Mark 10:32-45
Sermon Message 10-17-2021
I found this kind-of Funny.
I must first give you a little back-ground info
on this.
We have this little electronic box called
Alexa.
And Cheryl has set up for it to remind her throughout
the day, “To Drink Water.”
But - when asked, Cheryl admitted that she really
doesn’t ever act upon that prompting.
SO – Here we are. Cooking pancakes in the
morning and Alexa came up with Cheryl’s Reminder to Drink Water. So - I asked
Alexa to remove these reminders. And Alexa Responded with – “I have added ‘Cheryl,
Drink Water’ to your “Shopping List”.
Just as Alexa didn’t Listen to me,
Today, We are going to hear about some who Just
Still Didn’t Listen to Jesus.
What is the
BIG IDEA
Of Today’s Text?
Is It Not – Mostly – Just One More Time Of
The Disciples Failure to Grasp The TRUE Understanding Of What ‘Discipleship’
Means But Rather, It Is Also Of Them Still SEEKING Their Own Greatness!!!
It Is All About - Servanthood!
Have you ever noticed There just seems to be
ALWAYS - A Person taking the High
Praise Road All the While There is always Another Who is taking the
Lower Road?
So, Who is the One taking the “Right - Road”?
I find it So Amazing. That These Two Opposites (High
Road & Lower Road) Are Always Present.
With Just a Little Stretch From Our Text for
Today, Being the Ones wanting the Higher Road, We see the Lower Road Being Lived
Out in Mark 10:46-52.
That is where we Find Bartimaeus Who CHOOSES To
Center His Life Entirely Upon Jesus And he “Follows” Christ “Along
the road.”
GUYS: Jesus Must Be the Reason For Which We
LIVE!
And Today – Jesus Reveals to Us The True Reason
for His Life!
His Way Is a the Way of Suffering! And Serving!
But it is Also: A Way of Saving. A
Way of Protecting. A Way of Providing.
He is the “Ransom for Us,”
And In Return, He Calls Us to Be A True
Disciple of His.
So, Let - Us Dig Into
the Text And Try to Understand It Just a Little Better!
TODAY, We are Getting Down to the Final set
of Events Within Jesus’s Public Ministry, As the rest of the Book of Mark Will
cover the Passion Week, The Crucifixion, And the Resurrection.
The “Road to Jerusalem” Has centered on 2 Things: The Passion Predictions (With This being the
most detailed of the 3) And True Discipleship
Jesus calling US – His Followers To join Him on
the Path of Suffering And Servanthood
In Mark 10:32 “on their way up to Jerusalem.”
Jerusalem, That is the holy city, This is God’s
– Appointed Destiny For Jesus.
It is where He will provide Atonement through His Sacrificial Death.
Did you Notice; Jesus is “leading the way”
Jesus is “going ahead” of the disciples On
the way to Galilee.
The KEY Point Here is that Jesus Determines
The Path For ALL Of His Believers To Follow. The Next Words you
will find in your Text Are: “Astonished … And …
Afraid”.
Always Before, The text Would Say That the
disciples Are “amazed”
Mark 6:51
51 “Then he climbed into the boat, and the
wind stopped. They were totally amazed”
Mark 10:24
24 “This amazed them. But Jesus said again, “Dear
children, it is very hard to enter the Kingdom of God.”
In Mark 10:26
26 “The disciples were astounded. “Then who in
the world can be saved?” they asked.”
But This Time – By Jesus’ Authority and Power
Of His Determination Is Displayed Within Him By
Him “Lead(ing) the way.”
You know – There always seems to be a Debate
about this or that.
And here is no different. There is debate about
whether The “followers” Are the Disciples Themselves Or was it a Separate
Group of Followers All Together Such as pilgrims
headed for Jerusalem.
BUT - They are “afraid,”
Now - Most likely It Is Not Describing A ‘AWE’,
But Rather TOTAL ‘FEAR’!
FEAR Of the Importance of This Event Which Jesus
is Predicting Here.
In Mark 10:33 “The Son of Man will be delivered.”
This First Part of Christ’s Passion Prophesying Has been given
earlier.
In Mark 8:31, but beginning to read in: 27
“As they were walking along, Jesus asked them, “Who do people say I am?”
28 “Well,” they replied, “some say John the
Baptist, some say Elijah, and others say You are one of the other prophets.”
29 Then He asked them, “But who do you say I am?”
Peter replied, “You are the Messiah, The Christ.”
30 But Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about
him.
Jesus Predicts His Death
31 Then Jesus began to tell them that the
Son of Man must suffer many terrible things and be rejected by the elders, the
leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He would be killed, but
three days later He would rise from the dead.
And once again, We have Jesus Prophesying Of His Death & Resurrection.
We had talked about this one just a few weeks
ago.
In Mark 9:30 - but beginning to read in:
26 “Then the spirit screamed and threw the
boy into another violent convulsion and left him. The boy appeared to be dead.
A murmur ran through the crowd as people said, “He’s dead.”
27 But Jesus took him by the
hand and helped him to his feet, and he stood up.
28 Afterward,
when Jesus was alone in the house with his disciples, they asked him, “Why
couldn’t we cast out that evil spirit?”
29 Jesus
replied, “This kind can be cast out only by prayer.]”
Jesus
Again Predicts His Death
30 Leaving
that region, they traveled through Galilee. Jesus didn’t want anyone to know he
was there, 31 for he wanted to spend more time with his
disciples and teach them. He said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be
betrayed into the hands of his enemies. He will be killed, but three days later
he will rise from the dead.”
And Today – We hear once again Of Jesus Talking
about His Death and Resurrection. However, Today, it Is almost like A Table of
Contents Or a Blow-by-Blow Account.
The major debate among the scholars Here Is about – Whether these Are Jesus’ Actual
Words To His Disciples OR Were These Words Added in After-The-Fact
by Mark?
However - There is Little Reason To
Doubt of The Extreme Hostility That Confronted Jesus.
This is displayed way back in Mark 3:6
6 “At once the Pharisees went away and met
with the supporters of Herod to plot how to kill Jesus.”
And then in Mark 10:34 We have mock . . .
spit on . . . flog . . . kill Him.
And Indeed, All 4 were done by the
Romans.
Mark 10:37 “Let one of us sit at Your Right and the other
at Your Left in Your Glory.”
You Know, We can Point and Snicker At the Fact
that the Disciples Just Have Not Yet Learned Their Lesson.
I Seriously Doubt If Our Scripture Covers Every Time When Jesus
Taught This Lesson – However, We Do Have A Few Available For Us to Study.
But - I am Only going to refer to a few of them.
The First One that I am Going to point out
today Is found in Mark 9:33–37.
The Greatest in the Kingdom
33 “After they arrived at Capernaum and
settled in a house, Jesus asked His disciples, “What were you discussing out on
the road?”
34 But they didn’t answer, because they had been
arguing about which of them was the greatest.
35 He sat down, called the twelve disciples over
to Him, and said, “Whoever wants to be first must take last place and be the
servant of everyone else.”
36 Then He put a little child among them. Taking
the child in his arms, He said to them,
37 “Anyone who welcomes a little child like this
on my behalf welcomes Me, and anyone who welcomes Me welcomes not only Me but
also my Father who sent Me.”
Then once again in Mark 10:15, 15 “I tell you the truth, anyone who doesn’t
receive the Kingdom of God like a child will
never enter it.”
And ONCE again in Mark 10:31;
31 “But many who are the greatest now will
be least important then, and those who seem least important now will be the
greatest then.”
Or “But many who are first will be last;
and the last, first”
You know, It Is Easy to Gaze Upon The Disciple’s Failures,
However – Let Us Examine Our Own. ‘Do We Get
It?’ And – ‘Do We Live It?’
It Is True – At this Point – The Disciples still Long for Their Own Greatness
and Status.
BUT - The BOLDNESS of James and
John Can Be Difficult for Us to Comprehend.
Jesus has once again Talked to them About His-Forth-Coming-Death.
But
Yet – In All Truth, Are they not saying:
We get It.
You Are Going to Die a Terrible Death!
We Got It!
But When You Are Resurrected
We Want a Favor!
We Want Sit in Your Honor
And of course,
That is With One of us on the RIGHT!
And the Other on the Left!
It Seems that the ONLY Thing They Had Listened
to Was What He had Said About the Coming Glory With the Holy Angels!
Listen to Mark 8:36-38
36 “And what do you benefit if you gain the whole
world but lose your own soul?
37 Is anything worth more than your soul? 38 If anyone is ashamed of Me and My Message in
these adulterous and sinful days, the Son of Man will be ashamed of that person
when He returns in the Glory of His Father with the holy angels.”
YES - They Understood Who He Is: He Is The
Messiah! The Christ!
But They Could Not Grasp Neither Why He Came, Nor Their Part Within It.
Do You? Do You Know Why He Came? Do You Know
OUR Part In It?
Mark puts the Guilt of these 2 brothers Directly - Squarely upon Them!
HOWEVER – Matthew Records it a Little
Differently.
In Matthew 20:20–21, It Is James and John Who
Askes their mother To Ask Jesus of this favor.
Matthew 20:20 “Then the mother of James and John, the
sons of Zebedee, came to Jesus with her sons. She knelt respectfully to ask a
favor.”
And then in 10:38 “Can you drink the
cup . . . be baptized with the
baptism . . . ?”
Jesus knew that the Disciples
Have Failed to Realize: The Type of Suffering And of Their Sacrifice
Which Is On Their Own Path To Glory.
I believe, We can Learn MUCH From these brothers
BECAUSE IN TRUTH They Are Not Much Different Than we are today.
They Wanted Their Rewards Without The Cost. &
Without Earning It.
So, Jesus uses 2 Metaphors: A “Cup” And “Baptism.”
The CUP
In the Old Testament, The Cup Symbolized One’s Destiny,
Especially in the ‘Cup of Suffering’ And From Within it, We Drink
God’s Wrath
(Ps. 75:8; Isa. 51:17; Jer. 25:15; 51:7).
Isaiah 51:17
17 “Wake up, Wake up, O Jerusalem!
You have drunk the cup of the Lord’s fury.
You have drunk the cup of terror,
tipping out its last drops.”
And do you remember - Jesus’ Death is also a “Cup” Within His Prayer in the Garden:
Mark 14:36
36 “Abba, Father,” He cried out, Everything
is possible for you. Please take this CUP of Suffering away from me. Yet I want
your will to be done, not mine.”
In BAPTISM
As for the “Baptism,” It Is A Metaphor For Submersion And It Is referring to 2 actions.
The 1st is of The
Calamity within Our Own Lives As described in Job 22:11-12
Job 22:11 “That is why you cannot see in the
darkness, and waves of water cover you. 12 “God is so
great—higher than the heavens, higher than the farthest stars.”
(Job 9:31; Psalms. 42:7; 46:3; Isaiah 43:2)
And the 2nd is of the Divine Judgment As described in Isaiah
30:28
28 His hot breath pours out like a flood up
to the neck of His enemies. He will sift out the proud nations for destruction.
He will bridle them and lead them away to ruin.
That is God’s Judgement.
Continuing on in Mark
10:39
We find their Answer to ‘The Favor’ Which they
had asked for And the Answer is
YES - You can!
In John and James’ Desire to be Princes In
the Final Kingdom, In Their Way of THINKING Of the CUP Is
the same as IF it was A Golden Goblet of Royalty!
And their BAPTISM was As IF It Was Their ‘Anointing’
to the Highest Office.
And “Of course, we can do that!” was
their reply.
Then Jesus Does Not Disclose But He Explains
With Full Truth: “You Will Indeed
Experience My Cup and Baptism.”
However, the brothers Have No Clue Of What that Really Means.
James will be martyred At the hands of Herod in Acts
12.
And John will be exiled on Patmos And he
will die about AD 96, Shortly after finishing the Book of Revelation.
In Mark 10:40, Jesus
does expresses that He is NOT the One Who will
make those type of decisions.
“Not For Me to grant.”
It is God the Father Who Oversees Eternal Rewards, And it is Within this Statement,
Jesus Once Again – States that He Himself Is A
Subordinate to His Father.
Jesus has made this known So Many Times.
(Mark 13:32; John 5:19–23).
This is an example of Man’s Pride!
James and John, have no right to ask For such a
reward.
God the Father - Alone - Decides, And the
places belong Only to those for whom They were “Prepared For” It Is By Divine Passive
Meaning that the Choice Is Entirely God the Father’s.
And now, Let us take
a look at verses 10:42–44
“Rulers of the Gentiles lord it over
them . . . Not so with you.
It would be nature to understand that the other
disciples are a little: Jealous!
Burned! And Bruised!
This type of action Which the brothers did Could
Have Been Something That Could Have Easily Divided the disciples forever!
Just as this type of action Destroys Loving families today It could have
been the end Of Jesus Disciples.
But Jesus Defuses this issue By Repeating the Warnings Against Selfish Ambition.
Mark 9:35
35 “He sat down,
called the twelve disciples over to him,
and said,
“Whoever wants to be first
must take last place
and be the servant
of everyone else.”’
Mark 10:14-15
14 “When Jesus saw what was happening,
he was angry with his disciples.
He said to them,
“Let the children come to me.
Don’t stop them!
For the Kingdom of God belongs
to those who are like these children.
15 I tell you the truth,
anyone who doesn’t receive the
Kingdom of God
like a child will never enter it.”’
Mark 10:31
31 But many who are the greatest now will be least
important then,
and those who seem least important now will be
the greatest then.”
Do you see how a ‘seed’ from Satan Can ERUPT so quickly And affect the Entire
Group!? They Are Acting Just Like The Despised Gentiles,
Like the Romans Who Within their Society Identified With Great Importance And
Their Status was Absolute Authority, “Lording it over” others.
Many Times – Just Like Us Americans!
They Must Place Themselves… We Must Place Ourselves,
As Both A “Servant” And A “slave”
We Must Consider Our Leadership As A “Humble ‘Privilege’” As We Serve the People Whom God has Sent to
us.
When we DO This We Approach the Very Heart Of
the Radical and New Ethical System Which Jesus Introduced As well as Demonstrated
Within His Life.
GREATNESS THROUGH TAKING THE LOWEST PLACE.
And Now we Reach - 10:45
“To give His Life as a ransom for many.”
Jesus as the Son of Man Is the Final Model for A
Life of Servanthood.
This is Rightly One Of the Most Well-Known
And Discussed Words within Mark.
And it carries with it Profound Theological Implications.
“Giving His Life” We do
find of Our Lord Being a Servant to All, This is throughout the Bible, But I am
just going to read two.
First is in Isaiah 53:10 & 12
10 But it was the Lord’s good plan to crush Him and
cause Him grief.
Yet when His Life is made an offering for sin,
He will have many descendants.
He will enjoy a long Life,
and the Lord’s Good Plan will prosper in His Hands.
12 I will give Him the honors of a victorious
soldier,
Because He Exposed Himself to Death.
He was Counted among the rebels.
He bore the sins of many and Interceded for
rebels.
And the second is found in
Philippians 2:7-8
7 “Instead, He gave up His divine Privileges;
He took the humble position of a slave
and was Born as a human being.
When He appeared in human form,
8 He humbled Himself in obedience to God and
died a criminal’s death on a cross.”
This Truly Defines Jesus’s Understanding Of his
Own Mission from God.
Jesus Christ Came to Purchase Our Salvation Through
His death As a Ransom To Free us Within Him. That Was and Still Is Christ’s
Mission for God.
What is Yours?
Do You Know What It Is?
Have you Asked God?
And then Finally –
Are You Living That PLAN Out?
