Mark 10:17-22

¹⁷ As Jesus was starting out on his way to Jerusalem, a man came running up to him, knelt down, and asked, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” ¹⁸ “Why do you call me good?” Jesus asked. “Only God is truly good. ¹⁹ But to answer your question, you know the commandments: ‘You must not murder. You must not commit adultery. You must not steal. You must not testify falsely. You must not cheat anyone. Honor your father and mother.’^[a]” ²⁰ “Teacher,” the man replied, “I’ve obeyed all these commandments since I was young.” ²¹ Looking at the man, Jesus felt genuine love for him. “There is still one thing you haven’t done,” he told him. “Go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” ²² At this the man’s face fell, and he went away sad, for he had many possessions.

This powerful passage relates to the fruit of goodness, because it reminds us that only God is good, and we are not. We can’t get to heaven by trying to be good because we’ll never be good enough. The only way to be good is to be made good by Christ through conversion. If we want to do good things we must first admit our sin and call on Jesus to save us. As we submit and surrender to the One who alone is good then, His goodness will flow through us. Often when our kids are going over to someone else’s house we as parents will tell our kids to, “Be good.” But what do we mean by that? Most often we mean to behave. Most of us have been raised to see goodness as living out a long list of rules, good people don’t do this and this but instead do this and that. This concept is nothing new, 2000 years ago a man came to Jesus with this same concept of goodness. But Goodness is not the result of following rules but of following the Redeemer. Rules don’t result in a good life but a guarded life, instead of being free with our possessions and blessing other people we become protective. We put all our energy into keeping the rules instead of it revolving around a relationship of loving the Lord. So, let me ask you are you living a rule-based life or a relationship-based life? And what truths are you teaching your children? Many of us have made the goal goodness, but the goal is God. We tell our kids to be good, but do we tell them how? Instead of telling them to go and be good we should be telling them to love God, because as they do the result will be a good life.  The rich young ruler walked away so we don’t get to see what goodness looks like in his life but there is a man in the bible who gives us a glimpse of what growing in goodness looks like. When faced with the decision to love God and others or serve self he made the right decision. Instead of walking away stuck in the storm of selfishness, the trajectory of this man’s life was radically transformed when he decided to follow Christ. His name is Joseph, but you probably know him by his nickname Barnabas. He was given this nickname because it literally means, “The son of encouragement.” Listen to how Luke describes his character in Acts 11:24: “He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith…” He was good because he knew God. He wasn’t good because he was born that way, or because he kept some of the commandments. He was full of goodness because he was full of the Holy Spirit. As a result, goodness resulted in him giving to God, Acts 4:37 tells us that Barnabas sold his property and gave the proceeds to the church. He viewed his assets through the eyes of stewardship, not ownership. A steward is one who owns nothing but is responsible for everything. While the rich young ruler served his money and walked away from Christ, Barnabas chose to serve the kingdom of God with his money. What about you who have you committed your cash to, serving Christ or serving self? In Acts 11:24, after describing Barnabas as a “good man,” who was full of the Holy Spirit and faith; it says that “a great number of people were brought to the Lord.” Goodness results in us sharing the good news with lost people. The first good things that Barnabas did of giving his money to God relate to the “Great Commandment” where we’re told to love God and others. Where this one has to do with the “Great Commission” in Matthew 28:19, where we are called to share Christ with all people. One of the best ways to let the fruit of goodness out is to share the good news of the gospel with those you come in contact with. Right now, I want you to think of at least one person who you can build a relationship with so that you’ll have the opportunity to share Christ with them. Are you a Barnabas believer, who gives and shares the good news or like the man that Jesus spoke to who was tied up in serving self? If we want to grow in goodness we have to give ourselves full to God. Because goodness flows out of following Jesus not following rules.

Mark 10:17-22

¹⁷ As Jesus was starting out on his way to Jerusalem, a man came running up to him, knelt down, and asked, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” ¹⁸ “Why do you call me good?” Jesus asked. “Only God is truly good. ¹⁹ But to answer your question, you know the commandments: ‘You must not murder. You must not commit adultery. You must not steal. You must not testify falsely. You must not cheat anyone. Honor your father and mother.’^[a]” ²⁰ “Teacher,” the man replied, “I’ve obeyed all these commandments since I was young.” ²¹ Looking at the man, Jesus felt genuine love for him. “There is still one thing you haven’t done,” he told him. “Go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” ²² At this the man’s face fell, and he went away sad, for he had many possessions.

It is here that thirdly Jesus reveals the real answer to being good:

3. Goodness is the result of a relationship with Jesus

The most amazing verse to me is Mark 10:21: “Jesus looked at him and loved him.” Isn’t that amazing? This man loved his money more than the Messiah and yet Jesus still lavished him with his love. Jesus could have told the man he was wrong or judged him or just dismissed him, but instead, He loved him. After the truth that Jesus has just taught its crystal clear that Jesus didn’t love him because he was good, or because he kept most of the religious requirements. No in fact it was actually the opposite, as 1 John 4:10 states: “This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” 2000 years later Jesus is still doing the same thing for us. He still sees all of our efforts that fall far short, He sees our sins pile up before Him and yet He looks at us with love. Unfortunately, many of us have this messed up mentality where we believe that God’s love is based on our performance. That if we would live better he would love us more. Not only do we fall for the lie that salvation is based on our works, but we also fall for the bogus belief that God’s love is also based on our effort. Instead of serving out of a secure relationship because we love the Lord, we serve because we are trying to get Him to love us more. This leads to a performance based life instead of a peace based one. It’s what I call the religious rat race, where we wear ourselves out running around the hamster wheel never getting where we want to go. It’s out of this abundance of love that Jesus reveals what is lacking as He says “go sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” To be good means to be kind and generous. Now this does not mean that we have to sell everything we have if we want to be Jesus disciple. Jesus was addressing the very thing that was holding this man back from service, that which he had never surrendered. So, let me ask you what is keeping you from faith in Christ? What’s keeping you from full surrender? What are you holding on to right now that is holding you back from fully following Jesus? Is it money? A relationship? Is it your time? Could it be a bad habit that you secretly enjoy? Just as Jesus pinpointed the root problem for this man, He looks at you with love and says, “This one thing you lack. Let it go, come and follow me.” Now this man turned down the gift of God because his fist was so clenched around his money that he couldn’t imagine devoting his life to anything else. When faced with the choice of loving God and others or protecting his possessions, he chose money over the Messiah. Mark 10:22 vividly describes an individual who is more in love with himself than he is with God: “At this the man’s face fell, and he went away sad, for he had many possessions.” The Greek word translated “sad” paints a picture of storm clouds gathering. The man, who had run up to Jesus, now slumps away as an internal storm ravages his soul. It’s worth noting that Jesus didn’t go chasing after him. Jesus presented him with truth but what you do with that truth is up to you. This man was caught in the web of trying to serve both God and money. Look money is a wonderful servant but a lousy master. Either it will serve you or you will serve it. It’s good to have the things money can buy, provided you don’t lose sight of the things that money cannot buy. You see of all the people who sat at the feet of Jesus, this man is the only one who went away worse than he came. He had everything that money could buy, and yet he longed for something more. Through Jesus he came face to face with his problem, yet he still walked away. Why, because he preferred the poison of his present circumstances over the possibility of being relationally rich and free from his prison but financially poor. People do this all the time. They recognize that Jesus can satisfy all that they need, and yet they don’t want to fully follow Him by giving up that which they are serving. Like the man in the story we also want to try to add Jesus to our junk. But Jesus reminds us that it’s not just about adding Him to our lives but subtracting the distractions so that we can surrender fully to Him and serve Him freely.  So what about you, are you going to walk away sad today or are you going to walk away serving the Savior?