Thank you, Brian, and congratulations on your baptism. If you can turn your Bibles with me to 1 Corinthians 15, 14, and then we'll be reading verse 17 and 19. Okay. 1 Corinthians chapter 14, 15, verse 14, and then verse 17 through 19. I'm reading out of the NASB, verse 14.

And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain. Your faith is also in vain. Verse 17 through 19. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless. You are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.

If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we pray for your continued guidance. May your words speak to us. May your word and only your word go forth. Soften our hearts, open our eyes. Allow us to hear, Father God, that we may be convicted and to be molded according to your purpose and will.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. You know, a few weeks back, and I'm sure many of you had conversations with unbelievers similar to mine. We were, my wife and I, we were in Costco. And typically, I think some of you men are like me, you know, I just kind of guard the cart and then while my wife goes and gets the stuff.

And so I usually find a nice place to either sit or find the electronics area and I just kind of hang out in the area and she'll get the stuff. So, you know, typically I was there with the cart and then my wife was running around getting all this stuff and then I could see the corner of my eye, there was this guy who was trying to make eye contact with me.

And he was a solar panel salesman, right, at Costco. And he was trying to, I think, subtly get my attention, right. But people tell me that I don't have a very pleasant resting face, meaning that if I'm not smiling, they think I'm angry. So I could tell he was kind of a little bit hesitant to come to me.

So I said, "Oh, it's a good opportunity. I don't know when my wife's going to come back." So I just kind of rolled up to him and I started a conversation hoping that I can maybe share the gospel. And so, you know, he's trying to sell me the solar panels and I'm trying to sell him Jesus.

And so we were just kind of having a friendly conversation and found out that he used to attend church and he fell out. So I asked him, you know, "So what caused you to fall?" And then he started to kind of name the reasons why he said, "Well, you know, the Bible was written by man and, you know, all this stuff was made up by people and we didn't even have the Bible until 500 years later." And so I have no idea where he picked up this information, but everything he said was wrong, you know.

And so those are very typical liberals, you know, talking points that they pick up either at a secular university or some book that they read. And I started sharing with him, I said, "That's not true at all. You know, we actually have manuscript from the very first century. The Bible was there from the beginning.

We have records of it being passed down from generation to generation. It wasn't until the Council of Carthage at 387 that they decided to put the books together, but it wasn't made up at that time." So I just sharing this and, you know, he was like, "Oh, okay." And typically, usually when we get to this part of the conversation, they'd be, "I don't want to talk to you," but he was trying to sell me the solar panel.

So he was trying to be courteous, right? And then so I asked him, "So then if that's not the reason, then what is it? I mean, is it you just don't believe in it?" He said, "Yeah, yeah. In the end, it's hard for me to believe, you know." But again, like I said, he's trying to be courteous, and so he didn't want me to leave.

Obviously, I had no intention of leaving, but he didn't want me to leave. He said, "Yeah, yeah, but, you know, even though I don't believe in all that stuff, you know, I think he's a great guy. I think Jesus is a great man, taught great morals, and, you know, for the most part, he's a great guy." And again, he was trying to keep me to stay so he can sell me the solar panels, you know.

And then, you know, my response to him, they said, "Well, how can he be a great man if he said he was God? You know, I understand that he may have done some good things and feed poor people, but in the end, he said he was God and then claimed that he was going to die and resurrect on the third day.

So either he's a crazy man, and in the last 2,000 years, he's deceived millions of people. Think about how many people who forsook their lives and walked into difficult places. Think about how many people who lives in Muslim countries who are risking their lives to gather together to praise his name.

Think about how many people who have forfeited everything in their life to proclaim this truth. So either he's a liar who's caused more damage than any human being alive, or he really is who he says he is, and there really isn't anything in between, right? And like I said, usually when I get to this point, they would get upset, and then they would say, "I don't want to talk to him," and they would leave, but he wanted to sell the solar panels.

So I sat there, listened, I gave him an opportunity to present, and I'm actually supposed to speak to him in two more weeks about these solar panels, right? But the point of the conversation was, I'm sure you guys have had opportunities to talk to people who maybe said the same thing, right?

He's a good man. I know a lot of good Christians who do good things. I just don't believe in the miracles. I don't know if I believe that he was resurrected from the dead. Let me ask you this morning, in your conviction about the resurrection, because that's why we're here this morning, to celebrate and to commemorate what he has done.

In your conviction, if you were to say number from zero to 10, how would you label yourself? Zero being, "I don't believe this. This is all made up. This is fake." To 10, "I'm so convicted that even if I give my life telling other people about this, that this is what I believe.

I believe that it's a fact. This is what happened. Jesus is the Son of God. Everything he said was true." That's 10. Some of you may have been brought here because you are a zero. Not zero in who you are, but zero is in conviction. I'm not sure if I really believe this, but your friend maybe have invited you so that you can hear the gospel and maybe convince you of this truth.

And then my guess is most of us fall somewhere in between the middle, right? Where you profess to believe, but there really isn't any evidence of this in your life. And then many will say, "I'm about a five, right? I think I believe. I grew up in the church and I have no good reason to deny it." But you're not a 10.

You're not living your life to sacrifice. You're kind of doing everything that everybody else does. It's just that you just go to church. However you would label yourself, my question this morning is, why are you there? Whether you are a zero, whether you are a four or five or six, why did you label yourself in that position?

Is it because at the end of research, asking questions and seeking, that after you've gathered all the information, heard all the testimonies, that your final conclusion is that I don't believe this, right? Or is it simply our prejudice? I've chosen to believe that and just remain that way. I believe enough to come to church, but not believe enough to really give my life.

I believe enough to participate in the church, enjoy the community, study the Bible, but to actually give my life in following this Jesus Christ and to give my life to share this gospel with the other people, I'm not sure if I'm there. Some of you may say you're a zero, you don't believe because of the prejudice.

Somebody come back from that. I've never seen that before, right? And simply because you haven't experienced it, it's not part of your reality. You say, "Well, I choose not to believe it because I've never seen it before." To be honest, that isn't a whole lot different than somebody maybe 200 years ago saying, "Hey, we're going to fly.

We're going to get to the East Coast and the West Coast in a few hours." Are you kidding me? That can never happen. Or somebody maybe hundreds of years ago said that, "Hey, the earth is actually round and not flat." Are you crazy? How can it be round? We're all going to fall off.

So simply to reject this because it's not a part of our reality is prejudice. That's not necessarily fact. But for us who claim to be Christians who are sort of believing but not enough to really forsake everything to follow Christ, why are we there? Is it because we've done our research and we found it's ambiguous and I've chosen to be a Christian agnostic?

And so I'm comfortable here. The fact that something incredible happened in the first century is a fact. Whether you believe it or not, that's a fact. The fact that Jews and Gentiles who hated each other for centuries, they couldn't stand each other. Can you imagine if you fell asleep today and woke up a few weeks later and the Republicans and the Democrats became one party?

If you're following politics, it's like that's crazy. The hatred between the Jews and the Gentiles was much more intense than the political divide right now. And that lasted for hundreds of years. They hated each other so much that the Jews wouldn't even enter the Gentile land because they thought it would defile them.

In fact, one of the earliest problems that they had in the early church was to get rid of this prejudice that they had toward one another. But overnight, they started meeting together and calling each other brothers and sisters in Christ, Jews and Gentiles. They had former runaway slaves meeting together in the same church with the slave owners, calling each other brothers and sisters in Christ.

Tax collector who was considered a traitor to the nation was one of the first apostles who started teaching the Pharisees who were the leaders, the PhDs of theology of that time. And they sat there humbly receiving instruction by these tax collectors. You had zealots, you had Sadducees, you had the early church, the rich and the poor, all calling each other brothers and sisters in Christ.

And this happened overnight. So the fact that something incredible happened is a fact. But some people will explain that away and say maybe Jesus just hypnotized people. Maybe the apostles made this up because they wanted to be rich and maybe they were going to try to make something of themselves by telling these lies.

But none of these things stick because every one of the apostles who claimed that this happened died proclaiming this. So they didn't gain it. One crazy person doing that is one thing, but to have all the apostles telling this same lie and then dying, and then to have hundreds of other people who are also witnesses of his resurrection also giving their lives telling the same supposed lie.

So the fact that something incredible happened in the early church is a fact. Now why that happened causes us to be separated between believers and unbelievers. But this morning, the purpose of my sermon is not to prove to you that the resurrection happened. The purpose of this morning's sermon is to show you what the resurrection really proves.

The resurrection was so unbelievable that if you look at the account of when Jesus was resurrected, you'll notice something strange. In Mark chapter 16, 1, it says, "When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might come and anoint him." You notice first of all here, they're not here to see his resurrection.

They're here to anoint his body, to prepare him for burial. In other words, they didn't come to see the resurrected body. You notice something else that's missing here? The disciples. If you saw the account and Jesus made it clear what was going to happen, you would have thought that all of his disciples would have been waiting outside of his tomb.

Like okay, Friday, one day, Saturday, Sabbath, we can't go there, but after the Sabbath, something spectacular is going to happen. Nothing, right? The only people who actually even show up are these ladies in tears. They actually went there to take care of his body, and that was it. Mark's account of what takes place and how he goes to the cross, his point is made very clear.

Three separate times, Mark announces crystal clear that the disciples should have known, that they should have all have known. In Mark chapter 8, 31 to 32, the first revelation where it says, "And he, Jesus, began to teach them that the Son of Man himself must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and the scribes and be killed.

And after three days, rise again, and he was stating the matter plainly." Mark wanted to make sure that they weren't confused. They were not at the tomb because Jesus was kind of teaching it and he was using strange vocabulary and it didn't make much sense to them. He says, "No, he made it very plain." And then very next part, it says, "And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him." The leader among the apostles, the guy who typically puts his foot in his mouth.

I can imagine in eternity, Peter in heaven, and I'm sure that's not going to happen, but he's forever known as the man who rebuked God. He rebuked God, the leader among the apostles. It was so crazy what Jesus was saying. We're about to go into Jerusalem and to conquer Rome and you're saying we're going to die and resurrect in the third day.

Don't say that again. Think about that. He saw Lazarus raised from the dead, Jesus walking on the water. He saw the 5,000 men and women who were fed. He saw all the miracles, but that his prophecy of a death and resurrection was so out of whack that Peter, I don't know what was going through his head.

Maybe he thinks, some people think that maybe he was older than Jesus and he was pulling an Asian hierarchy on him, maybe. I'm older than you and you haven't lived long enough and stop saying that. Mark makes it very plain that Jesus made it very clear what was about to happen.

Mark 9, 31 and 32, "For he was teaching his disciples and telling them, 'The Son of Man is to be delivered into the hands of men and they will kill him and when he has been killed, he will rise three days later.' But they did not understand the statement and they were afraid to ask." You ever get so behind in your class that you can't ask anymore?

You know what I realized? You need to know something to be even asking questions. Have you ever experienced that? You've been in class, when I asked this in the first service, almost everybody nodded their head. I think there were a bunch of college students in there. Maybe you remember, you're in a math class or history class and you should have asked maybe three months ago, but you just kind of like, "Okay, maybe I'll get over it." And you realize that you're so far behind that you can't even ask the question.

That's exactly what was happening with the disciples. They sat there and Jesus was talking and they didn't understand anything. But they said, "I can't ask him now." So they were afraid to ask. In other words, it was so beyond their comprehension, they couldn't even ask him the question. Mark says it again, third time, chapter 10, 32 to 34, and again, he took the 12 aside and began to tell them what was going to happen to him, saying, "Behold, we are going to Jerusalem.

The Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles. They will mock him and spit on him and scourge him and kill him. And three days later, he will rise again." Mark was making it very clear that they should have been at the grave.

They should have been anticipating. They should have known, but they did not. In fact, not that they just didn't know or they just missed it. Mark's account tells us that they refused to believe in Mark chapter 16, 10 through 14. It says, "She went, reported to those who had been with him while they were mourning and weeping.

When they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they refused to believe it." It's like, "Oh, that's hard to believe." He said, "They refused to believe it." After he appeared in a different form to two of them while they were walking along their way to the country, they went away and reported it to the others, but they did not believe them either.

Now you had the first account is that they refused to believe it. The other two people, they come, "No, no, no, we saw him. We actually saw him." And they said, "No, that can't be." Verse 14, "After he appeared to the eleven themselves as they were reclining at the table, and he reproached them for their unbelief and hardness of heart because they had not believed those who had seen him and after he had risen." I mean, they were so hardened that even after Jesus makes it plain over and over and even after the resurrection, not only were they not there at the grave, even after reports started rolling in from other people, they said, "No, that can't possibly happen." Because it was beyond their understanding.

Because you have to remember, they already witnessed. They already witnessed Lazarus coming back from the dead. They already witnessed Jesus walking on the water. For three years, they've seen miracle after miracle after miracle. But for some reason, his death and resurrection, they could not believe. In fact, in Luke chapter 24, 10 through 11, Luke goes even further than that when he says, "Now they were Mary Magdalene, Joanna Mary, a mother of James, also the other women with them, were telling these things to the apostles, but these words appeared to them as nonsense, and they would not believe them." Did they not believe simply because it was too hard to believe that somebody would come back from the dead?

I mean, think about that logically. They saw Lazarus coming back from the dead. Jesus deliberately waits until Lazarus dies. This happened just a few days ago. All these Jews from everywhere were coming into town because they heard of Lazarus' resurrection. So were they disheartened because they thought that no one can come back from the dead?

That doesn't sound logical, right? After everything that they've seen. Well, we don't have to ponder about that question because Mark makes it very clear why they didn't see, why they missed this. It wasn't simply because it was a spectacular thing. There was something else going on. In Mark, going back to Mark chapter 8, 31 through 37, right?

In verse 31 and 32 is where Jesus says he's going to die and rise again on the third day. Peter takes him aside, rebukes him, and then Jesus turns aside in verse 33, seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, "Get behind me, Satan." Now think about that, right?

Peter, at least on the surface, looks like he's concerned for Jesus. How can you go to the, "I love you." Why would you allow yourself to die? This doesn't make any sense. And in response to that, Jesus says, "Get behind me, Satan." There was something a lot more sinister going on.

There was something much more deeper going on than Peter just being concerned for his master. "Get behind me, Satan, for you are not setting your mind on God's interest but man's." You may have the best interest, but in the end, you have no idea what God is doing. You're man-centered instead of God-centered.

And then he spells out what's happening here. So I want you to labor with me to pay attention to this because if we're not careful, we can live our whole lives being guilty of the same thing that the apostles are guilty of here before the resurrection because it's subtle, because it's very subtle.

In verse 34, he says, "He summoned the crowd with the disciples and said to them, 'If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.'" I know that you know those verses well because it's repeated. We sing it. We memorize it.

If you've been raised in the church, you know that passage well. If you want to follow me, you must deny yourself, pick up your cross, and then follow me. You know that he was saying this to his disciples because they couldn't believe the prophecy that he just made because they were so filled with their own glory that when Jesus told them they was going to die and resurrect, it didn't fit their paradigm.

Everything that Jesus did up to this point was awesome. And that's why they were thinking if we just stick with him when the kingdom comes and he is elevated in his glory, their mindset was we're going to benefit from this. We're going to be glorified with him. And their whole mindset, their paradigm was that I'm going to benefit from being attached to this Messiah.

And that's why when Jesus said he's going to die and resurrect, everything that he did, even raising Lazarus from the dead, only heightened his glory. But if you die, how does that fit? It didn't fit. And so they heard it through one ear, but because it didn't fit their paradigm, they just kind of swept it under the rug.

And it's to them, it says, you must deny yourself. The reason why you are blind is because you are trying to save your life on your own. Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it. He's talking to his disciples, disciples who stuck with him, disciples who didn't leave when everybody else left.

He's talking to his disciples and telling them, if you are trying to save your life, you will lose it. He who loses his life for me in the gospel will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what will a man give in exchange for his soul?

You catch that? Do you understand the gravity of what he is saying here? You're concerned about your flesh. What God's concerned about is our soul. To the disciples, we're thinking that, you know, I can make the sacrifice, I can leave behind, you know, whatever we left behind. I can leave behind maybe a successful fishing business.

I can leave behind my family because there's greater glory waiting. And that's what they were thinking. And then when Jesus was coming into Jerusalem, the disciples were thinking the same thing. So here comes, when he conquers Rome, who's going to sit into the left and to the right? And they were completely blinded, even though Jesus made it very clear because it didn't fit their box.

Mark chapter 9, 31 to 37, verse 31, he says, "I will be killed and raised on the third day," verse 32. But they did not understand the statement and they were afraid to ask him. They came to Capernaum and when he was in the house, he began to question them, "What were you discussing on the way?" But they kept silent.

Think about that. Jesus just told them he's going to die. He's going to be crucified and be raised on the third day. You would think that they would turn around and say, "What does he mean by that?" Why would our Messiah die? Why would they torture him? Why would he allow them to do that?

All these years they wanted to kill him and he would just walk through the crowd and disappear. Storms would come and lifetime fishermen were afraid to die and Jesus says, "Stop," and it stops. Why would that man with that kind of power, who even has power over death, raises Lazarus, a dead man from the grave, why would he die?

You would think that that's the conversation that they would have. I don't understand. I can't ask him, so let's try to figure this out. Instead, they lean over and say, "Who's the greatest?" That's what they were discussing. They kept silent for on the way they had discussed with one another which of them was the greatest.

So sitting down, he called the twelve and said to them, "If anyone wants to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all." And this is where he takes a child and he says, "You must receive this child, that we must be like a child." He's not saying, "You must be like a child and just be naive." That's not what he's saying.

I've heard some people say, "You must become like a child. Stop asking questions." Don't ask questions because when you tell a child what to do, they just do it. So you just do it. If Jesus says to believe like a child, say, "Okay, I believe." That's not what he's saying.

What he's saying is because these disciples are jockeying to get a higher position from one another, he's pointing to a child who has nothing. They have no boarding rights. They have no wealth. You ever wonder, you know, why children have such an easy time making friends, right? And I'm sure many of you probably will agree with me.

The older we get, the harder it is to make friends, right? Because when you're older, you start like, "Well, what do you do for a living? What school did you go to? How old are your children? When did they start walking? What are they reading?" And so we have a tendency to kind of jockey to see, "Am I older than you?

Am I younger than you? Are you better looking? What house do you live? Where do you live? How much money do you make? What do you do?" And so we're all kind of like secretly jockeying to see and measure. And so we have to kind of get over that in order to become friends.

You see little children, they get together, they get on a playground, and they slide down with another kid that they met for the first time, turn around, "Hey, you want to be my friend?" And the kid, "Okay." And they become lifelong friends, right? Why is it easier for young children to become friends that way?

They have nothing. They have no pride. They just kind of like, "Okay, let's get together." Jesus was referring to a child who is now prideful and measuring from one another. So He's talking to a child who has nothing to boast of, and He says, "If you are measuring one another and trying to figure out who's the greatest," He said, "that's your greatest hindrance into the kingdom." That's why they were so blind.

I hope this really sinks in beyond the surface. And I mentioned this before, the health and wealth gospel, we have a tendency to think the health and wealth gospel is over there, right? They have strange hair. They, you know, ride around in $100 million jet airplanes, and they beg for money.

Those are the health and wealth gospel people. That's not us. You have no idea how deeply this health and wealth gospel has been rooted inside of us. And when I ask you the question from zero to 10, where your conviction is, how much of our 2, 3, 4, 5 conviction is directly linked to this health and wealth gospel?

Because we are blinded by our own passion. Mark makes it very clear. Again, in verse 32 to 34, he says, "He will be mocked, scourged, killed, and raised on the third day." And then third time's even worse. James and John, the two sons of Zebedee, came to Jesus saying, "Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask." Now, I think they're asking that question is because at some point, remember Jesus said, "If you abide in me, my word's abiding in you.

Ask whatever you wish, it shall be done for you." Jesus taught that repeatedly. Ask and it will be done. Knock and it will be opened. Seek and you will find. So it's like, oh, ask and you're going to do it? So they probably remember that and were throwing it back to Jesus and say, "You said so, and we're going to ask." Will you do anything for us?

What do you want me to do? He said, they said to him, "Grant that we may sit one on your right and one on your left in your glory." But Jesus said to them, "You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism which I am baptized?" Now, what does he mean by the cup?

He's about to go to the cross and absorb the sins of mankind, past, present, and future. He was going to be, the Son of God was going to be in so much agony that he's going to cry out to his Father, "Eloi, Eloi, l'amak sabachthani?" Why have you forsaken me?

That's the cup that he's referring to. Are you able to drink that cup? Think about the arrogance of James and John. And their answer is, "Yeah, okay, we can drink that cup." I mean, if there's any time that any of these disciples deserve to be crushed, it was right here.

Think about the blasphemy of what they were saying. The Son of God took on human form, humbled himself as a child, spent 33 years in agony, walking in the sinful earth, knowing that he would die for these people who are betraying him, trying to kill him, question him, backstabbing him.

Are you able to drink that cup? And he said, "Oh, yeah, sure." Jesus said to them, "The cup that I drink, you shall drink." He's not saying that they're going to take away mankind's sin. He said, "You're going to suffer. You're going to suffer. And you shall be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized.

But to sit on my right, on my left, this is not mine to give, but it is for those whom it has been prepared. Whoever wishes to come, become great among you, shall be your servant." You notice the theme over and over again? Jesus says, "I'm going to die, I'm going to resurrect." He said, "Well, who's going to be the greatest?

I'm going to die, I'm going to resurrect. Who's going to sit on the left? Who's going to the right? I'm going to die, I'm going to resurrect. But who's the greatest?" They were so fixated on their own glory that they could not hear what Jesus was saying. That even after Jesus died, and even after He resurrected, they said that could not be because it doesn't fit what they wanted.

Why is this so important for us? Because the Bible says that at the end, many will come in my name and say that I have done this and I have done that. And Jesus says, "I have no relationship with you. I never knew you because you were pursuing your own kingdom in my name." And so when Jesus makes it very plain, if you want to come after me, deny yourself, pick up your cross and follow me, you hear it, but it gets shelved underneath.

You know the words, you know plainly what the scripture says, we read it, we memorize it, and then we go off the rest of our lives seeking our own kingdom, seeking our own glory. And then we teach it to our children. We have Sunday schools. We have prayer meetings.

And yet, when you look at the totality of our life, we're not pursuing Christ. We're pursuing our own kingdom in the name of Christ. And this is why this is so important. Are we where we're at? Whether you are a zero, whether you are a six or a seven.

Simply because that's where it's the most convenient for us. Because being a five allows me to hedge my bet that I can have all the things that the world gives and enjoy, and also enjoy all the benefits of supposedly following Christ. And so hedging my bet. You know what hedging my bet is?

You don't win or lose. That's what hedging a bet is. Hedging a bet is you're betting that a team is going to win, but you're also betting that the team is going to lose. So you feel like you're part of the game, but you have really nothing invested. It's just so that you can look like you're invested.

That was why they missed the death and resurrection of Christ. Our churches are filled with people who are living their life hedging their bets. We need revival in our generation. If we're going to be the light in this generation, we need people who are convicted. We need people who are genuinely believe this is it.

That Christ truly was resurrected from the dead. Our own lust, our own desire to have the American dream has blinded us to think that the Christianity that we experience in our generation is normal. When we know clearly, when you read the scripture, that it is very plain. That what Jesus calls us to is to pick up our own cross and follow Him as well.

Have we missed the resurrection ourselves? Because we have somehow mixed our own glory with His glory. Samson and Delilah is a perfect example of that. How can Samson be so dumb? Delilah is like trying to kill him. "If you really loved me, you would teach me how to kill you." And Samson tells her anyway, because he was so entrenched in his own lust.

He couldn't see. In Romans 1.18, "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness, men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness." See, let me kind of wrap up this way. The disciples before Jesus died and resurrected, that was their mindset. If you remember, Jesus in the gospel of Luke, you know that encounter where Jesus tells them that you must become the least to be the greatest?

That happens after the Passover. Mark's gospel is organized by theme. Luke's gospel is organized chronologically. So in Luke's gospel, this encounter happens after Jesus gets on His knees, washes their feet, and He tells them, "He who is the least among you will be the greatest." He tells them that, and He tells them after the Passover that someone is going to betray Him.

After He tells them that, in verse 24, a dispute among them as to which one of them was regarded to be the greatest. Wow. Man, I don't know how patient He was. It wasn't just Judas. All His disciples, He's about to go to Gethsemane, He's about to be crucified, and that night, that night, they were arguing with each other, "Who's the greatest?" Verse 26, "But it is not this way with you, but with one who is the greatest among you must become like the youngest and the leader like the servant.

For who is greater, the one who reclines at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at the table, but I am among you as the one who serves?" And He's trying to tell them, "You must break out of this paradigm. You must break out of this paradigm, because if you do not break out of this paradigm, you will not live." See, this Christianity that has become normal in our culture is we're constantly hedging our bet, never fully committed to Christ.

We have some of us in the world, and some of it committed to Christ, and we wonder why revival never breaks out. As I'm reading this, I'm like, "Man, He must have been so frustrated." I mean, He's agonizing on His knees at Gethsemane, crying out to His Father. Is there another way?

Because He sees agony coming. He sees pain coming. He sees the suffering and the separation with His Father coming the very next morning. And as He is crying out to the Father, all His disciples could think of is who's the greatest? Who's going to make it? Who's going to make more money?

Who's going to have the glory? Who's going to raise the best children? Who's going to have the best house? I can imagine the frustration of our Lord. And yet He did not quit. Although He was tempted, is there another way? But not my will, Your will be done. And He willed Himself to the cross, and He received the punishment that you and I deserve.

Was crucified, cried out to His Father. His disciples needed to know this. And that's why in the very next verse, verse 31, Jesus says to Simon, "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat. But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail, and you, once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers." Peter's response in verse 32, "But He said to him, 'Lord, with you, I am ready to go both to prison and to death.'" In other passages, Peter goes further than that, and he says, "They may all fail you, but I'm not going to fail you.

I love you." And I believe Peter really did love Jesus. I'm not going to fail you. But Jesus says to him, "The rooster will not crow today until you have denied me three times that you know me." You know, when I first read this, I was so confused because Jesus just said, "I prayed so that your faith would not fail you." And then when Peter said, "I will not fail you," He said, "No, you're going to fail me miserably." So what does He mean by this?

Jesus already knew He was going to deny him three times, but that's not what He meant. Because Jesus already was preparing for His return. But after you failed me, get back up and feed my sheep. That's why we see Him after the resurrection, Jesus saying, "Do you really love me more than these?

Do you really love me?" And He restores him. As He denied Jesus three times, He restores him three times. You see, until their pride and their glory is washed out of them, the death and resurrection of Christ has no effect on them. And the fastest way to be humbled is humiliation.

You know, we can work for years trying to be humble, but when God wants us to be humble, we get humiliated. Peter can't stand in front of the crowd and say, "Look what I did. I persevered and I would walk with Jesus." All of that went out the door when he denied Jesus to his face.

So when God calls him to preach the gospel, he can't keep preaching the gospel as a humbled sinner forgiven for his sins. And so all the disciples who are constantly concerned about their own glory, God allowed to be humiliated so that they can be used for His glory. Brothers and sisters, this morning, this message that Mark is trying to make so clear to all of us, that this subtle desire for our own glory blinds us to things that are so plainly true in the scripture.

He who seeks his life will lose it. He who loses his life for my sake will find it. Sanctification isn't simply knowing more Bible, being more disciplined, sharing the gospel with more people, doing hard things for Jesus. All of these things are great things. But ultimately, sanctification is dying to ourselves.

Dying to ourselves, our ambition, our desires, knowing that this world and its passion, that all is passing away, that Jesus is preparing us for the kingdom that is coming. And that's his call of the gospel. And that's why the death and resurrection happened for us. So I pray this morning as we celebrate and remember his death and resurrection that we first and foremost examine ourselves.

If we said we were five, why are we at five? Is this simply because five is a much more convenient place to be? Have we carefully examined, do I believe this? And if Jesus was resurrected from the dead, if Jesus said who he was is actually true, if what he said about eternity is true, if heaven and hell actually exist exactly as he said and the resurrection of Christ proves it, how does that change our life today?

I pray with all my heart that every single one of us would at minimum seek, ask and knock that he may answer. Let's pray. Again, as we asked our worship team to come, if you're here as a guest and somebody invited you to come, I want to read a passage for you.

And this is true even for the believers. He says in Romans 10, 9 through 13, that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.

For the scripture says whoever believes in him will not be disappointed. For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on him. For whoever, whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.

I pray that you would believe that and be saved.