Well, it's really good to be with you this morning, and thank you for your welcome.
I do feel that there's a lot of affinity between this church and the church that I come from, Greenview Church.
Lots of similarities, so thank you for making me feel very at home.
Now, if you can keep your finger in Mark 10, the passage we're going to focus on, that would be good.
I also want to read a brief passage which will supplement what we're going to say.
And if you've got a Bible, you might want to turn to Philippians 2, so keep your finger in Mark 10.
But if you can, let's briefly read a well-known section in Philippians 2.
It's page 1179 in the church Bible.
We're reading from verse 3.
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit.
Rather, in humility, value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests, but each of you to the interests of the others.
In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus, who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his advantage.
Rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.
Therefore, God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth.
And every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God, the Father.
You might want to flip back now to Mark 10.
Many of us in the summer are taking road trips to various places.
We're taking long car journeys.
We just went down to London last week and some of you are probably doing similar things.
And this morning, we follow Jesus and his disciples on a road trip.
They're traveling to the city of Jerusalem.
Jesus is leading the way and his followers are coming behind.
And as they travel along, the tension is rising.
It wouldn't be a road trip, would it, if there wasn't a bit of tension and stress on the journey.
At least that's the case in our family in the car.
And there's this stress, there's this tension as they travel.
Now, the interesting thing is that this tension has come from Jesus himself.
Because Jesus has made a number of startling predictions.
Jesus has been predicting upcoming sufferings which have jangled the nerves of the disciples.
This march to Jerusalem feels more like a death march than a march to glory.
And yet, even so, these disciples can't quite get visions of glory out of their heads.
In fact, the first part of our passage could be titled,
The Glory Hunters.
The Glory Hunters, from verses 32 to 39.
Jesus is heading for death, but his disciples are hunting for glory.
And there's a jarring contrast between those two things.
The Savior who's going to death and the disciples who are pursuing glory.
Now, Jesus had recently taken his disciples aside for a private little meeting.
And he had outlined to them, for the third time in fact,
The suffering and death awaited him in Jerusalem.
Jesus could not be any clearer.
Note with me in Mark 10 here, the level of detail in his prediction.
This detail which emphasizes the sufferings to come.
Jesus, in this little part here, he mentions seven negative predictions and just one positive prediction.
Negatively, the Son of Man will be delivered to the Jewish leadership.
He will be condemned to death.
He will be handed over to the Gentiles.
Those guys will mock him and spit on him and flog him and kill him.
Seven negative predictions followed by one mysterious reference.
That he will rise again.
Whatever that means.
And so that is the gloomy backdrop against which comes this grab for glory.
It seems totally out of place to talk about glory when someone's just been talking about suffering and death, doesn't it?
I don't know if you've ever been in a situation where someone says something that seems totally inappropriate and untimely.
Maybe you're at a funeral or something.
And in a very sober context, someone makes a comment and you think, not now.
This is not the time or the place.
Right at the moment when Jesus makes the sober prediction, James and John reach out their greedy hands.
They grab for position.
Teacher, they say.
We want you to do for us whatever we ask.
To which Jesus replies, verse 36,
what do you want me to do for you?
Now that question there, just take a note of it in your mind
and lodge it away in your mind.
What do you want me to do for you?
Because later on in our passage,
that question is going to come around again.
And it's going to be very important
in understanding what this passage is telling us.
What do you want me to do for you?
Well, glad you asked Jesus.
When you come in all of your glory,
we would quite like the best seats in the house,
if you don't mind.
We're thinking right and left, weren't we, John?
Right and left.
The left and the right seats were the places of highest honor,
the places of prestige, power.
Think of a wedding which has a top table.
The really important people at the wedding are at the top table, aren't they?
Flanking the groom and the bride.
That's where we want to be.
When you come in your glory,
we want the top places, Jesus.
Now, the problem is not that the disciples have got it wrong
and that Jesus is not going to come in glory
because Jesus certainly will come in glory.
The trouble is rather their blindness
to what precedes the glory
and also their selfishness and lack of humility.
Now, Jesus is going to address both of these things,
their blindness and their selfishness and pride.
He begins by addressing their blindness.
These disciples don't see.
That's the issue.
They don't see that before glory,
they're suffering.
You don't know what you're asking, Jesus says.
You don't know what you're asking.
There's an ignorance and a cluelessness
which marks these disciples.
And what is it that they don't know?
Here's what they don't know.
They don't seem to grasp
that before the crown and the feast
comes a cup and a baptism.
Now, these images that Jesus uses
are a bit unfamiliar to us.
The image of the cup and the baptism,
they come from the Old Testament.
The cup was an Old Testament picture of God's wrath.
The cup of wrath.
The cup of wrath that the justice-deserving sinner
would be made to drink to the dregs.
A bitter and horrible cup.
A cup that you would dread to drink.
Yet now Jesus is saying that he will drink this cup.
He will drink it on our behalf.
And he will be overwhelmed by the waters of God's judgment.
That's what baptism's about.
Baptism in this imagery is not like the water baptism
you saw last week.
But baptism here speaks of an overwhelming flood
of wrath and judgment.
That deluges you and drowns you.
Jesus says, not only will I drink the cup of wrath,
but I will be completely consumed by a tsunami of judgment.
Isn't it?
Aren't you thankful this morning
that Jesus drank that cup
and endured that baptism
so that you and I would never have to experience
those two things?
I love Jesus' question in verse 38.
Can you drink the cup I drink?
Can you go through my baptism?
Their answer should have been no.
Of course we can't.
But in their pride they reply yes.
Cup?
Baptism?
We're good to go.
I wonder if there are times when in our own hubris
and maybe momentary passion
we sometimes promise God things beyond what we can deliver
or what we do end up delivering.
I've certainly done that in my life.
We're good for the cup and the baptism.
But here's the surprise.
Jesus says to them,
okay, okay.
I'll tell you what.
You will share in the cup
and you will share my baptism.
Now what does Jesus mean here when he says
you will share my cup
and you will share my baptism?
There are two options as to what he means.
On the one hand he might be saying something simply like
you will share with me in the general sufferings
of being my follower.
Not the sufferings of redemption and salvation
but just the suffering of persecution,
of following Jesus in a world that's hostile to him.
That may be what he means.
You need to drink that cup of suffering.
You need to endure that kind of baptism
of people giving you the cold shoulder and worse.
But there's another way of understanding this.
A deeper way.
It might be that what Jesus is saying
when he says that you'll share my cup
and you'll share my baptism,
he might be saying,
you're going to share in the sufferings of my redemption.
You see, when Jesus died on the cross,
when he drank the cup and he endured the baptism,
the Bible tells us that in a mysterious way,
somehow we who believe in him
were with him in that death,
in that drinking and in that enduring
so that his death on the cross becomes our death.
Whichever of these is right,
it's the sacrifice on the cross
that Jesus wants his disciples to be fixed on.
Not on the glory of their own prestige
but on the glory of his and of his cross.
Jesus wants them and us to see this morning
the ransom pair in all of his glory.
That's verses 40 to 45.
The ransom pair.
Jesus knocks back his disciples' request.
He disappoints their grab for glory
and he focuses them on the suffering that precedes glory.
He tells them, verse 40,
that he can give them no guarantees of future glory
such as they're expecting.
At the marriage supper of the lamb,
it's the father who decides the seating plan.
And so the grab for glory fails
and then even worse,
the word then gets out among the other disciples
that James and John have been lobbying Jesus
for the top spots.
And the 10, the other 10 guys,
they are raging mad at this.
Presumably because they wanted the best seats for themselves.
You see, pride and selfish ambition
are not subcategories of sin
that only some believers struggle with.
All 12 of them had this issue.
And it's true of us, isn't it?
From the newbie Christian
to the most mature believer,
pride and selfishness
our sins we battle all the way to glory.
We live in an entitlement culture.
It's interesting, isn't it, though,
that people often talk about that
as if it's a new thing.
There's an entitlement culture now.
Sinful human beings have always been entitled
in their sinfulness.
Always been selfish, put themselves first.
Always have been proud
in relation to God and other people.
There's an entitlement culture
because there's an entitlement nature
in our hearts.
And we see it in ourselves, don't we?
We see it in our unwillingness
to do, at times, the small jobs.
We hold back,
hoping that someone else
will volunteer before us
to do that really unpleasant
and unseen job.
We see that pride within us
that wants to be well thought of,
that wants to people please
in order to get the praise,
that gets annoyed
when we don't get the plaudits.
Even in church,
even as we worship a selfless saviour,
we can be far too concerned
with what we receive
than with what we're giving.
The rulers of that day,
the Gentiles,
were known for their selfish ambition
and how they lorded it
over everyone else.
But Jesus wants his disciples
to be different.
Not to strive to be first,
but to strive to be
the servant of all.
Jesus wants men and women
and young people
and children
whose ambition will be
to serve other people.
In Jesus' kingdom,
the race is to the bottom,
not the top.
Imagine,
those of you that like football,
imagine a Premier League
where the last place team,
the bottom team,
won the league title.
Right?
I mean, last year,
that would have been Norwich.
Norwich would have been awarded
the Premier League
because they finished last.
It would have been good for them.
In Jesus' kingdom,
the last place
is the first place.
The slave
is great
because we follow
a great servant.
Mark 10,
verse 45,
is the best known verse
in Mark's Gospel.
For even the Son of Man
didn't come to be served,
but to serve.
The Son of Man.
In the Old Testament,
the Son of Man
is this magnificent figure
of great magnitude.
An unparalleled human being
with unrivaled authority
who rules all people
and all nations forever.
Daniel 7,
you can read all about him there.
But even the Son of Man,
that's the emphasis here.
Even someone this great
who rules over all things,
even he came to serve.
and he served us
by paying the price
for the many.
In books like Exodus
and Leviticus,
we are introduced
to this idea
of ransom
in the Bible.
We see in those books
lambs being slain
and their blood
being shed
as a kind of ransom
payment
that buys
Israel's forgiveness
and purchases
their freedom.
The Son of Man
will give his life
as a ransom for many.
His life,
when it's laid down,
will be the payment
for sin.
It will leave sinners
debt-free
before God,
owing him nothing
in terms of judgment.
Yes,
Jesus is our role model,
but he's more
than a model servant.
He's the purchaser
of our salvation.
Imagine
going out for a meal
at a really high-class restaurant
and the food is delicious,
but the prices
are extortionate
and the bill
comes at the end
of the meal
and when you take
a look at the bill,
there's more numbers
on that bill
than you have
in your bank account
and maybe you're
even the sort of person
who's really proud
and you always want to pay,
but man,
you can't pay
and you're so thankful
because
the person
who invited you
for the meal
is an extremely
wealthy person.
They suggested
the restaurant
and at the end
when they
offer to pay,
not just you
but all
of the guests
let out
a collective sigh
of relief.
Stick it
on my account,
they say.
I'll pay it all.
You see,
this,
this is what
matters in life.
This is what
really
is glorious.
Not the stuff
that the world
is pursuing
with all of its
raging ambition,
but that a price
has been paid
and that by mercy
we've been freed.
The question is,
do we see
the world
in that way
this morning?
Or are we
blind to the
glory that
really matters?
The glory
of Christ
and his
cross?
See,
it's no accident
that after all
of the blindness
of the disciples
in this passage
and all that Jesus
is trying to teach
them,
it's no accident
that what
then happens,
what then follows
is a story
of a man
who was
blind
and who
now comes
to see.
It's almost
a kind of
parable
of what we've
been learning.
So let's finish
with this,
from the glory
hunters
to the ransom
pair
and finally
we turn
to the blind
visionary,
the blind
visionary,
the blind man
who was able
to see
in verses
46 to 52.
Jerusalem
is creeping
even closer.
Jesus comes
to the last
stop before
it,
Jericho
and Jesus
is leaving
the city,
he's coming
out of Jericho
when in the
clamour of the
crowd,
this voice,
this crying
voice is heard
over everyone
else.
It's the voice
of Bartimaeus,
a blind
beggar
on the
streets
who had
lived his
life in
poverty and
darkness.
Now,
Bartimaeus
couldn't
see Jesus
physically.
But what
we see in
this passage
is that
Bartimaeus
sees in
other ways.
He sees
in his
soul.
He sees
that Jesus,
verse 47,
is the
son of
David.
That's
exactly who
Jesus is.
That's
actually what
Mark tells
us through
the whole
of this
gospel,
from the
very opening
verse,
that Jesus
isn't just
a teacher
or a
prophet,
but he
is the
son of
David.
He's the
Messiah.
He's the
long-promised
king.
And the
remarkable
thing is
that this
man gets
this,
and the
remarkable
thing is
presumably
that he
had very
little evidence
even to
go on.
He had
seen no
miracles.
As far
as we
know,
he had
heard no
sermons.
He must
have heard
about Jesus
through the
reports and
the words
of others.
It's a
little reminder,
isn't it,
of the
importance for
us of
speaking to
those who
are blind,
and I'm
meaning here
spiritually blind,
which is
every
unbeliever in
our relational
circle,
isn't it?
They are as
blind to
Jesus as
Bartimaeus was
blind to him
physically.
They cannot
see him
unless we
speak to
them and
they hear
about him.
I wonder
if we're
doing a good
job of that.
I wonder if
post-pandemic
that's a
priority
on our
to-do
list.
I wonder
if we're
helping people
to hear about
Jesus or I
wonder if we're
hindering people
from coming to
Jesus because
although some
people must have
told this man
about Jesus,
there's people
here in this
text who are
actually holding
him back.
Holding him
back.
Jesus isn't
going to want
to speak to
you.
Jesus isn't
going to want
to be talking
to a man
like you.
And yet this
man shouted
all the more
he was
determined to
meet Jesus.
Maybe you're
here this
morning and
maybe you're
not a
Christian.
Maybe you've
been exploring
the Christian
faith or
maybe you're
watching online
and you're
investigating
Christianity.
It's a
wonderful thing
isn't it that
God pursues
us by his
spirit but
it's also
important isn't
it that we
pursue him.
there comes
that moment
where you
need to
make that
step where
you need to
move towards
Jesus and
that's what
this man
does.
He doesn't
give up.
He doesn't
even listen to
the naysayers but
he's determined
and of course as we
would expect
Jesus graciously
responds.
And so
Bartimaeus is
brought to
Jesus but look
at verse 51
when he's
brought Jesus
asked him a
question and
what's the
question he
asked him?
What do you
want me to do
for you?
It's the same
question that he
asked James and
John just a few
moments earlier.
What do you
want me to do
for you?
How did James
and John answer
that question?
We want the
best seats in
the kingdom.
We want
personal glory.
We're meant
to see a
direct contrast
here.
Because here's
this man and
his answer is
Rabbi, I
want to see.
All I want
is to see you.
All I want
is to be healed
of my blindness
and to see
you.
Nothing else.
This man
wanted mercy
not glory.
He didn't
want half the
kingdom.
He didn't
want the top
position.
He just
wanted to
be saved.
In fact,
this word
that Mark
uses here for
healing in
the language
the New Testament
was written in,
the language of
Greek, that the
word here for
healed could be
translated saved.
It's the same
word.
He saves
this man from
his blindness
as Bartimaeus
puts his faith
in Jesus.
Have you been
saved from your
blindness?
Have you been
healed from
your sin?
What happens
next?
Jesus tells the
man to go,
but he's so
thrilled with
Jesus and the
mercy he's been
shown that he
doesn't go home
and he simply
follows Jesus
along the road.
Isn't that
beautiful?
The man who
wanted mercy
and nothing
else now
follows Jesus
simply,
gratefully,
obediently,
wherever he
leads.
Whether that
following
leads to
immediate
suffering
or to
glory,
whether it
leads to
height or
depth,
he follows
along the
road.
He's not
devoted,
he's not
entitled,
but he is
devoted.
What about
us this
morning?
Who are we
like this
morning?
What are
our eyes
fixed on
today?
Are we
like James
and John?
Just
consumed with
our own
personal
ambitions in
life,
even maybe
as Christians?
Functionally,
that's where
our focus is
at the
moment.
Or is
our focus
on Christ
and his
glory and
on the
mercy that
he offers
us and
on the
mercy that
he wants
to offer
others
through
us?
Let's
be sure
that the
entitlement
culture of
our society
is not
just
baptized
and made
to look
a bit
more
Christian.
God
for
us.
The cup
and the
flood that
we were
entitled
to
were
taken
by
Jesus
so that
we might
live and
serve him
in joy
and in
freedom.
Let's pray.
our
father in
heaven,
we see
before us
the
stark
contrast
between a
heart of
pride and
selfishness
and a
heart of
repentance
and humility.
Father,
so often we
have the
first kind
of heart,
but we
thank you
that by
your grace
and by
your spirit
and the
power of
your words
that you
do enable
us to
have the
second
type.
And we
pray today
that we
would be
filled with
that fresh
sense that
what we
really want
and what we
really need
is mercy,
the glory
of the
cross,
not the
glory of
our own
ambitions.
May we
be truly
grateful and
thankful as
we see
all that
Jesus is
and all
that he's
done for
us.
in setting
aside the
glory of
his kingship
in order
to serve
us.
May we
be those
that declare
that to
others and
that show
his humility
and his
service in
the way we
live.
We ask it
in his
name.
Amen.