The First Letter of Peter- 17

Subtitle: Our Witness before the World- Part 9

1 Peter 4:1-6.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, March 15, 2026.

Having looked at what Jesus accomplished through the things he suffered, Peter now calls us to have the same mind that Christ had when he did these things.  We can rejoice in having Jesus at the right hand of the Father interceding for us.  We can rejoice in salvation and the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  However, it happened because Jesus was willing to suffer.  He embraced suffering for what it would accomplish.

Let’s look at our passage.

Arm yourself with the same mind Jesus had (v. 1-4)

The word translated as “arm yourselves” was typically used to prepare for battle.  It has the sense of equipping or providing yourself with what you need for a task.

So, who or what are we battling?  We can think about those who persecute and cause suffering in our lives just for doing the right thing.  I can imagine early Christians being challenged to recant their belief that Jesus was Lord, and instead, declare that Caesar is lord.  This may be true to some degree, but to a greater degree, we are arming ourselves with a mentality.  This mentality is something that is going on inside of us.  It is a mental and spiritual battle with our own flesh that can only be won when we think like Jesus did.

Our flesh is looking for any excuse to avoid suffering and obtain pleasure.  If we do not have the mentality of Jesus, then we will be overcome by the desires of our flesh.  The devil knows this and uses it for his purposes.  We can be intimidated away from the work that God has for us.  We can be shamed by social pressure to shrink away from the call of Jesus.  If you are going to follow Jesus, you will need to approach suffering the same way he did.

Now let’s be clear.  Jesus didn’t relish suffering and rush towards it with glee.  He wasn’t bored in heaven and decided to come to earth for some extreme experiences.   He wasn’t on a field trip.  On the other hand, Jesus is not trying to get everyone to like him.  He is not obsessed with getting the Pharisees and Sadducees to like him.  He is thinking about doing the will of the Father.  This is why Jesus prayed and sought God for that purpose he should pursue in the things that he faced.

Jesus did not let the threat of suffering cause him to shrink back from the good and right thing that God wanted him to do.  Yet he also knew that God had a timing to those right things he needed to do.  This timing will also affect our level of suffering.  Jesus could have been stoned to death earlier in his ministry, but it wasn’t God’s timing and way.

Here in America, our suffering is at a low level.  We are not being physically persecuted for our faith, though that does seem to be changing.  Yet there is a mental and spiritual suffering that we carry in our relationships.  Parents who are raising their children for Jesus will find that it is not easy.  Their flesh wants to quit.  It may not want to quit being a parent but at least being a parent for Jesus.  We can shrink away from the right thing that we know we should do. This is our flesh.

Peter then states that those who suffer in the flesh have been made to cease from sin.  The verb “to cease” is actually passive.  We have been made to cease from sin.  This doesn’t mean that we are perfect and never sin. Rather, sin has ceased to be the willing choice to obtain what our flesh desires.  It is no longer our target or focus.  Instead, we are focused on something else.  We have stopped going after sin through the lusts of our flesh and we have been going after something else.  Something has changed within us.  We think and act differently in life because our purpose in life is now led by Jesus.

Peter fleshes out the idea of ceasing from sin in verse two.  Peter refers to the “rest of his time” here.  Each of us have a period of our life that is before becoming a follower of Jesus and another that is after we have followed him.  This is what he is referencing.  How much time do I have left?  Whatever it is, I should use it for the will of God.

The rest of our time is, of course, hard to know for sure.  Psalm 90:12 reads, “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”  Wisdom recognizes that I am not guaranteed tomorrow.  How will I spend the rest of my time?  We can have a good desire to follow Jesus but be derailed by the threat of suffering.  Suffering can dissuade us from following Jesus.

Peter speaks of not living for the “lusts of men.”  It means the lusts that are common to men.  Of course, the strong desires of our flesh can be different from one person to another.  I need to particularly avoid and reject the lusts of my own flesh so that I can live for the will of God.

The will of God may lead us down a path that has suffering on it.  We can complain about it, but we lose sight of the fact that God has something good in it for you.  First, He intends to accomplish some things through the work that you do.  Second, He intends also to accomplish some things through the things you suffer.  We can forget that God is working to draw people to Christ through the things we suffer.  When wicked people persecute us for doing what is good, there is always something in the back of their head that they have to avoid or silence in order to keep going.  This is the mercy of God working to bring them back from the edge of a moral cliff.

We may want to avoid suffering.  We may even pray for God to take us to heaven.  However, who is going to influence your children, grandchildren, etc.?  Maybe you don’t have such relationships.  Regardless, our only ability to affect this world is while we are in these bodies.  Jesus is asking us to use our mortal life in order to help people come back to what we were made to do.  We were made to image God in relationship with Him.  Jesus has made that possible for those who will turn away from sin and follow him.

Listen, Jesus isn’t in heaven having a party while we suffer down here.  He is pouring out the Spirit into our lives as we seek him.  The Spirit of God is helping us to go to war against what the devil has done in people’s lives.  He is telling us today, “Pick up your cross.  If you do that, then I will fill you with the Holy Spirit, and He will help you do some powerful things.  It will have some suffering in it, but O the glory!”

Even if you don’t get to see the fruit of your suffering, that isn’t the point.  The point is that you laid down your life like a seed into their life.  I may not see it in this life, but God will keep using it in their heart and mind through the rest of their life.

Adding to this argument, Peter tells us that we have spent enough of our past life pursuing the “will of the Gentiles.”  There were Gentiles who knew God, but this is being used of the Gentiles as a whole.  They were separated and foreigners to God.  They only knew the false religions of Satan and his angels. 

What is the will of the Gentiles?  Peter gives us a partial list of such things.  Sensuality or lewdness has the sense of a person with no restraint.  That can be in speech, dress, or activity.  Lust is basically strong desires of our flesh.  Drunkenness is literally excess wine.  When we imbibe too much alcohol, it leads to sin.  The next two words go together, carousing (revelry) and drinking parties.  If you can imagine people eating and drinking to the point that everyone is drunk and then going out into the streets to do whatever comes to your pickled mind, this is what these things describe.  Finally, Peter lists abominable idolatries.  Abominable means hated which is true of idolatry.  God hates it.  However, he literally writes “lawless idolatries.”

This list is not 100% of the things we need to avoid.  In fact, many of these are easy to quit doing.  Many people can “clean up their life” and make the outside look good, but these things beg the question of why we choose them.  What is going on inside of my heart that I keep choosing to go after these things?  Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount does this with murder.  It should be easy to cut off contemplating murder.  But it is much harder to cut off the anger that leads to murder.  The harder things to cut off in our lives are things like anger, jealousy, selfish ambition and slander.  This is what James is talking about in chapter four of his letter.  Jesus is leading us away from these things and towards the will of God.

The world around you thinks you are strange for not joining them in this pursuit of pleasure.  The excess of dissipation is an overflowing of unsaved living, unhealthy, unspiritual living.  Like a flood of water surging down the course of a canyon, they can’t imagine doing anything else.  The Christian is the fish who is swimming up stream while the world around them plunges along with the water downstream.

And thus, we end up back at suffering.  Because you are strange to them, then you are viewed as a threat or a source of guilt.  You are viewed as someone who can’t be manipulated and therefore can’t be trusted.  This leads to those who will malign you for following Jesus instead of the world.  Some “Christians” may even malign you for following Jesus instead of their traditions about Jesus.  Regardless, the word for “malign” is literally to blaspheme.  We are used to that being used about God, but we can blaspheme one another when we say things that are not true about one another.  It may stop there, but maligning people opens the door to abusing them further.  People are first called evil and then it is okay to persecute, even to kill, them.  The malign statements, the blasphemies against Christians, then become justification for more sinful actions that cause suffering for God’s people.

Let us remember that Jesus faced such men, and he put his trust in the Father’s will in the moment and in His purpose through it, even though it led to his death.

God will judge those who malign you (v. 5-6)

Verse five reminds us that those who persecute us will not get away with it.  They will be judged.  All people will be brought before Christ and give an account for their life.  I do not suspect there will be much speaking on their behalf.  The emphasis is more on being held accountable for one’s life.  Those who have rejected his salvation and persecuted his followers will be found guilty on that day.  It may not look like this is the case, but this is God’s promise, warning, to humanity.

When a person is going through suffering, this may not seem very comforting.  We want God to stop it now or even before it happens.  Regardless, we are called to have faith in God.  The example of Jesus and God’s answer of resurrection makes this a well-founded hope.

By the way, Peter doesn’t explicitly say that Jesus is this one who will judge, but this is the clear teaching of the apostles and Jesus.  See John 5:22-23, Acts 17:31, Romans 2:16, among many others.

Christ is “ready” to judge the living and the dead.  This may sound like it is about to happen in a matter of days.  But the meaning is more that Christ has been given the place and authority of judging those who are alive and those who are dead.  He is ready to judge whenever the Father chooses.  Jesus was ready to sacrifice his life on day one of his ministry.  However, it was the Father’s will that this did not happen until three and a half years of ministry had occurred.  Similarly, Jesus is ready to judge now, but will not do so until the Father says it is time.

Let us remember that this is true for us as a world and for us as individuals.  When we lay down our mortal bodies in death, our judgment before Christ will be evident.

Why does the Father delay?  Particularly, why does He delay while I am suffering?  This ties into God’s purpose to send the Gospel to the ends of the earth.  This is a period of time in which the nations are given grace through Jesus.  The way that we suffer (like Jesus did) is one of the goads that God uses to prick the conscience of lost people.  If they repent, then they become a brother or sister in the Lord.  We should forgive them and love them.  If they do not repent, then they will be held accountable by Jesus. 

If you had been ripped off by a big corporation and sued them, how would you feel if you went into court and found out that the judge owned a similar big corporation?  The opposite is true with Jesus.  The One who will judge humanity on that day is One who was unjustly and wickedly treated by people.  He is not on the side of the elite.  However, he will not pervert justice for the poor.  Jesus will judge in absolute truth.  This is a sobering thought.

This brings us to one of the most disputed verses in this letter.  Peter turns from the readiness of Christ to judge the living and the dead and states that this is why the Gospel “has been preached” to the dead.  Most translations have interpretations affecting their end result.  It literally says, “For this purpose even the dead were evangelized (given the Gospel).”  It begs the question of when the evangelizing occurred.  Was it while they are alive, being dead now or was it while they were in the grave?

We will come back to this question.  Let’s continue the flow of Peter’s argument.  The coming judgment of Christ is the purpose, or reason, for this evangelizing.  Yet, Peter states that this evangelizing was done so that something else might happen.  This is what the second half of verse 6 reveals.  Let’s look at the statement first and then come back to how this all fits together with evangelizing even the dead.

The second half of verse 6 has a clear symmetry that contrasts the first clause with the second one.  It uses the phrase “on one hand” there is this bad thing, “but on the other hand,” there is this good thing.  These clauses are in the subjunctive mood which emphasizes that this is God’s desire or purpose, whether men cooperate with it or not.  Let me lay out verse 6 in a clumsy literal interpretation.

“For this reason, even the dead were evangelized in order that, on one hand, they may have been judged according to men in flesh, but on the other hand, they may be living according to God in spirit.”

God’s purpose in this evangelization is to overcome the judgments of men in this world that have sent many to the realm of the dead.  They may have been put to death in their flesh according to the judgments of men, but God intends to make them alive in spirit.  This is some of the same verbiage that was used of Jesus in 1 Peter 3:18. Jesus was put to death in his flesh but made alive in spirit.  God does not always stop persecution.  However, He always overturns it.

We can understand that God’s purpose is to change a person’s destiny any time the Gospel is preached to them.  Instead of removing death from our experience, He makes possible a greater life following that death for those who trust in Jesus the Christ.

So what is this evangelizing even the dead?  There are really two good ways to interpret this, though I know there are endless variations in them.

The first is to see this as people who are now dead, but the evangelization happened while they were alive.  God’s purpose in the Gospel is not to make us invincible to the wicked in this life, but that when we die (whether naturally or at the hands of persecutors) this will not be the last word.  They live in spirit.  Unlike Jesus, believers do not immediately receive a spiritual body.  Their spirits are with Christ at the right hand of the Father awaiting the day of resurrection when they will obtain glorified, spiritual bodies like Jesus.  Even before the cross, righteous believers like Noah, Abraham, David, and all the rest, went into the good side of the Grave (Sheol/Hades) awaiting the day when Messiah would make it possible for them to be released into the presence of the Father.

One of the fears of early believers is mentioned by Paul in 1 Thessalonians 4.  They worried that somehow believers who had died were going to miss out on the good things that were expected at the Second Coming of Jesus.  Paul explains that those who are dead will not miss out on God’s plan.

In this situation, it is speculated that Peter is encouraging them that, even though we may be put to death in flesh, we are alive in spirit.  God’s judgment makes the judgments of men irrelevant.  In fact, this being alive in spirit occurs while we are still in this mortal flesh.  This is generally what is meant by eternal life.  It is the life-giving-principle of Jesus Himself working within us, no matter what state we are in (mortal flesh, body dead but spirit with Jesus, and finally a glorified spiritual body).

This is a good, scriptural understanding.  However, Peter may have been saying something more than this.  The second interpretation actually sees this as an evangelization by Jesus after his death to those who are in the grave.  Some oppose this because it sounds like they are getting a second chance at salvation.  However, this is not necessarily the case.

Scripture does appear to be clear that we are given this mortal life to make and to demonstrate our choice regarding Jesus.  Once we die, we are held accountable to that choice.  Hebrews 9:27 states, “it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment…”  2 Corinthians 6:2 states, “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”  Clearly, we are called to accept God while He has opened a door for salvation.  If we wait, the time may close and be missed.  Death is equated with facing our judgment, not an extension of a season of salvation.

That said, there is a plausible way to see this in the second sense (Jesus evangelizing the dead after his death) without teaching that people get a second chance in the Grave.

In 1 Peter 3:18, we saw that Jesus went into the Grave and then to Tartarus (a prison for rebellious angels/spirits).  There he proclaimed his victory to them and the finality of their defeat.  There is no sense in that passage that he “evangelized” them.  That word is not used.  Also, it is not hard to see that while he was in the Grave where the departed human spirits are held in two compartments, one good and one bad, Jesus may do some more declarations.  Thus, we can see Jesus proclaiming his victory to those “in torments in Hades,” which would accentuate that they had chosen the wrong side.  We could also see him sharing the good news (the real meaning of the word evangelize) of his victory and what it means for those human spirits in Abraham’s Bosom, or Paradise, which is the good side of the Grave.  He is not so much giving them an offer of salvation but explaining what has happened and how they have been saved.  This makes sense because though they had a sense of the good thing God was doing, they were just as much in the dark as the disciples were to how God was going to do this.

The foundations of the Gospel were laid down in Genesis three as God pronounces judgments on the serpent, Eve and Adam.  Notice that He promises that a Seed of the Woman would come forth to crush the Serpent’s head.  He would no longer have dominion over humanity.  This is a kind of proto-Gospel.  Through the Old Testament more and more definition is given to what and how God would save humanity.  We can imagine David coming into Abraham’s Bosom and sharing with those who were there all that God had revealed in his day.  Isaiah would enter one day and share what God had showed him.  Yet Jesus coming into Abraham’s Bosom would not just lead the spirits into heaven without some kind of explanation of what had happened.

The New Testament even speaks of Abraham and Israel having the Gospel preached to them in the sense of a proto-Gospel.  Galatians 3:8 says this about Abraham, and Hebrews 4:2 expresses this sense about Israel in the wilderness.

This second view sees that sharing good news with even the dead is not the only thing in view.  The whole dynamic of Jesus going into the grave in order to bring the righteous spirits held in the grave (awaiting the price to be paid for their sins and justification) and lead them into the presence of the Father is part of the purpose of God.

This faithfulness that has happened already is part of the confidence we can have in the midst of suffering.  God will not and has not left us at the mercy of wicked men, treated as lambs for the slaughter.  Instead, God wants to use our suffering and especially how we do it in order to make peace possible with his enemies, our enemies.

The spiritual life we have in Christ while we are in the flesh will not cease when our bodies die.  Our spirits will then live before the Father in heaven until the time of resurrection comes.  Then, we will have glorified, spiritual bodies in which we will be “like the angels.”  This is the sure, proven hope that believers have when facing suffering in this life.  May God strengthen us as we live for him in this lost world.

Our Witness 9 audio

The Good Confession

1 Timothy 6:11-16.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on January 17, 2021.

For the next six weeks, we are going to put a pause on our study through the Gospel according to Mark.  We have reached chapter 15 which details the crucifixion and then chapter 16 details the resurrection of Jesus.  We will pick them up so as to ramp up to our Easter service.

Today, we will go to First Timothy.  I want to talk about making the good confession in the modern world.  We are in a spiritual battle that requires faith in Jesus, in his teachings, and his actions.  

Jesus came into the world to testify to the Truth.  All others before him could really only confess what the Holy Spirit had told them.  Jesus is unique in that he is the only one who is an eye-witness of the Truth and who actually came from heaven to give that witness to the world.  He has told us the truth about the world’s plight, about each of our sin, about the way that it can be fixed, and about the only one who can do the fixing (Jesus himself).

If the Christ had a true testimony that all Christians are to confess before the whole world (that is, speak the same testimony as he) then know this.  The antichrist system of this world has a false testimony that it pressures and forces all to confess.  It is the anti-confession in regards to Jesus, and it will find its climax in the whole world worshipping the Beast through taking a mark, a loyalty pledge that is just as much a confession as it is an economic choice.

Let’s look at our passage.

Our Pursuit

In this passage, we have an older minister, Paul, making sure that a younger minister, Timothy, has a full understanding of how to teach the believers in the churches that were under his care.  Paul was not sure when he would be able to visit Timothy again.

Thus, Timothy is not a new convert and most likely the words here are not new to Timothy either.  Paul actually addresses him as “man of God” in verse 11.  These words are the encouragements and commands of a general to those fellow solders under him in the midst of battle.  We too must understand that we are on a battlefield that has progressed for millennia.  What is the pursuit of my life?  If I am truly a man or woman of God then I will hear the commands of the Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul and respond in kind.

Before Paul reminds Timothy of his pursuit, he reminds him of what he must flee.  It is hard to go after something when another thing, or things, has our hearts.  Thus, Satan has filled this world with philosophies and lies that seduce our hearts into false pursuits.  He leverages the desires of our flesh against the call of the Holy Spirit.  They are things such as: riches, power, pleasure, fame, pride, and the list goes on.  We must flee these things because our lives depend upon it, and the lives of those we influence.  It is not that these things should not be had, but that they can never be the pursuit of our life.

The anti-confession of this world draws us into these anti-pursuits.  In this passage, Paul has been warning against the teaching of those who think that godliness is a means of gain (vs. 5).  He says that they think this way because they are full of corrupt desires and their minds are destitute of the truth (vss. 4-5).  It is in this context that we are given the statement, “the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows (vs. 10).”

Godliness is not a means of obtaining riches, it is gain in and of itself.  You cannot obtain anything greater than being more like God, like Jesus.  The Gospel is not about making us rich and powerful in this world, but rather about taking on the image of our Father in heaven.  We do not live godly in order to get salvation, or natural blessings in this life.  No, we pursue a godly life because He has already saved us, while we were yet sinners, and has blessed us beyond belief.  We just couldn’t see it before we believed in Him.  Just as we are to flee sexual immorality, so we are commanded to flee the love of riches, and those who would pervert the Gospel into a means of riches.

With our hearts free from false-pursuits, we are then enabled to pursue what is true, God Himself, His image, and His character.  In truth, we cannot accomplish this on our own.  We cannot even accomplish it with the help of well-meaning believers who come alongside of us.  Without the powerful work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we would be lost to the seduction of The Lie, the lie that we don’t need God, or Jesus, to satisfy our hearts and minds.

Paul lists righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, and gentleness.  These are all fruit, or evidence, of the Holy Spirit within us.  Yes, we are to pursue them, but our obtaining of them to any measure is enabled by His presence.  This world cannot obtain true righteousness because it lacks the Spirit of God.  It can only redefine righteousness to match exactly what it wants to do.  We have seen over the decades the raising up of a false-righteousness that is now being used to condemn those who cling to the righteousness of God found only in Jesus Christ.  Christian, never forget that we are not called to pursue the desires of the flesh, but rather to pursue the image of God in our life.

Our Fight

In verse 12, Paul then commands Timothy, and us, to fight the good fight.  It involves a battle in which we will face enemies and contestants that desire to defeat us.  Some of them are sentient (spirits and humans), and some of them are abstract such as our internal weaknesses.  The false pursuits are the “bad fight.”  Too many people are fighting the wrong battles, and thereby, they are being used by Satan to become useful idiots in his plan to destroy God’s people and the Truth to which they cling.

It is called in the passage, “the good fight of faith.”  Eternal life is offered to all who will fight the good fight of faith.  In fact, the fight of faith is all about “laying hold of eternal life.”  When we believe upon Jesus, eternal life takes up residence within us through the Holy Spirit.  This eternal life continues to work within us to make us fit to dwell in the direct presence of God in eternity.  However, our faith will be tested in this world.  Just like love is tested by our experiences with others, so our faith is tested by the things we face in life.  This battle, both to keep believing and to agonize over what faith should do now, does not end until we finish this life.  It is in that day of resurrection that we will once and for all lay hold of eternal life.  Each difficulty begs the question, “Will you continue to believe and follow Jesus now?”

Yes, it is a battle, but the battle is worth it.  We have been called to eternal life!  Sin has put us under a death sentence, but Jesus came that we might have eternal life, and life more abundantly.  Jesus told his disciples to take possession of their souls by faith, and in so doing, we strengthen our grip upon eternal life.  No one can take it from you, but you can surrender it by shipwrecking your faith in Jesus.  May our faith be strengthened in Jesus, and not just a redefined Jesus that the world can accept.  No.  It must be the same Jesus that this world crucified 2,000 years ago, and would crucify all over again if he appeared again.  Can the world see the true Jesus in me?

Paul reminds Timothy that he had made the good confession before many witnesses (vs. 12).  All faith is expressed and is activated through confession.  We believe in our heart and confess with our mouths (hands, and feet) that Jesus is Lord.  Paul most likely has Timothy’s initial statement of belief in Jesus.  The many witnesses were other believers who are rejoicing in his confessing the truth of Jesus.  However, life always leads us to places where we must confess before witnesses who are hostile.  Just like Jesus before Caiaphas, and Peter before the servant girl, we will be faced with the opportunity to deny or confess Jesus, and thus the Father, before all men.  We must do the spiritual work now so that we are prepared for those moments.  Otherwise, we will crash and burn just as Peter did.

In verse 13, Paul reminds Timothy and us that Jesus testified the good confession before Pilate.  Most Gospels only have the question, “Are you the King of the Jews?”  Jesus then answers, “It is as you say.”  However, John 18 adds that his kingdom is not of this world, now, which implies that it will be one day.  Jesus came from heaven to testify to the Truth so that we can confess, agree with and stand by, his testimony, and thereby participate in his victory.  This sounds wonderful until you are face to face with a hostile enemy challenging you to deny Jesus.

Our Charge

Paul ends this part with a charge, a statement of strong urging, to believers.  We must hold fast to these things.  Paul reminds Timothy that he is in the presence of God and Jesus Christ.  In fact, everything that we do and hear is in the presence of God.  The Latin phrase is, coram deo.  How careful we should be of the things we flee and the things we pursue.  He who will judge all men looks upon us now.  How will we choose and how will we respond now?  The past is important, but the present is always what matters now.  Yes, I had faith yesterday.  Praise God!  But, what will I do today, now that I face this, whatever this may be?

When Jesus testified before Pilate, he was going before us blazing the way.  Jesus testified to the Truth as in a legal witness.  He knows the truth as an eye-witness because he is from heaven.  However, he knows the truth because he is Truth and one with Truth.  He went before us as a great captain of our salvation.  And, so, we must learn to follow him and agree with his testimony with our own confession before the people and powers of this world.

Ultimately, we are to keep this command to pursue the image of God and fight the good fight of faith without spot and blameless (vs. 14).  This is not about never making a mistake, but taking responsibility for our mistakes through repentance and turning back to Christ.  The daily maintenance of faith is a daily cleansing of our lives before our Lord Jesus.

We are not released from this command until Christ appears at the Second Coming.  Paul’s description of the Lord as the Potentate, or Sovereign over all things, is to encourage us.  We are on the right side when we stand with Jesus.  It may not look like it in this world, but all other sides, even those of the “new and improved Jesus,” will fail. 

What truths of Christ are being contested today and in what way?  Over and over again, we see the Scriptures being re-interpreted and obvious meanings cast aside for more modern, acceptable ones.  Will we stand with Jesus, or will we fold like an adulterous spouse?  O friend, hang on to your faith and go to work strengthening it, because you are going to need it in the days ahead!

Good Confession Audio

How Many Camels Can Fit through a Needle?

Mark 10:23-31.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday March 01, 2020.

In our passage this morning, we have the famous statement of Jesus that involves a camel going through the eye of a needle.  It is given right on the heels of the rich young ruler whom Jesus challenged to sell all his possessions and follow him.  We are told that the young man went away sad because he had a lot of wealth.  We should have that young man walking away from Jesus dejected in our minds as we hear these next words from Jesus.  The young man wanted eternal life and Jesus told him what he needed to do to get it.  Yet, he balked at such a drastic action.

I would like to deal with the idea of a camel going through an eye of a needle up front, so that we can focus on the main point when we get to it.  I am sure that needles and their holes were larger due to the technology employed.  Regardless, it is my contention that Jesus intended this to be a statement of impossibility.  Over the years, various ideas have surfaced as to alternate meanings.  All of them reduce this from a statement of impossibility to one of great difficulty. 

The most famous attempt involves a gate into Jerusalem called the camel gate.  It was apparently so small that the only way a camel could enter is to be unloaded and to crawl on its knees.  This is a great image for coming to Jesus.  However, the problem is that there is no first-hand evidence that this is true.  The Bible makes no mention of such a gate, and the earliest reference to such a gate that scholars have found is somewhere in the 10^th or 11^th century AD.   This gap of a millennium should cause us to balk at jumping on the camel gate band wagon.

Others have pointed out that the word for camel is just one letter different from a word for a rope made from camel hair.  Of course, there is no evidence that any manuscripts used this alternate word.  It is nothing but speculation that cannot be put forth as the true interpretation.

It seems obvious to many others that Jesus is employing simple hyperbole.  Camels going through the eye of a needle is impossible pure and simple.  Just like the Pharisees straining out gnats and swallowing camels, the absurdly impossible is used to press a point that we won’t actually believe or take seriously.  Let’s look at our passage.

It is hard for the wealthy to enter into God’s Kingdom (23-27)

The rich man may still be in their sights as he trails off over the horizon.  Here, Jesus uses the moment to teach an important thing to his disciples.  Jesus makes a statement that it is hard or difficult for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God.  I believe that Jesus is connecting the Kingdom of God back to the young man’s desire for eternal life.  Though they are two different concepts, they are very connected.  Those who have eternal life will participate in the coming Kingdom of God, in which the Messiah of God rules over the earth from Jerusalem.  They are one and the same.  We are not just talking about a reward here, but, even more foundational, also salvation.  This is a statement of difficulty that catches the disciples by surprise.

How can it be difficult for rich people to be saved?  They had been taught that good Israelites would be blessed by God with wealth.  Of course, they knew that wicked people could be rich, but our context is about an Israelite who has been observant of the Law of Moses his whole life.  Surely, the wealth of such a man was proof of God’s blessing, favor, and salvation.  This man is the poster boy for what all religious Israelites of the time would aim to be.

It is definitely easier for our age to swallow this statement.  We might be some of the first to say, “Right on Jesus.  Give it to those 1%-ers.”   Riches add temptation and hindrances to our hearts and minds that the lack of them do not.  Yes, riches can be a boon in life, but only if you aren’t a slave to them.  This is much easier said than done.  It is sad that many Christians in the West believe that they will be wealthy if they are truly pleasing God.  We must be very careful about such notions because Jesus never said that.  Yet, Jesus doesn’t stop there. 

They are amazed with this statement, so he turns around and gives them the statement again.  This time Jesus emphasizes that trust in riches is the problem.  As he said elsewhere, it is hard to serve wealth and God.  One of them will win your heart, and you will despise the other.  Our treasure is where our heart lies and the rich tend to have their heart in the wealth of this life.  They trust in riches in the way that they should be trusting in God.  They may desire eternal life, but they are unwilling to divorce their heart from their riches in order to come into relationship with the God of heaven.  Thus, Jesus has made a similar statement of difficulty regarding the salvation of rich people.

If Jesus had stopped here then it would have been a remarkable lesson to absorb for these first century Israelites.  However, Jesus then gives a metaphor that compares something that he has said is difficult to something that is basically impossible.  This is the metaphor of the camel.  A rich man being saved is not just a little difficult.  It is more difficult than a camel going through the eye of an actual needle (no one said the camel had to survive the experience).    That degree of difficulty can only be described as impossible.  Is Jesus really saying that it is basically impossible for rich people to be saved?  Yes, I believe he is.  Hang with me if you can.

We see Jesus using hyperbole in many places.  He told the Pharisees that they swallowed camels as a picture of the size of the false teachings that they had accepted all the while straining out, or rejecting, the smallest of deviations from the Law.  Yes, in the natural swallowing a camel is impossible, but theologically these Pharisees were doing it every day.  We are not intended to minimize the hyperbole, but rather see the contrasting items in a greater light.  The Pharisees were not just a little bit wrong.  They were hugely and absurdly wrong.  There is a part of us that laughingly thinks that we would rather take our chances when it comes to riches.  Like Topol in Fiddler on the Roof, we are tempted to state that if riches are a curse then may God smite us with it…and may we never recover!  Such things make for a humorous play or movie, but this is no laughing matter.  Jesus intends to put the fear of God in his disciples. 

Do I actually believe that being rich makes it so difficult to be saved that it is basically impossible, statistically a zero chance?  If it sounds shocking to you then you are in good company.  The disciples are even more amazed than before.  They whisper among themselves, “Then who can be saved?”  It reminds me of the time that Jesus taught on divorce.  By the time he was done, they were exasperated and stated, “If that is the case then it is better not to marry!”  Even religious communities can inoculate us to the pure or raw truth of God.  The teachings of their day pointed to the rich observant Israelite as a success story.  Were not the Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob wealthy men?  Did not the Law of Moses promise wealth and bounty to Israel when they obeyed God?  Yes, all of these things are true.  Yet, we might ask ourselves this.  Did Abraham trust in his riches and cling to them rather than follow God?  Did his riches mean more to him than a relationship with the God of heaven?

It is similar to the wisdom of Solomon.  Many things that seem to be a blessing in this life only add a bigger burden to our task.  If your mission is to enjoy life the most you can then maybe riches can help.  However, if your goal is to come through this life with the assurance of eternal life then many things that we call blessings are actually making it harder.

The point is not that we shouldn’t have wealth or even wisdom.  Rather, we must be wide awake and alert to the difficulties that they present to us.  Jesus gives an answer to the question they are asking (that is, who can be saved), which seems to end up with the answer, no one.

It is interesting in verse 27 that Jesus doesn’t say, “With rich men this is…”  Yes, it can be assumed, but I believe he makes it general on purpose.  It seems that he is expanding the point of salvation being impossible for the rich.  We all have hindrances to trusting God, whether rich or not.  Is grasping hold of eternal life impossible for us as humans?  Our modern sensibilities want to jump in and say, “Of course not!  Don’t worry.  God has made a way.”  Yet, Jesus would rather that we face the hard facts first without mitigation.  The answer is not to diminish the difficulty of salvation by pointing to the grace of Jesus.  Rather, the answer is to absorb the revealing of just how impossible salvation is so that we can then see just how amazing grace is.  If sin is no big deal and if salvation is easy then the grace that God gives us is also no big deal.   No one can save themselves.  It is impossible.  You can do good works until you are blue in the face and it won’t fix your problem before God.  In the end, you will still be a person in love with things of this world more than God.

Jesus then turns the shocking statement on its head.  With God all things are possible, even the impossible.  If I am in relationship with God then my impossible situation now becomes possible.  This is a huge problem.  The average person on the street who isn’t a believer thinks that they are good enough that God sort of owes it to them to let them into his kingdom.  Sadly, many Christians today have an extremely low view of the grace of God because their view of sin is depraved.  God by definition is great at dealing with impossible things.  The Old Testament is full of impossible situations that God made possible.  Thus, salvation takes an intervention from God Himself, and even then, He only makes it possible.  Jesus had made salvation possible for the rich young ruler in that moment, but he went away sad that he couldn’t have eternal life and his love of wealth.

Yes, salvation is as simple as yielding to Christ, and yet as difficult as parting with all your wealth, or parting the Red Sea.  It is a spiritual work that will never happen without the help of God Himself.  Our story is about rich people, but they are not the only ones who find it difficult to obtain eternal life.  Be careful that the things of this world do not get between you and Jesus.  You can be sure of your eternal life, but it won’t be without its difficulties of dealing with temptations and getting rid of things that hinder your relationship with your Father in heaven.

The disciples had sacrificed things to follow Jesus (28-31)

True to form, Peter speaks out about their own condition.  They had left their various lives in order to follow Jesus.  Matthew 19:27 adds the question, “What will we have?”  Up until now, they had been talking about eternal life and participating in the reign of Jesus upon this earth.  Peter wants to know if they will be rewarded for leaving all of their stuff to follow Jesus.  Apparently, he had never thought of that as something righteous.  He had done it for various reasons, but some of it probably had to do with their fascination that the Messiah might actually be here!  They had unwittingly done the most important thing, which is often the case when we simply listen to the Spirit of God.

Jesus makes it clear that those who lose something in this life in order to follow him will be rewarded.  It is important to recognize that only 12 disciples were called to live with Jesus and follow him around all the time.  However, to believe in Jesus, to hear the call of the Holy Spirit, is every bit as real today as it was then.  I am going to have to let go of things in order to follow Jesus, and not just wicked things.  Many good things will have to be left in our wake if we are to stay fixated on trusting the word of Jesus and living the life that he has called us to live.  Yet, notice that Jesus is not promising them only “pie in the sky.”

He gives a list of things that people might have to leave behind in order to follow him: a house, or brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, a wife, children, or even lands.  The list is made of things and close relationships.  The point is not that you must leave your wife to follow Jesus, but that your choice to follow Jesus may not be reciprocated by your wife.  She may try to dissuade you, or hold you back.  She may even lay down an ultimatum, me or this Jesus you want to follow!  What a difficult decision to make, and yet it has happened many times over throughout history.  Oh, how many times family members have thrown down the gauntlet and said, “If you walk out that door to follow Jesus then you are no longer related to me!” 

The apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 7 mentions the case of having an unbelieving spouse.  He counsels the believer to do their best in order to remain in the relationship, short of turning away from Christ.  There is nothing righteous about leaving people behind for selfish motives.  People leave spouses every day in order to follow their flesh. However, Jesus says “for my sake and the Gospel’s.”  That is the key.  We often do the unthinkable by sacrificing things and relationships to follow after sin and pleasure.  This is not that.  This is the choice that must be made when those things present themselves as obstacles to following the commands of Jesus.  An unbelieving spouse is not an obstacle to following Christ, unless they give an ultimatum.

Jesus states that these things and relationships that we lost will be obtained many times over in this life.  If you lose your parents to follow Jesus then you will find many spiritual parents in the group of his followers.  If you lose your job, house, or land (yes, this happens in many places throughout this world) then you will find a community of believers that will love you, shelter you, help you find work.  You will not necessarily own these things, and you will still need to keep your trust in Jesus, not Christians whom you think should give you something.  May God help us to learn to be a better family, a family that is motivated by the Spirit of God.  We are intended to be a blessing to one another in this life.

They will also receive eternal life in the age to come.  This may sound like a lesser prize in comparison to the earlier large list.  Yes, there is a reward in this life, but an even greater one in the life to come.  We will participate in Christ’s rule over this earth and we will have eternal life!  Incidentally, in Matthew 19:28, Jesus tells the 12 disciples that they will judge the 12 tribes of Israel, during the Kingdom Age.  Wow!  Now that is a promotion, from Galilean fisherman to leader of one of the tribes of Israel.  We, of course, do not have a specific word regarding our station and reward in the coming Kingdom.  However, that pales in relation to the fact that we will have eternal life with the One who is the author of eternal life, in fact who is eternal life itself.  What is important is that we will have come out the other side of this side road of obtaining the knowledge of good and evil.  And, in that moment, we will have healing from all that sin has done to us personally, and to us as a human race.  We cannot know the full freedom that we will experience in that moment, as we look at a whole world of endless possibilities and no wickedness in sight, both without and within!  Praise God for His indescribable gift!

Our passage ends with a proverb or adage that points out that many who are first in this life will be last in the age to come, and many who are last in this life will be first in the age to come.  If you were to poll the Israelites of the first century as to who would have the greatest reward, their list would look a certain way.  However, the real list will be created by God.  God does not judge by mere appearances.  By mere appearance, the rich man was high on the list, but his response to Jesus proves that he was not nearly as high as others would think, and even dangerously near the edge of missing out completely.

We must be careful of our judgments about how great people are.  We do not often judge the same way that God judges, nor can we.  Rather, we should let such things go.  I must quit worrying about what I am going to get, and simply work to be faithful to what the Lord is giving me to do today.  Learn to enjoy the work of God that is in front of you.  The work of the future will also have joys, but I needn’t worry about it when I am in relationship with the One who is eternal life itself.  Hierarchy in this life is fraught with impure motives and desires.  In that life, we can’t imagine what it will be like when your eyes are wide open to the evils of sin, and your flesh is not tainted by rebellion.  Oh, what a day that will be!

How many camels audio

The Sorrowful Rich Man

Mark 10:17-22.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, February 23, 2020.

We spend much of our days trying to impact our experience in this life.  However, the most important question begins with this.  What is next?  What is going to happen after I leave this life?  We know what materialism says about this; nothing happens.  Yet, God tells us that this life is only a prelude to eternity.

In our passage today, a deeper question is asked.  It accepts that there is something after this life, and it can be either good or bad, a spiritual life or spiritual death.  That deeper question is, what must I do to have eternal life?  Jesus came and showed us exactly what we must do to have eternal life.  We no longer need to be confused on this issue.

If this seems to be nonsense to you then I ask you to at least hear this sermon out, so you will at least know what God’s Word really says on this issue.

A question for Jesus

The story before us happens quite quickly.  A man shows up with a question for Jesus, but we need to look at who he is before we get into the question that he had for Jesus.

He is a rich young ruler within Israel who is troubled by a question.  The Gospel of Mark makes it clear at the end that he has “great possessions,” that is; he is rich.  Matthew 19:20 adds the fact that he is young, and Luke 18:18 tells us that he is a ruler (Greek- Archon).  This word for ruler is a general one.  It is used of Nicodemus, who is called a ruler of the Jews.  This seems to be a higher station and most likely refers to a position within the Sanhedrin, similar to a Supreme Court for Israel.  This term is also used for someone who is a ruler of a synagogue, which would be a much lower position.  It is unclear the level of his position, but his youth would make it unlikely that he is on the Sanhedrin.  Most likely, he has inherited much of his possessions, and perhaps his position as a ruler.

Even more important, the young man is troubled.  A question has been burning in his heart and mind that he has been unable to shake.  So, he catches Jesus as he is headed out of town going out on the road.  He runs to catch up to Jesus.  He doesn’t want to miss this opportunity, and yet, most likely waited for Jesus to leave town so that he could have a little more privacy at his question.  We should also notice that he kneels before Jesus.  This demonstrates the humility that the young man has and his high estimation of Jesus.

Now, we can look at his question.  What must I do to inherit eternal life?  His question is not about this life.  He has had it great in this life with his riches and power.  His question is about what’s next.  He knows that the righteous will be given eternal life by God.  He wonders how he can ensure that he will have eternal life on the other side.

According to the religious teachers of his day, he shouldn’t be concerned at all.  He is an Israelite, and thus, part of God’s people.  He is also an Israelite who observes the Law of Moses.  On top of this, he is rich, which was seen as a sure sign of God’s blessing and acceptance, in those days.  If he questioned a rabbi of his day, he would be told that he has eternal life of course.  Why would he doubt?  And yet, he is.  He feels that something is missing.  He feels like something could be wrong.  What is it?

I believe that he was under the conviction of the Holy Spirit.  God’s Spirit is always dealing with mankind, whether as one who belongs to God, or as one who does not believe in Him.  God’s Spirit was convicting him that something wasn’t quite right, that he was missing something important.  We will put this on pause for a minute because he had addressed Jesus as “good teacher,” and Jesus deals with this first.

Jesus asks him why he calls Jesus good.  He then states that only God is good.  It is easy to just take this as a matter of fact.  Some would point out that these words mean that Jesus clearly did not think he was good, nor divine.  However, Jesus is not denying his goodness.  Rather, he is making the young man think deeper.  The young man’s ideas about goodness go to the heart of his question.  In fact, Matthew 19:16 adds a more specific detail to the question.  “What good thing must I do to inherit eternal life?”  The young man is looking for that one action that is so good that it merits eternal life without question.  Thus, Jesus makes him think about his definition of good.  It cannot be found in the literature of the time that anyone would have addressed a rabbi with the adjective good.  Its use implies inherent goodness and even sinlessness.  Yes, some men are good in comparison to others, but something deeper is being pointed out here by Jesus.  The man is unwittingly correct that Jesus is good, but not because of his powers of deduction.  He is using an improper understanding of good.

Though Jesus does not spell out the logic that his statement leads to, it is not hard to follow.  If only God is good, then the best of us will always fall short to some degree.  It is impossible for a man who is not good to do an action that would be good enough.  It would always be a fallen person trying to do a good thing and falling short.  Of course, something within us all protests that surely being a good person is enough.  And, that is the problem.  The revelation of Jesus and his apostles is that there really is no good work that a person can do to inherit eternal life.  Don’t get me wrong.  Good works are important, but they can’t guarantee eternal life.

Jesus then tells him to follow the commandments, clearly speaking of the Law of Moses and especially the 10 commandments.  Six of them are listed.  Don’t commit adultery, murder, theft, bearing false witness, defrauding others, and do honor your parents.  The man responds that he has done all these things since his youth.  In other words, I’ve done those things and I still do not have a peace about my eternal future.

We should note that Jesus has listed the commands that have to do with our relationship with other people, commands 5 through 10.  However, he has left out commands 1-4, which have to do with our relationship with God.  Most likely, he has left these commands out in order to highlight where the problem is.  He is doing well in how he treats others.  No doubt, he does fail even here in light of the way Jesus interprets these commands in his Sermon on the Mount.  There, Jesus states that it is not good enough to refrain from doing these bad things.  If we harbor them as thoughts and desires within us then we are still breaking them.  The main problem is between him and God.  The Spirit of God is calling him into an intimate relationship rather than just satisfying his duties.

The problem in first century Israel is not that people were obeying the Law of Moses.  They were under a covenant with God and therefore they should be obeying these commands.  The problem was that, in doing the commands, things and duties had become the focus rather than a loving relationship with God.  The doing of things had come to be seen as the way to get close to God, instead of the truth that it should be the other way around.  I cannot do anything good enough to have a relationship with God, who is the source of eternal life, but a relationship with God can help me to do good things.  Another way to say it is this.  We do not do good things to obtain, or merit, salvation.  We do good things because we are in relationship with the one who has saved us.  Good works are the fruit of a relationship with God, not the means of obtaining it.

We are told that, as he pours out his heart, Jesus looks upon him and loves him.  Here is a man who is doing as best he can to obey God.  He is trying to respond to the conviction of the Holy Spirit that something is missing.  He is humble and open to what Jesus has to say.  He is close to eternal life because he is close to having a relationship with God through Jesus.  God is answering the question of his heart.  What a lovely thing for God, to see a troubled man kneeling before him asking for help.  I know that some who are not Christians despise such an image, but know this today.  God will not despise the humble, and He will give them grace.  However, the proud and unrepentant will find Him quite difficult to face.  The young man is doing what pleases the Lord, and so should we every day.

Jesus tells the young man that he lacks one thing.  With all of his possessions, he could not see that he was lacking one thing, and that was a living relationship with the God of his fathers.  Jesus is going to tell him exactly what to do in order to have eternal life.  Though it may seem complicated, it is as simple as telling him to quit trying to obey his way (or the way he had been taught) into eternal life, and start embracing the One who is eternal life.  Stop seeing eternal life as something separate from God that we can obtain without having to really deal with Him.  Instead, see it as the inseparable character and power of the One who calls us into relationship with Him.  Ask yourself today.  Have I been stuck doing things for God’s approval without actually having a relationship with Him? 

It is interesting that Jesus turns around and gives the young man 5 commands for him to obey that are not actually part of the 10 commandments.  They are: Go your way, Sell what you have, Give to the poor, Come taking up your cross, and Follow me.  If we are in the mode of thinking about good works then we will hone in one the selling of everything.  However, the main point of these commands is to remove the things that keep us from going after God.  To follow Jesus is to follow God.  Let’s look at each of these commands, and make no mistake, they are commands.

Jesus tells him to go his way.  There was something particular that the young man needed to deal with and he needed to do it by himself, though the Spirit of God could help him if he would ask for help.  Dietrich Bonhoeffer said in his book The Cost of Discipleship that, if we obey the Lord in every way except the one that he is commanding us right now then we are not obeying the Lord.  We cannot point to all the other ways we are obeying in the face of the one thing the Lord tells us to do.  We simply must do it.  He must go to deal with it.  He cannot leap-frog over it and follow Jesus without being disobedient.

The next command is to sell all that you have.  Possessions and wealth are in between him and God.  They were holding him back spiritually.  There is no verse in the Bible that commands us to sell everything.  In fact, this verse does not intend to teach that all Christians for the rest of time must sell all their possessions.  Jesus gives him the one drastic action that would cure him of his problem.  It is similar to the earlier drastic action that Jesus spoke of when he mentioned cutting off your hand to avoid Gehenna (Mark 9:43).  As I said when we looked at that passage, it is not our hands that lead us into sin.  It is the stronghold of sinful desires within us that lead us into sin.  He had a sinful attachment to the great amount of possessions in his life, and therefore, he needed to sell them all, not because it is sinful to have possessions, but because possessions were stirring up sin within him.  Yes, the Bible doesn’t say you must sell your possessions to make heaven, but it does tell us that this particular man did need to sell his possession to make heaven.  Even then, it wouldn’t be the selling of them that would merit eternal life.  Rather, the selling of them would free him to enter into relationship with the Lord of Life Himself.  He was trying to serve two masters, but wealth had his heart, not God.  He needed to divorce himself from his current love, and pursue God. 

This begs the question.  What might be in my way? If you have tried being a Christian, but found it to be missing something, then hear the Spirit of Christ calling to you today.  You too have things in your life that have your heart so much that you are unable to enter into a real relationship with Christ.  Let the Holy Spirit put His finger on it right now.  Hear Him telling you to go and do that drastic action that will set you free to follow Jesus.  He will never tell you to do a sinful thing.  Rather, it will always be something that our flesh will protest by saying, “but there is no verse that says I can’t have this!”

Next, Jesus tells him to give to the poor.  Just as elsewhere, giving to the poor is synonymous to putting treasure in heaven.  Giving and helping people who cannot pay you back is true spirituality and will be rewarded by God Himself.  It is not based upon the amount, but upon the intent and sacrifice.  By the way, this is not a commentary on a proper economic system.  Jesus did not ask this of everyone who believed on him, but he did this man.  We should all help the poor, but we are not all called to sell all our possessions (unless they have our hearts).  The key is understanding what is getting in the way of my relationship with God.

Next, Jesus tells him to come back to him taking up a cross.  Once we have removed the idols that we have in our heart, we are now ready to come to Jesus.  Yet, even then, we must approach with the right attitude.  Picking up your cross is the readiness to suffer in whatever ways you have to suffer in order to follow Jesus.  I must be ready to die to more things that may crop up later between me and Jesus.  Don’t bother coming to Jesus if you are not also packing your own cross.  If you think that following Jesus will obtain you riches and power then you might as well turn around right now.  If you truly follow Jesus then you will find the many things of this world to which you must die in order to keep up with him.

If you have done the previous four commands then you are now ready to actually follow Jesus.  Following Jesus requires a surrendered life.  Lord, I don’t have to know the way, just lead me one step at a time.  The Spirit of God will always give us direction, but we are not always quick to follow.  Eternal life is not as simple as being nice to others.  And yet, it is as simple as following Jesus.  It isn’t easy to follow the one who calls us to die to those things that keep us from following him.

This is not what the young man wanted to hear, which is proof positive that Jesus had put his finger exactly on his problem.  It says that he left sorrowful.  He approached Jesus in a more promising manner than Nicodemus did, who came by night.  Yet, he left saddened by the answer.   Whatever became of him?  We do not know.

The greater question is what will become of you, or me?  Do I have eternal life?  In John 17:3, Jesus says, “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”  He does not just mean to know about him, but to actually experience a relationship with him, like the disciples who followed him did. 

How can you have eternal life?  Instead of offering God your good works and hoping that they will be acceptable to merit it, humble yourself and die to those things of this world that are getting in the way of following him.  Jesus is eternal life, and all who connect to him by putting their faith in him will have eternal life.  Let the Spirit of God lead you to cast aside your fears and doubts, and step into a living relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ!

Sorrowful Rich Man Audio