Matthew 19:1-6
Two Shall Become One
Intro
Vs. 1 Again notice the phrase, “When Jesus had finished these sayings, He departed.” Jesus finished speaking on greatness with the outward sign of inward character seen in our ability to forgive. He is now heading to His death and subsequent resurrection. It is interesting to note this as it fits both subjects. The ultimate example of our Lord’s forgiveness is seen at the cross marriage. Based upon His work of forgiving us, our marriage will either be death or a resurrection.
Vs. 2 Here again we see the compassion Jesus had on the multitudes. Mark tells us that He taught them as well. It amazes me how we will turn only the desperate things to the Lord. May I say that Jesus is interested not in just physical healing but in spiritual and emotional healing as well?
I look at the position of this verse as it precedes that of His heart towards marriage; you see Him healing the bodies of those who trusted in Him. How about marriages? Do you trust Jesus to heal your marriage? Perhaps you need His touch right now in your marriage, thinking that what has to be healed is your spouse. Be careful. Now start out with your debt of $20 million first before you try to collect on the $20 they owe you. I believe that a lot of marriages need Jesus’ touch, but one or both of the people are not willing to forgive.
Vs. 3a Now notice the religious community; they come to test or trap him in a debate that will cause Jesus to take a side. Do you notice the difference between Jesus in the relationship with God versus religion? All that religion is interested in is a debate. Winning the argument is what is important to religion.
Man, when I think about how many times I’ve had the argument but lost because of it. I lost because I cared more about winning the debate than I cared about the person I was trying to talk to. Let this be a warning to us when we deal with people, especially our spouses.
A little girl and a little boy were playing together when the little girl asked the boy if they wanted to play house. The boy said, “Sure, what do I have to do?” “Share what you feel and communicate your thoughts,” she replied. The little guy scratched his head and said, “I have no idea what that means.” “Perfect!” smirked the girl. “You can be the husband!” Man, does that not sound true?
Vs. 3b Now that question was one of the hottest of the day, probably a hot one for us as well. Did you know that 64% of marriages today end in divorce? That’s almost 2/3 of all marriages ending in divorce. The U.S. has nearly 14 million divorced people over another 6 million who are married but not living together.
Now the debate in that day centered around Deut. 24:1, which reads, “When a man takes a wife and marries her, and it happens that she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some uncleanness in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house.” The part that they debated was finding “no favor because of uncleanness.” Just what was meant by uncleanness? There were two schools of thought given forth by two famous rabbis:
A.) Hillel, who had died some 20 years prior to Jesus’ teaching on this. Hillel was a liberal; his teaching on this was the most popular among the people. He taught that the word unclean meant incompatibility of temperament. Now you need to realize that a wife had no rights; she could not divorce her husband, so a man could, under this interpretation, divorce his wife if she burned the toast or if he saw someone he liked better.
B.) Shammai was the conservative; his view was a lot less popular. He said that there was only one ground for divorce that was sexual immorality.
Now Jesus had already said His view as far as what side he leaned towards back in the 5th chapter verse 32. “But I say to you that whoever divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immorality causes her to commit adultery, and whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery.” Clearly Jesus lined up more on the side of Shammai, but that is now how He is going to answer their question this time.
Vs. 4 Now notice how He handles their question on divorce. The Pharisees wanted to debate divorce. Jesus answers with the purpose of marriage. I like that when folks come in and want to talk to me about divorce, this is a good passage to use. Folks, divorce is not an option for anyone wanting to keep a marriage together.
And if you don’t want to keep it together, then that already reveals a problem in your heart. Forgiveness, reconciliation—that is the heart of our Lord. Now I say that, but that does not mean that there may not be things that each of the people needs to work on to reconcile, but you don’t start out by talking about divorce; you start out by talking about marriage. I heard it said that “marriage is a mirror; it reflects what we put into it!” So if your marriage is not looking too good, perhaps you have not put much into it? Let’s, based upon this, give you some principles of marriage:
1.) Vs. 4 Ownership: It’s not your marriage; it’s His. God is the one who instituted marriage. It’s not you who rule; it is He who rules. The only thing in the creation that God declared that was not good was the fact that Adam was alone. Eve was created for equal fellowship. Now what this speaks to is that if your marriage is struggling, then it’s time to let go of your rules and allow Him to rule.
I have never seen one marriage that is struggling that has not been the result of a refusal to allow God to rule over the area of their marriage. Usually it is, “I don’t want to do this or that; can’t that person just do what I want them to do without me having to do what I need to do?
2.) Vs. 5 Monogamy: It is a union between one man and one woman. God did not create marriage for two men and one woman. No group marriages, no homosexual marriage, “Adam Eve, not Adam and Steve.”.
3.) This relationship is to supersede all other relationships; it is even greater than the relationship that exists between parent and child.
4.) It is spiritually binding before God; it is not just a social contract. Now what this tells us is that God is very into marriage; thus, if you will allow Him, He will be the one to keep it together.
5.) We are no longer single. We gave up our self-centeredness the moment we got married. So you ought to no more; put yourself ahead of your spouse, and then you would cut off your nose to spite your face. The goal of every marriage ought to be to continue to grow together as we grow closer to Jesus.
Now as we close, you can see why forgiveness is becoming great in God’s kingdom, as seen in our ability to forgive, which is so essential. Right now, as we close in prayer, I want everyone of us to allow the spirit of God, who has just worked through the word of God, to transform our hardened hearts in the area of forgiving others, specifically those of us who are married. When you leave this morning, if you have been harboring something, I want you to go to your spouse and ask them to forgive you for not forgiving them. I want you to start taking these things seriously.
Matthew 19:7-12
“The Sanctity of Marriage”
Vs. 7-9 Moses Marriage
Vs. 10-12 Singleness in the Kingdom
Intro
In preparing for this study, I was thinking of how people would respond to it. Whenever you talk about marriage or divorce, you are bound to offend people. I was talking to a fellow pastor the other day. He was telling me that his church was doing a 6-week study on sex. The first time they did this series was several years ago, and they saw a 40% increase in their attendance.
What a contrast these two topics are. People have no problem talking or hearing a series of messages on the joy of sex, but if you teach about the commitment of marriage, people will get angry. I do not know of a family who has not had someone go through a divorce or a bad marriage, so it is important to get what Jesus has to say on this subject.
First, by way of introduction, let me establish a few things:
1.) The context of this passage makes it clear that what Jesus lays down here are God’s ideals for marriage and conditions for the separation of marriage.
2.) Second, that these statements are intended for those who have a relationship with the Lord. Be that personally or as a nation (Israel), who were God’s chosen people. In other words, we cannot impose these as rules upon those outside of a covenant relationship with the Lord. Neither can we condemn those who did not live by these ideals prior to knowing the Lord.
3.) Though these ideals are for believers to live by, if we redeemed sinners do what we sinners so often do (sin), there is grace and forgiveness available in Christ. In other words, if a believer sins and divorces their spouse for wrong reasons, it is not an unpardonable sin. There is only one sin that God will not forgive, and that is to die apart from giving your heart to Him. That does not mean that there may not be consequences to our actions; it will reveal a problem in the heart of the person, but there is always forgiveness available upon repentance.
4.) In light of this passage, marrying the person you marry is the second most important decision you will ever make, so you ought to put more into it than just the way a person looks or how they make you feel.
I am convinced that the frustration over this subject lies in communication. If we would just always consider our spouse better than ourselves and treat them the way we ourselves would like to be treated, then divorce among believers would be unheard of.
Vs. 7-9 Moses Marriage
Vs. 7a “Then they said to Him…” This phrase tells us that what they had to say next relates to what Jesus already had to say in answer to their original question on divorce.
What did Jesus say?
A.) He said that the reason for divorce was not the important question, but rather the reason for marriage! They wanted to draw Jesus into the debate of what was the appropriate reason for divorce. The two opinions of the day were liberal;
1.) One said that what was meant by the passage in Deut. 24:1-4 was that if the husband found anything he did not like about his wife, he could get rid of her.
2.) The other position was that the only way the husband could divorce his wife was in the case of sexual sin.
God’s design for man and woman was fellowship (vs. 4; “at the beginning He made them male and female). The fellowship between man and woman was physical (vs. 5 “be joined to his wife”). So important was this union to God that it was to supersede all other relationships (vs. 5 “leave his father mother”).
God clearly saw the union of two as one that He put together; (vs. 6) what He had glued together ought not be separated. That is how Jesus answered their question on divorce! Folks, if you are single here this morning, do yourself a favor and seek God on whether or not you are to be married and whom it is you are to marry. Divorce will never be possible if two believers spend as much time concerned over the issue of who God has for them as they do what clothes they are to wear. Some people are not a good look on us, nor are we on them; it would be better to find this out before marriage.
Vs. 7b Their response was, “If that is God’s heart towards marriage, then why did Moses give permission for divorce?” Their view was strick on divorce but liberal of the reasons for it. They viewed divorce as something that they had to do.
A careful reading of Deut. 24 makes it clear that the only change that Moses made in this passage dealt with the divorced wife not returning to her first husband if she was divorced by her second husband. Moses did not command divorce; he permitted it. In fact, this law was seen as a deterrent for divorce for three reasons.
1.) First, it would cause the first husband to think twice, for he divorced his wife since he could not get her back again.
2.) Second, it would take time for a scribe to write a divorce decree, giving time for reconciliation. Thus, a written divorce was better than not anything.
3.) Third, when the husband divorced his wife, he would have to pay her a sum of money prescribed in the marriage contract. Plus, the husband had to assume liability for any goods his wife brought into the marriage.
Vs.8 Here Jesus tells us why divorce was ever allowed—the hardness of the fallen human heart. Someone once said, “People are married for better or worse, but today they are not married for long!” How tragically true that is today!
So what is Jesus saying here? He is saying that the laws concerning divorce were added because of sin in man’s inability to carry out God’s original purpose, “one man, one woman, for life.” The only thing that could and did separate a marriage was death, in which case the surviving person could remarry. This brings us to Jesus’ next statements in verse 9.
Now I again say that if you are here this morning and you have gotten a divorce, God can and does forgive if you repent. It is certain that if God allows divorce, He certainly allows remarriage.
The context here is God’s ideal, for believers in marriage and divorce is only allowed for sexual immorality. Now before you all get mad at me, these are the words of Jesus, not Dale. If you are married and having a hard time with it, divorce is not an option; if it is a bad marriage, it need not be, and getting out of it may bring some temporary relief, but it will not fix the problem; it will only create new ones. It is clear from the way Jesus’ disciples responded that they understood what Jesus was saying.
Vs. 10-12 Singleness & The Kingdom
Vs. 10: Do you see what they are saying? “If there is no way of getting out of a bad marriage, then you are better off staying single!” Clearly, they understood Jesus as saying that there was no out of a bad marriage; that is the context of their statement.
Vs. 11 Now notice that Jesus does not argue against their statement. He wants us to realize the seriousness of the nature of marriage. If you make divorce for any reason an option, then you destroy the structure of the family and that of the nation.
A study just came out this week by Rutgers University. It is dealing with living together and the rates of divorce. Now listen to this: couples that live together before they get married are 48% more likely to divorce than couples who do not live together before marriage. Thus, living together is not a good way to prepare for marriage, but it is a good way to prepare for divorce.
Not everyone is called to be single, nor is everyone called to be married. Now if you are married, then you are called to be married. If you are single now, enjoy it and use it for His kingdom because you have been given more opportunity to serve others.
“For there are eunuchs who were born thus from their mother’s womb.” Now the word “eunuch’s” appears 7 times in the N.T. here, and the rest are in Acts dealing with the Ethiopian eunuch. The word means literally “bedkeeper,” one who has charge of beds and bedchambers. In Hebrew the word clearly implied the incapacity that castration involves.
It is used here figuratively and refers to the power of maintaining an attitude of indifference toward sexual desires and temptations. Some people are born with reasons why they should not marry, be that physical or emotional. I think that this number is rather small, but nonetheless, there are some who, for reasons from birth, are not called to be married.
“And there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men.” There was a pagan practice that kings used to castrate men to watch over their harem. That is what the word “bedkeeper” referred to. It was not practiced by the Jews upon either man or animals, and the law (Deuteronomy 23:1; cf. Leviticus 22:24) dealt severely with this kind of treatment of any Israelite.
It was a custom of the East to treat captives this way, not only those of tender age but also those who were adults. This is something that is not practiced today, but some who have responsibilities in society and have no time for spouses are made single by “man.”.
“He who is able to accept it, let him accept it.” So Jesus says here that if God has called you to be single, then use it to serve God; go for it. But if not, then demonstrate your calling through your marriage. A lot of pastors have marriage problems, and a lot of people who feel called into ministry struggle in their relationships with their wives. Hey, if you cannot rule your own household well, how are you going to rule the household of God?
Vs. 13-15 Children & Marriage
Vs. 13 Interesting that right after Jesus’ teaching of marriage and divorce that children would be brought to Him! A good marriage is the greatest asset to our society. Did you know that 70% of all juvenile criminals come from single-parent homes? Innocent children are often the victims of divorce.
Now Luke tells us that after His teaching on divorce, they kept on bringing children to Jesus. The words (they & them) in Luke 18:15 are in the masculine , meaning that it was the fathers that brought their children to Jesus to be blessed by Him.
One wonders what was running through the disciples heads as they tried to stop this scene. Did they think that such an activity was beneath our Lord?
Now do not miss His action here:
1.) First, He rebuked the disciple’s for forbidding the practice.
2.) Then He again proclaimed that the kingdom was for such things as these little ones.
3.) Lastly, He wrapped His arms around them. I love this!
Maybe you’re here this morning and you’re hurting. Maybe it is your marriage; you are hurting and hurting the one that you are called to be one with, and it’s been going on so long. Hey, you’re His child. He wants to wrap His arms around you this morning and love you. He wants to bless your marriage. Will you let Him work in this area of your life? Or are you forbidding that part of your life from His healing hands? It’s up to you!
Matthew 19:16
“How To Go To Heaven”
Vs. 16-17 Defining “Good”
Vs. 18-22 What Or Who Possess You?
Vs. 23-26 Who Can Be Saved?
Intro
A man appeared at the gate of heaven, where he was met by an angel. The man said, “I’d like to come in!” “It will take 1,000 points to get in, sir,” replied the angel. “Tell me about your life, and I will tell you how many points you have.” The man smiled because he had lived a good life with many good works. “Well, I was born into a Christian home and went to church every Sunday.” “Excellent,” said the angel. “That will get you three points.” “Three points?” “That’s all I get for giving up my time to go to church every Sunday?” “Yep!” replied the angel.
“OK, then I was missions director for four years, overseeing 10 missions that we supported.” “Did you ever go yourself?” asks the angel. “Well, no, I could not get the time off from work.” “But I tithed faithfully & sang in the choir.” “That’s very good; I will give you five points for each.” “10 points. All I get for this is 10 points.” The man gasped in disappointment. “At this rate,” he said, “I’ll never make it in except by the grace of God.” “Exactly,” the angel said. “Come on in!”
It is important this morning that we fully comprehend “goodness.” What matters most is not our “goodness,” but rather our complete dependence upon His “goodness.”
Vs. 16-17 Defining “Good”
Vs. 16a Now it is important before we look at Jesus’ answer to this man’s question that we get a look at who it was that asked it in the first place. The other gospels tell us a few important facts about him. This guy was the first yuppie.
1.) Matt. 19:20 tells us that he was young.
2.) Mark 10:22 tells us that he was rich.
3.) Luke 18:18 tells us that he was a ruler (most likely of a synagogue).
Mark also adds that he ran up to meet Jesus with his question and that after the young man replied that Jesus looked upon him with love. What these two comments show us is that the young ruler was conscious of not measuring up to the point that it troubled him and second that he was sincere upon his efforts to go to heaven.
Let’s just sum up all that I have just said about our gut here: On all outward appearances, this guy was surely a candidate for heaven. Religious, energetic, successful, well liked in the community, went to synagogue, read the Bible. I mean, this guy had it together. As far as “goodness” was concerned, he was the man, yet he was aware that there was something missing that Jesus had that he needed to go to heaven; that’s the story here.
So what does that have to do with us? Well, most people think that they ought to deserve to go to heaven based upon their own good works. Now most of them will be able to tell you that there are people better than they are, but that they are still good enough. I want to share with you that this guy may have been the best that there was in this category. As far as what the world looks at as being good enough, this was the man. So if he turned down good works, then so would you be!
Vs. 16b Now look at his question: “Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?” By this statement, we see that he equated good works with eternal life and that whatever else he had done prior to this was not enough. Man is that interesting; most people feel that their good works are enough, not this guy. With all the advantages this guy had offered, he knew that there was still something lacking that only Jesus could supply.
Folks, what this guy asks Jesus is the most important question anyone can ever ask. This week, as I was in my office, a young gal came in to see me. I asked her how I could help her. Her response was one that I don’t hear that often; she said, “I don’t want to go to hell!” Here was a lady who knew that she was apart from God. I’m pleased to say that she is not going to hell anymore, as she gave her life to Jesus that very day.
The problem in this young man’s question was not in his evaluation of his need but rather that he thought that he could do something to earn his way to heaven. He still thought that he could do something to go to heaven—some good work. The young lady in my office was to the point where she knew she could do nothing to go to heaven; she had a deep conviction of sin that deserved hell. All she wanted was to know if the sentence passed was pardonable.
Vs. 17a The understanding of Jesus’ question lies in the word “why.” “What is the basis of your evaluation?” The Bible tells us that there is only one that is righteous, only one that is “good,” and that is God. Jesus is not denying His own goodness; He is rather drawing this guy in to an understanding of God’s standard of goodness.
Perhaps he had seen Jesus, knew that Jesus was better than he was, and hoped to gain some insight on his works. Jesus’ answer is that “goodness” is not measured horizontally but vertically. You do see whether or not you measure up by comparing yourself to another person; you see whether or not you measure up by comparing yourself to God. Heaven is the place where God dwells; therefore, He is the standard of goodness.
Look at how ironic this scene is. This guy comes up to God and asks Him what good work he can do to go to heaven. It’s like some stranger coming up to you and asking, “How much do you want for your family?”
Vs. 17b Now why does Jesus bring up the commandments? Is Jesus saying that you can do something like keep the law, which the Bible says is “Holy and good,” and go to heaven?
Rom 3:20 tells us that “by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” Gal. 3:24 further tells us that “the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” Clearly, that is not what Jesus is getting at. What Jesus does here is to introduce the law to show the young man not HOW to be saved, but rather that he NEEDED to be saved. This guy was looking to work to save him, so Jesus takes him to the very works to show him that he could not make it that way. “If you are going to live by works, then you must be perfect in your keeping of them.”
Vs. 18-22 What Or Who Possess You?
Vs. 18a It is obvious that this guy was expecting Jesus to give some new work to do not the same old things. There is a bit of puzzlement in this young ruler’s question, “Which ones?” It’s like saying, “Am I missing something?
Vs. 18b-19 Jesus quotes the second part of the ten commandments. Now you will remember that the first four commandments deal with man’s relationship to God, and the second six deal with man’s relationship with man. This guy was doing good works; he was doing good to his fellow man; his life was spent doing good to others. Nothing wrong with this; it is a good thing to be others-centered, but it is wrong to think that this is the basis of salvation. So Jesus gives him this, to show him based upon his own need seen in his coming to Jesus that those things don’t save a person.
Vs. 20 Now, of course, as Jesus interprets the intent of the law in the sermon on the mount, this man had not kept the law, but I’m sure that he kept them in the way that made him righteous in man’s eyes. Paul would say in Phil. 3:6 that prior to knowing Jesus’ righteousness, which is in the law, he was blameless.
Not in the true sense of what Jesus meant, but as far as others see, it was good. I mean, if you ask me if I broke the traffic laws, I can say to you that I’ve only had one ticket my whole life. Now that sounds pretty good, but the truth of the matter is that I’ve been caught time and time again, and two of the three times I’ve been overruled, I was beaten in court.
Am I keeping the traffic laws? What if breaking one law one time meant death? And it was not man who judged it but God. The moment you got in your car and started to drive down the road and went one mile per hour over the speed limit, Zap! What About you? What do you do when you see a police car? You slow down and pray he was not watching you! Were you breaking the law? You betcha.
So this young man answers, “I’m still not there; I mean, Lord, something is missing.”
Vs. 21 If you want to be complete, surrender all you have and follow me. Put God first in every area of your life. The first law was “You shall have no other gods before Me.” The way a person gets to heaven is not found in their relationships with mankind but rather in their relationship to God. Jesus is not saying that a person is saved by selling all they have and giving it away.
Jesus was answering the young man’s question as to what he needed. What he lacked was that he did not love God more than everything else. His money was just the sign of that. Possessions were his god. He could not “go & sell,” and because of that, he could not “come & follow.” Hey, folks, what good does it do to die the richest man in the cemetery? There are only two possibilities in life: we will either be possessed by our possessions or possessed by the Lord. This guy went away bummed out because he was unwilling to surrender his life. How about you? What possesses you?
Vs. 23-26 Who Can Be Saved?
Vs. 23 The Jewish people, like many people today, believed that riches were a sign or evidence of God’s blessing. Riches that possess us can hinder our decisions to be obedient to follow God. Now remember that it is here that Jesus looked at him in love. It is hard for a rich person to enter heaven because they are self-reliant. It is only when we come in our poverty of spirit that we will receive Jesus. As long as we come thinking, as this guy, that we can do something to go to heaven, then we are showing that we are still possessed by our possessions.
Vs. 24 Much has been made of Jesus’ statement here. There are several possibilities:
A.) There was a small gate within the large gate of Jerusalem called the “needles eye.” It was only large enough that a camel on its knees could get through but not loaded down with goods to sell. This was used at night to keep people from selling goods at night. So some see that Jesus is saying that it is very difficult or impossible for a rich man to be saved unless they unload themselves of the world’s goods, humble themselves, and go through the gate of Jesus.
B.) Then there are those that point out that in the Talmud, which was written during the Babylonian captivity, there was a figure of speech signifying the impossible that went, “It is easier for an elephant to go through the eye of a needle.” And seeing that they did not have any elephants in Israel, Jesus just used the same phrase and used the largest animal that they knew of.
C.) The last possibility is that Jesus is speaking of a literal needle and camel. It appears from the comments in verse 26 that Jesus is referring to something impossible for man to accomplish. A father was reading this verse to his 9-year-old son and was trying to show that apart from God, no one would be in heaven.
Well, the boy could not get the idea of a camel going through the sewing needles eye. Finally the boy spoke up, “Dad”, “What son?” the father replied. “It’s not impossible for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.” “Sure, it is, son.”No, dad, just the other day I saw you cram a whole bunch of stuff into the blender and turn it into liquid; you could do the same with a camel.”
Vs. 25-26 So who can be saved? Those put in a blender? No! With man, it is impossible; there are no good works we can do to be saved. All we can do is trust Jesus’ work on the cross for our sins. I don’t care who you are this morning; the only way you’re going to go to heaven is by trusting in Jesus, so don’t leave here today without doing just that.
In the rich young ruler Jesus dealt with how to go to heaven. We are saved not by works, as the rich young ruler thought; we are saved by surrendering our lives to Jesus (vs. 26). How tragic it is to see people in the world trying to be good enough to go to heaven. Evaluating their goodness based upon comparing themselves to others. If you are trying to be good enough, the real standard is that you have to be as good as Jesus, or perfect.
In this section, we have Jesus’ response to Peter’s question as to future rewards. All of us at times want to know what we shall receive for our sacrifice of love. You may not care about rewards now, but you will one day.
Legend has it that a wealthy woman reached heaven and was shown a very plain mansion. She objected to it being hers. “Well,” she was told, “that is the house prepared for you.” “Well, whose is that fine mansion across the way?” she asked. “It belongs to your gardener.” “How is it that he has one so much better than mine?” “The houses here are prepared from the materials that are sent up. We do not choose them; you do that by your earthly faithfulness.” Now this is just a legend, but it does speak to the text at hand.
Matthew 19:27-30
“The First Will Be Last & The Last Will Be First.”
Vs. 27-29 Sacrificial Rewards
Vs. 27 It is obvious that Jesus’ words to the rich young ruler had an effect on the disciples. They had questioned how a person could be saved if a “good man” with “good works” could not. Jesus answered that with man, that is, on his own effort, it is impossible, but with trusting in God’s goodness, it is possible.
Now I kind of think Peter was weighing the whole thing with the rich young ruler and saw his unwillingness to surrender and sacrifice as the reason for his failure. So old Peter just did the math: “If not giving all you have to the Lord keeps you from the kingdom, then giving up everything must get you something.” Peter thought, “Hey, we are not making sacrifices; we are making investments, so how much are we going to get?”
I think we all get into this way of thinking at times. We go through difficulties based upon our faith and have less to show for it worldly. So we comfort ourselves with the thought that one day, man, we are going to have it all. Now I would have thought that Jesus would have rebuked Peter right on the spot, but He doesn’t.
Vs. 28-29 I just love it when Jesus says, “Assuredly.” It’s the word “amen,” so be it; it speaks of something being certain. That’s what Jesus says in answer to Peter’s question of rewards, “absolutely.” There is no rebuke for asking the question; instead, Jesus goes on and says how they will be rewarded for their trust in Him rather than their trust in good works or riches.
A.) Heavenly: “..that in the regeneration, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory, you who have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” Now this has to do with the disciples; they will have a special place in judgment over the nation of Israel. Perhaps they will have a special place during the 1000-year reign of Jesus upon the earth as well.
They would share in the authority of the kingdom. I believe that we too shall share in this. Simply put, we will have rewards in heaven. 1 Cor 3:8 says, “Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor.” Rev. 22:12 Jesus says, “Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work.”
B.) Earthly: Vs. 29 Here it is universal: “everyone” who has left houses, family, and business for Jesus will inherit 100 fold. The 100 fold is not literal because you are not going to get 100 wives. What Jesus is saying is that whatever it has cost you in this life will be returned a hundred times over to you in what you gain through knowing Jesus.
Paul said as much to the Philippians in 3:7-8, “But what things were gained to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ.”
On a practical basis, when you go through a loss, say your house floods, man did the Lord bless us through the body of Christ. We received back much more than we lost. So, when you came to Christ, your friends all left you. Now you have more friends than you ever had before.
C.) Forever: Everlasting life. All of the world’s rewards are temporary. I went to get a movie the other day, and they were having a contest. So I got my game token scratched off and I won another movie, then I read my restrictions: “good for only 1 movie rental from only a certain section, only on Sunday through Thursday within the next 7 days.” Man, after reading all of it, I wondered if I lost or won. So here the Lord says more than rewards heavenly and earthly, you’ve won the grand prize, “everlasting life.”.
My son likes to play video games, but the thing about these games is that if you lose, you have to start all over again. Now he has found out that if you know the master code, you get all the power and life you want. So we went on the internet and got the code. So he is at home blowing up these aliens with all the weapons, and they can’t touch him because he has “everlasting life.”
He gets to win the game and defeat the enemy with all the gadgets, as much as he wants. Folks, we have the secret code; it’s Jesus. We win the game because He has already defeated the enemy for us. We are never going to die! As my son was playing, he was having a blast because he knew he could not lose his reward. Hey, do you not know that you are going to be with Jesus forever and you are not going to lose your reward? It is impossible to outgive the Lord!
Vs. 30 Workers in the Masters Vineyard
Vs. 30 Now you will notice that this verse and verse 16 are the same. They form parentheses around the parable of the laborers. So why does Jesus say this phrase to the disciples? I think it is a warning to see our future rewards based upon our sacrifice. If you do, then your reward is nothing more than a wage for what you have given up.
There is a danger in working for salvation, but clearly here Jesus warns against works for sanctification. It’s not about how much you gave up or how much you have done for the Lord. That is what He says: “But many who are first will be last, and the last first.” The reward is on the basis of grace, not merit. The motive of the heart and being faithful to what He has called us to is what God rewards, not how much for how long.
With that said, may I warn as well not to take this passage as a reason for being lazy? “Hey, if it does not matter how much I do for the Lord or how long I do it, why not do as little as I can?” That is why Jesus teaches this parable to give us clarification on what He was talking about.