Preached in Markham Baptist Church, July 15, 2007

ARE YOU THERE YET?

At the age of 2 my daughter Nora learned a question that is designed to destroy the mental stability of any parent. At only 2 years of age she learned the question that has been handed down I’m sure from the first child ever born on this earth, because it is a question that every child knows to ask – the question I’m sure was asked the very first time a mother and a father decided to hitch up the ox and put the kids in the cart for a short trip – the question – “Are we there yet?”

To Nora’s credit, she would repress her urge to ask the question on the way to grandma’s house long enough for us to journey out of our driveway, travel an eighth of a mile down the street and come to the first stop sign in our subdivision. It was not until then that she would ask, “Are we there yet?”

And it wouldn’t matter, if before we got going I would give that calm speech of warning. You know, the one you give after you have the kids in the car, their seatbelts are on, the engine is running and you turn in your seat to give them this speech, “Okay kids, this is going to be a long trip. Your mother has packed books, games, toys, videos, drinks, food, a pillow and sleeping bags to make the time go by and make you comfortable. It’s going to be a long trip, so please, please, I beg you, don’t ask us, ‘Are we there yet?’ ”

But still, we would go out of our drive, travel and eighth of a mile come to the stop sign and that little voice would come from the back, “Are we there yet?”

When you think of it, who can blame her? We all, even adults, want to know how much further we have to go in our long journey. We all want to know if we have arrived at our destination. Knowing how much further makes the miles and the time seem more bearable. Whether it be a physical journey, or say, in a life situation. We all want to know if we are there yet in our schooling, or in our economic status, or in our social status, or in retirement. And if we are really honest we ask the same question about our relationship with God.

Today in Scripture we meet a man who essentially asks that same question of Jesus. While this man isn’t on a physical journey from point A to point B he is a man who is on a spiritual journey. He is one who is concerned about his relationship with God and he is wondering if he has arrived, so to speak with God.

Of course there is a sense where none of us “arrive” – God is so great and His character so wonderful that we can never say we have mined the depths of who He is or are fully what He wants us to be. Paul compared the faith to a race to be won, a battle to be fought, a process in which He pressed on to obtain the prize. This is important for you Chris, Andrew and Curtis - please don’t think that this is it for you and your relationship with God – don’t be thinking that you’ve arrived. No, there are years of joyful service ahead of you, years of delightful discoveries about who God is, there is wonder upon wonder yet to experience and every wonder true. We understand that.

But at the same time there is a sense where some people are near the kingdom of God and mistake it for being there in the kingdom of God. There are some who think they are very near to God but in reality are very far from God and it is this condition that I want to address this morning.

You see, this man wants to know if he’s in with God or out with God. He is concerned as to whether or not he has God’s favour. He essentially asks Jesus, “Am I there yet?”

Just think of the story for a moment. The setting for this event is in the city of Jerusalem. And here we see in chapter 11 of Mark that the Pharisees and the Sadducees have had it up to here with Jesus. He has the people’s favour and acclaim, which make them very jealous. He has driven out of the temple all those moneychangers, that is, those who were profiting from the worship of God and this has made them angry.

So in chapter 12 starting at verse 13 we see that they want to catch Jesus in a lie, they want to destroy Him by discrediting Him. What follows then is a series of questions, all of which Jesus wisely answers. And in the midst of this debate, says the text in verse 28, comes a teacher of the law, and seeing that Jesus has given good answers to some very difficult questions he decides to ask his question.

“Of all the commandments which is the most important?” Now why would he ask that question – of all the question he could have asked, why did he ask that one? Well perhaps, because he wanted to test Jesus. That’s possible. Indeed the teachers of the law continually debated which of the 613 commandments of the Old Testament was the most important.

But it is more than that. This teacher of the law knew the law, he sought to practice the law, and you almost get the sense, given his response to Jesus’ answer, that he already knows the answer – he was just seeing if this man of God agrees with him. He wants to see if his knowledge of the law made him acceptable in God’s eyes. He was asking “Am I there yet?”

And Jesus answers. He quotes Deuteronomy 6:4,5 - “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind and with all your strength.” And Leviticus 19:18 “love your neighbour as yourself.” He marries the two commands love for God and love for neighbour – he links them together, making them the greatest command.

And the teacher of the law says in effect, “Yes, Amen. That’s exactly what I think! To do those two things are more important than all the burnt offerings and sacrifices. To love God with all your heart and with all your mind and with all your strength and to love your neighbour as yourself is exactly right.”

And you just feel the self-justification in the man. “That’s exactly what I think. In fact I said those exact words to the guys in the office the other day. We were all standing around the water cooler, the well, the other day and this topic came up and I pointed to those exact verses –that’s exactly what I think.”

And with that, having heard what he wanted to hear, we can imagine, he turned to leave. Am I there yet? And with Jesus’ answer he thought he had arrived.

But Jesus has one last word for the man – you’re not there yet. The text says, “Seeing that he man answered wisely, Jesus said, ‘You are not far from the kingdom of God.’ ”

The kingdom of God - that’s a phrase that simply refers to God’s kingship and rule in a life. To be in the kingdom of God is to live with and under the reign of God. It isn’t a phrase referring to heaven – it is instead referring to God’s kingship over our life.

So Jesus says, you are very near but you’re not there. You are not far from the kingdom of God.

Isn’t that a wonderful way to answer? It’s full of grace. I think of how that question – are we there yet – used to drive me crazy. It would take all the Christian love and patience that the Spirit can pour into me to answer politely and kindly.

But there is no hint of this struggle when Jesus answers. There is almost a tone that says, “Well done. You are very near the Kingdom of God.” Indeed we can hear these words as celebrating that which brings us near to the Kingdom of God.

Think of this man – Jesus said he was near the kingdom, meaning that he wasn’t far. He was standing right on the border of the Kingdom, right on the edge of a living dynamic relationship with God.

What brought him close? Well, probably the same things that bring us close. The text tells us that he was a teacher of the law – he was well-aquainted with the Word of God. Certainly that would have brought him near to God.

How many times have you heard someone give their testimony and say something like – “I began reading the word of God and as I read it, it began to make more and more sense to me and I felt very near to God.”

Also we can understand that the man, being a teacher of the law, was surrounded by godly people. These people not only knew the Word of God but they lived the Word of God, they were living letters. Certainly that would have brought him near to God.

I know that has been the testimony of many of you. You have had a friend, or a relative, or a fellow worker, or a Sunday School teacher who was an exemplary Christian – so that they made the truth of the living God so evident to you that you felt near to God by just being near to them.

But there was also the influence of his feelings for Jesus. The scribe was not far from the Kingdom of God because he had a great admiration for Jesus. He was attracted to Jesus as a magnet is attracted to steel. There was a quality about Jesus, about the way he answered the scribes - there was a depth, a love and a compassion that mad this man admire Jesus.

And we, if we were honest, would have to say that we too, even if you may not believe in Him as the Son of God, admire Jesus. We admire this God man who lived so humbly but mightily, who dies so horribly but majestically and who continues to influence world events. Have we not been brought near through our admiration of Christ?

O how we need to give thanks to God and celebrate those people and events that have brought us near to the Kingdom of God. But near is not there.

You know there were times when I was tempted, when Nora asked, “Are we there yet?” I was very tempted to pull the car over at the gas nearest gas station, have all the kids pile out of the van, buy them each a candy bar and announce, “Yup, we’re here. Yup, we’ve arrived at Grandma’s house.”

But I think they would find out the truth pretty fast, don’t you? They would know as soon as they saw the clerk in the store – she didn’t look like Grandma. And when they looked at the gas pumps and the store – they didn’t look like Grandma’s house or yard. Even though they were eating candy – which is what they’d do at Grandma’s house – they would know that everything else was wrong.

Jesus tries no such deception with us. Even though we can hear the words of Jesus calling us to celebrate our nearness to the Kingdom He doesn’t let us rest there. There is another tone here, that we need to pay attention to – “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” That is, you haven’t arrived there yet. So we can also hear these words as words of warning. Warning us not to rest until we’re there.

And this is the disturbing part of the story. There is no record of the teacher reacting to these words. He doesn’t pay attention to them, he simply disappears off the face of sacred literature, a nameless identity.

But if this man were you or me – we would stop, wouldn’t we? Wouldn’t you turn in your tracks, look straight at Jesus and say, “What do you mean, I’m not far from the kingdom of God? Those words imply that I’m not part of the kingdom of God? What exactly do you mean?”

These words would stop us in our tracks, wouldn’t they? I mean, who of us would be satisfied with only being near the Kingdom? That’s the way we are in life - who of you sailors are satisfied with tacking in the bay, when the whole lake lies waiting? Who of you golfers are satisfied with putting on the practice green when there are 18 holes to play? You lovers of mysteries, who of you would be satisfied with reading only the beginning chapters of the novel to see who got murdered when the whole wonderful web of intrigue lies before you in the remaining pages?

Who of you going on vacation are satisfied with playing in the sand box and sitting in a kiddie pool when the whole lake is just down the street from your rental property? No one.

And so we wouldn’t be satisfied with being near God when we could be there with God. We wouldn’t be satisfied with feeding off the scraps thrown from the Kingdom kitchen when we’ve been invited to come in and eat at the banqueting table.

And so Jesus gives us this warning – and it is this – none of the things that bring us near bring us there, with God. Our Christian friends may bring us near to full life with God but they don’t bring us into full life with God. Our knowledge of Scripture and spiritual things don’t bring us under God’s loving rule. Our admiration of Jesus doesn’t do it either.

Let me make it clear that baptism does not bring us into the Kingdom either. What the Clare men have done does not guarantee them a place in heaven. This is not their ticket that they can wave before God when they get into the gates, like we would wave a get out of jail free card in the game of monopoly.

And so we may well ask if these things don’t get us in – if these things don’t win us God’s favour then what does? Actually the question is not what, but who – the person of Jesus Christ. This is what Jesus said over and over again. I am the way the truth and the life, no man comes to the father but through Me. If we want to enter the kingdom of God we need to go through Jesus.

What does that mean? Well, there was another man who was drawn to Jesus and he wasn’t a teacher of the law – he was a thief – Luke 23:40. This thief said some interesting things.

First he admitted that he was a sinner. “We are being punished justly.” So we need to admit that we are sinners in need of a Saviour.

Then he believed that Jesus was the Saviour he needed. “But this man has done nothing wrong”. So we need to believe that Jesus Christ is our Saviour, that He came into the world to save sinners, that He came and took our human nature upon Himself, lived the perfect life and deliberately went to the cross in order to bear our sin. He became our substitute.

Not only admit and believe, but then commit our lives to Him and ask Him to be our Saviour and our Lord. The thief said, “Remember me when you come into your kingdom.” So for us. We need to commit ourselves to Jesus Christ. The thief’s live ended soon after that confession, but we need to then live a life of obedience, submitting ourselves to his Lordship.

And notice what Jesus says to him. He doesn’t say, You are not far from the Kingdom of heaven – no he says, you’ve arrived and as a result “today you will be with me in paradise.”

All those things that bring us near mean nothing unless we take the next step of moving from having a feeling of Jesus to following Jesus, from admiring Jesus to adoring Jesus. Indeed we can’t even fully follow these commands to love God with all our heart, mind and strength and love our neighbour as ourselves without first having the love of Christ within.

Words that celebrate, words that warn. There is this last thing - these words of Jesus invite. Jesus wasn’t wagging a finger at the teacher of the law, saying, “You silly teacher of the law, you aren’t quiet there yet.”

No, He was inviting the teacher of the law to take the next step. From what we know of Jesus we know that He was hoping that the man would stop turn in his tracks look straight at him and say, “What do you mean I’m not from the Kingdom of God?

That would have opened the door to a far more glorious journey, wouldn’t it? And it is a journey that Jesus invites us all to take, a journey that begins with our trusting Him alone for our salvation, trusting in Him alone to taking us from being near, to being there in the kingdom of God.

It’s an invitation that He gives still today. He asks us not to be satisfied with being near the Kingdom when we can be there through faith in Him alone.

You know when my daughter used to ask the question, Are we there yet?” it wasn’t all that serious how I responded - “We’ll get there when we get there,” or “We’re closer than we’ve ever been before.” It’s not all that important as to how I answered her question.

But when we ask the question, “Are you there yet?” in relation to our walk with God, well, all eternity hangs on the answer to that question. So the importance of the question shouldn’t be lost in the cuteness of the illustration. The question for us all is “Are we there yet?” and may we never be satisfied with being near when we can be there.