Matthew 19:24-20:24

How does all this relate to the story of the rich young ruler who we were looking at before we took this little sidebar into how God speaks to different people at different times in different ways?

In this episode we’ll see this, and we’ll finish the story of the rich young ruler, who if you remember, came to Jesus asking what he needed to do to have eternal life in Matthew 19:16.

He asks Jesus,

“Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?”

He asked what he needed to do. In this question we see this young man convinced that eternal life was in his own hands, his own ability, his own works. All he needed were a few pointers. But we also see that he knew he lacked something.

Firstly, by addressing Jesus as “Good Teacher” we see that he did not recognise Jesus as the Messiah, The Christ. He was just a “Good Teacher”.

Jesus challenged him in verse 17 by saying, “no one is good but God”. Jesus is trying to pull out of this man the fact that if you’re seeing me as good, you’re seeing me as God.

Jesus then tells the man to keep the law in order to have eternal life to which the young man replies in his self-righteousness that he’d always done this. This young fellow is so self-deceived that he believes he’s actually kept the commandments, the ten big ones and the 600 or so amendments to those 10.

In his cockiness and pride, he thought Jesus would give him a secret way, a remedy that hadn’t been available to other less special people than himself.

He seems to have no knowledge of the fact that he must keep all the law, every one of them, for his whole life. If he breaks one, he breaks all.

Yet, even in his intense sense of his own goodness, he still knew deep inside something was missing.

Jesus rocks him and his self-righteousness to the core by saying in verse 21,

“If you want to be perfect, (which means complete), go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”

Within this statement is a not so hidden idea.

If you want eternal life you must be perfect. In other words, there must be a level of completeness where nothing more is needed, every law has been fulfilled to the letter.

Here’s where we tried, over the last couple of episodes, to describe the setting in which this whole scene took place.

Jesus is preaching to these people, who are all Jews, that under the covenant that’s currently in force, that’s the Old Covenant, given to Israel, the way into the promised Kingdom of Heaven and by extension, eternal life, is through the keeping of the Mosaic Law.

This is not the dispensation that we, in the Body of Christ, are under today and accordingly the method by which entry into eternal life is attained is very different than today.

When the young ruler tells Jesus that he’s kept all the commandments Jesus says, “Well OK, then sell all your goods and follow me.”

You see the only way He could do that willingly was if he knew he was following Someone far greater than he’d ever encountered in his life before. That he was following a Person far greater than any other person Who ever lived. That Person was the Messiah, the Christ! And under this Old Covenant there was no room for any other thing in this world to be more important than that understanding. All the great wealth of the world, all the worldly wisdom, all the influence a person carried had to be put aside.

 

We cast off today in Matthew 19:23 and we’re continuing from where the rich young man turns away sorrowfully,

Then Jesus said to His disciples, “Assuredly, I say to you that it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. 

And again I say to 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 God.

 

The “Eye of the Needle” has been claimed to be a specific gate in Jerusalem since about the 9th century even though there’s no actual proof it existed.

This gate supposedly opened after the main gate was closed at night.

However, a fully loaded camel could not pass through the smaller gate unless it stooped down and had its baggage removed.

Regardless of whether or not this gate actually existed the saying by Jeus serves as a powerful lesson about the mix of humility, pride, wealth, and salvation.

Just as a camel would struggle to fit through the eye of a needle, so too would a rich person face challenges in surrendering their pride and self-righteousness in order to reveal the complete inability for those things to “buy” salvation, eternal life.

Now here’s where we can easily get into confusion if we don’t understand the background, the context, and the time or the dispensation in which this is all happening.

 

Here in verse 23 Jesus tells the young fellow that He must keep the Mosaic law first and then sell everything he has and give it to the poor in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, because mostly the rich, and very obviously this rich young man, are held captive. They’re prisoners of their possessions. They’re obsessed with self to the point that it’s impossible to see anything outside that self. In their eyes they have what it takes in their own excellence to earn salvation.

 

What our Lord is telling this man is that salvation, eternal life is not a free gift of God it requires a person to work for it by doing the Law, and under that dispensation of the Law under which all this is taking place that’s the way it worked.

However today, you and I are under a different dispensation, the dispensation, or the age of Grace!

Now there’s only one way to eternal life and that’s by God’s grace through faith, and it doesn’t matter whether a person’s a Jew or a gentile.

Salvation is no longer through the doing of the law. Jesus revealed this great Mystery to the Apostle Paul, the apostle to the gentiles, that now, under this new dispensation, simple faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross where His blood was shed for us to pay the price for sin and that after His burial He rose again on the third day is all that’s required for a person to be saved and it’s for both Jew and Gentile.

Many people today think they’re going to be saved by who they are or by what they have or what they’ve done, but salvation only comes when we realise, we’re sinners and we’ve got absolutely nothing to offer God for our salvation.

As long as a person feels he can do something to earn eternal life or pay God for salvation, he can no more be saved than a camel can be put through the eye of a needle.

Now to Verses 25 and 26,

When His disciples heard it, they were greatly astonished, saying, “Who then can be saved?” 

But Jesus looked at them and said to them, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

 

Jesus says that as far as any person is concerned, no matter who they are, salvation is only possible with God. It’s impossible for a person to quote, “achieve” this.

With God all things are possible.

To verse 27,

Then Peter answered and said to Him, “See, we have left all and followed You. Therefore, what shall we have?” 

 

Are we seeing a very self-interested streak here? Probably, but did the Lord rebuke him?

No!

Now, Peter wasn’t talking about his salvation, he knew he had that. He’d already believed that Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah. I don’t think Peter had forgotten a few days earlier when Jesus asked him, “Whom do you say I am?”

The recognition that Jesus was the Christ, Israel’s Messiah was critical.

So, what’s he talking about? He wanted to know what their reward would be for following Jesus (leaving everything else behind). Look at Jesus’ answer in verse 28 and 29,

So, Jesus said to them, “Assuredly I say to you, that in the regeneration, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory, you who have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging (or ruling and governing) the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My name’s sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life. 

 

Regeneration is when something’s restored back like it was. Here, Jesus is referring to “The” regeneration where the earth is restored, regenerated, back to what it was in the Garden of Eden.

When the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory. Where is this?

Psalm 2 verse 6 tells us,

Yet I have set My King On My holy hill of Zion.

This is Mount Zion in Jerusalem.

The Lord couldn’t have made it any plainer, could He?

When the Kingdom of Heaven is set up here on earth after the Lord’s second coming, at the end of the period we know of as The Great Tribulation, the Nation of Israel will finally be under their real King. Then under The King will be the twelve Apostles each ruling the twelve tribes, there in Jerusalem in the land of Israel.  Furthermore, that nation will be the witness and the light of God to all other nations, the great populations that will grow on the earth after it’s regenerated, just as they were always intended by God to be.

We can see this in many places through the bible. Just two of them are Genesis 12:2-3:

I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. 

I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

And then Isaiah 42:6:

“I, the LORD, have called You in righteousness, And will hold Your hand; I will keep You and give You as a covenant to the people, As a light to the Gentiles,

The Kingdom and the King have been the main theme throughout this whole Gospel of Matthew, and in fact, it is throughout the entire Old Testament, through the Gospels, through the epistles of John, Peter, Jude, and James and even into the Book of Revelation.

This Kingdom is going to come to the earth where Christ will be the absolute King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Satan’s going to be bound and there’ll be no sin and the earth itself will undergo a regeneration that’ll put it back into its Garden of Eden state and that’s frankly, far beyond our imagination.

The Kingdom of Heaven is God’s promise to the nation Israel that He made to Abraham, Issac, and Jacob. It’s a conditional promise based on them recognising and accepting their Messiah not on their goodness, and God never ever breaks a promise. But the Nation of Israel did not recognise and accept their Messiah.

They rejected Him and killed him.

Even after the resurrection in the book of Acts chapters 1 to 3 we see Peter again trying to get Israel to turn to the Messiah. They did not.

So, as a result, now, today, salvation is offered to the gentile, the nations who were not part of the covenant with Abraham Issac and Jacob. This salvation is offered the same way to individual Jews as well, but not the nation as a whole.

We now live an interlude that’s so far lasted 2000 years which started after the last chance was given for Israel to turn and accept Jesus as The Christ, the Messiah, as we’ve said that’s recorded in Acts chapters 1 to 3 and we’ll be studying that later.

That salvation is not based on our personal obedience to the Mosaic law. We as gentiles weren’t given the law, but it’s on the fact that the price, the wages of sin have been paid for by the death of the Messiah. He and He alone could pay that price because He and He alone is the only Human being to have fully fulfilled the Law. He was the only One who’s nature, who’s spirit did not inherit the sin nature from Adam. He was the One and Only One who came into the world from outside the genetic line of Adam. His genetic line, through the virgin birth, was from God, making him fully man and fully God at the same time.

 

We today, whether Jew or Gentile, as believers in the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord, who was the Jewish Messiah, God in the flesh who died for the sins of the world, are partakers in salvation.

 

This 2000 year-long interlude is running out.

It’ll will end with what’s called the fulfilment of the times of the Gentiles, when that 2000-year-old Church, The Body of Christ will be snatched off the Earth before God’s wrath will be furiously poured out on the nation. The nation will, after intense and never before seen tribulation, have a remaining remnant that will finally turn and recognize their Messiah.

 

The Church age ends at this great snatching up where God will take the Church, all of it, those living and those that have died with faith in the death, burial and resurrection of Christ away from the earth to be with Him, where we’ll be for eternity.

Then God’s dealings with Israel as a nation begin again. The great timeline of God will pick up where it left off and after a terrible seven-year period of tribulation during which a very small surviving Jewish remnant will finally realise and accept Who Jesus was, their Messiah, and that they crucified Him.

They’ll finally turn to Him with what may be the greatest outpouring of sorrow and regret ever seen by mankind.

After this the Lord will return to the earth, setting His feet on the Mount of Olives and completely destroy the armies from every nation on earth that have come to the small land of Israel during the latter part of the Great Tribulation to destroy it once and for all.

From there this shattered earth will be regenerated from the utter devastation and horror that it’s in from the effects of the last three and a half years of that great tribulation.

Christ will then take up the throne of David on Mount Zion in Jerusalem and the Nation of Israel will again take up its rightful place on earth, the place that God intended them to be in all the time.

 

We, the Body of Christ, who’ll be with the Lord throughout this horrific period known as the tribulation, will return with Christ. Our home is not the regenerated earth, although we’ll have free and unhindered access to it. Our home is the New Jerusalem in Heaven, which after 1000 years of Christ’s reign over the earth will itself come down to the earth and there will be free and open access to it from the now beautifully regenerated earth and, from here, Christ will reign for eternity.

But we’re getting ahead of the story.

 

Back to the apostles. They’re also honoured among the gentiles.

We read this in Ephesians 2:19-20 as Paul was talking to the Gentile church at Ephesus. We see in verse 11 and 12 that he’s reminding them/we of what they/we once were. We better read that.

Therefore, remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision in the flesh by hands (that’s the Jews and the book of Acts argument that the Gentiles should be circumcised and follow the Mosaic law). We read on,

That at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 

 

Then in Ephesians 2:19-20 we read,

Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone.

Although it was Paul who revealed the mystery of the Church, that the Gentiles would be fellow partakers with Israel, we as Gentiles are where we are in Christ because of the foundation laid by those apostles with Christ as the cornerstone.

 

These apostles will also have a special tribute in the New Jerusalem, that city that’s now in heaven and is wondrous beyond imagination that’ll one day be accessible from earth.

Revelation 21:14 in the description of the New Jerusalem says,

Now the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. 

 

Jesus also makes it clear in verse 29, that’s back to Matthew 19, that not only the apostles but everyone who’s suffered loss for His name’s sake will receive a hundred-fold and inherit eternal life.

This doesn’t mean that every believer will suffer loss, it means that when and if we are called on to suffer that loss the rewards are a hundred times greater in value than the value of the loss.

See, no person will suffer the extent of loss described in this passage unless they believe that the reason, they suffer is far greater than the loss! You see they believe in Christ and who He is, and their focus is on the coming Glory which surpasses man’s natural understanding.

 

Now to verse 30

But many who are first will be last, and the last first. 

 

In the next chapter, chapter 20, The Lord gives a parable explaining this verse so we’re going to read it again in context with that parable in the next passage.

Remember that a parable is a word picture, a way of explaining a principle but contrary to what many believe it wasn’t to make the picture clear to everyone.

In Mark 4 verses 10 to 12 Jesus tells His disciples that to them, the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven have been revealed. However, for those outside, everything remains veiled in parables.

Then we saw when we were in Matthew 13 in verses 10 to 17, Jesus saying that the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven are given to those who seek God, but to others, they remain hidden.

The use of parables serves to both reveal and conceal spiritual truths, depending on the heart of the listener.

Jesus used parables to give deeper truths to those who were open to understanding, while at the same time veiling those truths from those who lacked the insight and the desire for the truth.

The hidden nature of parables challenged listeners to seek out the understanding of teachings more deeply.

 

So, now we read this whole parable from Matthew 19:30 to Matthew 20:1-16 and of course Jesus is speaking,

But many who are first will be last, and the last first.

For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire labourers for his vineyard. 

Now when he had agreed with the labourers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. 

And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.’ So, they went. 

Again, he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour and did likewise. 

And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing idle, and said to them, ‘Why have you been standing here idle all day?’ 

They said to him, ‘Because no one hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right you will receive.’ 

So, when evening had come, the owner of the vineyard said to his steward, ‘Call the labourers and give them their wages, beginning with the last to the first.’ 

And when those came who were hired about the eleventh hour, they each received a denarius. 

But when the first came, they supposed that they would receive more; and they likewise received each a denarius. 

And when they had received it, they complained against the landowner, saying, ‘These last men have worked only one hour, and you made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the heat of the day.’ 

But he answered one of them and said, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? 

Take what is yours and go your way. I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. 

Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things? Or is your eye evil because I am good?’ 

So, the last will be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few chosen.” 

 

This is a tremendous parable which illustrates an important truth.

It’s not the amount of time which we serve or the importance of our position which determines our reward.

We’re rewarded for our faithfulness to whatever the task which God’s given us to perform, regardless of how small or how short a time or how unimportant it might appear to us.

 

The Jewish rites and ceremonies, the ceremonial law, was a burden to the Jewish people. The multitude of sacrifices and the repetition of them, together with all the other requirements for their lives, produced a weariness in them; especially in the natural, flesh part of them which didn’t see the big picture of their meaning and didn’t see the incredible destiny promised to the nation.

It was made even worse, by the traditions of the elders, which were added to everything else in the law, and which the Scribes and Pharisees laid hard on them.

The nation had lived under these restrictions for many generations. These are the labourers who had been in the vineyard all day in the heat, carrying the heaviest of burdens.

Then, tripping gleefully along, in the twilight of humanity, comes the believing Gentile and the believing Jew, The Church.

No laws, no circumcision, no sacrificing in the temple, no hard yards at all, only belief. Only faith in the One who came to redeem man from sin and in His finished work on the cross.

What immediately comes into the natural mind?

That’s not fair!

That’s what happened with the Jews in the early part of Acts with Peter and then the others going to the gentiles. They wanted to bring down the law on these gentiles just like they’d had to put up with. Jealousy and a sense of being hard done by rose up because they’d done the hard yards, and these newbies didn’t need to.

 

There’s no difference today. There’s no difference with Israel’s mindset towards Christians, which many of them hate. Theres no difference in the church, the Body of Christ.

How many’ll say, “I’ve done this and that for so many years then you who’ve lived your life free and easy but give your life to the Lord on your deathbed, get the same reward as me?” Unfair!

The workplace is no different either. How often does someone say, “How could he or she possibly be given that position when they’ve been here five minutes and I’ve been here most of my life?” Or, “It’s not right that the owner of the business pays that person the same as me when I’ve done more work!”

Again and again, we see that the root cause of this sense of unfairness and supposed injustice is that we, by our good works and by our length of service are worth more.

What an incredible challenge to our way of thinking and what a timely red flag the Lord’s raising in this parable.

The whole kit and caboodle is by God’s grace alone and none of us, whether the first or last, have even the smallest of claims outside His grace.

 

Now to Matthew 20:17-19,

Now Jesus, going up to Jerusalem, took the twelve disciples aside on the road and said to them, 

“Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death and deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock and to scourge and to crucify. And the third day He will rise again.” 

 

Notice the physical and geographical movement of this section.

As we’ve said before you can see a map of this journey by going to the Resources section of our website and then to Bible maps. The map is called the last Journey of Jesus to Jerusalem.

Jesus and His disciples are going up out of the Jordan Valley and are approaching Jerusalem where He is to die upon the Cross and He foretells His resurrection as well.

Our Lord couldn’t spell it out any plainer than that. This is the fourth time He’s telling them exactly what’s going to happen to Him except this time He gives the awful details.

The disciples didn’t comprehend it, because even now the earthly Kingdom with Christ as the King is still their vision for the immediate future.

However, with the hindsight that you and I have, both from history and the Word of God, we see very clearly that it was Christ’s intention to go to Jerusalem to die.

It was a deliberate plan, a plan hatched before time and before the foundation of the world, which had at the back of it all the knowledge of why it had to be that way, that no other way could bring redemption to mankind. No other sacrifice but the innocent blood of the Christ could pay the wages of sin.

In other words, He went there deliberately to die for you and for me. Think about that.

The disciples just couldn’t believe it!

 

At the time of this incredible announcement Jesus made of His pending death, the mother of James and John came to Jesus to ask Him a favour.

 

To verse 20,

Then the mother of Zebedee’s sons came to Him with her sons, kneeling down and asking something from Him. 

So many of us today worship Him for the same reason!

 

Verse 21,

And He said to her, “What do you wish?” She said to Him, “Grant that these two sons of mine may sit, one on Your right hand and the other on the left, in Your kingdom.”

Do you see the mindset. These people all expected the physical Kingdom of Heaven to be set up in their lifetime and in fact very soon. Why did they think this way?

These are people who obviously recognised Jesus as their Messiah, the King of the coming Kingdom, but they have no understanding of the absolute necessity for the sacrifice of innocent blood for the remission of sin.

Their whole sacrificial system for generations going back even before the offering of Isacc by Abraham to Adam and Eve, had portrayed the necessity for sacrifice in order to cover sin.

However, they just didn’t get the fact that all those sacrifices were a picture, a foresight, into the ultimate sacrifice on the cross by the sinless Messiah and how that sacrifice would not just cover sin it would fully pay the price for it once and for all.

Now, at this time, here is that Messiah standing amongst them and even though He clearly foretells of His death and resurrection, they don’t get it. It’s almost as if these people, especially this lady, the mother of Zebedee’s sons, didn’t even hear the critical part about His death.

Matthew 20:22-23,

But Jesus answered and said, “You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” They said to Him, “We are able.” 

So He said to them, “You will indeed drink My cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with; but to sit on My right hand and on My left is not Mine to give, but it is for those for whom it is prepared by My Father.” 

 

Jesus is speaking of the bitter cup that He’ll soon experience, the cup of torture and death and even worse than that as we’ll soon see. The baptism Jesus speaks of, as I’m sure most of you understand, is not water baptism, it’s the immersion into the same suffering.

Their answer (“We are able”) comes too quick. Jesus recognised that they didn’t really understand, but they would.

We see Jesus here showing remarkable submission to His Father. He would not even claim the right to choose how His servants were rewarded but He gave that choice to His Father.

 

Verse 24,

And when the ten heard it, they were greatly displeased with the two brothers.

The other ten disciples mistakenly thought that a special honour had just been bestowed on James and John. They didn’t know that Jesus was talking about a different thing, the terrible suffering that He and eventually all of them would endure.

It wasn’t humility that caused them to say this as much as it was jealousy plus fear that they might lose out.

Next time we’ll see how Jesus carries on this conversation and until then may God reveal His truth to you all.