Welcome everyone to the Retreat. I was asked to give the first talk this weekend, which is really a lot of pressure. As many of you have seen and heard, the theme is the Ancient Path. This weekend is about bringing Christians together and trying to change this Valley and our campuses for Christ. Before I begin, let’s pray.
(prayer)
Okay, let’s begin. As I already said the retreat is called the Ancient Path. Here is where I am going to blow your minds. You may be thinking, as you have looked at the program of events, that we were going to be studying methods and means to become more spiritual. And in some way we will be, but as we go through the weekend, there is going to be an overarching mega theme, and that is, all of these things are about a person, for a person, directed at a person. We need to keep this in mind as we stay here until Sunday. As we sit in on talks about mission and church, worship and prayer, we need to remember that these are not the primary things we should take away. They are ways to become closer to a person, increase our love for a person, to be drawn us closer to a person. And who is this person I speak of. Well you may have guessed- it is Jesus.
What I want to do tonight is set the ground work for the rest of the talks. To do this, I think we need to look at some things Jesus has said about himself, so it isn’t just some dude standing on a stage talking. If you have a Bible, please turn with me in it to John Chapter 14. If you don’t have a Bible, don’t worry, all the text will be up on the screen to my left, you can follow along there. If you don’t own a Bible, come see me after the talk, and I will get you one, don’t be shy about it, we have many extras to give out.
The text we are going to be reading is in the Gospel of John which is in the New Testament, which is the second half of your Bible. Jesus is speaking to his disciples before he gets arrested. What he is going to do in this chapter of the book, and the ones following it, is give last minute advice and instructions. It is kind of like when your parents dropped you off at college for the first time. They kept giving you all sorts of words of wisdom. They may have seemed rushed. They were just trying to get everything out so you would hear it. This is what Jesus is doing here. He is throwing many things at his disciples since he knows he is going to be leaving them soon. And so he is giving them the last few things they really need to remember.
In John 14 he says
1 "Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. 4And you know the way to where I am going." 5 Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?" 6Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him."
And here is the foundational text for tonight, and I hope the entire weekend. Most of us here are Christians, I would imagine, and so we hear these words and are not startled by them. We already know Jesus is the Way. But this text is more revolutionary than we may believe. Jesus is saying that he is the only path. As we think about way to interact with God, we may have many ideas. Many religions have many ways of finding God, of getting closer to Him. In fact, this weekend we are going to be talking about a lot of ways to interact with him. But Jesus says there is one primary way, himself. With out this, all else is for naught. The way to God is not through correct prayer methods, or worship songs, or meditation- not so say these things aren’t good. The way to God is through Jesus, and only through Jesus. Jesus says no one comes to the Father except through him. This is revolutionary. This is slightly offensive too, is it not? Maybe not to us, but to many other people around the world. C.S. Lewis touches on this in his essay, “What are we to make of Jesus Christ?” which I will be quoting from later.
As we go though the weekend and attend all these different seminars, again, we must remember what Jesus said about himself. His last words to his closest followers were not about how they should act, or correct methods to spread the Gospel, or how to do small groups. His last words were a reminder that he was the way to do it all. We can study all we want, and pray all we want, and evangelize all we want, and sing all we want, but if Jesus isn’t t the heart of it, nothing will come of it. Or rather nothing good will come of it in the end. What we need to remember tonight, this weekend, this semester, this year, is that Jesus is the Way. He is the Ancient Path. Everything else we talk about are road signs and signposts and directions. They are helpful to get us to our destination, but they are not the end. We need to use them and pay attention to what they say, but we are not on the trip to see them. We are on this trip to get to Jesus.
How many of us have ever taken a road trip? A few, good. I used to drive to Florida with my friends every spring break when we were in college. The first year we stopped at many places to take pictures. We stopped at boarder signs, you know, the “Welcome to (this state)” billboards, we stopped at South of the Border. We stopped at sign posts and for directions. Sometimes we took back roads to avoid traffic and really needed to stop for directions, getting lost in rural North Carolina- a few times. But none of these things, although cool, were the destination. They were places along our way. We didn’t stay at the truck stop we stopped at for directions, we found out where we were, and where we needed to be, and kept going toward our goal, Florida. This is how we need to view everything else we will be talking about this week. They are not bad; don’t hear me say that, they are quite beneficial if used properly. They make the trip more exciting and memorable. When me and my friends look back at our Spring Breaks, we have great memories of the trip. We have pictures of crazy things along the way, and it helps us to relive the adventure. We used them as they should have been used. It would have been foolish however to stop at the “Entering Georgia” sign and camp under it for a week and then drive back. That is not the purpose of the sign. The purpose is to help us get to our destination. So it is with all the devotions and talks this weekend. They are designed to get us to the destination. And that is Jesus. He is the way, the truth and the light.
Before I go on, I want to make a quick aside. I know some of what I just said can be controversial. I said that the only way to God is Jesus. If you are here and you have a problem with this, I encourage you to come speak with me or any of our speakers after this workshop. I am not as mean as people think I am, I promise, and the other guys I can vouch for too. I would encourage you to actually dig into the text and see if we do need to take Jesus and his words at face value- I think we do. We can talk after. Please don’t be shy. Now that I said that, I want to move on. An entire series of talks could be given on this text alone- and after all that set up and potential controversy, I am going to move on. Most of us are Christians, and buy what Jesus said here, and so I don’t want to harp too much on it. The actual talk for tonight is going to begin now, not 10 minutes ago as you all assumed when I started speaking. But I needed this mini sermon to set up my real talk.
See it is all well and good to get up here among Christians and say that Jesus is the way. But what does that really mean? What does it look like if we are to take this Ancient Path? How do we get on? That is what I actually want to talk about today.
If you still have your Bibles turn back to Luke chapter 18, verse 18-30. We read:
18 And a ruler asked him, "Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" 19And Jesus said to him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. 20You know the commandments: 'Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother.'" 21And he said, "All these I have kept from my youth." 22When Jesus heard this, he said to him, "One thing you still lack. 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 these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich. 24Jesus, seeing that he had become sad, said, "How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! 25For 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." 26Those who heard it said, "Then who can be saved?" 27But he said, "What is impossible with men is possible with God." 28And Peter said, "See, we have left our homes and followed you." 29And he said to them, "Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, 30who will not receive many times more in this time, and in the age to come eternal life."
Here is where we are going to camp out the rest of the night. As we first read it, we may be tempted to read into the text something like the Poverty Gospel. The Poverty Gospel basically says that you can not be a Christian if you have lots of money. That is you are very rich, you should be giving all you own away to follow Jesus, and that unless you do this, you are not on the right Path. And that may be true of some people, maybe of even some in this room. There may be people who’s biggest stumbling block to Jesus is their wealth, and until they get rid of it, they will never understand the Gospel. But this is not the only valid interpretation of the text, as we shall see.
The other way we could read and misinterpret the text is to read something like a Prosperity Gospel into Jesus words. This basically asserts that if we give up our stuff, God will bless us with more. We can get this by reading what Jesus says to Peter as a promise that if we sacrifice for the Kingdom of God, we will receive much more, both now and in heaven. This too is not how this is supposed to be read though.
To truly understand what Jesus is saying here, what the Scripture is teaching us, we need to examine the text much closer. First, let us examine the rich young ruler. For one, we know he is Jewish. How do we know this, well there are a few give aways. First, he calls Jesus Rabbi. This tells us he knows something about the culture of the time. Jesus was a teacher, and in Jewish society, they are called rabbis. He recognizes Jesus position. This tells us he knows about the position to begin with. We also, a few lines later, see Jesus tell him that he knows the commandments. Only Jews would have been expected at this time to know the commandments. Jews would have dressed different than the Gentiles and Romans in Palestine at the time, and Jesus picks up on this, and assumes the man knows the commandments. The guy is Jewish. After Jesus tells him he knows the commandments, the ruler replies that he in fact does know them. More than this, he has followed all of them (although, as we shall see, this is doubtful). This confirms his Jewish heritage.
Why is this important? Well, for one, the Jews knew their Bible. They were the people to whom God entrusted his Word, and through whom all Scripture would be fulfilled. They were the people in “the know”. They were like Christians today. They knew about God, the Bible, etc. As we read this story, we need to keep in mind that this guy was probably like many of us. He went to church, did Bible studies, tried to live a good life. He was trying to follow God, kind of. We can even see this in his question. He is really seeking from a pastor who he seems to respect, what the next step of his faith must be. He has probably asked many other rabbis the same question in the past. How else would he have known to follow the commandments? Or about eternal life? My guess is that he was a very devout Jew.
That is not to say that his line of questioning was completely innocent. Upon reading the text we get the impression that he knows the answer to his question already. He is expecting the answer so many other rabbis have given to him in the past- follow the commandments. Then he can say that he has, and walk away feeling good about himself. He can rest assured that yet one more teacher has confirmed that he is a good person. It almost seems like he wants to acclimation. He hopes Jesus will look at him, see how good he is, I mean, he says so himself, and then tell everyone else they should be more like this ruler. He has followed all the commandments, right?
And so he asks Jesus what he needs to do to get to heaven. But he doesn’t just ask. First he pads his question with some false compliments. Good teacher he says. And here is the thing about this, we get the impression he has not really met Jesus before, so the compliment is empty. He is doing it to loosen Jesus up a little so Jesus will like him better. At least that is what I take from it. We have all done this haven’t we? We go into a job interview or something else, and compliment the guys tie, or store, anything. We tell pastors before we talk with them how good their last sermon was, or how we love what they are doing. I am not saying don’t compliment pastors, in facts, I will be in the back to take all the compliments you want to give me after this talk, I am just saying, sometimes we butter people up so they like us more. And this ruler is no different. This may even be how he got rich. I find very successful people are much better at making me like them with false compliments than unsuccessful.
I think we also sometimes do this to God. How often when we are praying or talking to people about God do we throw in how good He is, but we don’t really mean it at the time. I mean, we know he is good, but, at least I am sometimes insincere. I want to get to the part of the prayer where I ask for things, so I give some time to talking God up to himself. I say things like you are so awesome and powerful, Almighty, etc, and what I am really thinking is, okay, get he formalities out of the way so I can get to my stuff. But that is an aside.
See, Jesus sees right through this. He calls the man out and asks him why he said he was good. This is kind of funny on so many levels. First Jesus really is good, and so maybe he is giving the ruler a chance to call it as it is. He is letting him try to figure it out. Jesus is seeing if this man can see what others can’t. He wants the ruler to see that he is in fact god, and only God is good, so therefore… But the ruler misses this. He misses a lot of things, we shall see. Even more funny though, had to be the rulers reaction. Have any of you said something that you really didn’t know why you said, and then had someone call you out on it? I have. It is really embarrassing if you don’t have an answer. This happens to me a lot in sports conversations. I don’t really watch sports, but I am a guy, so I need to know about sports. Very often I just watch SportsCenter and quote what they said. Usually I get away with it, but sometimes people ask why I think that, and I am I quite. We will be talking about basketball and I will say something like, well the Celtics are the best team in the NBA this year. And they will say, really, why do you think that. And I don’t think that. I mean, I do, because SportsCenter told me, but I haven’t done my own research or anything, so I really don’t know why I think that. So I stare at them and mutter and walk away embarrassed. T
That is the scene here. Jesus asks why the ruler thinks he is good. There must be a reason, or he wouldn’t have said it, right? If the ruler had been following him for a while he may have had an answer. “Well, I saw you feed 5,000, or exercise that demon, or heal all those lepers. That is a really good thing to do, Jesus. I am all for healing lepers miraculously. That is why I call you good.” But the guys is stumped. He doesn’t reply. Instead, Jesus continues. There is no conversation from the ruler. Just, I imagine, a deer-in-headlights kind of stare, a wide mouth, and silence. At which point Jesus begins speaking again, because of someone didn’t it would have been even more awkward.
There is another thing Jesus does here. The ruler, as I’ve already said, thinks himself good. I make this statement, and know I am right, because no one says they have kept all the commandments, unless they think they are good. He is looking for confirmation that he has done the right thing. Why else would he tell Jesus so quickly that he has followed the commandments? What Jesus does, is tell him no one is good, though. He is subtly telling the ruler that he is not good, even though he thinks himself so. This guy was biting at the chomp to tell Jesus he followed all the commandments and get the acclimation he deserved. And before the guy can do that, Jesus has already taken the wind out of the guy’s sails. The ruler doesn’t realize it yet, but it has happened. See, the ruler misses a lot. I think he may have come into money, rather than earning it himself.
Jesus then answers the ruler’s question. He does it kind of sarcastically. It is almost like Jesus knows the man already has the answer. And Jesus answers him in just that way. He says, “You know the commandments.” Why are you asking? I know you just want to show off. I know you aren’t really one of my followers. The ruler misses the entire conversation that Jesus is trying to have with him under the talking, and having his mind on showing off, tells Jesus he has done it all. I imagine he is pretty proud at this point. Have any of you asked a question in a class, knowing the answer, so that you can then Talk with the professor and show off. I know some of you have. I used to. That is the interaction here. And with out flinching, Jesus continues his answer.
He says, well there is one thing left to do. I am not sure if the ruler had heard this before. “One more thing to do, what could it be”, he is wondering. Is it tithe to Jesus church, he could do that. Wear different clothes, listen to different music, all these are ok. At this point the ruler is a little disheartened, but I imagine ready to what Jesus says. He was not looking for one more box to check, but of that is what it is going to take, well he will heck that box. And Jesus, knowing people’s hearts, seeing this man has money, and more than this, that he is attached to it unhealthily, says the final thing the ruler must do to inherit eternal life is to sell all he has and follow him. And we read that the rich man became very sad because he was very wealthy. And he went away disheartened, and Jesus felt bad for him.
And then Jesus says, “How hard it is for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God.” And so we read it and thank God we are poor college kids or poor ex-college kids, and we go about our merry lives. Or we chastise those with money and feel bad for them, because it really is hard for the wealthy to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Or we react like Peter.
How does Peter react? Let’s look. Before we do though, I really need to set up Peter’s character in the Gospels. He is not the best guy. He is portrayed many times as bumbling, misreading the situation, and terribly ambitious. So let’s now see what Peter says to Jesus. Remember also that Jesus just essentially crushed this rulers hopes of eternal life. Now I don’t think the guy was totally hopeless, he actually heard Jesus words, and finally understands, but he goes away sad. He knows there is a tough decision ahead of him. And what does Peter say after this? He says, “We have left everything to follow you.” This is terrible timing, to say the least. It is in bad taste, rude, and many other things, not the least of which is just plain stupid. It is like when we were kids and we see another kid getting in trouble and we say, “Iti is a good thing I didn’t do such and such.” It is a way to beat the other guy down and at the same time lift ourselves up. It is a manipulation, and selfish. And it is very often how we react.
What Peter was doing was reminding Jesus that he was better tan that man because he understood more. He was holier because he did what Jesus told him to. And he was proud of his position, and wanted Jesus to raise him up in the same way the ruler wanted to be lifted up. We are no different. We are proud in the fact that we have given up stuff for Jesus and remind him occasionally that we have left everything to follow him, as if he didn’t know. Seriously, what is Peter thinking. He is looking for the same thing the rich ruler is.
“Hey Jesus, I have the right answer, pick me. I am not proud or foolish like that other guy, see, I left everything”. And what was Jesus supposed to say, “Oh, Peter, I didn’t realize you left everything! Wow, we have been together all this time, and man, wow, I am sorry. You…you really are holy. Wow. What has it been, 2 years, and this whole time, I had no Idea you left things. I though every night when we went to sleep on hills and in other peoples homes you secretly snuck back to your bed, or to an RV or hotel or something. Man… you really left everything… I am sorry I didn’t recognize this before. You really are making sacrifices. That other guy, he didn’t get it but, wow, you left everything? Really? Wow. Peter, you’re awesome. Know what, you should teach next week. Everything? Wow. How did I miss it? Wow. That’s all I have to say…Wow”
Really, what was Peter thinking? So, we too react like Peter or the ruler. We are proud that we have left things and want to make sure God knows, or we are disheartened because we don’t think we can. But this story isn’t about leaving all your material possessions, or your family. It is not about selling all you have and walking around in 1st century Palestine. It is about riches and the cost of Christianity. Jesus is only telling the ruler to leave everything because that is his stumbling block. As Jesus does this, he is showing hi that he has not kept all the commandments, because he has elevated his money, or the security it buys, or the cool things, to the position of God. He is showing him that he has made an idol. And he is doing one more thing as well. He is teaching those around him a lesson- there is a cost to following Jesus. It is not a casual thing. There are consequences to it. Jesus has taught his before.
Turn in your Bibles to the last Text for tonight. It is earlier in Luke. Chapter 9, verse 57-62. We read:
As they were going along the road, someone said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go." 58And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head." 59To another he said, "Follow me." But he said, "Lord, let me first go and bury my father." 60And Jesus said to him, "Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God." 61Yet another said, "I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home." 62Jesus said to him, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God."
Now this text, like the last is not as dramatic as it first seems, yet is at the same time more dramatic then we believe. Jesus is not saying don’t go to work or don’t go to funerals. He is not saying we need to be homeless. Just like he is not telling us we need to sell all our things to follow him properly. What he is saying is that there is a cost to following him. There is a price to be paid to call ourselves Christians. There are things we used to do we can’t do anymore, and new things we have never done that we have to start doing. There is a walking away from things.
Too often, we like the rich young ruler, especially those of us in the church, think we have all the answers. We think since we read our Bibles, follow the commandments, are good people, we are all set. We think, like Peter, “well we left our old ways behind, so it is clear sailing form here on out.” And we remind God of these things. We pay Him lip service, but we really don’t know him. When he asks us why we think he is good, we stare at him with our mouths wide open, and then jump into our question, ignoring his entirely. We see him on the road and we say, “We will follow you.” But have we counted the cost? Have we sold all we have?
Jesus is telling us that there is a lot more to following Him, to walking this Path, than often we want. He is telling us that the Path he has for us is not safe and secure in the traditional worldly sense. The Son of Man has no where to lay his head. That isn’t very comforting. There is some uncertainty there. Jesus is not safe that way. We say we will follow him, but we have to go finish our old work. We need to say bye to our old life. And Jesus says if we do that, we are not fit. If we try to be safe, to always have our P’s and Q’s minded, to have a safety net incase this Christian thing doesn’t work out, we are not truly following Christ. We can’t take the comfort of the world with us.
One of the things Jesus is telling us in all these stories is that there is no middle ground. We are either with him, or not. There is a new life ahead of us, and we can never go back to it again. When we become Christians, we are leaving things behind. He says this when he calls himself the Way, he is saying this in this last passage, and he is saying it to the ruler when he tells him to sell his things and follow him. The old work we were a part of is not of us anymore, our old lifestyle is not for us anymore, our old safety is not for us anymore.
I said I would quote C.S. Lewis tonight, and now I will fulfill ,y promise to you. In his essay, “What are we to make of Jesus Christ?” he finishes the essay as follows:
“’What are we to make of Jesus Christ?’ There is no question what e can make of Him, it is entirely a question of what he will make of us. You must accept of reject the story.
The things He says are very different from what any other teacher has said. Others say, “This is the truth about the universe. This is how it ought to go,” but He says, “I am the Truth, the Way and the Life.” He says, “No man can reach absolute reality, except through Me. Try to retain you own life and you will be inevitably ruined. Give yourself away and you will be saved.” He says, “If you are ashamed of Me, if, when you hear this call, you turn the other way, I also will look the other way when I come again as God without disguise. If anything whatever is keeping you from God and from Me, what ever it is, throw it away. If it is your eye, pull it out. If it is your hand, cut it off. If you put yourself first you will be last. Come to me everyone who is carrying a heavy load, I will set that right. Your sins, all of them, are wiped out. I can do that. I am Rebirth, I am Life. Eat Me, drink Me, I am our Food. And finally, do not be afraid, I have overcome the whole universe.” That is the issue.
My question then for us tonight then is, “Have we counted the cost?” When we decide to walk this Ancient Path, have we taken a good look at what it is going to take? Foxes and birds have places to go, but the Son of Man has no where to lay his head. We can join the foxes and birds. We can follow the ways of the world and be secure. We can look to homes and cars and material things for our security, or we can decide to find all of that in the Way, the Truth, and the Life. It is harder for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God than for a camel to enter through the eye of a needle.
Tonight, as we finish, I want us to ask ourselves if we have really followed all the commandments as we think we have. Are we as good as we wish? The rich young ruler though he had followed all the commandments, but what about the one where we were told not to covet, not to have idols? Can he really say that he followed that? Why was he so distraught when he was told to give it up? It is because that is where his security was. He worshipped his money, and he didn’t even realize it. He coveted others things, and wasn’t even aware. He was rich in the conventional sense of the word, and the money was keeping him from following the Path that would lead him to eternal life.
Where are we rich? What is it that we are looking to as our path to eternal life? What is it that we truly worship? These are the things I want us to think of tonight. Maybe we are monetarily rich, maybe we are rich with friendships, maybe it is relationships. Are we rich in our studies, putting our hope and pride in our grades and intelligence. Or possibly it is clothes that make us rich, always being in style, or our car, or we are rich in how good a person we are, making sure never to break a commandment. Maybe we are rich because we have followed Jesus, and we need him to know it. Maybe we are rich in our poverty, taking pride in how well we give all we have away. Is it athletics, artistic talent, political superiority? I tell you it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. What are we holding onto? What are we coveting? What are our Idols?
There is a price to be paid to call ourselves Christians. We must sell everything and follow Jesus. We must leave the dead to bury themselves, we must leave our old life, completely. We can not have one foot on the Ancient Path, and another on our own way. There is only one way to eternal life, the Way, and we must take it whole heartedly. Tonight, as we prepare for the rest of the weekend, I would beg us to take a look at ourselves and see where we have not followed Jesus. What are we holding onto? What would make us sad to give up if Jesus told us we needed to, to follow him. Where are we rich? What would make us disheartened? Jesus does not want part of us, or for us to be good- what Jesus wants is all of us, and all of us wholeheartedly devoted to him.
So I ask again, where are we rich? What do we love sometimes more than Jesus. What has gotten in our Way? Tonight as we end, I don’t want to just beat us over the head. The story doesn’t end there. There is hope. We still have the ability to sell all we have and follow him. He has not left nor forsaken us. HE is still right here, begging us to sell our things. He is still saddened when we don’t. He is still the Way, the Truth and the Life. He is still offering us eternal life, if we would just ask for it.
As we prepare for the rest of this weekend, I want to invite us to give up our riches. I invite us to ask for this eternal life. If you r here tonight, and you want to follow this Path, if you want to walk in the Way, I invite you to come up here to the front of the stage. If you are here and there are things in your way, things blocking our path, I invite you to come up here and give them up. If you are out there and want to commit to this person , or recommit, I invite you to come to the front of the stage. I invite all those who are weary and sick and weak and rich. Come follow this man. Come give up your wealth. Give up all the things that are in your way. I invite you to com up here and recommit to Jesus, to begin anew walking the Path. I invite you to come up and pray with me, as I pray for you. Don’t be shy. If you know there are things that are blocking your relationship with Jesus, riches you have that you can’t seem to get the courage to give up, come and lay them at Jesus feet tonight. He has overcome the world, he is offering new life, He is offering freedom. Come and follow the Path that leads to life and life abundant.
Let us Pray.
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