My question was, "Why are you here this evening?" If you had to, with a pencil on a piece of paper, write what you should be receiving from a service like this, what would you put down? Why has God chosen us to gather again and again like this, to hear God's Word read, to sing these hymns again, to hear God's Word preached, to hear the Law and look at ourselves, once again, in the mirror of the Word of God? What is it that God wants us to receive? Well, I would answer that this way; there should be surely two things that you get every time you come to one of these services.
Remember the Depth of Your Need
Here's the first one: you should, once again, remember the depth of your need for grace. You should, once again, remember what sin does to all of us. It is so easy for us to minimize our need; it's so easy for us to forget the ravages of sin; it's so easy to forget that although the power of sin has been broken, the presence of sin still remains. The other thing that you should get, every time, is the glory of God's provision in the Lord Jesus Christ; that there is no sin that is more powerful than His forgiving, delivering, transforming grace.
And this passage that we're looking at is really that kind of passage; it points to the wonder of the provision that God has made in Jesus. In fact, if you look in your 'Order of Worship' there at our passage from Mark 10, page 6 in your 'Order of Worship,' or you look in your church Bibles on page 846, you will notice that this passage is really bracketed by the Cross. The Cross begins the passage; the Cross ends the passage; and what's in between is really an argument, a very pointed, clear, at some points, shocking argument, for why the Cross is necessary.
Because you see in the life of the disciples, even though they're chosen ones, even though they've been following Christ, even though they've been in His school of discipleship, even though they've seen His power and compassion, you see a case study of what sin does to us. And you realize that there is no hope for us; there is no hope for these men apart from the power of the transforming grace of the Lord Jesus Christ; they need the Cross; we need the Cross; every day, your living argues for the necessity of the Cross.
And every day, in some way, all of us give empirical evidence that the Cross of Jesus Christ is the only place for our hope. We find ourselves in this final movement of the Gospel of Mark as Christ now physically moves toward Jerusalem, and He's followed by sort of two identified groups: one is the disciples, and then there's this looser circle of followers. And they are on the road to Jerusalem. Jesus is walking ahead of them; He knows exactly where He's going; He knows exactly what He's going to.
And it says, "They were amazed, and those who followed Him were afraid." I would argue that the disciples, at this point, are in a constant state of amazement. Jesus has just taken them beyond every category they have in life. His responses, His call, His message, His actions and reactions are just different than what they've known, different than what they would have predicted. And as He is discipling them, He's teaching them the new culture and the new way of His Kingdom; they are just astonished and amazed.
And the ones who are following Him are a bit afraid; perhaps that's because the crowd who was around Jesus would've seen the Scribes and Pharisees; they would've seen the way they are on the attack; they are trying to set up Jesus; they are trying to demonstrate that He's a fraud, a charlatan, and untrustworthy; they are concerned about the growth of this gathering crowd; they are beginning to plot His demise. And Jesus is heading to Jerusalem for the ultimate collision. He's heading right into the epicenter of the influence of the Scribes and Pharisees.
He's either crazy or suicidal or He's a man on a preordained mission. And what Jesus describes, once again, the third time, is the suffering that is the epicenter of His reason for coming to earth. And as He describes this now in greater detail than He's ever described it before, He's not describing a defeat; He is not describing something that's in the way of God's plan; He's describing God's plan; because in His trial, in His being mocked, in His torture, in His death on the Cross, in His resurrection, is the single place where the hope of the universe can be found!
This One came to be the Lamb! And there's a way in which every movement from the very first verse of Mark has been moving toward this moment; this is the "Lamb of God who has come to take away the sin of the world." This is the One who will give His life a ransom for many; this is the epicenter of the Gospel! This is not just a great teacher; this is not just a compassionate man; this is not just a wise prophet; this is not just a holy man - this is the Lamb of God! And the Lamb whose sacrifice every human being who has ever lived is in desperate need of!
Imagine Following Jesus
Now imagine if you're following Jesus, imagine you hear Him describe the terrible things that He's described, that He is actually going to be tried in a travesty of justice; He will be condemned; He will be delivered over to the Gentiles; they will do horrible things with this Son of God; they will mock Him; they will spit on Him; they will flog Him; and ultimately, they will crucify Him as a criminal. If you had been hearing that, what would have been in your mind; or maybe more importantly, what would you have said next?
This is where I just want to detail you this very, very clear picture of what sin does. Now, I want to pastor you for a moment before we look at that. I want to encourage you not to step away from this passage and say something like this to yourself, "Dumb disciples, they never got it right. I'm glad I'm not like one of them." Because the Bible is very clear in saying that these characters of the Scripture are people like us, that they sit as examples for us, that these moments provide mirrors for us so we could see ourselves as we actually are.
I think I have said this to you before; I'm not embarrassed to repeat it: We want to think that no one has a more accurate view of us than we do. And that's why, when someone points out a sin or failure or weakness to you, you get a little bit defensive, and you activate your inner lawyer, and you begin to marshal arguments for your righteousness. And so we need the mirror of the Word of God; we need to see these things; we need to pray that God will deliver us from these kinds of responses, sort of the universal things that sin does to all of us.
Immediately upon Jesus talking about the horrible suffering He would face, James and John come to Him and say, "Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you." How amazing is that? "Jesus, we would like to hand you this blank page and have you endorse it." Now, let me just detail five things that I think are important to see in this that just lift out of this passage, and I want to make some other explanations of the passage. First thing that sin does: sin causes us to be incredibly discompassionate and insensitive to the plight and needs of others.
2 Corinthians 5:15 says, "That Jesus came so that those who live would no longer live for themselves." The DNA of sin is selfishness. We were meant to live in loving, worshipful community with God and loving community with our neighbor, and sin turns us in on ourselves. It's incredible at this point that the amazing lack of sympathy in the disciples, lack of as if they hadn't heard what Jesus just said about what He's going to face. It's an amazing moment. There is another thing that you see here: "Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask you."
He said to them, "What do you want me to do for you?" And they said to Him, "Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory." Be humbly honest this evening. If Jesus would say to you, "What do you want me to do for you?" what would you answer? What would be the first thing on your list? "Jesus, You could make my children easier to parent; my husband or wife more agreeable and compliant; my grass have less weeds and not grow as fast as it normally does; an amazing increase in my finances; physical health; predictable schedule"?
What would be your one thing? What is amazing in this request of the disciples is not just its arrogance and outrageousness, but it's utter lack of sense of what these men actually need. What they actually need, desperately need, that they are now proving that they need, is the very redemption that Jesus has come to offer them; they have no sense in this request of their spiritual need, no sense of how desperate their condition is apart from the work of this Jesus. And that enables them to make this incredible request.
Sin Loads Us With Self-Interest
Sin loads us with self-interest. This request, "Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory," has nothing to do with the plans and purposes of the Kingdom of God. These are not men who are saying, "We want this position so we can exercise more influence and spread this beautiful message of redemption around the world--that's not what it's about. This is kingdom of self-stuff! This is desire for prominence, desire for position, desire for power, desire for that special place.
It's that 'me-ism' that sin produces in all of us. What do you want? What would be your one thing? As Jesus then says, and I'll come back to this, "Guys, you don't know what you're asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I will drink or be baptized with the baptism which I am baptized?" what is the response of these men? Without a thought, "We are able." The pride, the incredible self-confidence of this moment; again, no sense of their own vulnerability and weakness, no sense of the lameness that sin leaves us with, no sense of need.
One final thing you see here. When the ten hear, verse 41, of the request of James and John, they're angry! You know why they are angry? Because, James and John got to Jesus first. They're angry at the thought that these two guys would get an advantage that they didn't get. You see, here's what all of this means; again, it's so important to remember that sin pushes me to the center of my world, the one place where I must never be. Sin really does make it all about me. Sin does load me with self-interest, with pride, with jealousy - jealousy is about "I deserve and you don't" - and all of those things argue that we need rescuing grace.
Here is why: these are conditions of the heart. I cannot deliver myself from these things. It's these things in my heart that make me a law breaker, that make me want to write my own rules, to be a sovereign over my own life; and because of those conditions of heart, I am not able to escape my own sin; I'm not able to live in a way that's pleasing to God; I stand in desperate need of His rescue. And I'm amazed, as I read these passages, at the patient grace of Jesus. I mean, He actually has, with these men, a very loving, a very instructive, a very patient conversation, that leads them from where they are to where they need to be.
What incredible grace! Look, if you would, at verse 38: "Jesus said to them, 'You do not know what you're asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?'" Well, the answer to that is, "No, you're not able." That cup and that baptism are used in Scripture to talk about the suffering of Christ. And there is a way in which the disciples were not going to be part of that suffering because there were elements of that suffering; they were absolutely messianic; they were absolutely reserved for Jesus.
On the other hand, He says, "The cup that I drink you will drink, and the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized. You guys don't understand; rather than being princes and dukes in My Kingdom, rather than this life of prominence and rulership, by grace, I'm calling you to suffer." Jesus will say later, "If they hated me, they will hate you as well." And then he says, "Look, position in My Kingdom is not about the politics that you play; it's not about what you have earned; it's about the sovereign plan of God.
This Kingdom operates according to His will." Jesus calls The Twelve together, and let me just read for you the last few verses. "You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be a slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."
This Kingdom Does Not Operate That Way
Jesus says this, "You've got this whole thing wrong. This Kingdom that I've called you to be part of does not operate the way the kingdoms of this world operate. It's not, again, about prominence, and power, and possessions, and your pleasure as a result of all those things. Here's what you're called to: you're called to be a slave." Think about that. There's nothing in the life of a slave that he determines. Every aspect of the life of a slave is determined by the will of another. Every aspect of his life is a picture of dependency on another.
All the boundaries of his life are set by the rules of another; all of his energies are lived for this success, glory of another. There's a way in which the whole life of a slave is expending personal energies for the sake of another. Here's what Jesus is saying, "It will never be about you; it will never be about you; it's about Me; it's about My plan; it's about My glory; it's about My grace; it's about My Kingdom. And I've called you to lay down your will, lay down your way, lay down your plan, lay down your dreams for you, and to find joy in every aspect of your life being dictated by the will of Another."
Do you find joy in that? That God lays claim to every aspect of my life; He lays claim to my mentality, my emotionality, all of my gifts, all of my relationships, all of my possessions, all of my private and public moments, all of my moments of leisure and work, all of my joys, all of my sorrows, all of the things that make up the life of Paul Tripp, He lays claim to. The rule of His Kingdom is this, "Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven," and in order for that to happen, my will must die!
That's what His grace is doing. His grace comes to release you from your bondage to you, from your slavery to your own will, so that you would find joy in the thing for which you were created; you would find joy in living in every moment of your life, public and private, for the sake of His glory, for the furtherance of His Kingdom, for the success of His will. "That's the Kingdom I've called you to; you get it all wrong, boys!" And I think we do too. We can turn the message of the Gospel into a system of theologicalalways-right-ism that is about the pride of knowing; and somewhere, this glory of the Savior is lost in that because it's about human glory.
And I can argue you into a corner because I know more than you and I feel the buzz of having done that. That pollutes the Gospel of the Kingdom! We can think that because we are seeking to live inside of God's boundary's, because, by His grace, He has taught us things about how we are to live, that we're better than other people, and this message of grace can end up being a message of condemnation. The church can be a place where people seek power and prominence rather than the life of a slave. Here are the rules, the way of this Kingdom: "My will, and you find joy in the daily moment-bymoment, every place in your life, service of the plan, purposes, will, glory of Another."
Now listen, that will only happen in the lives of self-serving sinners by means of transforming grace. And Jesus ends by saying, "For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and give his life as a ransom for many." "Even I have not come to escape suffering; I have come to suffer; I have come to do the will of My Father - that will, formed before the foundations of the world, that I would be the Lamb, and I would give My life a ransom for many." Would you find joy in praying this evening, "Your Kingdom come, Your will be done, right here, right now, in my marriage; right here, right now, in my finances; right here, right now, in my thoughts; right here, right now, in my desires; right here, right now, in my relationships; right here, right now, with my gifts; right here, right now, with my parenting; right here, right now, with my career; right here, right now, at my university.
Your Kingdom come, Your will be done?" That's where transforming grace is taking us - finally delivered from our own sovereignty, to find joy in every area of our lives being submitted to the will of the King of kings. Let's Pray: Lord, although the disciples were unique in their calling, they surely are not unique in their struggle. We look into the mirror of the responses of these men and we see ourselves; and in seeing ourselves, we see our need of grace. And we celebrate, again, Your willingness to come; You who could have called 10,000 angels to deliver You from any suffering, You were willing because You knew that there was no other way.
Lord, may we open our hands to You; may we open our hearts to You; may we say with open hands and open hearts, "Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth it is in heaven." In Jesus's name, Amen.
