Reasoning Through the Bible
Taking a cue from Paul, Reasoning Through the Bible is an expository style walk through the Scriptures that tells you what the Bible says. Reviewing both Old and New Testament books, as well as topical subjects, we methodically teach verse by verse, even phrase by phrase.
We have completed many books of the Bible and offer free lesson plans for teachers. If you want to browse our entire library by book or topic, see our website www.ReasoningThroughTheBible.com.
We primarily do expository teaching but also include a good bit of theology and apologetics. Just like Paul on Mars Hill, Christianity must address both the ancient truths and the questions of the people today. Join Glenn and Steve every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday as they reason with you through the Bible.
Reasoning Through the Bible
S36 || What Are You Clinging To? || Mark 10:23-34 || Session 36 || Verse by Verse Bible Study
What stands between you and fully following Jesus? In this profound exploration of Mark 10:23-31, we examine Jesus' challenging teachings about wealth and the kingdom of God, delivered just after his encounter with the rich young ruler.
Jesus makes a startling statement that shocks his disciples: it's easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a wealthy person to enter God's kingdom. But this isn't a condemnation of wealth itself—rather, it's a piercing truth about how our attachments can become barriers between us and God. Whether it's money, possessions, relationships, or reputation, anything we cling to more tightly than Christ becomes our personal stumbling block.
When the disciples ask "Who then can be saved?" Jesus offers the liberating truth at the heart of the gospel: "With people it is impossible, but not with God; for all things are possible with God." The message is clear—salvation comes not through our own efforts but through surrender to divine grace.
As we witness Jesus courageously leading his amazed and fearful followers toward Jerusalem, knowing exactly what awaited him there, we're challenged to examine our own lives. What are we unwilling to surrender? What "camels" are we still trying to force through the needle's eye? Join us as we reason through this pivotal teaching and discover what true discipleship costs—and what it promises.
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May God Bless you!! - Glenn and Steve
Hello and welcome to Reasoning Through the Bible. My name's Glenn. I'm also here with Steve. We go verse by verse through the Word of God. Last time we were studying the rich young ruler who had a problem with wealth. He went away sad. Today they're going to see more of that in Jesus' teaching on wealth. Let's go ahead and dive in. If you have your copy of the Bible, open it to Mark 10, verse 23. Steve, can you read down to verse 31?
Speaker 2:Jesus, looking around, said to his disciples how hard it will be for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God. The disciples were amazed at his words, but Jesus answered again and said to them Children, how hard is it 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. They were even more astonished and said to him Then, who can be saved? Looking at them, jesus said Peter began to say to him. Jesus said left house or brothers or sisters, or mother or father or children or farms for my sake and for the gospel's sake, but that he will receive a hundred times as much now, in the present age houses and brothers and sisters, and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions and, in the age to come, eternal life. But many who are first will be last and the last first.
Speaker 1:Well, Steve, how hard is it really to enter the kingdom, and why is that it's?
Speaker 2:really easy to enter the kingdom. You have the faith of a child, as we've talked about a couple of sessions ago. That's what Jesus talks about here. He's referencing it to a person that has great wealth. I don't think, glenn, that he's talking just because somebody is wealthy that they can't enter the kingdom of God. This wealth was coming between the rich young ruler and his relationship with God. He was trusting more in the wealth than he was to trust in Jesus Christ. I think that's what Jesus is saying here. It's going to be hard for wealthy people to enter the kingdom of God because they trust in their wealth and they will not want to let go of that trust in order to trust in Jesus Christ and what he has done on the cross in paying their sin debt.
Speaker 1:I think that's exactly right. That's his point here. The only thing sinful about riches is when we hold on to it instead of following the Lord, jesus Christ, or we put it increasingly so. If Jesus would have gone up to Peter and James and John and said your fishermen's come follow me and they say well, my fishing is really more important to me than following you, well then they would have been in the same boat as the rich young ruler. It's whatever we put in between us and God that becomes our idol. That becomes the issue here.
Speaker 1:For such a person, that's when it's hard to enter the kingdom. And entering the kingdom here it has in this chapter some very interesting things. The way it phrases it In verse 15, it uses the word receive the kingdom like a child, receive the kingdom like a child. Well, a child would receive something very simply and easily. A child is childlike. A child is trusting of anyone that might give them something. On one hand, it's true that we receive the kingdom like a child, but then in verse 23 and 24, we enter the kingdom with difficulty, somehow, someway. These are both true. We enter the kingdom, we receive it like a child, but we also have to enter with difficulty if we hang on to our sin. Note that Jesus says it twice in the passage we just read that it's hard to enter the kingdom. Perhaps the tension is because a child is not attached to the wealth and the sin, but adults become attached to the world and attached to their sin and are reluctant to give it up.
Speaker 1:Receiving the kingdom means that God is offering it and all we have to do is receive it. That's what he specifically means Just receive it. Enter the kingdom means having to give up our attachment to the world and give up our security blanket in order to accept God's ways. Mark 8.34 says, quote whoever desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Following Jesus is easy. He's standing there giving us the free gift of eternal life. We just receive the kingdom that he's offering. But in another sense, following Jesus requires us to leave the world behind. If we're attached to that world, that's when it becomes difficult. That's when it becomes hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom, or it's hard for anyone that's attached to anything other than the Lord Jesus to enter the kingdom A child.
Speaker 2:Glenn hasn't achieved wealth. They don't have any of that yet. At least the wealth part isn't a barrier for them. Now the disciples are kind of taking this a little bit on the way of thinking that well, this wealth, how can anyone be saved? Because they're looking at it from the aspect of the earthly part of, again, people that are wealthy. They put their trust in it, they're able to afford things that others can't, all the things that we talked about last session.
Speaker 2:But going back to verse 21, when Jesus tells the young ruler, he says one thing you lack go and sell your possessions, give it to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven. You know, glenn, that's the exact opposite of what some of the teaching is today. Some of the teaching today is that God wants you to have all your wealth now while you're on earth. You can live your best life now here on the earth, and that's not what Jesus is saying is. Jesus is saying you sell your wealth here if it's a barrier between you and God and having a relationship, and you're storing up treasure in heaven. That's what you gain is what's in heaven. So that's exactly opposite to what's being taught today. We'll see here that the disciples were kind of thinking that way, as far as here on earth and not thinking ahead to eternal life and the treasures that we're going to have there.
Speaker 1:We mentioned last time when we were dealing with the rich young ruler, that it's not the wealth, it's the attachment to the wealth that's the problem. Wealthy people tend to focus on the wealth all the time and that becomes either their God or it gets in between them and God. Jesus then says this illustration how hard it is to enter the kingdom. It's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. Now he's giving this really impossible, absurd illustration of a camel going through the eye of a needle. He's saying there that it's so difficult. It says in the following verse that the disciples were very astonished. Well, who can be saved? We would have the same question if it was the first time we were hearing this. If it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for some wealthy person, then we're all doomed. If it's that difficult to get in and I think he's giving an illustration here the real truth is in verse 27,. With people it's impossible, but with God all things are possible. So all we really have to do is know that it's impossible for me, just like a camel through the eye of a needle. But it's not impossible with God, because he can do all things.
Speaker 1:Now, steve, I also feel a little obligated to mention the illustration here. In Greek the word camel is one letter different than the word rope in Greek, and so a rope through the eye of a needle would follow a illustration going here, and it could be there was some slip of a pen at some point from some scribe. But that's really not important, because even a rope through the eye of a needle, the illustration still applies. It's no easier to get a rope or a camel through the eye of a needle. But the point here is that it's impossible with people. It's impossible with people to get through the eye of a needle. It's impossible with people that are hanging on to worldly things to follow Christ. What's the solution, steve? How do we avoid hanging on to earthly things so that we can follow?
Speaker 2:Jesus. You know, glenn, I've done a little bit of sewing in my life to patch things up and I have difficulty getting the thread that's meant to go through the eye of a needle through the eye of a needle, much less a camel or a roe. The illustration is a great illustration. How can we then become righteous before God? How is it that we cannot have this barrier Is to have belief and trust in Jesus Christ. As I mentioned before, he has redeemed us. He has paid our sin debt through his death, burial and resurrection. That is the trust that we are to place it in.
Speaker 2:As we've brought out many times, jesus is not saying that wealthy people will have a hard time going to heaven. It's their trust in their wealth. That is what is the barrier between them. So to me it's a wake-up call to some of our listeners who might consider themselves wealthy, who have no want in this world. They can afford anything that their hearts desire.
Speaker 2:The question comes is that standing between you and God? Is that a barrier between you and God? If Jesus said, one thing you lack is to give up those things and give it to the poor and of course he's saying, that's what you would lack Now, if you're a Christian and you are a wealthy person and you're serving God, then he's not talking to you. But if you're out there and you have this wealth and you're lacking something, you feel that there is something that's needful, then all you need to do is trust in Jesus Christ, come to him in the innocence of a child that's how you receive the kingdom, as you pointed out, glenn and then you will enter the kingdom through that same belief and trust in Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:Jesus tells them that nothing is impossible with God. He talks about how difficult it is for a rich person to get into the kingdom. Peter, in verse 28, comes back and reminds Jesus we've left everything and followed you. Remember? He had told the rich young ruler to leave everything and follow him. Now he's seeing how difficult it is for people that hold on to their wealth to get into the kingdom. Peter says well, what about us? We left everything and he had. It's true. The 12 disciples had left everything. They had left their families, they had left their family businesses, they left their jobs. They'd left their careers, they had left their positions. They had left everything to follow Christ.
Speaker 1:What Peter was reminding Jesus is really a question what about us? Jesus responds in verse 29 and 30 about people that have left their mother and father and children and farms for my sake and the gospel's sake. Notice again, that's not a vow of poverty, but leaving it for the gospel and leaving it for Jesus Christ Verse 30, that he will receive a hundred times as much. What does he mean here? How can this be? Did Peter and the 12 apostles, did they, end up receiving a hundred houses, 100 farms and 100 brothers, sisters, mothers and children, or what type of wealth is he really talking about here?
Speaker 2:Note here that he doesn't mention any type of monetary wealth. The things that are mentioned are houses, brothers, sisters, family and farms. Those are the things that he's mentioning here, and when he says that you will receive a hundred times that much, he mentions the same things of family and farms. I think what Jesus is saying is this those who have left the things behind to follow me are going to gain so much more of the same here on earth through other believers, fellow believers. You're going to gain a family of believers, as Paul puts it later. We are all one in the body of Christ and you're going to gain houses and farms through the community of believers. That's going to be your gain. But he also puts there of what you're going to gain is persecutions. He mentions that in verse 30.
Speaker 2:So it's not just receiving monetary wealth a hundredfold, which is another thing that is taught today. If you sow a certain amount in, you're going to receive a hundredfold back. No, that's not what's being taught here. I think it's clear those who have forsaken other family members to follow me, which really means that the family members have shunned those who follow Jesus that's really the way that they're forsaken that they're going to gain a other body of believers and family through that, and that that's the richness that they have is relationships with fellow Christians. Through that they also get the benefit of the hospitality and the benefit of the fellowship and all of those other things. But then don't forget, persecutions can also come with that.
Speaker 1:In my job, in my career, I used to travel quite a bit and, as I would be in a strange city, I would sometimes bump into a Christian and there would be an instant connection. There I would meet Christians that were passionate about their faith and we would be instant friends, instant family, and be closer to somebody that I had just met an hour ago than I would my own family that doesn't know the Lord, and it's because of the connection through Jesus Christ. So I think there's a sense here in which he talks to Peter and the other apostles. What did they do? Well, they inherited the church. They inherited a church family that was closer to them than their biological family that didn't know the Lord. Wherever Peter and the other apostles would travel, they would have homes to stay in, they would have friends. They would have people that welcomed them in. They would have homes to stay in, they would have friends, they would have people that welcomed them in, they would have anything they needed. Peter just would tell the church hey, we have a need here. Oh, here we help with the need. In a sense it was literal, in the sense that Peter and the other apostles would have an extended Christian family through the church that was there to help them and to contribute them just like family, just like if we had. So they received spiritual blessings a hundredfold, even in this life and in the future life. So I think part of that is a literal sense. But what he's not saying here is just a pure greed. The old flesh tends to come out. As you well pointed out, steve, there's false teachers today that just focus on money and they don't focus on all the other things that Jesus is really talking about. That's what I think is really a tragedy, is he takes this wonderful spiritual teaching and turns it into just a greed thing.
Speaker 1:Then I also have to mention here that when he mentions the camel through the eye of a needle, I can't really leave this passage without mentioning there's been over the centuries, bible teachers I even say many Bible teachers that teach a false idea that there was a small hole in the wall at Jerusalem that was really low and it was made for getting in. Maybe men if they bent over and a large camel could get through it if they bent down on their knees and crawled through with great difficulty. It's just false. It's an urban legend. It's an urban legend that's grown. I don't know who invented it, but it's even in some of the sermon notes and commentaries. But it's entirely false. There was no small door in the wall called an eye of a needle. It's so popular and it's so false that we feel we need to at least mention that.
Speaker 1:At the end of verse 30, you mentioned persecutions. It does say there that you're going to receive a hundredfold of all the good stuff houses, family, brothers and sisters along with persecutions. I find this interesting is that these health and wealth teachers somehow missed that part. They don't always preach about a hundredfold of the persecutions. But is that true, steve? If God is good and he's saying that we're going to get a hundredfold blessing, what about this persecution thing that sounds?
Speaker 2:painful. The persecutions aren't coming from God, the persecutions are coming from the world. Because the world is against God. Jesus is not looked upon favorably by the world. As I mentioned before, when someone becomes a believer in Jesus Christ, many times their family members shun them or even disown them and won't let them come around their other family members anymore. So they lose their biological family members but they gain these believer family members. The persecution, I think, can come that way, through the disownment or abandonment of family members. But then the persecution also comes through people that just don't like the gospel message of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2:One thing to mention here that as Jesus mentions the gospel, it's not the gospel that's pointed out by Paul in 1 Corinthians, chapter 15, because Jesus hasn't died and been resurrected yet. The gospel here, the good news is, is that he's the Messiah. All of these things here are related to what they're going to get. They're going to get a hundredfold in the blessings of other Christian family members, but there's going to be persecutions. And then it also says in 30, in the age to come, eternal life, Glenn. That tells me that there is going to be another age, that there's a current age that Jesus is in at the time he's talking and that there's going to be an age to come where eternal life is going to be had for us.
Speaker 1:He does indeed, in verse 30, mention two ages. He says receive a hundred times as much now in the present age than at the end of the verse, along with persecutions and in the age to come. So there's at least two ages there. He makes a distinction between ages. There's a present age and an age to come. At a very minimum we hear at least two ages that are mentioned directly by the Lord Jesus. Jesus is clearly making a distinction here between a present state of how God governs and administers the world and a future state. And I think if we follow the different teachings in the different books, we can find more of those that God has different times in his calendar, that he deals with us in different ways. He didn't deal with people prior to the Mosaic Law. The same way he dealt with people after he gave the Mosaic Law. He doesn't deal with us now as he would deal in the age to come. That is one of the large concepts of Scripture. So it teaches us here in this verse that we can have both many blessings and persecutions at the same time. That is a concept that is lost on many Christians that just because I'm having persecutions doesn't mean that I'm not blessed. In fact we can be blessed in the midst of persecutions, and I just find that to be a wonderful, wonderful teaching.
Speaker 1:God's economy is often backwards from ours. He illustrates that in verse 31,. But many who are first will be last and the last first. God's economy is backwards from ours. The thing that the world lifts up and holds as important are not important to God, and vice versa. The world holds up people that are talented or beautiful or intelligent or makes other people first, the things that the world thinks are first. These don't add very much in God's economy. God says worldly things will make you last. The things that make us first in God's economy are to pour ourselves out and live for him, to accept his righteousness instead of ours, and put other people first and lift God up and praise him. Those are the things that make us first in this world. Steve, that's just a quite profound profound section.
Speaker 2:It's also going back how hard it is for a wealthy person, because a wealthy person is what they're first in a lot of things because of their wealth. And now Jesus is finishing up this teaching to the disciples that many who are first will be last and the last will be first. And I think that's just a way of saying that those who are serving others will have a greater position in the age to come. That's inclusive of eternal life. Versus what they are here today and what they're thinking of today, that wealth will bring you the being first in life. Well, if you serve others, then you're going to be first in many things in an eternal life.
Speaker 1:And in the next section, jesus again brings up very important spiritual truths here that he's trying to teach his disciples. Let me read, starting in verse 32. They were on the road going up to Jerusalem and Jesus was walking on ahead of them and they were amazed and those who followed were fearful, and again he took the twelve aside and began to tell them what was going to happen to him saying Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem and the Son of man will be delivered to the chief priests and the scribes and they will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles. Now in that section, steve, where is Jesus headed and why?
Speaker 2:He's headed back into Jerusalem. He has been spending time up in the Galilean area. He's been spending time on the east side of the Jordan. Both of these areas have been out of the jurisdiction of the Sanhedrin, the body made up of Sadducees and Pharisees and such. If we remember back several chapters ago, when they confronted him, they started to plot to kill him. Jesus is now coming across, heading into Jerusalem, heading into an area where he's going to be vulnerable to be captured and taken into custody. John the Baptist has already been taken into custody and actually killed. The Baptist has already been taken into custody and actually killed. Jesus is heading back into Jerusalem, into the area where he's making himself vulnerable to being put in prison.
Speaker 1:In verse 32, they were on the road to Jerusalem and Jesus was walking on ahead of them. Jesus is ahead of them, leading the way to Jerusalem, and he tells them this horrible thing that's going to happen is he's going to be spit upon and mocked and crucified. He knows he will die in Jerusalem, yet he is still leading the way, he is ahead of them, he is going on ahead. That's what is amazing about our Lord. He knew exactly what was going to happen. He's been telling his disciples this and he is leading the way, going on ahead.
Speaker 1:In verse 32, it also says Jesus was walking on ahead of them and they were amazed. Those who followed were fearful. So the people going with Jesus? Some of them were just amazed that he was doing this and some were very afraid. So a question, sort of a rhetorical question each of us should ask ourselves have I ever had these emotions in following Jesus? Have I ever been afraid to follow Jesus? Have I ever been amazed at the idea of where Jesus is leading me and where he is going? I submit that there's different times where many of us are amazed and many of us are fearful. Jesus had been predicting his death in Jerusalem and yet he was leading the way to get here. What does that tell us about the Lord?
Speaker 2:Jesus, as you pointed out, he knows exactly what's going to happen. He knows what he is walking into, exactly what's going to happen. He knows what he is walking into and I get the sense that some of the amazement that they were knowing that he was walking into this area and going to be confronting, somehow, some way, the body of the Sanhedrin, who have been challenging him throughout all of this, they have again the history of John the Baptist and who knows what other disciples might have been persecuted at the time and fearful so for us. We know that there's going to be persecutions that come with us. We've talked about it many, many times in our studies and some of the epistles and Peter and also with Paul, tell us where to have persecutions. We just got through talking about it here that Jesus says there's going to be persecutions.
Speaker 2:What do you think that some of the people around us think about us when we become persecuted for Jesus Christ? Are they amazed that we're being persecuted, that we continue on even under the persecution? One of the things I think of Paul. Paul was beaten in one of the cities that he was gone into, left for dead outside. What did he do? He got up and went back into the city once again. I'm sure that those people, when they looked up and saw him coming back in, were amazed at him going back in. But I don't know, glenn, what are your thoughts? I think that there's situations like that throughout the scriptures and in our lives. We're amazed at him going back in.
Speaker 1:But I don't know, glenn, what are your thoughts? I think that there's situations like that throughout the scriptures and in our lives. If we're truly following Jesus, then the people around us won't understand. I think a lot of times we won't understand. Why is Jesus leading me here? Why is he doing this? I think sometimes we do get a little fearful, but if we just realize that he is leading us, he knows what he's doing, he's the one in control, he knows the end from the beginning and he won't give me something that I shouldn't have we can take comfort in knowing that Jesus is leading the way. I also notice here, in verse 33 and verse 34, he again mentions that he's going to be headed to Jerusalem to die. He had mentioned that before and it seems that Jesus, every time he brings this up, he adds a little bit of detail. This time he adds the detail that he will be delivered to the chief priest or betrayed and handed over to the Gentiles.
Speaker 1:There's more information that's coming out all along, but Jesus had been repeating himself to these disciples and apostles, his followers. They should have known exactly what's going to happen. Because he had repeated it so often. They should have expected his death and even his resurrection. But it seems that they weren't quick to pick this up than we are, because when it actually happens they become even more amazed. In verse 34, he predicts his resurrection. Without the resurrection, we are, of all people, to be pitied the most. It tells us in 1 Corinthians 15, 19.
Speaker 1:So here we are, steve. We're on the road going into Jerusalem. We have Jesus headed for what he's already predicted, which is the last week of his life. The leaders are going to persecute him, they're going to mock him, they're going to turn him over to the Gentiles. He's predicted his death and resurrection. The disciples at this point are amazed and fearful, not really knowing exactly how that's going to play out. They had expected the kingdom to come and yet they're not understanding how this is going to fit into God's plan. But it seems like here in the Gospel of Mark, time from here on out is going to slow down a little bit. The Gospel of Mark is a lot of quick action, but the last five or six chapters are really spent on less than a week's time. So time's going to slow down and the teachings are going to get very, very profound and deep. We've got some very deep water ahead of us as we go into the last week of Jesus' life.
Speaker 2:Yeah, throughout all of what we've been teaching, mark has given all this picture of mainly Jesus up in the Galilee area and now he is coming into Jerusalem. So we have those two different types of pictures from the gospel of Mark and it's going to be great as we go through these final chapters for Mark. I'm looking forward to it.
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Speaker 2:Thank you so much for watching and listening. May God bless you.
