The Kingdom Exchange – Mark
The Kingdom Exchange
Pastor Brandon Werner | Together Church OKC |
February 4, 2024 | Series: Mark
INTRODUCTION
These two stories we just heard from Mark 10:13-31 take place in a region east of Jerusalem just beyond the Jordan. They occur while Jesus was making His last trip from Galilee to Jerusalem before His crucifixion and resurrection.
There’s an important lesson His disciples needed to learn about His Kingdom before they entered Jerusalem. Jesus wanted to teach them how a person MUST enter the Kingdom of God.
There are not many ways, there is only one way for a person to enter God’s Kingdom.
Jesus uses two experiences in this region to help His disciples learn how a person must receive His Kingdom. Those two experiences are the two stories we just heard: the story of Jesus welcoming the children and the story of the rich young ruler.
So, according to Jesus, how MUST a person receive God’s Kingdom?
To help us answer that question, it’s important for us to do our best to understand what Jesus understood about the Kingdom of God when He taught His disciples these lessons.
At the time when these two stories occurred, the disciples did not yet understand what God’s Kingdom really was. They thought the Kingdom Jesus came to establish would be like the other kingdoms in this world. They thought Jesus had come to overthrow the Roman Empire that ruled Israel and take back their land. It wouldn’t be until after Jesus’ resurrection and the indwelling of God’s Spirit that they would be able to grasp what God’s Kingdom is really like.
God’s Kingdom is not limited by borders or geographical location; it is not restricted by limited resources; it is not constrained to a specific people group, blood line, or nationality; it is not weakened by the limitations of imperfect leaders and flawed institutions.
Right now, right here, the Kingdom of God exists in this world. The Kingdom of God presently exists in the hearts of men and women who have pledged their allegiance to follow King Jesus.
Greater than any physical kingdom; God’s Kingdom is a spiritual Kingdom. It knows no limits or bounds. Its resources cannot be exhausted because everything it needs is completely supplied by the unlimited resources of God.
Not only that, but the citizens of this Kingdom are strangely unique. They are not united by their nationality or by the color of their skin. Their unity is not based on their common ancestry or their fleshly identities. The citizens of God’s Kingdom are one people because they are one in Christ Jesus.
Galatians 3:26-28
28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
The people who belong to this Kingdom are children of God! That makes them brothers and sisters; the family of God!
What a wonderful Kingdom!
This is the Kingdom Jesus came to establish, and this is the Kingdom He wanted to teach us all to receive.
With that understanding of the Kingdom, we are ready to discover the lessons from Jesus about how a person MUST receive God’s Kingdom.
Mark 10:13-31 begs us to ask these two questions. According to Jesus…
- How is it impossible to inherit God’s Kingdom?
- How must we receive the Kingdom of God?
BODY
- How did Jesus say it would be impossible to inherit the Kingdom of God?
The answer to that question is found in Jesus’ words in the story of the rich young ruler. Let’s look at that story first.
Here, we find a man who seems eager to seek God. Mark describes him as running up to Jesus earnestly and bowing at His feet. Clearly, this man wanted to receive something from Jesus.
In his opening question, the man reveals the intention of his quest. He asks, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life.”
We learn a lot about this man in those opening words.
First, he asks, “What must I do.” From the start, this man’s focus is on the works he can perform to earn for himself eternal life. He wants Jesus to tell him what he must “do” to receive it.
Second, we see in his opening question how this man is relating to Jesus. He addresses Jesus as “Good Teacher” or “Good Rabbi”. Hang on to that, because it will help us understand Jesus’ response.
At first, Jesus’ response might seem strange to us. But let’s look at it. Jesus responds, “Why do you call me good? There is no one good except God.”
There are some antagonists of the faith who have pointed to this verse to argue that Jesus Himself must not have seen Himself as perfectly righteous or good, and that Jesus did not consider Himself to be God. But we know how dangerous and ignorant it is to take one line from the Bible out of context and make a universal point. We must always seek the whole counsel of God’s Word.
Based on the teachings of Jesus and His apostles, we can conclude nothing less than exalting Jesus Christ as absolutely righteous and completely God.
So, why does Jesus answer this man by asking, “Why do you call me good? There is no one good except God?”
Jesus’ response is based on how the man addressed Him. The man had not come to Jesus as God incarnate! He had come to Jesus as a “Good Teacher” or “Good Rabbi”.
Rabbi was a position of honor and respect. It explains why the rich man would come and fall at his feet. But Rabbis are flawed people. The rich man was not coming to Jesus as God incarnate, he was coming to Jesus as a Rabbi; and he called him good. There was a problem with his understanding of what it means for a person to truly be good.
Jesus responds accordingly. From the start, Jesus tries to help the man see his barrier to eternal life: the man believed he could obtain it through his own goodness.
Both Jesus and the rich man use that word, “GOOD.” Same word, but their definitions of that word couldn’t be more different. It is one of those, “You keep using that word, “GOOD”. I do not think that word means what you think it means” kind of moments.
When the rich man said, “GOOD,” he was talking about relative goodness. A kind of goodness that defines itself by comparing itself to the goodness of others. We do this all the time. We look at others, then we look at ourselves or someone else, and we label a person “GOOD.” What we mean is that, as people generally go, that one is a pretty good one.
We do the same thing with our pets (ILLSUTRATION).
So, the rich man’s view of goodness was relative goodness.
But when Jesus said, “GOOD,” He meant something entirely different. Jesus was not speaking of relative goodness, He was speaking of genuine goodness… the kind of goodness that can only come from God. The man didn’t realize it, but his own goodness and the goodness of everyone else fell miserably short of the genuine goodness of God.
The Bible says that God’s law is a tutor to help us understand our sinfulness and unrighteousness. This man needed a tutor to help him see his condition. So, Jesus employed the law to help tutor the man: “You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’”
But these commands had the opposite effect on this man! Instead of driving him to an awareness of his sin and his need for God, he almost breaths an audible sigh of relief, as if to say, “Oh, good! Is that all?”
He answers Jesus, “All these I have kept since my youth.”
What!? Are we really to believe that, since this man was a child, he never bore false witness and told a lie? That he had never defrauded anyone? That he had never stolen anything, even as a child? That he had always honored his mother and father?
And those are just the external issues! Clearly this man had missed Jesus’ sermon on the mount or had slept through it or something. If he had heard that sermon, He would have known that God does not just look on the outwards actions when determining our goodness, but also at our heart! So if the man had never committed physical murder, but had been angry or hated his brother in his heart, God says he has a murderous heart! Or if the man had never committed the physical act of adultery, but had looked at a woman with lust in his heart, God says he had an adulterous heart!
The man was clearly proud. Pride is when we have an overinflated view of ourselves. This man had an overinflated view of his own goodness. He thought his goodness could earn him eternal life.
In spite of His pride, Mark records Jesus looking at the man and loving him. Wow. What a window into God’s heart. Even when I am proud, even when I overestimate my own goodness, God still loves me.
In love, Jesus saw past the man’s flaws and right into his deeper need: this man had built a kingdom for himself in this world that he loved more than the Kingdom of God. So, Jesus offered him a kingdom exchange…
“You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”
This was not a work this man needed to perform to earn his salvation. This was a kingdom exchange. It was a call to renounce his own kingdom and pledge allegiance to Jesus as King.
There’s the heresy woven throughout church history and potent in the American church today that says that we can somehow inherit eternal life without a change of our allegiance. That we can pledge our allegiance to our own kingdoms and still inherit eternal life.
Jesus did not separate the issue of receiving eternal life from receiving the Kingdom. When the rich young ruler asked Jesus how to receive eternal life, Jesus offered him an invitation to renounce his own kingdom and exchange it for the Kingdom of God. By receiving God’s Kingdom, the rich man would receive eternal life.
How did the man reply?
22 Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
Jesus continued:
23 And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” 24 And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”
Jesus acknowledges how hard it is for everyone to enter God’s Kingdom; but that it is especially hard for those who have great possessions in this world. Why is that? We have already seen that God’s Kingdom is so much better than the kingdoms of this world! Bill Gates and Elon Musk have puny little kingdoms compared to God’s Kingdom! But the more you have in this world, the harder it is to see the value of the kingdom exchange.
How is it impossible for us to inherit the Kingdom of God?
Through the story of the rich young ruler, Jesus shows us that no one can inherit the Kingdom of God based on their own goodness; and that the more we have in this world the harder it will be to decide to renounce our own kingdoms and exchange them for His.
That brings us to our second and final question:
- How must a person receive the Kingdom of God?
Jesus answers that question in the preceding story of Jesus welcoming the little children.
Recall that the disciples would have turned the children away, but Jesus welcomes them. Then, Jesus uses that experience as an example for how a person must receive the Kingdom of God. He says,
“Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.”
The disciples would have turned the children away. Instead, Jesus told them they would have to become like them to receive His Kingdom.
What does it mean to receive the Kingdom of God like a child?
Small children are aware of how dependent they are upon their parents for everything. Their entire life is tied to their relationship with their parents. Their first thought when they are hungry is their parent. Their first thought when they are in danger is to run to their parent. Their first thought when they are in pain is to run to their parent. Their first thought when they want to know something is to ask their parent. A child’s relationship with its parent is a great example of what it looks like for Jesus to be the ruler of our hearts.
Jesus taught His disciples that they could not earn the Kingdom; they couldn’t work hard enough to be good enough for the Kingdom; if they were to receive the Kingdom, they would have to receive it like a small child… they would have to receive it by recognizing that their life was completely tied to His.
The only way to become part of God’s Kingdom is by receiving it by faith through Jesus. When we truly exchange our kingdom and the kingdoms of this world for the Kingdom of God, our allegiance to the King will change our works and our lives.
A marine doesn’t pilot a jet and later pledge allegiance to the military. A marine pledges allegiance to the military and then learns to pilot a jet. The same is true for God’s Kingdom. A person does not enter by doing the job and performing the works, a person enters like a marine enters the military: they enter by allegiance. Then, once they have entered, they are trained for the task; God transforms their works.
According to Jesus, the only way to receive His Kingdom is to receive it like a small child – we must recognize that our lives are tied to Jesus and pledge our allegiance to Him. Receiving the Kingdom means letting go of everything we have so that we can hold on to Jesus.
CONCLUSION
These stories beg us to ask, “What kingdom do I love the most?”
In fact, that’s the exact idea stirring in the heart of the disciples at the end of these stories. Recall how the disciples respond after Jesus teaches them the difficulty of entering the Kingdom of God.
26 And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, “Then who can be saved?” 27 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.”
(GOSPEL: Jesus knew something His disciples did not know yet…)
Peter must have been getting the lesson about abandoning our lives in allegiance to the King…
28 Peter began to say to him, “See, we have left everything and followed you.”
29 Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, 30 who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life. 31 But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”
Here, Jesus affirms that those who receive the Kingdom are those who exchange their kingdoms for his. They leave their homes, their families, and their lands for the sake of Jesus and His gospel.
Then, Jesus says those who do that will receive a hundredfold NOW IN THIS TIME houses and family and lands… with persecutions.
What do we make of that?
If Jesus had said they will receive mansions in heaven that would be easy to understand. But Jesus says they will receive houses and family and lands now… with persecutions. Why?
Once again, Jesus is affirming that the Kingdom is not just some distant future concept. The Kingdom is now. The Kingdom is here. Those who receive the Kingdom now also receive RIGHT NOW the family of God. We share what we have in common for the sake of the Kingdom. We are the only family that really matters because our family is not just blood family, we are spiritual family, and we will be children of God forever. We receive a new land, a new nationality, as citizens of God’s Kingdom. God’s Kingdon is not distant… it is here in us.
If that doesn’t excite us, why not?
Could it be because we have set up comfortable little kingdoms in our own homes that have captured our affections more than the blessings of God’s Kingdom? That we love our houses and lands more than we love His Kingdom ruling in our relationships with Him and His people?
I’ve often heard people recount three or four or five times they were together with God’s people in a week and then say things like, “It is just way too much.” Our words are revealing about what kingdom we value most.
Do we not realize that, as soon as the Spirit came and the Kingdom entered the hearts of God’s people, that the church gathered every day in the temple and in each other’s homes? Twice a day they were together. Why? Because their great affection was for God’s Kingdom, and the Kingdom is here in us.
I’m not saying we have to meet twice a day. I am saying that what we say reveals what is truly in our hearts.
Perhaps if we would turn off the idols in our homes for a while, those flashing screens that comfort and entertain us, we might recognize how much of our lives we waste in our own kingdoms when we could be out experiencing the Kingdom of God in relationships with our brothers and sisters in Christ. (MAYBE: Follow Me – discipleship)
Honestly, what kingdom has captured your affections most recently?
INVITATION – RESPONSE TEAM FORWARD, PRAY
There are some in this room who have never exchanged their love for their own kingdom for the Kingdom of God. Is that you? Perhaps you have never decided to renounce all you own and follow Jesus as King. If that is you today, I want to invite you to come. Come forward right now and tell one of these leaders that you want to give up everything to follow Jesus.
There are others in this room who have already received the Kingdom with faith like a child. They have tied their life to Jesus. But their affections for the things of this world have presently outgrown their affections for the Kingdom of God. Is that you? Have idols crept into your life that cause you to miss out on experiencing the blessings of God’s Kingdom in your life RIGHT NOW? If that is you, would you come forward for prayer? Confess where your affections have turned away and turn your heart once again to be affectionate towards your King.
Let’s pray.
Songs: Lord, You Are More Precious (2x), You’re Worthy of it All (2x)
ENDING: Seth allows Brandon to share what’s happening next week.