The #1 REASON Many Christians CAN'T Experience ETERNAL LIFE | Mark 10 | Beyond the Words

what is the number one reason most people can't have eternal life well in this video i'm going to show you what jesus said is one of the biggest if not the biggest reason that people cannot experience heaven something that almost presents his own disciples from entering you'll also see a question posed to jesus that almost gets him killed and a moment where a blind man actually sees better than jesus's own disciples all of this and more as we dive into chapter 10 of mark's gospel in this episode of beyond the words so as we enter mark 10 jesus has just endured a series of difficult interactions with his disciples and in case you missed my video on chapter 9 you can find the link right here so in the wake of this mark tells us that jesus is leaving capernaum and goes to judea on the other side of the jordan now to be more specific what mark is telling us is that jesus is going to a region called perea which is ruled by herod antipas and this matters because when was the last time that we heard about antipas it was when he had john the baptist killed as a result of a situation surrounding herod's divorce from his wife in order to marry a woman who herself was already married for someone listening to mark's gospel from start to finish this would have been fresh in their minds which is good because it's incredibly relevant to what's happening here you see when jesus arrives in this region some pharisees approach him and ask him a question about divorce they ask him is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife now as soon as they ask this it quickly becomes clear that they're not asking because they don't have the answer in the next verse jesus asks them what moses said what the torah says and they respond by quoting deuteronomy 24. so it's not that they don't know the answer it's that they're trying to trick jesus and what quickly becomes apparent is that these pharisees are throwing jesus into the middle of a very heated debate you see within the jewish community this question about divorce was a hotly contested issue there were actually two primary schools of jewish thought at the time of jesus when it came to divorce the school of shamai and the school of hillel shamai and hillel were two prominent jewish rabbis who guided much of jewish thinking in that period and on this particular issue these two schools definitely saw things differently hillel took a more liberal approach right he interpreted moses teaching to suggest that a man could divorce his wife for any reason that was considered unseemly he even said that a wife ruining a meal was sufficient grounds for divorce shamai on the other hand was more conservative his understanding of sufficient grounds for divorce was much more narrow but there's more because even beyond shamai and hillel there was another opinion at that time that is especially relevant in this moment and that's the opinion of the essenes these scenes held a very strong opinion about divorce right they drew from passages like genesis 1 27 which says so god created human beings in his own image in the image of god he created them male and female he created them and genesis 7 9 which says they entered the boat in pairs male and female just as god commanded noah and deuteronomy 17 17 where it says the king must not take many wives for himself because they will turn his heart away from the lord and he must not accumulate large amounts of wealth in silver and gold for himself we even see jesus quote the genesis 1 passage connecting himself to the essenes and in doing so the deuteronomy 17 passage becomes incredibly relevant as you might have noticed the deuteronomy 17 passage addresses marriage specifically in reference to the king and this is where the location of jesus's teaching becomes especially relevant he's teaching in perea the territory of herod antipas the king who just had john the baptist killed as a result of his outspoken criticism of herod's divorce and remarriage do you see what's happening here the pharisees are setting a trap they're not just trying to discredit jesus get him to pick a side that might ruin his popularity or appear to disagree with scripture they're very intentionally asking him about marriage and divorce in the region where herod lives they're trying to get him killed they're trying to set him up for the same fate as john but jesus doesn't take the bait rather than pick a side he directs their attention back to scripture to what god originally intended he doesn't dive into the tabloid gossip of the time he points people back to the word of god and he also does something that we really don't want to miss rather than just answer their question jesus himself questions the motives of the pharisees he calls them out for everyone to hear jesus says that the only reason they're even bringing this up is because their hearts were hard the reason moses had to make accommodations for divorce in the first place was because of people like them people with hard hearts and mark wants us to notice this phrase he's used it before in this gospel hard hearts are meant to remind people of pharaoh when he wouldn't free the israelite people from slavery they're meant to remind us of the disciples when they didn't recognize jesus as he walked on water in the midst of a storm and here jesus is using it against the pharisees it's this reminder that people with hard hearts are people who get in the way of god's will and that's what these pharisees are doing here they're trying to get rid of jesus and get in the way of god's will but he exposes their game he calls them out and he makes it clear that he's not playing this game god's will is going to unfold as god desires it and they aren't going to get in the way of that and so very quickly we shift from people who don't believe in jesus people who get in the way of the gospel in the kingdom to people who reflect it you see right after we see an encounter between jesus and the pharisees we witness an encounter between jesus and children and mark intends for this moment to feel very familiar and here's why imagine you're reading mark's gospel without chapter and verse indicators right if that were the case then as you're reading you wouldn't realize that you'd left chapter 9 and entered chapter 10 you just be reading from one event to the next and there's a good chance that you probably wouldn't have stopped reading where chapter nine ended you'd have just kept going and if you did it would have been a lot easier to notice the connections between these two chapters you'd have remembered how just a moment ago in chapter 9 jesus was rebuking the disciples for their pride and desire to be great and in order to teach them a lesson it says he took a little child whom he placed among them taking the child in his arms he said to them whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me and shortly after that he says if anyone causes one of these little ones those who believe in me to stumble it would be better for them if a large millstone were hung around their neck and they were thrown into the sea so then when mark tells us in chapter 10 that people were bringing little children to jesus for him to place his hands on them but the disciples rebuked them the disciples reaction would immediately have seemed very confusing i mean why would they stop children didn't jesus just highlight children didn't he say that when you welcome a child in my name you welcome me what are they doing but this is kind of par for the course for the disciples isn't it i mean throughout mark's gospel they just never really seem to understand you almost get this foreboding sense that the disciples will never understand at least not until it's too late and it's by reflecting on jesus comments to his disciples in chapter 9 that we can better understand what he's saying to them in chapter 10. you see in chapter 10 jesus says truly i tell you anyone who will not receive the kingdom of god like a little child will never enter it and with mark 9 fresh in our minds it's easier to see what jesus is saying because not only did jesus talk about children in the last chapter he also talked about the kingdom of god immediately after his statement about causing a little one to stumble jesus made a series of strange extreme commands he said if your hand causes you to sin cut it off if your foot causes you to sin cut it off if your eye causes you to sin cut it out for it is better to be maimed and enter the kingdom of heaven than to have everything and enter hell and what we realized when when he said this was that all of this is to remind the disciples about the mission that they're responsible for right the mission of growing god's kingdom nothing is worse than getting in the way of that jesus is trying to help them to realize that their pride was getting in the way of their ministry so jesus calls them to be humble like a child you see at that time children had no status in society this is the level of humility that the disciples are supposed to exhibit humble faith and devotion to jesus this is how jesus wants them to be this is how they experience the kingdom this is how the kingdom grows through them and it's here that we realize that we are in the middle of an even bigger conversation that jesus is trying to have with his disciples he's been trying to teach this to them for two chapters now so as we continue on in chapter 10 jesus continues to spend quite a lot of time trying to explain to his disciples what the kingdom of god is like and how they enter it for instance right after jesus's rebuke of his disciples we see a rich man approaching jesus with a question about eternal life he asks what must i do to inherit eternal life and when the man asks about eternal life he's really asking about the kingdom right he's asking what he must do to experience this and so jesus responds by saying you know the commandments do not murder do not commit adultery do not steal do not give false testimony do not defraud honor your father and mother and the man basically looks at jesus and says i've done all that i followed all of those commands my entire life and notice how mark describes jesus reaction he says that jesus loved him in other words mark wants us to know that jesus believes this man he believes that this man is sincere that he truly does want to experience the kingdom of god he's been a faithful torah follower his entire life his desires are honorable but then notice what jesus says next he says you lack one thing go sell everything you have and give it to the poor in other words there's only one more thing you should do get rid of all of your riches now if you're one of jesus disciples this is where the pieces of the past few events all of a sudden begin to come together you realize that jesus is telling this rich man to become like a child i mean think about it right jesus keeps making these references to children children at that time were people of no status and that's exactly who jesus is telling this rich man to become he's telling him to get rid of all of his wealth to get rid of all of his possessions to get rid of everything that gives him status and what is it that the disciples were just arguing about in the last chapter status they wanted to know who was the greatest and what jesus is trying to show them and this man is that being a disciple of jesus means giving up our status surrendering everything to follow jesus and just in case that isn't clear look at the very last thing that jesus says to the rich man he says sell all of your possessions and then follow me follow me the phrase we've heard jesus used before the phrase every rabbi would use when inviting someone to be his disciple jesus is saying being my disciple experiencing the kingdom it means a willingness to surrender everything the world promises you so that you can experience everything that i'm promising you and it's when we understand this that jesus's next lesson makes so much sense before that though please take a moment to go down below and click the subscribe button and the thumbs up to say that you're enjoying this video this causes this video to be shared with even more people and allows us to have an even greater impact so thank you so much for your help with this now back to the lesson so as this rich man is walking away jesus says children i notice that word children see see how it all ties together he says children it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of god now here's the interesting thing about this verse this verse troubles a lot of us right either we write it off and we assume it's talking about someone else or it freaks us out i mean it's like when i show up for lunch at a church person's house and all that they're serving is cold plates right i mean like i start sweating my hair starts falling out nobody can tell but i know i start looking over my shoulder and planning a way out of this disaster because i know that some severe judgment is about to rain down upon me and for some of us that's how we feel about this passage it messes with us i mean jesus seems to be saying that rich people can't get into heaven right and for most of us this seems like it could be the number one reason that we can't have eternal life i mean we might love jesus we might believe in him and follow him every day but if what it seems like jesus is saying is true then doesn't this mean that we are all doomed i mean many of us are rich compared to most of the world we're definitely rich compared to people at the time of jesus so does this mean that we need to sell everything in order to get into heaven i mean is that the one thing holding us back well here's something that might help remember i said that the common thread here is that jesus is trying to help the disciples understand what the kingdom of god is so in order to understand what he's saying we have to stop thinking like people living in the 21st century we need to start thinking like jewish people living in the first century and here's what i mean when we think of the kingdom of god today we tend to think of the kingdom of god as a as a place right but but that's not actually how people saw it at the time of jesus a first century jewish understanding saw the kingdom of god as a as a state of things in other words the kingdom of god wasn't so much a physical location the kingdom of god was understood to be the presence of god's reign god's power god's authority god's kingdom was a world in which god ruled over everything where every person bowed to worship god where god took priority in the hearts of people and so when jesus teaches us to pray thy kingdom come he's really telling us to earnestly desire a world in which god reigns in the hearts and the lives of everything and everyone where we all serve the lord as disciples of jesus and that is the mindset behind what jesus is saying here jesus is saying that it's harder for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to allow god to fully reign in his or her life and in the context of this story that makes so much more sense i mean just think about what jesus says in matthew's gospel he says no one can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or he will be devoted to one and despise the other you cannot serve god and wealth this is the challenge for those with wealth even relative wealth even people who would never say that they're wealthy but certainly have plenty of money to buy the things they want fill their homes with things they don't need or even for some buy storage units for the things that they can't fit jesus is saying people in this position actually have it hard and i know that might sound crazy but when it comes to a relationship with jesus they have it hard because of their wealth it will always be that much harder for god to truly reign in their hearts for them to truly rely upon god and not money to provide their security or to trust that god will provide for them rather than money or to trust that god will satisfy all their needs not what money can buy in the end jesus is saying this is the number one thing that can keep us from experiencing the kingdom of god this is the number one thing the number one threat to many of us that could keep us from experiencing eternal life and remember when i talk about eternal life in the kingdom of god i'm not talking about heaven as we typically imagine it this place i'm talking about the kingdom as jesus is describing it this kingdom of god this reign of god in our lives this is what's at stake because when this is how we live when wealth has this kind of influence and control in our lives we can never fully surrender to jesus our hearts will always be trying to figure out which master to serve and when you think about it he's absolutely right i mean even i struggle with this the reason my house is full of too much stuff the reason i have to intentionally purge my house of extra clothes or items that i just don't use are the reason why some people buy storage units to store all of the stuff that they can't fit in their house it's because at some point we bought those things out of a search for satisfaction maybe we thought they would make our house feel complete or they would bring us joy in the moment but in that moment we risked looking to what money could buy rather than what only god can provide and it's those moments that threaten our ability to experience the kingdom of god which is exactly what happened to the rich young man and it's what jesus is worried will happen to his disciples in these recent events the disciples have proven that they are really missing the point of what all of this is about they really don't understand what the kingdom of god is or how to experience it in fact not long after jesus finishes teaching them about this they do it again a little while later james and john two of jesus closest disciples part of his inner three disciples who should have understood what jesus was teaching better than anyone these two suddenly come up to jesus and they ask him to allow them to sit at his right and his left in his glory now at first glance this question might seem rather random and confusing right why do they suddenly ask this and really what do they even mean by his glory but when you look back a few verses between when jesus teaches about the rich man and when they ask this question jesus predicts his death and resurrection for the third time and as he begins to make this declaration he makes an interesting statement he says we are going up to jerusalem this statement means something to james and john when jesus says this they assume that this is the moment when jesus will take his throne you see most people at that time believe that the messiah would be an actual king one who would come in like a warrior and take the throne in jerusalem this is why james and john asked to sit at his right and is left in glory they want to be in positions of honor when he takes the throne again jesus's disciples are all about honor and glory jesus just finished talking about how in order to be his disciple a person has to surrender everything including their status and the things that give them status and yet as soon as they hear that they're going to jerusalem they can't wait to be first and and the disconnect is so obvious i mean he's just rebuked them in chapter 9 for seeking greatness he has spent practically all of his time since then talking about being like children and the overall vision of the kingdom of god and yet they still don't get it they're trying to be first among all of the others after he just said that the first will be last but here's the thing before we get too mad at james and john mark makes it clear that they're not the only ones who still don't get it he tells us that all of the other disciples get mad at james and john for this they all want to be first and so again jesus goes back to the same lesson about humility and the kingdom and you almost get the sense that jesus is preparing them for something he needs them to hear and to understand this lesson he keeps teaching them the same thing over and over and over again i mean have you ever felt like god was doing that to you like god just wasn't getting through like you kept learning the same lesson kept going through the same experience but no matter how many times it happened you kept making the same mistake kept making the same wrong choice and when you look back now you're amazed that jesus had that much patience with you is there anything god's been trying to say to you recently that you just aren't getting right a lesson that keeps popping up something you know you need to change but you're just too stubborn or too scared or too stuck in that sin jesus might feel like a broken record in these last two chapters but mark's trying to make an important point very clear we have to surrender everything to follow jesus we have to be willing to be the servants not the served it's like john the baptist says in john chapter 3 jesus must become greater i must become less this is a critical lesson for discipleship and to drive all of this home mark tells us of one more event as jesus and his disciples approach jericho which is a city not far outside of jerusalem they see a blind man named bartimaeus now bartimaeus's name is a really interesting name bartimaeus literally means son of timaeus but in hebrew names have meanings and timaeus derives from the hebrew word for unclean which means that bartimaeus actually means son of filth which is exactly how this man is treated when the man cries out to jesus mark tells us that the people command him to be quiet but that doesn't really do justice to the word that mark uses mark uses the greek word seo pow which is really the greek word for shut your mouth or shut up i mean people don't think that this man is worthy of talking to jesus which let's be honest is the opposite of everything that jesus has just been saying and so jesus tells these people who are telling this blind man to shut up to bring the blind man to him jesus is going to have a private audience with this man that these people want to keep silent and ultimately because of jesus's command to bring bartimaeus to him these people who think that they're better than bartimaeus are going to end up serving bartimaeus by escorting him to jesus and and what mark really wants to point out here is the difference between the crowd the disciples and bartimaeus just like in chapter 8 the blind man is used as an object lesson for the disciples those who have their sight are blind to what jesus is really saying but bartimaeus a blind man is the only one who understands who jesus really is he's the one who understands that jesus cares enough to listen to him he's the one who truly believes that only jesus not power not money not prestige but only jesus can truly heal him and he's the only one aside from peter who realizes that jesus is the son of david the awaited messiah the one who brings god's kingdom to earth which leaves us all with a question to wrestle with are we blind or do we see in chapter one jesus made it clear that we are going to have to make a choice by the end of this gospel jesus said the time has come the kingdom of god has come near repent and believe the good news that's what this whole gospel has been about jesus is ushering god's kingdom god's reign into this world jesus is inviting us to allow god to reign in our hearts to experience the kingdom but in the end we have to make a choice who are we going to trust to save us will it be caesar like we saw in mark 1 will it be money like with the rich man will it be power and honor like with the disciples what in this world are we believing will save us what do we truly believe will bring us salvation what will truly allow us to experience the kingdom of god and ultimately the question is will it be jesus i want to challenge you to wrestle with that question today i want to challenge you to ask yourself are you truly allowing jesus to be your savior or do you spend your life relying more upon money and control and other people's approval are you truly surrendered to jesus are you still holding some things back is jesus really your lord or does something else or someone else really have that power and that control in your life and today i want to invite you to let go of those things to surrender your pride to surrender your status to surrender your sin to surrender your desire for control to surrender your status to surrender your need for anything else other than jesus to give you life and i want to invite you to allow jesus to truly be your savior and your lord and so if this is something that you want if this is something that god is stirring in your heart then i want to invite you to pray with me now after this prayer i'm going to give you some next steps that you can take that will help you to understand this passage even better and grow even more in your relationship with jesus but for right now let's pray lord jesus we confess to you that too often we are like the disciples we just don't get it your message just doesn't sink in with us we love you we follow you but we still hold back we desire power and glory we look to wealth and possessions to make us happy and give us status we trust in other things to save us but in the end lord we know that the only one who can save us is you and so we ask jesus that you will forgive our sins and that you will help us to be more faithful help us to trust you more help us to surrender everything in our lives to you so that you and you alone are our savior and our lord it's in your holy name that we pray amen okay now before you go here are a few next steps that you can take to get even more out of this lesson first go back and read mark 9 and mark 10. in many ways i think that these two chapters should really be one chapter right the threads between them and the connections are so strong jesus is continuing one long lesson to his disciples and i want you to be able to go back and see that next pray about what it is that you're holding back in your relationship with jesus what are you trusting in more than jesus what lesson has god been teaching you that just hasn't sunk in yet what sin are you still holding on to i want to challenge you to surrender those things to jesus third subscribe to my newsletter where i will send you content each month that takes you beyond the video and beyond the words helping you to learn things that i couldn't include in a video like this as well as new content that opens your eyes to see things that you didn't see in scripture and you can actually find a link to subscribe to that right down in the description finally check out this video right here where you can see my teachings on mark 9 and see how all of the things we've talked about today fit together in mark's gospel thank you so much for watching have a great week and god bless

Channel: Brandon Robbins

Views: 413,423

Keywords: bible study, the chosen, the chosen tv, the chosen season 1, the chosen season 2, deep dive, gospel of mark, mark 1, mark 2, mark 3, mark 4, mark 5, mark 6, mark 7, mark 8, mark 9, mark 10, mark 11, mark 12, mark 13, mark 16, jesus, Jesus christ, read the bible, understand the bible, how to read the bible, how to understand the bible, bible study with me, bible study tips, bible study lessons, Mark 5 Bible tudy, beyond the word, brandon robbins the chosen

Id: rmvvR-vXNwo

Length: 30min 46sec (1846 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 26 2022