Along toward the end of Jesus earthly ministry, a scribe-- a man of letters-- a teacher of the law-- approached Him with what he thought was a difficult question. When Jesus responded quickly and with "truth," the man was pleased. Then Jesus said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." What do you suppose He meant by that? Well, let's see.
Thank you, thank you, my friend for inviting us into your home to study the Bible-- In Search of the Lord's Way to become and to be a Christian. Oh say! There are so many, many ways of salvation in Jesus-- of man's own making, which are being offered these days, that we really do need to SEARCH the Scriptures to be sure that we are teaching and doing the Lord's will instead of some man’s. We pray we will be blessed today by this study.
We are having guest speakers all this month. Each of them has been asked to speak on a subject of his own choosing-- something that he is very passionate about. And Fred Domingues is our guest today to do just that. He is married to Nyla; and they have three sons, all of whom are married. And Fred and Nyla have four grandchildren. He graduated from Southern California School of Evangelism in 1981. He also taught there from 1981 to 1988. He has preached for churches of Christ in California, Oregon, New Mexico and Texas. Since 2002 he has been both the evangelist and an elder of the church in Pecos, TX. He is currently preaching Christ three days a week to a very large audience on the Pecos radio station, too. He has chosen for his topic today, "Not Far from the Kingdom."
And if you think you might feel the need for a copy or a CD or audio cassette tape of today’s study of this message that he is going to be talking about, simply mail your request to In Search of the Lord's Way, P.O. Box 371, Edmond, OK 73083. Our e-mail address is searchtv@searchtv.org. Or, you may use our toll free telephone number and we will pay for the call that way. The number is 1-800-321-8633. After the hymn we'll hear Fred Domingues of Pecos, Texas.
Thank you, brother Lyon. Hello, friends. It is a pleasure to be with you on the program today to study the Bible together. This morning let’s begin by reading from Mark chapter 12, verses 28 to 34. “One of the scribes came, and heard them arguing, and recognizing that He had answered them well, asked Him, What commandment is the foremost of all? Jesus answered, The foremost is: Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these. The scribe said to Him, Right, Teacher. You have truly stated that He is one and there is no one else besides him. And to love Him with all the heart, and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as himself is much more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices. When Jesus saw that he had answered intelligently, He said to him, You are not far from the kingdom of God. After that no one would venture to ask Him any more questions.” Now let’s pray together. Our Father and God in heaven, we thank You so much for this opportunity to meet together by this medium and to study from Your word. We ask Your blessing as we open Your word; and Father, let us open our hearts to the meaning of Your word this morning and that we can let it work upon us and do the things that You would have us to do in our lives. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen!
Hello friends, it is good to be with you today for our Bible study. During the course of the Lord’s earthly ministry, He had many encounters with the religious leaders of His day. Nearly every one of these encounters was marked by antagonism on the part of these leaders as they attempted to entrap Jesus so they could bring charges against Him. Even in those rare occasions when they were not trying to entrap Him, they found reason to disapprove of the Lord because He did not act as they thought He should. And the rarest of all the Lord’s encounters with the Jewish leaders were those few instances in which one of them spoke to Jesus in sincerity as they discussed spiritual things.
The rich young ruler whose encounter is recorded in Matthew chapter 19 and Mark chapter 10 and Luke chapter 18 is one such case. A second is the incident of which we read just a few moments ago from Mark chapter 12, verses 28 to 34. On this occasion, according to Mark’s gospel, Jesus had returned to Jerusalem after the triumphal entry. And He was once again engaged in a debate with the Jewish leaders. The immediate cause of this debate was the demand by the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders that Jesus reveal the source of His authority. In typical fashion, Jesus turned their demand against them by posing to them the question of the source of John’s baptism. When they refused to answer the Lord’s question, He refused to answer theirs. And then He followed up with the parable of the vine growers, which correctly identified them as rebellious stewards in God’s vineyard, Israel.
After this, the Pharisees and Sadducees took up turns trying to trip Jesus up. In Mark chapter 12, verses 13 to 17, the Pharisees tried to get Jesus to go on record against the Romans by asking His opinion on paying the poll tax. The Lord’s wise response in verse 17 “to render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s” stopped the Pharisees in their tracks. Then in verses 18 to 27 the Sadducees tried to stump Jesus with a widely hypothetical story of seven brothers who each were married in succession to the same woman; and who each died leaving her childless. The point of their story was to ask whose wife she would be in the resurrection. Well, the hypocrisy here was that the Sadducees did not even believe in the resurrection; and as Jesus pointed out they did not understand the scriptures or they would not have asked such a foolish question.
It was at this point then, that another scribe spoke up. And having heard and observed the foregoing discussion, his encounter with Jesus is the one we read a few moments ago. In looking at this record we notice that it is very similar to incidents recorded in the gospels of Matthew and Luke. In those records, Jesus was asked which of the commandments was the greatest rather than which was the foremost. In those records also the questioner was identified as a lawyer rather than a scribe. And in Matthew’s account the lawyer was identified as a Pharisee. And in Luke’s account we also notice that the lawyer started to justify himself before the Lord by asking, “Who is my neighbor?” In neither Matthew or Luke is there any indication that Jesus expressed approval of the one who questioned Him. Therefore, we really can conclude that the incident here in Mark’s gospel is a separate incident from those recorded in Matthew and Luke.
In addition to these distinctions, the demeanor and the attitude of the scribe in Mark’s account sets him apart from these other questioners as well as from those who had been arguing with Jesus on this particular occasion. Notice the way Mark describes this man’s approach to the confrontation going on before him. In verse 28 Mark says that the scribe recognized that Jesus had answered them well. This by itself distinguished him from the majority of the Jewish leaders. In case after case the Jewish leaders refused to acknowledge the Lord’s wisdom and power. They grumbled about this uneducated Galilean who dared to teach them; even though honest men would have recognized that Jesus always spoke the truth. They refused to rejoice and glorify God when Jesus healed the sick, instead expressing anger because He healed on the Sabbath or accusing Him of casting out demons by the power of Beelzebub. The scribe in Mark’s account at least was honest enough to acknowledge that Jesus had wisely and correctly answered his colleagues.
Next, the question that he asked Jesus appears to have been asked in all sincerity, with no hidden agenda. The same question as asked by the lawyer in Matthew chapter 22, verse 35 and in Luke chapter 10, verse 25 was asked only to test Jesus. We don’t know what this scribe’s motivation was for asking this particular question. Perhaps he was moved by the Lord’s wisdom to seek the answer to a question that had long puzzled him. Or, perhaps, based upon the response we see in verses 32 and 33, the scribe had previously come to a conclusion on this matter and was checking to see if Jesus believed the same way that he did. Whatever his motivation may have been it was an honest motivation that was simply seeking the truth. The scribe must have been a righteous man because his statement in verses 32 and 33 rebutted the all-for-show, superficial practices of the Pharisees-- something that Jesus also condemned.
Well, this brings us to Jesus’ judgment about this scribe. In verse 34 Jesus said, “You are not far from the kingdom.” Now let us be certain about what Jesus did not say. He did not say that the scribe was in the kingdom of God. As honest and righteous as the scribe may have been, he was not yet one of Jesus’ disciples. What Jesus said was that he was not far from the kingdom. He was almost there! He at least had the right attitude about the law, and about serving God. And we think that is right, don’t we? He was not like his fellow scribes who rejected Jesus. He was not like any of the other religious leaders who were confronting Jesus. He was standing right at the doorstep of the kingdom. Jesus commended the scribe’s faith and his insight into Scripture. The scribe was an honest man who was beginning to see the light.
This encounter between Jesus and the scribe is like some others that we find in the gospels. In each of them, Jesus demonstrated His place as the Son of God and as a long awaited Messiah. In each of them good hearted and honest people stood out from the unbelievers by the profession of faith in the Lord, and by their understanding of Scripture. Yet, as we read the records of these encounters we are left wondering about the “rest of the story.” For example, what happened to Jairus, the synagogue official that we read about in Mark chapter 5 who believed that Jesus could heal his daughter? Whatever happened to the centurion in Matthew chapter 8 who believed that all Jesus had to do was speak the word and his servant would be healed? Jesus said of this man that He had not found such great faith in all of Israel. Yet we don’t know what happened to him later, do we? Did these men, and others like them, become disciples; or did they accept Jesus’ healing without any further response to Him?
Well, the same is true of the scribe here in Mark chapter 12. In a way he is more of a puzzle to us because Jesus said he was close to the kingdom. And after saying that, He said the scribe was not far from the kingdom, Jesus launched into a further test of the Jewish leader’s knowledge of Scripture by asking him how could the Christ be David’s son since David calls him Lord. And from this point forward in the record nothing more is ever said about this scribe who was not far from the kingdom. Did he become a disciple of the Lord? Was he perhaps among the 3,000 who were baptized for the forgiveness of their sins on the Day of Pentecost? Or did he go away impressed by the wisdom of Jesus, but unmoved to follow Him? The Scriptures simply do not say; so we cannot know on this side of life.
There is one thing that we can know, however; and that is that if the scribe did not become a disciple of Jesus he will suffer the same fate as all those who reject Jesus. And this is a lesson that we must take from this event. “Not far from the kingdom of God” is outside of the kingdom of God. And outside of the kingdom of God is darkness, and weeping, and gnashing of teeth. Jesus made this very point in the parable of the tares and the parable of the dragnet in Matthew chapter 13. He repeated the same point in the parable of the wedding feast in Matthew chapter 22, and in the parable of the ten virgins, and the parable of the talents in Matthew 25. In each and every case, the Lord illustrated the truth that “almost in” is all the way out; and all the way out is lost!
As humans we typically try to make allowances for those who are close. We often console a team that loses by a close margin by noting a play or two where they came within inches of victory. We talk about things like “moral victories,” indicating a case where one is done better than expected even though he has lost. On the other hand, we also say things like, close only counts in horseshoes; the dichotomy of the feelings of expressions, the tension that exists in human experience. We want people to succeed, and we want to make allowances for good effort, but we also want standards to be maintained. No place is this tension more apparent than in matters of faith.
When we come across someone who is completely antagonistic toward the faith in the Lord, we regret his choice; but we are not particularly surprised about the idea of God’s wrath coming upon him. Now for all we expect bad people to be lost, don’t we? But what about the person who is not far from the kingdom? What about the one who believes in God but has not followed up on his faith by obedience to the gospel? After all, isn’t that person better than an unbeliever? Well, yes, in one sense he is better than an unbeliever; but disobedience is still disobedience, isn’t it? And the Lord himself set the standard for salvation.
In Mark chapter 16 and verse 16 Jesus said, “He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned.” The Lord is certainly gracious and we depend upon that; but one is either obedient to the Lord or he is not. He is either in the kingdom of God or he is not. Close just doesn’t count. Are you in the kingdom of God today? If you have not believed in the Lord and been baptized for the forgiveness of your sins, Jesus says that you are not in His kingdom. Please don’t settle for being not far from the kingdom of God. Obey the gospel and the Lord will put you all the way into His kingdom where salvation is found. And I pray that you will do so. Let’s pray together now. Our Father and God in heaven, we ask Your blessing upon Your word which we have studied together for just these few moments today. We pray, Father, that Your word will fall upon honest and sincere hearts-- hearts that will not be content to be not far from the kingdom, but will want to be all the way in by their obedience to the gospel. We thank You, Lord. In Jesus’ name, Amen!
Thank you, brother Domingues for that very thought-provoking message. He really put me to thinking. You know, friend, just "thinking" one is a Christian, doesn't make him one. We might be as this very well educated man of influence was--"Not far, but still not in the kingdom of Christ.” The Scripture says when Christ comes He will deliver up the kingdom to God the Father. That's in 1 Corinthians 15:24. Oh me, wouldn't it be a tragedy to meet God in judgment, thinking I am in the kingdom, to learn at that time that I'm really not in the kingdom? Oh, don't let that happen to you, friend.
If you would like to study that message more, and what has been said today a little bit more, and to do that you would need a printed copy or a CD or audio cassette tape of it, simply write us at In Search of The Lord's Way, P.O. Box 371, Edmond, OK 73083. Our e-mail address is searchtv@searchtv.org. If you prefer to just call us, our toll-free telephone number is 1-800-321-8633. It is all free. We're not here to make money; we are here to lead men and women to Christ Jesus and to a better life here and in the hereafter.
Oh yes, I would like to tell you about our free Bible Correspondence Course again. We have two studies actually. One is the introductory study and consists of eight lessons. The more advanced study consists of thirty lessons. The beauty of such studies as these is that first, you study from your own Bible right there in your own home, at your own pace. If you can do one a week, fine; if it takes two weeks, that's fine, too. Use that same address or telephone number to get started.
All this month we are presenting special guest speakers. And we just appreciate these men coming in and presenting these messages to us. There are two more guest speakers. Glenn Colley from Huntsville, Alabama will be here next week, and then Jeff Jenkins from Lewisville, Texas will be here on the 29th. We would like for you to hear those men and the messages and we would like to hear from you that you did.
Say, you know I am looking forward to the time of our celebration of our 28th anniversary. I mean on the first Sunday in September we begin the 28th year of our ministry here. God has blessed us so richly and we are indebted to Him so greatly. One reason I believe that God has blessed us so is that we are striving to do His will and to preach His word in the plainest and simplest way that we can. We want to be true to God’s word. The gospel of Jesus Christ is God’s power to salvation. Stories and fables and such like just will not do it, friend. And today, in today’s society, people, we are told, don’t like to be told they are lost and they don’t like it to be insinuated that they are not going to heaven. But, you know if we are not really on the right track we need to know about it here, don’t we? And it would be a blessing to you to know it, and it would be a blessing to me to know it in such an instance also. Well, God bless you, now. We love you. We will be back next week.
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