{"id":1053,"date":"2016-06-23T14:23:52","date_gmt":"2016-06-23T18:23:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mzgtiglobal.org\/?p=1053"},"modified":"2016-06-23T14:23:52","modified_gmt":"2016-06-23T18:23:52","slug":"the-rich-young-ruler-february-28-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mzgtiglobal.org\/?p=1053","title":{"rendered":"The Rich Young Ruler, February 28, 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Rich Young Ruler<\/h1>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Central Thought: We should be willing to give up everything for God.<\/h3>\n

 <\/p>\n

Hymn: Take my life and let it be<\/h4>\n

Text: Mark 10:17-31<\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The encounter of the Lord Jesus with the right young ruler presents an opportunity for teaching on what should be our attitude toward riches. The encounter can be regarded as one of the most challenging account of the gospel and has raised several questions in the encounter itself and the reactions of the disciples.\u00a0 This study aims at examining some of these questions and our Lord\u2019s replies to them, with the view to correcting wrong assumptions believers may be making on this issue.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Lesson Objectives:<\/h3>\n
    \n
  1. To identify who is this rich young ruler.<\/li>\n
  2. To consider the genuineness of his inquiry.<\/li>\n
  3. To discuss the importance of Jesus\u2019 command to him.<\/li>\n
  4. To understand what one should do to inherit eternal life.<\/li>\n
  5. To find out why he refused to follow Jesus.<\/li>\n
  6. To understand if it is evil to be rich.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
      \n
    1. \n
      Who is this rich young ruler? Mark 10:19-20<\/h5>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      The name or tribe of this young man is not mentioned, but from the ways he is introduced, he is one of the leaders of his time. He was morally upright and very humble from what we can see in his approach our Lord Jesus.<\/p>\n

        \n
      • He laid aside his position and ran to Jesus.<\/li>\n
      • He came openly and was not ashamed to be seen by the great company that was with Jesus.<\/li>\n
      • He kneeled to Him as a sign of great respect he had for Him.<\/li>\n
      • He addressed Him as Good Master<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
        <\/h5>\n
          \n
        1. \n
          Do you consider His inquiry genuine?<\/h5>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

          The rich young ruler was genuine in his inquiry because he wanted to be sure he would get eternal life. Unfortunately, he made wrong assumptions about salvation and eternal life.\u00a0 He said he had never broken any of the laws Jesus mentioned, as such was confident of inheriting eternal life.\u00a0 However, Jesus lovingly broke his pride and self-righteousness with a challenge that he could not handle.<\/p>\n

           <\/p>\n

            \n
          1. \n
            What is the importance of Jesus\u2019 command to him?<\/h5>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

            Jesus\u2019 command to the rich young ruler to sell whatever he had and give to the poor was too hard for him to handle. The young ruler trusted in his riches.<\/p>\n

            His earthly possessions represented his pride of accomplishment and self-effort and so he would not let it go for the heavenly treasure which he was not probably sure existed. This singular attitude the young man exhibited in reaction to the Lord\u2019s command brings to doubt his claim to have kept all the laws. He could not keep the first commandment of letting nothing be more important than God.\u00a0 Thus he could not meet the one requirement Jesus gave him.<\/p>\n

            Note: What is that one thing in your life that you need to let go for Jesus to become not only your Savior but also the Lord of your life?\u00a0 Similarly, there should be nothing in our lives that we cannot let go for Jesus, in order for Him to be not only our Savior but also our Lord.<\/p>\n

             <\/p>\n

              \n
            1. \n
              What should one do to inherit eternal life? John 3:1-6; Acts 16:30-31<\/h5>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

              The encounter between the Lord Jesus and Nicodemus in John 3:16 clearly tells us one requirement to inherit eternal life. Although most Pharisees were jealous of Jesus for various reasons, Nicodemus believed Jesus had answers to the questions on his mind.\u00a0 From the Lord\u2019s answer, the first step to inheriting eternal life is to accept the Lord Jesus Christ into our lives and be born again.<\/p>\n

               <\/p>\n

                \n
              1. \n
                Why did the rich young ruler refuse to follow Jesus? Mark 10:22; Luke 14:28<\/h5>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                Mark 10:22 reads, \u201cAnd he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved: for he had great possessions.\u201d The young mans\u2019 heart was too attached to his great possessions that he would not let go anything for the kingdom\u2019s sake.\u00a0 He could not trust Jesus enough.<\/p>\n

                He knew he could not lay hold on eternal life and keep hold on his temporal possession too. Consequently, he did not pretend about it as he was not able to pay the price of discipleship as directed by the Lord.\u00a0 He decided to ignore Christ and eternal life and go with his great possession.\u00a0 He allowed his possessions to deprive him of following Jesus like many people are still doing today.<\/p>\n

                 <\/p>\n

                  \n
                1. \n
                  Is it evil to be rich? 3 John 2<\/h5>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                  Jesus\u2019 statement did not imply that His followers must become poor or should not possess anything in this life. Jesus was only speaking through this individual to us not to allow our worldly possessions keep us from becoming His disciples.\u00a0 We should always realize that anything that takes first place in our lives apart from God is an idol.\u00a0 It is God\u2019s will that we be rich because He is glorified in it, but it becomes evil when we instead trust in the riches and also fail to use it to His glory.<\/p>\n

                   <\/p>\n

                   <\/p>\n

                  Daily Living Application:<\/h3>\n

                  The rich young man\u2019s wealth, popularity and position in the society could not satisfy his inner spiritual longing. He needed to submit humbly o the Lordship of Christ to fill the vacuum in his heart which all his material possessions could not fill.<\/p>\n

                  Unfortunately, when confronted with the requirements of the kingdom, he considered the earthly possessions more important than the heavenly treasure Christ spoke about. He therefore rejected the Lord and His kingdom.<\/p>\n

                  We must be determined not to fall into the same error of this young rich man but follow the Lord no matter the cost.<\/p>\n

                   <\/p>\n

                  Memory Verse:<\/h3>\n

                  Luke 9:23 \u2013 \u201cAnd He said to them all, if any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

                  The Rich Young Ruler     Central Thought: We should be willing to give up everything for God.   Hymn: Take my life and let it be Text: Mark 10:17-31     The encounter of the Lord Jesus with the right young ruler presents an opportunity for teaching on what should be our attitude toward […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sundayschool"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mzgtiglobal.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mzgtiglobal.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mzgtiglobal.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mzgtiglobal.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mzgtiglobal.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1053"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mzgtiglobal.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1053\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1054,"href":"https:\/\/mzgtiglobal.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1053\/revisions\/1054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mzgtiglobal.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mzgtiglobal.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mzgtiglobal.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}