ruler status all on this planet, and he still felt like he lacked something. So Jesus told him to get rid of all the earthly treasures and accumulations and exchange them for a heavenly treasure and follow him.

At that, this rich young ruler was deeply grieved. He wasn't kind of puzzled. He wasn't walking away scratching his head. He was grieved. Jesus, you could have said something else. Not that. You know, I want you to tell me something easy, something I can do.

But no, the man was deeply grieved, had the rich young ruler followed Jesus, he would have heard, and we'll see it in the next chapter, that Christ would die for him. That God, who is good, would do the one good thing that needed to be done, that the man himself, in fact, could never do, and that is to die for his sins. Ah now, this is where Jesus says something to the disciples and they're shocked, they're stunned. To his disciples, he said, truly I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.

Ha ha, and this boy, this is really amazing. Again I say to you, it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. Now, at that statement, all the graphics artists go nuts. Stuff like this, you know. And like that, right? Here's a whole caravan of camels as far as the eye can see, ready to go through a needle's eye, right? And things like that, right? So the graphics artists just go nuts with this.

But this is based on Deuteronomy 28, 1 through 14. Those are the verses that tell the people of Israel, if you follow the law, I will bless you in earthly ways. You'll be wealthy, you'll be prosperous, you'll have great flocks and great families. So it was believed by the Jews that if you were doing well in the physical realm, then God's blessing you and that's as good as it gets. So then, therefore, a rich person obviously was one who was obeying the law because God was blessing him. So they thought that a person who was rich was the best of the best. They're blessed by God in earthly ways because they must be obeying the law. So that's why in these verses the disciples heard what Jesus said And they were astonished. They thought, oh no!

Who can possibly be saved? If a rich man can barely make his way into the kingdom of heaven, then who can be saved at all? So looking at them, Jesus said to them, with people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible. This is the message also to the rich young ruler. Look, you want to know, you're really good at doing, rich young ruler, you're really good at doing stuff, and so you want to do something, but what you don't understand is only God can do the doing that gets you saved. Only He can do that. You're not good enough to do that.

As a matter of fact, rich young ruler, you're looking at the one person that will get you saved, right? Jesus Himself. So this points to the reason that the word good is what Jesus focused on. Only the goodness of God can save a human being, not one's own goodness, however that might compare to other people. All the riches and the dependence upon them and all the things people do don't do anything to save them. Can't. Now we have a really big surprise.

Peter says something, right? Here's Peter, he says something. So Peter spoke up, saying that they had left everything and followed Christ. You can imagine what's going through his mind. Here's Peter and he's thinking, well, I just heard what Jesus said to the rich young ruler here, you know, do this and do that and then, you know, then you'll have treasure in heaven and So Peter's coming up and saying, hey, you know, we've left everything.

You know, where does that leave us? You know, give us a status report here. What do things look like for us since we've left everything? He wants to get specific here, especially since this rich young ruler just kind of ended up all grieved and everything. He says, hey, we did leave everything. You know, where do we stand? You know, how do we rank here? So there's Peter's question.

What would there be in the coming kingdom for them, the disciples, having left everything to follow Him? So Jesus told them that as He, the Son, reigns in the coming kingdom, the disciples would sit on thrones reigning over the twelve tribes of Israel in the regeneration. Now it's interesting, this term regeneration, this is the only place that shows up. But that, like other similar terms, was a term used for the kingdom. Times of refreshing and period of restoration are a couple of other one-time only terms that Peter used as he was teaching people in Acts chapter 3, 19 and 21.

Then Jesus says what he actually says several times, many who are first will be last in the last first. So he tells the disciples that every expense for his sake would be rewarded many times over in the coming kingdom. He also tells them that those who are first in this present world, in the way things are ordered here, may well be last in the order to come in the future kingdom. First is last and last are first, right?

Here's the thing I think is important for us to focus on. Jewish disciples were to count the cost, pay the price, and carry their cross daily. Is that for you? But we in the church are to consider his cost and his price and his cross. You see the difference there? People will look at this and they'll say, oh, okay, I need to count the cost and all that.

Wait a minute. You're not a Jewish disciple. It's not my cost. It's not my price. It's not carrying the cross daily. It's His cost and His price and His cross. That's what I need to consider and that's what I need to focus on. Not my own. If I'm looking at my cost and my price and carrying my cross daily, am I focusing on the Lord? No. That's on me.

As believers here in the church, we look at what did it cost Him? What did it cost Him? What price did He pay? What did the cross mean? Paul wrote to the believers at Corinth, He didn't say, hey, you guys need to count the cost. You guys need to consider the price. You guys need to pick up your cross daily. What did he tell them? He said, you are not your own. You have been bought with a price. Christ paid the price. He paid the bride price for you.

So for us in the church, it's important, even as we look at this, to say, what's the emphasis for us? It's His cost, it's His price, and it's His cross. So as we look here, and soon we're going to have the Lord's table together, this is what we ought to be considering. This is, as a matter of fact, why we're encouraged to have the Lord's table. Why? To do this in remembrance of Him. What particularly in remembrance of Him, particularly His cost, His price, His cross.

And on that cross, where everybody there looked and they said, here's Jesus. He's all alone up on that cross. He's all there by Himself. But that cross was crowded. Because if you're a believer, You were up there on that cross too. You were crucified with Him. As we put previously, I have been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. His cost, His price, His cross.

Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for the price that you paid. We thank you for the goodness that you have that makes you the very one worthy to do something so that we might be saved. All we did was believe, and that's not a work. It's not something for which we gain merit, but it's confidence and trust in what you have done and accomplished and what you are doing and will do. We thank you for all that we can count upon, Lord, out of your grace and not out of our accomplishments. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.