Jesus Foretells His Death
Notes
Transcript
Good Morning
Before my surgery my anesthesiologist offered to knock me out with gas or a boat paddle.
It was and ether/oar situation.
We closed on our house and moved in this weekend. God is so good!
Now comes the fun part of trying to find a place for all our stuff!
Last week we talked about how hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom. We also saw the reward for those who do chose to follow Jesus. Following Jesus has a cost. It is the most expensive gift you will ever receive. It is free to anyone who will take it, but it cost us everything. We no longer are slave to sin, instead we are slaves to Jesus. He paid a price for us to follow Him. If we accept His gift, we are no longer ours, but His. If following Jesus hasn’t cost you anything, I would seriously wonder if you are truly saved. The Bible does not lie, it tells us that following Jesus has a price to pay. Jesus pays our sin debt and we do good works as a thank you to Him. Because of what He did for us, we do for Him. Our works do nothing to earn us salvation, that work was all done by Jesus. We do good works, because He calls us to do them. We do them as obedient followers of His.
To day we are going to look at Jesus for the 3rd time, telling the disciples about His upcoming betrayal and death then on the 3rd day His resurrection. We are going to be in Mark 10:32-34.
When you get there in your Bible please stand as we read God’s Word.
32 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, 33 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. 34 And they will mock him and spit on him, and flog him and kill him. And after three days he will rise.”
They are going up to Jerusalem, they have left the region of Judea and on the way to Jerusalem, they will be passing through Jericho. Don’t miss that Jesus was walking ahead of them. This is a little fact that often gets over looked. Even though Jesus knows what is going to happen to Him when He gets to Jerusalem, He is out front leading the way. No one is forcing Him or dragging Him to Jerusalem. He is going on His own will, being obedient to God.
Mark tells us that they were amazed. Who is the they? This is probably the larger group that was following Jesus around. It is more than just the 12 disciples. It tells us that He takes the 12 aside and teaches them what is about to happen, so this crowd is more that just the inner circle of Jesus’ disciples. What are they amazed about? They all knew how the Sadducee’s and the Pharisee’s felt about Jesus. They did not try to hide their hatred of Him. They wanted to kill Him. They had already tried to stone Him. John 10:31-33
31 The Jews picked up stones again to stone him. 32 Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?” 33 The Jews answered him, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.”
They wanted Jesus dead, and He and all those following Him knew it also. They were amazed at the fact the even though they wanted to kill Him, Jesus was willfully going to Jerusalem. They knew that something bad was going to happen and they were amazed that Jesus was leading the way, He wasn’t in the back moaning and groaning about how He is about to be miss treated and abused. He was out front leading the way. That is the person I want to follow. Not the person who would let the others lead.
Mark tells us that they are also afraid. Why would they be afraid? They were afraid because they are following Jesus and however He gets treated, that is what usually happens to all those who are following that individual. When a king is killed, all his close followers were usually killed also, along with all his family. They didn’t want anyone to try and claim a right to the throne or for someone to lead an uprising. So all those who followed that person would get the same or worse treatment. They knew that as His followers, if something bad happened to Jesus, they could get caught up in it also. They were worried about what was going to happen to them. They were afraid that something bad was going to happen to them also.
As they are traveling, Jesus pulls aside the 12 and begins to tell them for the 3rd time, that He is going to die. He goes into more detail than the previous times. He tells them that He is going to be betrayed. He said that He is going to be delivered into the hands of the chief priests and the scribes. For Him to be delivered, there must be a deliverer. Judas is going to hand Him over to the religious leaders. He is going to be betrayed by someone from the inside. Someone that He is going to wash their feet. Someone who Jesus taught and loved for the 3 years that he was following Him. Jesus never treated Judas any different that they other disciples. Jesus loved him just as much as the other 11. That is how we are to love others. It doesn’t matter what they do to us, or how they treat us, we are to love them like Jesus did. Even though Jesus knew this whole time that Judas as the one that was going to betray Him, He still called him and let him walk with Him. He still discipled him and loved him. Jesus died for all to have the opportunity to follow Him. He has never said no to anyone who wanted to follow Him. He tells us what it will take to follow Him, but He has never rejected anyone who wants to follow Him.
Jesus tells them that He is going to be condemned to death. He plainly tells them that He is going to die. He is not using parables or some story to get them to think about what He is saying. He is putting it as plainly as He can. He is going to be betrayed and killed.
He adds a new detail this time, He tells them that He is going to be handed over to the Gentiles. This is the first time that Jesus tells them this. He is giving them all the details so that when it happens just like He is telling them, they will know that it is supposed to happen. That they can be courageous knowing that Jesus knew all this was going to happen. They didn’t get it, we will see that next week!
Jesus tells them all that the Gentiles are going to do to Him. They are going to mock Him. Mark 15:20
20 And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the purple cloak and put his own clothes on him. And they led him out to crucify him.
The Gentiles made fun of Jesus and laughed at Him. They didn’t serve this God and they had no idea who Jesus was. They didn’t care either. They just knew that He was a Jew and they were going to kill Him, so they wanted to have a little fun at His expense.
They are also going to spit on Him. Mark 15:19
19 And they were striking his head with a reed and spitting on him and kneeling down in homage to him.
It is hard to imagine someone treating someone the way that Jesus got treated. I can’t imagine letting my son get treated that way. I am glad that God didn’t step in and kill them all. Jesus had to go through all this so that we could have the opportunity for salvation. As sad as it makes me, I am glad that He loved me enough to endure all this for me. I don’t deserve it, but He loved me enough to do it. Praise His name! We serve such a great King! He knows what it is like to be mistreated and abused. He knows what we are going through and can sympathise with us. He knows and He loves us. He willingly went through all this so that we could have salvation.
Jesus also told them that He was going to be flogged. Mark 15:15
15 So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.
Flogging often preceded crucifixion. The flogging was done with a scourge. This was a rope of piece of leather that had metal balls, bones and metal spikes in it that would tear and shred the flesh of the victim. The person getting flogged would normally be strapped to a pillar, then the floggers would alternate blows to the back. This was a brutal and extremely painful punishment. Sometimes the victims died from this before they got to the cross.
Jesus told them that after His flogging He was going to be killed. If flogging wasn’t enough, Jesus was killed in the worst way man knew how to kill someone. He was crucified. This was humiliating public death. Jesus endured it for us. He did it because He loves us.
Then Jesus tells them the best news possible, He is going to rise after 3 days! I don’t think they heard Him. I think they were so shell shocked about hearing how Jesus was going to die and that the Jewish leaders were going to hand Him over to the Gentiles of all people. I think they were just listening, but not hearing what He was saying. Kind of like when my wife is talking to me! The disciples always miss the important parts of the message. Jesus tells them that He is going to rise after 3 days and they say nothing. We will see next week that they weren’t even paying attention. Our king lives! He rose on the 3rd day.
Don’t be like the disciples.
Our king lives!
He went through all this on His own will. Jesus tells us that no one takes His life. That He willingly lays it down for us.
He died for you! for me!
He loves us!
We put Him on that cross!
Are you living a life that honors what Jesus did for you?
Can you do better, more for Him.
He deserves our best!
We must live lives that will make people see Him in us.
We must love the way He loved.
We must live a life that sacrifices like He sacrificed.
Are we doing that?
We must do better!
He deserves our best.
Let’s pray!
