Who Will Be Saved? | Mark 12:35-44

Y’all can go ahead and turn to Mark 12 in your Bibles.

What’s the name of the week we’ve been in in Mark here lately? Holy Week

Why is it called Holy Week? It’s the week Jesus died on the cross on Friday (Good Friday) and rose from the grave on Sunday (Easter)

We are still on Tuesday of Holy Week. So in the gospel of Mark, we are three days away from the death of Jesus.

And today we’re gonna see Jesus teach people in the Temple about pride. And I gotta be honest with y’all, this is something that I’ve been struggling with and working through.

Y’all ever have this feeling like you wanna be the man? Like you wanna be the person everyone thinks well of and thinks is the best? That’s pride! And to be honest with y’all, I struggle with that a good bit. And so a lot of my good deeds wind up being for selfish reasons. Because I want to look good and not make God look good. So this hits a little close to home for me.

And so today we’re gonna learn from Jesus what a life of pride leads to and what a life of humility leads to.

Mark 12:35–37 NLT

35 Later, as Jesus was teaching the people in the Temple, he asked, “Why do the teachers of religious law claim that the Messiah is the son of David? 36 For David himself, speaking under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, said, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, Sit in the place of honor at my right hand until I humble your enemies beneath your feet.’ 37 Since David himself called the Messiah ‘my Lord,’ how can the Messiah be his son?” The large crowd listened to him with great delight.

1. Jesus is Lord of all.

So here Jesus is teaching some folks in the temple, and He asks everyone a question. Now back then the Messiah that would come to save the Jews was often referred to as the “Son of David”. David back in the Old Testament was considered “a man after God’s own heart”. Many people viewed David as one of the most righteous men to live. And Jesus asks everyone here why the Messiah was referred to as the “Son of David”.

And it makes sense what Jesus is saying. David himself says the Messiah is his Lord in Psalm 110. And the word Lord is referring to someone in a position of authority. So if the Messiah is David’s Lord, how could he also be the son of David?

Now, technically speaking, Jesus is a descendant of David, but what Jesus is trying to show us here is that He’s not JUST a descendant of David. He’s also Lord over David.

So if Jesus is Lord over what the Jews considered to be the best of the best, then Jesus must be Lord over everyone.

And that’s what Jesus is communicating here. Jesus is Lord over all people. No one is above Him. He has authority over every person.

And that’s a common theme that we’ve seen in the book of Mark. Especially in the first chapter of Mark. In the latter half of Mark 1, we saw Jesus having authority over disease, demons, and the people said that He even taught with authority.

There’s a really cool reminder of Jesus’ authority in the Garden of Gethsemane when He’s arrested. When the Romans go to arrest Jesus, Peter pulls out a sword and chops off a dude’s ear. And this is how Jesus responds in Matthew 26:52–54

Matthew 26:52–54 NLT

52 “Put away your sword,” Jesus told him. “Those who use the sword will die by the sword. 53 Don’t you realize that I could ask my Father for thousands of angels to protect us, and he would send them instantly? 54 But if I did, how would the Scriptures be fulfilled that describe what must happen now?”

Jesus being arrested and killed only happened by His authority. Jesus could’ve commanded legions of angels to come down and rescue Him, but He didn’t. He let the Romans arrest and kill Him because that was God’s plan for our salvation.

And so if Jesus has complete authority over everything, shouldn’t He be the ultimate authority in our lives?

When God’s Word says something that we don’t agree with, who should we trust? God or ourselves?

When we have a question about if something is right or wrong, where should we turn to first to figure it out?

God should always be the final authority in our lives no matter what we think or believe should be right or good.

And now that Jesus has established Himself as Lord over all, He is about to answer for us who is gonna be saved in Heaven and who’s gonna be condemned. And He’s gonna start with the question of who will be condemned.

2. Who will be condemned?

Mark 12:38–40 NLT

38 Jesus also taught: “Beware of these teachers of religious law! For they like to parade around in flowing robes and receive respectful greetings as they walk in the marketplaces. 39 And how they love the seats of honor in the synagogues and the head table at banquets. 40 Yet they shamelessly cheat widows out of their property and then pretend to be pious by making long prayers in public. Because of this, they will be more severely punished.”

It seems like the past few weeks in the book of Mark we’ve seen Jesus versus the religious leaders, and this week is certainly no different.

Here Jesus calls out out the religious leaders back in the day AGAIN and this time seems like it’s the hardest hit of them all. He says they love to be looked at as these great people. They love to sit in the seats of honor, to wear these flowing robes, to say these long prayers in public, yet behind closed doors they cheat widows out of their property.

Widows and orphans and really the poor in general were the ones the religious leaders were called to look out for, yet they were cheating them out of their property and probably more.

And Jesus is showing us here the state that pride leaves people in. People that seek to be in the seats of honor and want to look like they’re the best are those who wind up cheating others and acting in wicked ways. Because when we’re prideful we think we deserve glory.

And so I wanna ask y’all, does anyone deserve glory? Only Jesus

Romans 3:23 NLT

23 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.

We all fall short of glory. We don’t deserve glory. We deserve condemnation. Yet Christ died for us anyway. So the purpose of our lives is not to bring glory to ourselves, we don’t deserve it. The purpose of our lives is to bring glory to God.

So if the religious leaders of Jesus’ day are gonna be condemned, who can be saved? Who can go to Heaven? The religious leaders were seen as the best of the best back in this day. So if they won’t be saved, who will?

3. Who will be saved?

Mark 12:41–44 NLT

41 Jesus sat down near the collection box in the Temple and watched as the crowds dropped in their money. Many rich people put in large amounts. 42 Then a poor widow came and dropped in two small coins. 43 Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I tell you the truth, this poor widow has given more than all the others who are making contributions. 44 For they gave a tiny part of their surplus, but she, poor as she is, has given everything she had to live on.”

So Jesus and the disciples are still at the temple and decide to do some people watching. Specifically they’re watching as people give money to the temple. And as their watching these people drop all these giant donations in the collection box, they see a poor widow drop in two small coins.

Now I did some math, and I know this is a very dangerous thing for me to be doing. But based on my math, this would’ve amounted to a few US dollars. I decided to check Google to see if Google agreed, and some said this actually amounted to about $2, but most people said this only amounted to a penny. So… good thing I didn’t get a job involving math.

We’re gonna go with the penny because that seems to be what most people said. So basically this poor widow comes and drops a penny in the collection box. And Jesus immediately tells the disciples, “This widow has given more than all the others.”

Now, based on my math earlier, we proved that I’m not good at math. But, I’m good enough at math to know that large amounts of money is more money than small amounts of money. And it says that everyone else gave large amounts of money. So why did Jesus say that this widow gave more?

Jesus continues and says that everyone else gave a tiny part of their extra money, but this poor widow gave everything she had to live on. Everyone else still has a lot of money left over, this widow now has nothing. She gave the last she had to God.

And this is the type of person that will be saved. Not someone who doesn’t have a lot of money, but someone who is truly poor. Not physically poor, but spiritually poor.

Let me explain what I mean by this. What is going through the mind of someone who is poor? They’re desperate.

Someone who doesn’t have any money is desperate for money to live. They’re willing to sacrifice so much more just so they can get their next meal. And that’s the state this poor widow was in. She was desperate. And so she gave all that she had left in a desperate move that God will provide for her.

And y’all that’s how a saved person lives spiritually. We just talked about earlier how we’re all sinners. We’re all spiritually poor. We’re sinful. Those who are saved won’t live their lives puffing themselves up in pride because they understand they don’t deserve glory. They desperately seek after and glorify the one who saved them from their sin.

And y’all I’m not saying you’re never gonna struggle with pride as a Christian. Like I said earlier, pride is something I’m working on. When I read what Jesus said about the religious leaders, it scared me because I saw so much of myself in the religious leaders.

I like to feel honored, I like to wear nice clothes, I like to say long prayers just to make myself look good. But as a follower of Christ I see those things as sinful and I’m desperately seeking after God so I won’t do those things in the future.

And let’s connect this to our first point as well. We talked about how Jesus is Lord of all. Yet Jesus lived the most humble life of anyone that has ever lived. He humbled Himself from the throne to the manger to the cross to die for our sins. But He’s Lord! He doesn’t need to! Yet He did it anyway.

If Jesus did that for us, what should we be willing to do for Him? Everything. Our worship, our purpose, our very lives should be focused on giving glory to God.

And so y’all I’m asking you to be desperate for Jesus.

I want you to imagine for a moment that you’re stuck on a deserted island. You don’t know how to get food, you don’t know how to purify water, it’s hot and you don’t know how to make a shelter. And you’re walking around the deserted island, and you stumble upon what looks to be a shelter. You walk up to the shelter and walk in, and you look around. You see food that looks freshly prepared, you see water boiling over a fire that’s prolly a lot cleaner than the water you saw a mile back, and then you hear footsteps behind you.

You turn around, and it’s another person! What do you think the first words out of your mouth will be? I can tell you what mine would be. “Help me. I don’t know how to survive here and you clearly do. Please help me survive.” I’d be desperate for help from this person. Cause the truth is if I walk out and try to survive on my own, I’m a goner. I’m gonna die.

The truth is we’re all on a path that leads to death because of our sin, unless we accept Jesus as our Savior. So if you haven’t realized that you’re a sinner heading to eternal death and you need a Savior and you don’t know Jesus, now’s the time to realize it and tell Jesus, “I’m a sinner, and I desperately need You. I confess you as my Savior.” Please come talk to me or one of the other leaders here if that’s you tonight.

Everyone else, have you forgotten exactly how desperate we should be for Jesus? I’ll tell you I certainly have. This is a wakeup call for me too! Are you desperate for Jesus and seeking after Him and sharing His incredible salvation with others or have you been trying to survive on your own.

We can’t earn our salvation by seeking after Jesus, but someone who is truly transformed by the gospel has the desire to seek after Him. And that doesn’t mean we do it perfectly so I’m not trying to get you to question your salvation, but the way to joy, contentment, and peace in life is seeking after God so don’t run from Him.

And there are others who don’t understand that they need to be desperate for Jesus. They don’t understand that they’re a sinner in need of a Savior and that they’re heading for hell and they need someone to tell them. So tell them.

We’ll dive into this more in small groups. Let’s pray.