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Goodness and Perfection (Matthew 19:16-22)

First Baptist Church https://fbcbartow.org

“Goodness and Perfection”

(Matthew 19:16-22)

Series: God’s Fulfilled Promise [on screen]

Rev. Matthew C. McCraw, EdD

First Baptist Church, Bartow, Florida

March 29, 2020

The Passage

Matthew 19:16-22

16 Just then someone came up and asked him, “Teacher, what good must I do to have eternal life?”

17 “Why do you ask me about what is good?” he said to him. “There is only one who is good. If you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.”

18 “Which ones?” he asked him. Jesus answered: Do not murder; do not commit adultery; do not steal; do not bear false witness; 19 honor your father and your mother; and love your neighbor as yourself.

20 “I have kept all these,” the young man told him. “What do I still lack?”

21 “If you want to be perfect,” Jesus said to him, “go, sell your belongings and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

22 When the young man heard that, he went away grieving, because he had many possessions.

Introductory Comments:

I’m so thankful that with the gift of technology we were able to worship together through music. Now, we will worship through the study of God’s Word. 

Open your Bibles or turn them on and find your way to Matthew 19:16-22 as we prepare to study God’s Word. 

In the 1990s Michael Jackson released a song called “Bad.” There’s a music video associated with the song and I enjoy watching it both for musical entertainment and because it’s kind of funny how much is put into the video in order to make Michael Jackson look bad: there’s leather, chains, crazy dancing, and even what looks like will turn into a wild gang fight. However, they all start dancing instead. 

Well, in today’s passage we learn about a man who is asking what it takes to prove, not that he is bad, but that he is good. 

He asks this question of Jesus and Jesus offers two responses.

As we journey in this passage, I want to ask you to pause the sermon video for just a moment and have a word of prayer to ask God to speak to you as we study His Word together. 

(prayer)

I want you to imagine for just a minute that you’re walking up to this man to ask him a question about what it means to be good. Only, you don’t know that this man is not only a wise teacher, he’s not only a moral human being, he’s not just a healer, this man is the only man to have ever lived his entire life while being perfectly good and perfectly righteous. Not only that, this man is actually God. However, you don’t know any of that. 

Well, this is the scene surrounding this wealthy young man’s question that he asks of Jesus.

Let’s look now at these three truths that we will discover:

First, . . .

I. How to be good (vv. 16-19) [on screen]

Let’s look at verses 16-19. 

16 Just then someone came up and asked him, “Teacher, what good must I do to have eternal life?”

17 “Why do you ask me about what is good?” he said to him. “There is only one who is good. If you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.”

18 “Which ones?” he asked him. Jesus answered: Do not murder; do not commit adultery; do not steal; do not bear false witness; 19 honor your father and your mother; and love your neighbor as yourself.

First of all, this man starts off with this assumption that he can do enough good in order to inherit eternal life. Jesus doesn’t argue that point. Instead, Jesus presents the standard of goodness and then tells the man what he must do to be good. 

Check it out:

Look at verse 17. Jesus says, “There is only one who is good.” Obviously, implying that God alone is good. 

Now, Jesus is not interested right now in pointing out to the man that He (Jesus) is God and is, therefore, good. That’s not His point.

Jesus is giving this man the standard of goodness. God is good. God is the standard of goodness. 

No human being who has ever lived on the planet (except Jesus Himself) is truly good. 

The apostle Paul echoes this sentiment when He reminds us in Romans 3:10, “There is no one righteous, not even one.” [on screen]

King David said of himself in Psalm 51:5, “Indeed, I was guilty when I was born; I was sinful when my mother conceived me.” [on screen]

The abundance of Scripture makes it plain to us that we as humans are not good in and of ourselves. Only God is good. 

However, perhaps just for fun, and to help this man better understand the standard of goodness, Jesus does tell him what he must do to enter eternal life. 

Jesus says in the second part of verse 17, “Keep the commandments.”

The man thinks he has a shot at doing this so he asks Jesus, “Which ones?” Verses 18-19 say, “Jesus answered: Do not murder; do not commit adultery; do not steal; do not bear false witness; 19 honor your father and your mother; and love your neighbor as yourself.”

The man says give me the list. I think I can do this. I think that I can keep these commandments in order to be good enough to enter eternal life. 

So, there it is. Here’s all that you have to do to be good: be like God. If you can’t do that, you can just settle for trying to obtain eternal life by keeping the commandments. Easy-peasy. 

Well, what if you want to be perfect? That’s our next point:

II. How to be perfect (vv. 20-21) [on screen]

Upon hearing what Jesus said must be done to obtain eternal life, the wealthy young man had a response. Let’s see it. Look at verse 20:

20 “I have kept all these,” the young man told him. “What do I still lack?”

Now, hold-up a minute. This man is saying that he has kept all of these commandments. 

I can imagine what Jesus might be thinking. He’s probably thinking, “You didn’t listen to my sermon on the mountainside, did you?”

There’s no way that this man perfectly kept these commandments. 

This is like when you ask your child to load a sink full of dishes into the dishwasher and he or she comes back in 30 seconds and says that the job is done. You would kind of look at your child with the stink-eye, wouldn’t you?

However, Jesus being Jesus doesn’t even address this. Instead, He pivots to telling this man how he can be complete or perfect. 

Look at verse 21. Jesus says, “If you want to be perfect,” Jesus said to him, “go, sell your belongings and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

Why would Jesus be so extreme here? Jesus says to the man that if you want to be complete, if you want to be perfect, get rid of everything that you have and give it away. 

You see, Jesus understood that there was something that had ahold of this man’s heart. This man’s heart was devoted to something other than God. He may have thought that he was devoted because he kept the commandments (which He probably really didn’t keep), but Jesus was pointing out that He was not truly devoted to God because he had other priorities in His life. 

The man’s response points out something important for us to grasp. That takes us to our final point:

III. The reality of the situation (v. 22) [on screen]

The reality of the situation is, even after this man is presented with a plan to pursue perfection, he didn’t want to walk down that path.

Look at verse 22:

22 When the young man heard that, he went away grieving, because he had many possessions.

Well, we must make sense of this, right? The man wasn’t grieving simply because he had a lot of possessions. He was grieving because he was not willing to part with his possessions. 

You see, the man wanted to be good, he wanted to be perfect, he wanted to be complete, he wanted to gain eternal life, but he also wanted to hold onto his possessions. 

The implication from this story is that the man wanted to hang on to his possessions so much that he was willing to give up his pursuit of goodness, perfection, and eternal life. 

Part of me wants to jump into the story and tell the man, “Wait, you don’t really have to try and be perfect. Jesus did it for you! Follow Jesus! He can help you! He can save you! He can be your righteousness!” However, Jesus knew the heart of the man. 

The reality of the situation is that Jesus knew that if the man wasn’t willing to give up his possessions for the pursuit of righteousness, he certainly wouldn’t give them up for his pursuit of Jesus. 

We must catch this, church (everyone lean in towards the screen), Jesus wants all of our devotion and He is worthy of all of our devotion. When we have Him, we have everything! That is the reality of the situation. 

Concluding Thoughts:

We don’t have to try and pursue goodness in our own power. We don’t have to try to pursue perfection in our own power. 

If you want to be good, if you want to be perfect, pursue Jesus.

That takes us to our bottom line:

Bottom Line: Goodness and perfection are found only in Jesus.  [on screen]

(repeat)

If you want to be good, pursue Jesus. 

If you want to be perfect, pursue Jesus.

Jesus is good when we can’t be good on our own. Jesus is perfect when we can’t be perfect on our own. 

Here’s the reality of the situation: in Jesus, we can be good; in Jesus, we can pursue perfection.

Jesus, through the Holy Spirit of God, will make us new and will make us more and more like Him as we continue to pursue Him, until one day we are holy and righteous forever. What a beautiful work of God through Jesus in our lives. 

Look to Jesus and become good. Look to Jesus and pursue perfection. Look to Jesus, church. 

Challenge yourself this week in the following ways:

Weekly Challenge: [on screen]

  1. Ask yourself what you are unwilling to sacrifice for true goodness and true perfection.  [on screen]

What’s holding you back? Do you not care enough? Do you value other things more than Jesus? Do you value other people more than Jesus? Are you holding onto guilt? Are you holding onto fear? Are you holding onto your pride? 

What are you unwilling to sacrifice to pursue true goodness and true perfection found in Jesus?

  1. Pursue goodness and perfection in Jesus. [on screen]

Stop trying to be good and perfect on your own. You can’t do it! Just stop it!

You need Jesus! I need Jesus! Let’s go to Jesus!

Pursue Him through faith, by surrendering yourself to Him. Turn from your sins and turn to Jesus. Turn from your self and turn to Jesus. 

Read God’s Word to fall deeper in love. Pray to God’s that He may fill you with His Spirit and make you more like Jesus. 

Closing:

Do you want to be good? Do you want to be perfect? Do you want to experience eternal life? It’s found in Jesus. 

It doesn’t happen instantaneously, but it is a work of God that we have the rest of our lives to pursue until God one day makes us totally new. 

(Gospel presentation)

(closing prayer)

Benediction:

If you have any sort of spiritual decision that you would like to make, you can contact me or any of our staff and we would be glad to talk to you anytime.

God bless you, church. Stay tuned for some announcements and our closing song. 

Announcements – Richard

Don’t forget that in order to keep everyone safe our church building is closed to everyone except our church staff. If you need anything, you can call the church at 533-9055. 

Also, we’re very excited to announce that we will have easter worship at Mosaic Park. We will join other churches from the city of Bartow to have a special drive-up worship service, where we gather in our vehicles at Mosaic Park on Sunday, April 12 at 10 AM for Easter Worship. Also, the service will be aired on WWBF 102.9 FM, so be sure to tune in to hear it in your car or at home. 

Also, look for ways to love others during this time. We exist to love God, love the church, and love others!

Finally, don’t forget to continue to be generous in your prayers for our church and your giving to the work of God in our church. You can give online, you can mail in your gift, or someone can come by and pick up your offering. 

God bless you, church. Let’s conclude by singing the Doxology. 

(Sing Doxology)

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