Latest / The Bible Study Podcast / #951 - Luke 18:18-30 - A Rich Ruler

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#951 - Luke 18:18-30 - A Rich Ruler · The Bible Study Podcast

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Speaker 1: Life Audio The Bible Study Podcast, Episode nine fifty one. Today,
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Speaker 1: The Bible Study Podcast continues the study of the Book
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Speaker 1: of Luke with more from chapter eighteen. Welcome to the
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Speaker 1: Bible Study Podcast. I'm your host, Chris Christensen. We're going
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Speaker 1: to continue on with chapter eighteen with the Rich and
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Speaker 1: the Kingdom of God. But first a word from this
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Speaker 1: sponsor The Rich and the Kingdom of God. A certain
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Speaker 1: ruler asked him, good teacher, what must I do to
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Speaker 1: inherit eternal life? Why do you call me good? Jesus answered,
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Speaker 1: no one is good except God alone. You know the commandments.
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Speaker 1: You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you
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Speaker 1: shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, Honor
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Speaker 1: your father and mother. All these things I have kept
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Speaker 1: since I was a boy. He said. Then Jesus this
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Speaker 1: and said to him, you still lack one thing. Sell
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Speaker 1: everything you have and give to the poor, and you
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Speaker 1: will have treasure in heaven. Then come follow me. When
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Speaker 1: he heard this, he became very sad because he was
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Speaker 1: very wealthy. Jesus looked at him and said, how hard
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Speaker 1: it is for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God. Indeed,
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Speaker 1: it is easier for a camel to go through the
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Speaker 1: eye of a needle than for someone who is rich
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Speaker 1: to enter the Kingdom of God. Those who heard this asked,
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Speaker 1: who then can be saved. Jesus replied, what is impossible
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Speaker 1: with man is possible with God. Peter said to him,
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Speaker 1: we have left all we had to follow you. Truly,
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Speaker 1: I tell you, Jesus said to them, no one who
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Speaker 1: has left home or wife, or brothers or sisters, or
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Speaker 1: parents or children for the sake of the Kingdom of
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Speaker 1: God will fail to receive many times as much in
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Speaker 1: this age and in the age to come eternal life.
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Speaker 1: So the question here is what about rich people. Now,
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Speaker 1: this isn't going to be a shocking story for some
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Speaker 1: of you who've grown up in the church, who've heard
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Speaker 1: stories like this that are in the Bible. But at
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Speaker 1: the time, remember the story of Job, right, the story
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Speaker 1: of Job, which is Job is a righteous person and
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Speaker 1: God has richly blessed him, and therefore he is rich.
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Speaker 1: And then when Job loses everything, people assume that he
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Speaker 1: has screwed up. What have you done wrong? And their
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Speaker 1: chapters and chapters in Job where his friends are trying
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Speaker 1: to convince him he must have done something wrong. That
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Speaker 1: God took away all the stuff, all the kids, all
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Speaker 1: the everything he had. That God blesses those who are
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Speaker 1: right with riches, and that God curses those who do
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Speaker 1: wrong and take stuff away. Is the understanding of the
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Speaker 1: people at the time. Put that into the context here
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Speaker 1: of Jesus saying it's hard to be rich and get
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Speaker 1: into the kingdom of God. That's counter cultural. They were
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Speaker 1: there thinking, is the opposite, that if I am rich,
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Speaker 1: it must be because I'm right with God. Okay, So
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Speaker 1: that's the context here for this whole conversation. So man
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Speaker 1: comes up, good teacher, what do I need to do
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Speaker 1: to inherit eternal life? Now there's already a Bible, or
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Speaker 1: there's already the Torah, the and there's already the Talmud,
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Speaker 1: there's already books and writings and things. And so he says, well,
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Speaker 1: first of all, why did you call me good? No
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Speaker 1: one is good except God alone. Now Jesus is God alone.
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Speaker 1: So that's an interesting little aside here. But then he says,
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Speaker 1: you know the commandments, and he names some but not all,
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Speaker 1: of the ten commandments. You shall not commit adultery, you
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Speaker 1: shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not
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Speaker 1: give false testimony, honor your father and your mother. But
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Speaker 1: he is skipping some of the ten commandments in his list, right,
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Speaker 1: And the person says, I've kept all these since I
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Speaker 1: was a boy. I've done all these things. What is
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Speaker 1: the ones that he skipped? He skipped I am the Lord,
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Speaker 1: your God, have no other gods before me. And he
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Speaker 1: skipped all of the ones about coveting, right, don't covet
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Speaker 1: your neighbor's house, don't cover your neighbor's wife, don't cover
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Speaker 1: all the things. The coveting having to do a lot
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Speaker 1: with where your heart is relative to the stuff you
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Speaker 1: have or don't have. And obviously the first commandment love
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Speaker 1: the world your God with all your heart, your soul,
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Speaker 1: your mind, your strength. That put nothing else before God
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Speaker 1: apparently is an issue with this man that Jesus knew.
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Speaker 1: And you know, all of this is implied here by
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Speaker 1: what's going on, because Jesus says you still lack one thing.
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Speaker 1: There's only one thing that's getting in the way of
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Speaker 1: you getting into the Kingdom of God, of you having
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Speaker 1: eternal life, of you inheriting eternal life. All you have
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Speaker 1: is that one thing. Sell everything you have and give
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Speaker 1: it to the poor and come follow me. You'll have
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Speaker 1: a treasure in heaven. That's the one thing in your
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Speaker 1: life that is getting in the way is everything you
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Speaker 1: have now. Jesus does not require this of every rich
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Speaker 1: person he talks to in the New Testament. He is
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Speaker 1: being supported by some of the rich women, like Mary
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Speaker 1: of Magdala and by Joanna. You know, he ends up
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Speaker 1: in a briefly in a rich man's tomb Joseph Verimythea.
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Speaker 1: But he does with this man say this is your problem.
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Speaker 1: Your problem is you've got riches and it's in your way.
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Speaker 1: And the people respond with, oh my gosh, how is
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Speaker 1: this possible? When Jesus says it's easier for a camel
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Speaker 1: to go through the eye of a needle than for
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Speaker 1: someone rich to enter the Kingdom of God, this particular
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Speaker 1: man walks away sad because he's very wealthy. He walks
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Speaker 1: away sad because he can't do it. We would believe
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Speaker 1: it doesn't say that he does this, and the implication
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Speaker 1: is that he is sad because he can't give it up.
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Speaker 1: It is an addiction that this is more important to
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Speaker 1: him than following Jesus. And that's really the question for
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Speaker 1: us is it's not a question of how much do
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Speaker 1: you have. There's no line over which you go and
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Speaker 1: that now it's too much. That's not the problem. You
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Speaker 1: can have nothing and still have money be a problem
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Speaker 1: in your life if it's all you're searching for, right,
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Speaker 1: if it's all you pursue, and if it's the most
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Speaker 1: important thing, whether you have it or don't have it
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Speaker 1: is not the question. But a lot of people who
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Speaker 1: are rich got there because it was the most important thing.
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Speaker 1: And most important thing is a problem with that first
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Speaker 1: commandment of nothing else is more important than God. So
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Speaker 1: the question for us is what is our attitude towards
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Speaker 1: the things that we have? First of all, are we coveting?
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Speaker 1: Are we always looking at what other people have and
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Speaker 1: comparing that I don't have enough because I don't have
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Speaker 1: what they have, whether it be their stuff, their servants,
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Speaker 1: their maid servants, their their wife, their house, their car,
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Speaker 1: whatever it is that's not good, or whether it's just
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Speaker 1: that it's more important. When you have to make those
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Speaker 1: choices between should I earn more money, or should I
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Speaker 1: spend time with people I love? Should I spend time
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Speaker 1: with God? Should I go to church? All of those
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Speaker 1: sort of decisions that you make show where our heart
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Speaker 1: is and what's the most important thing to us. And
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Speaker 1: at least with this ruler that was a problem, and
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Speaker 1: certainly with some of us that's a problem, or certainly
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Speaker 1: at some times that's a problem. Love the Lord, your God,
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Speaker 1: with your whole heart, your soul, your mind, and your strength,
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Speaker 1: and love your neighbor as yourself. And with that, we're
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Speaker 1: going to end this episode of the Bible Study Podcast.
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Speaker 1: If you have any questions, set an email to Chris
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Speaker 1: two x at gmail dot com, or better yet, leave
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Speaker 1: a comment on this episode at the Bible Study podcast
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Speaker 1: dot com. And thanks so much for listening. I want
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Speaker 1: to take just a second to thank the team at
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