2.11.16 3.12.2023 Mark 10.35-45 Beginning @ the Bottom
Notes
Transcript
Start:
Entice: You want to be like Jesus, do you? Good for you! Now what exactly do you mean? Honor? Status? Position? This has all been tried before.
35 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.”
36 And he said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?”
37 And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.”
38 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?”
39 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,
40 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.”
41 And when the ten heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John.
Engage: Indeed, the others among the 12 became indignant, though it was not their dignity that was insulted. Jesus? He chuckles. Jesus responded to their distorted demand for honor with disarming dark humor. We generally think of Jesus as always “spiritual”, always solemn, and always serious, even when He is asked the silliest of questions. What else could He do but laugh and refocus the 12 to the actual demands of discipleship. It always begins at the
bottom.
bottom.
Expand: In interpreting a text like this with 2,000 years of interpretation and application we are right to emphasize its importance but often wrong in understanding its tone. Jesus gives the most difficult teaching as tenderly as possible focusing not on the inability of disciples but on the ability of the Master.
What He requires
He first did.
What He desires
He demonstrates.
He does not impose,
but rather He shows.
Excite: The counter-cultural truth is that we live the Christian life beginning at the bottom, just like Jesus. It is just as counter-intuitive to us as it was to John and James. We need to entertain the idea that the other 10 were indignant with the Zebedee boys not because they asked at all, but because they merely asked first!
Listen to these words of Jesus that regulate the life of discipleship.
42 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.
43 But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant,
44 and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all.
45 For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Explore:
Victorious Christian living begins with surrender.
Victorious Christian living begins with surrender.
Expand: Jesus defines and dictates the terms of this surrender in His own life. I have tried to organize the discussion of each term of surrender along the same lines.
The first term of surrender…
Body of Sermon:
1 Jesus defines discipleship as Service.
1 Jesus defines discipleship as Service.
1.1 The Relationship of service:
1.1 The Relationship of service:
1.1.1 Voluntary
1.1.1 Voluntary
Service means that you are
1.1.2 Trusted
1.1.2 Trusted
A servant is an
1.1.3 Intermediary.
1.1.3 Intermediary.
1.2 The Roles of service:
1.2 The Roles of service:
1.2.1 Representation.
1.2.1 Representation.
1.2.2 Agency.
1.2.2 Agency.
1.2.3 Mediation.
1.2.3 Mediation.
1.3 The Resources of service:
1.3 The Resources of service:
1.3.1 Divine authority.
1.3.1 Divine authority.
1.3.2 Biblical integrity.
1.3.2 Biblical integrity.
1.3.3 Vocational clarity.
1.3.3 Vocational clarity.
The next term of surrender?
2 Jesus describes discipleship as Slavery.
2 Jesus describes discipleship as Slavery.
2.1 The Relationship of slavery
2.1 The Relationship of slavery
2.1.1 A slave is Subservient.
2.1.1 A slave is Subservient.
2.1.2 A slave is Vulnerable.
2.1.2 A slave is Vulnerable.
2.1.3 A slave is Dependent.
2.1.3 A slave is Dependent.
2.2 The Role of a slave.
2.2 The Role of a slave.
2.2.1 Obligation
2.2.1 Obligation
2.2.2 Faithfulness
2.2.2 Faithfulness
2.2.3 Obedience.
2.2.3 Obedience.
2.3 The Resources of a slave
2.3 The Resources of a slave
2.3.1 Clarity of position.
2.3.1 Clarity of position.
2.3.2 Security of person.
2.3.2 Security of person.
2.3.3 Provision for purpose.
2.3.3 Provision for purpose.
The final term of surrender?
3 Jesus demonstrates discipleship as Sacrifice.
3 Jesus demonstrates discipleship as Sacrifice.
3.1 The Relationship of Sacrifice.
3.1 The Relationship of Sacrifice.
3.1.1 Substitute
3.1.1 Substitute
3.1.2 Suffering
3.1.2 Suffering
3.2 The Role of Sacrifice.
3.2 The Role of Sacrifice.
3.2.1 Victim
3.2.1 Victim
3.2.2 Redeemer.
3.2.2 Redeemer.
3.3 The Resource of Sacrifice.
3.3 The Resource of Sacrifice.
3.3.1 Power of God.
3.3.1 Power of God.
3.3.2 Purpose of God.
3.3.2 Purpose of God.
3.3.3 Promise of God.
3.3.3 Promise of God.
Shut Down
Jesus chuckled because He knew it was no laughing matter. He needed to disabuse the disciples of their worldly, secular, culturally driven, and socially sanctioned concepts of power, authority, and preeminence. We are still face these laughable circumstances after all this time. We claim;
No power.
No authority.
No preeminence.
No glory.
No honor.
No acclaim.
Generations before, Isaiah saw, though He could scarcely imagine what Jesus’ sacrifice would entail nor how that would come to define our own discipleship
1 Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2 For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.
8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people?
9 And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and 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 many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.
While His throne awaited Him, He began at the beginning. Glory too, is our future. But first service, slavery, and sacrifice. That is how we become like Jesus.