Give Up Everything?

This study is on the hard saying of Jesus about having to give up everything (Mark 10:17-31) Mark 10:21.

This is an amazing illustration of evangelism? Is this the Jesus method of evangelism?

1. With what method are you most familiar?
2. Which method appears to be most effective?
3. What is the difference between sharing your story and sharing his story?

Imagine this evangelism encounter as a dream come true. The man point blank asks how to be saved!

1. Jesus does not just hand him a tract and get him to pray the sinner’s prayer.
2. Jesus does not correct the man’s theology, good works don’t save.
3. This man had not come to Jesus to hear him say that keeping the commandments was the way to eternal life (Leviticus 18:5).

Why does Jesus tell him he can be saved by keeping the commandments?

1. Jesus doesn’t mention belief or faith or grace, he says to keep the Law.
2. Jesus seems to want to make it harder on the guy: he had not done enough.
3. When was the last time you felt that there was always just one more thing that you need to do to be saved or please Jesus?
4. In your theology, what is the relationship between what you believe and what you do?

Jesus said there was one more thing… but it was too hard for this guy to accept. (Read more about the Rich Young Ruler).

Why would the disciples be amazed at Jesus’ answer?

1. The concept of God’s blessing: health, wealth, children, goats, all meant blessing.
2. Those sick and poor, not so much.
3. It would have made more sense for Jesus to say, “Blessed are the rich, blessed are the healthy, blessed are the comfortable.”
   • How do you define blessing? What about Jesus’ definition of blessing?
   • How does Christian persecution and martyrdom fit in to this definition?
   • How reliable is a world with a works/reward theology?

What must I DO to be saved? It is not about doing, it is about receiving. Trust in the finished work of Jesus on the cross.

Notice that Jesus loved him before he asked him to do anything (Mark 10:21).

1. Do you sometimes feel that Jesus will only love you after you follow him?
2. Do you feel he is judging your performance; he will love you more if you do better?
3. When you are well connected to Jesus, how is the rest of your life affected?
4. In what ways do you feel you must prove yourself to God? How does that reflect other relationships in your life? (do you have to continually prove yourself to your friends)?

Let’s check our identity.

1. What three things do you generally tell others about yourself?
2. How important is career development in your identity?
3. How many of your friends really know you, not just facts about you?

The Point: who am I? What are the markers that define who I am?

1. This is the question Jesus was trying to get this man to ask? Who am I?
2. People identified him the same us we do… the rich, young, ruler, but is that who he really was?
3. Jesus saw much more, his core. Selling all he had would have stripped him of his identity.
4. Only by stripping these away could he identify himself the way Jesus did.
5. This question can only be answered at the point of crisis. When something is attached to your core and is taken out (health, achievement, wealth, career, family, life)… Who are you when all these are threatened?

In a previous story (Mark 10:13) Jesus says that these nobodies had a quality that was kingdom-worthy, something that escaped the rich man and the prosperous members of society. This is what we know, NOBODIES…

1. Don’t come to God and offer contributions.
2. Don’t tell God who they are.
3. Don’t have a claim to their lives.
4. Don’t rely on trivial marks of identity.

Key truth:

1. Paul tells us that giving all we have to the poor is of no use, if we don’t have love (1 Corinthians 13:3).
2. Matthew 19:21, “if you wish to be complete…” Perhaps Jesus was testing the man’s devotion because Jesus did not ask all of his followers to do this.
3. What could he have sold?
   • Sell your self-righteousness.
   • Sell your dreams of fame and fortune.
   • Sell your popularity.
   • Sell your efforts to secure a comfortable future for yourself.

Other passages to consider:

1. Others left all and followed him (Luke 8:3) women who were not asked to make such a sacrifice.
2. Zacchaeus apparently took his action on his own (Luke 19:8), the language means, giving is something he was already doing or that he would now start, either fits.
3. Don’t lay up treasures for yourselves (Matthew 6:19-21), this is not to an individual but to his followers in general, we must have the right priorities.