MATTHEW 19 - Bible Study with Notes - 2BeLikeChrist

[Applause] [Music] hi everybody welcome back to to be like Christ we're talking about Matthew chapter 19 today remember down in the description below you can get the link to the notes and the link to the free ebook or the book on amazon.com what is the Bible so go check those out if you haven't already good resources there we're on chapter 19 let's reverse the 132 now when Jesus had finished these sayings he went away from Galilee and entered the region of Judea beyond Jordan beyond the Jordan and large crowds followed him and He healed them a good portion of time has passed since chapter 18 so we recall the events there from the last time that we studied and Jesus now makes his way south towards Jerusalem mm-hmm and as always he's followed by large crowds of people and he's on a journey to go down to Judea but they're asking for healing and he actually obliges them he heals them and I thought just right off the bat here here's a really good application of the character of Jesus and that is that sometimes we can be so focused on our final destination now we feel like the people who enter our path or cross our path on our way to that final destination are kind of nuisances or they're just in the way of us getting where we need to be but Jesus doesn't shoe these people away and harder to make better time going down to Judea it's easy to see other people and their needs as slowing us on our journey to become who we want to become but it is more likely that God presents those people to us and their needs to us so that their needs can be met and he through those circumstances can shape us into the people that he wants us to be so people aren't distractions from God's work people are God's work and they're criss-crossing with our lives is not an accident you know I don't really think that anything happens by accident the more I think about the nature of God but you know these people are crossing our paths and there's a reason for that and so we need to be all that we can be in the way of Christ's likeness to them and care for them as much as possible and not think that that's holding us back from the plane that God has for our lives I I get into that mentality sometimes and need to shake myself out of it Jesus was a people person verse 3 the Pharisees came up to him and testing him ahran tested him by asking is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause so the Pharisees again come up and they approach Jesus MA they're tempting him and they've decided oh well we heard his teaching potentially they heard his teaching back in the Sermon on the Mount on marriage and divorce and they're like we are going to use this to try to get an angle on Jesus we're gonna try to set him in opposition to Moses who's the lawgiver because Moses was so highly respected if they could make it look like Jesus was opposed to Moses then maybe they would have won you know a small battle let's read verses 4 through 7 he answered have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female and said therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife and the two shall become one flesh so they are no longer two but one flesh what therefore God has joined together let not man separate and said therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife and the two shall become one flesh so they're no longer two but one flesh what therefore God has joined together let not man separate they said to him why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away so Jesus immediately shows them that they don't really know the Torah the Old Testament as well as they think they do the Pharisees thought Moses was the lawgiver but in truth God was the lawgiver and Jesus had an authority now to speak on behalf of God the passages that Jesus references here actually predate Moses which I think is significant both of these come from the book of Genesis early on in the book of Genesis Genesis chapter 1 verse 27 is where verse 3 is referenced from and then verses four and five come from Genesis chapter 2 verse 24 so this is all the way back to the beginning and this reveals the intentions of God for this marriage Union Genesis chapter 2 verse 24 reads therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife and they shall become one flesh so what is God's intention what is what is Jesus revealing here and that is it's that men are not to divide what God has brought together and I think this really should be our major takeaway from this text a lot of times we look at this as like what's permitted for divorce in the verses we're going to get to in a little bit like like why can I get a a divorce and why can't I get a divorce and we want to know the rules about divorce but I think the real principle that Jesus wants us to take away from this probably is you shouldn't do that yeah marriage shouldn't be dissolved that needs to be your mindset from the beginning for for everyone like stepping into it you say God has joined this two these two together it should not be divided and now mmm he's gonna talk about some more of the details about that but I think that's the overarching takeaway that we need to get from this it's not marriage isn't this thing that is you know you should be entered into flippantly and then oh well you know if it doesn't work out it doesn't work out the the principle needs to be once you're in this relationship God has brought you together nothing separates it so we'll talk a little bit more about it in a second here as we read this but upon saying this the Pharisees play their trump card I think they probably set it up this way and Jesus knew exactly what they were doing but he says are you caught aren't you contradicting Moses Jesus because Moses commanded us that all I had to do was give her his wife a writing of divorcement and he could divorce her for for anything and the question is was that true you know the Pharisees have got a lot of things wrong out of the scriptures probably shouldn't take their word for it here and actually surprisingly in a sense yes that is true it was it was I wouldn't say that it was a command of Moses but it was something that was permitted it was something that was tolerated and you can read about that in Deuteronomy chapter for so I think it's the first four versus maybe let's reverse 89 then and see what Jesus has to say about that he said to them because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives but from the beginning it was not so and I say to you whoever divorces his wife except for sexual immorality and marries another commits adultery this verse 8 is an interesting text I thought when I first read it and even even as I read it for this study so it appears that God tolerated the children of Israel in the Old Testament to divorce their wives and the reason for that is given where do they go oh that it was for the hardness of their hearts Moses permitted it for the hardness of their arts and that's that's interesting in and of itself and that's not the only time that we read about the hardness of the children of Israel's hearts we read about it in places like Deuteronomy chapter 9 verse 6 which is there in your notes and all over the the Old Testament writings really the children of Israel were hard-hearted and God did not want them that way but that's the way that they were and God worked his will through them anyway so you may have the same kind of impression about this as I had initially when I when I read it and that is it struck me as very strange that God would permit something to continue which wasn't in line was with his ultimate desire that's how I first read it like this isn't in line with what God really wants so why does God permit it good fair question I feel like and as I thought about that some more I realized wait a second is it the old the whole Old Testament exactly that is it yeah the Old Testament and the laws that comprise it weren't the ultimate and final desire of God they weren't the end result the endgame right us that's not the ultimate plan that he was trying to bring about it was as part of it it was leading up to it but it wasn't the ultimate thing that he was going to lead people to it wasn't the perfect solution but they were permitted to exist for a period of time and obviously laws were different under the old than they are today under the new covenant under the Christian age people in churches today aren't doing what the Old Testament people were doing sacrificing animals and things like that but God permitted it to exist for a time the question is why why did he do that because those things those principles laws in the Old Testament were designed to teach humanity an important lesson and they acted as a teacher I think it's in Romans it says yeah yeah I think it's in Romans that it acted as a schoolteacher for to bring people to Christ and they want to check me on that schoolmaster to Christ push that into Google I didn't get some runs and they were supposed to be the the Old Testament was to be a schoolmaster to train people to bring them to Christ to teach them what they needed to know in order to make Christ as meaningful as he needed to be to them and to the world and all who would read about him in the future mm-hmm the old testament was gone part of God's ultimate plan and was permitted for a period of time to accomplish his ultimate purpose and I think if we look at this situation with divorce why is it permitted why is it tolerated in the Old Testament and not today we should look at it probably in the same way God allow divorce for a purpose the details of that purpose are not spelled out to us in in tremendous clarity but we can be confident that just like the Old Testament it was leading his people to his final plan to a time when marriage would once again be restored to its sacred position in community or in in culture right in the church at least and they would preach its sacredness to the world so is permitted for a time to accomplish perhaps to teach something to individuals and it was going to be eventually reworked not reworked but but marriage was once again going to be put on its sacred pedestal where it belonged with the true intention of what God had behind it so I think if we think about it in those terms a lot easier to understand what is meant here and that there's no real problem with the idea of this being permitted in the Old Testament even though it wasn't God's final the final picture so Jesus then makes his commands on divorce clear so he said Moses permitted this but here now as the spokesman of God is one greater than Moses the lawgiver as as the the Word of God I am going to tell you what you need to be practicing on divorce and before we get into this if you have any history with the scripture you're gonna know how controversial this is and ice want you to step back to you know put down whatever you think or believe about this texture been talking about this texture everything that you know about this and just ask the question are Jesus's words difficult to understand here are they difficult to understand is the principal duties teaching hard to get our heads wrapped around so I want you to ask that I think the conclusion that you're gonna come to with me as well is you know it's the words here aren't that complicated it's not that hard to wrap our heads around what's hard about it is sometimes the application and that's why there's so much disagreement and so much debate about what these verses mean and Jesus you know Jesus didn't feel the need to expound on this beyond really this there's one two verses that he does here it's amazing how brief Jesus is in this discussion knowing how much discussion would be centered around this verse in the future in the churches and even outside the church but okay let's read this what does Jesus have to say about divorce we've kind of touched on this already Matthew chapter 5 but let's touch on it again we're gonna read this verse and I want to notice that there is a slight difference between verse 9 in the English standard version which I typically use in the King James Version and I am glad that I caught this because there was somebody who actually asked me about a difference in Matthew chapter 18 that I didn't catch when I was going through so Thank You Brittany I will get you an answer back on that but the reason for this difference is in the notes listed below there it's a little bit more technical than we want to get into here but it's in the notes if you would like to know the reason for the difference mm-hmm okay so I'm gonna read this out of the English standard version here's verse 9 and I saying to you whoever divorces his wife except for sexual immorality and marries another commits adultery okay now the King James and I say to you whoever shall put away his wife except it be for fornication and shall marry another committeth adultery and this is the part that part that's added and whosoever marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery so you'll notice the inclusion of that last phrase there and I bolded it in your note so it's a little bit more obvious if you didn't catch it and hearing me read it but again the reason for that is there has to do with the manuscripts and which ones the translators went with anyway all that you can you can dig into that I in the notes and also you know in your own personal study isn't it it's a good interesting study so no matter which translation you choose there's not really an issue here the statement is a repetition of Jesus's instruction during the Sermon on the Mount here's here's the basic takeaway a man is not to divorce his wife unless she is unfaithful to him meaning she has a sexual relationship with another man the wine is not to divorce her husband unless he is unfaithful to her pretty straightforward the only reason given for somebody to divorce another is adultery unfaithfulness anyone who divorces anyone who divorces his or her spouse for a reason other than adultery so let's say I don't like the way my my wife makes the bed and I'm like I've had it I divorced you any anyone who divorces his wife for reason other than adultery and is sexually involved with another someone who isn't my wife he's guilty of adultery so you might say you're probably tracking pretty well until maybe that last phrase like okay so if I divorce my wife because I don't like the way she makes the bed and I go off and marry somebody else the text says I commit adultery I'm committing that unfaithfulness I say why is that you know I went through the process I got a legal divorce got the paper I'm not obligated to her anymore I can go off and marry whoever I want not because I I got a proper divorce why is that considered adultery and I think it's the reason is because the text is teaching it implies that the original husband and the original wife are still bound to one another they may go through the legal process and get a divorce and the courts may say they're divorced but they are still bound together before God because they didn't have a real reason to divorce that adultery so they're not free to exit that relationship so when a man divorces his wife for a reason that's not adultery like making the bed and marry somebody else he's violating his unbroken bond with his first wife I know there's some some debate about that and discussion about that but not from reading these verses that's what I am gathering in what Jesus is saying I think Mark chapter 10 verse 11 through 12 make that even a little bit clearer when he says whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her so it's a crime against or a sin against that first wife even though he's legally divorced it's still against her why because they're bound before God and then there's some other verses in 1st Corinthians chapter 7 that I think allude to the same thing and being reconciled to your original spouse now I just want to say this I know that there are additional verses there are other verses in 1st Corinthians chapter 7 that need to be pulled into this conversation and I'll say that I accounted for those in my interpretation of Jesus's words here I know and in the past and some other videos that I did on this topic there's somebody people are always quick to jump out and say 1st Corinthians 7 you did you'd ignored it no I didn't ignore it I know what are in those verses and I've taken them into account we will get to those verses and deal with them when we come to them in context but I don't want to pull them out of context in a in a chapter book that we aren't studying try to drag them in here so when we get there we will pull all this information together and see where we're at but again this this understanding of Jesus is made with those verses in the back of my mind I am aware of them right now we're just dealing with Jesus's weren't so Jesus's words in verse 9 maybe it's not the case for you but I feel like and I feel like probably for most people in a reading comprehension kind of way that the principle that Jesus is teaching here is not super complex he says you shouldn't divorce your wife the only reason you would divorce your wife is for adultery if you divorce your wife and you shouldn't have and you marry somebody else you commit adultery like that's not super hard to understand but again if you have any history with these verses or if you've sat in any churches or studied this ever you'll realize there is a massive amount of debate about these verses and I think there's really two reasons for that the first one is because people don't like the implications it's not that they can't comprehend the verse is that they don't like the way that they have to live in light of the verse so they finally try to find loopholes and ways around and different interpretations to to try to make up and and get around not liking what is said here the second reason is because there are innumerable hypothetical situations that people debate on when dealing with this text and the other text on divorce in the scriptures they're just there are just so many possible weird marriage relationships that you could try to run through this text and ask the question like what should be done in this situation and admittedly some of them are are weird and sticky and difficult to come to a conclusion on because Jesus is very brief here and you know like what if somebody is in an African tribe and he marries two women at once like can he have both wives that should he divorce which should he divorce if he married them at the same time like you know just all kinds of weird stuff and I think there's a lot of people who confuse this text and they make it sound like it's really really hard because they're these 90% of their time talking about all those hypotheticals and they spend hardly any time talking about just the plain teaching of the text because the truth is maybe 1% of us will ever deal with a weird situation in an African tribe were somewhere in the Himalayan mountains where you have to deal with one of these whacky hypotheticals 99% of us probably will never have to counsel someone or ourselves be in a situation where we're part of one of those weird hypotheticals right for the majority of people the thing that Jesus has said here they fall into that category they either divorce their wife or their asking whether or not they can divorce their wife and or they've been divorced and it was not for adultery or they divorced because of the Daltry and this text covers their issues so don't make this text sound like it's understandable based on the exception rather than the rule take the principles out of this text that Jesus is teaching as hard as they may be sometimes in application and take them for what they are and and make the applications and approach that text approach the text gathering what I think Christ is really getting at here and that is number one don't separate what God has bound together don't do it you're not supposed to do it go into a marriage and tell other people that they're to go into a marriage in an unbreakable bond now there is one exception to that and only one exception to that given here and and that can be dealt with if it needs to but overarching principle don't get divorced don't go and spit thinking that that's the way to handle your problems so understandable yes a difficult to apply yes in many cases and so that's really all that Jesus has to say on that for now which again kinds of leads to scratching our heads like people debate this for hours and hours and Jesus just had one statement in verse 10 we see there was the response of the Apostles you may have been shocked when you heard that they are also sure the disciples said to him if such is the case of a man with his wife it is better not to marry but he said to them not everyone can receive the same but only to those to whom it is given for there are eunuchs who have been made so from birth and there are eunuchs who have been made from made eunuchs by men and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven let the one who was able to receive it receive this receive it sorry I can't read so again the disciples were shocked at this and I kind of like Matthew Henry's commentary on here I don't read Matthew Henry a lot because he's so wordy but he has a kind of a funny statement here it seems the disciples themselves were loath to give up the liberty of divorce thinking it a good expedient for preserving comfort in the marriage state and therefore like sullen children if they had not what they would have they would throw away what they have if they may not be allowed to put away their wives when they when they please they will have no wives at all you know it's like a child who says well I can't have this I throwing everything away yeah I want anything he's like the apostles are kind of doing that here they're like if this rule is so strict you know just no one should marry you know imagine growing up as the disciples did in a culture where they were told that they could divorce their wife for any reason some of them may have entered their their marriage relationships thinking that no Jesus is saying this and the like whoa I didn't make that kind of commitment when I got married uh-huh and Jesus is now requiring that of them and that's a whole new way to think about marriage and they were shocked and you may have been reading this text for the first time maybe you've never heard Jesus's teaching on divorce and maybe you're shocked and that's understandable why because we live in the same culture that they lived in one that says that marriage is kind of disposable you know what if you don't if you don't get along with your wife or things just aren't working out or you're not happy or you want to go be with somebody else just get rid of her you know it's not that big of a deal Jesus is saying no marriage is a sacred bond joined by God and you're not to dissolve so my paraphrase that the disciples statement here is basically well if the rules are that strict then it's just better to be single we'll just be single Jesus responds and he doesn't tell them oh that's a stupid idea but he responds and and seems to imply in verse 11 that there are occasions in which it is good for a man to be single my wife is texting me I am NOT single let me check what she's saying okay marriage responsibilities we read about those in a second so where am I oh he seems to imply that there are occasions where it is good for a man to be single but it is possible only for those to whom and has been given are the words that he uses there so in other words that won't work for everyone in fact it won't work for most people in Genesis chapter 2 verse 18 we're told that it's not good for a man to be alone and so God made the woman this is obviously been in his design from the very beginning and yes Paul will later discuss some of the benefits of being single like you have more time to devote to the Kingdom of Heaven and Kingdom work rather than spending that time caring for a wife or caring for a husband but the majority of men and women are not given a disposition to singleness God made us that way and Jesus says that maybe that may be responding to the disciples that may be okay for some people but for the most most people it's not and in verse 12 he discusses us a little bit further and we're introduced to a new word that modern readers may or may not be familiar with and that's the term eunuch and eunuch is in a technical sense a reference to a man who has been castrated not pleasant I know Jesus is using this word talking about three groups of people and he's probably using this word both to talk about the technical definition of a eunuch but also those who are eunuchs in practice they don't involve themselves in any kind of sexual activity and these three groups that he's talking about are those to whom it has it has been given which he's just mentioned above only those can accept it who who have been given this gift this ability so these three groups are these eunuchs who have been so from birth that's probably somebody who's born with like a sexual deficiency and or or maybe who's someone someone who's born with no sexual interest rate they can live a life like that eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men now this is going to be your technical definition castrated male and that was that's really weird to hear today but in in these days eunuchs were often employed in the care of women in wealthy households for obvious reasons they had no sex drive also the third group eunuchs who had been who had made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven so some chose not to marry so that they could dedicate themselves entirely to the Lord's work and Paul talks a little bit about that but again those are kind of the exception rather than the rule 9 to 15 then children were brought to him that he might lay his hands on them and pray and the disciples rebuked the people the Jesus said let the little children come to me and do not hinder them for to such belong the kingdom of heaven and he laid his hands on them and went away in the Old Testament there are examples of people who are laying their hands on others and blessing them Genesis chapter 48 Jacob does it to Joseph children also Moses to Joshua I believe it is in Deuteronomy chapter 34 verse 9 in your notes the people respected Jesus and they knew that he had the authority in the words of God and so they were bringing their children to him in in hopes that he could give them some kind of spiritual blessing a spiritual benefit and contrary to the thoughts of the disciples Jesus actually welcomed them coming to him and he didn't run them off you know it's not uncommon for someone to think that important people don't have time for children that important people shouldn't be bothered with the nonsense of children because you know they have important things to do their time is valuable but here Jesus teaches his disciples that they have a lot to learn gonna change my notes but they had a lot to learn from these children and what children have to offer to adults is not nonsense but actually a lot of the truths that are important for the kingdom of heaven and if we think some application here if we think that our time is too valuable to be given to children then we've overestimated the value of our time and we think too we think more highly of ourselves than we actually should because Jesus time was the most valuable and he gave it away to children because they were important to him and were you remember Jesus spoke in chapter 18 about the importance of children the value of children and how they were very important when thinking about the kingdom of heaven verse 16 and 17 and behold a man came up to him saying teacher what good deed must I do to have eternal life and he said to him why do you ask me about what is good there is only one who is good if you would enter life keep the commandments we're gonna encounter this story three times in three different Gospels so we're not going to try to exhaust it all here but we're just gonna try to pull out a few highlights a young man approaches Jesus and he's sometimes referred to as the rich young ruler if you've ever heard about that in the Bible class that's probably what this is referring to a rich young ruin he asked Jesus what good deed do I need to do to it have eternal life we might say what do I need to go to heaven what I need to do to go to heaven what do I need to do to be saved and Jesus doesn't immediately respond to that question but he he asked the man why he approached him the way that he did in the words that he's uses he says why do you what do you ask me about what is good it doesn't tell the man that he's wrong for doing that in fact he goes on to answer the man's question so what is Jesus teaching at teaching this man why does he ask him that question I think in some of the other Gospels Jesus actually says why are you asking me is not good but God why do you call me good there is none good but God so what's Jesus trying to teach this man in starting off this conversation this way I think he's making it clear that only God has the authority to speak on things that are evil or things that are good and he's now going to speak authoritative ly on those things therefore what is the conclusion that he's leading this man towards it's that he's speaking with the authority of God it is that he is divine that his message is coming from God so this is a claim to deity let me give you an example maybe help you understand exactly maybe this will be helpful maybe not so let's say that you approached me with a question and I say to you or your question is this how do you send a rocket to the moon and I say back to you it would it would take an expert physicist to explain to you how to send a rocket to the moon and then I proceeded to answer your question what was I doing there I was basically saying it would take an expert physicist answer that question and I am an expert physicist so I'm gonna go on to answer your question Jesus is just on the same thing tell me what is good tell me what good thing I need to do to enter internal life who has the authority it would take God to tell you what you needed to do to enter eternal life I'm now going to speak with his authority and he explains it to him and that's what we get in the next couple of verses maybe that was helpful maybe not so in verse 17 the end of that he says if you would in her life keep the commandments and he said to him which ones jesus said you shall not murder you shall not commit adultery shall not steal shall not bear false witness honor your father and mother and you shall love your neighbor as yourself the young man said to him all these I have cats what do I still lack jesus said to him if you would be perfect go sell what you possess and give to the poor and you have treasure and heaven and come follow me when the young man heard this he went away sorrowful for he had great possessions Jesus tells the young man to keep the commandments of God if he wants to have eternal life and the young man says which ones Jesus gives him a list and he said yeah I've kept all of those commands so what am I still lacking is there anything that I'm still lacking Jesus tells them that there's one more thing that he needs to do in order to have eternal life he needs to sell all of his possessions give them to the poor and come follow Jesus and the response of the man is sad and even the young man was sad when he walked away it says that he went away sorrowful II because he wasn't willing to do that and we learned in verse 22 that the man was very rich he had a lot of stuff so why does Jesus ask this of this young man that's not you know it's not a blanket rule that all Christians have to sell everything they have and give it to the poor Jesus the Apostles they don't ask others to do that why does Jesus ask this person do that isn't that kind of a harsh requirement I think the reason he does that is because yes it's true that this young man had kept the commandments that he had given himself over to God in many ways but Jesus with his pinpoint accuracy being God was able to tell just like he said in Matthew chapter 6 verse 21 that this man's heart wasn't storing up treasure in heaven it was storing up treasure on earth and he knew that that's where his heart belong those possessions possessed his heart and as we've mentioned another text Jesus wasn't just looking for that external compliance like he kept the commandments you know what else do you want Jesus says once your heart to go along with that and that's what he requires of the man that's a hard ask but that's what he asked Jesus told him that if you would have treasure in heaven he must purge his life of the object of his greatest affection his riches and make God his heart's desire and for this man this you know we've talked about those versus plucking your eyes out if they cause you to sin cutting your hands off if they cause you to sin for this man that may have been the equivalent he thinks these things are vital in my life I can't get rid of these things he thinks they're so vital then he won't cut them out of his life and he needed to cut them out of his life because they possessed his heart and kept him from giving it entirely to the Lord so some application here I think it's it's likely that everyone around this guy probably thought he was a pretty righteous guy he kept all the commandments I mean he was pre honorable individual and he may have also believed that he was a godly man you know he seems honest we get that impression from all the gospel stories he was he was somewhat of an honest man but even though he and others thought that he was on the right track he believed that others believed that he still came to Jesus and asked him what else he needed to do and when he did Christ revealed an area of improvement that he had never recognized before told him about something he needed to give to God that he didn't realized he needed to give to God I think in the way of application we need to ask that same question we may appear to others maybe in our church family maybe our community maybe the people on YouTube that we are righteous and they may look at us as an example of righteousness because we keep the commands we may believe that we are on the right track like I think I'm doing what's right but we still need to go to God and ask him to reveal to us what we aren't seeing that's super important I think a lot of people to get to a certain point they think they're doing all right now I have made it and I think the quite least need be come to Jesus with the question that this man comes to Jesus when that is if I'm missing anything show me that's a hard thing to do because the again the application of what Jesus reveals may be really difficult but it's something that we need to do because I think we all probably have blind spots in our religious life light lives lifes and because of the way we were brought up because of the way we approach the because of our personal disposition towards things blind spots that you know maybe only God can see and we need to pray and be like reveal those to me so I can change them I may not even know I'm doing something wrong reveal them to me so they can be fixed and unlike this man we need to have a heart that's willing to make those changes when necessary another application you know this is another picture of the point that Jesus has been driving home and that is that he wants people's hearts and not just their external actions but in this case it's a little bit different because most of the time he's been making that case off the Pharisees right but here we have a man who is a little bit more easy he's an honest man at least that's the impression that we get mm-hmm and yet he's you know again he the point is still true he had the externals right but God wasn't satisfied till he had the entire man and that is true for us as well third application here conviction isn't obedience I think that many people who attend worship or study their Bibles they often walk away convicted and they feel spiritual about that conviction but often that conviction where is off now after a while without us actually making the changes and transformations that we need to in our lives and it's easy to feel spiritual when we are convicted but not practicing godliness but we are not practicing godliness unless there is a transformation following that conviction here we see a man here's what he's supposed to do he's sad about it like he's sad that he can't follow Christ like there's some conviction in his heart and yet he walks away he's convicted but he's not obedient and we can't allow ourselves to to be that way on a permanent basis you know and I hope that this man eventually came to his his wits and listen to what Jesus said and said you know I'm not gonna live for this stuff anymore I'm live for Christ I knew that's where I needed to go to get this question answered I'm gonna go back to to do what he finally says I hope that was the end result for this man verse 23 and 24 and Jesus said to his disciples truly I say to you only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven again I tell you 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 the statement is really important to spend some time thinking about in our personal lives not just looking at other people asking whether or not they need to learn this lesson Jesus doesn't try to sugarcoat how difficult it is and how the fact that riches and pursuit of riches have a powerful lure that lead many people away from the Kingdom of Heaven billions of people who have lived on this earth throughout time have devoted themselves to an accumulation of stuff like that's where their heart is that's what they're after that's what they're chasing and and they devoted themselves to it yet how many people have failed to learn the lesson that the rich of previous generations have taught us that money is not going to do the job money is not going to make you happy and once you die yours poor as the poorest guy on earth when he died Matthew chapter 16 verse 26 for what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul Jesus again is is driving from that point but also just coming out and saying riches are a really dangerous thing to possess it's not saying it's wrong to be rich he's saying there's a danger in it a serious danger in it and we need to be really careful about devoting ourselves to accumulation of things and money Jesus says it's easier for a camel to go through an eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven but then he says when the detectives when the disciples heard this they were greatly astonished saying who then can be saved so they were shocked did Jesus is just teaching on divorce now they're shocked again on his teaching on being rich and they're like who can be saved I mean this is wait this is really strict mm-hmm Jesus insures them Wow this is impossible it seems impossible to them this is possible for God and that's verse 26 but Jesus looked at them and said with man this is impossible but with God all things are possible so God can turn a man's affections from riches material things and turn it onto things that actually matter in order to escape the empty promises of the world that so many people are ensnared and allured by a man must be presented with something greater to fix his eyes on and God is the only one who can present anything greater that lasts beyond this temporal world for a man to fix his eyes on God is the only one capable of presenting greater promises only he can work in our hearts to ins hearts to let me only he can work in our hearts to ensnare us um that's not right only God could work in our hearts to help us escape the snares of the suicidal obsession that a lot of people have with wealth that's what I wanted to say but that's not what my notes say I'm gonna fix those because I'm gonna forget only he can work in our hearts to free us from a suicidal obsession with wealth excellent alright last couple verses here you may realize I'm going pretty quick here that's because I have to pick up my wife in like five minutes but again all this is in the notes I'm not skipping anything so I'm not I'm not cutting you short you can fire me fired Matthew to have 19 verse 27 and 29 then Peter said in reply see we have left everything and followed you what then will we have jesus said to them truly i say to you in the new world when the son of man will sit on his glorious throne you who have followed me will also sit on twelve Thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel and everyone who has left house houses or brothers or sisters or fathers and mother their children or lands for my sake will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life Peter asked Jesus which is kind of a funny comment in my thought since we've left everything like this guy he wouldn't since we've left everything what are we gonna get like what's what's our reward going to be and rather than rebuking Peter for patting himself on the back at least that's the way it appears he actually confirms that their will they will be rewarded in this new world in eternity when everything has made new and people like Peter and the rest of the Apostles will be rewarded for their devotion the Apostles and especially Peter didn't always get everything right but they had given their hearts over into the possession of the Lord mm-hmm at least the majority of them not Judas Jesus commends them here so instead of a rebuke that they're so used to hearing there's a he commends them in every one who sacrifices worldly affections to follow Christ will receive a hundredfold some of those are possession some of those are relationships with family things that we really value if we've sacrificed those things to pursue what God wants us to pursue we will be rewarded for that an exceptional reward is going to be our reward not just you no more not something we're earning but something exponentially better he says a hundredfold here reminds me of second Corinthians chapter 4 verse 17 where Paul writes for this light momentary affliction the things we suffer in this life is preparing us but he's preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison it's like we're suffering now but it's not anything compared to what we're gonna get that's what Jesus is saying here and there is an interesting part of this text where Jesus does seem to be promising the Apostles themselves with a specific reward of Honor we don't have a lot of details about that but he uses those terms you know you'll sit on twelve Thrones you'll judge the twelve tribes of the Israel I don't think the language there can is best understood least in my mind as that's a general promise to all believers but that that's something specific to the 12 apostles maybe because of their devotion their sacrifice their role in laying the foundation of the early church but they are going to receive a special reward because they have acted the way that all of the Jews should have acted and they sacrificed greatly for doing that he says that they're going to be the judges of the 12 tribes well we're gonna stand before Christ in the end in judgment so how will these men act as judges I think one way to understand that is their lives will be held up as kind of the standard the benchmark for the way that the Jews should have accepted Jesus but that the rebellious Jews didn't accept Jesus and they're gonna be shown like look these men were able to see the beauty of Christ and responded properly to it you don't have an excuse for not doing the same especially those who knew the Scriptures so well and so in that sense their lives will be a judge of those you know their word Elias countrymen who would not accept Christ and again this text doesn't provide a whole lot of specifics like we're kind of interested you know something you're curious about what does that mean that they're gonna have 12 Thrones are they gonna be like super special or something but not a whole lot is given just seems that they will receive a specific from a place of honor and then the last verse but many who are first will be last and the last first so on earth it's the rich that are first they're highly respected by the world they have privileges that are not given other people on earth those who live those whose lives are not devoted to material gain and often considered let me try that again those whose lives are not devoted to material gain are often not held in high esteem and they're considered last or of low social status and what he's saying is in heaven in this new world the standard is going to be reversed those who devoted their lives to material riches and men's praise will be separated from the glory of God but those who gave up their lives lost their lives here on earth to pursue the things of God they are going to participate and be honored with the glory of Christ and be highly exalted so that's what he's getting out there in that text that's the end of chapter 19 a little bit faster than our typical time but good stuff good stuff so go back and study the divorce issues and really everything and and try to get your head wrapped around those maybe look at some of the discussion surrounding some of the verses in first Corinthians chapter 7 will be there eventually but make sure that we're not just pulling that stuff out make sure it's in context when we're studying it and again looking at the rich young ruler there's applications that we need to make there as well so I've got to go cuz I'm supposed to be picking on my wife in ten minutes and that's all there is to that

Channel: 2BeLikeChrist

Views: 482

Rating: 4.826087 out of 5

Keywords: Bible study, matthew, Jesus, God, Christ, Holy Spirit, matthew bible study, matthew study, piper, bible study with me, bible study for beginners, how to study the bible, what is the bible, mathew 19, mathew nineteen, mathew chapter 19, chapter 19, mathew, matt 19:9, mat 19 9, matt 19 9, divorce, remarriage, Jesus teaching on divorce, teaching on divorce, the rich young ruler, rich young ruler, camel to go through the eye of a needle, 2BeLikeChrist, be like Jesus, be like Christ

Id: E6aW2mOuZDk

Length: 49min 26sec (2966 seconds)

Published: Thu May 07 2020