Mark, the 10th chapter. And while
you're turning there, let me read you a couple of verses. Matthew 28 or 2028 says, even
as a son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister
and to give his life a ransom for many. And Mark 10, 45, we're
going to read again here in a minute. It says, for even the son of
man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to
give his life a ransom for many. Now, in Mark's account of the
events that lead up to the Lord making this statement, we find
him telling his disciples how hard it is for those who trust
in riches to enter into the kingdom of God. And after that, as they
were on their way to Jerusalem, he begins to tell them what things
should happen unto him. Let's pick up our reading in
Mark chapter 10. verse 32. And they were in the way going
up to Jerusalem and Jesus went before them and they were amazed
and as they followed they were afraid. And he took again the
twelve and began to tell them what things should happen unto
him saying behold we go up to Jerusalem and the son of man
shall be delivered unto the chief priest and under the scribes,
and they shall condemn him to death and shall deliver him to
the Gentiles. And they shall mock him and shall
scourge him and shall spit upon him and shall kill him. And the
third day shall rise again. And James and John, the sons
of Zebedee, came unto him saying, Master, we would that thou shouldest
do for us whatsoever we desire. And he said unto them, What would
you do that I or what would you that I should do unto you? They
said unto him, Grant unto us that we may sit one on my right
hand and the other on my left in my glory. But Jesus said unto
them, You know not what you ask. Can you drink of the cup that
I drink of and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized
with? And they said unto him, we can. And Jesus said unto them you
shall indeed drink of the cup that I drink of and with the
baptism that I am baptized with all shall ye be baptized. But to sit on my right hand and
on my left is not mine to give but it shall be given to them
for whom it is prepared. And when the 10 heard it they
began to be much displeased with James and John. But Jesus called
them to him and said unto them. Know ye that they which are accounted
to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them and their
great ones exercise authority upon them. But so shall it not
be among you for whosoever shall be great among you shall be your
minister and whosoever of you shall be the chiefest shall be
servant of all. For even the Son of Man came
not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life
a ransom for many. Now in verse 34, the Savior told
them that he would be killed by the Gentiles, the Romans.
But in verse 45, he makes it clear that this was the exact
explicit reason that he came to earth. to give his life for
many, to become the ransom that was required to free his people
from condemnation. And we'll look at that statement
more in depth in a few minutes. Now, this statement that our
Lord made was a result of this request by James and John that
they wanted a place of prominence in the kingdom of God. But the
Lord tells him, you have no idea what you're asking for, he asked
him, Can you drink of the cup where of I drink and be baptized
with the baptism? And in their ignorance of what
was about to come to pass, they replied, we sure can. And the other 10 disciples weren't
too happy with James and John about this request. So the Lord
gives him a brief lesson on how to be great in the kingdom of
God and concludes with this 41st, 45th verse. for even the son of man came
not to be ministered unto but to minister and to give his life
a ransom for many. That's the title I've given this
message to give his life a ransom for many. Now this term that
our Lord uses son of man is found 94 times in the New Testament
and all but five of those are spoken by the Lord himself as
he refers to himself. And this name is also found in
Ezekiel. And the Lord God uses this term
to address Ezekiel himself. We find this term son of man
90 times in the book of Ezekiel. But Ezekiel is never called the
son of man. He is simply called son of man. There is only one who is the
son of man. And that, of course, is the Lord
Jesus Christ himself. And even though he is called
the son of man over and over again, the scriptures make it
abundantly clear that he's not only the son of man, he is indeed
the son of God. He is indeed very God of very
God. Now, if the only scripture we
had to prove this was the first chapter of John, the gospel of
John, that would be sufficient. But this entire book proclaims
this man known as Christ Jesus was indeed God. His name was
called Emmanuel, which means God with us, God right here,
walking among the human race. And many times we refer to Christ
as a God-man, but I was surprised that that term is not used once
in all scriptures to describe Christ, God-man. He's simply
called the Son of God. But the fact that he was God
come to earth makes it even more astonishing to read that he came
not to be ministered unto, but to minister. Now, human reasoning
would say that if God came to earth, he would surely not be
born to a dirt poor couple. And he certainly would be born
in a king's palace, not in a stable surrounded by the smell of animals
and manure. That he would be clothed in raiment
of purple and fine linen. Certainly not the coarse garments
of the common Jew of his day. And he would most definitely
be distinct looking from every other man. And yet he was so
indistinguishable from his apostles that Judas had to kiss him when
those men came to arrest him to make sure that they got the
right man. You can be assured he didn't
look like those silly paintings that you see Otherwise, Judas
could have just said, you can't miss him. He's the guy with the
halo above his head. So we know how silly Don used
to refer to those drawings as silly, and they certainly are. His distinct commonality is one
reason that the Pharisees and others could not believe that
this was God come to earth. They simply looked down their
nose at him as Joseph's son. Joseph son, a common man. With
uncommon abilities. To heal the sick, to raise the
dead. And doing those miracles that they did, the Pharisees
who criticized him daily. None of those were able to do
any of these miracles. I think if the truth were known,
these Pharisees were jealous of our Lord Jesus Christ and
his abilities to do things that they could not. They seem to
be the leaders of the day, and yet they couldn't do any of these
miracles. So even though he was indeed God robed in human flesh,
it is crystal clear to his disciples why he was sent to the father.
He said he came not to be ministered unto, but to minister this word
minister. It has several different meanings,
many of them. with religious connotations. We call pastors
many times ministers, which is another word for servant. But
the meaning of this word is the Lord uses it here is to give
service, care or aid to attend to the wants and needs of another
to give comfort and happiness. What an apt description of what
our Lord Jesus Christ did and does. for his chosen people. He cares for them all the days
of their life from the time they're born until the time he grants
him faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ protecting us from
harm sustaining our lives. I'm sure many of you as me can
look back on our lives before we were given faith and tremble
at the times that we know we came close to death and yet our
Lord sustained us. And He continues to care for
us until the time we leave this world and we finally obtain what
we have so longed for, to see Him as He is in all His glory
and to worship Him throughout the ages of eternity. 1 Peter
5, 7 describes what our God does for us. It says, casting all
your cares upon Him, for He careth for you. He tenderly and gently
treats his people with loving kindness as one would deal with
a helpless little infant. He remembers that we're just
dust. And we know from scripture that
that part of tender care and the love that he shows toward
his people, it sometimes involves discipline. Hebrews 12, 6 says,
For whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth, but even then he
doesn't leave us alone. He tells us through every trial
that we face in this life, he promises my grace is sufficient
for thee, sufficient being exactly enough that is required to meet
the need, not too little, not too much, precisely what is needed. So our Lord says that he came
not to be ministered to, which when you think about it, is an
amazing statement. Now I say that because throughout
history throughout recorded human history you read of kings and
potentates and without exception they enjoy luxuries and comforts
that their subjects did not have access to. It is always always been that
way except for this one glaring example. The one who we call
the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords came to this earth as
a lowly servant, not to be ministered unto, but to minister to others,
to wash the feet of his disciples, to never own anything except
the clothes on his back. He said in Matthew 8 20, the
foxes have holes, And the birds of the air have nests, but the
son of man hath not where to lay his head. You think about
that. The God of this universe did not own a home, did not have
a bed. He spent many nights sleeping
on the ground. That's, to me, unimaginable. And he didn't do that so that
we would, so that any, I should say that any of his day would
brag on him about how much he sacrificed. He did that for us
as he did everything that he did when he walked this earth.
So is it any wonder that many of the people that saw him had
a hard time believing this was the son of God? If you simply
looked at his appearance, it would be logical from a human
standpoint to believe this man was an imposter when he declared
himself to be the son of God. But his works certainly said
something different. You remember in that account
when the Lord healed that man sick of the palsy and those folks
saw him pick up his bed and walk away. And it says they were all
amazed and glorify God saying we never saw it on this fashion.
We have never seen anything like this before. Our Lord Jesus Christ
was the epitome of that old saying, you can't judge a book by its
cover. And every single moment of the Savior's life was him
serving as a minister to others and beginning with his first
miracle that we read of in John chapter two of him turning the
water to wine. I did some research on this. And in the first century, apparently
Jewish weddings were sometimes week-long affairs. And running out of wine, from
what I understood from my reading, would have been a gigantic social
embarrassment. So when the Lord interceded in
this pivotal moment, he ensured that the festivities would continue
and be without shame on the part of the host family. Throughout
the four gospels we read of time, After time, after time, the Lord
ministering to the needs of others, feeding the multitudes, healing
the sick, and even raising the dead. Yet, I cannot find a single
account. Maybe you can. If you can, let
me know later. But I cannot find one single
account of anyone ever ministering to the needs of the Lord. Never. We never read of a time
when someone brought him a meal. We never read of a time when
someone brought him new garments, new sandals. I don't even read
of a time when someone gave him a cup of water to drink. And yet, his entire purpose for
coming here was to be a minister, to serve the needs of others.
And in the closing chapters of all four gospels, We read of him doing the final
ultimate act of being a minister. Of him giving his life of ransom
for many. Now I am not aware. I've done
some research on this too. I could not find a time in human
history when a king gave his life to save his people from
destruction. Never a one time. And yet we find the God of this
universe willingly laying down his life. Our Lord said he gives his life.
A ransom for many, not all. As the Armenians would like us
to believe, but for many. For a great multitude, which
no man could number of all nations and kindreds and people in tongues
that John wrote up in Revelation seven, nine. And we need to pay
close attention here to the words of our Lord Jesus Christ. When
he describes what will shortly come to pass, he said he is to
give his life a ransom for many. He doesn't say that his life
will be taken from him, but he will willingly give it to redeem
his people. In his exposition of the great
shepherd or the good shepherd in John chapter 10, our Lord,
In verse 12 says this, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd
giveth his life for the sheep willingly lays it down. And then
in verse 17, he says, therefore, does my father love me because
I laid down my life that I might take it again. No man taketh
it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay
it down and I have power to take it again. This commandment, our
Lord said, have I received of my father. And Peter told those
Jews on the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter two, that the
Lord Jesus Christ was delivered. By the determinant counsel and
foreknowledge of God. And our Lord told Peter after
he had cut off the ear of the high priest servant, he said,
thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my father and he shall
presently Give me more than 12 legions of angels. That is 72,000 angels that our
Lord could have beckoned to keep him from being taken by wicked
men. And when our Lord stood before Pilate in the judgment
hall, Pilate was amazed at the Lord not answering him. He said
to the Lord, Speakest thou not unto me? Knowest thou not that
I have power to crucify thee and have power to release thee? And what was our Lord's reply
to Pilate? Thou could have no power at all over me. Except it were given thee from
above. Our Lord says my father is giving you the power to condemn
me and to put me to death. Because that is the way in which
I will give my life a ransom for many. That is the fashion
to which I will minister to their needs. Their need to be free
from the power of sin and be made fit to become the children
of God. All of this is described in that
tremendous 53rd chapter of Isaiah. We can never read this chapter
too much. If we read it every hour of every
day, it would not be enough for it's an amazing declaration.
of the ultimate act of ministering to the needs of the elect children
of God. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes
we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his
own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
And because of this incredible act of ministering to the needs
of others, the father made this promise in the last verse of
that chapter. Therefore, will I divide him
a portion with the great and he shall divide the spoil with
the strong because he had poured out his soul unto death. He was
numbered with the transgressors and bear the sins of many and
made intercession for the transgressors. He bore the sins of many that
he came to give his life for as a ransom. This word ransom
means the release of property or persons in return for payment
of a demanded price. Paul speaks of this in Romans
7 verse 6 when he writes, being now delivered from the law, that
being dead wherein we were held, that we should serve to the newness
of spirit and not in the oldness of the letter. God's strict law
held us captive, demanding eternal death as the ransom price for
our sin. And then in Romans 8 verse 21,
Paul writes, because the creature itself also shall be delivered
from bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children
of God, delivered by payment of a ransom. That ransom being
the precious blood of Christ, as Peter writes, as of a lamb
without blemish and without spot. And we rejoice in the fact that
there will not be a single one of the many for whom Christ died
that shall not be given that gift of faith that enables them
to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, that all sufficient sacrifice
that secured our bondage, or I should say our release from
bondage. And we have this assurance that
none shall be lost for whom Christ died because he promised all
that the father giveth me shall come to me. No question about
it. But even though our Savior is now seated at the right hand
of the majesty on high, he continues to minister to the needs of his
chosen people. We know this because of what
we read in Hebrews chapter 7 verses 24 And 25, it says, but this
man, speaking of Christ, but this man, because he continueth
ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood, wherefore he is able to save
them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing that
he ever liveth to make intercession for them. Now, one of the duties
of the Jewish priest, days of old, was to go into the Holy
of Holies with blood, and make intercession for the sins of
the people. And likewise, our great high priest, even as he
made intercession for us by his death, now continues that work
to this day because of his unchangeable priesthood. He ever continues
to minister to our need by pleading his blood for the forgiveness
of our sin before the Father's throne. And in addition to that,
Hebrews 1.14 tells us that God also sends his angels to minister
to our needs as well. It tells us that they are ministering
spirits sent forth to minister, who to? To them who shall be
the heirs of salvation. You notice there it doesn't say
to those who are the heirs of salvation. It says those who
shall be. areas of salvation. That has
a couple different meanings, but one of those is, as I said
before, before our Lord gives us faith in Christ, he sends
those angels to minister over us every moment from the time
we draw our first breath to the time we draw our last. Not only do the angels watch
over the elect of God, they serve them administering spirit. Psalm 991 11. For he shall give his angels
charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways to sustain us,
to comfort us, to minister unto us. And I find that to be absolutely
astounding. The very angels of God, whose
power is almost unlimited. Beyond our comprehension, they
are sent to attend to The needs of wretched sinners. I find that
amazing. But he's not done ministering
to our needs, even at that, because he even uses the rulers of this
world. To unknowingly minister to the
needs of his people. Proverbs 21 one. The king's heart
is in the hand of the Lord as the rivers of water. He turneth
it with or so ever he will. First Peter chapter 3 verse 22
says that Christ Jesus is gone into heaven. And is on the right
hand of God angels and authorities and powers being made subject
unto him. God manipulates the affairs of
this world for two reasons. Number one to bring glory to
his name. And number two for the care and
the good of his people. There are many, many examples
in Holy Scripture of God using the affairs of this world and
arranging the affairs of this world for the good of his people. I just want to mention one. There's
many. We could be here for days looking
at them. But the story of Joseph being sold into slavery by his
brothers, being taken down to Egypt, being thrown in prison
there, but eventually becoming second in command to Pharaoh, All of that was arranged by our
sovereign God. And Joseph told his brothers
this. He said, you thought it evil against me, but God meant
it under good to save much people alive. Our Lord spent his entire life
as a minister, as a servant, giving us an example of how to
serve one another. He told his disciples after washing
their feet, he said, you call me master and Lord. And you say,
well, for so I am. If I then your master and Lord
have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet.
For I have given you an example that you should do as I have
done unto you. His every action as he walked
this earth was an example of how to minister
to the needs of others. Peter wrote in first Peter chapter
2 starting in verse 19. He says for this is thankworthy
if a man for conscience toward God endure grief suffering wrongfully. For what glory is it when if
you be buffeted for your faults, you shall take it patiently.
But if when you do well and suffer for it, you take it patiently.
This is acceptable to God. for even here unto were you called
because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example
that you should follow in his footsteps who did no sin, neither
was guile found in his mouth, who, when he was reviled, reviled
not again. When he suffered, he threatened
not, but committed himself to him that judges righteously. Paul in Monash said Galatians,
he said for brethren, You have been called unto liberty, only
use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love, serve
one another. Minister to the needs of your
brothers and sisters in Christ, both by praying for them and
by our actions to meet their needs. Nowadays, when there's
a tragedy, you hear this every time. Our thoughts and prayers
are with those folks, and that's all well and good. But there
needs to be some action behind those thoughts and prayers. James
wrote of this in James chapter 2. He said if a brother or sister
be naked and destitute of daily food and one of you saying to
them depart in peace be warmed and filled notwithstanding you
give them not those things which are needful for the body. What
does it profit. James is here saying that your
thoughts and prayers as needful and sincere as they may be do
nothing to fill the needs of those destitute brothers and
sisters. Some action is required to minister to those in need. I thought as I was preparing
this message, I thought of a time that I experienced this. Many of you knew our brother
Bob Poncher. Some of you did not. But many,
many years ago, Debbie and I moved here in October of 74. And for
the first year or two after we moved here, we used to go back
and forth to Michigan to see our relatives up there probably
every month or two. But the church was at the end
of Walnut at the old East End School. And Debbie and I were
there getting ready to leave for Michigan. And Bob Pontzer
walked up and was talking to us for a few moments. And Bob
reached in his pocket and pulled out a $10 bill and handed it
to me. Now back in 1975, $10 went a lot further than it does
nowadays. And Bob didn't know it, but that
$10 enabled Debbie and me to stop and get a bite to eat on
the way to Michigan, which wouldn't have been possible otherwise,
because back then we didn't have two nickels to rub together.
And I planned on, we had enough gas to get us to Michigan, and
I planned on borrowing a little bit of money from my mother to
get us back home. But I thought of that as an act
of kindness. And I've thought of it many a
time since then. And our Lord Jesus Christ said
that when we do such things for our brethren, it is the same
as doing it for the Lord Jesus Christ himself. And I'm positive
that if I had asked Bob about that years later, you remember
giving me that, I guarantee you he would have had no idea what
I was talking about. But I remember it and still do. And you know who else does? The
God of this universe. Bob Pontcher handed that $10
to the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Christ spoke of this in Matthew
25. He was talking about ministering to the needs of others and how
he will say to those on his right hand that fed him when he was
hungry, gave him drink when he was thirsty, clothed him when
he was naked, and visited him in prison. He will one day say,
in as much as ye have done it unto one of the least of these
my brethren, ye have done it unto me. The Lord Jesus looked upon helpless
sinners bound for eternal destruction, and he was moved with unimaginable
compassion. He saw their need, and he put
that compassion that he felt into action. In his prayer to
the father recorded in John 17, our Savior said in verse nine,
I pray for them. I pray not for the world, but
for them which thou has given me, for they are thine, and all
mine are thine, and thine are mine, and I am glorified in them. After which he ministered to
the needs of those that were given unto him by willingly laying
down his life for them, allowing his blood to be shed, his body
to be broken, his very soul to be made an offering for the sins
of those for whom he prayed the ultimate act of ministering to
the needs of another. Greater love hath no man than
this. Our Lord said that a man laid down his life
for his friends. This was a fulfillment of the
promise that we read of and that we read of at the beginning of
this message for even the son of man came not to be ministered
unto but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many. Billy, come lead us in a song,
please. All right, stand if you will.
Turn to three.