Jump Start # 1671

Matthew 19:26 “And looking at them Jesus said to them, “With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

  Our verse today is the Lord’s answer to a question from the disciples. Jesus had just told the rich young ruler to sell all that he had and follow Him. He couldn’t do it. He walked away. His heart and his god were his possessions. This follows with the statement that it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of Heaven. The disciples then asked, “Who then can be saved?” This is when Jesus says what is found in our verse. With people it is impossible. With God, all things are possible.

Salvation involves God. Salvation is God’s idea. Salvation is on God’s terms. But with God all things are possible. With God, what we might exclude, deny or think “no way,” can be.

1. A person doesn’t have to be able to name the books of the Bible from memory to go to Heaven. Entrance into Heaven isn’t a matter of passing a test. If it were, most of us would be sunk. Faith in the Lord and God’s grace is what makes Heaven possible. There was a time, especially in Europe, when many common people could not read or write. Could they go to Heaven? With God all things are possible.

2. A person can be odd by our standards and still go to Heaven. I have seen many strange and unusual things in and around church buildings. I had a guy once ask me a very serious Bible question. We were standing outside the church building on a bright sunny day. His front tooth was gold and in it was a diamond. I’d never seen anything like that. The sunlight was hitting that diamond in just the right place that it looked like a spotlight was on his face. As he talked, I couldn’t take my eyes off of that golden tooth. You can go to Heaven with a golden tooth with a diamond in it.

There as another time when I was preaching and a woman sitting in the second row, right in front of the pulpit, put her foot on the song book rack. I’m watching this as I preach. She took out her nail clippers. Oh, yes. Right there. She clipped that big toe nail. There was a loud sound when she clipped it. I watched that toe nail fly into the air and spin all the way down to the floor. It just laid there, that big toe clipping. She put away her clippers and looked up. As I preached, I kept looking down at that toe clipping on the floor. She never did pick it up. I don’t think she would appreciate anyone doing what she did in her house. But, you know what, she can go to Heaven.

There are folks who never seem to have two nickels in their pocket. It seems that they are always struggling. They can go to Heaven.

There are families that seem to be accident prone. The kids are always going to the hospital for broken arms and stitches. They can go to Heaven.

There is the guy who drives a rust bucket of a car. It’s old looking and worn out. He has money, but he just doesn’t get a different car. It looks pitiful and sounds worse when he starts it. When he turns the engine off, it seems to keep sputtering for a few seconds. Poor car. Someone ought to put the car out of it’s misery. Guess what? That guy can go to Heaven.

I’ve seen the church building completely empty and someone comes it, and the first place they sit is the back row. They wouldn’t want that seat at a ball game or a movie. With all those choices, they want the back row. Guess what? That guy can go to Heaven.

There are some who think that you have to go to a certain school or send your kids to certain camps and go to certain workshops to be faithful. They can believe that. And they can go to Heaven. And those that don’t, they can go to Heaven too.

I expect one surprise about Heaven will be seeing people there that in our book we wouldn’t think had a chance. They were odd. They were different. They weren’t like us. But what is impossible, is possible with God.

All of this reminds me and if a person is believing in the Lord and walking according to God’s word, he doesn’t have to like everything that I like or do things just the way I do things. That’s hard for many of us. We want folks to do things a certain way because we think that certain way is the only way. I had a guy fuss with me once about how I baptized someone. I went one direction and he thought I should have gone the other direction. I listen and smiled. He talked and frowned. Guess what? He can go to Heaven baptizing people his direction and I can go to Heaven baptizing people my direction.

We are the ones that makes things impossible. We can make rules when God hasn’t. We can expect everyone to do things our way, when God doesn’t expect that.

With God, all things are possible.

That’s a good thing!

Roger