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Divine Service: The Needle's Eye Sermon.pptx
1.
2. Mark 10:25
“It is easier for a camel
to go through the eye of a needle
than a rich man
to enter the kingdom of God.”
3. The Rich and the Kingdom of God
17 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?”
18 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No
one is good—except God alone. 19 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, honor your
father and mother.’[a]”
4. 20 “Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a
boy.”
21 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.”
22 At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he
had great wealth.
23 Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is
for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!”
24 The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said
again, “Children, how hard it is[b] to enter the kingdom of
God! 25 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.”
5. 26 The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each
other, “Who then can be saved?”
27 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is
impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with
God.”
28 Then Peter spoke up, “We have left everything to follow
you!”
29 “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 30 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. 31 But many who are first will
be last, and the last first.”
6. Mark 10:25
“It is easier for a camel
to go through
the eye of a needle
than a rich man
to enter the kingdom of God.”
22. Comparison
Mark 10:17-31
v. 17 - Jesus started on his way.
v. 24,25 - enter the kingdom of God.
- go through the eye of a needle
v. 26 - who then can be saved?
v. 31 - But many who are first will be last,
and the last first.
Luke 13:22-30
v. 22 - Jesus made his way.
v. 24 - Enter through the narrow door.
v. 23 - Lord, are only a few people going to be
saved?
v. 30 - indeed there are those who are last who
will be first, and first who will be last.
The Needle’s Eye The Narrow Door
How many times have you heard of the sermon about needle’s eye, the camel through a needle’s eye, or the rich young ruler? Once, twice or more than 3 times? What was the message? What did you learn?
I, too, have heard this sermon many times. But I said to my self, I don’t have any issue with this. I don’t have a lot of money. I wont have any problem entering the kingdom of God. How many of you also thought like that?
But today, we are going to look into this passage in a different angle. Not on riches and possession, but on the needle’s eye.
And the text is found on… Mark 10:25
It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than a rich man
to enter the kingdom of God.”
But let is try to read the whole passage so we can get a glimpse of the whole story.
There are two important things that were mentioned in this verse “the Camel and the Needle’s eye”. What was Jesus trying to say when he mentioned these two things? What comes in your mind? Why did Jesus use this analogy?
Many Bible scholars try to dissect and explain these things. Some said that the “camel” is a rope because the Greek word for rope is “kamilos”.
But some said it’s a humpback creature, a camel, because camel derived from the Greek word “kamelos” and translated into a Latin word “camelus” that is why we have the English word camel.
The camel alone, scholars, have already divided understanding.
To make you more confused, or just to add to you knowledge about camels, (SLIDE)
there are two kinds of camel the Bactrian and dromedary.
SO, is the work CAMEL in Mark 10:25 a rope/thread OR camel (animal)?
Just the word camel itself we are already divided. How much more if we include the eye of a needle?
We know that Jesus is a teacher of all teachers. He teaches wisely. He used parables in teaching for an easy way of understanding. He used Parables like what people are doing during their times. Jesus used the camel through the Eye of a Needle, because that’s the message Jesus wanted for that rich young man to do.
So when he said… “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
What camel was he trying to mean here?
Rope or a camel, what is your stand?
To those who think that the camel is a rope/thread you will end up to this conclusion. But what is the problem here? Is there any issue?
When I ask my son to do something and he complains that it’s hard, I would always tell him, Kuya, lisud pang mag solve ug rubiks cube ana.
It means, doing that certain thing is hard, but solving the cube is harder. But both things are hard to do. But it’s possible.
Who among you here have tried inserting a piece of thread through a needle’s eye. Is it hard? Nope? Do you think it would make sense if Jesus used this to compare to getting into the kingdom of God? No?
To those who think that the camel is a camel you will end up to this conclusion. Does this also make sense?
Can God make 1+1 = 3? NO! God is a God of sense
Mythology class – Their stories don’t make sense.
To make thing clear to us this morning let us continue…
One thing that I learned from hearing a lot of theology stuff is that you can get the meaning of a certain text by studying other others texts. And we all know that Matthew, Mark and Luke, all have personal encounters with Jesus but each of them may have differences in their way of telling their stories.
But it is very clear that the three used the word CAMEL ( animal) and not rope. This is given.
Since CAMEL is given, we don’t have an issue on that anymore. But again this picture doesn’t make sense at all. It’s impossible for a camel to get through the eye of a needle. So maybe there’s an issue on the needle’s eye. So let’s take a shift on the needle’s eye.
What is it? Is the needle’s eye?
GO to GOOGLE.
Yes , google will give you these images.
So what is your conclusion?
The term "eye of a needle" is used as a metaphor for a very narrow opening.
Jesus was not teaching this…
But this
And when you look into this comparison, you would see clearly that eye of a needle is a narrow door. Luke made it clear.
So it is very clear here that The needle’s eye is a small door where the camel squeezed himself just to go in.
Does this make sense now? But why would a camel go through that narrow door? Is it even possible? How?
In the province of Isfahan Iran, there is a building they called caravanserai. Caravanserai is a resting place for travelers, a combination of rest area and hotel. You know when you travel far and you’re tired you look for a rest area so you can have a rest. This caravanserai is designed for that. You know what during the Biblical times, they don’t have cars, they don’t have Lincoln, Nissan or Toyota, what they’ve got was horses, camel or even their foot as their carriage. When they’re tired and the sun set they spent their night here, feed and water their horses and camel and even make themselves warm from the cold of the night.
It looks like this on the inside.
There’s some fountain for watering their camels, surrounded by rooms so you can have some rest.
There’s some fountain for watering their camels, surrounded by rooms so you can have some rest.
The huge door is open during the day for animals like camels, but they close it at night, the only way to go in is by using the small door. And this door was designed only for foot travelers, so even a single guard can manage this door.
So now, if you get there late at night and you will find the huge door closed, to get in is you need to use the small door. If you have a camel it’s a little bit tricky, much more if you have a lot of load, a lot of baggage. But, just for you to have a rest, to make yourself warm, feed and water your camel you need to squeeze the camel in to that small door. It’s look like this.
How can you get inside? 4 steps… REF ELEPHANT COW
Stop, kneel, unload, enter
Try to imagine yourself as a “camel”, you’re traveling so long, you’re carrying a lot of things, you’re thirsty, you’re hungry, walking in the burning sand of the desert, you want to have a rest but you’re late, the huge door was closed, the only access to go in is by the small door but you need to unload and drop all the things you have. It’s hard, it’s difficult, a lot of work and patience needed.
Following Jesus, we experience hardship… JOB with MINISTRY - hard - LEs -all of us
Keeping our relationship with Jesus is not easy…
We experience problems and difficulties.
But if you are tired like the camel, you would surely want to take some rest.
Tired? Work(work hard and not earn enough) MA’s - 15th – trapuhan lang ug gas station. Think of it, MAKAKAPOY!
Academics – preparing for LET, kasukaon ug binasa, Falcolan review center. 2 tops – kapoy kaau mam!
unhealthy relationship (feeling nimo ikaw ra nag effort) makakapoy
trying to meet other’s expectations,
working for your studies.
Do you want to take some rest?
(next SLIDE) Jesus is the narrow road that leads to life, He is the way that leads to God, he is the door to eternal life and he is the small gate to heaven only few find him.
Enter into that small gate and get some rest, drink from the fountain of life…
Jesus offers us some rest. This sabbath is a rest. Wht do we need to rest? tomorrow, we regain strength for another week
Enter into that small gate and get some rest, drink from the fountain of life…
But you need to stop, kneel, unload and enter.
STOP! What’s hindering you from coming to Jesus. What’s eating up you time? What’s consuming your energy? What’s loosing your enthusiasm in serving?
Is it screen time? Is it your friends, influencing you to do unpleasant things, things that are not pleasing to the eyes of God?
What’s eating up your energy? Is it your family’s expectations, your desire to be on top all the time, to be the best in everything? What’s losing your enthusiam? Is it tradition, your tired of doing exactly the same thing over and over.
Friends, STOP
But is it not enough to stop. KNEEL. Pray! Ask God to help you… Yes, it is hard. It is hard to stop bad habits. It is hard to quit the things you have been doing and you enjoy doing. But ask God to help you…
I can do all things through Him who give me strength.
Unload. Give it all to Him.. Lord, ikaw na bahala
some of us stopped from our work, we kneel in prayer, but we still go home tired and burdened? Why? we have not unloaded
Enter
He offers rest when you are tired, he offers comfort when you are weary, he offers a drink when you are thirsty.
