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A young man came to Jesus and asked Him, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”
Jesus initially replied by listing some of the Ten Commandments that should be followed, and the young man quickly replied, “I have kept all of these since I was a boy!”
Then Jesus said, “There is just one more thing: sell everything you have and give to the poor, you will have treasure in Heaven. Then come, and follow Me.”
Even though this young man had received the answer that he was seeking, Luke records, “he became very sad because he was very wealthy.” (Check out this full exchange here.)
The word “very” is used twice by Luke (Luke 18:23). It speaks of a greatness or heaviness of something. It appears that when we are very wealthy, it is very hard to trust anything other than that wealth. The opposite also appears to be true: When worldly wealth is scant, our trust in God for our daily bread is high. This is what mathematicians would refer to as an inverse proportion.
On the other hand, Jesus promised eternal rewards for those who replaced trust in possessions with trust in God (also see Matthew 6:19-21; Luke 18:28-30). This is what mathematicians would referred to as proportional.
Both this proportional treasure and the inverse proportional trust in God are God’s indisputable realities.
As this young man shows us, it’s not about what we do or about what commands we have kept. In fact, it’s not about us at all! It’s all about a total trust in the only One who is eternally trustworthy!
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Just as assuredly as Jesus fulfilled God’s promise of His crucifixion and resurrection, we Christians are fulfilling God’s promise that we would take the message of forgiveness of sins to the whole world (Luke 24:45-48). We are taking Him to every street where God sends us. There is a song written by Michael McDonald called “Takin’ it to the streets.” One verse says—
Take this message to my brother
You will find him everywhere
Wherever people live together
Tied in poverty’s despair
We know what the “it” is. He is a Savior, a God, a Redeemer, a Father who has made it possible for everyone everywhere to be in a personal relationship with Him for all of eternity!
When anyone talks about taking the Good News of Jesus to people, our minds typically think “missionary.”
What is a missionary? What comes to mind when you think of a missionary?
Quite simply, a missionary is a person sent on a mission (see Luke 24:47; Matthew 28:19-20).
We are not sent on our mission unprepared, but Jesus promised us both His authority and the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:18-19; Luke 24:49; Acts 1:8). In both Luke and Acts, Jesus says that our witness is to begin in Jerusalem.
I recently looked up a list of the most common street names in America. I found that the most common street name is “Main Street.” But Main Street is also used as a way for people to describe the average setting in the USA.
Going to “Jerusalem” or “Main Street” first is foretold in the Old Testament (Ezekiel 3:4-5). We’re not first sent to people with an unknown language or obscure customs, but to people we know and understand. These are people to whom we can easily find common interests.
There are two simple steps when we take Jesus to our Main Street.
Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal truth to you today and every day.
You cannot give to others what you do not first have yourself, so you need to hear what the Holy Spirit is saying to you first. Pray before reading the Bible to ask the Spirit to give you insight (Psalm 119:18).
Find a friend and tell them what was revealed to you.
After Jesus was revealed to Andrew, he found Peter and told him what he had discovered. And after Philip met Jesus, he found Nathanael and brought him to Jesus (John 1:35-46).
Every person with whom you interact today is precious to God. Our mission is to help them realize that awesome truth.
So get filled up with the wisdom from the Spirit and then find a friend on Main Street and bring them to Jesus!
Follow along with all of the messages in this series Takin’ Him To The Streets by clicking here.
Look at the profound humility of John! His birth was foretold by an angel, his ministry was so powerful that people wondered if he was the Messiah or possibly Elijah, yet he never let all these accolades go to his head.
“I am such a lowly servant of Jesus that I don’t even have the right to take off His sandals.”
As C.S. Lewis said, “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s think of yourself less.” John was too focused on making sure people saw Jesus that he had no time to think about himself.
Jesus said John was the greatest of the prophets (Matthew 11:11; Luke 7:28). The applause of the world means nothing. All that matters is the applause from nail-scarred hands, and the voice of the Master saying, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
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The Gospel of John introduces John the baptizer to us like this, “He himself was not the Light; he came only as a witness to the Light” (John 1:8).
John had a similar birth announcement as Jesus had (Luke 1:11-14, 28-33)
John’s birth prompted a Holy Spirit-inspired song from his father that resonates with Mary’s Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55, 68-70)
The early years of John are described in much the same terms as how Luke describes the early years of Jesus (Luke 1:80, 2:52)
John quoted Scripture and taught with very similar authority as Jesus did (Matthew 3:1-12; Luke 3:1-19)
Yet for all their similarities, John knew that he was only a herald of Jesus (John 1:19-27).
John was not the Light—he was only a witness to the Light.
I am not the Light—I am only a witness to the Light.
You may think that this statement is pretty obvious, and I did too. But as I read these words from John 1:8 again, it caused me to reevaluate just how much I really believe this.
Do I remember this when no one compliments my sermon? Do I remember this when what I thought was an insightful comment on a verse of Scripture gets hardly any “likes” on my social media channels? Do I remember this when I am complemented and my posts are appreciated?
Who exactly am I trying to make look good: me or Jesus?
I want John’s desire to become my desire and my prayer: “Jesus must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30).
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Jesus hung on the Cross for about 6 hours. He was mostly silent during this time—His seven statements from the Cross would have taken less than a minute to say them all back-to-back.
He hung silently and thoughtfully. I know He was thoughtful because John records, “Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scriptures would be fulfilled, Jesus said, ‘I am thirsty’” (John 19:28).
Movie directors will often show a flashback scene where their character looks back to remember what came before. I think during this silent time on the Cross, Jesus reviewed His public ministry. He reviewed every jot and tittle of every promise His Father had made, and He knew that each and every one had been completed.
This culminating event on the Cross was the fulfillment of the big picture that God had been painting all along. The system of sacrifices centered in the tabernacle or the temple had been trying to show us something.
There were daily sacrifices and annual sacrifices; there were sacrifices for willful sins and sacrifices for unintentional sins; there were sacrifices for priests and for laypeople. Day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, decade after decade, century after century these sacrifices continued, never feeling like the work was finished.
These practices were only a shadow, but a shadow that foretells the Reality—
The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. … The reality, however, is found in Christ. (Hebrews 10:1; Colossians 2:17)
Jesus knew that He had come as the Reality (John 13:1), but before this final event on the Cross that would fully reveal the Reality, Jesus had one last thing to do: He wanted to share a final meal with His friends (Luke 22:7-15).
Jesus said that eagerly desired to eat the Passover meal with them. This Passover remembrance looked backwards to the deliverance from Egypt and was celebrated year after year, decade after decade, century after century.
The events were so long ago that they may have seemed like fading shadows to those who were celebrating this meal over a millennia after the fact. Jesus brought Reality.
Jesus knew He was the most powerful Person on earth, but He also knew that He had come to serve (Mark 10:45; John 13:3-5). To demonstrate His servanthood…
He washed the feet of His betrayer
He washed the feet that would run away from Him in terror
He prepared them for what was coming
Peter boldly declared that he would never run away, and Matthew and Mark record that all of the other disciples declared the same thing—(Luke 22:33; Matthew 26:35; Mark 14:31). But Jesus knew the prophecy that said, “I will strike the Shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered (Matthew 26:31).
So Jesus prepared them by praying for them, and He prepared them by showing them the Reality of all those daily, weekly, monthly, annual, and Passover sacrifices (Luke 22:17-20, 31-32).
Jesus was the completion of this sacrifices (Hebrews 7:26-28, 9:11-14)!
The prophecy God gave in Jeremiah was completed in Christ’s broken body and spilled blood on the Cross—“For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more” (Jeremiah 31:31-34; Hebrews 8:12).
The purpose of this Last Supper—this meal that completes so many jots and tittles—is to remember. The devil wants you to remember what YOU did. Jesus wants you to remember what HE did.
Good Friday and the celebration of Communion helps us remember correctly that Jesus paid in-full the penalty for our sins, so now our forgiven sins are forgotten sins. The moment we sin, there is already the remedy for our sins that has been paid for. We repent, ask forgiveness, and receive His immediate cleaning.
Such amazing love!
If you have missed any of the messages in this series looking at some of the jots and tittles of prophecy that are fulfilled in Jesus, you can check them all out by clicking here.
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I would like to make a case for you to really slow down this week.
Check out this episode of The Podcast.
Here are some helpful resources from this episode:
I have two series of messages focusing on the Passion Week that will help you go deeper in your Bible study time: Christ’s Passionate Journey (which I mentioned in this podcast) and Bold Claims.
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I’ve noticed over the years that some people get quite nervous—even fearful—with the thought of God coming close to then. Some people have told me, “I can’t go to church—the roof will fall in on me!”
If I’m honest, I had a time in my life when I feared God’s approach. I didn’t want to pray, “God, use me however You want to” because I just knew He was going to send me somewhere I didn’t want to go, or ask me to give up something that was special to me.
But from the the birth of Jesus until His ascension, the consistent message is: Fear not! and Rejoice!
Matthew 21:4 says that Christ’s arrival on a donkey was “to fulfill” another one of the jots and tittles. And John adds, “Jesus found a young donkey and sat upon it, as it is written, ‘Do not be afraid, O Daughter of Zion; see, your King is coming, seated on a donkey’s colt’” (John 12:14-15).
Typically, conquerors came with a show of overwhelming force, not a show of humility. But Jesus came to Jerusalem with the same message repeated at His birth, “Fear not.”
This is elaborated on in the original prophecy found in Zechariah 9:9-14, where the opening word is, “Rejoice!” We rejoice because He is coming to take away the instruments of war that the occupying forces used to keep the citizens in bondage. He is coming to bring freedom He is coming to announce hope and restoration.
With all of these jot-and-tittle prophecies, we have been asking three questions.
(1) What did it mean then? Quite simply, on that first Palm Sunday it meant that this was not the time for judgment.
(2) What does it mean now? Since the final judgment has not taken place, it must mean it still is not a time of judgment, but a time of favor. God is still drawing people to Himself by His kindness (Romans 2:4).
Zechariah 9:14 makes it clear that there will be a day of judgment. And Peter says that God’s not being slow about this, but He is demonstrating His patience so that none will have to perish without Him (2 Peter 3:9-10).
(3) What does it mean for me? It means that I don’t have to fear the approach of God.
First, there is no fear when God calls me to stand before Him because my sins have been forgiven (Romans 8:1).
Second, there is no fear when God asks me to give something to Him because God has equipped me ahead of time to respond obediently. When Jesus sent His disciples ahead of Him to bring back the donkey that He would ride into Jerusalem, Jesus must have already informed the donkey’s owners that this would be coming. The disciples were simply to say, “The Master needs the donkey now.”
God has already prepared me to say, “Yes” to whatever He calls me to do (Psalm 139:16).
Finally, there is no fear when God asks me to give something to Him because I’m only giving back to Him what is already His. You and I are just stewards of what God has given us. When the disciples talked to the steward of the donkey, they assured him, “The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly” (Mark 3:11). And the prophecy in Zechariah, God says, “Now I announce that I will restore twice as much to you” (Zechariah 9:12). Maybe not here on earth, but the rewards in Heaven will be incalculable for His faithful servants!
Those who know Jesus as their Master can live as fearless stewards.
We don’t fear the requests of our King, but we rejoice to allow Him access. We don’t fear the approach of our Judge, but we rejoice to stand before Him forgiven and rejoicing!
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The men who were guarding Jesus mocked Him and beat Him. They blindfolded Him and hit Him again and then demanded, “Prophesy! Who hit You?” And it wasn’t just the physical abuse, but they heaped mocking insult upon mocking insult upon Jesus (Luke 22:64-65).
All four of the Gospel writers recount how Jesus responded to both the physical and verbal abuse:
To the false charges before the Sanhedrin, Jesus remained silent (Matthew 26:57-63)
To the spitting and hitting by the members of the Sanhedrin, Jesus remained silent (Matthew 26:67-68)
To the physical abuse of the guards, along with their mocking insults, Jesus remained silent (Mark 14:65; Luke 22:64-65)
To the mocking He endured before King Herod, Jesus remained silent (Luke 23:9-11)
To the false charges announced to Governor Pilate, Jesus remained silent (Matthew 27:12-14)
To the insults and mocking thrown His way as He hung on the Cross, Jesus remained silent (Matthew 27:38-44; Mark 15:29-32; Luke 23:35-36)
His only verbal response was after being slapped in the face by one of the officials in the Sanhedrin. Jesus said, “If I said something wrong, testify as to what is wrong. But if I spoke the truth, why did you strike Me?” (John 18:22-23).
These are what we call an ad hominem attack. That is attacking the person, instead of confronting the ideas or arguments the person is presenting.
The self-control of Jesus here is absolutely astounding! Peter records, “When they held their insults [and their fists and their spit] at Him, He did not retaliate; when He suffered, He made no threats. Instead, He entrusted Himself to Him who judges justly” (1 Peter 2:23).
Even as His trial got underway, Luke records, “the council of the elders of the people…met together, and Jesus was led before them” (Luke 22:66).
Dr. Henry Halley points out that extra-biblical sources have told us that this trial violated at least four of the Sanhedrin’s own rules:
Meeting on the morning of a festival
Meeting in Caiaphas’ personal residence
Trying a defendant without defense
Passing the verdict of a death sentence in one day instead of two days
I would add a fifth rule which is found in Scripture: At least two witnesses need to be in agreement with their testimony for there to be a death sentence (Deuteronomy 17:6, 19:5; Mark 14:55-59).
When the Sanhedrin then hauled Jesus before Pontius Pilate, even their charges made before the governor in Luke 23:1-2 were flimsy at best:
Subversion—there is no proof for this
Opposing taxes to Rome—this was false (see Luke 20:20-25)
Jesus was a rival to the Roman throne—not true
And still Jesus remained almost completely silent! He only spoke when asked a direct question, but He remained silent throughout the false accusations, the verbal taunts, and the physical abuse.
When I am treated unfairly, when the rules are bent against me, when false charges are lodged against me, I get angry! I want to defend myself! I want to put my accusers or abusers in their place!
Could Jesus have prevented His arrest? Yes (Matthew 26:53)!
Could Jesus have defended Himself before the Sanhedrin, Pilate, and King Herod? Yes!
Could Jesus have come down from the Cross to prove His power? Yes!
But Jesus wasn’t trying to win a momentary argument; He was winning souls for eternity!
Jesus came not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:45). So, “for the joy set before Him He endured the Cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
When anger boils up because of the mistreatment we are enduring, we must “consider Him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart” (Hebrews 12:2-3).
Like Jesus, let’s not try to win just a momentary argument that may result in the loss of a soul for all of eternity. There is a time to speak and there is a time for silence. As we keep our eyes on Jesus, we will know what time it is.
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God is precise in His promise making and promise keeping. He doesn’t just fulfill promises in a vague way or in “the spirit of the law,” but He attends to the jots and tittles of every single detail.
But people living in darkness sometimes don’t like the light.
When we feel like our message of hope is being ignored or rejected (or we’re even being persecuted for sharing the truth) we have a natural emotional response that begins to bubble up. That emotion is anger. How do I know this? Because Jesus experienced this too.
We can do two things with our anger:
We can blast skeptics with righteous judgment <or>
We can follow the example of Jesus
In The Pilgrim’s Progress, Faithful told how a man came and beat him because he had broken the law. Even when Faithful begged for mercy the man said, “I don’t know how to show mercy to anyone.” This man was Moses the Lawgiver. Faithful explained what finally gave him relief: “He would have finished me off, but then One came by, and told Him to stop. I did not know Him at first, but as He went by, I saw the holes in His hands and in His side and I concluded that He was Jesus.”
Moses had every right to be angry, and he expressed it a way that tried to finish off Faithful.
Jesus also got angry, but let’s see what He did with it.
In Matthew 12:9-10 we see the motive of the skeptics: catch Jesus doing something wrong. This opposition came from the religionists—they weren’t interested in the truth, they were interested in proving themselves right and righteous.
As they are asking their entrapping question, Luke tells us that “Jesus knew what they were thinking” (Luke 6:8). And Mark tells us that Jesus then asked a question of His own (Mark 3:4-5). These religionists refused to answer His question, and their stubborn hearts made Jesus deeply angry!
So Jesus answered His own question, concluding that the Sabbath was the day that god intended for healing and helping. To prove this point, Jesus then healed the shriveled hand of the man who stood before Him (Matthew 12:11-14). In response to this, the Pharisees plotted with the Herodians on how to kill Jesus (Mark 3:6).
Matthew then writes, “Aware of this, Jesus withdrew from that place (Matthew 12:15). He didn’t withdraw in fear, but in complete awareness of His Father’s plan. Part of that plan was not for Jesus to win argument, but for Him to win souls.
Perhaps in His anger in the moment, Jesus would have spoken words that were too harsh. There is a time to speak, but it’s usually not in the heat of the moment. In fact, Laurence J. Peter rightly said, “Speak when you are angry, and you will make the best speech you’ll ever regret.”
So in fulfillment of another prophetic word given in Isaiah 42, Jesus withdrew to continue His teaching and healing ministry (Matthew 12:17-21).
What does this mean for us today? I think we can see five important responses in these prophetic words:
I am to serve others as Jesus did—even those who want to silence me.
I can let the Holy Spirit use this opposition to bring greater fruitfulness out of my life (Galatians 5:19-26).
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I was reading the results of a survey which said one of the top traits for exemplary leaders was: They keep their word.
But don’t we really mean, “They keep their word most of the time”? After all, we do allow those who have a track record of integrity an “out” for unusual or unexpected circumstances. And we would still say that leader had honesty and integrity.
God always keeps His word. He never needs an “out” because nothing is ever unexpected for Him! He is always the Promise Maker and the Promise Fulfiller (Isaiah 42:9, 46:10, 55:10-11; Jeremiah 1:12).
I like the way Jesus sums up these statement from His Father: For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled (Matthew 5:18 NKJV).
Ajot is the smallest Hebrew letter (yodh). In Greek the word is iota. This tells us that God is concerned about the smallest of details.
A tittle is the precise difference between Hebrew letters like cheth and he, between daleth and resh, and between beth and kaph.
All of these are fulfilled—brought to their perfect completion (Luke 1:37, 22:37)!
When we see any of God’s promises made and kept, we need to ask ourselves three questions:
What did it mean then?
What does it mean now?
What does it mean for me today?
For example, look at the promise that was made about people living in a very dark place seeing the Light of God. The prophecy is first made in Isaiah 8:19-9:7 that the people of Zebulun and Naphtali would get to see and experience the light of the Messiah.
Matthew 4:11-17 tells us that after Jesus endured the temptation of the devil for 40 days, He went to Capernaum—the region of Zebulun and Naphtali. But before He arrived there, He was first rejected by the folks in His hometown of Nazareth (see Luke 4:14-31).
Our God who knows the end from the beginning never makes a mistake; nothing is ever random or inconsequential. We should develop the habit of praying, “Now that this is happened, what would You have me do?” As Jesus was rejected by the people who should have been so excited to see His ministry flourish, He wasn’t dismayed or discouraged, but He directed His steps toward Capernaum.
In my heart, I may plan a course for my life, but I must trust God to direct my steps. My life has a purpose. Just as the Holy Spirit directed the movements of Jesus, He is directing my steps.
Even when God seems to have directed my steps into a dark place, He has sent me there as His light. I am sent on purpose. I walk a path Jesus has already walked, and a path that He is still walking with me—He guides me in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me (Psalm 23:3-4).
I don’t walk into the darkness in my own strength or as a way to fulfill my own plans but instead I trust that “the zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this” (Isaiah 9:7)!
Because Jesus is fulfilling every jot and every tittle, I can live confidently in Him!
If you would like to follow along with all of the messages in this series called Jots and Tittles, you can find them all here.
A young man came to Jesus and asked Him, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” 
On the other hand, Jesus promised eternal rewards for those who replaced trust in possessions with trust in God (also see Matthew 6:19-21; Luke 18:28-30). This is what mathematicians would referred to as proportional. 
Craig T. Owens 