You have before you, I think
in your sheets, the passage we're looking at. There is so much
in this passage and the central theme of Mark's Gospel is the
Lord Jesus as a servant. And if you want the central verse
of Mark's Gospel, it's in 10.45, the last verse on your sheet
before you. For even the Son of Man did not
come to be served, but to serve and give his life a ransom for
many. And so we're looking at this
passage of Scripture both this week and next week. So if you
think things are missing from this week's message, then Lord
willing we'll deal with them next week. So we are presented
with some wonderful pictures of the Lord Jesus and the wonderful
pictures of his sheep in these verses before us. We see Jesus
the King, Jesus the suffering servant, Jesus the sin offering. We see again the weakness of
our flesh, just the weakness of who we are as human beings.
And then we have the graciousness of the Lord Jesus, extraordinary
promises of the New Covenant. And then we see that what happens
when people have their eyes fixed on themselves and the things
of this world, there is jealousy and bitterness. And then there's
a wonderful instruction in verse 44 about those who are the first are those
who are slaves. But at the beginning of this
passage, we have the Lord Jesus marching to Jerusalem, marching
as the captain of this band of believers. In fact, he was marching
with such deliberate purposefulness that there was both a solemnity
and a determination about his actions now, which caused a foreboding
and an amazement amongst those who had been with him now for
over three years. They were on the road going up
to Jerusalem and Jesus was walking on ahead of them. The Lord Jesus,
as in all things, must take the lead. And the Lord Jesus wonderfully
does take the lead. He was walking on ahead. His
face was set like a flint to go up to Jerusalem. And they
were amazed. And they were also fearful. What lies before them all in
Jerusalem? He had told them again and again
what lay before him in Jerusalem. He told them again and again
why he was going up to Jerusalem. And until God opens our eyes,
we will not see it. It's one of my constant prayers
that the Lord would just burn on our hearts the seriousness
of what happened to Jerusalem all those years ago. What really
went on when the Lord Jesus suffered as He did. May God force us to
take the cross of the Lord Jesus seriously. May it both be something
that motivates us and delights us and focuses the energies of
our life in a way which causes us to gaze upon Him. So he was
going with deliberateness. He was going, as he says in verse
10.33, He was saying, behold, we are
going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered
to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn
Him to death and will hand Him over to the Gentiles. They will
mock Him and spit on Him and scourge Him and kill Him. And three days later, He will
rise again. We've got to keep remembering
and lay it on our hearts as often as the Lord would allow that
the one term that should describe our saviour is that he's a successful
saviour, he's a sufficient saviour, he's a sovereign saviour. And
in his sovereignty in this world there are no accidents. Everything is done according
to purposeful intention and design both in what lies before him
as he goes to Jerusalem and what lies after him having been to
Jerusalem and having risen from the dead. The Lord Jesus just fulfills
prophecy all the time. He takes his disciples up not
to help him in His hour of greatest need, He takes His disciples
up there to witness what He is doing. Behold, we are going up
to Jerusalem, and what lay before them was so very, very different
from what lay before Him. They had reason to be amazed. They had reason to be fearful. But the Lord Jesus went up there,
as He leads this band, He went up there as a determined, sovereign,
successful Saviour. As He says in Isaiah 63 verse
3, I have trodden the winepress alone, and from the peoples no
one was with me. for I have trodden them in my
anger and trampled them in my fury. Their blood is sprinkled
upon my garments and I have stained all my robes. For the day of
vengeance is in my heart and the year of my redeemed has come. I looked and there was no one
to help and I wondered that there was no one to uphold. Therefore
Therefore my own arm brought salvation for me." So the Lord Jesus went up there
as the captain of our salvation, as the commander, as a king. He wasn't betrayed without his
perfect knowledge of it. All of what was going on before
him is must. He must go up to Jerusalem. He
must be betrayed. He must be condemned. He must
be crucified. and wonderfully he must rise
from the dead. They weren't possibilities, they
were absolute certainties. The death of the Lord Jesus at
Calvary was a matter of divine predestination. And we have in
this picture before us the Lord Jesus almost anxious to get to
Jerusalem. anxious for that time when he
would glorify his father, when he would make a mockery of Satan,
when he would honour God's holy law, when he would save his people. We must never ever think, and
allow others to think, that the Lord Jesus was trapped in some
way. He deliberately marched to Jerusalem. He died as a voluntary victim
of horrible ignominious cruelty, of horrible wrath, divine wrath
from God, and he died as our substitute. He knew what was
coming before him. He knew about Judas and his betrayal. He knew about the denial of Peter. He knew about the fact that the
other eleven would run away and hide. while he was being crucified. He knew about the beatings, he
knew about the humiliation, and he knew why it was happening. In Lamentations 1 verse 12 he
said, Is there any sorrow like my sorrow? Is it a little thing,
is it a little thing for those who pass by to say that the death
of the Lord Jesus on the cross was something insignificant.
As J.C. Ryle said, he saw Calvary in
the distance. All through his life he saw Calvary
in the distance and he walked calmly up to it without turning
to the right or turning to the left. No sorrow was like his
sorrow, but no love was like his love. We just delight to declare the
Lord Jesus on the cross, the place of His trial. He went to
the cross because of His love for His Father's glory. He knew
it was God's will, His Father's will. He knew that without the
shedding of His blood, There was no forgiveness of sins. Justice,
God's justice, had to be satisfied. And he knew that he was the Lamb
of God, who had to be sacrificed for the sins of his people. He
knew that without his death, all of what went before him,
all of the wonders of his teaching and the wonders of the miracles,
would be useless to his people. He knew that God's law, God's
holy law, God's holy prophetic law must be fulfilled in its
completeness in the death of a substitute. So the Lord Jesus was not killed
by accident. He deliberately marched to his
death. And the Hebrew says, for the
joy set before him, he endured the cross and the shame. Isaiah
53 says that he will see the suffering of his soul and he
will be satisfied. The Lord Jesus went there because
of love for his bride. Love for his father, love for
his bride. And the wonder in these verses
before us is that we have again the disciples displaying who
we are. Isn't it wonderful that the apostles
were real men, just like us? It's a great comfort, isn't it,
that James and John, the two sons of Zebedee, thinking about
these things from a human perspective, led on, as Matthew says, by their
mother, came up to Jesus saying, Teacher, we want you to do for
us whatever we ask of you. We should be reminded that how
often do we pray those sorts of prayers. How often Do our
prayers reflect what James and John asked here? We come to God
saying, we want. We want. I want. I want things the way that suit
me best. Sometimes we need to be very,
very careful as we ask God for things that we want. The Lord
Jesus showed us again and again that the best prayer of God's
children on this earth is, your will be done. So this is the third time, it's
extraordinary isn't it, just in this brief section of Mark's
Gospel. In chapter 8, the Lord Jesus
says that he's going up to Jerusalem and he's going to be killed.
And Peter took him aside immediately and began to rebuke him. In chapter 9, the Lord Jesus
says again in verse 33, 32, that he's going to Jerusalem and he's
going to be handed over and he's going to die. And the response
of the apostles is that they dispute amongst themselves who
would be the greatest. We have this remarkable contrast
between the suffering servant and the grasping sinner. We want
places of glory. As Simon said to us earlier,
it comes from the disease that infected all of us, all of our
being and all of us together in the garden. when we followed
Satan's advice and said, I will, I will, I will, I will, said
Satan. And human beings have ever since
said, I will, I want, I want, I want. And we don't need any
more proof that it's so much a part of our lives than the
babies that we've cared for and the babies that we've been. What
are their cries? The first cry that they have
is, I want, I want, I will. Jesus is wise and gracious and
in a remarkable way. He said to them in verse 36,
what do you want me to do for you? And they said to him, grant
that we may sit, one on your right, and one on your left in
your glory." It's extraordinary, isn't it,
that in the midst of what seems such a mocking and grasping in
the face of the Lord Jesus, intense pain, they actually mingle all
this with faith. The reality is that God's children
in this world, God's real, saved, everlastingly loved children
in this world will behave at times in selfish and foolish
ways. As Don Fortner said, God's servants
while we walk in this world are faltering, failing, sinful people. But God's people are God's people. He graciously makes them faithful. He even uses our weaknesses. He uses our faults. He uses our
failures to make us instruments of usefulness in His hand. Our God, our sovereign God, graciously
and wisely overrules all things. even us, even our sinfulness,
for His good, for our good and for His glory. The Lord Jesus
takes the opportunity to teach these disciples. He said to them,
you do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink
the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with
which I am baptized. You do not know what you're asking. The cup the Lord Jesus is talking
about is the cup of the wrath of God's holy fury and righteous
anger and hatred of sin. All through the scriptures The
cup is mentioned as a cup of God's wrath. The Lord Jesus,
on the night before He was to be crucified, was in the Garden
of Gethsemane and He cried out in anguish of His soul, knowing
what was coming before Him. He prayed, fell on His face and
prayed in Matthew 26.39, O my Father, If it is possible, let this cup
pass from me, nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will. He goes on and says a second
time, prays a second time to his father, O my father, if this
cup cannot pass away unless I drink it, your will be done. The Lord Jesus saw that cup which
is spoken of in the Old Testament as the fire and brimstone and the burning wind that will
be upon the wicked. It will be rained upon them forever
and ever. That will be the portion of their
cup. Psalm 75a, for a cup is in the
hand of the Lord, it is well mixed and he pours out of this. Surely all the wicked of the
earth must drain down and drink down, must drain and drink down
its drinks. He's talking about suffering all the torments of
hell, which is why he talks about his death over and over again
as a baptism. A baptism is an immersion, the
totality of his being immersed. It's remarkable that the Lord
Jesus draws from these people that he loves a confession about
their ability in the next verse. They said to him, yep, we're
able. Just like the people at Mount
Sinai said to God, you just tell us what to do and we'll do it. We are able. We want and we are able. And then in that same verse,
just read it together with me, the Lord Jesus makes the most
remarkable promise, the most remarkable promise. The Lord Jesus said to them,
the cup I drink, you shall drink, and you shall be baptized with
the baptism with which I am baptized." There is a real sense in which
both James and John suffered a baptism and did drink a cup. in this worldly sense. James
was the first of the apostles to be martyred. Herod had his
head chopped off in Acts chapter 12. And John was the last of
the apostles to die. Both of them spent their lives
in God's service, suffering in one way or another. But the Lord
Jesus is talking about something much, much bigger and much, much
more important. All of God's children, all of
God's children, are so united to the Lord Jesus, so married
to him in that eternal covenant, that the things which the Lord
Jesus did and suffered in this world are the very things that
the scriptures say God's children, all of God's children, did. Was
he circumcised? The Scriptures say that we were
circumcised in Him. Was He crucified? The Scriptures
say that we were crucified with Him. Let's just read these verses
from Romans 6. Shall we continue in sin that
grace may abound? Certainly not. How shall we who
died to sin live in it any longer? Do you not know that as many
of us as were baptized into Christ were baptized into his death? Was he buried? The Lord Jesus
says that we were buried with him through baptism into death,
was He raised from the dead. Therefore we were buried with
Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised
from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we should
walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together
with Him in likeness of His death, we shall certainly also be in
the likeness of His resurrection. Was He raised? We were raised
with Him. Does He sit now on the throne
of heaven? Ephesians tells us that we are
seated with Him. As 1 John 4 says in verse 17,
as He is, so are we in this world. Not only did John and James drink
that cup, not only did John and James be baptised with that baptism
the Lord Jesus went through, every one of God's children,
from Abel to the last of God's children ever to be born, were
baptised Paul lived his life as a Christian,
believing that it was all, all of his salvation, all of his
life was wrapped up in who Jesus is. I have been crucified with
Christ. It is no longer I who live, but
Christ lives in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh.
I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave
himself for me. Do you need faith to please God? The Bible says without faith
it's impossible to please God. Jesus is our faithfulness. Jesus is our righteousness. Jesus is our sanctification. So we're all baptized with His
baptism. All of God's children died as
He died. because we are one with Him. Our life, as Colossians 3 says,
our life is now hidden with Christ in God. Do you need perfect holy
obedience to come before God in glory and in peace? Your life is hidden with Christ
in God. that when Christ who is our life
appears, you also will appear with Him in glory. The apostles were foolishly grasping
for glory. All of us foolishly grasp for
glory. But it's for Jesus to give glory. And as he says in verse 40 of
chapter 10, but where you sit, on my left, is not mine to give. He's showing us that he is truly
the faithful serpent of his father. He's not acknowledging the fact
that he doesn't know. He's wanting his disciples to
know that he lives by faith in his father. But it is for those
for whom It had been, has been prepared. The glory that awaits
God's children is already prepared. In the mind of God, it's finished. There are no accidents in God's
world. And sadly again in verse 41,
we have just another example of what happens when men become
self-centered. And we realised that these men,
the ten, began to feel indignant with James and John. Not indignant
with James and John that they'd received something, but indignant
with James and John that they'd actually asked first, and not
them. And they'd actually asked first
with the help of their mother, and the others probably didn't
have their mothers around. It's the case always, isn't it?
It's so much the case with us. It's just beautiful the way the
scriptures picture the apostles as fallen, weak, failing people. If that doesn't bring great comfort
to your soul, that their righteousness is Jesus' righteousness. Their
righteousness is in a representation. Their sanctification is not about
their personal holiness. Their sanctification is about
a holiness that warrants and merits and earns all that God
rewards his people because he rewards us in the Lord Jesus. And then he finishes this wonderful
caring instruction of these disciples by reminding them of what the
world is like. calling them to himself, Jesus
said to them, you know that those who are recognized as rulers
of the Gentiles, lord it over them. The word lord means to
play the tyrant. We only have to look at this
world of ours to realize that the Gentiles have been doing
it for thousands of years and are well practiced and they continue
to do it now. Tyrants raise up Then they are
defeated, and there is a lull for a while, and another one
rises up. And their great men exercise
authority over them. But it is not this way among
you." What a promise from God. It is not this way among you,
but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your
servant." J.C. Ryle had some wonderful words
to say about this. A life of self-denying kindness
to others is the true secret of greatness in the Kingdom of
Christ. The standard of the world and
the standard of the Lord Jesus are indeed widely different. They are more than different,
they are flatly contradictory one to the other. Amongst the
children of this world, he who is thought the most great, who
has the most land, the most money, the most servants, the most rank,
and the most earthly power. Amongst the children of God,
he is reckoned greatest. who does most to promote the
spiritual and temporal happiness of his fellow creatures. True
greatness consists not in receiving, but in giving. Not in selfish
absorption of good things, but imparting good to others. Not
in being served, but in serving. Not in sitting still and being
ministered to, but going about and ministering to others. It's
a promise from the Lord Jesus to these wayward apostles that
there would come a time When Peter, the leader of them, would
fall appallingly in Antioch and lead others into hypocrisy. And yet when Paul comes along
and restores him, he says that Paul was speaking Scripture.
Whenever God's Church is indwelt by the Spirit, And God's people
know themselves to be the chief of sinners and point each other
to the Lord Jesus and not to the greatness of men. Then peace
comes upon God's people. They are caused again and again
to look to the Lord Jesus and not look to men. God causes his
people to look at our brothers and sisters through spiritual
eyes and not through the eyes of this world. And God promises
here to make his people servants. The least is the greatest. The one who gives the cup of
water is greater than the one who is esteemed in the eyes of
the world. True greatness in God's kingdom
is to be a servant, to be a slave, to sow delight in the Lord Jesus,
that rather than asking for our will to be done, we seek His
will and His glory. That's probably...