Trusting God Over Wealth: A Call to Faithfulness

Then Jesus looked around and said to His disciples, “How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!” And the disciples were astonished at His words. But Jesus answered again and said to them, “Children, how hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God! 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.” [00:00:24]

And they were greatly astonished, saying among themselves, “Who then can be saved?” But Jesus looked at them and said, “With men it is impossible, but not with God; for with God all things are possible.” Then Peter began to say to Him, “See, we have left all and followed You.” [00:00:55]

So Jesus answered and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children of lands, for My sake and the gospel’s, who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time—houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions—and in the age to come, eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.” [00:01:22]

Here Jesus singles out an obstacle that human beings have that stands between them and their willingness and readiness to hear the gospel. And that obstacle that Jesus addresses on this occasion is the obstacle of material wealth. That material wealth, which the Old Testament Jew looked upon as a blessing from God, could have a second side to it bringing forth the curse of self-sufficiency, so that Jesus said, “Be careful if you’re wealthy because if you are it will be hard for you to enter into the kingdom of God.” [00:04:18]

Now let me just say a little bit about the biblical view of wealth and poverty because it is a view that we need to understand, particularly in the climate of the politics of envy that saturate our own culture today. We have a tendency to be quite simplistic about the question of wealth and poverty. There is a tendency among us to assume that if any person among us is poor, that it must be because they are indolent, that only the lazy are those who are in poverty. From a biblical perspective, that is simply not true. [00:06:22]

There are those in the Old Testament who were designated as the poor in the midst of the people, who were poor because of calamity, of illness, of natural disasters that ruined their crops, for example. And those people who were reduced to poverty received the compassion of God and the law of God that those who were better off would make provision for their care. [00:09:09]

The third group of poor in the Old Testament are those people who were poor as a direct result of the exploitation of the rich and the powerful. And I might add at this point that those who were commonly the rich and the powerful in the Old Testament were not merchants. They were rulers. They were government authorities, who became tyrants like Pharaoh in Egypt, like Ahab in Israel, who enslaved his own people, like Saddam Hussein, like third world banana republic dictators who amass great wealth by stripping it away from the people. [00:09:48]

Some of the greatest saints of the Bible were at the same time some of the most wealthy. Consider, for example, Abraham, who was the father of the faithful and one of the riches men in the world in antiquity. Perhaps his riches may have been exceeded by God’s servant Job. And then later on in the New Testament we hear of Joseph of Arimathea, who was a wealthy man. These three examples tell us something about the relationship between wealth and God. [00:12:25]

Think of Abraham, who so often is the example set forth before us as the father of the faithful. You remember in Genesis 13, where a dispute arises between the cattle ranchers of Lot and those of Abraham. And the dispute becomes so serious that Abraham says to Lot, he said, “Look, we’re family. We’ve got to be able to get along. There’s plenty of room here in this land for both of us. Let’s not have anymore discord among us. I’ll tell you what we’ll do. We’ll split the land in half. You take one half. I’ll take the other half.” [00:14:49]

Consider Job, fabulously wealthy by ancient standards, how Satan came to God in heaven accusing God, saying that all of these people down here on earth are in my pocket, they all follow me. And God said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job.” And God called attention to Job for his integrity, for his devotion to God, for his love and affection for the Lord, and for his faithful service. [00:17:16]

Finally, there is Joseph of Arimathea in the New Testament. Think of it, an obscure person, only one reference to him, I believe, in the New Testament in the gospels. Who would ever have heard of Joseph of Arimathea because of the tremendous business deals he was able to consolidate? But now he is known throughout the Christian world for what he did with his wealth, for donating a highly expensive sepulcher so that the body of the Lord Jesus Christ might be buried in dignity. [00:18:59]

And Jesus said to Peter, “If you do that, I speak with certainty and full assurance that no one who has done that who will not receive a hundredfold, now in this time, houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and lands, with persecution, and in the age to come, eternal life.” “You can’t leave these things for Me,” Jesus is saying, “without My taking notice. And you can’t out give Me. What you leave, I will replace a hundredfold. Yes, you will be persecuted, but you will receive the kingdom and all that that contains. [00:27:52]