Part 8 - The Gospel according to Mark

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We're going to do a Bible reading now I'm reading from the NIV we're reading from Mark chapter 10 starting at verse 32 that's Mark chapter 10 starting at verse 32 they were on their way up to Jerusalem with Jes Jesus leading the way and the disciples were astonished while those who followed were afraid again he took the twel aside and told them what was going to happen to him we are going up to Jerusalem he said and the son of man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law they will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles who will mock him and spit on him flog him and kill him 3 days later he will rise then James and John John the sons of zebede came to him teacher they said we want you to do for us whatever we ask what do you want me to do for you he asked they replied let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory you don't know what you are asking Jesus said can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with we can they answered Jesus said to them you will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the bapti baptism I am baptized with but to sit at my right or left is not for me to Grant these places belong to the those for whom they have been prepared when the 10 heard about this they became indignant with James and John Jesus called them together and said you know those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lorded over them and their High officials exercise authority over them not so with you indeed whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all for even the son of man did not come to be served but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many thanks so much Kell uh leave your Bibles open there you'll need those as uh we travel along why don't we just uh pray and uh Commit This Time To The Lord father we thank you for your word and uh for what it reveals to us of you our god of Christ Our Savior and how it is that you want us to live in response to what Christ has done for us father we pray that we'd hear your voice as we come to look again at this series in Mark's gospel as we unpack who it is that Jesus claimed to be and what it is that he did for us we just uh want to ask that you would help us now as we unpack this text in Jesus name amen we're uh continuing our Mark series and uh it's getting spicy um Jesus is heading to Jerusalem and uh as we've gathered in our reading today uh we're getting to the business end of of things in Mark's gospel uh here we find Jesus and the disciples heading towards Jerusalem and uh if you've been reading Mark's gospel yourself uh along the way uh you might recall um or following along with us you might recall that uh earlier in chapter 8 and also in chapter 9 Jesus has said to his disciples at least two other times before this that things are going to get spicy when they get to Jerusalem we saw earlier in Mark chapter 8 verse 31 Jesus said the son of man must suffer many things he'll be rejected by the elders the chief priests and the teachers of the law they'll kill him and then 3 Days Later he'll rise again in uh Mark 9: 31 and 32 uh again while they're on the way while they're on this journey Jesus says to them again a second time the son of man is going to be delivered into the hands of men they'll kill him and after 3 days he'll rise but Mark records for us there that the disciples didn't understand what he meant and they were afraid to ask him about it here in our text this morning in Mark chap 10 Jesus tells his disciples a third time what's going to happen when they get to Jerusalem and it's it's not good the son of man is going to be delivered over the chief priests the teachers of the law they're going to condemn him to death they're going to hand him over to the Gentiles they're going to mock him they're going to spit on him they're going to flog him they're going to kill him but then 3 Days Later he'll rise what you might find surprising in our text this morning as Mark records it for us is that the disciples don't seem concerned uh about Jesus and what's he's going to face in Jerusalem we don't see this conversation with jesus' closest friend as a concerned conversation for someone that's about to suffer all of this uh suffering but rather what we see amongst these disciples is this selfish and rather prideful request of James James and John which causes a bit of a Ruckus within the group we find the disciples arguing and full of this uh Pride instead of being concerned with Jesus coming coming suffering and death so we got to ask ourselves the question what's going on and I think the first thing that we see in our text this morning is that self-seeking Pride distracts and divides we see it in uh the account that Mark gives us this morning in fact those uh passages we read earlier from Mark chapter 9 Jesus is telling them what's going to happen and they don't understand and uh we can read on in in chapter 9 in verses 33 and 34 that when they came to capernium when he Jesus was in the house he asked them what were you guys arguing about on the road but they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest we might find this surprising that these men who' been part of this intensive discipleship training this living and ministering alongside Jesus these past few years they're learning firsthand what it means to live a life that pleases God and so it seems surprising that as we find Jesus with with these disciples uh heading into Jerusalem Jesus is on the way to his death and yet his disciples are more concerned about which one of them is the greatest rather than showing any concern at all for Jesus we see the effect this self-seeking Pride it distracts I wonder how the argument went in uh in Mark chapter 9 there maybe Peter is thinking that he is talking up the fact that he's got maybe the best Bible knowledge of the group perhaps John uh the youngest of the disciples maybe he felt confident that that he was the greatest because it seemed that Jesus loved him maybe John even felt like Jesus loved him the best maybe Matthew was there trying to convince the group that he was the greatest because maybe he'd given up the most in order to follow Jesus I mean if you know Matthew he he gave up a fairly lucrative and high-paying job to follow Jesus doesn't matter how it went down what we see in in the text this morning is that this self-seeking Pride distracts the disciples from their mission and it causes this division among them we saw that in chapter 10 as uh James and John bring this audacious request to Jesus in uh verses 35- 37 teacher they said what we want you to do for us whatever we ask give us whatever we ask Jesus I find it surprising that even uh entertained the request he's trying to understand what they're wanting what do you want me to do for you they said let us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory that phrase in your glory just means when he comes in into his kingdom when when he's enthroned when when when his his majesty is revealed there's nothing subtle about this request of James and John it it's quite staggering when you think about it what they're saying to Jesus is we want to you to give to us whatever we want and the thing that we want most of all is we want position and Authority we want importance in your kingdom we want the fame we want The Prestige we want to be seen as people that matter we want to feel like our ministry is strategically important what it boils down to here is that Jesus seems to be just the means of James and John's own personal exaltation you kind of Wonder Don't You what happened to the Hallowed Be Your Name that they had been taught to pray here we find them requesting of Jesus something quite the opposite not Jesus Hallowed Be Your Name For Your Glory but rather it's Jesus Hallowed be my name for my glory that's the essence of the request and it's a god defying self-seeking pride and friends it's probably the greatest barrier to usefulness in the service of Jesus it's Pride we need to be careful of that James 4:6 and 1 Peter 55 tells us that God opposes the proud but he gives Grace to those who are humble it's not the only scripture passages that talk about Pride there's a whole bunch of them uh throughout the scripture record God hates Pride we're told in Proverbs 6: 16-19 we can read this list of things that the that the the the writer of the proverb lists out seven things that the Lord detests and at the very top of that list in Proverbs 616 is hay eyes that's not a word we use much anymore it just means arrogantly Superior and disdainful eyes eyes that look out to others and think that I am more important than them the Lord detests it Proverbs 8:13 wisdom says that pride and arrogance I hate or in Proverbs 16:5 uh we read that everyone who is arrogant in heart is an Abomination to the Lord be assured he will not go unpunished what we see is that this self-seeking pride is is actually sinful because it's an attitude of the heart that seeks to push God out of the spotlight and take all the glory for ourselves in his uh book humility true greatness uh Theologian CJ mahany he says this of Pride he says Pride takes in innumerable forms but has only one end self glorification that's the motive and the ultimate purpose of Pride to Rob God of legitimate glory and to pursue self- glorification contending for Supremacy with him the proud person seeks to glorify himself and not God thereby attempting in effect to deprive God of something only he is worthy to receive it's no wonder God opposes pride no wonder he hates Pride let that truth sink into your thinking we need to let that sink into our thinking this morning in light of our text John St uh said that pride is more than just the first of seven deadly sins it's the essence of all the sin in essay in his essay pride humility and God St wrote The Following he said at every stage of our Christian development and in every sphere of our Christian discipleship pride is the greatest enemy and humility our greatest friend he's writing about individual Christians but we could apply that thinking here to our church as well it could apply corporately as well as individually you adapt that quote at every stage of our Church's development and in every sphere of our Church's Ministry pride is the greatest enemy and humility our greatest friend it's true we can be pretty quick to judge James and John for their selfish sin uh SE self-seeking Pride we can wag our finger in condemnation of them and yet when we're honest can't we see the Same Spirit this same attitude at times evident in the hearts of all of us we see it in our culture don't we we see it in business in politics in the retail IND industry in our hospitals and medical centers in our schools and universities we see it in relationships and in our families sadly at times we even see it in the church among those who profess to submit to God and trust in him just as these disciples were not immune to self-seeking Pride so too do we need to be on our guard against this type of attitude because it distracts and divides us even in the church we can find ourselves given over to scheming and maneuvering trying to gain advantage or obtain roles of influence sadly I once heard a story of a church that had two members who likeed to decorate the Christmas tree uh in the building each year sadly these two members fought and argued so much over how the tree should be decorated that the church ended up buying a second tree so they could each decorate a tree and not fight over their differing ideas I it's crazy it sounds ridiculous another church there had someone arranging flowers in a church uh in the church Auditorium they had a table in their entryway like uh we do there but they put flowers on it each Sunday and the pastor asked the person doing the flowers one week just to move them aside a bit so that there'd be space on the table they wanted to put out some copies of John's gospel to hand out after the service well the person arranging the flowers was not impressed the thought of their work being shifted aside so they responded Over My Dead Body it's crazy to think that these things actually happen but it's Pride it's this sinful self-seeking Pride that distracts and divides pride has wrecked the unity of so many churches and has destroyed the ministry of many gifted church leaders but the reality is pride affects us all just like James and John we can be fixated with our own greatness or importance we can seek to elevate what we want over what God wants we heard that in in in Steve's testimony didn't we powerful we came to that realization that this is not about me this is not what I want anymore but this is what God wants that's the life surrendered to Jesus rather than asking as James and John did Jesus we want you to give us whatever we ask that's how self-seeking Pride Creeps in that's how it takes hold and it blinds us to the agenda of God and his kingdom three times Jesus warned his disciples that his kingdom would be birthed through his death and yet the disciples missed it they weren't picking up this truth that he was laying down and I think it's because they were distracted by their own self-seeking agendas instead of having God at the center of their plans they were putting themselves in the center elevating their own wants and desires over the will and purposes of God that's the Trap that we want to avoid falling into it's this trap of living what they call an egocentric life it's focusing on our needs on our wants on our desires our importance over or rather than man the theocentric life the the god focused life putting God in the center seeking his will his way his agenda there's a bit of a a tension in our culture because that sort of thinking is is kind of countercultural to be looking to God's agenda rather than ours our culture places this huge emphasis on our own agency or right to rule Our lives our culture makes out that we're the most important person in the world we should look after number one when we look through that cultural lens we become distracted from the priorities and purposes of God and like James and John we run the risk of asking for things that are contradictory to how Jesus wants us to live so that's the first thing this morning let's not be a church that's distracted or divided let's resolve our ourselves to not buy into our culture's idea of greatness of claing over everybody else to get ahead but rather let's listen to Jesus teaching about true greatness and we see that in the next uh few verses in verses 42 to 44 Jesus calls them together as they're arguing and he says you know that those who are regarded as rulers over the Gentiles Lord it over them their High officials exercise authority over them not so with you instead whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant whoever wants to be first must be slave of all second thing we find this morning is that true greatness is found in serving God by serving others disciples were indignant with James and John they were upset probably because they got their first we're not told I would imagine that would be I'd be upset probably thinking the same thing but they just beat him to it yet Jesus knew their heart and so he lovingly gathers this little group together and he teaches them about true greatness you notice the contrast in those verses there between the greatness that is determined by the world's standard versus true greatness in God's Kingdom look at those verses again he notice he says that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles they lorded over over them they use their positions of leadership Authority and influence to seek personal gain they they use these positions to exercise power over others for their own sake sometimes they just seek power for power's sake that's the way of the world it's how some might measure greatness rising to the top of the pack being able to call the shots being being the the big man or the the boss woman who can call the shots and Lord it over others it's interesting that we can read some historical reports about some of these Gentile rulers some of these Roman governers that were alive in Jesus day we have this record of Emperor Tiberius who was describing some of these Gentile leaders and he he describes some of these Roman governors as blood sucking flies gorging themselves on a wounded man paints a a clear picture doesn't it that's the world's way to Greatness Jesus says to his disciples to us those who would follow after him not so with you this is not what true greatness looks like in his kingdom true greatness is to be found through service serving God by serving others Jesus says his disciples are uh in in response to his disciples being driven by outward ambition this need to seek after for themselves he says no that ambition needs to be for God and for his people we to become slaves or Servants of all Jesus tells us that Kingdom greatness is not established by status or power or wealth or ability but it's through serving like Jesus following after the example he will set now just note here that this doesn't mean that we can never have power or be in a leadership position the Bible tells us in 1 Timothy 3:1 that whoever aspires to be an overseer desires a noble task Jesus is not against leadership he's not against having a position of influence but it's how we wield that influence how we respond in those roles likewise this doesn't mean that we need to be pushovers being a servant of others serving God being a slave of all it doesn't mean we need to let people walk all over us Matthew 10:16 says we need to be shrewd as snakes but harmless as doves Colossians 4:5 says we're to live wisely among unbelievers so as to make the most of every opportunity and Paul writing to Timothy in 2 Timothy 1:7 says God hasn't given us a spirit of timidity or fear but rather a spirit of power love and a sound mind so we're not to be pushovers we're not to uh uh shy away from leadership positions but we need to be careful ultimately it means that wherever God places us we should be distinct we should stand out we should be shaped by what Jesus has done on our behalf Our Lives as Disciples of Jesus should be humbly and radically marked by this sacrificial love as we seek to glorify God in the service of others imagine how distinctive this would look in your workplace in your neighborhood in your University or your school think how this might affect your relationships with your peers with with your employer or with your employees with your teachers or with your students with your family and friends think about the gospel influence that this type of attitude this type of Lifestyle affords us when people know that they're not in it for themselves but they're willing to serve for the good of others and the glory of God think about the gospel influence we can have when through that service through that uh offering up to God as as we love and serve his people that maybe those that we're serving get to catch a glimpse of The God Who first served us us the Savior who we imitate in our service Jesus said in Mark 9:35 anyone who wants to be first must be the very last and the servant of all he gives us the model doesn't he Christ gives us the model to follow in this staggering example of humility it's classic Jesus fashion he never asks us to do anything that is not prepared to First do himself in our text this morning in verse 45 we see him lay out his entire Mission this entire reason why he came this is his purpose we've been asking the question along the way who do you say Jesus is he tells us clearly even the son of man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many he lays the model to follow he plainly explains his mission he came not to be served but to serve to give his life as a ransom for many it's kind of mind-blowing when you think about it really that he would become our substitute and die in our place if you walked into your bathroom at work or University or school and you saw the cleaner there on the hands and knees scrubbing the floor maybe maybe scrubbing the grout cleaning the tiles whatever you wouldn't think too much of it what if you walked in and it wasn't the cleaner but it was your boss or your principal of the school or or university surely it would be a bit of a shock right we don't expect that to be the case The Way of the World tells us that the great ones aren't the people being are the people being served they're not the ones that are doing the serving but Jesus shows us that this is not how it works in God's kingdom it's staggering to think about there's no one greater than the son of man that's the title Jesus keeps using of himself this is a a a a title of office God's anointed one the Messiah the promised one the rightful King of the universe he holds Kings and presidents in the palm of his hand hands the Bible tells us that this son of man his kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom his rule extends to every people every nation across every age his power and authority is on par with God himself and yet we know don't we the Bible tells us in Philippians 2: 6 to8 though he was in the form of God he didn't count equality with God a thing to be grasped but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant being born in the likeness of men being found in human form he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death even death on a cross this is what Jesus did when he became our Ransom this is why he came to pay the price for our sins once and for all note that Jesus didn't just serve those who were like him the Bible says he served those who opposed and rejected him while we were still sinners Christ died for us friends this is the model of service that we have to follow it's Christ on the cross laying down his life as a ransom for many we're getting close to the end of the year maybe those of you who use music streaming platforms like apple music or Spotify maybe you've already received your year in review VI email or the little notification in the in the app there these uh music streaming platforms they give you a bit of an outline of your music listening habits over the past 12 months and you get all kinds of information about how many hours you listened uh who you listened to what were your top songs what were your top albums Etc could be a pretty interesting look to look back over the year wonder if we had a year in review of our work days of our weekends of our marriages or of our parenting what if we had a year in review of our attitudes our relationships our prayer lives I wonder how much serving others to the glory of God would feature in our year in review I wonder where serving ourselves for our own Glory would show up in the list or would take the top spot in our year in review that little thought exercise might be a confronting one for some people maybe you find yourself like me at times saying Lord I want to be like this I want to follow this model of service that Jesus showed us at the cross I want my life to count for you and for your kingdom but I don't have the strength I try and I fail and many times I find it easier to serve my own interests than the interests of others the good news for us this morning the good news of Jesus our Ransom is that it's not lost the last thing that we see in our text this morning is that the power for this type of Life of service this power to follow the model of Christ and the way of the cross the power is found in the ransoming work of Jesus it's not found in US it comes from God the first step to following Jesus is understanding and receiving that gift what he has done for us he say said he came to be a ransom that word Ransom it's a price paid for Freedom when we think about Ransom we probably think with moders we think of the the you know the action shows on TV we think of people getting kidnapped and a a ransom maybe being paid to to save the person who's been kidnapped in the ancient world this this had an even clearer understanding there were three main instances where somebody might need to be ransomed you could be a prisoner of war legitimately captured in a b and you'd be held until a ransom price could be paid for your release uh slavery uh sadly was a a part of ordinary legal life in this first century and and slaves could be redeemed they could be ransomed if their debt was paid and thirdly someone who was condemned to death someone waiting a death sentence might have their sentence commuted they might be able to be freed if the ransom was paid for their freedom in each of these cases The Ransom was paid to the one in authority to the master to the Lord and what Jesus is doing here he's explaining that the reason why he came was that so that his life could be our Ransom we've been asking this question as we journey through Mark's gospel who do you say Jesus is he tells us here in verse 45 I'm the ransom you need that's why he came it's why he went to the Cross to pay that Ransom price so that we might be free see the Bible tells us that apart from the work of Jesus we were all enslaved to our own Pride to sin and death the good news of the Gospel is that Jesus came he's the promised one who takes away the sin of the world pause for a moment to consider the implication of what Jesus is saying here he came not to serve not to be served but to serve to serve you to serve me by serving the will of the father who desired that we might be freed from sin and death and shame and brought back into relationship with him the way it works in the Bible is that the source of the power that we need to serve Jesus to follow his commands to walk in his way the power that we need always lies in coming back to the Cross this ransoming work of Jesus if we truly understand our captivity to sin if we truly understand his death and his resurrection and how it sets us free from sin then we are full of humility and love and we want to serve him because we understand just how much he has served us John St had another good quote he said every time we look at the cross Christ seems to say to us I'm here because of you it's your sin that I'm bearing your curse I'm suffering your debt I am paying your death I am dying nothing in history or in the universe Cuts us down to size like the cross all of us have inflated views of ourselves especially in self-righteousness until we visited a place called Calvary it's there at the foot of the cross that we shrink to our true size Martin Lord Jones said that there's only one thing I know of that crushes me to the ground and humiliates me to the dust and that is to look at the Son of God especially contemplate the cross nothing else can do it when I see that I'm a sinner that nothing but the Son of God on the cross can save me I humbled to the dust nothing but the cross can give us this Spirit of humility see friends the the power is in the death of Jesus not just to save us but to Ransom us to free us so that we might be transformed this is exactly what happened to James and John in Mark chapter 10 this morning we see this god- defying self-seeking Pride but Jesus teaches them they see him at the cross and the the picture falls into place the death of Jesus gets to work on them the Holy Spirit empowers them they've been ransomed transformed and so then we get to acts 12 and verse 2 and we read that James becomes one of the first Apostles to be martyred for his faith he's transformed lived the life of humility humbling serving God and others and died for his faith later on we read that John ends up in the final years of his life banished on the aisle of Patmos an island that the Romans would would send criminals and and convicts and stuff you want to spend your retirement in Comfort not exiled on an island um Barren Wasteland 1 John 3:16 John writes these words we know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us so also we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters that's the truth as the cross transforms us all of our service for Jesus points back to him to his service of us as he gave up his life as a ransom for many he invites us to follow him to live as obedient Disciples of Jesus not living like we've got it all together or lording it over others like the world does trying to claw our way to the top but no rather walking the way that Jesus walked the model of the cross in humility through Grace and love laying down our lives in the service of the one who saved us many of us get to do that this afternoon as we welcome our community onto our property as we serve them in love at our Carol's event but it's not just a one day thing a year this is an everyday call as we seek to say share the joy that we have in Jesus this should be The Way We Walk day by day Jesus calls us to live humbly for him let's pray father we just want to thank you so much uh for your word to us we thank you again for Jesus our ransom for the wonderful gracious and loving way in which he didn't condemn those disciples as they fought over who was the greatest as they were distracted and divided by their selfish pride and ambition we thank you for the tender way in which Jesus taught what true greatness is not en lording it over others as our world would suggest is the path to Greatness but rather the way of the cross the way of humility and sacrifice Grace and service father we thank you for Jesus our Ransom the one who does for us and achieves for us what we could not do for ourselves we thank you for the power of your holy spirit that you tell us is given freely to all who believe all who receive Jesus payment for our sin by Faith Lord we pray that by by your spirit we would be that church whose discipleship and Ministry whose lives are marked not by selfish ambition or self-seeking agendas but marked by humility and love in joyful service of the one who loved us and gave his life for us we pray this in Jesus name. Amen.