How to Get a Perfect Future: Mark 10:32-45

Intro

Me

Good morning friends, I am so glad that you are joining us today. If you are here, thank you for being here, and if you are watching online thank you for putting a priority on being here.

My name is Clint. It’s been a little while since I’ve spoken so lets do a quick, who is this goofy guy with a mustache.

I’m 33 years old, I’ve been married for almost 9 years now. I have two beautiful daughters. Clara is 3 and a half, and Lucy is just over a year and a half old.

I like NASCAR and Bird Watching, and I love the book of Mark. I’m excited to share with you today out of the Gospel of Mark. We’ve been camped out here for awhile, and this is the Penultimate sermon in the series.

Series

Throughout the book of Mark we have seen a couple of different things. We see at the very beginning of the book it say that this is the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God.

This book is good news. There was this belief in the ancient Jewish world that this chosen king, the Messiah, would come and he would set up a perfect, never ending Kingdom.

We see this in lots of places, but lets look at.....

Paint Picture of the Future

Daniel 7:13–14 ““In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.”

This good news! The King reigning over everything with glory and power, all the nations worshiping him. There is a sense that the world is made perfect. There is this deep Shalom which is all encompassing peace, it’s a peace that goes beyond just the absence of Conflict.

This is the future that the ancient Jewish people where hoping for. The Son of Man would come, Rule, and bring Shalom to the whole planet.

And this is what most of us hope for as well, whether you are a follower of Jesus or not. We dream of a world that’s perfect. And most of us are willing to sacrifice to get there.

But what we see in Mark and in the verses that we are going to look at, is the way to this world, is way different than we thought it would be. And we are going to have to sacrifice to get there, but even that looks vastly different than how we picture it.

So today, we are going to be in Mark 10: 32-45 and we are going to learn how we get to that world that we dream of, the world were Peace permeates everything the world where everything as it should be, but first lets start our time in prayer.

Pray!!

Let’s read this passage together and then we will dive into it line by line.

Mark 10:32–45 NIV

They were on their way up to Jerusalem, with Jesus leading the way, and the disciples were astonished, while those who followed were afraid. Again he took the Twelve 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. Three days later he will rise.” Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, 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 baptism I am baptized with, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared.” When the ten heard about this, they became indignant with James and John. Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, 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 to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Point 1: How we get to the perfect future is different than we expect (v32-34)

Jerusalem

Right away we see Jesus and his crew are on the way to Jerusalem.

Jerusalem was the center of the Jewish world. All of the major feasts and holidays happened there. It’s where the temple was, it’s were the chief priests were. Jerusalem is the spot to be.

Also, Jerusalem was the spot where the King Ruled. It was called the city of David, the kings city. It was believed that the Daniel 7 King would establish his throne in Jerusalem, and from there his kingdom would spread out over the whole earth.

If something big was going to happen, it was going to happen in Jerusalem.

And here we see that as Jesus is heading for Jerusalem, his disciples are astonished and those who followed were afraid.

Everyone senses that Something is different

Look at the words “astonished” and “fear” in v. 32

Maybe it’s in the way that Jesus is walking, or maybe it’s just one of those things that you can feel.

Whatever it is, the disciples and the other people following notices that something different is happening, and their response is astonishment, and fear.

Astonished

They are astonished! This is the moment!

Jesus is marching towards Jerusalem to reign as King, why are they afraid. This is a good thing, this is the dream of Israel. This is what so many people have hoped for so long.

So why the fear?

Fear

Jerusalem might have been the center of Jewish life, but it was under Rome occupation. Going to Jerusalem also meant going up against Rome, the most militarized, most powerful nation around.

And we know that Pontius Pilate, the Roman Governor was in or around Jerusalem at this time. Pilate, the roman governor at the time, was a cruel tyrant.

By going into Jerusalem, they are walking into a minefield. You got the religious authorities to deal with, and you got the most militarized nation with no love for the Jewish people, being lead by a tyrant, who are most likely on high alert because the big passover festival is going on.

The people are afraid, because they are outnumbered, they are outmatched. They are going into the lions den and the lions have all the swords.

They have to be thinking, man, there is no way we win this one. We can’t possible drive back the Roman Military. Look, Jesus has got 12 dudes, a couple of them are fisherman, Rome is holding all the cards. Things aren’t looking good.

[Key pivot] You ever been there. You ever see the good and amazing future you want to get to , but then you look at yourself and realize you don’t have enough swords.

Maybe you dream of a world without discrimination, a world where everyone is recognized as being an image bearer of God. And every time you hear someone back an inappropriate joke or comment you have a conversation. Every-time you see a post on social you feel the urge to speak up and comment. And now, your tired and your exhausted, and your running on empty. You’ve had so many conversation, and it doesn’t even look like the needle is moving. You don’t know if you have what it takes to keep fighting for that future, you’ve run out of swords.

Have you ever been somewhere, maybe your hanging out with a group of friends or family, maybe you are scrolling through social media, or maybe you are just at the store, and you hear someone say something that is vastly inappropriate. They make a sexist joke, or a racist comment. They talk about those people, or people who think like that and you realize how far we are from the Daniel 7 future. And you being to think about all the work it would take, all the difficult, awkward conversations you’d have to have to get there, and you don’t know if you have what it takes to fight that fight every single time. You don’t have enough sword.

What part of that perfect future stirs your heart? Maybe you love your neighborhood and you have this dream of your neighborhood being a real community, a community that knows each other, that loves each other and that takes care of each. You have a vision of what your neighborhood could look like an dhow it can look a whole lot like the Kingdom of God, but then you think about your neighbors and what it would take to bring them all together. And you begin to realize that you have no idea how to get the people who have different signs in their yard to sit down for dinner without it turning into a screaming match.

Or maybe your heart breaks for the members of the Twin Ports who are experiencing homelessness. Your heart breaks when you see people caught up in the cycle of homelessness and how they are often seen as less than, they are pushed to the margins and the fact that they are created in the image of God is ignored. Your heart breaks for them, and you look at your self, and you , like me, barely know how to use a hammer, and your heart sinks because your afraid there is nothing you can do.

Every single human longs for the dream of Daniel 7… the kingdom without injustice, or racism/sexism, without violence, or any kind of sickness—the kingdom of complete peace/shalom. We all long for it.

And we all feel pretty powerless to actually get there…

And it’s not just the big issues out there…what about the big issues right inside each of us?

Maybe you grew up with an angry parent and you swore to yourself you would never treat your kids the way the treated you, and yet, here you are. Every time the kids poke that last never you just get so mad every cell in your body begins to vibrate, and you turn into your da, you turn into your mom. You say the words that they said to you, and that scares you....... You want to change, but you don’t have enough swords.

We all have that ugly part of us. You know what yours is, I know what mine is.

Picture with me for a minute a future where that thing didn’t have control of your life. Picture a future where you could be the person that God has created you to be, a future where you could show up as your true authentic self, and from that place Love God and Love people period. Isn’t that a beautiful future. That’s where we are heading, that’s what Jesus wants to do in you and in me, and that’s astonishing!!!!

The scary part is, we can’t do it. We don’t have enough swords,

We look at the issues in ourselves and in our world, and at what jesus tells us to do… and we’re astonished at how beautiful the future could be, and we’re afraid to be going into battle with so few resources.

Here’s the kicker, we know where we want to go, but the path to get there is completely upside down, it’s not the way we would expect to get there.

The disciples were very much looking forward to that Daniel 7 future. This is what they were dreaming about. A King, seated on the thrown in Jerusalem, ruling a political kingdom that encompasses the whole earth.

And what does Jesus do here? He pulls them aside and he tells them this:

Mark 10:33–34 NIV

“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. Three days later he will rise.”

That doesn’t sound like the King ruling over the whole world. This isn’t the way it’s supposed to go.

Now what’s wonderful here is that the disciples and Jesus are pointed at the same destination, they just have two different ways they want to go to get there.

Transition

But the fun part about us humans is that we like to be in control, we like to think that we know best. Not only can we see where we need to go, but we know how to get there. Better than God does.

Point 2: It’s different than our best plans (v35-40)

Do whatever you ask

So what do we do when we feel afraid and are feeling that lack of control?

You ever had this happen to you? You know how things are supposed to be, you can see where you need to go, you feel things start to slip, so you come up with a plan.

Let’s look at what James and John do here.

They come to Jesus and they say “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask.”

Isn’t that fun? ‘Hey God, I’ve got an idea, why don’t you promise to =do whatever I’m about to ask you to do?

Those of you who have been around small children, I bet this sounds familiar. Mom, Dad, I’m going to ask you something and I just want you to say yes.

My daughter Clara is starting to do this a little bit. She will tell me her plans and then end with this phrase she picked up some where “good idea?”

Her words are coming along but she still speaks in incomplete sentences so she will say things like “Clara daddy get in Daddy’s car go shopping get mermaid tail for Clara good idea!” and then she will nod.

She’s not asking if we can get in the car and go buy a mermaid tail (I’m not even sure where you would go to get one) she’s telling me that this is a good idea and I should do it.

How many of our prayers, are good ideas...... God, I know what needs to happen, so do it. It’s a good idea.

I don’t know how many times I’ve cried out to God.

God, I’m running late, can you make this traffic light go Green, its a good idea.

God, my friend is dying. He’s a good man and too young. Heal him, its a good idea

Uvalde (you-VAL-dee). God, just stop kids getting killed. It’s a good idea.

Jesus, I need you to come back right now. The world is broken and I don’t know how to fix it! Come back, its a good idea.

I know where we need to go, all I need is for you to just to do listen and do it. It’s a good idea.

Are we willing to die to our good ideas. Are we willing to let God be god. To trust that he knows not only where we need to go, but that he knows how to get there better than we do.

Are we willing to submit and to surrender the way we think things should go, or look, the way we think problems should be solved in order to say yes to the King who comes clothed in clouds.

I love how Jesus responds here too. They want a blank check, but he asks the question, what do you want me to do for you, so lets look what they ask for.....

What they ask for

Because what they ask for isn’t necessarily all that bad. They say “Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory”

Now this could seem a little selfish. They are saying, Jesus, when you get your Kingdom, we want to be your number one and number 2. The left and the right hand, being at the side of the King were prestigious positions. So, there is probably a little selfishness there.

But the thing that I want to point out, is look at the faith these two have. They believe that Jesus is going to be the King in Daniel 7. The believe that even though the evidence is stacked against them, they don’t have enough swords and spears, that somehow Jesus is going to accomplish his mission. They are putting their faith in that, even if there vision of what that looks like is wrong.

We have to pause here and take stock of ourselves. Today, in this moment right now, how is your hope for that perfect future, that future where God’s peace has spread out over the whole earth.

Do you believe it’s possible, or have you started to doubt. Maybe you are walking through a personal tragedy, you’ve lost someone close to you, you lost your job, the amount of stress and anxiety in your day to day life is overwhelming, and right now in this moment you don’t have hope. You are having trouble seeing that perfect future made reality, and all you can see is the darkness.

If that’s you today, maybe this is the reason your are here today. At the end of the service we are going to have this thing called ministry time which is a chance to do what we see James and John do. They draw close to Jesus, and the ask for a gift that only the King can grant.

Maybe today God wants to gift you peace, and trust. Maybe he wants to gift you comfort and rest knowing that even though your life and my life and the person sitting next to you’s life is different than we thought it would turn out to be, he is still in control, and we are heading towards that perfect future that it talks about in

Revelation 21:3-4 “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.””

Every tear dried. Maybe God wants to give you hope for this future today.

Many of us want to get to that future, James and John want to get to that future, but just like them, we have to learn a different way to get there.

The path to peace, to Shalom doesn’t look like we think or even like we want it to look like, but we want to get there. James and John wanted to not only get there, but to be a part of it.

And this is where they are pretty clueless as to what they are actually asking for.

Look at Jesus response

You do not know what you are asking for.

I love that. You do not know what you are asking for. Jesus is on his way to suffer and die. He knows this, this is the culmination of his mission on Earth, he’s getting ready to enter the endgame.

Jesus comes into his glory, he accomplishes his mission, not as a conquering king, but as a suffering servant. He knows this, he knows that and there are these two people, two people that Jesus loved and cared for, who in their naiveness are basically asking to be crucified with him. They don’t know that, but Jesus knows. So he says, You do not know what you are asking for.

And then he says can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with.

This is so good you guys. When Jesus is talking about his cup he is talking about the Cup of God’s Wrath, which was old testament imagery for the wrath of God being poured out on people. And the word baptize here is Baptizo, which means to immerse or submerge something. Baptism then was strongly tied to ceremonial washing and cleansing of unrighteousness through water. It’s like Noah’s flood, wiping out sinful humanity so that only the righteous remain.

So the way Jesus is talking about this is pretty wrath heavy. Can you be fully overcome, fully immersed in Gods wrath. Can you handle that, can you take that on. Can you do what I’m about to do.

And how they answer is hilarious. In the greek its a one word answer. It’s like us saying “Yeah” or “Sure”

I think of me watching Tom Brady throw a football. “I could do that, it’s not that hard.” As I’m sitting on the couch eating chicken wings.

But then this funny thing happens. Jesus responds to the answer saying, yeah, you will. You will do those things.

James and John were called the “Son’s of Thunder” by Jesus. A lot of biblical scholars think this is because they were intense or they had forceful characters. And it’s important for us to remember too that these were all young guys.

James and John were young, and intense. And Jesus looks at them and says, you will walk through these hard things.....but not today.

Willard Quote

Dallas Willard who was a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Southern California writes this in his book the Divine Conspiracy

“the intention of God is that we should each become the kind of person whom he can set free in his universe, empowered to do what we want to do. Just as we desire and intend this, so far as possible, for our children and others we love, so God desires and intends it for his children. But character, the inner directedness of the self, must develop to the point where that is possible.”

God’s intention is that we should become the type of people who God can empower to do what we want to do… how do we get there?

Jesus leads the way right here.

Jesus is in submission to the father here

Look at verse 40: you will drink the cup and be baptized, verse 40, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant.

Right there, Jesus submits to the Fathers will. That’s how we develop our character. We die to ourselves.

Jesus heads to Jerusalem, to die for his people, he submits to the fathers will, and this is one of the cornerstones of Christianity.

We die to ourselves. We die to our good ideas, we die to the way we think things should go, we die

If we want to be great in God’s Kingdom, if we want to see that Shalom spread across the whole earth, if we want to actually live a real, full life, we need to die to ourselves and then we start living for something greater.

Let’s look at what Jesus says about this, take a look at verse 41.

Point 3: The way up is the Way down

Disciples get mad

Somehow the disciples heard that James and John had made this request, and the rest of them got mad.

Maybe they thought James and John were trying to edge them out and grasp power, maybe they felt slighted, edged out, unnoticed.

The word here indignant is the same word that was used when Jesus got mad at the disciples for stopping the kids from coming to him, so I think its safe to say that for whatever reason they were mad, they felt justified. Jesus however, didn’t seem to think so because he pulls them aside to correct them and teach them about greatness.

Pause right there. Where in your life are you feeling an intense emotion, whether its anger, joy, fear, sadness.....those are the only emotions I feel but I’m told there are more........ where are you feeling this intense emotion and are feeling totally justified about it.

How does Jesus see it? How does he want to mold you and shape you through this emotion? What do you need to die to?

I love how Jesus pulls his disciples to the side here away from everyone else. It’s in our quite time with God, away from everyone else, that he often speaks these words of correction or encouragement to us.

Do you have time set up this week to sit in his presence and ask him these hard questions. Lord, what do I need to die to? Where am I caught up in my thoughts, my plans, my feelings so much so that I’m missing you?

Can you ask him those question this week? And then listen, because he very well might speak to you.

So, Jesus brings them together and explains how to be great in the Kingdom of God

And keep in mind, when Jesus is talking about the Kingdom of God, when we talk about it here at the Vineyard, we are talking about God’s Perfect Rule and Reign.

This is the destination that we want to get to, this is what Jesus, and the disciples are aimed at: The perfect Rule and Reign of the Good and Holy King spreading out across the entire planet.

Jesus says that Gentile’s, that would be the Roman’s or other kingdoms, he says that Gentiles flex their authority. The rulers “lord it over them (the people).”

That other rulers, members of other Kingdoms make a big deal out of the power and authority. Other people power up and force their will on others.

And then look, verse 43, this tiny sentence flips everything around. “Not so with you”

Friends, once you accept Jesus as the King of your life, we live different, we follow a different set of rules. This isn’t a suggestion, it is a felt reality. If you want to be great, you don’t power up and try to force people to do what you want them to do, to think the way you think, to vote the way you vote. Jesus didn’t defeat Rome, didn’t defeat Sin, and Death, by powering up. He died. He served. And we are instructed, commanded to do the same. Keep reading in Verse 43.

Instead whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be a slave of all.

Those two words, servant and slave, they are exactly what you think they mean. They are not positions of privilege.

To be great, we die to ourselves, we trust God that he is going to take care of us, and we love other people the best that we can. We serve them in humility. We know our value and our worth.

Friends, serving others doesn’t make us less than. In our society servants, slaves, those that move in humility are often seen as pushovers, as passive, as weak, as less than.

So what! God thinks I’m pretty good, who cares if someone thinks I’m weak when I’m doing what God calls me to do.

We have this idea in our heads of what it looks like to be great. Most of us think that to live a great life, there needs to be this upward trajectory. That we need, in all areas of our life, to be moving up and to the right.

And while that might not be bad, it’s not greatness.

Greatness is getting low, its serving the fellow humans. It’s dying to ourselves so that others may live.

Now please don’t hear me say that you need to go and go and go and do all of the things until you burnout from exhaustion, collapse and die.

That’s not what I am saying. When we do that, we are trying to snatch greatness by doing. That’s not what I’m talking about.

What I am talking about is partnering with God to serve others.

Who has God put in your path for you to serve?

If you are a parent, it’s probably your kids. I love my kids, sometimes its hard to serve them. They are always there, they are constant.

Sometimes serving my kids means I get off the couch and take them to the park when I’m exhausted.

Sometimes serving my kids means going without sleep.

Sometimes it means telling them no “you can’t have only chips for dinner” when really I’d rather not have that fight.

Who is it for you.

Maybe it’s that elderly neighbor who you see but never talk to.

Maybe it’s that coworker who you’d rather not talk to. You know the one, they make passive aggressive comments or are actually not really great at their job. What does it look like to serve them.

What does it look like to serve someone by being assertive, by standing up to someone and saying “What you are doing is not okay. You are hurting people, and this isn’t good for them or you.”

Dying to yourself and serving others is anything but weak.

Now watch me do it.

Jesus doesn’t just tell us to do this He lives it. Verse 45: For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.

Jesus himself, God in the flesh walked this path. His mission was to get us to that good and beautiful future, a future where the good king rules and there is peace, a peace that is deeper than any we have ever known, Shalom, spreads all across the land.

And he did it by serving us. He set us free, buy serving. By submitting to the fathers will, by humbly going to a death that people made fun of him for. With a criminal on his left hand and on his right hand, he died naked in front of his mom.

To anyone passing buy, this looked like weakness, but we know that hanging on the cross was the greatest person that ever walked the earth. That’s our King, that’s who we follow. That’s we we imitate.

How do we get to that future, how do we become great, we die to ourselves, and we serve others.

Conclusion

Friends, we are being invited into an astonishing future. We are being invited to be free, to experience peace in our inner lives, to not be controlled by anything other than Jesus. We are being invited into a future where the thing that defines us is the love of God. God so loved you, that he served you by dying on a cross. And because of that, we are moving towards Daniel 7, a world where God’s love is spreading across the whole of creation, making everything right.

And the way we get there is by dying. We die to our plans, we die to the way we think things should go. We stop looking at our fear, at the fact that we don’t have enough swords. And we trust God to be God. We do what he commands. We serve. We love, we worship. We get low instead of powering up.

This is the Gospel. It is powerful and changes everything, and its subversive. We don’t defeat Rome by fighting the way Rome fights with Sword and Spear and imposing our will on others with force, but with Love and Service and dying. The way up is the way down. If you want to be great, if you want that perfect future, if you want to experience Shalom in the world and Shalom in yourself, you have to die. When we die to ourselves, we can live for others.

So ask your, how is God inviting you to die to yourself today. Where have you felt that Holy Spirit nudge to abandon what you think greatness is, and to get low and serve others.

Maybe you have that underlying anger issue that controls you, but you haven’t gotten help. Die to yourself, serve your family and your friends by getting professional help.

Or maybe you felt that nudge to try to make a difference in some of the big issues that are world is facing today, racism, sexism, gender discrimination, the divisions that is sweeping through our communities, but you have no idea where to start, and that fear of not being enough is keeping you from moving forward. Can you trust that if God is inviting into something, even though the path may look different, he will help you get to the destination. Today God wants to take your fear and your insecurity and deposit in you trust in Him and HIs Holy Spirit. God is bigger than any obstacles we face.

What’s the thing that’s stopping you from moving closer to the Good and Beautiful future that Jesus bought on the cross for us. Put it to death, bring it to Jesus right now ,and give it to him, submit and surrender and let him fill you with that Shalom that can only be found in God’s Presence. And from that place, the place of knowing that we are loved, and cared for, that we have a God that we can trust to meet our needs and who will get us to that Daniel 7 future, from that place, lets humbly love and serve others. We can start that today, right now.

Let’s take that first step together right now by praying for each other in Ministry time.

Ministry time

Submit and surrender

Plans

Lives

Die to ourselves

Ugliness

need to be in control

Fear

replace in trust

Hope for the future

Good King

Keep us Astonished (Hopeful)

Fill us up feeling empty

Specific Words

Broken Relationship

Peace makers in Neighborhoods

Right side neck and shoulder