back to index2022-04-03 Preparing for His Coming Pt.3
00:00:00.000 |
Okay, if you could turn your Bibles with me to Matthew 16, 13 to 16. 00:00:11.840 |
We're continuing our series to prepare us for the Passion Week that's coming. 00:00:18.060 |
And so I wanted to go through chronologically. 00:00:21.240 |
We started in the book of Isaiah, the prophecies and the expectations of the Messiah. 00:00:26.840 |
And then now, you know, the birth of Christ and the announcement. 00:00:30.000 |
And then now Jesus is headed toward the cross and he is transitioning from his public ministry 00:00:37.880 |
And so the things that he says here is to get his disciples ready for what's coming. 00:00:42.600 |
And so we're going to be going through the Gospel of Mark, chapter 8, 9, and 10. 00:00:49.960 |
And in those passages, the certain things that he says to prepare them. 00:00:53.660 |
But chapter 16, 13 to 16 is a parallel passage that I want to read. 00:00:57.520 |
And then we'll be jumping into Mark after that. 00:00:59.740 |
So Matthew 16, 13 to 16, and then I'll read verse 21. 00:01:05.400 |
Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he was asking his disciples, "Who 00:01:13.200 |
And they said, "Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, but still others Jeremiah, 00:01:19.200 |
He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" 00:01:23.480 |
Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." 00:01:28.640 |
And then verse 21, "From that time, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go 00:01:32.840 |
to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders, chief priests, and the scribes, and 00:01:38.080 |
be killed and be raised up on the third day." 00:01:42.200 |
Heavenly Father, we pray for your grace to help us to understand this text. 00:01:50.420 |
And as we prepare ourselves, Lord God, to celebrate, to remember, to walk with Christ 00:01:56.320 |
in his last day of life, physical life, help us, Lord God, to know you, to love you, to 00:02:03.480 |
be united in every way, physically, emotionally, spiritually, that we may understand his heart, 00:02:11.640 |
that we may understand his suffering, that we may also celebrate in his glory. 00:02:17.900 |
So we pray for your guidance and your Holy Spirit to teach us this morning. 00:02:24.360 |
This question that Jesus asks his disciples, "Who do you say that I am?" 00:02:30.320 |
Based upon how you answer this question, your whole trajectory of life will change. 00:02:37.600 |
I'm talking to the choir here because we're inside the church, you're at a Bible teaching 00:02:41.880 |
church where we're doing Bible studies, digging through scripture, so, you know, we would 00:02:46.600 |
automatically think that this is not necessary. 00:02:49.240 |
I would assume that you have an orthodox view of who Jesus is. 00:02:54.680 |
In our culture, we have all kinds of opinions. 00:02:58.160 |
Muslims, if you've ever talked to a Muslim, they'll say that they also believe in Jesus, 00:03:02.780 |
but the Jesus that they profess is just a prophet. 00:03:07.640 |
So if you ask them, they say, "No, we believe in Jesus too." 00:03:11.120 |
But obviously the Jesus that they proclaim is not the Jesus of the Bible. 00:03:16.040 |
Hindus will also say that they believe in Jesus, but the Jesus that they believe is 00:03:23.480 |
So as they worship all kinds of different idols, that they will just add Jesus to the 00:03:28.480 |
many hundreds, thousands of idols that they follow. 00:03:32.880 |
And so oftentimes you ask somebody who's trying to share the faith with them, you say, 00:03:39.820 |
But clearly their Jesus is not the Jesus that we believe in scripture. 00:03:43.840 |
Jehovah Witnesses will also say that they believe in Jesus, but their Jesus is a created 00:03:55.360 |
So though they may use the name Jesus and the gospel superficially may sound the same, 00:04:00.340 |
we know that the Jesus that they profess is not the same Jesus. 00:04:04.320 |
Mormons will also say that they are believers of Jesus, but their Jesus is only the highest 00:04:11.800 |
And eventually that we will, if we work hard enough, that we will also be like Jesus and 00:04:18.340 |
And so the Jesus that they profess clearly is not the Jesus of the Bible. 00:04:23.260 |
But we're not confused about this Jesus here. 00:04:27.200 |
Majority of us, maybe there's a few of you maybe confused, but majority of us here are 00:04:31.560 |
here because we know the difference between the gods that they profess, even if they use 00:04:36.280 |
the same name, is not the same Jesus that we profess. 00:04:40.120 |
Our struggle is not with that, because we can see that clearly. 00:04:43.920 |
If you know even a superficial understanding of scripture, you know that the Jesus that 00:04:47.880 |
they teach is not the same Jesus that we worship. 00:04:52.280 |
The struggle for us is even within the evangelical, even within what we would profess to be, profess 00:04:59.600 |
to be orthodox in teaching, people have different opinions of Jesus. 00:05:05.640 |
Is Jesus an angry God who is always ready to pounce? 00:05:10.000 |
He's a holy, holy, holy God who will not tolerate any sin. 00:05:13.240 |
And whatever you do, like Jesus is going to pounce. 00:05:15.780 |
And every bad thing that happens in your life is because God is punishing you for something 00:05:19.560 |
that you've done wrong, because God is a holy, holy, holy God. 00:05:23.600 |
Or is Jesus an all loving God, that because He died for us, that even though He doesn't 00:05:29.680 |
want us to sin, that even if you live a life of rebellion, even after, that God forgives 00:05:38.480 |
And that no matter what we do, God is not going to change our eternal destiny. 00:05:43.500 |
And so is that the Jesus that's professed in the scripture? 00:05:47.240 |
He doesn't care about our holiness, because it's just about His holiness. 00:05:54.080 |
Some today, especially in the last maybe year or two, there's been a big divide in the churches. 00:06:04.280 |
Primary call of Jesus, is He telling the church now that our primary task needs to be to feed 00:06:10.800 |
the poor, the people who are oppressed, to deliver them, and so the churches have divided 00:06:19.580 |
And so this question of who do you say Jesus is, is crucial, not only in our proper theology, 00:06:27.580 |
but knowing who Jesus is, our understanding of the biblical Jesus has direct effect on 00:06:34.800 |
how we run the church, what we teach, how we live our lives. 00:06:40.440 |
The reason why all this is relevant is because the whole purpose of Jesus' ministry with 00:06:46.400 |
His disciples is to get to this point where Jesus would ask, "Who do you say that I am?" 00:06:53.000 |
So I'm going to try to give you a brief timeline and the chronology of what is happening. 00:07:01.040 |
When Jesus asks this question, it happens right after Jesus feeds the 5,000. 00:07:06.840 |
And so the feeding of the 5,000 that is recorded for us in all the Gospels, but in particular 00:07:12.120 |
in John chapter 6, Jesus feeds the 5,000 and every single person that was there, so 5,000 00:07:19.200 |
is the number of men that were there, if you count the women and children, easily it could 00:07:24.220 |
So this is the largest crowd that He's had and every single person there saw the miracle 00:07:31.960 |
And so as a result of that, many of them said they wanted to forcefully make Him king. 00:07:38.720 |
But at the end of that chapter, Jesus says, "The only reason why I fed you is so that 00:07:44.800 |
And His popularity grew so vast that He just could not rest. 00:07:51.280 |
So He would break away and go to the other side of the lake and they would find out He's 00:07:55.240 |
not there and they'd pack up their bags and they would not leave Him alone. 00:07:58.240 |
And when they finally find Jesus on the other side, Jesus says to them, "You do not come 00:08:04.520 |
You come to Me because you ate bread and you want more." 00:08:13.040 |
If you do not eat of My flesh and drink of My blood, you cannot have any relationship 00:08:17.880 |
And as a result of that, it says in John 666, from that point on, He said, "Many of the 00:08:27.540 |
And so typically when we think of Jesus' rejection, we think of Jerusalem. 00:08:31.720 |
He's riding on the donkey, He's headed toward the cross and say, "Crucify Him, crucify Him." 00:08:36.340 |
But the public rejection of Jesus actually happened right after the feeding of the 5,000. 00:08:42.680 |
So as soon as that happened, Jesus begins to pay, turn His attention toward His disciples. 00:08:47.600 |
So He takes Him up to the upper part of Galilee in Capernaum and He begins to prepare His 00:08:56.720 |
And after Peter makes this confession, He begins to slowly, if you look at the timeline 00:09:01.920 |
and the geography, Jesus begins to slowly move down Galilee to Samaria and then eventually 00:09:08.460 |
to Bethany and then to Jerusalem and then to the cross. 00:09:12.560 |
So when He's asking this question, He already has His mind set to begin to move. 00:09:18.440 |
That's why after the confession in verse 21, it says, "From that time, Jesus began to show 00:09:27.500 |
So in other words, that time meaning when the disciples finally truly understood who 00:09:33.320 |
You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God. 00:09:37.140 |
And He said, this is not something that you found out by yourself. 00:09:44.780 |
So you think about it from the disciples' point of view. 00:09:50.020 |
You know, we suspected, but Jesus was always kind of like, you know, slippery with who 00:09:55.700 |
Even though He did say it, but He says, you're right. 00:10:00.300 |
Messiah meaning the one, I am the one who come to deliver you. 00:10:05.380 |
Not only am I your king, I'm the Son of the God. 00:10:09.480 |
And so He says, after that, right, now that you know, now that it's confirmed, we're ready 00:10:16.660 |
But right after that, He said, because of that, He says, I'm going to go to Jerusalem 00:10:22.060 |
and the elders, the chief priests and the scribes, they're going to kill me. 00:10:29.780 |
If you're the king, you know, the disciples were probably thinking, well, if you're the 00:10:33.900 |
king and you're the Messiah and you're the Son of God, let's go. 00:10:38.900 |
Let's go to Jerusalem and build this kingdom that we've been waiting for. 00:10:43.780 |
All the prophets have been talking about how when the Messiah comes, He's going to overturn 00:10:47.240 |
the world and He's going to bring peace and everything that they've been dreaming of is 00:10:54.060 |
So the disciples were probably thinking, yes, we knew it. 00:11:00.040 |
But He said from that time on, He said, no, I'm going to go. 00:11:06.260 |
But I'm going to suffer and I'm going to die. 00:11:12.620 |
And you know how sometimes you have this paradigm and you think one way and somebody says something 00:11:16.700 |
that doesn't fit and you just, it just doesn't register. 00:11:21.740 |
Now, I debated whether I should tell this story or not, but I'm going to give you a 00:11:26.700 |
This is probably inappropriate, but I'm going to tell you anyway. 00:11:33.980 |
So I was not around females much because we moved almost every single year. 00:11:38.700 |
So we had family friends who were females, but all three of us, we were just, you know, 00:11:46.220 |
So the reason why I tell you that is because I knew nothing about females, only through 00:11:52.860 |
And so there was a lot of personal hygiene stuff that females had. 00:11:57.620 |
And I'm not going to, you know, go into details. 00:11:59.940 |
I did not understand until I got married and people usually ask me like, didn't you take 00:12:17.060 |
And then after I got married, Esther told me like what every female, this is, I'm 24. 00:12:34.380 |
But the thing is I've been around it and I didn't understand this. 00:12:37.300 |
I was a youth pastor as early as I was 19 or 20. 00:12:40.540 |
And I remember, and there's so many stories I could tell you, but I remember one particular, 00:12:45.940 |
we were going up to the retreat and we just stopped by the bathroom and I'm driving this 00:12:49.860 |
van and one of the female teachers taps you on the shoulder and says, Hey Peter, we need 00:12:55.900 |
We just, you know, like 10 minutes ago we went to the bathroom and he said, we need 00:13:07.260 |
Like that's a, literally that's what I was thinking. 00:13:13.260 |
And by she's like, and she couldn't believe that I, you know, that I didn't understand. 00:13:19.960 |
So because they demanded, I pulled over and they went in and whatever it was, it was in 00:13:23.460 |
a brown paper bag and they came back and the whole time I was like, Oh my gosh, I can't 00:13:27.220 |
believe that I had to pull over to get makeup. 00:13:38.180 |
I used to be a janitor, you know, when I was 19, 20 years old, at Hughes Aircraft in Fullerton. 00:13:43.920 |
And I, I cleaned bathrooms for eight hours a day from five to two in the morning. 00:13:49.900 |
And so whenever I go to the ladies bathroom, they had an extra basket in there that I did 00:13:55.480 |
Cause there's a, there's a, okay, this is, I'll just finish it here. 00:14:00.400 |
They have a separate trash can and then they have a separate bag inside the stall. 00:14:05.800 |
So it was my job to empty all of that and put new bags in. 00:14:09.200 |
But the whole time I was thinking, why do they need this tiny little trash can in here? 00:14:18.940 |
When Esther told me what, what that is, I'm like, what? 00:14:26.960 |
And I can't, for days I'd be driving and it's like, Oh, that's why they wanted me to pull 00:14:36.160 |
And I was like, Oh, that's what the bags were for. 00:14:41.520 |
And one time I dropped it by mistake and all the content fell out and I did not understand. 00:14:49.200 |
And like all that time my mom would have like makeup removers, but why does she need a whole 00:14:58.840 |
It's like, so all this stuff that I didn't understand for 24 years, it just like the 00:15:07.360 |
It was such a big part of, you know, every female's life. 00:15:12.160 |
I heard it, you know, I heard it, I was around it, I've seen it, but because I didn't have 00:15:18.200 |
a framework to, to accept this or understand this, I just had my own idea of what they 00:15:24.400 |
were and some of the stuff was very frustrating. 00:15:27.520 |
You know, it wasn't until that came into view. 00:15:29.800 |
It's like, Oh, all these pieces, like the puzzles just finally came together. 00:15:33.400 |
This is such a bad illustration, but, but I couldn't think of anything that, that illustrates 00:15:41.080 |
this so well because the disciples, this is so bad. 00:15:51.160 |
I mean, the disciples like hearing so clearly. 00:16:01.560 |
In Mark chapter 8, 31 to 37, Jesus said, "He began to teach them that the Son of Man must 00:16:05.880 |
suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the scribes 00:16:10.200 |
and be killed and after three days rise again." 00:16:13.160 |
And then verse 32, it says, "He was stating the matter plainly." 00:16:18.400 |
So Mark goes out of his way to tell us that they shouldn't have missed this because Jesus 00:16:24.440 |
made this very plain and the word for plain could either be translated boldly or openly. 00:16:34.320 |
But the disciples would hear this and Peter's response is, "He took him aside and began 00:16:40.880 |
Remember, Peter is the one who just said, this is in years later, who just said, "You 00:16:54.560 |
And then right after that, he takes Jesus aside and he rebukes him and the audacity 00:17:04.280 |
I don't believe that Peter was doing this for sinful reasons, not in his heart. 00:17:11.800 |
I think he genuinely loved Jesus and you could clearly see that. 00:17:15.720 |
You know, if you read the gospels, Peter, I mean, loved Jesus. 00:17:21.600 |
In fact, Peter says in Matthew 26, 33, "Even though all may fall away because of you, I 00:17:28.520 |
And I don't think that when Peter said that, he was joking. 00:17:33.600 |
In fact, remember at Garden of Gethsemane, Peter was the one who took the life out. 00:17:38.720 |
And if you read the context, historical context of that, the guards who came probably outnumbered 00:17:47.800 |
And these are trained soldiers of the temple who came to get him. 00:17:51.480 |
And Peter took out a sword and said, "Let's go. 00:17:54.760 |
I mean, this is the guy who would walk out into the lake. 00:18:04.280 |
So when he said, "I will never, even if they all do, I won't." 00:18:09.600 |
But here's the key to what Jesus says, what went wrong, not only with Peter, but with 00:18:16.580 |
Verse 33, he said, "But turning around and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and 00:18:24.860 |
Remember this is the same guy where Jesus said, "Upon this rock I will build my church 00:18:28.860 |
and gates of Hades will not prevail against it." 00:18:31.480 |
You know, you can imagine the pride in his heart, even though he was referring to the 00:18:40.600 |
And to that same guy, when he says he's going to build his church because of his confession, 00:18:54.240 |
You're going to build this church upon Satan? 00:18:58.520 |
But he says, this is what he says, "For you are not setting your mind on God's interest, 00:19:17.760 |
When Jesus says, "The reason why you missed me, the reason why you don't understand what's 00:19:22.080 |
going on is because you have the interest of man and not God's." 00:19:30.920 |
The danger of misplaced love and loyalty oftentimes is our greatest fault. 00:19:39.600 |
Our problem is not oftentimes with the obvious false gospels. 00:19:47.560 |
If you know the Bible, even just elementary, if somebody said, "Jesus was not resurrected 00:20:02.560 |
We can recognize that, and that doesn't easily penetrate into the church. 00:20:07.840 |
But what we struggle with is tweaked priorities. 00:20:13.680 |
That in our loyalty, oftentimes to our families, to a decent way of life, providing, oftentimes, 00:20:40.280 |
Loving Christ, but loving the things that are good more. 00:20:45.360 |
See, good is a long life, loved by community around us. 00:20:52.960 |
Our children, taking care of them, paying for bills. 00:20:56.560 |
Plenty of time to enjoy the hard work that we've done, and have plenty of time and money 00:21:06.560 |
Buy some nice things and live peacefully with our neighbors. 00:21:10.240 |
Be generous to the people around us when they are in need. 00:21:16.200 |
To love and to be loved by all the people around us. 00:21:23.860 |
But the problem is that oftentimes what is good competes with what's best. 00:21:33.640 |
To follow and trust, even if that path leads to greater suffering. 00:21:38.680 |
Maybe even forfeit sometimes what is good, so that we can have what is best. 00:21:51.360 |
Best is whatever leads to the maximum glory of God. 00:21:55.640 |
Even at times when it seems to forfeit what is good. 00:21:58.920 |
See, Peter and the disciples had their minds set on what is good. 00:22:10.060 |
When Jesus says, "I'm going to the cross," it just didn't register. 00:22:16.840 |
And so even as Jesus is telling them, "I'm going to die. 00:22:24.700 |
They're thinking of something completely off the wall. 00:22:27.500 |
He says in verse 34, "And he summoned the crowd and his disciples and said to them, 00:22:30.680 |
'If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow 00:22:36.700 |
For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake 00:22:42.780 |
For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? 00:22:46.180 |
For what will a man give in exchange for his soul?'" 00:22:50.300 |
You know, we typically think of denying ourselves and picking up the cross means, you know, 00:22:54.760 |
God presents all these good things in front of us and then he says, "You can't have it." 00:23:01.420 |
But in reality, what he's doing is the very instinct that we have for self-preservation, 00:23:08.100 |
and self-preservation includes our family and children and our loved ones. 00:23:12.740 |
Our natural instinct for survival is killing us. 00:23:18.780 |
So what he's saying is, he's not presenting what is good and then saying, "You can't have 00:23:23.740 |
Now I want to live the rest of your life to suffer, to deny yourself, to win over temptation." 00:23:28.660 |
And then when you get to heaven, hopefully in glorification, if you've taken enough shots 00:23:32.900 |
to yourself, if you lived hard enough and sacrificed enough and suffered enough, hopefully 00:23:39.260 |
you'll make it to heaven and glorify and then all your rewards are up in heaven. 00:23:46.540 |
He's saying when he says to deny yourself, to deny the very thing that caused Adam and 00:23:55.060 |
When they rebelled, they didn't rebel, saying, "I want to worship idols and I don't love 00:24:01.940 |
They just wanted what God had for themselves. 00:24:12.800 |
But it is in their search for survival, they began to search for life outside of God. 00:24:25.380 |
And that's why Jesus says, "If you don't recognize that true life is on the other side of the 00:24:30.220 |
cross, that you need to deny yourself, then you need to put away your old life." 00:24:36.980 |
The problem and the struggle that you and I have is the temptation to add Jesus. 00:24:42.660 |
To have what the world has and I want to have peace of mind too to go to heaven. 00:24:49.260 |
I want to have all the comfort and all the peace and all the safety and all the proper 00:24:53.180 |
education for our children to travel everywhere everybody else goes. 00:24:55.900 |
And then to add Jesus to that so that I could be even better on top of everything that I 00:25:01.660 |
have, that I would also have the peace of mind that when I die I'll be in heaven. 00:25:07.140 |
Not realizing the very thing that you think is bringing life is actually is what's causing 00:25:13.580 |
It's this desire to live outside, pursuing life, thinking that there is life there. 00:25:20.860 |
What Jesus is saying, "No, that's not where life is. 00:25:23.980 |
Actually that's leading you to greater death." 00:25:29.460 |
We hear it in Ecclesiastes, we hear it from people who have gone before us. 00:25:32.940 |
We hear people who are multi-billionaires and have all the accolades of the world and 00:25:37.260 |
then they jump off a building because something went wrong and then we just couldn't fathom 00:25:42.380 |
They had everything that we desire and yet they jumped off it. 00:25:46.740 |
Maybe something went wrong in their childhood because it doesn't fit our paradigm. 00:25:51.940 |
Because we live all our lives trying to get what they have. 00:25:57.020 |
It is into that that Jesus is speaking to is our very instinct to live. 00:26:13.700 |
He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to attain what he cannot lose. 00:26:23.640 |
He understood that true life is in Christ and he lived that way and he died that way. 00:26:29.180 |
And there's a reason why this young man who died decades ago, we still speak about him 00:26:35.620 |
because it's consistent with what we see in Scripture. 00:26:40.220 |
Right after this encounter, Jesus takes James, John, and Peter to the Mount of Transfiguration. 00:26:48.380 |
He made that confession but now he wanted to make sure they hear from God himself. 00:26:52.780 |
God's been speaking to you from a distance but now you're going to hear his audible voice 00:26:55.740 |
to tell you to confirm before he goes to the cross so that they have these witnesses that 00:27:00.900 |
can say after the resurrection, "I heard him audibly." 00:27:06.860 |
So the whole thing that Jesus was trying to do, more than, you know, when you go out, 00:27:11.820 |
make disciples, this is what you need to do, you know, make sure when you go to this person, 00:27:16.260 |
and yes, he did teach them that, but the primary thing that he was trying to teach the disciples 00:27:21.540 |
is that they may be able to have the right confession of Jesus. 00:27:26.820 |
The right confession, right view of who Jesus is. 00:27:31.380 |
After that, Mark chapter 9, 30 to 37, "As he is making his way to Jerusalem, from there 00:27:37.140 |
they went out and began to go through Galilee, and he did not want anyone to know about it, 00:27:42.180 |
for he was teaching his disciples and telling them, 'The Son of Man is to be delivered into 00:27:45.860 |
the hands of men, and they will kill him, and when he has been killed, he will rise 00:27:52.900 |
So he's giving more specific revelation as he goes, but in verse 32, "But they did not 00:27:57.420 |
understand the statement, and they were afraid to ask him." 00:28:03.060 |
You ever get behind in something so bad that you can't even ask questions? 00:28:10.420 |
Like my parents moved around so much, you know, every single year we were in a different 00:28:15.380 |
school, so whenever they would do something and I didn't understand, I just thought, "Oh, 00:28:19.580 |
maybe they were taught before and I didn't hear it." 00:28:22.020 |
So I was embarrassed to even ask questions, you know? 00:28:25.420 |
It's like, if I asked them a question, what if people laughed because it was such a basic 00:28:35.820 |
You were the one that embarrassed other people. 00:28:39.380 |
I think the disciples are so behind, you know, and they just, because they didn't understand. 00:28:45.580 |
Like you're the Messiah, you said, you're the Son of the Living God, and you're going 00:28:58.420 |
Maybe Jesus said something early in the morning and I wasn't there. 00:29:04.740 |
So they were so behind that they were afraid to ask Him. 00:29:07.940 |
Verse 33, "They came to Capernaum, and when He was in the house, He began to question 00:29:14.740 |
But they kept silent, for on the way they discussed with one another which of them was 00:29:24.440 |
They heard Him because Jesus, it says, Mark says, He said it very plainly. 00:29:27.900 |
They heard it, but they didn't understand it, so they kept on going. 00:29:31.060 |
He said, with their own framework, that when we go to Jerusalem, this is going to happen. 00:29:44.180 |
Now every single one of them were great because they're handpicked disciples of Jesus Christ. 00:29:50.500 |
But the competition wasn't with the other people. 00:29:58.240 |
See if we were to compete with people who are far from us, every single one of us would 00:30:03.440 |
wake up every single day thinking, thank God I'm in the United States. 00:30:08.800 |
Because we have more money than 99% of the world. 00:30:17.460 |
I remember years ago when, some of you guys may remember the hanging Chad. 00:30:23.880 |
Remember the Republicans, Democrats, and the vote was so close and the presidency was in 00:30:27.360 |
line and that thing that they poked through because it was done physically a while back. 00:30:33.360 |
And then they had Chad that was hanging and say, did they actually mean to vote for, you 00:30:37.760 |
know, vote for Gore or for, who's the other guy? 00:30:45.120 |
They went all the way to the Supreme Court and these guys who basically superpowers, 00:30:50.000 |
who had access to the military, went all the way up to the Supreme Court and the Democrats 00:31:02.360 |
If there's any time that a civil war would break out, it would be then. 00:31:10.360 |
They're complaining and griping, but they went back to work. 00:31:12.360 |
And I was thinking, man, if this happened in any other country, it would have been civil 00:31:16.240 |
They would have borne arms and went out to the street and physically try to take, because 00:31:21.280 |
And I remember thinking like, this is a great country. 00:31:24.800 |
Even with that much division, the country was able to continue. 00:31:29.520 |
If we woke up and compared ourselves to other countries and people who are far away, we 00:31:37.480 |
But we don't compare with people who are far away. 00:31:40.720 |
Our natural instinct is to compete with the people in the room, people who are around 00:31:46.680 |
And that's exactly what the disciples were doing. 00:31:48.800 |
They weren't comparing themselves with the poor people or the lepers or the blind or 00:32:01.280 |
Verse 35, it says, "Sitting down, he called the twelve and said to them, 'If anyone wants 00:32:05.240 |
to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all.'" 00:32:09.800 |
You notice here at the beginning of verse 35, it emphasizes that he sat down. 00:32:18.280 |
In the context of this important prophecy of what's happening to Jesus, he said, "Oh, 00:32:25.360 |
There's a cultural significance to that, because today, if we want to emphasize that somebody 00:32:29.680 |
was really animated, would say something, he said, "He got off his chair and he began 00:32:35.500 |
That's how we would express, like, this was important enough that he jumped out of his 00:32:40.960 |
Well, in that culture, for the rabbi to sit down means, okay, now, this is important. 00:32:50.220 |
Because the habit was he would teach and he would tell them, and typically, he would stand 00:32:53.760 |
in front of the crowd and he would make his statements, but he says, "He sat down," meant, 00:33:04.280 |
He sat down and says, "Your desire to want to be first is what's making you last. 00:33:11.520 |
And if you want to be first in God's kingdom, you have to be the servant of all." 00:33:16.960 |
And then in verse 36, it says, "Taking a child, he set him before them, and taking him in 00:33:20.920 |
his arms, he said to them, 'Whoever receives one child like this in my name receives me, 00:33:25.440 |
and whoever receives me does not receive me, but him who sent me.'" 00:33:30.160 |
I've heard people say that he chose a child because they're innocent. 00:33:38.280 |
Dumb meaning that they're not going to challenge you. 00:33:40.600 |
So our faith needs to be like a child who, if God says to jump, say, "How high?" 00:33:50.000 |
He's using this child because they have no authority. 00:33:55.280 |
You know, you can take a child from a rich family and take a child from a very poor family 00:34:02.480 |
They play together and they become best friends. 00:34:09.320 |
So when he chooses a child, he said, "You guys are all competing to see who's better 00:34:14.640 |
And then he takes a child who has no power, no money, no authority, no honor, and he says, 00:34:20.040 |
"You must receive one another like this child. 00:34:25.360 |
You want to receive me, you have to receive me like this child." 00:34:27.880 |
In other words, your whole paradigm, your whole paradigm, your pursuit has been tainted 00:34:40.680 |
You're desiring for honor, desiring for some people to recognize you. 00:34:47.360 |
Everything that we do, from the moment that we're born, we ask this question, "Who's the 00:34:54.960 |
You have a child, young parents who talk to each other, it's like, "Oh, they're walking? 00:35:23.480 |
He plays sports like, "Oh, my kid is really good athletic." 00:35:35.240 |
Then you go to school, "What school are you getting into? 00:35:54.520 |
Then you get married, it's like, you start that cycle with your own kids. 00:36:01.680 |
Now, all these things are very superficial, but it's indicative of what's happening in 00:36:07.200 |
As soon as you walk into a room, we measure each other. 00:36:21.800 |
So we measure ourselves internally and externally. 00:36:25.600 |
If we don't live up to whatever the standard is, we have self-esteem issues. 00:36:30.800 |
If we think we're slightly better than other people, we start to fill up with pride. 00:36:37.760 |
This instinct, this natural instinct that we have to want to live, has been completely 00:36:50.640 |
It's our whole pursuit in life leads us away from the author of life. 00:36:58.480 |
That's why he says you have to go through with the cross, unless your old life dies. 00:37:02.360 |
Unless you recognize not just I sinned here because I lied and I did this. 00:37:06.240 |
Our whole pursuit, our whole paradigm of what we think is good causes us to rebel against 00:37:16.680 |
Not shaking our fists, but just day-to-day decisions that we make. 00:37:23.420 |
Because God didn't give me what I think is going to bring me life. 00:37:27.560 |
People suffer with bitterness and anger because they have a paradigm in their head that this 00:37:32.920 |
is what life looks like and God didn't give it to me. 00:37:37.040 |
Not realizing it's that very thing that's killing you. 00:37:42.220 |
In Mark chapter 10, 32 to 45, it says, "They were on the road going to Jerusalem and Jesus 00:37:48.480 |
And they were amazed and those who followed were fearful. 00:37:51.200 |
And again, he took the twelve aside and began to tell them what was going to happen to him, 00:37:55.960 |
saying, 'Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem. 00:37:58.480 |
The Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and the scribes and they will condemn 00:38:01.740 |
him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles. 00:38:06.060 |
They will mock him and spit on him and scourge him and kill him and three days later he will 00:38:15.160 |
Every time he mentioned his suffering, he told them that he's going to rise again. 00:38:19.300 |
But we know clearly that they didn't understand nor did they heard him because remember after 00:38:24.420 |
Jesus was resurrected, they didn't even go to check. 00:38:27.900 |
You would think that after Jesus went to the cross, it's like, "Oh, I remember him saying 00:38:34.120 |
In fact, when they came back and said, "Jesus is not there, he's resurrected." 00:38:43.000 |
Mark says he said that very plainly, but it just wasn't in their paradigm. 00:38:52.200 |
And so even though they heard it, it just didn't go off. 00:39:00.160 |
The two sons of David came to Jesus saying, "Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever 00:39:05.760 |
In Matthew's account, it says their mother came. 00:39:10.560 |
And in other words, that this was well planned. 00:39:14.520 |
This was not just an impromptu kind of like, "Hey, hey, hey, I get it. 00:39:17.920 |
You're going to the cross, whatever, but can we sit on your left and to the right?" 00:39:22.260 |
So in Matthew's account, the mother actually planned and went to him and sought a time 00:39:26.320 |
to talk to him and said, "Hey, now we're convinced you're the Messiah and you're not denying 00:39:33.380 |
Would you let my son sit on the left and to the right?" 00:39:36.840 |
Verse 33, "He said to them, 'What do you want me to do for you?' 00:39:40.080 |
They said to him, 'Grant that we may sit one to your right and one on your left in your 00:39:53.120 |
And James and John is, they already saw the transfiguration, right? 00:40:00.080 |
And so, humanly speaking, Jesus was leaning on these guys. 00:40:04.800 |
If anybody should have understood, it would have been them. 00:40:08.120 |
Jesus just told them that, "I'm going to suffer. 00:40:17.680 |
And the very next statement is, "Can I touch some of your glory?" 00:40:26.400 |
Some of you guys who are married, it's kind of like, you come home and the dishes are 00:40:30.480 |
all broken and your wife is sitting there and she's crying her eyes out and the guy 00:40:39.080 |
Can you imagine the fury that you would be in? 00:40:44.640 |
Like, clearly something happened and your wife is hurt and suffering and all you're 00:40:52.240 |
Can you imagine what, emotionally, as a human being, what Jesus was thinking when they asked 00:40:59.040 |
I mean, I could easily imagine Jesus saying, "That's enough." 00:41:09.400 |
He was going to experience the suffering that no human being has ever experienced. 00:41:14.040 |
Physically, yes, other people have been crucified, but he was going to bear on himself the sins 00:41:23.600 |
And he was on his knees pleading with his father. 00:41:28.760 |
That scene in and of itself is such a strange scene. 00:41:32.800 |
The God of the universe who created us is so vulnerable at the garden of Gethsemane. 00:41:41.000 |
And he wanted his disciples just to stay awake. 00:41:45.320 |
That at least pray with me to unload some of that burden, humanly speaking. 00:41:53.720 |
And every time they come back, they're sleeping. 00:41:58.160 |
Can you imagine the frustration in Jesus that they would even possibly ask this question? 00:42:07.360 |
He says, "But Jesus said to them, 'You do not know what you are asking. 00:42:10.480 |
Are you able to drink the cup that I drink to be baptized with the baptism with which 00:42:15.960 |
And look at the way they answer, 39, "They said to him, 'We are able.'" 00:42:20.240 |
It's probably the most arrogant statement that any human being has ever made. 00:42:29.640 |
"Jesus said to them, 'The cup that I drink to you, you shall drink, and you shall be 00:42:35.240 |
baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized. 00:42:38.600 |
But to sit on my right or on my left, this is not mine to give, but it is for those for 00:42:45.680 |
Now Jesus is not saying that James and John is going to absorb their sins on the cross. 00:42:51.440 |
But what he is saying is the suffering that he experienced because of the cross, the disciples 00:42:59.680 |
They're going to experience the suffering because of the cross as they share the gospel, 00:43:06.080 |
And so some of them were crucified, beheaded, burned at the stake, dropped in oil, and they 00:43:12.440 |
experienced the suffering because of the cross. 00:43:15.560 |
But to sit on my left to the right, that's my Father. 00:43:24.320 |
And verse 41, "Hearing this, the ten began to feel indignant with James and John." 00:43:37.160 |
They weren't indignant because they didn't hear Jesus. 00:43:40.040 |
They weren't indignant because they were concerned about what Jesus was thinking. 00:43:43.400 |
They were indignant because they wanted to bypass them. 00:43:48.380 |
How many times do other people's pride bother us because it affects God or because we feel 00:43:57.260 |
So the disciples weren't indignant because they somehow dishonored God or how dare you 00:44:03.220 |
ask that question right after what Jesus said. 00:44:06.420 |
It's because they wanted to bypass them and be greater than them. 00:44:09.820 |
So even in their indignation, it was competing with one another. 00:44:15.140 |
How much of the suffering that you and I experience is because we live with this paradigm, who 00:44:23.780 |
Now we're sophisticated enough that we don't say these words. 00:44:29.180 |
But how often do you learn something and the very next thought is, "You don't know." 00:44:37.700 |
How often do you experience something and the very next thought is, "You didn't experience 00:44:45.820 |
How often do you bear fruit and then the very next thought is, "You didn't bear the fruit 00:44:54.460 |
How much of our paradigm, even in our passionate pursuit of Christ, in the back of our mind 00:45:07.420 |
Not realizing that that is what's causing us to be blind. 00:45:27.900 |
That was the heart of the problem of the Corinthian church. 00:45:33.460 |
It wasn't, "I don't want Jesus," or, "I'm going to rebel against God." 00:45:38.220 |
It was, "Well, who should be sitting on the top spot? 00:45:53.060 |
The reason why they were competing with one another because whoever that they aligned 00:45:55.660 |
themselves with, if they are in the top spot, that means we're going to be with them. 00:46:00.900 |
If we align ourselves with somebody who's better than the others, then we're going to 00:46:11.580 |
How much of our pursuit of our own glory is blinding us and is affecting our affection 00:46:23.180 |
Verse 42, "Calling them to himself, Jesus said to them, 'You know that those who are 00:46:28.220 |
recognized as rulers are the Gentiles lorded over them, and their great men exercise authority 00:46:33.860 |
It is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be 00:46:37.780 |
your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be a slave of all. 00:46:42.660 |
For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life 00:46:51.660 |
You know, the greatest and the fastest way to be humble is to be humiliated. 00:47:00.780 |
I remember I had a youth student, you know, we were doing a study on Jesus's humility, 00:47:08.100 |
And she went to this church and asked this mega church pastor to pray for her. 00:47:17.580 |
And the pastor stopped and said, "Are you sure you want me to pray for that?" 00:47:25.020 |
And he said, "If I pray for this, God may answer through humiliation. 00:47:36.260 |
And I remember that that stuck with me even to this day because it's so true. 00:47:42.580 |
The fastest and the easiest path to humility is humiliation. 00:47:47.700 |
Jesus, the Son of God, deserving of praise from all of creation for eternity, the Messiah, 00:48:01.220 |
the Son of the living God, was stripped naked for all mankind to see. 00:48:11.340 |
His family, friends, mother, companions, disciples, people who honored Him, loved Him, followed 00:48:18.940 |
Him, they stripped Him naked to hang on that cross, was humiliated. 00:48:27.060 |
The only man who deserved all praise, honor, and glory was stripped naked, beaten, mocked 00:48:59.300 |
So that you and I can come to this room and worship Him. 00:49:04.100 |
So our eyes can be open to the true life in Christ. 00:49:09.940 |
How foolish to worship this God and to live the rest of our lives thinking to ourselves, 00:49:33.060 |
I pray that as we study, meditate, and walk with Christ toward the cross, that we would 00:49:41.460 |
recognize the foolishness of the disciples and come to Christ with empty vessels. 00:49:49.840 |
So often we come to Christ with our cups filled, with our temptations, with our desires, with 00:49:55.780 |
our hopes, with our pride, and say, "Fill me, fill me." 00:50:06.900 |
That this Easter season, that each one of us would learn to empty ourselves. 00:50:15.380 |
That we would come to the Lord Friday at the communion table, humbled before the Lord, 00:50:22.180 |
recognizing what He did for us, through the humiliation that He went through, so that 00:50:26.820 |
you and I could be called the children of God and come empty. 00:50:32.300 |
So that when we ask the Lord to fill our cup, that we would be ready to receive. 00:50:44.220 |
Gracious Father, all glory and honor belongs to you. 00:51:01.900 |
You are deserving, Lord God, of whatever life that remains in us. 00:51:09.580 |
Help us, Lord God, to take our eyes off of ourselves. 00:51:13.760 |
Help us, Lord God, to recognize the foolishness of the competition, of competing, and thinking 00:51:21.660 |
that there is life outside of you in any way. 00:51:27.500 |
I pray, Father God, that as we walk with Christ, as He deliberately made a choice to go to 00:51:33.380 |
the cross and suffer on our behalf, that you would bring renewal, revival in our hearts. 00:51:41.340 |
That whether we are mature Christians or whether we have just begun our journey, that Christ 00:51:53.480 |
Teach us, Lord God, to fix our eyes upon Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.