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[0:00] Mark chapter 10 beginning in verse 32. And they were on the road going up to Jerusalem. And Jesus was walking ahead of them. And they were amazed.

[0:11] And those who followed were afraid. And taking the twelve again, he began to tell them what was to happen to him. Saying, see, we are going up to Jerusalem.

[0:22] And the Son of Man will be delivered over the chief priests and the scribes. And they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles. And they will mock him and spit upon him and flog him and kill him.

[0:35] And after three days, he will rise. And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to him and said to him, Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.

[0:48] And 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 glory. Jesus said to him, you do not know what you are asking.

[1:01] Are you able to drink the cup that I drink or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am to be baptized? And they said to him, we are able. And Jesus said to them, the cup that I drink you will drink.

[1:15] And with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized. But to sit at my right hand or at my left, it is not mine to grant. But it is for those for whom it has been prepared.

[1:29] And when the ten heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John. And Jesus called them to him and said to them, you know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them.

[1:41] 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 slave of all.

[1:54] For even the son of man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. Oh, Father, let your spirit take your word now and apply it to our hearts and minds.

[2:10] In Jesus' name, amen. How many of you have ever seen a really good and a really gifted illusionist?

[2:23] Who can do things that you really can't quite explain and you don't understand. And if they're really good enough and they do big enough illusions and big enough tricks. It's almost a little scary because you begin to think, is there something else going on here?

[2:37] How in the world are they able to do that? I like to watch these guys. I haven't seen it in a long time, but several years ago there were a couple of these illusionists who were on TV quite a bit. And when they were on TV they would walk around the streets.

[2:49] Have you guys seen them? They'd go around the streets and they'd perform their tricks for just random people that were out on the streets. It was usually younger people that they would do them for. And the thing that was most entertaining to me in watching that was not the illusions that they performed, but the ways in which people reacted.

[3:05] I mean people went, when they couldn't explain what they were seeing, they went crazy. I remember watching it one time and a young lady actually began to cry right there in the middle of the street.

[3:16] She was just so kind of at the same time awestruck but then afraid and couldn't figure out what it was. And she just started crying right there in the middle of the street with all of her friends around her because of the illusions, the tricks that this man was able to perform.

[3:31] There is sometimes when we encounter those kinds of things that we see it but we don't understand it and we can't quite explain how it happens.

[3:42] Even when we know that it's a trick. Even when we know that there's a rational, logical explanation behind it and if we had the right people who knew the secrets, we can learn the secrets of those tricks.

[3:54] Even when we know those kinds of things, it's still just kind of, it's strange, it's odd and it's difficult to know what to think about what you're seeing.

[4:06] And I think that mixture of kind of being awestruck at what is seen and then at the same time being a little afraid and having fear mixed in is exactly what the crowds here that are following Jesus sort of experience.

[4:22] But of course with Jesus we know that the things that His disciples saw and that at times the crowds were able to bear witness to, those things far surpass any sort of trick, any sort of illusion that anyone would be able to perform.

[4:38] I don't know anyone who can speak and the weather obeys them. I don't know anyone who can touch a blind man who's been blind from birth and suddenly he can see.

[4:49] I mean when Jesus came into town, He would come into town and there would be people who could not hear or speak and after they left Jesus they were running and shouting and rejoicing. There were blind people who had never seen before who would go from Jesus being able to see perfectly, clearly everything around them.

[5:06] There were people who could not walk who would leap for joy after meeting with Jesus. These are the kinds of things that became regular and routine throughout the ministry of Jesus.

[5:17] And now as we walk through the Gospel of Mark, we've sort of been eyewitnesses of many of those things. And now we've arrived at a stage in this particular Gospel where Jesus and His disciples are on the final leg of His ministry.

[5:33] They are heading toward Jerusalem where we know that Jesus will be handed over, betrayed, killed, and then three days later He will rise in victory over death.

[5:44] And Jesus is steadily marching toward those events along with His disciples. He is now in the southern region of Judea. The vast majority of His ministry was done in Galilee in the north where He was from.

[5:59] But now they've moved down to Judea where Jerusalem is and crowds have followed them there. People in Judea, we've been told elsewhere in Mark, have heard about Jesus. They're aware of His power.

[6:10] They're aware of the miracles that He's capable of doing. And now here we find Jesus on the road to Jerusalem in the midst of Judea with a crowd already gathered, a group of people following Him.

[6:23] And listen to what Mark says about them. It says in verse 32 that they were on the road going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them, and they, and I think that's a reference to the crowds, the people who were following Him, and they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid.

[6:41] Amazement mixed with fear because of the things that Jesus had done, because of the things that He was able to do that they could not possibly explain away.

[6:52] Even Jesus' enemies, the Pharisees, at times had to admit that Jesus was a man of great power, both in His miracles and in His teaching. There was no denying the authentic power of Jesus.

[7:06] And these people, though they cannot explain it, they are amazed by it. And because of their inability to explain it, I think there's a mixture of fear in there.

[7:17] This is a very real account of how people responded and reacted to Jesus. But despite all the miraculous things that Jesus had done, and all the things that they had seen Him do, I think that what Jesus does here, just a couple of verses later, is at least on a par with some of His greatest miracles.

[7:41] Notice what He does. He takes the disciples aside, as He often does in this gospel. And He says there, in the middle of verse 32, it says, Taking the twelve again, it's not the first time He's taking them aside.

[7:54] He says, He began to tell them what was to happen to Him. Jesus is now in full prophetic mode, and He's telling His disciples, now for the third time in this gospel, He's telling them explicitly what is going to happen to Him in Jerusalem when they get there.

[8:15] And the detail that Jesus uses in the next couple of verses is astounding. Jesus is not giving vague generalities, so that no matter what He says, you can somehow interpret it to have come to fruition later on.

[8:32] He's very specific, He's very detailed in the things that are going to take place. In fact, I want you to take a look. Let's look at what He says, and then we'll skip a few chapters later, and we'll see the specific fulfillment of these things.

[8:44] There's really six distinct things that Jesus mentions here. After arriving in Jerusalem, He says, See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and here they are. He says that the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes.

[8:58] He says that they will condemn Him to death, and then they will hand Him over to the Gentiles, deliver Him over to the Gentiles. And then these Gentiles, He says, will mock Him, they will spit upon Him, and they will flog Him.

[9:15] And then the Gentiles, after doing all of those things, then they're going to kill Him. Those are five things. And then the last, the most amazing thing that He predicts is that, number six, after three days, He will rise.

[9:27] So note those six things that He predicts there. He's going to be handed over to chief priests and scribes, they're going to condemn Him to death, hand Him over to the Gentiles. The Gentiles will beat Him, mock Him, spit upon Him, all those things.

[9:39] The Gentiles will kill Him, and then He will rise again in victory. Six things. These are not vague. These are not generalities. Very specific. Now, turn over just a couple of pages in your Bibles to Mark chapter 14, and I'll show you the very detailed fulfillment of Jesus' prophecy.

[10:00] We begin to see the stirrings of His initial betrayal in verse 10 of chapter 14 when Judas, Judas begins to plot to betray Jesus.

[10:12] But then we actually see it take place if you move down toward the middle of chapter 14, verse 43. Jesus is in the Garden of Gethsemane, and it says that immediately while He was still speaking, Judas came, one of the twelve, and with them a crowd with swords and clubs.

[10:29] Now, note this. From the chief priests and the scribes and the elders. And then look down in verse 53.

[10:40] These men who come with clubs from the chief priests, scribes and elders, in verse 53, it says that they led Jesus to the high priests and all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes came together.

[10:54] So point number one, fulfilled. Specifically, Jesus is delivered over, betrayed by Judas, given into the hands of the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders.

[11:05] It's specific. He is handed over. And then look at the things that they do. Move further down in chapter 14. They're questioning Jesus. Jesus is on trial before the Sanhedrin, the Jewish religious leaders.

[11:20] And then in verse 62, we read this. The high priest frustrated. In 61, I'm sorry, says, Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed? Specifically, who are you? And Jesus says, I am.

[11:32] And you'll see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power and coming with the clouds of heaven. Verse 63, And the high priest tore his garment and said, What further witness do we need?

[11:42] You have heard his blasphemy. What is your decision? And they all condemned him as deserving death. So now he's been handed over to the religious leaders.

[11:54] Now, secondly, the religious leaders have condemned him to death. They've decided that he is worthy of death for the things that he is saying. And now next, he's to be handed over to the Gentiles.

[12:07] Chapter 15, verse 1, As soon as it was morning, the chief priests had a consultation with the elders and the scribes and the whole council. And they bound Jesus and led him away and delivered him over to Pilate.

[12:20] Pilate, the Roman governor, the Gentile ruler of Judea. He's been betrayed. He's been condemned by the religious leaders as worthy of death. And now he's been handed over to the Gentiles to Pilate, the Roman ruler.

[12:36] Verse 16 of chapter 15, it says, And the soldiers led him away inside the palace and they called together the whole battalion and they clothed him in a purple cloak and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on him and they began to salute him.

[12:50] Hail, King of the Jews! And they were striking his head with a reed and spitting on him and kneeling down in homage to him. And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the purple cloak and put his own clothes on him and led him out to crucify him.

[13:08] Here it is, the mocking, the whipping, the beating, the spitting, here it all is, right here, just as Jesus predicted. And then, fifthly, Jesus dies.

[13:22] Verse 37, chapter 15, And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. To the detail.

[13:35] He has been handed over to the chief priests. They condemned him as deserving of death. He has been handed over to the Gentile authorities. They have beaten him and mocked him and spit upon him and now they have killed him.

[13:48] And there's only one more step in fulfillment of this prophecy. And we see it in chapter 16. It says in chapter 16, verse 3, The women were saying to one another, Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?

[14:02] And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back, was very large. And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side dressed in a white robe and they were alarmed.

[14:15] And he said to them, Do not be alarmed. You see Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified. He has risen. He is not here. So all six of those very specific predictions that Jesus gives all the way back in chapter 10, to a T, every single one of them is fulfilled as we march our way through to the end of this gospel.

[14:42] You see, the reason why I think that this prediction of Jesus is at least on a par with some of his greatest miracles that we've already seen him perform in this book is because of the incredible precision of Jesus in telling his disciples exactly what was going to happen to him.

[15:04] Jesus is aware of everything that's going to happen and he's aware of everything that's going to happen because he knows the plan of his father. This was God's plan from eternity past.

[15:17] All of these things unfolded in detail as God had planned them out. I think maybe too often we think of God and we think of his authority and we think of his sovereignty and we have this image of God being sort of the ultimate divine chess player.

[15:39] So that sometimes we think that well God has a goal in mind and he's going to reach that goal no matter what and sometimes we move in unexpected ways and we do things but God is such a good chess player that he can always move the pieces around to get the outcome that he desired in the beginning.

[15:57] But that's not at all the picture of God's sovereignty that we see in this passage or that we see throughout the scriptures. God is not a master chess player reacting in a masterful way to the unexpected things that we happen to do.

[16:12] Everything that happened here was pre-planned by God. Not simply known in advance by him either. We might say well no he just knows what's going to happen far far more than that.

[16:24] Hold your place here in Mark chapter 10 and I want you to turn over to Acts. I want to look at a couple of passages here that relate directly to what we're seeing in Mark chapter 10. In the book of Acts in chapter 2 Peter is delivering his famous Pentecost sermon.

[16:42] And in verse 29 Peter begins to sort of draw his sermon to a close by speaking of David and what David predicted and what David saw before him.

[16:54] all right. And he ties all of the things that are happening into prophecy so we see this predictive element in everything that's going to happen. But the reason that Peter is so certain that the prophecies have been fulfilled is because of what he says just before this discussion of David's prophecy.

[17:16] Take a look up in verse 23. Peter speaking to the leaders in Jerusalem says this Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.

[17:36] Notice that delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God. It does not mean that these men were not involved because you crucified him yet your crucifying him was a part of his divine plan.

[17:51] And if it's not clear enough there it's crystal clear in chapter 4 where the disciples are praying. And this is what they say in their prayer in chapter 4 verse 27.

[18:03] For truly in this city were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus whom you anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.

[18:18] You notice that? Pilate, Herod, mentioned by name. All the Jews involved, religious leaders, all the Gentiles involved, Roman soldiers, everybody else involved, all every single one of them he says to do whatever God's hand, whatever God's plan had predestined to take place.

[18:40] God is not a masterful chess player nor is he merely knowledgeable of all things to come. God is the architect and the designer of human history and he has laid out every detail and Jesus knows the details because they're deciding for him.

[19:00] Jesus in predicting his death in such great detail bears witness to the sovereignty and power of God the Father and to the divine knowledge of God the Son here.

[19:15] God is on a par with his greatest miracles not merely because of what he does but because of what it reveals about him. He is absolutely sovereign and he knows all things which means for us that the cross of Christ the death and resurrection of Jesus were not God's last ditch effort to try to set things right.

[19:44] they are not God's sudden response to the surprising entrance of sin into the world. They are his divine sovereign plan.

[19:59] You cannot fully understand what the cross of Christ is all about unless you understand that it was God's plan all along.

[20:09] Even the prophet Isaiah predicts centuries in advance what would happen to Jesus but he says that it was the will of the Lord to crush him.

[20:22] This does not only not surprise God this is the unfolding of his plan. The cross of Christ demonstrates for us the supreme authority and sovereignty of God.

[20:37] God's But there is of course in this passage more revealed about the cross that I want us to see and it's at the very end of this particular passage in verse 45.

[20:49] We'll get to the stuff in the middle of a second. But verse 45 Jesus is speaking to the disciples responding to their frustration and their power grabbing and he says in verse 45 for even the son of man came not to be served but to serve and here's what I want you to pay attention to and to give his life as a ransom for many.

[21:11] So you might say okay so the cross is a part of God's divine sovereign plan. That's great. Why did he plan it in advance? Why was this his plan? What was what was God the father attempting to accomplish in the death of his son?

[21:28] And what is Jesus trying to accomplish by willingly obeying his father and going to the cross? What's the goal here? What's the end game? And Jesus says the end game is that he might give his life as a ransom for many.

[21:45] That word ransom is a very very important word. In fact this particular form of this word is only found in this passage and in Matthew's account of the exact same saying of Jesus.

[21:59] But we know what this word means. This is a common word in the Greco-Roman world that was used to often describe the buying of a slave's freedom.

[22:12] So often in the ancient world, slavery in the ancient world was not what we typically think of. We think of a race based slavery and we have these horrible, terrible images when we hear the word slavery because that's our history here in America.

[22:25] But in the ancient world slavery was very different. It was not based upon your race or your place of origin or anything like that. Oftentimes in fact slavery was voluntarily entered into by a slave himself.

[22:38] Not all the time. Sometimes people were prisoners of war and they became slaves because of that. Sometimes people were born into slavery and that's true. But many many times in fact some scholars think the majority of the time at this point in history most slaves sold themselves into slavery either because they had such great debts that they could never hope to pay off those debts and so it was easier to just sell themselves into slavery.

[23:03] Therefore they were guaranteed not only that their debts are considered erased but also so that they would be cared for and they wouldn't have to worry about their future anymore.

[23:14] Or sometimes they would sell themselves into slavery because there were no better work options available. So they were willing to give themselves over to slavery. But once you were in it it was very difficult to be released from it.

[23:31] In that way slavery is slavery no matter how you get into slavery no matter the time period. Once you're a slave you're a slave. Unless of course there was somebody willing to pay a ransom for you.

[23:46] And the most common use of this word in this time in history was meant to pay for the release of slave or a captive of war.

[23:57] You bought them. You ransomed them out of it. This was a term of commerce in the first century. And Jesus says that he came to lay his life down and the very laying down of his life was to serve as a payment.

[24:16] A payment that would set many people free. you always ask the question if a payment is made to whom is the payment made. Right? Don't you begin to think well who's he paying off here?

[24:29] Who are the many slaves of? Or a better question might be who is payment due? And the idea has been floated frequently in church history that Jesus in giving up his life as a ransom was making a payment to Satan.

[24:45] And that idea is based upon the fact that scripture does teach that those who are apart from Christ are indeed slaves of Satan and slaves of sin. And that's a true statement. And we see this idea surfacing popping up here and there in church history that in the death of Jesus he was sort of paying off Satan so that Satan would set the captives free.

[25:05] Probably one of the most common modern examples where you see this is some of you have read or some of you may have even watched the Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. Most of you are probably somewhat familiar with that.

[25:17] And do you remember, maybe you just saw the movie, but do you remember the particular scene where Edmund has been captured by the witch and he belongs to her, he is her slave, and Aslan goes and makes up his life as a payment to the witch.

[25:34] He trades his life to the witch for Edmund and so in that particular story the witch obviously is representative of Satan and Aslan is representative of Christ. So he pays a ransom to this satanic type character in order to set Edmund free.

[25:49] We see that kind of idea of understanding of the payment of a ransom at times in people's thinking. I don't think that's at all what Jesus is saying here.

[26:00] And the reason that I don't think that is because nowhere in the New Testament do we find that being taught. Rather what we find in the New Testament is that when Jesus laid down his life for us, he was paying the debt for sin that we owed to his father.

[26:16] There is one payment due for sin. Eternal, everlasting, death, and torment in hell. The one payment that every sin and every sinner deserves and that we owe is that we must receive the everlasting wrath of God upon us.

[26:37] Sin demands it. And Jesus comes and says, I'll pay that price for you. I will be your ransom and I will buy you out of slavery because on the cross I will endure my father's wrath for you.

[26:57] And he buys freedom for the men. Freedom for the men. It is a costly, costly freedom that you and I enjoy.

[27:10] the life of Jesus, not only his physical life, but the full endurance of the infinite wrath of his father and the arm of the cross.

[27:22] Jesus does not cry out to God, why have you forsaken me for no reason at all? love. You imagine being the divine second person of the trinity who not only in the thirty some odd years of your life, but for all eternity past had received the infinite, perfect love of your father and loved him back with perfect, infinite love, the most perfect of all love relationships imaginable.

[27:49] The definition of love is that which flows between the father and the son. You experience that for eternity past and then have a day where that love is cut off and in its place the unending wrath of your father is poured out on you.

[28:04] That's a steep, steep cost to pay for the ransom of me. And yet, Jesus says, this has been planned from the beginning.

[28:17] And this is why I lay down my life. Understanding that and seeing that demands, at least as I can see in the text here, at least two responses.

[28:30] We see it really in the broader context. I don't know if you guys can remember all the way back to two weeks ago, to the sermon that I preached two weeks ago, where we covered verses 13 through 16, where Jesus talks about coming to him, receiving the kingdom of God like a child.

[28:46] And what I told you two weeks ago is that the father regards as his own children by adoption, those who come to him in childlike faith. The father regards as his own children, those who come to him by simple, childlike faith.

[29:04] So the first response that this chapter in Mark demands to the revelation of what the cross is all about, is that we respond in trust and faith in his death for us.

[29:17] If you're still trying to pay your own way out, then you have not responded in childlike faith. If you're still trying to earn God's favor through what you do, or if you still think that you need to explore different avenues in order to arrive at a spiritual place where you feel like you're okay with God, then you have not responded in childlike faith to the ransom that Jesus paid for you.

[29:45] This is not a complicated matter. You do nothing, and he does everything. You get no glory, he gets all the glory. It is a very simple transaction.

[29:58] If you understand what he paid for on the cross, the only proper response to begin with is simple faith that that ransom is enough for you.

[30:11] It demands that kind of response. There's another response that I think should follow that response of simple trust and faith in Christ. And we see that response, I think, in two ways.

[30:24] We see it, first of all, in the passage that we looked at last week of the rich young man. So that understanding the cross of Christ, understanding what that means for us, would secondly not only mean childlike trust and faith in Jesus, but it would also mean an abandoning of all other competitors for him.

[30:48] It means that we lay aside everything that might sneak its way in the first place in our hearts. It means that we lay aside all personal selfish ambition, all attempts to gain the upper hand, all attempts to be the better person, to be the man, to be the woman, wherever you are in your life.

[31:09] It means that we lay all those things aside and the life of those who have put childlike faith in Christ should be a life of continual repentance and continual laying aside of every sin and every temptation that might entangle you and get in the way of your devotion to Christ.

[31:30] It's not only here in the story of the rich young ruler that we saw last week, but I said earlier that this is the third time in this gospel that Jesus has predicted his death.

[31:41] And it's interesting that all three of those occur in three chapters in a row. Chapter 8, chapter 9, and now chapter 10. And there is a twofold pattern. There's two things I want you to see, a pattern that I want you to see in all of these predictions.

[31:54] The first one is not very difficult to see if you pay attention here. So go to chapter 8. What you see is chapter 8 in verse 31. It says that he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the strives and be killed and after three days rise again.

[32:15] And he said this plainly. So here's prediction number one. And then look what comes right after prediction number one. First of all, Peter can't believe it because it runs contrary to Peter's understanding of how the kingdom of God is going to come.

[32:31] And so Jesus decides to straighten out his disciples' understanding of what it means to enter the kingdom and what it means to be a follower of his. And he says in verse 34 that if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

[32:48] You see, understanding the cross means a life of continual repentance. It means a denying of your own cravings and your own desires and your own ambitions.

[33:01] It means laying those down for the sake of Christ. It demands it. And then we can see this inside again. Chapter, in chapter 9.

[33:12] In chapter 9, verse 30. And Jesus is going to predict his death. It says, they went on from there and passed through Galilee. And he did not want anyone to know, for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, the Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of the man.

[33:26] And they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days, he will rise. And then the next story is almost shocking. Jesus just said, I'm going to lay my life down.

[33:37] I'm going to die. And then in the next story, verse 33 through verse 37, these disciples begin to argue about which one of them is the greatest of all the disciples.

[33:51] Hey guys, I'm going to lay my life down for you. Okay, but what we would really like to know is which one of us is the best. That makes absolutely no sense. And yet, that's what happens here. Jesus asks them, verse 33, he says, why were you discussing on the way?

[34:05] But they're ashamed, but they were silent. For on the way, they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. And so again, Jesus tells them, verse 35, if anyone would be first, he must be last of all.

[34:18] You guys did not catch it back in chapter 8, so let me say it to you again. You want to follow me? Lay aside your own ambitions and follow me. Repent.

[34:28] Turn around. Go this way rather than that way. And you would think that they would get it, right? But they don't, because look at our passage this morning. In between Jesus' prediction of his death and the explanation of his death, at the end of our passage, we encounter James and John, sons of Zebedee, verse 35.

[34:49] They came up to him and said to him, teacher, we want you to do for us whatever you ask? It's a terrible question. He said to them, what do you want me to do for you? And they said to them, grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.

[35:04] So they still don't get it. They're still thinking earthly kingdom. They're still thinking glory here on this earth. And just like the kings of this world, we have their number one and number two on their right hand and left.

[35:15] Jesus, when you set up your kingdom, we want one of us to be on your right and one of us to be on your left. Let us be in that place. And Jesus, Jesus, thinking of what he's just told them, says, you don't understand, guys.

[35:32] When I establish my kingdom, you don't want to be on my right hand and left hand. That's the last place that you want to be. We're going to see at the end of this gospel, men on his right and left, thieves, murderers, men worthy of death, hanging beside Jesus.

[35:50] This is right hand, this left hand. They can't do that. Jesus says to them, that's not mine to give. It's for those who have been prepared. Remember, every detail, every detail, plan, prepare, and advance.

[36:04] James and John can't hang next to Jesus. Two guys have already been chosen, I'd ask. They've been marked out long ago. I can't give you that. But, Jesus tells them, but, they're going to come a day.

[36:21] There's going to come a day when you'll drink the cup I drink, and you'll be baptized with the baptism. There's going to come a day, James and John, when you suffer. You will pay a price. I'm going to pay the ultimate price, but don't worry.

[36:33] You can't be in my right hand and left hand now, but there's going to be a day when you follow my footsteps. You'll pay a price. You'll suffer. James will be murdered. John will live to be an old man.

[36:45] He'll suffer through many things and be exiled on an island as an old, old man. He'll suffer. He's coming. Of course, the other disciples are angry about these kinds of things.

[36:56] They hear that James and John have done this. In verse 42, Jesus decides to call them all together to straighten things out. And this is how he straightens it out. He says, you know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles are ordered over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them, but it shall not be so among you.

[37:14] Whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. And here's the ground for that. Here's the reason for that. For even the Son of Man cannot be served, but to serve.

[37:29] If we rightly understand the cross, then not only will we respond in this childlike trust in Him, but we will respond by following His example of laying down our lives.

[37:43] He calls us not to be power-hungry people. He calls us not to be the kind of people who want to be held in honor by those around Him.

[37:55] He calls us to be slaves and servants to everyone around us. And newsflash, guys, we're not good at that. We don't excel at being a slave to anyone.

[38:09] We're not good at serving people around us. This doesn't come naturally for us. This only comes as a result of the work of God's Spirit within our hearts.

[38:20] But Jesus demands it of those who would follow Him. Now, if you need additional motivation, I said there were two sort of parallels that run through these three passages.

[38:33] I'm only showing you one, and that's the connection between the death of Christ and our laying everything down. But there's another parallel that's important that I think, for us, can serve as motivation.

[38:46] Go back to chapter 8. I'm just going to show you this quickly. Chapter 8, verse 31. We pass over it quickly sometimes.

[38:57] But it says that He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things. Mark that term, Son of Man down. Again, chapter 9, verse 31.

[39:11] He was teaching His disciples saying to them, the Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. Again, chapter 10, verse 33.

[39:23] See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over the chief priests and the scribes. Three times that Jesus predicts His death in this gospel. Three times He refers to Himself as the Son of Man.

[39:38] There's a reason for that. In fact, there's a two-fold reason for that. The first reason is obvious. You don't need to know any Old Testament background. You don't need to know a whole lot at all.

[39:49] The first reason is you can see it in the name itself. Son of Man. There is implicitly an emphasis upon the humanity of Jesus. Why did Jesus connect the term Son of Man with His suffering each time?

[40:04] Because Jesus comes and suffers as one of us. He suffers as a human being. So there's this immediate recognition that Jesus is not able to endure more pain than us because He has some sort of divine tolerance to pain.

[40:21] No. He suffers as a man. He feels everything we would feel if those things were done to us. He's a man who endures on behalf of mankind what we ought to suffer.

[40:33] But there's something bigger, much bigger. Hold your place in Mark and turn all the way back in the Old Testament to the book of Daniel. Book of Daniel, chapter 7.

[40:47] Daniel, of course, one of the greatest prophets of the Old Testament. Daniel, also one of those who gives detailed and detailed prophecies. And in Daniel, chapter 7, verse 13, he looks ahead several hundred years and he says this.

[41:04] I saw in the night visions, Jesus, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man. And he came to the ancient of days and was presented before him.

[41:18] And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away.

[41:31] And his kingdom, one that shall not be destroyed. If you know the Old Testament and you can bet that these disciples did, as soon as you hear son of man, the first thing you picture is a man riding in glory on the clouds to come to the ancient of day to receive an everlasting kingdom.

[41:51] You see immediately a divine Messiah from the line of David come to receive his eternal kingdom from God the Father.

[42:02] That's the image that comes into your mind if you're a Bible believing Jew in the first century. And each time Jesus turns it on its head and he begins by saying son of man and they would have rejoiced at that.

[42:14] And then he says he's going to die. And that would have made no sense. But for us, for us we begin to see in it a vision of the future of the son of man beyond death.

[42:29] Even beyond resurrection. Did you notice earlier when we were sort of walking through the fulfillment of the prophecies and Jesus stood before the religious leaders.

[42:42] We read this earlier, verse 62 of chapter 14. Did you notice what Jesus said to the high priest when they asked him, Are you Christ? Are you the Messiah? Is that who you are?

[42:52] Now, Jesus said, I am. And you will see the son of man seated at the right hand in power. Here's Daniel. And coming with the clouds of heaven.

[43:06] I'm coming. I'm coming on clouds. And I'm coming for glory. And I'm going to own it all. And it all belongs to me. And that makes them mad enough to put him to death.

[43:17] And what they don't know is that before he receives his kingdom and glory, he has to die. They are fulfilling all of God's plans in their attempt to prove that Jesus is not the one who will fulfill God's plans.

[43:34] And Jesus, Jesus says to his disciples, the son of man is going to suffer. The one who comes in glory, the one who receives the kingdom is coming to suffer.

[43:45] Which means, he's saying to his followers, I'm not denying that I'm a king. And I'm not saying that I don't have a kingdom. And I'm not saying that there won't be great glory in that kingdom.

[43:58] And I'm not saying that you won't share in the glory of that kingdom. What I'm saying is, you follow my pattern. And I die first. I lay my life down first.

[44:09] I'm a slave first. I'm a servant first. And then on that day when I return, then I will receive glory. You want everlasting glory. You want infinite joy in my presence forever.

[44:22] Then now in this life, you serve. You become a slave. And you lay your life down as I do. And then on that day, you will reign with me in glory.

[44:36] You want motive beyond just a grit determination to follow the example of Jesus. Here's your motive. infinite glory.

[44:47] Limitless joy. If you trust in him like a child. If you lay your life down and follow him. Those things are offered.

[45:00]  And the question is, will we respond the way that these scriptures demand that we respond? And the question is, will we pray through the전 through the전 through the