Jesus told him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.”Jesus said to him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.Jesus said unto him, If thou wouldest be perfect, go, sell that which thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me.
5 sermons cite this verse
… so much love and wanting the best for him. And he said, there's one thing that you lack. he said go sell everything you have and give it to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven then come follow me and i love this because a lot of people see that's why i don't like the church see because jesus taught him to sell everything and tell him to come and give it to him no look what the word said he told him to sell everything and give it to the poor god wasn't trying to advance his ministry he was trying to check his heart he wasn't trying to build a trust fund for his ministry. He didn't sell, go sell everything and bring it to me so that we can do this. Just sell it and give it to the poor. Cause I don't care. I have resource. I need your heart. And look what he said. Verse 22. This will be many of us. At this, the man's face fell. …
… Go sell everything you have and give to the poor. And you will have treasure in heaven. Then come and follow me. Don't worry, the point of this sermon is not for you to sell everything. You can exhale. The nervous laugh. I'll keep going. At this, the man's face fell. He went away sad because he had great wealth. Jesus looked around, listened to this sentence, said to his disciples, how hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God. Here's what I find funny. We read that sentence and everybody thinks of someone richer than themselves. but here's what we need to know this morning. If you've got a roof over your head, a phone in your pocket, and you know where you're eating lunch today, you're in the top 1% of wealth globally. That sentence is speaking to you and it's speaking to me. Ouch. Verse 24. The disciples were amazed at his words, but Jesus said it again. Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God. …
… kept. What do I still lack? And Jesus said to him, if you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and come follow me. When the young man heard this, he went away sorrowful. He went away from Jesus. for he had great possessions. And Jesus said to his disciples, Truly I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. Again, I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. And when the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, who then can be saved? And Jesus looked at them and said, with man it is impossible. but with God all things are possible. So, when I say to the graduates, you graduates, remember the rich young man, what do I want you to remember? And very honestly, I don't expect you to remember anything I say. …
… leave everything behind, abandon everything? to have the kingdom? Well, look at Matthew chapter 19, verse 21. This is a story known as the rich young ruler, the rich young man. It's a man who had great wealth, many possessions, comes up to Jesus, says, how can I inherit the kingdom? How can I have eternal life? What does Jesus say in verse 21? If you want to be perfect, go sell your possessions and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come follow me. Give away everything you've got. And the young man heard this and he went away sad because he had great wealth. This is a huge passage for us. All of us in this room, incredibly wealthy compared to the rest of the world. Jesus said to his disciples, I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the what? Kingdom of heaven. Again, I tell you, it's easy for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. …
… Looking at him, Jesus felt a love for him and said to him, One thing you lack. Go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, and come follow me. But at these words he was saddened, and he went away grieving, for he was one who owned much property. Clearly he wanted eternal life. That's the question he posed. But clearly he wanted it on his terms. And clearly the Lord had different terms. Again, this points up for us the necessary elements in a true conversion. You might even see this young man as the best prospect for salvation in the Gospels. He's there. He's asking the right question. He wants eternal life. I would assume that we would be happy to find ourselves having a conversation with someone who was that far along in understanding what they didn't have to literally bring it to the very fore and say, how can I have eternal life? Usually we have to start long before that because they don't know what eternal life is. …