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And thank you Tim. Well, welcome at this point to anyone who's joining us online for, well, to listen to Ben speaking. But first of all we're going to have a reading which Liz is going to bring us in a minute. If you've got your little red copies of Mark's Gospel, it's on page 33. Otherwise it's Mark chapter ten, verse 13 to 31 them.

And Liz is going to come and read to us.

People were bringing little children to Jesus for them to place his hands on them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly, I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it. And he took the children in his arms, placed his hands on them and blessed them.

As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. Good teacher, he asked, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Why do you call me good? Jesus answered, no one is good except God alone. You know the commandments you shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud honour your father and mother.

Teacher, he declared, all these I have kept since I was a boy. Jesus looked at him and loved him. One thing you lack, he said, go sell everything you have and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me. At this the man's face fell.

He went away sad because he had great wealth. Jesus looked round and said to his disciples, how hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God. The disciples were amazed at his words, but Jesus said again, children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God. The disciples were even more amazed and said to each other, who then can be saved?

Jesus looked at them and said, with man this is impossible, but not with God. All things are possible with God. Then Peter spoke up, we have left everything to follow you. Truly I tell you, Jesus replied, no one who has left home or brothers, or sisters, or mother, or father, or children or fields for me and the Gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields, along with persecutions and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thank you so much. Do please keep your bibles open. Because although I'll be speaking today, I do hope that you will see what God has said about himself in this Scriptures here in Mark. So do have that with you. And let's pray as we begin.

O Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, our Lord and our Redeemer. Amen. Are you somebody who likes meeting people or somebody who hates meeting people? Some people absolutely love it, don't they? Here's a wedding.

Yes, I get to go around tables and meet new people every single time. Other people think, do we actually know that person so well? Do I have to go to the wedding? Some people love it, some people hate it. But whether you love it or hate it, we all have to do it, don't we?

It's just we're stuck with it. You have to meet new people and there's a bit of a formula, isn't there? When you meet new people, you sort of say, hello, how are you? What do you do? Oh, yeah, I do this.

There's a formula, isn't there? A sort of set thing in the first instance. And whenever we meet someone, we have a choice to make. We sort of have to choose what we say, don't we? We present ourselves in a particular way.

We don't say, well, at 11:05 on August 20, 1986, I was born, and then they cleaned me up a little bit. We choose where we say what we're up to, so someone might say, okay, hello, Fred. How are you? Nice to meet you, Fred. What are you up to?

And Fred will say something like, well, I'm quite into music. I won Young Musician of the Year at four years old. I then found, to be honest, it all got a bit dull after that. It was just terribly easy. So I decided to become a rocket scientist.

But after I was 15 and I was a professional rocket scientist, I thought, I'd actually like to conduct this on the International Space Station. So that's where I work now. How about you? Now, that person will be very pleased, wouldn't they, with themselves? I love introducing myself.

If I was Fred, I'd do that. You probably don't find so many people introducing themselves, saying, Hello, Fred, tell me about yourself. Well, I'm not that interesting, as it goes. I think I'm pretty interesting, but I'm not probably wouldn't really be friends with me. I think too much of myself.

I am pretty great, but I'm not really that would be a pretty rubbish way to introduce yourself, wouldn't it? We all make choices as to how we introduce ourselves, and we really can't avoid it, can we, how we present ourselves. Even if you met somebody presenting themselves in the second way, they would do that for a reason, wouldn't they? They wanted to present themselves that way. Whenever we meet someone whenever we meet someone the tone of voice we use everything.

Everything. We're trying to present something about ourselves. And when we come to Jesus, it's no different because he's a person. And we have to introduce ourselves to people. We have to sort of present ourselves in a particular way, don't we?

When we meet somebody? And so the question is, how do we present ourselves to Jesus? As you sort of come before God, what do you want him to see? What do you want to present yourself like? There's really two answers to that in the passage we had read there's two different sort of examples of people showing themselves, if you like, to Jesus.

One is the rich young man and one is the children. We're going to think about the rich young man first. But before we do, I want to ask you this just to get us thinking about how we would want ourselves how we would want to present ourselves to Jesus if he were to come back tonight just as you got home, and say to you, judgement Day is here. And just a quick question. Why should you inherit eternal life?

Why should you inherit eternal life? What might you say to that?

Do you think? Some of us might say, well, because I've been to church and if you knew how trying that was sometimes you'd know I'm joking, you might say I've been to church, you might say because I'm a good person. To be honest, on balance I think all my mates would say I was pretty good. You might say, well, because look, I give loads to charity, what would you say? Why should you inherit eternal life?

Hold that question in your mind. And let's look at our first example. On page 34, verse 17. Jesus meets this young man because a man who's got everything going for him. He's young and it doesn't say he's handsome, but let's just put that in.

He's handsome, he's got good works behind him, he's got lots of money, he's respected in society. He comes to Jesus, he's heard about him, and he comes to him and he's falling on his knees. Great start, don't you think? That's a great start, isn't it? It's not everybody you fall on your knees in front of, is it?

This man's like, yes, Jesus, I'm going to fall in front of on my knees in front of him. We're thinking this is going to be a good story, jesus is going to be pleased with this guy and then the guy says to Jesus, good teacher he asked, what must I do to inherit eternal life? That's our question, isn't it? He's not sure of the answer what must I do to inherit eternal life? Big question.

We're thinking, oh, I wonder what Jesus would answer to that? What did Jesus would answer?

But Jesus answers something probably quite surprising that you probably wouldn't have guessed. He says, Why'd you call me good teacher? So wait a second. That was only how I was addressing you. I was asking you how to inherit eternal life.

And you say, Why are you calling me good teacher? But this is really important for Jesus and it seems a little bit obscure, perhaps, to us when we first read it. Why is Jesus bothered about being called good teacher? Surely he is a good teacher. You see, what he's saying is that this guy, his standards of good, his understanding of what good is, is an issue he doesn't really know, because only God's good is what Jesus says, isn't it?

He says, verse 18, why'd you call me good? No one is good except God alone.

You see, it's as if he's saying to the man, have you actually thought about that word, good? Because good can sometimes be a little bit of a relative term, can't it? Good can kind of be affected by the people we're comparing things to. One thing might be good if you're comparing it to something terrible. That might be really bad if you're comparing it to something better, mightn't it?

It's my privilege to go to school sports dates sometimes. It's one of the great things about being a parent. And you go to school sports day. And my first one, I'm trying to think, I think maybe Eliana was six because of kind of COVID that was our first sports day. I trained her, know, bribed her, that sort of thing, and she got to the front line and I'm not that proud that I was really going for come on.

Yes. And I'm going to have to tell you, she did win. Obviously. I was proud. I was proud.

I was proud. But look, your daughter's such a good runner. I don't know. Yes, she is. She's amazing.

They're such a good runner, isn't she? Great runner at school sports day. But if you took her down to a park run, struggling to get round at six, to be honest, as many of us would be. But there's some people there at a park run, aren't there, if you've ever been, they'll do it in 16 minutes. It's sickening, really.

You just whoosh round it and they've made a sort of pasta bolognaise by the time you've got back, and there it is. By those standards, she doesn't seem so good anymore. But you take that 16 minutes runner and you take them to a track with Mo Farah, and Mo Farah is like whipping round and he's already he's had a shower halfway through a cup of tea with his feet up, thinking, how long has it taken you to get round that person's? Not good, are they, in comparison to Mo Farah? But even Mo Farah, the pride of Britain, when he went to do the you know, the winner had already been well over the line by the time he got there, and he was really good.

So good. Sort of depends, doesn't it, on who you're comparing it to, who you're comparing it to? And this guy Jesus is saying, you've got to watch your standard of good because you're coming to me as we'll see presenting yourself as a good bloke. And that's fine because you feel like that because you're surrounded by people that you are pretty good in front of. But God is good.

And when you're in front of God, suddenly your goodness isn't so great. You're like school, sports, day good, trying to go up to Mo Farah, being like, I'm a great runner, I could beat you.

It's what the guy is doing.

And so who do we compare ourselves with? This is immediately a challenge, isn't it? Where's our standard of good? Because it's relatively easy to be a big fish in a small pond, isn't it? I think we probably all do this if we want to perceive ourselves as good.

We sort of hang out with people and compare ourselves to other people who make us look quite good. Probably happens at school, doesn't it? As you find your friendship groups and you hang out with the cleaks that make you look quite good. You feel quite good in that crew.

There's a great fridge magnet I saw once that was a prayer. It's good to have prayer fridge magnets. I'm not suggesting this one as a recommendation, but it was a great one. It just said, Lord, if you can't make me thin, please make my friends fat.

There's an element of that, isn't there? If I can't make myself better, at least I can maybe look better to those around me. This is what this guy is kind of doing. And Jesus is challenging about this anyway. You see, the man was good.

We would have said he was good. If you look in the Scripture again, verse 20, jesus has just asked him, actually, he said, but you know how to be good, you just got to keep all these commandments. And the guy can say verse 20, teacher, all these I've kept since I was a boy. Sounds pretty good to me. He's kept a bunch of commandments.

He's done that right. This is a good bloke. This is a good bloke, isn't it?

One thing you lack, though, Jesus says verse 21. One thing you lack, go sell everything you have and give to the poor. See, Jesus knows there's one thing holding him back. He says he's kept the commandments, but actually he's just got no negative ticks. He's not like positively fulfilling the law.

When God says don't steal, he means the opposite as well. Be generous, make sure everyone's provided for. And this much more difficult.

So Lee, he says, one thing you lack, go and sell everything you have and give it to the poor.

What does this guy do? He's got eternal life on the line. That's worth quite a lot, isn't it? Eternal life, some cash.

Verse 22. At this the man's face fell. He went away sad because he had great wealth.

It's quite sad, isn't it? He'd chosen to hold on to his cash and lose eternal life because he wanted to hold on to all the things that made him feel strong, his qualifications. He wanted to stand before Jesus with something to to I want to be the one, the good bloke that you accept. And he couldn't give up all his cash, so he went away sad.

This is a bit of a surprise, isn't it, to me and to you? We'd think that this guy was exactly the type of person that Jesus would be really pleased to accept, wouldn't we? Good standing, obviously made wise choices in life to get money. Seems to have kept all these laws that he learned in Sunday school as a boy, exactly the type of person you would expect. And yet Jesus turns him away because he's pleading his qualifications.

He's saying, I want eternal life. And did you notice, even in the question, what must I do to inherit eternal life? What must I do? See, because even there at the beginning, he'd actually given it away. What must I do?

No, grace. This is grace, you see, because this is the question we're thinking about. What is grace? Grace is gift. Grace is really simple.

It just means gift. It means all sorts of things in English today, doesn't it? We say, oh, look at what grace that ice skater did, that twirl with whatever it might be. But grace, really, in the New Testament, in the Greek, it was written, it just means a gift. And this is the point.

The man needs to know. That the gospel, to know Jesus, to enter the kingdom of God is a gift. It's not something you can buy. It's not something you can buy. And whilst you're trying to buy it, it's not going to work.

Instead, you need to look at a different example. So turn back your page to the little children, because the disciples have thought, oh, man, Jesus. If this guy, this guy can't get into the kingdom of heaven, who on earth can? Who on earth can? If this guy I'm looking up to this bloke and he can't get in goodness.

Who can be saved? Jesus. Sorry, I just can't resist this because it's just so good. In verse 26, they've asked, who can be saved? And Jesus says, actually, it's probably harder than you even think.

Can you get a camel through the eye of a needle? You're thinking you might try and squish it through? No, it's impossible. But possible with God. It's possible with God.

How? Let's look at the little children, verse 13. This is just a beautiful scene, really, where Jesus is jesus is becoming famous, he's becoming well known. Obviously, people are coming to him like this young man, and he's becoming quite a big deal. People know him, they want to find out a little bit about him.

And just at this moment, there's a problem. Verse 13 people were bringing little children to Jesus. Now, we might not think that's much of a problem. It seems like quite an obvious thing to do, doesn't it? This would be great for his PR.

Let's make sure the paparazzi are there. This is what happens, isn't it, with politicians? They sort of hold babies and, oh, look how nice I am. It's not really how it works in the first century, people children have improved themselves. It remains to be seen if they're even going to survive in those days.

It's not worth his time. So the disciples rebuke, the parents stop bringing these babies to Jesus. And we might think that's shocking, but I think what the disciples are thinking is, look, I can imagine the disciples saying to them, look, you're not going to bring your kids year three math homework to Stephen Hawking for help, are you? So why are you coming to Jesus? You know, Jesus is kind of a big deal.

Don't come to Jake. You've got to be way more important than that. So don't bring the children, he says.

But Jesus says children are important and actually he does more than that. Verse 14. It says, when Jesus saw this, when he saw the children being rejected, he was indignant. He was indignant. That's an important word.

You know, only here in the life of Jesus is he indignant. Only here. He has strong feelings elsewhere about all sorts of things, but this word is saved just for here, because we just need to know this is really important. He's really indignant about this. Actually.

The little children should come to me, says Jesus, and he says this because he wants everybody to know that there are no little people in Jesus' eyes. He doesn't see anybody and think you're not really important enough. Come back when you've got a few more qualifications, come back when you've got some more good works under your he doesn't think that there are no little people in Jesus' eyes. He sees everyone as important and so he wants the children to come to him. No one is overlooked in Jesus' sight.

He sees even the little children and cares even for them, and yet he doesn't even stop there. He goes further, because he says not only that the little children should come to Him, he says, actually, you need to be like the little children. Verse 15. Truly, I tell you, whoever will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it. Just take that for a second.

Not only should little children come to Him to show that there's no little people in Jesus' sight, but if you don't become like a little child, you can't enter the kingdom of heaven.

Why?

Because children are the best gift receivers the world has. They aren't, aren't they? No one knows how to receive a present like a child, do they? It's just amazing. They just accept it.

They never say, a little bit worried about the finances. Is that quite too big of a gift? Daddy? I think you've gone overboard this Christmas. It's never going to happen, is it?

They receive it and they're great at it. In fact, adults are just absolutely terrible at it, though, aren't they? I mean, just imagine this scene. You've come back from Christmas shopping, christmas Eve, christmas Eve afternoon, 04:30, and you arrive back at your house and you hear a knock on the door. You think, yeah, great, I've done everyone's Christmas shopping, given them the gifts.

I've absolutely smashed it this year. Everyone's going to be chuffed. And then you hear a knock on the door. Who's coming around on Christmas Eve? I don't know.

They come in, oh, hello. Hello, Barbara. Come in, come in, says your friend. And you haven't bought her a gift. But, you know, you're good friends, but you weren't all gift friends.

That's a hard judgement call, but at this point, that is what you thought, do you want an eggnog? You invite her in for a thing, but she then reveals she's got a gift for you. Come on. Your first response is not actually so amazing. It's so good.

I didn't know we were that good friends. Thank you so much for buying me a gift. Your first thought is, Come on, it's Christmas Eve. Where am I going to get a gift for you on Christmas Eve? Yeah, she gives it to you.

So you're kind of like running around the house thinking, kind of wrap that up. Oh, funny you should turn around. I had a gift for you all along, love. We're just rubbish at receiving gifts. As grown ups, as we grow up, we want to reciprocate, we want to give it back.

We don't want to owe someone, do we? So not only do you not receive the gift happily, you're actually quite annoyed they gave it to you.

Adults are rubbish gift givers, but children are not like that at all. Could you imagine that? Knock on the door, here's a gift for you. I've experienced this. Here's a gift for you.

Child has no idea who the person is. They're just like, cheers. Where did that come from? Some bloke just came around, gave it to me. All right.

Children are great gift givers and this is what we need to learn from them. This is what Jesus is saying. You need to learn that actually, grace means that entering the kingdom of heaven, having me as your saviour, is a gift. It's not something you have to be qualified for. And in fact, whilst you're trying to buy it, it doesn't work.

It stops it being a gift. Stops it being a gift. You can't afford it, you haven't earned it. But I want to give it to you. Receive the kingdom of heaven.

Like a little child, Jesus says, and yet all of our riches, all of our qualifications, all our social standing, whatever it might be, gets in the way often because we don't want to owe God anything any more than we want to owe anyone else anything. But God wants to just lavish on us gifts. And so the answer to the question, why should you inherit eternal life if Jesus comes tonight? The answer is just because you've given it to me, isn't it? Because you gave it to me.

Not trying to hold on to something. Not trying to hold on to something, but just saying because of you. Because you've offered yourself to me in the cross.

And so the question really at this point of Christianity explored is, you see, we've heard all sorts of things about Jesus, what he's done. We've heard that we've got a need. But how do we connect those things? How does Jesus and us come together? Do I have to sort of like wrench it together to get that gift?

How do I do that? Just accept it. Because Jesus offers Himself to you just as a lavish gift. It might be that some of you have never accepted Christ. And we've always just thought, I imagine that I'm going to be a bit better in the future and I'll wait till then.

And when that time happens, I've saved up a bit, I'll be able to come to Him and make something of myself wrong. Don't do that. Don't do that. Because Christ offers Himself to you just because he loves you. And the amazing truth is that this love is deeper than any love that we can ever experience here.

Because often in human love it's marred, isn't it? Because we love people for love. I love that person because they're so funny. But then what happens when they stop being funny? Does the love fade?

But you see, Jesus doesn't love you for things that you've done. He just loves you for who you are. In fact, he knows absolutely everything about you in a way that no one else does. Perhaps you don't even know yourself and he loves you anyway. That's amazing because it's a love that can't be know.

Our human love is often surprised, isn't it? I'm really shocked they acted that way. They've never been like that before. Doesn't work like that with Jesus. He knows absolutely everything.

There's nothing hidden. He never goes. Can't believe you did that.

He absolutely can. And he loves you anyway. He loves you despite that. That's what Grace is about himself. Giving Himself for you without cost, without price.

He just says to me, come all who are weary and heavy laden, just come to me. And in fact, all we really need is to know that we need Him and to accept Him.

And I hope you see that is why this book is called the Gospel. It's why it's called the good news. Because all that Jesus is and all that we're not, and he offers us offers Himself to us anyway.

And maybe that you've been a Christian for a while and you've started to try to earn that way back in, you just need to say, Jesus, actually, I'm going to offer, I'm going to accept your gift. I know that I can't earn you. Maybe you've never said anything like that before, and you want to accept Jesus and say thank you. That's all there is to say. Thank you for giving yourself for me.

I'm just going to say a prayer and if you want to join in, do join in. Father, I thank you so much for sending your son Jesus thank you that he is everything we're not, that he is perfect, that he is generous, that he is infinitely loving, that he gave Himself to take the punishment for our sin.

And Father, we acknowledge there's no way I can earn that, there's no way I can make myself right. But I thank you that you give your Son Jesus that he gives Himself to me, that he loved me even before I knew who he was.

Pray that I may have the gift of eternal life. Amen. If you've never prayed a prayer like that before, I'd love to know. It would be great for you to tell me. It would be great.

Or to tell someone else that you know. And if you're still not sure, do keep thinking about it and I'd love to pray with you anytime. Jesus is good.