Mark: God's Servant: Secrets from God's Servant

August 24, 2014

Mark: God’s Servant

Secrets from God’s Servant

Mark 8:27-9:50

(Advance Slide #1)

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Introduction

A secret is something that you tell one person at a time.

• We all love a good secret.

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• One writer in the Readers Digest explained a secret this way:

“The difference between private enterprise and government: The formulas for making Coca-Cola and Kentucky Fried Chicken are still secrets. How to make a hydrogen bomb is on your newsstand.”

From time to time, Jesus shared special “secrets” with His disciples.

• In our text this morning we will read of three “secrets” that He told them
• Christians today need to understand and apply these spiritual secrets if their our lives are to be all that God wants them to be.

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Text

34 And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. Mark 8:34-35

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Jesus had been preparing His disciples for this private meeting at which He intended to reveal to them what would happen to Him at Jerusalem.

• He had given hints along the way, but now He would explain matters to them more fully.

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• For the site, He selected Caesarea Philippi, a town about twenty-five miles north of Bethsaida, sitting at the foot of beautiful Mt. Hermon.
• The town was named after Augustus Caesar and Herod Philip, and it contained a marble temple dedicated to Augustus.
• It was a place dedicated to the glory of Rome, and that glory is now gone.

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The secrets that Jesu are about the share have these themes in common: glory, faith, and honor.

• As the glory of the once flourishing Rome is gone...the glory of Jesus Christ remains and will go on eternally.

Lesson

Let’s examine some of the secrets that are revealed to the disciple and that we too can learn from!

(Advance Slide #8)

Suffering Leads to Glory

Just making this statement it is hard to understand.

Confession

• Nevertheless this entire narrative begins with a CONFESSION.
• First, Jesus asks, “What do people say about me?”
• What difference does it really make what people think or say about us?
• But what people believe and say about Jesus Christ is important, He is the Son of God and the only Savior of sinners!
• “Well, Jesus some say that your John the Baptist, Elijah, or one of the other prophets.”
• “But who do you say that I am?”
• This confession that is about to be made is important...its a matter of life and death!
• “You are the Christ!”
• You are...“the Anointed One, the promised Messiah.”

Confusion

• This confession leads to them being CONFUSED by Jesus
• The disciples were ready for the “secret” Jesus wanted to share with them.
• From this point on Mark will focus on Jesus journey to the cross.
• Jesus tells them of His suffering and His rejection.
• True to form, Peter is the first to voice His rejection.
• One minutes he is making a strong confession of faith them He’s rebuking the one whom he has faith in.
• When Jesus rebuked Peter, He also “looked on his disciples.”
• Jesus tells them the true cost of discipleship!
• If there was a cross in His future, there would be one in their future as well.
• Jesus identifies 3 conditions for discipleship:

1. SURRENDER to Him
2. IDENTIFY with Him in suffering and death
3. FOLLOW Him obediently

• If there any reward for such a life:
• Satan promises glory but it ends up as suffering.
• Jesus promises suffering but it ends up becoming glory!

Confirmation

• Jesus took Peter, James, and John to the top of a mountain, and there He revealed His glory.
• This event was a vivid confirmation of His words as recorded in Mark 8:38, as well as a demonstration of the glory of the future kingdom.
• The message was clear: first the suffering, then the glory.
• Moses and Elijah were present on the mountain.
• Moses represented the law and Elijah the prophets, both of which find their fulfillment in Jesus Christ
• While on the mountain Jesus is transfigured.
• This describes a change on the outside that comes from the inside.
• It is the opposite of “masquerade,” which is an outward change that does not come from within.
• God allowed His Son’s glory to radiate through His whole being, and the mountaintop became a Holy of Holies!
• CONSIDER - Peter, James and John were asleep and almost missed this!
• Peter’s suggestion reflects again human thinking and not divine wisdom.
• How wonderful it would be to stay on the mountaintop and bask in His glory!
• But discipleship means denying self, taking up a cross, and following Him, and you cannot do that and selfishly stay on the mount of glory.
• Discipleship is not built on spectacular visions but on the inspired, unchanging Word of God.

(Advance Slide #9)

Power Comes from Faith

With every mountain top experience there comes a valley of service.

• In one day disciples go from the glory of heaven to the valley of unbelief.
• When Jesus and the 3 return to the others they find a lot problems

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• The sick boy and the scribes debating/taunting them.
• Jesus had given His disciples authority to cast out demons (Mark 6:7, 13), and yet their ministry to the boy was ineffective.
• No wonder the Lord was grieved with them!
• He must be grieved with us when we fail to use the spiritual resources He has graciously given to us.
• Since the disciples had failed, the desperate father was not even sure that Jesus could succeed.
• “But if you can do anything…”
• The father was being honest about his own faith.
• Jesus did cast out the demon and restore the boy to his father.
• The main lesson of this miracle is the power of faith to overcome the enemy
• Why had the nine disciples failed?

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• Because they had been careless in their personal spiritual walk and had neglected prayer and fasting (Mark 9:29).
• Our faith must be cultivated through spiritual discipline and devotion.

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Service Leads to Honor

As they went along Jesus reminded them of His future...and the resurrection.

• The text says that this sorrowed them.

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• But they were not grieved enough to set aside their personal dispute over which of them was the greatest!
• You would think they would have forgotten their own selfish plans and concentrated on Him.

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• To teach them (and us) a lesson, Jesus set a child before them and explained that the way to be first is to be last, and the way to be last is to be the servant of all.
• The unspoiled child is an example of submission and humility.
• True humility means knowing yourself, accepting yourself, being yourself—your best self—and giving of yourself for others.
• At this point, John felt it necessary to defend the disciples (Mark 9:38–41) by pointing out their zeal.
• We stopped people from doing your work!
• Imagine telling a man to stop casting out demons when the nine disciples had failed to deliver the deaf and dumb boy from Satan’s power!
• Jesus says, “No, don’t do that!”
• “The one who is not against us is for us.”
• It is not necessary to perform great miracles to prove our love for Christ.
• When we lovingly receive a child or compassionately share a cup of cold water, we are giving evidence that we have the humble heart of a servant.
• This solemn message about hell carries a warning to all of us to deal drastically with sin.
• What He is teaching is that sin is to the inner person what a cancerous tumor is to the body, and it must be dealt with drastically.
• Some people are shocked to hear from the lips of Jesus such frightening words about hell.
• Jesus believed in a place called hell, a place of eternal torment and righteous punishment.
• How essential it is for sinners commit to Jesus Christ in baptism and be delivered from eternal hell.
• How important it is for believers to get the message out to a lost world!

(Advance Slide #15)

• The Jews were not allowed to put leaven or honey on their sacrifices, but they were required to use salt (Lev. 2:11, 13).
• Salt speaks of purity and preservation.
• The disciples were God’s salt (Matt. 5:13), but they were in danger of losing their flavor and being worthless!
• Be careful!
• Once you have lost that precious Christian character, how will you restore it?

Conclusion

The three lessons Jesus taught in this section are basic to Christian living today.

• If we are yielded to Him, then suffering will lead to glory, faith will produce power, and our sacrificial service will lead to honor.

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In spite of being overzealous and making occasional mistakes, Peter got the message.

• He would later and write:

10 And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. 11 To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen. 1 Peter 5:10-11

Mark: God's Servant: Confusing Teachings

August 31, 2014

Mark: God’s Servant

Confusing Teachings

Mark 10

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Introduction

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We all know Jesus as the ‘Master Teacher’ and He is.

• Our Lord used many different approaches in sharing God’s Word: symbols, miracles, parables, proverbs, and paradoxes.

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• Paradoxes are strange.
• In fact, “a paradox is a statement that seems to contradict itself and yet expresses a valid truth or principle.”
• “When I am weak, then I am strong.”

Sometimes the best way to explain a biblical teaching is to do so by using a parabox.

• In this chapter Jesus does just this.He could have preached long sermons but instead He gives us some teachings through paradoxes.

(Advance Slide #4)

Text

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.” Mark 10:32-34

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As Mark wrote his account of the Saviour’s journey to Calvary, he must have meditated much on the great “Servant Songs” in Isaiah 42–53.

“For the Lord God will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed” (Isa. 50:7).

• We cannot help but admire the courage of God’s Servant as He made His way to Calvary.
• We should adore Him all the more because He did it for us.

We must try to understand the bewilderment and fear of His followers.

• What complicated their fears was HOW and WHAT Jesus taught them in these confusing teachings.

Lesson

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Two Shall Be One - vs. 1-12

Jesus completed His ministry in Galilee, left Capernaum, and came to the Trans-Jordan area, still on His way to the city of Jerusalem

• The Pharisees came to Jesus in order to test Him.
• The verb indicates that they, “kept on asking Him.”
• This was more than a trick question, divorce was a very controversial subject among the Jewish rabbis.
• It didn’t matter what answer He gave...someone would be upset.

(Advance Slide #7)

Jesus ignored the politics of the day and just focused on the Word of God.

• He turned it back to the law of Moses (Deut. 24:1-4)

NOTE:

• First, it was the man who divorced the wife, not the wife who divorced the husband
• Women did not have this right in Israel. (Roman women did have the right of divorce.)
• Second, the official “bill of divorcement” was given to the wife to declare her status
• It assured any prospective husband that she was indeed free to remarry.

Jesus explained that Moses gave the divorce law because of the sinfulness of the human heart.

• God was not putting His approval on divorce or even encouraging it.
• In fact, He was making it more difficult for a husband to put away a wife.
• Furthermore, it was God who established marriage, and He has the right to make the rules.
• According to Scripture, marriage is between a man and a woman, not two men or two women, the relationship is sacred and permanent.
• Marriage is a physical union: the two become one flesh.

Mark 10:9 warns us that man cannot separate those who have been united in marriage, but God can.

• He expects married people to practice commitment and to remain true to each other.
• Too many people view divorce as “an easy way out,” and do not take seriously their vows of commitment to each other and to the Lord.

(Advance Slide #8)

Adults Shall Be as Children - vs. 13-16

Jews of that day looked on children as a blessing and not a burden, a rich treasure from God.

• It was not an uncommon custom for parents to take their children to a Rabbi to be blessed.
• It would make sense that they would bring children to Jesus...and Jesus welcomed them.
• It was the disciples that rebuked the parents, but why?
• Maybe they thought they were doing good and protecting Him.

Simply put...the children were not important to them.

• To me this is strange because Jesus had already taught them to “receive them in His name; don’t cause them to stumble”
• “But when Jesus saw it, He was indignant…” - vs. 14
• He openly rebuked the disciples for standing in their way!

(Advance Slide #9)

We tell the children to behave like adults, but Jesus tells the adults to model themselves after the children!

• We enter God’s kingdom by faith, like little children…
• Helpless, unable to save ourselves, totally dependent on the mercy and grace of God.
• What does a child do when they are hurt or needy...they run to their parent!
• God wants us to be ‘childlike’ not ‘childish’

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The First Shall Be Last - vs. 17-31

Think about this…

• Of all the people that came into contact with Jesus this is the only one that left worse then when He came.
• He had so much in his favor, but he was very superficial in his understanding of spiritual things.
• He certainly had a shallow view of salvation, he thought that he could do something to earn eternal life.

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Behind this good-works approach to salvation is a superficial view of sin.

• The fact is that sin is rebellion against the holy God.
• It is not simply an action; it is an attitude that lifts up man and dishonors God.

Jesus points the man to the law of Moses...why?

• The law could not save him (Gal. 2:16-21).
• He wanted him to see himself as a sinner before God.
• The law can bring the sinner to Christ, but the law cannot make the sinner like Christ.
• Only grace and the blood of Christ can do that.

Our Lord’s directions in Mark 10:21 are not to be applied to everyone who wants to become a disciple, because Jesus was addressing the specific needs of the rich young ruler.

• He valued his physical possession more than spiritual matters.
• The man was a ruler, so Jesus told him to take up a cross and follow Him, which would be a humbling experience.
• Jesus offered this man the gift of eternal life, but he turned it down.

Peter reminds Jesus, “We have left everythings and followed you.”

• Jesus assured His disciples that no one who follows Him will ever lose what is really important, either in this life or in the life to come.
• God will reward each one.

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Servants Will Be Rulers - vs. 32-45

His destination was still Jerusalem and He was on His way.

• With each announcement of His death the disciples seemed to become more and more confused.
• He had told them what would occur, but now He told them where - in the Holy City of Jerusalem!
• He also implicates the part that the Gentiles would play in His trial and death.
• The hope that they would have missed out on was this resurrection.

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In light of His announcement it is embarrassing to see James and John asking Jesus for a throne.

• Jesus realizes that they really do not know what they are asking.
• Jesus compares His approaching suffering and death to the drinking of a cup and the experiencing of a baptism.
• They feel as though they are willing and ready to suffer with Jesus.
• This conversation is overheard by the others and they are greatly offended.

(Advance Slide #14)

Jesus reminds them all those who are “great must first be a servant.”

• While there is nothing wrong with aspiring to greatness...we must be careful how we define “greatness” and why we want to achieve it.
• “For the Son of Man came not to serve but to be served…”

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The Poor Will Become Rich - vs. 46-52

As Jesus neared Jericho just 18 miles from Jerusalem.

• Amid the Passover pilgrimage crowd are two blind beggars by the side of the road.

(Advance Slide #16)

• As Jesus approaches they try to get Jesus’ attention yet the crowd tries to shut them down.
• Bartimaeus isn’t stopped by them
• Scripture says that he throws off his cloak and approaches Jesus calling Him, “Son of David”

Jesus has mercy on him and has the crowd bring him closer.

• “What do you want me to do?”
• “Rabbi, let me recover my sight.”
• Moved by his faith Jesus told him “Go on your way; your faith has made you well.”

PRAYER

Conclusion

(Advance Slide #17)

This is the last healing miracle recorded in Mark, and it certainly fits into Mark’s “Servant” theme.

• We see Jesus Christ, God’s Suffering Servant, on His way to the cross.
• Despite this He stops to serve two blind beggars!
• What love, what mercy, and what grace!

(Advance Slide #18)

Marble crumbles, brass dulls, temples fall.

• But the teachings of Christ when etched onto the hearts of man last’s for all eternity