I invite you to open the Bible and turn with me to the Gospel of Mark, chapter 10, verse 32. We have been going through the last three chapters of Mark where Jesus is teaching his disciples. And as I was reading and studying for these verses Mark 10:32-45, I read words like “climax” or “highlight” of the entire ministry that Jesus has with his disciples. So, if you can turn with me to Mark 10:32, and if you don't have a Bible, to turn there, there's a handout inside your bulletin, and we printed the verses we're going to be looking at tonight on that handout. So, you could pull that out and please follow along as I'm going to read this text. And out of respect for God's Word, let's all stand up for the public reading of Scripture. And I encourage you to give this your full and undivided attention if you want to see who Jesus is. This is where you're going to do it, right here. Please follow along as I read Mark 10:32-45.
And they were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them. And they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. And taking the twelve again, he began to tell them what was to happen to him, saying, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles. And they will mock him and spit on him, and flog him and kill him. And after three days he will rise.” And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” And he said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?” And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” And they said to him, “We are able.” And Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized, but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.” And when the ten heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John. And Jesus called them to him and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
That's the reading of God's Word. Please go ahead and have your seat. And I would love for you to take notes on this handout, because what Jesus says here is very important for us to understand. And let's just start working our way through it. In verse 32, we're clearly going up to Jerusalem. Remember, you always go up to Jerusalem, the city on a hill. Some of us have been reading the Psalms, the Songs of Ascent. They would often sing on their way up to Jerusalem for the feasts. Jesus and his disciples are moving towards Jerusalem. They're going to get there at the feast of the Passover time. And so, that's exactly what's happening here. They're going up to Jerusalem to prepare for the feast. And underline this where it says, “Jesus was walking ahead of them.” And that's what we've tried to recreate here on the graphic on the screen. So, from our perspective, if we all look up at the screen, we're walking behind Jesus, and we're seeing him going towards Jerusalem. And notice that this is a very profound moment. Notice how it says, as they're walking behind him, and he's leading the way, he's going before them, and we're going up to the city, notice that it says “they were amazed, and those who followed were” what, everybody? Afraid. So, there's a great sense of anticipation. Okay, we're going to see that what maybe the disciples are expecting and what Jesus knows is going to happen are different things. But everybody understands that this is the climax. We're moving into the end game here of the gospel of Mark, like whatever's about to happen here in Jerusalem, it has to do with Jesus being the king, and there's going to be a kingdom, and everybody knows as they watch him walk into it, to willingly walk into this trouble that he's going towards. Everybody's amazed at Jesus. People are afraid about what's about to happen. So, notice in our text, nothing's even happened yet, but yet people know it's going to happen, and so there's a real sense of anticipation that has been building. And Jesus tells us, look at the next verses. There verse 33 and 34 he tells us, this time in greater detail, what's going to happen when they go up to Jerusalem.
This is the third time that he has said what's going to happen. Go back to chapter 8, verse 31. Let me just review for you the two other times so you can get the full intention of Mark as he writes this that it's been building three chapters in a row. Jesus has been teaching his disciples, and it's all been building up to this moment when we go up to Jerusalem. It says in Mark 8:31, that he began to teach them. So, this is when it started here that “the Son of Man must suffer, and he's going to suffer many things. He will be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes,” that's the leaders of the Jewish religion at that time, “and he's going to be killed, and after three days, he will rise again.”
Go to chapter 9, verse 31 where he continues to teach his disciples the same thing, saying to them, the Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. He's going to be betrayed. It makes it clear this time; he's going to be handed over. So, hey, not only is he going to be given over to the religious leaders who are clearly against him and clearly want to get him, well, he's going to be betrayed and given to them. And then it says here, they will kill him. And when he is killed after three days, he will rise.
So, when he says it, here again, if you go back to chapter 10, verse 33, look, he's saying, now we're literally going up to Jerusalem. Now we're here. I'm not just telling you now what's going to happen. We're going to it. We're almost there. See, look at it. The Son of Man will be delivered over exactly what he said, handed over betrayed to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death. And then here's something new. He says “they will deliver him over to the Gentiles.” Okay, so the Jews are going to hand him over to the Romans. Now, this is hard for these disciples, or really for any Jew at that time. This is hard for them to process, because when Jesus says “the Son of Man,” that brings some connotations to mind, and they're not expecting that the Son of Man is going to be handed over, particularly not to Gentiles or other nations like the Romans.
So, let's get this down for point number one, if you're taking notes: We want to “Understand ‘The Son of Man.’” Understand “The Son of Man,” this is a very important title, and it's come up a lot in the Gospel of Mark. It's going to come up even more in the Gospel of Mark. So, we’ve got to make sure that everybody at our church understands what Jesus means when he brings up the Son of Man, because this is where the disconnect is taking place. Turn with me to Luke, chapter 18. And not only does Jesus know the future, because as we've been going through the Gospel of Mark, Jesus knows many things. He knows what people are thinking. He knows what's about to happen. We've been overly impressed by the knowledge of Jesus, and so he can tell you what's going to happen before it happens. But another reason that you have an idea of what's going to happen is because of what it says here in Luke, chapter 18, verse 31, a parallel passage to where we're at in Mark. It says, “Taking the twelve, he said to them, ‘See, we are going up to Jerusalem.” Does that sound familiar? And everything? Notice, this is what's different here in Luke though, “everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished.” So, on one hand, Jesus knows, and he's telling his disciples ahead of time. On another hand, it's already been prophesied. There are already things that this title, The Son of Man, should bring to our mind, that should set an expectation for what's going to happen. And he says all that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished.
So, grab your Bible and go to Daniel, chapter 7. Some of you might have already been thinking of this verse, which is great, if you hear “Son of Man” and you think, Daniel 7:13-14, congratulations, you get a goal. Old star. Maybe you could tell somebody in front of you in line for dinner, I know Daniel 7, 13 and 14, and they'll give you cutsies later on tonight. I don't know if that's how it works around here, but that's the goal that everybody here would know that Daniel 7:13-14 is one of the prophetic passages that has set an expectation for who the Son of Man is and what in expectation it is. Daniel, an amazing prophet, he says this in Daniel 7:13, “I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.”
Can I get an amen from anybody on that? Okay, now, I don't know how familiar you are with that verse. I don't know how much you think about the fact that the king is coming and he's going to establish a kingdom that will not be destroyed, and he's going to reign over all the nations of the earth. But that was fresh in the minds of the Jewish people. That's exactly what they thought was going to happen.
So, let's get this down for our first dash, under point number one, you’ve got to Understand “The Son of Man,” and: “They expected a kingdom of glory.” They're expecting victory over the other nations. They're expecting the golden age of Israel under King David, to not just come back under this Son of Man, but to be taken even further under this one who will sit on David's throne. So, they are expecting a literal kingdom in Israel, and they are now ready to see Jesus be this Son of Man. And here's Jesus referring to himself as the Son of Man. So, they have a great sense of his anticipation. They're amazed that these prophecies are about to be fulfilled, yet they're afraid about how all of this is about to go down. But when Jesus is teaching them, he's completely subverting their expectations. He's completely flipping the script on what they would think here from Daniel 7:13-14. Notice that line where it said that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him and his dominion, it's going to last forever. Okay.
So, then go back now to Mark, chapter 10, and he's telling them what's going to happen to him, and he is now adding a detail. He's told them that he's going to be handed over to the Jewish religious leaders, and he's told them that he's going to be betrayed, but now he says that after they condemn him to death with their false accusations at their trial through the night, then they're going to deliver him over to who? The Gentiles. When you hear the word “Gentiles,” you’ve got to see that, from the Jewish perspective, that's “other nations.” That's people who don't know God, like the Jews know God. And so, wait a minute. The Son of Man, he's supposed to rule the other nations. The other nations are supposed to serve him. How could he be delivered over to the Gentiles, and how could someone as awesome and mighty and powerful as the Son of Man be mocked, spit on and flogged, whipped, ripping open the skin of his back. How could they make a mockery of the Son of Man and kill him?
See, you’ve got to see there's a lot going on that's hard for these disciples to grasp, because they have this prophetic expectation, and they've seen Jesus do some things that has maybe raised some expectation, but yet Jesus is saying things to them that are different than what maybe they've been expecting, and they're having a hard time understanding this teaching of Jesus. So, we want to see it from the disciples’ perspective. We want to get a sense of their confusion. But what I really want everybody here tonight to see is that Jesus knows that when he goes into Jerusalem, one of his own will betray him. The religious leaders will falsely condemn him, that even though the Roman Governor Pilate will kind of make a mockery of him, and that he will be spit on, he will be flogged. He knows all of that is coming. And I want you to stand with me behind Jesus, and I want you to see him willing to walk right into his own death, right into his own suffering. While the disciples may be confused, Jesus has crystal clear expectations about what is going to happen. And unlike many things, I could even try to compare it to when Jesus walks in, he's causing it all to happen. It's not like me and you having an idea of what's going to happen, and we'll just kind of brace ourselves. No, Jesus is walking right into it and instigating it to happen, and he's willing to do it.
Let's get that down for our second dash: “Jesus knew and was willing to suffer.” Now we've already tried to make a point about how Jesus knew what he was getting into before. The point I want to try to impress upon you here this evening is that he's willing. He's going into it. He's committed, he's devoted, he knows what's going to happen, and he's walking. It's a trap. Don't do it. They're out to get you. He's going to betray you. And he walks right into it and springs the trap himself. That's what Jesus is willing to do, and he's willing to do it for you.
Okay, now keep going with me here in verse 35 because, in verse 35, James and John are going to come and ask him some questions, and they at first, they're going to front load it with “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” Now, if you ever get asked a question like that, you should know you're about to get played. Has anybody ever been asked a question like this? Dad, will you do whatever I ask you? Has anybody ever experienced this before? That's how they come in. Okay? And he said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?” Let's get more specific. And they said, well, “Grant us to sit one at your right hand and one at your left in your glory.” Okay. Now it's actually even worse than that sounds, because in Matthew, chapter 20, it's very clear a parallel passage, it's very clear that their mom actually comes and asks Jesus, okay. Now notice how it calls James and John, the “sons of who? Zebedee. Well, apparently Zebedee might be somebody important, and he might be somebody even related to Jesus. And so that might be why their mom's there, because maybe she's somebody important. Maybe she's related to Jesus, and she's saying, hey, it would be great in your glory, or, as she says it, in your kingdom, if they could sit at your right and at your left. Okay, now that seems like a very bold request, as we're going to see by the questions that Jesus asked them, but the first thing that we all need to see is that these guys have real faith that there is going to be a kingdom, and that's why they're asking this. They think that Jesus is the King. They think he's going to sit on the throne of David. And yes, they might be overstepping or overzealous in their request to sit at the right and the left, but when they're asking this, they're actually asking it by faith.
So, we want to acknowledge that a lot of times when people are overzealous, they're doing it because they're sincere in what they believe. These guys are sincere in their expectations of what's about to happen, and they think we could sit next to you. We're in this with you, right? But notice how Jesus asked these questions. Verse 38, “Jesus said to them, ‘You do not know what you are asking.’” Okay, are you able? And then he gives these two pictures, are you able to drink the cup that I drink? And then two, are you able to be baptized with the baptism with which I am to be baptized? And then, of course, they say we are able, right? And I don't know if they looked at their mom before they said that or not, but they did not know what those things exactly meant. Okay, so let's make sure that we know what Jesus means when he says, I'm about to drink this cup, or I'm about to be baptized.
Jump ahead with me here to chapter 14, verse 36, where you might be thinking about a passage where he says about drinking the cup when he's praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. So right before he gets betrayed, right before they come and arrest him for the trial, where they condemn him to death and hand him over to the Romans. Right before all of that, he's praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. And what does he say in Mark 14:36? “And he said, ‘Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me.’” So, he's saying, that cup, hey, you could, I know you're able to take the cup away. But then he says, “yet, not what I will but what you will” See, there's part of the willingness of Jesus to do the Father's will, not just what's going to work out for him. No, he's willing to do the work that God sent him to do. But this cup, you can tell, especially from this context, that this is the cup of wrath. And if you study the prophets, you regularly see this picture that it's like the wrath of God when it comes. The judgment of God, when it comes, it's like some terrible drink that you have to drink, and, oh, the effect the drink is going to have on you is going to just, oh, it's going to be the worst thing ever. That's what the judgment of God is compared to, is a cup of wrath that you don't want to have to drink. And Jesus knows that he's going to drink the wrath of God to pay for our sins. He's going to be judged in our place. So, he's going to experience this, this judgment, this death. He's going to have to drink this cup.
Now, go over to Luke, chapter 12, where he talks about getting baptized and he not baptized like we might think of, in water, like when he got baptized by John the Baptist, no, that's already happened. He's talking about now a future baptism. And in Luke, chapter 12, verse 50, he refers again to this future baptism. And this again comes from passages in the Hebrew Scriptures, the Old Testament, passages like Psalm 69 where it talks about just being overwhelmed, being submerged, being immersed under the weight of what is to come. And so, you get that sense here in Luke chapter 12, verse 50. He says, “I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished!” You can see in verse 49, he says, ““I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled!” Verse 51, “Do you think that I've come to give peace on earth? No, I came to bring division. And from now on, in one house, there will be five divided, three against two and two against three. They will be divided father against son.” He's talking about the effect of following him is going to have. He's not talking, in this instance, about being baptized with water, but baptism by fire, baptism of judgment. And he's going to have to go through it, and he wishes it was already accomplished. What distress Jesus is feeling about what he's going to be overwhelmed with, what he's going to be immersed into, and in fact, some people are going to believe in what Jesus does, and some people are going to reject what Jesus does, and it's going to divide families and households, and so you can tell, Jesus feels the full weight of what he is walking into. These guys are like, we'll be with you. We'll sit at your right and at your left. And Jesus is like, do you guys? He flat out says you don't know what you're asking, because even the idea of drinking this cup is it feels overwhelming to Jesus, even the idea of this baptism, what he's about to experience not just it's not just the physical suffering. It's paying the debt of our sin. It's taking the judgment that we deserve. Jesus, he has an idea of what he's about to endure, and he's willing to do it. And John and James, they're zealous, and they want to be right there with Jesus, but they have the wrong expectations. And this is, quite honestly, the story of my Christian life. I would imagine maybe many of you could relate to this. I'm pumped up to follow Jesus, but when I really set out to follow him, I didn't have the proper expectations of all that it would take to follow Jesus. I didn't know the friends that I would lose because I decided to follow Jesus. I didn't know the heartbreak I would experience when people fell away and I had to make a decision to keep following Jesus or fall away with my friends.
See, I didn't realize how much suffering and trials would be involved in following Jesus. I was kind of like James and John myself. I was zealous, but I didn't really see clearly what I was getting myself into. And the thing we need to see is it wasn't like that for Jesus. Jesus knew exactly what he was getting himself into. In fact, what he was getting himself into is so unique to be the substitute to take the place of our judgment. The payment for our sin, and yet he's going towards it. And people are amazed as they watch him walk into it. People are afraid as they watch him walk into it. He says, you guys don't know what you're getting yourself into, the cup, the baptism.
And go back to Mark chapter 10, and you can see he says he can't even hand out the seats at his left or his right that's already been prepared, like that's not his to even give out. That's a part of the eternal plan of God. That's a part of the reward in the future. Now here's what happens, though, is verse 41 this must have been kind of a private request of James and John and maybe their mom, the sons of Zebedee, also known as the Sons of Thunder, doing a good thing, coming with faith in the kingdom, but not quite understanding the suffering that the Son of Man was about to endure. And so, when the ten notice in verse 41 “when the ten heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John.” So, now there's anger. Now there's contention among the twelve, because for them to assert that they should sit at those two closest seats to Jesus and at the Last Supper. We know that John does sit right next to Jesus because he leans up against him at the Last Supper. But to put themselves in those places of sitting next to Jesus is to assert themselves over the other ten disciples. And the other ten disciples are not like, yay. That'd be great for you guys to get in those seats. No, they're like, how dare you take my seats? Right? So now there's this tension here, these two. Can you believe it? If you were one of the ten, and you saw them bring their mom to Jesus, and then you found out they were trying to get the best seats in the kingdom, like you might want to call these guys a mama's boy at that point, right? You could see how there would be some tension, and this is, unfortunately what happens. This is a natural way that we respond. People get competitive, and they often don't realize that putting themselves first means pushing others down, and that tension is now happening among the twelve, and so Jesus has to call them to him here. Jesus is going to make peace. Jesus is going to correct some thinking here. And so, in verse 42 “Jesus called them to him, and he said to them, ‘You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles, lord it over them.’” Okay, so let's talk about the way the world works, right? Let's talk about those who don't know God, the other nations. Well, you know how it works. They lord it over them. Their great ones exercise authority over them. They want to be top dog. They want to get first place. They want to be in charge. You know how it is, people want to flex that they have authority over other people. They want it. They want to be the one who makes the terms and makes the commands and he says, that's not what we're doing. “It shall not be so among you. Whoever would be great among you must be your” what, everybody? Your “servant.”
Okay, so stop right there and go back to chapter 9, because back in chapter 9, verse 35 he already taught them this. Do you remember that? We did a whole sermon on it, the “Diakonos” sermon. We did this back in January. You can see the reference to that sermon on the back of your handout, where he already said, if anyone would be first, he must be last of all. If anyone must be first, he must be servant of all. The way to actually get to the top is to race to the bottom. If you actually want to be first, you get there by putting other people first. Jesus had already been teaching them this, but here they are still infighting with one another. And so, now he's teaching it again. And now go back to chapter 10 and notice what he adds this time to his teaching. If you want to be first, you’ve got to be here to serve. In fact, verse 44, “Whoever would be first among you, must be slave of all.” So now, along with this Greek word diakonos, which means “servant,” he adds the word doulos, which means “slave,” which might have just added a whole other level of severity to what he's saying, because a slave might actually be owned by their master. And so, he's saying, yeah, you’ve got to really put yourself at the bottom if you want to be first. See, Jesus is teaching that in his kingdom, it works very differently than the way of the world. You don't try to push yourself to the top. You don't try to advance and keep others down. No. And in fact, in his Kingdom, you lift others up. That's how you actually get first. That's actually what's great in his kingdom. So here he is again, teaching his disciples this most important principle that seems so hard for the disciples then, and even the disciples today, to understand that we're here to serve. And then he says perhaps one of the most famous lines of Jesus, definitely a climactic line in the Gospel of Mark, “For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
See, the question for point number two, if you're taking notes, the question is: “Are you here to be seated, or are you here to serve?” Are you here to be seated, or are you here to serve? See, James and John, their idea is we want to get the best seats. There are a lot of people who are coming to Jesus for the benefit that they are going to receive. And you do receive with Jesus, you receive grace upon grace, you receive eternal life. If you really learn the fear of the Lord and to walk in his ways, if you really learn to love God with all your heart, the blessings that happen in a in a repentant life, in a faith-filled life, when you really see Jesus and he changes your life from the inside out, you experience so many blessings, the blessings they flow out from you. They go to your spouse, they go to your kids, they go to your business. Like, when you're one of the people of Jesus, it's like you're untouchable in the world. It's like all the evil spiritual forces of Heaven can't even get at you because you have Jesus Christ. But see some people, they're like, yeah, give me all of that and put me right at his right hand. I want to be seated next to Jesus. And Jesus is like, I didn't come to be seated. I didn't come even to be served. I came to serve. See, Jesus isn't just telling us how it is in his Kingdom. He's showing us how it is in his Kingdom. He's saying, if you want to be great, you don't put yourself at the top. You let other people sit and you serve them.
Go over to Luke, chapter 22. Luke has this same conversation, but it ends a little bit differently. Look how Luke says it in Luke 22:27. Instead of saying it like that, that the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. Luke says it in Luke 22, verse 27, you can see in the context here, they're having a dispute about who is the greatest. And Jesus says in verse 25, “The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those in authority over them are called benefactors. But not so with you. Rather, let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as one who serves.” And then he says this, “For who is the greater, one who reclines at table or one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at table? But I am among you as the one who serves.”
See, you think the place you want to be is the one who's seated, but I'm among you as the one who serves. So where should you really want to be? This is one of the most profound teachings that you're ever going to hear, because it's the kind of teaching where Jesus doesn't even have to tell us what to do. He's literally showing us by doing it himself. See, Jesus is taking all of our sin, all of our judgment. He's taking all of the persecution, all of the mockery, all of the physical pain, and he's walking right into it to serve, to do God's will, to serve you. And he's saying, hey, let me tell you what my kingdom's about. Don't try to get the best seat; serve. Go right into it. It's going to be hard. People are going to take advantage of you. There's going to be suffering involved. Walk right into it. That's what Jesus did, and people were amazed when they walked behind, and people were afraid. And so, you’ve got to look at Jesus, and it forces you to ask yourself, well, which one of these am I? Am I trying to be seated, or am I here to serve?
Now I want to focus in on this last line. Go back to Mark 10:45, if you can with me, because this line here, as I was studying this line, I was like, we need to take communion at church this weekend. Look at what he says. He gets back to this idea of the Son of Man. So, this is really the fullness of his teaching. Now he's told us the events that are going to happen, and if you stick with us throughout the rest of this year, as we go through the Gospel of Mark, we're going to see that he will be betrayed. He will be with the chief priests and the scribes and the elders. He will get handed over to Pilate. We will see him in Mark. We will see him get mocked, spit on, flogged. We're going to see everything Jesus said that he knew was going to happen, everything the prophets prophesied. We're going to see it all fulfilled, if you keep going through the Gospel of Mark. But this gives us the reason why all of this is about to happen. This is the purpose statement. And it says here that “The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve.” And what specific service did the Son of man come to do? To give his life as a ransom for many.
See, I was trying to find the right word, because no word sounds quite right when someone is willing to die. See, I can bring up a lot of that can be bringing up a lot of words. You know, I like the word martyr, a word that comes up, but the word martyr almost sounds like somebody else did something to you. But see Jesus here, it's not like he's a victim of what somebody else is doing. No, he's walking right into it. There are words, other words that came up about being willing to die, but none of them really seemed appropriate. This is so unique that he is on a mission to give his life away in a way that is just and right and good. He's on a mission for you, to give his life as a ransom for many.
See, I can't even try to create a scenario if you knew you were going to die, if you went to this place, if you knew people were going to mistreat you, if you went to this place, if you knew that all the people following you would desert you and flee away from you, and one of them would even betray you. If you went to this place, why would you keep walking straight towards it. Why would you keep telling everyone I'm on my way there? See, the resolve that Jesus had when he came to give his life, it's a resolve that I have a hard time relating to. It's a resolve that I see in very few people. It's a pure level of commitment that I'm going to do what God wants me to do, and I don't care what happens to me, because I'm here to serve God, and I care what he thinks about what I do. This is Jesus walking right into his own death, giving his life away.
Go over to Acts 21 because it reminds me of a situation with the apostle Paul. In fact, I think that in the book of Acts, it intentionally recreates this scenario in the life of the apostle Paul. So, we would even see this, not just in the God man Jesus, but in a man that we saw Jesus radically turn Saul into Paul, we saw him stop Saul in his tracks and send him out as Paul the Apostle. We saw Jesus just take control of Saul's life and make him this missionary, this evangelist, this man who spread the gospel to so many people. And so, now Paul is on his way to Jerusalem. And if you've ever been here in Acts 21 you know that the people are like, hey, don't go to Jerusalem. Look at verse 4, “having sought out the disciples, we stayed there for seven days. And through the Spirit they were telling Paul not to go on to Jerusalem.” Like, hey, you shouldn't go there. Bad things are going to happen to you. They might arrest you, they might beat you up. They might kill you. Don't go to Jerusalem. In fact, he keeps on going. He knows he's supposed to go back. In chapter 19, verse 21, the Spirit told him to go to Jerusalem. Now the Spirit's telling other people, bad things are going to happen if you go to Jerusalem; he keeps going. Then you get down further here in Acts 21 verse 12. “When we heard this, we and the people there urged him not to go up to Jerusalem. Here's the writer, Luke. He's a part of the crew. Now, hey Paul, let's reconsider this whole going up to Jerusalem thing. I mean, I wonder. Many of them were thinking, just like Jesus knew he was walking into it. Now, Paul knows he's walking into it. Hey, Paul, there are other places we could go. Don't you want to go to Spain? Why don't we go to Spain? Paul, maybe they won't kill you in Spain. And even look, there's Agabus, the prophet, verse 11, “he took Paul's belt and bound his own feet and hands and said, ‘Thus says the Holy Spirit, ‘This is how the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.’” Where have we heard that before? Paul, they're going to arrest you. They're going to deliver you over to the Roman authorities. Don't go to Jerusalem. Do you remember what Paul says when they're all crying and urging him not to go up. Verse 13, “Then Paul answered, ‘What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be imprisoned but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.’” And I wonder how many people that claim to believe in Jesus are ready to say something like that. I don't care what happens to me, but I care what happens to the name of Jesus. I'm willing to even die as long as I'm following Jesus.
See, that's the kind of resolve that Jesus had when he was going up to Jerusalem. And then I think in Acts, it happens again with Paul to show us, this is what it looks like to follow, you actually deny yourself. You take up your cross, and at the end of following Jesus, there could be death, just like there was for Jesus, just like there was for Paul.
Go back now to Mark chapter 10, and let's just circle these two words in verse 45. Let's circle “ransom,” and let's circle “many “because in those words, we'll find the significance of why Jesus is willing to go up to Jerusalem, why he's willing to die and to give his life. First word is a ransom, and this word should be very important to us this week. If you were here last week, because we just learned last week, if you go back a few verses when they asked, “Who then can be saved,” and that was in verse 26 of Mark chapter 10, who can even be saved. And Jesus looked at them in verse 27, and he said, “with man, it is impossible, but not with God, for all things are possible with God.” And so, we made a point, if you were here last week, that this rich man who walked away sad, he thought he had something good in his soul, and what we have to admit is that we are poor in spirit. We have to declare bankruptcy in our soul. We have to be willing to admit that in and of myself, I cannot be righteous. I cannot be good enough for salvation. We need to declare bankruptcy for our souls. And you know, what's been really exciting this week is we've got people who have declared bankruptcy over the last week, we’ve got people going up to their small group leader, going up to somebody after a service and saying, I'm not good enough and I I'm not right in my soul. And here's really good news for everybody who's willing to admit that you don't have riches in your soul. You have poverty in your soul because of your sin. Jesus came to give his life as a ransom. He came to redeem your soul. He came to buy back your soul.
See, you can't fully appreciate what Jesus came to do until you understand your need, that you needed someone to purchase your soul, because you didn't have the righteousness in your account. You didn't have the goodness to pay for your own sin. And Jesus, the Righteous One, the Anointed One of God, he can give his life because he did obey all the commands of God, because he did fulfill the law, he can give his life as a ransom. Go to 1 Timothy, chapter 2, verse 6. This idea of a ransom is a really important idea throughout the Greek New Testament. In fact, in 1 Timothy, Chapter 2, we're supposed to be praying, and we're supposed to be praying for all people. In fact, what are we supposed to be praying for all people, including even our governing authorities? We're praying for them because we want to live a peaceful and quiet life. And what's the purpose of us living a peaceful and quiet life? Because God desires all men to be saved, and he wants them to come to the knowledge of the truth. And so, we're supposed to regularly be praying for people we know and even people we don't know, and pray for their salvation. That's supposed to be a pillar of what the Church of Jesus does. Here comes Easter. I'm praying Hosanna, save people now. Here comes God. Good Friday. I'm praying, God, people need to know what you did for them. Here comes any weekend where we're going to church. God, let people hear the good news. We're praying for salvation. And look at what it says in verse 5 of 1 Timothy 2. “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for” who, everybody? For “all”. Hey, we’ve got good news. We’ve got a testimony that's given at the proper time that, hey, if you understand that your soul is lacking, if God can convict you by his Spirit of your sin, and God can show you your fundamental need for a Savior, but we've got someone who gives a ransom, who gives a payment for you.
Go over to Titus, just a few pages to the right. Titus, chapter 2, verse 14. And in the book of Titus chapter 2, verse 14, it says, referring to our God and Savior, Jesus Christ, that “He gave Himself for us.” He gave his life. And why did he give himself for us? To redeem us, to ransom us, to purchase us or buy us back, to buy us back “from all lawlessness and to purify for Himself, a people for His own possession who are zealous for good works.” See, if you could really see this picture of Jesus walking into Jerusalem, if you can really see the determination that he has to walk right into his enemies’ camp, to walk right into the face of those who want to kill him, to walk right into those who want to beat him up and flog him, to let them nail him to the cross. That he is laying his life down. No one takes it from him. He's laying his life down. If you know that's what Jesus did for you, how could you be unmotivated to live for Jesus? If you can see the zeal that Jesus has, the devotion, the passion that Jesus has to come and die for you, how could you be like yay, Jesus did it all for me and not be like Jesus, zealous for good works yourself. How can you just receive his passion and have no passion of your own? No he, he gave his life to redeem people, so that his people, they would belong to him, and they would be like him, people who are zealous for good works, people who go into trouble in the name of Jesus.
Go over to 1 Peter, chapter 1. 1 Peter, chapter 1, verse 18. Peter writes about this idea of the ransom being paid for your soul. 1 Peter, chapter 1, verse 18, he says, this is something you're supposed to know, and this is what really motivates you the way you live the rest of your life, here in exile, here on Earth. He says, “knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers.” When you know that you were born into sin as a human being, and that you were purchased out of that sin, well, it says here, not with perishable things. You weren't “bought with perishable things such as silver or gold. There's no amount of money that can ransom the human soul. No, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you from eternity past.”
It was always the plan that Jesus would walk into Jerusalem, and he was willing to do it, and that's what you're supposed to think, wow, his blood, his righteous blood, his pure blood, the only one who had never sinned, the righteous Son of God, his blood. He had to die in my place. That's the only thing that could buy me back from my sin. And so why do I live the way that I live in this world? Why is there a change in me? Because I know what paid for my ransom, see, and it's not just a ransom for me or a ransom for you. It's a ransom for many is what he says, “to give his life as a ransom for many.” And I think Jesus, when he uses that word, “many,” I think there's a specific passage that he wants to bring up in all of our minds, passage where it says that someone's going to give their life to pour out their life to death for many. Go to Isaiah 53:11-12. This is a part of the prophecies that need to be fulfilled by the Son of Man. And it says here in Isaiah 5, verses 11 and 12. If you could write those verses down three times, it's going to use the word many. In these two verses, maybe you know this epic prophecy of the “Man of Sorrows, who was pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities.” This is where we get the idea that Jesus died for our sins. “By his wounds we have been healed all we, like sheep, have gone astray, but the Lord put on Jesus all of our iniquities. And then it says this, towards the end of that chapter, “Out of the anguish of his soul, he shall see and be satisfied.” Wow, Jesus is going through absolute anguish, and in the end, he will be satisfied with what is accomplished by his knowledge or you could translate it “by the knowledge of him,” by knowing Jesus and what he did for us shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous. Okay, so there's two ways to think about this, that Jesus did not come, even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve well. Who is Jesus coming to serve well? Right here, God says, the Righteous One, my servant. So, one person that Jesus is serving is definitely the Father in heaven. He's doing the will of God, even though he's going to have to drink this cup of wrath that nobody wants to drink, even though he's going to be overwhelmed and submerged when he takes the punishment for all of our sins, even though this is going to be an anguishing experience for Jesus. No, he's going to do it because he's serving the father, not as I will, but as you will. But then look at what he goes on to say, “Many will be accounted righteous.” He will bear their iniquities. He's going to pay for them with his ransom. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many. He's going to end up enjoying life with those that he pays for their souls. He shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors, yet he bore the sin of who, everybody? That's us, and so many more like us all over the world, worshiping on a Sunday morning, so many who've gone before us throughout two thousand years of the church, even those who went before Jesus but looked ahead to him by faith, there will be so many people there in glory in the kingdom, worshiping Jesus, and he's going to be there with the many. Yet he bore the sin of many and makes intercession for the transgressors.
Point number three, let's get it down like this: “Remember who paid for your life with his.” Remember who paid for your life with his. See, the main character, energy, the hero of the story, the picture that's supposed to come to your mind when you think of the ultimate sacrifice, and you think of like the climax, you're supposed to see Jesus walking straight into Jerusalem. He knows the end of the movie. He knows the whole script, the whole story. He knows how many times they're going to hit him in the face saying, “prophesy, who hit you.” He knows how many times they're going to pound the crown of thorns into his skull and he's going to start bleeding out of his head. He knows how long he's going to be up there trying to lift himself up to keep breathing as he's nailed hands and feet to the cross. He knows all the mockers and what they're going to say. He knows those who will spit on him, all of those who will say, oh yeah, the King of the Jews is here. Could you see him with eyes straight ahead, willingly walking right into it, giving his life away for you. That's who you're supposed to believe in. That's who you're supposed to follow. The one who was willing to give his life to pour out His life for yours. It's not a fair exchange, pure righteousness for all of your sin, he gets all the judgment you get, forgiven forever.
Do you remember when he paid your ransom? That's what we're here to remember right now. We're going to take some communion together, and I want to give you a moment to respond to hearing Jesus say that he's going to give his life as a ransom for many and I want you to kind of as you close your eyes, as you pray for a minute. I want you to picture Jesus being willing to walk into Jerusalem knowing what's awaiting him. And I want you to be ready to thank Jesus. I. And I hope this will set the tone in your heart for all that's about to come over the next two weeks, as we get ready to remember his death on the cross, as we get ready to remember his resurrection. Yeah, none of that happens unless he walks right into it, knowing it's going to happen. And so, let's remember what Jesus was willing to do for you, and if you've never acknowledged that you needed Jesus to pay for your soul, you can join what's a growing number of people at our church in the last week have declared bankruptcy. They've said, I'm poor in spirit. I don't have goodness and righteousness myself. I need someone to pay the debt of my sin. And here's Jesus saying, The Son of Man, he didn't come to be served. He came to serve. And he came to give his life as a ransom for you. It would be a great day for you to just say, Jesus, I need you to ransom my soul and to cry out to him, to call on his name to be saved. So, I want to give you a moment to respond. Let me pray for you, and then you can pray.
Father in heaven. I just come before you, and I want to thank you that we could gather here tonight and study through this climactic teaching of Jesus with his disciples and God today. The disciples were confused like so many of us are confused. I think when we decide to follow Jesus, when we leave this life to follow him, what we're hoping is for all the ways we're going to be blessed, and all the ways it's going to work for good, and all the eternal life that's going to come in the kingdom and evermore. And Father, I'm not sure that all of us are really ready to walk into all the suffering that's about to happen in our lives, even to the point of death. And so, we just want to confess that like these disciples, we are naive. We want to confess that, like these disciples, we are more prone to think of getting the best seat than serving other people. We want to think that like these disciples, we might think what we're going to get from following Jesus rather than what Jesus had to give for us to follow him. And so, I pray that tonight we could hear what Jesus just said. I pray that we could be like the people who walked behind him as he went before, people who were amazed at his resolve, at his zeal, at his passion, people who were afraid about all the evil that was about to be unleashed against him, and nobody really understood, except for him, what he was walking into. And God, I just pray that you could put it on our hearts that Jesus was willing, and he was willing to do your will, rather than his will. And the reason he was willing to do it was he was serving us, the reason we can be seated here tonight, the reason we can have a cup, the reason we can have bread is because Jesus is the one serving it to us. He's the one laying down his body. He's the one shedding His blood. So, please let us remember Jesus here tonight, Father, let us put him on our hearts afresh. Let us remember our first love when we realized what he did for us and we wanted to follow him with all of our heart. Bring us back to that first love, please. And I pray for those who've never really believed in Jesus that they would admit they need his ransom, and that they would be one of the many here tonight. So let this be a real time of prayer to you, Father. Let us see Jesus.