So read with me please from Mark
chapter 10 and verse 35. And James and John, the sons
of Zebedee, come unto him, that is the Lord Jesus, saying, Master,
we would that thou shouldst do for us whatsoever we shall desire. And he said unto them, What would
ye that I should do for you? They said unto him, Grant unto
us that we may sit, one on thy right hand, and the other on
thy left hand, in thy glory. But Jesus said unto them, Ye
know not what ye ask. Can ye drink of the cup that
I drink of? and be baptised with the baptism
that I am baptised with?' And they said unto him, We can. And Jesus said unto them, Ye
shall indeed drink of the cup that I drink of, and with the
baptism that I am baptised withal shall ye be baptised. But to
sit on my right hand and on my left hand is not mine to give,
but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared. And when the ten heard it, they
began to be much displeased with James and John. But Jesus called
them to him, and saith unto them, Ye know 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. But whosoever will be great among
you shall be your minister. and whosoever of you will be
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. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word. One of the most comforting characteristics
of the Lord Jesus Christ's dealings with his disciples is his patience
and forbearance. How often these men seemed to
miss the mark when the lessons of the Lord appear so unmistakable
and clear. And today's passage brings with
it another example of these disciples. We see James and John come to
the Lord with this request, this self-promoting request. And we see as a consequence of
that, the other disciples getting angry with them and division
coming amongst these followers of the Lord. I'm pretty sure that the other
disciples, the ten, were more angry at James and John because
they got their ask in first than that they had any greater wisdom
with respect to the interpretation of the Lord's words. But be that
as it may, not only did the Lord's disciples fail to grasp his teaching
on numerous occasions, but they acted upon their own mistakes
to dig themselves deeper into the mess of their own making,
so provoking division amongst themselves and anger and jealousy
amongst the disciples. And yet how frequently we all
fall into similar habits of repeating mistakes and acting in ignorance
and justifying our actions as if we're wiser and smarter and
know better than everyone else, when we should and we do know
that we are weak and we are impoverished when it comes to the things of
the Lord. And it is a great comfort, therefore,
to observe, as I say, the Lord's patience and forbearance with
these men, His long-suffering with His disciples. And yet we
wonder when we look at these narratives in the Gospels and
these incidents in the record of Mark, how long can this go
on? That his disciples fail to grasp
the meaning of the Lord's words and misinterpret so drastically
the things that he is conveying to them. These men had been with
the Lord by this stage for almost three years. And it's only a
few weeks now until the Lord's death will take place. These
men are on the road up to Jerusalem right now when the Lord will
be taken and slain by his enemies. And so it's not long to go. But
here we see that they are still fighting with one another, still
arguing amongst themselves about personal preeminence and who
is going to be the greatest amongst them. And yet the Lord patiently
and tenderly repeats their lessons. This doesn't lessen or mitigate
our mistakes when we fall into the same patterns and the same
traps as did these disciples, but it does give us hope for
a gracious response each time we sin and have to go back to
the Lord seeking his forgiveness for our mistakes and our errors.
Matthew, in the parallel passage to what Mark has given us here
in his chapter 10, it tells us that James and John, when they
came to speak to the Lord with this request, also brought their
mother with them. That would be the lady called
Salome. When they came to ask the Lord
this question, they put their mother up in the first instance
to make the request on their behalf. They came to ask this
favour of the Lord. Principally, I think, because
the Lord had very recently told them that they, as his disciples,
would be seated on 12 thrones, judging the 12 tribes of Israel. And so the 12, the 12 disciples,
would exercise authority and power. But that authority and
power would be exercised through their commission to preach the
gospel and take the gospel to the ends of the earth. They had misunderstood again
what the Lord was telling them here. And it almost seems incredible
that James and John, rather than mulling over what the Lord had
said about the thrones and the judging of the tribes, and working
out what the imagery might mean, rather took it into their heads
and decided that, well, they ought to ask quickly if their
thrones can be more prominent than the other disciples. If
they might be able to get one on each side of the Lord's throne. And I hope that I'm wrong to
impugn their motives here. But when Matthew tells us that
they came worshipping him, please let it not be that they thought
that by bowing down to the Lord that they might use that as a
tactic to get the Lord's attention and have their petition granted. The Lord does not benefit by
our worship. We benefit by worshipping Him. And let us never think that our
relationship with the Lord is in some way transactional. As if if we give a little bit
to the Lord, we'll get a little bit back from Him. And if we
give a lot to the Lord, then we'll get a lot back from Him.
Our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, our relationship
with God is all of grace. He owes us nothing and he never
will. Everything that we have from
God, everything that we have of his goodness is entirely due
to his mercy and his grace towards us. We have no rights before
the Holy God as the sinners that we are. We have no kudos, we
have no credit except what the Lord gives us in mercy. Now we can petition the Lord
for help by all means. But let our requests to him not
be made for self-use and self-promotion and aggrandisement. Let those
requests rather be made trusting in the divine promises of what
the Lord has said. Let those petitions be made with
thanksgiving for the past mercies that the Lord has given to us. Let them be made, let our prayers
ascend into the presence of God, ready humbly to submit to the
will of God. Let us ask for the Lord's help
by all means, but let us ask for a right purpose. Let us ask
that we might do good to others and let us ask that we might
make use of what we are given for the honour of God and for
the work of Christ. Never for self-promotion, never
for self-indulgence. And let's not try to negotiate
with the Lord in order to get what we want. Never tell the
Lord that you'll do something for him if he'll do something
for you. That approach reeks of works
and the Lord's people come by faith to receive by faith and
all God's gifts are free, granted out of love, goodness and grace
towards us. Nevertheless, though reflecting
badly on these two disciples, there is good comes from this
incident with James and John and their rather perverse request. Good insofar as it has gained
for the church a record here in the Gospel of Mark of three
blessed statements from our Lord that gives to us all, in our
slow-to-believe hearts, another occasion to receive the pure,
unadulterated gospel from the lips of the Lord Jesus Christ
himself. These three statements are these.
The first one is a beautiful statement of God's covenant purpose. The second is a patient restatement
of true Christian character. And the third is a delightful
confirmation of limited substitutionary atonement. I'll come back to
that in due course. But I want to just take these
three points, these three statements, and touch lightly upon them. They're not all going to get
the same amount of time spent on them. The first one's a little
bit more than the other, so don't worry when I say this is number
two. We are watching, we are watching
the time. But here's the first one, it's
a beautiful statement that the Lord gives us of God's covenant
purpose. In his reply to James and John
and the other disciples when their anger, their animosity
and their displeasure rose at these sons of Zebedee, we find
that the Lord got them all together and once again he had to deal
with the challenges that faced them. And it's a beautiful statement
of God's covenant purpose. Now I'm not going to dwell, I
should say, too much upon the comments concerning the cup that
the Lord was going to drink and the baptism with which the Lord
was baptised. Those refer to his sufferings
and death and that is spoken to a little bit in the third
point in some respects. But I just wanted to mention
as we begin this point that This cup of suffering, I mentioned
it yesterday in the introduction, this cup of suffering and the
baptism that the Lord took, his death, was going to follow the
disciples where they went. In their commission and in their
travels and in their preaching and in their ministry, they would
know what it was that the Lord meant by these words. In fact,
John chapter 15 and verse 18, we're told, if the world hate
you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. If you were
of the world, the world would love his own, but because you're
not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world,
therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said
unto you, the servant is not greater than his Lord. If they
have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. And as far
as these disciples were concerned, they definitely did. Why? Because the Lord had chosen
them out of the world. They were no longer part of the
world system. They were in the world, but they
were not of the world. And the world rejected them as
the world rejects their master and their saviour. And we don't
know the end of all the apostles, but where we do know something
of their end, we find that these men who followed the Lord Jesus
Christ, followed him to the laying down of their lives. That's what I don't want to talk
to you about. What I do want to talk to you about is the Lord's
words in Mark chapter 10 verse 40. And this is this reference
to the statement of God's covenant purpose that I want to draw your
attention to. The verse 40 says this, but to
sit on my right hand and on my left hand is not mine to give. but it shall be given to them
for whom it is prepared. As I say, a beautiful statement
of God's covenant purpose. And let me just mention this,
as it were, in passing. That little reference, it's not
mine to give, in no way implies any superiority or inferiority
between the father and the son. It refers to two distinct offices
fulfilled in this covenant of grace and the covenant purposes
of God. There is a separation of responsibility
between the father who has his work in the covenant and the
son who has his work in the covenant and indeed the Holy Spirit who
also has his separate work in the covenant. So it is not that
one is inferior to the other, but it is rather a separation
of responsibility that this verse is referring to. And it doesn't weaken any equality
within the Godhead. But notice what the Lord Jesus
Christ explicitly says about the seating arrangements in heaven. He says to James and John, James
and John have asked for the seats on either side of the Lord. Positions of eminence, positions
of glory. All the nations in days gone
by recognised that if you got to sit on either side of the
King, the Majesty, then those were positions of highest honour. And look what the Lord says about
that. He says, those seats are for whom it is prepared. Now I don't know if you underline
your Bibles in order to note down little important phrases
and statements that speak to you, but if you do, this is one
of those underline moments. That little phrase, for whom
it is prepared, opens for us and for those disciples surely,
this great covenant purpose of God, the triune God. Salvation
and glory is prepared, it is made ready for certain chosen
individuals. Neither the blessing of grace
nor the recipients of grace are unknown or uncertain to God. God doesn't wonder who's going
to be saved. God doesn't wonder who's going
to believe. God doesn't wonder who's going
to heaven. These are all prepared. We don't
know but God knows. there is a chosen and an elect
people, a people for whom the blessings of glory are purposefully
and unchangeably prepared, made ready, that's what the word prepared
means, made ready beforehand, so that before the Lord Jesus
Christ died, before the Lord Jesus Christ rose again, before
the apostles went out into all the world preaching the gospel.
The identity and the number of all for whom glory is made ready
was already known to God. And that is the consistent message
of all scripture. That is the covenant of grace,
the covenant of peace. There's no question about the
success of that purpose. There is no doubt or uncertainty. These things were prepared beforehand. With the eternal covenant, God
the Father, within that covenant, God the Father chose a people
whom he calls his elect. And he committed that people
into the hands of Christ for their protection, for their deliverance,
for their safeguarding, for their redemption, for their ransom,
and for their liberty. Christ would save that people
from sin and death, no question. The Lord Jesus Christ accomplished
that work when he redeemed them on the cross. It was his great
labour, the great task for which he came into the world. John
17 verse 2 says, that he should give eternal life to as many
as thou hast given him. That's the work of the Father
and the Son in the covenant of grace. That he should give eternal
life by his death, by his substitutionary atonement to as many as thou
hast given him. So their eternal glory was prepared
for as many as God the Father had given God the Son. And when
the Lord Jesus Christ had successfully finished his redemptive work
on the cross, he had redeemed and ransomed and secured all
for whom he died. And as the gospel goes forth
into the world, God the Holy Spirit brings that word with
power to every elect sinner. for whom the Lord Jesus Christ
laid down his life and continues to bring that word with power
until every last one of the number of the elect, every last ransomed
sinner has been born again, converted from death to life and brought
to a knowledge of salvation in Jesus Christ. That is the work
of the covenant purpose of God's grace and peace and mercy. Salvation
is not a matter of man's free will. It is from beginning to
end completely a work of grace and mercy founded upon the terms
of God's everlasting covenant and accomplished by the Father,
Son and Holy Spirit. accomplished for all for whom
it was eternally prepared. That is the weight and the meaning
of the Saviour's words here. James and John might have been
foolish in their request, but it elicited a beautiful statement
from the Lord Jesus Christ concerning this covenant of peace. There are no earthly thrones
in the Church of Jesus Christ, nor are there different levels
of glory in heaven based upon believers' works. We do not expect
degrees of reward in heaven. In heaven, our crowns, our glory,
our seating arrangements will all be based on grace, all prepared
beforehand. Indeed, the Apostle Paul expressly
says that all believers are seated together. There's no preferment,
they're all seated together in heavenly places. No one is nearer
Christ than anyone else, and no one is nearer God's throne
than anyone else. No one will be able to gain a
better seat at the table by their good works. This, from the lips
of the Saviour, is a beautiful statement of covenant purpose. God the Father, in his eternal
purpose, gave to Christ a people to redeem, to reconcile and restore. Their seats, their places, their
presence, their glory is certain, fixed and sure. Here's the second
delightful statement that we find coming from the Lord as
a result of this rather obtuse question or request from James
and John. The Lord gives a patient restatement
of true Christian character. Here's what I mean by that. The
12 were, we're told, much, well, the 12, the 10, were much displeased
with James and John, which probably meant that all 12 of them were
displeased together. So the Lord had to take them
aside to explain once again the true nature of his sufferings
and his purpose and indeed theirs. And how tenderly and patiently
the Lord managed his disciples' frailties and their prejudices.
It's a delight to read the way in which the Lord dealt with
these men. He could have been so much more abrupt and dismissive
of them for their childishness and yet it was not so. They found
it hard to see beyond their fleshy circumstances, but the Lord would
have them lift their thoughts above their own limited ambitions
in order to discover and to learn the wonders of divine mercy and
sovereign grace for the church. The Lord makes reference to the
fact that there wasn't to be any of the authority that was
exercised by the leaders and the governors of the nations
and the world, what Matthew calls the princes of the Gentiles.
There was not to be these lairs in the church. the trendsetters
and the influencers, if you like. There were no princes in the
church. On the contrary, usefulness in Christ's kingdom is measured
by our service. And our glory is to the extent
that we can sacrifice and that we can be of usefulness to the
Lord's people and those around about us. In the Church of Christ
it is men and women who stoop and serve who are the greatest
amongst us all. And the Lord Jesus Christ, of
course, is that great example for us. So here was the Saviour
again with this patient restatement of true Christian character in
service and sacrifice, one for the other. And this was the lesson
that the disciples had to learn. This would be the criteria against
which they would measure their lives in the days to come as
they went out serving the Lord in the Great Commission, not
sitting on thrones lording it over their brethren. And here's
the third point, and it's a third statement that I want us to draw
from what the Lord said to his disciples here. It's a delightful
confirmation of limited substitutionary atonement. Now, that heading
might be a little bit of a mouthful and you wonder, what on earth
am I talking about with all these words? Well, simply this. Here in the Lord's own words,
he confirms that his blood would be shed, his life would be given,
his sacrifice would be made, a ransom for many. That's what he says. That's what
he says. When the Lord Jesus Christ went
to the cross, he went to the cross, he laid down his life,
he shed his blood, a ransom for many. So let us just take that
little phrase and think about it for a moment or two. A ransom
for many. Many isn't everyone. Many isn't all. So what the Lord
is doing here with this phrase is he is limiting the extent
to which the benefits of his death would be granted. to those for whom he died. There
was a restriction, there was a limitation as we have seen
because those for whom the Lord Jesus Christ died were the same
number as those for whom heaven had been prepared by his father
and for whom the choice of the elect had been made. So that
the father's limitation in election and his choice of some out of
all men and women in the world was the same as the Lord's ransoming
work on their behalf. And it is the same as the Holy
Spirit's work in leading and taking the gospel to those upon
whom he applies it with power. Here we see that the Lord Jesus
Christ died in the place of the many. the elect that were placed in
his hands. He died there as their substitute,
that they should gain eternal life. He paid with his own precious
blood the ransom price for their liberty. God, in his anger against
sin, had to be appeased. The righteousness of the law
had to be honoured. and the work of the Lord Jesus
Christ both propitiated the anger of God and satisfied the demands
of the law. and allowed the captives, sinners,
for whom he died to go free and enjoy liberty. That's the meaning
of ransom. The ransom was paid and the captives
were liberated by the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. He paid
with his own precious blood the ransom price of liberty from
the curse of the law, the captivity of sin, and the sentence of death. When the Lord spoke to his disciples
here and spoke these three statements, these three words of illumination
and help and direction and tuition, he gave his disciples several
examples of true apostolic character. Peter and Andrew and James and
John, Philip and Bartholomew and Thomas and Matthew and Simon,
little James, Jude, his brother, and Matthias, who would be elected
in Judas Iscariot's place, learned that day that being seated on
a throne and judging the 12 tribes meant to minister and to serve
the Lord's people. and to teach Christ's doctrines
and Christ's truth to the men and women of this world. But
they learned something else too, that the greatest self-sacrificing
act of divine love and sovereign grace ever witnessed upon the
face of this earth was performed by their Lord for the salvation
of his church and his people. That message, that day, was their
calling for the rest of their lives. That was to be their life's
work, the message that they would proclaim and take to the ends
of the earth. And in time, they would follow
their master by watering the seed of the gospel with their
own blood and their own tears as they drank that cup and experienced
that baptism which he drank and which he was baptised with. For James, that would be very
soon and he would be taken by Herod and he would be killed
by Herod's sword. For John, it would be many, many
years later. But we have to thank these sons
of Zebedee today Their foolish request nevertheless provided
us with such a blessed confirmation of gospel truth, a beautiful
statement of God's covenant purpose, that heaven is prepared for the
people of His choice, a patient restatement of true Christian
character, that those who are greatest are those who are least,
and a delightful confirmation limited substitutionary atonement
by the death of the Lord Jesus Christ for his people. May the
Lord bless these thoughts to us and encourage us in their
contemplation. Amen.