How to Enter the Kingdom of God
Luke 18:15-30
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God Gives Us His Words of Eternal LifeLuke 18:15-30
Found on page 877 in our guest Bibles.
Today’s Scripture:
“What I mean to say is that there are many
things about Christianity that attract me. The
figure of Jesus is extremely attractive. It’s difficult not to fall in love
with that person.” ~ Leonard Cohen
How to Enter the Kingdom of God
Luke 18:15-30
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15 Now they were bringing even infants
The Gospel of Luke 18:15-30
to him that he might touch them. And when the disciples saw it, they rebukedthem.
The Gospel of Luke 18:15-30
[When Jesus saw it, he was indignant.]- Mark 10:13
16 But Jesus called them to him, saying“Let the children come to me, and do nothinder them, for to such belongs the king-dom of God.”[And he took them in his arms and bless-ed them, laying his hands on them.]
- Mark 10:16
17 “Truly, I say to you, whoever does not
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receive the kingdom of God like a childshall not enter it.”
“At the time the disciples came to Jesus, saying ‘Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?’
“At the time the disciples came to Jesus, saying ‘Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?’
And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, ‘Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like
this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.’”Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew 18:1-4
“…one of these little ones who
believe in me…”~ Jesus of Nazareth in
The Gospel of Matthew 18:5
18 And a ruler asked him, “Good Teacher,
The Gospel of Luke 18:15-30
what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
19 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you
The Gospel of Luke 18:15-30
call me good? No one is good except God alone.”
20 “You know the commandments:
The Gospel of Luke 18:15-30
‘Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, ‘Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother.’”
21 “All of these I have kept from my youth.”
The Gospel of Luke 18:15-30
“An answer more full of darkness and self-
ignorance it is difficult to conceive! He who made it could have known nothing
rightly, either about himself, or God, or God’s law.”
~ JC Ryle (1816-1900)Anglican Bishop of Liverpool
22 When Jesus heard this, he said to him,
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“One thing you still lack. Sell all that youhave and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and comefollow me.” 23 But when he heard thesethings, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich.
“To sell his possessions was not to add one more act of
pious religion, but to subtract all the things that were
standing in the way of his entrance into heaven. It was not simply this asset or that
asset that he needed to divest. The man needed to eliminate everything in his life that was
keeping him from giving his life to Jesus. In his particular
case, this meant giving away everything he had.”
If Jesus gave us this simple test, would we
pass it ?
“For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and
lose his soul?”~ Jesus of Nazareth in
The Gospel of Mark 8:36
“Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for
he had great possessions.
~ The Gospel of Mark 10:22
~ CS Lewis, Oxford Professor Mere Christianity
“All that we call human history…is the long terrible story of
man trying to find something other than God which will make
him happy.”
24 Jesus, seeing that he had become
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sad, said, “How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom ofGod! 25 For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom ofGod.”
26 Those who heard it [were exceedingly
The Gospel of Luke 18:15-30
astonished - Mark 10:26] said, “Then who canbe saved?”
27 But he said, “What is impossible with
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man is possible with God.”
Why does Luke record this account in his historical
biography of Jesus?
Important Question
To enter the kingdom of God, we must desire the kingdom of God.
For where our treasure is, there our heart will be also.
Jesus’s command to follow him is a command to align our loves and longings with
his—to want what God wants, to desire what God
desires, to hunger and thirst after God and crave a world where he is all in all—a vision encapsulated
by the shorthand “the kingdom of God.”
Jesus is a teacher who doesn’t just inform our intellect but forms our
very loves. He isn’t content to simply deposit new ideas into your mind;
he is after nothing less than your wants, your loves, your longings.
28 And Peter said, “See we have left our
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homes and followed you.”
29 And he said to them, “Truly, I say to
The Gospel of Luke 18:15-30
you, there is no one who has left houseor wife or brothers or parents or children,for the sake of the kingdom of God, whowill not receive many times more in thistime, and in the age to come eternal life.”
“When young the Christians told me /
how we pinned Jesus / like a butterfly against the wood / and I wept
beside paintings of Calvary / at velvet
wound / and delicate twisted feet.”
~ Leonard Cohen
“When you see him dying to make you
his treasure, that will make him yours.”
~ Tim Keller, Counterfeit Gods
May you know that it is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom, & May you desire it above all else.
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other images used for educational purposeBy Rama - Commons file, CC BY-SA 2.0 fr, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=53046764
http://www.tracts.ukgo.com/images/ryle1b.jpg
ShutterstockImage ID:108126386
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