Not Another Earthly King [B]

Listen Online:

Watch Online:

Transcript:

Well, I forgot something, and if you’ve been around me for more than about five minutes, that will come as no shock to you. If there was an Olympics of forgetting, I’d say I’d take the gold, but I’d probably just forget to show up. So I forgot that the last time I preached on Mark back in early December on a Sunday night, that I had not finished that message.

So this week I was getting ready to preach on the story of Bartimaeus this morning and the triumphal entry tonight. And then realized, wait, I told y’all we were going to come back and finish that message from chapter 10. So things are a little out of order.

We’re going to go back and look at the passage we did about a month ago. And I’ll give you the highlights of what we’ve already talked about. because if I forgot that I preached part of this message, I don’t expect that you remember everything I said either.

So we’re going to go back and cover a little bit of that. That’s why the handout that’s out here tonight, if you picked it up, probably it may look familiar. I know some of you keep them in your Bibles or in a notebook.

It’s a duplicate of what you got back in December. But I thought you might have also not brought it with you. But we’re going to go back and look at that tonight in Mark chapter 10.

So the passage just before where we were this morning, Mark chapter 10, starting in verse 28. And if you would, go ahead and stand with me as we read from God’s Word. Mark chapter 10, starting in verse 28.

And we’re going to go through verse 45 tonight. It says, Then Peter began to say to him, See, we have left all and followed you. So Jesus answered and said, Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands for my sake and the gospels, who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands with persecutions and in the age to come eternal life.

But many who are first will be last and the last first. Now they were on the road going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was going before them, and they were amazed. And as they followed, they were afraid. Then he took the twelve aside and began to tell them things that would happen to him.

Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him to the Gentiles, and they will mock him and scourge him and spit on him and kill him, and the third day he will rise again. Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him, saying, Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask. And he said to them, What do you want me to do for you?

By the way, that’s the same question he asked Bartimaeus this morning. What do you want me to do for you? They said to him, Grant us that we may sit one on your right hand and the other on your left in your glory.

But Jesus said to them, You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? They said to him, We are able.

So Jesus said to them, You will indeed drink the cup that I drink, and with the baptism I am baptized with, you will be baptized. But to sit on my right hand and on my left is not mine to give, but it is for those for whom it is prepared. And when the ten heard it, they began to be greatly displeased with James and John.

But Jesus called them to himself and said to them, You know that those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you. But whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all.

For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. And you may be seated. If you recall a month ago, it feels like it’s been longer than that though.

If you recall back to that, I told you that one of the things that is going on in this passage is that they are still struggling to understand who Jesus is. Now we get to the story we looked at this morning with Bartimaeus, and people are starting to figure it out. And it’s not even necessarily Jesus’ closest disciples who are the ones who are figuring it out.

But there’s this, they’re on the borderline here. They have some understanding that he’s the Messiah. They’re clear on that.

They’re talking about him coming into his kingdom, coming into his glory. Can we sit on your right hand and on your left? We want these glorified positions in the kingdom.

But it’s clear from their questioning, They really don’t understand what this means, his kingdom, his glory, the fact that he is the Messiah. They don’t understand what kind of king he’s coming to be. They are looking for a political revolution, as some of the people are going to be looking for going into the triumphal entry.

They’re looking, as I said this morning, for somebody who is going to stick it to the Romans and drive them out and restore the golden age to Israel, restore things to the way they were in the days of King David. That’s what they’re looking for. And if you’re working with that guy who’s going to do that, I mean, you’d be a fool not to ask, hey, can I sit on your right hand?

Can I sort of be one of the guys that whispers from behind the throne? That’s a pretty good gig, and you can understand why they would ask for that. But Jesus makes it clear he’s coming as a different kind of king, and they don’t understand what he’s coming to do.

And the example I gave you of this is from the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. If you remember, I gave you spoiler alerts a month ago. So if you haven’t seen it in 30 years and you’re planning to rush right out and watch it for the first time, you might plug your ears for a few seconds.

But at the end of the movie, they’re searching for the Holy Grail, and they come to the cave and they’re told they have to choose because the cup of Christ, if they were to drink out of it, would give them eternal life. By the way, that’s not how that works. So you kind of have to suspend disbelief and just work around the bad theology of the movie.

Still an enjoyable movie. But you have to work around that. If they drink from the real cup of Christ, they’ll have eternal life.

If not, they will die. And the bad guy takes this beautiful ornate cup and said, this cup belongs to the King of Kings. and he drinks from it, and he turns to dust. He dies.

And then Indiana Jones picks up this little humble wooden, I think it was a wooden cup. That’s what it looked like to me. And said, this is the cup that belonged to a carpenter.

And I know, the question, the movie, I’ll get a word out here in just a second. The theology of the movie is questionable at best. But that has always sort of stuck in my mind as illustrating the way people approach Jesus. There has always been misunderstanding about who He is and what He came to do.

Even in His own day, they were looking for the king who was going to drink out of that ornate cup. And Jesus makes it very clear He came to be a different kind of king. He’s talking about serving His people.

He’s talking about laying down His life. He’s talking about doing things that no normal king, no earthly king in his right mind would ever do. And so I began sharing with you, we got through the first two, but I began sharing with you five ways that our king stands out from earthly kings, five ways that he’s different.

And let me just as a reminder go through the first two very quickly, just to catch up anybody who’s forgotten or who wasn’t here. First of all is our king supplies the needs of his people. We see that earthly kings tend to focus on supplying themselves with people’s possessions.

That’s one of the things that Samuel warned the Israelites about when they said, we want a king, and he said, no, God said you don’t. God’s your king. No, no, we really want a king.

No, God says you don’t. No, we really do. Okay, but here’s what’s going to happen.

He’s going to take your stuff, for one thing. There’s a whole list of warnings in there of what a king was going to do, but one of the things is he’s going to tax your stuff. And kings and those in authority, they look to supply themselves with the possessions of those that they rule over.

By the way, I read something online this week that said, I think it was Thomas Sowell, said, if you want to help people, you tell them the truth. If you want to help yourself, you tell them what they want to hear. And I thought, man, there’s a lot of that goes on in Washington right now.

There’s a lot of that goes on in Oklahoma City right now. Our leaders, not everybody, but there are lots of people in leadership, earthly kings, if you want to call them that, based on the parallel, who are helping themselves. But our king supplies the needs of his people.

They were concerned, if you look at Peter’s question in verse 28, it’s really a question wrapped in a statement. He says, we’ve given up all these things to follow you. He’s comparing himself to that and saying, we’ve given up all these things to follow you.

And that’s why Jesus says, everything you’ve given up is going to be paid back over and over, times over. Now, it doesn’t mean that as Christians, everything is going to be wonderful. He says, all of this comes with persecution, but he’s talking about if for the sake of the gospel, you’ve lost family and you’ve lost home, you’re going to find family and home many times over.

And I believe that’s a reference to the church. In the world today, there are still people who, because of their faith in Jesus Christ, are disowned by their families. There are still people who are turned out from their homes.

As a matter of fact, it even happens in our society sometimes. But no matter what family you’ve lost, no matter what relationships you’ve lost, you’re given more family when you enter into the family of God. The church becomes a family for those who have been dispossessed from their families on account of the gospel.

And it’s that way the world over. For those who’ve given up homes, at this time, they were forced to wander and there were no hotels. There were no motels.

They were forced to rely on the hospitality of fellow believers as they went about ministering and preaching the gospel. And even if they’ve lost their home because of the gospel, they’re going to find home and hospitality with others, with other believers. And so even in the midst of the persecution, he is supplying and he is taking care of his people.

And I believe one of the ways he does that is by putting us together to help one another. He says, there’s no one who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time. We’ll be given everything we need.

And part of that is Christian fellowship and Christian hospitality. Jesus cares for the needs of his people more than any earthly king. He’s not just worried about what he needs.

He takes care of us. We see also that our king suffered for the good of his people. In verses 33 and 34, we see where it says, behold, we are going up to Jerusalem.

This is Jesus speaking to his disciples. We are going up to Jerusalem and the son of man, that’s him, will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes and they will condemn him to death and deliver him to the Gentiles and will mock him and scourge him and spit on him and kill him and the third day he will rise again. There’s this statement he makes, this explanation he gives to the disciples.

If I go to Jerusalem, I’m going to be betrayed. I’m going to be condemned. I’m going to be delivered to the Gentiles.

I’m going to be mocked. I’m going to be scourged. I’m going to be spit on.

I’m Worst travel brochure ever. Don’t go. And yet Jesus says, that’s where we’re going.

I am going to Jerusalem, even knowing that all those things are going to happen, and yet I’m going to rise again. Jesus did not just talk about the suffering that his people were going to endure, back to the persecutions and the losing family. He didn’t just talk about what they were going to endure.

No matter what his people were going to endure, Jesus was determined to endure more suffering. And he was going to do it so, he was going to do more suffering than they would and do it for them. whatever you may suffer for the good of the gospel I guarantee you Jesus has suffered more than you have for you and as I’ve devoted time recently to study of the historical and medical aspects of the crucifixion I just do that from time to time you will be horrified at first by what he went through and then you’ll be overwhelmed by the love that that compelled him to do it throughout human history people have frequently suffered for their leaders or because of their leaders.

I mean, you look at human history, you can’t swing a dead cat without hitting a leader that caused people to suffer. It’s kind of weird, but one of my sons and my favorite things to do when we’re, to listen to when we’re in the truck is podcasts about dictators. I know that’s kind of odd, but we like history.

And there’s no shortage of material about bad guys who put their people through the ringer. But our king suffered for us. How was he not like other kings?

He suffered for us instead of making us suffer for him. So that’s what we looked at in a nutshell a few weeks ago. But then we come to verses 38 and 39 and 40.

It says, Jesus said to them, you do not know what you ask. This is after they asked, can we sit on your left and your right when you come into your glory? You do not know what you ask.

He says, you don’t understand what you’re asking for. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink? Are you able to be baptized with my baptism, he says.

And they said, we’re able. No, no, you’re not. Like when we ask our kids, are you sure you want to do that?

There’s a tone where you should pick up on the fact the answer is no. But like little kids, they said, yeah, we’re able, we can do it. Jesus said to them, you will indeed drink the cup that I drink. And with the baptism I am baptized with, you will be baptized.

But to sit on my right hand and on my left hand is not mine to give, but it is for those for whom it is prepared. He said there’s already a plan in place of who’s going to get those positions. It’s already been decided.

That idea of it’s not for me to give, that doesn’t mean that it’s outside of his power. It’s not for him to stand there and to decide now because it’s already been decided. He says, but you will drink from my cup and you will share in my baptism.

Now for them, that probably sounds great. We’re going to go and be just where he is and experience all the things he’s going to experience. But they’ve forgotten what he said is going to happen when they get to Jerusalem.

The cup and the baptism that he discussed are suffering. And Jesus planned to go to Jerusalem and suffer the wrath of God that was poured out on sin. I believe it’s Isaiah that says it pleased God to crush him.

not because God is brutal, not because God had anything against His Son, but it was the Father’s purpose and the Father’s will, which by the way, the Son agreed to, that Jesus Christ was going to bear responsibility for our sins, and then those sins were going to be crushed and were going to be punished in the person of Jesus Christ. God’s wrath was going to be poured out on sin, and Jesus Christ was going to experience that, he was going to share this suffering with them that he submitted to. Jesus submitted for the sake of his people. Kings don’t do that.

Kings get the idea that nobody can tell me what to do. And yet for Jesus, everything was about the Father’s will. That doesn’t mean that Jesus is any less God than the Father.

It doesn’t mean he’s a lesser God. But as God the Son, He submitted to the will of His Father. And by the way, it’s not reluctantly either.

There’s no division between the will of the Father and the will of the Son. What the Father willed to happen, the Son willed to happen. And so when the Father said, here’s the plan, you’re going to go and you’re going to experience the cross, you’re going to feel the weight of their sin on you and you’re going to be punished in their place, Jesus said, I’ll go and do it.

And how many times, I’ve lost count in the Gospels, how many times Jesus said, it’s not about my will, it’s the Father’s. I’ve come here to do what the Father sent me to do. I’ve come here to.

. . Jesus didn’t owe us the cross.

Jesus didn’t deserve the cross. If you look at what Jesus deserved, he deserved to not even have to come down here and deal with us. We’re kind of a troublesome lot when you get right down to it, aren’t we?

We’re a lot of work. And yet he came down here and did this in submission to the Father’s will. Everything he went through all the suffering, he went through all the struggles of his 30 plus years leading up to the cross, and then everything he went through was not something he had to do.

It was something he did in submission to the Father’s will. And he did that because that was the only way for us to be saved. And so even though he’s a king, he was willing to submit to the Father’s will for our sake.

They were going to share in this suffering, is what he says when he talks about drinking from the cup when he talks about being baptized with his baptism. He’s talking about them sharing in his suffering. It doesn’t mean that any Christian is going to suffer the same way he did.

It doesn’t mean that any of us will suffer to the same extent that he did. And it certainly doesn’t mean that we’ll suffer for the same reason that he did. Any suffering I go through is not going to move anybody one inch closer to heaven.

It’s not going to buy you any favor with God. Yet as we follow him, We’re bound to suffer. And so he said, you’re going to come and it’s going to be your job to submit to the will of the Father as well.

It’s going to be your job, your task, to drink from this cup and to endure this baptism. Jesus was willing to submit to all that. To submit to the Father’s will and to the Father’s plan for the good of his people.

And we see, starting in verse 42, that our king served his people. He says, you know that those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. And this was true.

I mean, Jesus said it, so obviously it’s true. But you look at the Roman world, this is the beginning, or around the beginning of the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire was less than 100 years old at this time.

Doesn’t mean Rome was less than 100 years old, but Julius Caesar had just become emperor, I think, in 44 B. C. , less than 100 years, and the Caesars were kind of at the height of their power.

These were powerful men who could control the lives of millions of people on a whim. And it wasn’t limited to the Caesars. It wasn’t limited to the Roman emperors.

There were governors and magistrates who had almost limitless power over the people they ruled over. And they enjoyed it. I mean, they took advantage of it.

They served themselves and got their people to serve them. And he said, that’s what the Gentiles do. That’s what the pagans do.

That’s how things look in the world. that those in authority are served by the people down here. The people down here work for those who are over them.

And those who are over them, lord it over them. Like they make sure you never forget it. But he goes on to say, yet it shall not be so among you.

But whoever desires, he said, our situation here is different. He said, you look at the way anybody else leads. You look at the way anybody else governs, the way anybody else rules.

And he said, our situation is different. Whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant. And whoever of you desires to be the first shall be slave of all.

For even the Son of Man, that’s Him, did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life a ransom for many. He says, I as your King have come here to serve you. I have come here to make myself a servant.

I’ve come here to serve even to the point of laying down my life for you. Stalin never said that. Hitler never said that.

Julius Caesar never said that. Genghis Khan never said that. Napoleon, I don’t know if a president of the United States has ever said it and meant it.

Try getting this from anybody other than Jesus. And maybe, maybe in some small way from those who try to follow him. But he corrected the disciples’ misconception.

Their whole question about wanting to sit on either side of him when he came into his kingdom was about them wanting to have power, them wanting to rule over others, them wanting to be served over others. And Jesus compared them here to the pagan Gentile rulers and said, it’s going to be different because in my kingdom, service, serving others is what matters. And then he holds himself up as the example of that.

Jesus didn’t just talk about serving. He gave us an example of serving. He said he would serve to the point of laying down his life.

Now, for us, folks, that does not mean we call the shots and Jesus works for us. It’d be real easy to get that off kilter there. We serve him because he’s God.

But even as we do that, we have to recognize that we could never out-serve him in the service that he performed of coming and laying down his life for us. Jesus came to be an example in part of what it means to serve. And that’s true.

Everything I just said is true. be careful of any church or any teacher, though, that tells you that’s the extent of the gospel, or that that’s the extent of his purpose, that Jesus came just to serve and suffer and do all these things for us. That’s all true, but that’s not all there is.

Because what Jesus did beyond this, what Jesus did through all of these things, is what really makes all of this worthwhile. The ultimate significance we find here is in the fact that our King saves His people. See, if He had just come and been a good example, as some churches teach, then He would show us how to be nice, kind, serving people who still remain separated from a holy God and still remain destined for an eternity separated from Him in hell.

If He had just suffered and it went no further, then it would leave us with an interesting story to tell, but it wouldn’t be life-changing. But he said he came to lay down his life a ransom for many. He came to pay the price for us to go free.

He made the ultimate sacrifice. He made the ultimate sacrifice so that we could experience the ultimate transformation and the ultimate peace with God. There’s nobody you can follow today who can do that for you.

There is no political leader you can look to who can get you one step closer to being right with God. There’s no celebrity. There’s no entertainer.

There’s no athlete. There’s nobody you can follow or look to or be devoted to who has done as much for you as Jesus Christ has done or can accomplish for you what Jesus Christ has accomplished. Jesus Christ came as the King of Kings not to set Himself up as a ruler, not so that we would all bow and scrape and bring him our taxes, Jesus Christ came to earth as our king ultimately to save us and make us right with God, to be that ransom for many.

And throughout the book of Mark up to this point, his goal has been to get them to understand at the right time, to lead them as needed to this truth that he is the king, that he is the Messiah. As I said this morning, he’s given them glimpses and what he’s revealed to them has grown over time. And now they’re coming to terms with the idea that he’s the Messiah.

They’re beginning to understand that and they’re beginning to believe it. Now the task is for them to understand what that means. And we can understand that Jesus Christ is the Messiah.

We can understand that he’s Lord. We can understand that he’s king. But we run the same risk they do of not understanding what that means, of not understanding that he came ultimately to save us and make us right with God.

And he did that by taking responsibility for our sins, being that ransom, that payment for many, taking responsibility for our sins and being nailed to the cross, shedding his blood and dying so that we could be forgiven. And then he said he was going to go through all those things in Jerusalem. He said he was going to be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes.

He was going to be condemned to death and delivered to the Gentiles. He was going to be mocked. He was going to be scourged.

He was going to be spit on. He was going to be killed. And he says there in verse 34, and the third day he will rise again.

He did all of that for us, and then rose again to prove it. And as we continue through this series, we’re going to see the ultimate proof that he gives, that he is who he claimed to be. And I know there are people still today in our world who want a sign from God, they want some proof.

The ultimate proof we could ever have, and the ultimate proof we ever need, is that Jesus died and rose again from the dead. And we’ll be talking about some of the evidence for that again in a few weeks as we get to that point.