Luke 18:18-23 - The Rich Young Ruler
18 Now a certain ruler asked Him, saying, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”19 So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God.
20 “You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Do not steal,’ ‘Do not bear false witness,’ ‘Honor your father and your mother.’ ”[fn]
21 And he said, “All these things I have kept from my youth.”
22 So when Jesus heard these things, He said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”
23 But when he heard this, he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich.
Main Topics/Questions
Please consider the following topics/questions as you listen to the sermon:1. How does the story about the interaction between Jesus Christ and a person known as the rich young ruler illustrate the need for good Bible study habits as well as good Biblical teaching and preaching? Why is this important?
2. Why are there some slight differences in the story told in Matthew, Mark, and Luke? What are those finer details? How is the meaning still very much the same?
3. In what way was this man a ruler?
4. What was the rich young ruler’s question? How important is this question?
5. What is the big assumption in the question that can be problematic? How do you know what is truly good?
6. What does the secular world try to tell us about what is good?
7. Why does Jesus answer the way he does ? Why doesn’t Jesus quote commandment number ten?
8. What are the dangerous assumptions in the young ruler's statement: “Teacher, all these things I have kept from my youth up; what am I still lacking?” How do we make the same assumptions today?
9. How is commandment number ten (do not covet) different from commandments 5 - 9? How does it deal with our thoughts in regards to other commandments?
10. What is the biggest problem the rich young ruler has?
11. What does the response of Jesus to the young ruler's statement (correcting him) show us about true love?
12. The gospel only requires repentance of sin and faith in Christ, so why does Jesus ask the rich young ruler to sell all that he has?
13. How does this apply to us? Does Jesus want us to sell all that we have?
14. What are examples of things we might need to do to bring us to a place of repentance and faith?
Conclusion:
Don’t make the mistake of the rich young ruler. Because the three Gospels record that after he heard what Jesus said he became very sad, his facial expression fell, and he went away grieved, for he was extremely rich owning much property. The rich young ruler weighed his current lifestyle in balance against eternal life in God’s heaven and decided that his best life now was better than eternal life in paradise in the future, but he was dead wrong. The problem is the rich young ruler’s mistake is very common. You and I love our sins and we don’t want to give them up even though they hurt us. We convince ourselves that life in the pig sty is good and we put any thoughts of death and eternity out of our minds. We don’t think about things like the fact that George Washington will have been dead for 220 years this coming December. George Washington has already been dead more three times longer than he was alive. How much longer does he have to go?Wouldn’t you agree that the place where George Washington is spending eternity is much more important than how he lived his life? And if that’s true for George Washington it’s also true for you. Where will you go? Will you experience eternal life in heaven or eternal death in hell? The rich young ruler made the wrong choice while the ones who came for baptism today made the right one. What about you? No one knows when death will come for them.
Are you safe in the hands of Christ?
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Do you feel an emptiness in your life? Are you seeking answers but don't know where to look? Have you ever wondered if you are good enough? Please read the summary of the gospel message, "Four Things You Need to Know About God"
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