staff at Trinity. And first of all, I'd like to publicly thank Trinity. This has been a huge
blessing to us for our preparation of doing church in London. This is really good for us,
really healthy for us. So thank you to the staff at Trinity. This is very appreciated by us. But
the second thing is kind of an apology. If you were here for the morning service, you will have
heard Reese's sermon. And I have to apologize that I am not nearly as compelling to listen to
as Reese. I have no intriguing accent to speak with. I tried. I did a dry run. It didn't work
out so well. So I'm from New London. I have a New London accent. If it's not too mundane,
you can stay. We're going to pray next. So if it's not exciting enough, then feel free to slip
out the back and I'll never know, okay? So let us pray, please.
Lord Jesus, we desire to see a true and full picture of who you are.
Lord, this is the reason that we come tonight. It's the reason that we're in the book of Mark.
We desire to know you. And so I ask that you would reveal yourself truly to us in this text tonight
for the glory of your name. Amen.
So one thing before we jump into this text is the passage tonight is Mark chapter 10 verses 32 to 52.
We may venture out of these boundaries slightly in order to really understand what Mark is driving
at in his text. So it's easy for me, and I think it's easy for us as Christians to view a text as
isolated. So we're going to just look at 32 ending at 52. And I think we miss a lot of what Mark is
getting at if we just look at these 20 verses. So we're going to kind of jump around a little bit,
a little bit before what happened to Mark. Fast forward a little bit, see what happens later on
in the book, but try to stay somewhat constrained to verses 32 to 52. Also, that's found at page 846
of the Pew Bibles, in case you want to turn there. So let us read this text.
Verse 32.
And they were on the road going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking on ahead of them, and they were
amazed, and those who followed were fearful. And again, he took the twelve aside and began to tell
them what was going to happen to him, saying,
Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and 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.
James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to Jesus, saying,
Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.
And he said to them, What do you want me to do for you? And they said to him, Grant, that we may sit
one on your right hand 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 to be baptized with a baptism
with which I am baptized? But to sit on my right or on my left, this is not mine to give, but it is for
those for whom it has been prepared. Hearing this, the ten began to feel indignant with James and John,
calling them to himself. Jesus said to them, You know those who are recognized as rulers of the
Gentiles, lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. But it is not this
way among you. But whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever wishes
to be first among you shall be a slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served,
but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. Then they came to Jericho, and as they were
leaving Jericho with his disciples and a large crowd, a blind beggar named Bartimaeus, the son of
Timaeus, was sitting by the road. When he heard that it was Jesus the Nazarene, he began to cry out and say,
Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. Many were sternly telling him to be quiet, but he kept crying out
all the more. Son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stopped and said, Call him here. And so they
called the blind man, saying to him, Take courage, stand up, he's calling you. And throwing aside his
cloak, he jumped up and came to Jesus. And answering him, Jesus said, What do you want me to do for you?
And the blind man said to him, Rabboni, I want to regain my sight. Jesus said to him, Go, your faith has
made you well. Immediately he regained his sight and began to follow him on the road.
My goal for tonight, as we look at this text, is very simple, and it's summarized in one sentence.
It is for us to see the all-surpassing greatness of Jesus and to follow him. So at a very basic level,
that's my aim. For Jesus, in all of his ways, and all that he stands for, all that he does, to be lifted
high above everything else in this life, and for you to see this, the true picture of him, and continue
on in your pursuit of him. So that's my goal. That's what I come to this text with. To accomplish this
goal, it'll require that we ask and answer three questions. Okay, so these questions are, Who is Jesus
not? Who is he not? Followed by, Who then is Jesus? Who is he? And followed by, Where then is he leading us?
Okay, so these three questions will guide us in our goal of seeing the greatness and supremacy of Jesus.
Okay, so pretty simple. I figured, you know, why not put the three points? It kind of makes it neat for
your note writing, right? So three things. The first one, question number one, Who is Jesus not?
Or perhaps the better way to ask this question is, in what ways have we blinded ourselves to the true
image of Jesus? So let's look back at the text. Let's go 32 to 37. They're going on this road, and what do we
see happening? This is one of the most sobering passages in all of Mark for me, because we see Jesus
explaining for the third time, in the greatest detail thus far in the book of Mark, his upcoming
death. He's going to be scourged, spit on, mocked, and then killed. And so he just reveals this, again, for
the third time to his disciples. And then we see James and John approach him, right? So what do we expect
them to say to him, like, Jesus, you are so gracious? Why are you so good to us? Jesus, must it happen this
way? Jesus, can we take your place? But that's not at all what we hear them say. Rather, Jesus, give us
what we ask of you. How do they do this, right? My mind, when I read this, I say, how is this possible?
And the answer is, they have been blinded to see Jesus as the full Jesus of who he is. They're
blinded to this aspect of him. See, Mark is pretty clever in this text.
He uses this idea of blindness to drive home a very profound point. See, he talks about physical
blindness and then physical, like, seeing to reflect on spiritual blindness and spiritual seeing. Okay, so
we see this throughout the text. This is what I mentioned at the beginning. We might jump back a
little bit for us to actually grasp this. So if you look at—you don't have to turn there, because we're
going to go to a couple different passages right now, but chapter 8, verses 22. There's another blind
man, okay? This man does not see anything. Then Jesus comes to him, heals him. The man sees kind of
with—with—with blurred vision. Jesus heals him again, then he sees clearly. So he sees—doesn't see,
then sees partially, then sees fully. Then you move on. Chapter 8, verses 27. Uh, Peter, he sees—who
do people say that I am? Peter, you're the Messiah. Yes, like, you're right. You see that. But he doesn't
see, because the next part is he pulls Jesus aside and rebukes him, saying, you don't know what you're
doing if you're going to go die. So Peter sees, doesn't really see. Then the next thing, transfiguration.
Peter, James, and John, they're brought up to this mountain where Jesus is transfigured before them,
and they see Jesus and Moses and Elijah representing the law and the prophets. They see that, but they
don't see that Jesus is far above both the law and the prophets. So they see, but don't fully see.
And then the end of our passage, there's a blind man. He does not see physically, but he sees. Son of David,
this messianic term. He sees, and then what does he do? He follows. Okay, so this happens because we're blind
to Jesus at times, and my goal for tonight is for us to see Jesus as he truly is. And before we cast
judgment on these two disciples, it is wise for us to see how we do this in our own lives, and even with
Jesus. You see, it is a, it's a fundamental human error for us to project onto others the image that we
want them to bear. In other words, we decide to see people how we want to see them. We make them think,
or act, or operate in a way that most fits with our idea of, of who they should be, or how they should
be. We project our image of them over the real image of them, right? We do this all the time.
So let us not too harshly criticize James and John and cast them aside before we see how we do this with
our spouses, and our friends, and our professors at school, maybe, or politicians in general, and
most importantly, as Mark will show us, how we do this with, with God himself.
Because at times, we, we just like not knowing the real person. We like leaving this safe cushion of,
of ambiguity surrounding relationships. It's just easier that way, right? If I ignore this part of him,
or, or that part of her, it's on my terms. It makes it easier. I, okay, so I know, kind of a real life
example. I know I'm not alone in thinking about my MySpace days, right? Can you think back to MySpace?
Perhaps if you're not old enough, or maybe not, not young enough to remember MySpace, uh, in its prime,
we can think about, like, your, when you first started using Facebook, or really any time, for me,
that I could see this, this glimpse of some girl out there, but not actually see her for who she is,
right? You'd click their profile, you'd, like, look through photographs, and you'd see some perfect
idiosyncrasy about them, and then conclude in your brilliant middle school mind that you can't operate
a moment longer without IMing her, or at least, like, putting her in your OA message somehow, right?
We did this when we were younger. Those were heart-wrenching days that were only, like,
pacified by listening to Dashboard Confessional afterwards, right? All right. I, I can remember
my heart, like, going crazy for this girl I met at summer camp, uh, Camp Aria. It was a three-day
Bible conference, right? Churches come together, and, you know, all meet in the same place.
We met over a milkshake in the gymnasium, right? And then, like, cruelly, our church vans, like,
separated us at the end of the weekend, like, end-of-the-world stuff. That's how it felt, right?
But in that, I knew her, like, just this glimpse. I just talked to her for 10 minutes, but I, I fill in
all of the blanks, right, with how I want her to be. I fill in all the voids, and I, I softened the
rough edges. I really over-spiritualized the fact that she had a WWJD bracelet on, and therefore was,
like, the perfect wife potential for my eighth-grade soul. Like, that's how it worked, right? We do this.
We're really good at making people into what we want them to be, but the cost that we blind ourselves
to who they really are, right? We, we do this, and I think as a side note, I think that's why we like
Facebook so much, because we can put out there, like, the thing we want to be seen as. We can be seen,
right? But not really seen. And my point is that Jesus never does this. Mark never does this with
Jesus. He never shows us just a couple of, like, the best features of him, and then hides the rest.
That, that never happens.
So my goal is for us to see him and really see him, lest we make him into someone that he's not.
Okay, so enough, like, extra biblical stuff. Back to the text. How do we do this or see this in the
book of Mark? We, we see in Mark, um, I love the book of Mark. I, I love it. It's, it's a, it's a dynamic and,
like, action-packed story of the life of Jesus. I, I love it. And with these actions, uh, we are really
tempted to see him as who he is not. Um, we watch Jesus heal. So again, you don't have to turn here.
I'm just going to kind of write, read a list off. Chapter 1, verses 21. Jesus heals, excuse me, a demon-possessed
man. Chapter 1, verses 30. He heals Peter's mother. 1, 34. He heals many with diseases. Chapter 1, verses 40.
He cleanses a leper. 2, 10. He heals the paralytic. 3, 5. Heals a withered hand of a man. Like, on and on and on,
we see Jesus being a healer. And so, we, as, as humans, we interact with this text and say,
I, I, I find a need for healing in my own life. And I see that Jesus heals. Therefore, I make Jesus into
just a healer. But let us ask our main question again. Who is Jesus not? He is not just a healer.
Or, perhaps we are the one to think much of spiritual things, to, to look deep inside of
ourself and, and to recognize the reality that, at the end of our life, death waits for us. And there's,
there's one of two options. There's a eternal, eternity with God and all of his goodness, or
that's eternity apart from those things. And so, we read in this text, Jesus, he, he is one who is to
give eternal life, eternal life with God. And so, we, we are prone to just see Jesus as this free ride
to eternity with God, but miss everything else about him. And so, that too, is to not see Jesus for who
he is. If he's just the, the ticket to heaven, then that is far too low a view of Jesus, and you, you have
missed him. So, that's another way that we, we see who Jesus is not. Now, to look at our text for
tonight, James and John, right? You're going through, we're going to Jerusalem, Jesus talks about death.
Teacher, give us what we want. We want to sit on your right hand and on your left hand to reign with
you in power. Now, let us remember, guys, that at this point, the Jews are under foreign rule.
They're an occupied people. The Romans have taken over their homeland, and they, they, these guys live not
by the law of the prophets, by their own code, their own pagan deities. And James and John see
Jesus as their rescuer, much like Peter did before with, with his, yes, you are the Messiah. Like, they see
that part, but they see him as overthrowing these leaders and beginning this new era for Jews, but they
see him wrong. They project onto him the person they want him to be. They make him into this revolutionary
guy who will reclaim the throne and rule over the Jews with, with power and justice. But they see him
wrongly. For Jesus himself tells us how he will rule. Verse 42, we read this, you know how everyone else in
this world. The Gentiles, they, they rule and then lord their power over people. But that's not the way
it is with you guys as Christians. If you want to be great, you become the servant. For even me, the son of
man, did not come to be served, but to serve and give my life as a ransom for many. So there's this
understanding here that these guys have kind of completely missed who Jesus is. We can look
other way in, in Mark and see how there's, there's, yes, there's power, there's happiness, there's a
release from bondage all found in Jesus. But if we make him just the giver of these things, or just the
giver of one of these things even, then it's not Jesus that we see. So he is not a mere healer.
He's not merely the ticket to eternal life. He's not a political revolutionary. He's not just the key
to our happiness or power or release from bondage. He may be these things, but that's not all that he is.
So that brings us to our second question. Who then is Jesus? Or from reading Mark, who do we see Mark
show us Jesus is? My answer to that, and I think Mark's answer to that, is Jesus is the all-supreme
God who reigns high over every facet of this life, who lowered himself to the form of man to make an
eternal offering for my guilt in a way that I never could have imagined. Again, chapter 10, verse 42,
this is the way Jesus rules. The crux of who Jesus is, is to come and serve in order that he may be
the offering and ransom for many. So our question, who is Jesus? He's the ransom. He's the offering.
He is the lamb upon whom the sins of the world would be placed, who would then be violently slaughtered
in substitution for man in order to buy back humanity. And I hope you see this. Mark hopes you
see this. The disciples miss this, and Mark is writing this so that we don't miss this.
I have come to die in your place. Verse 33,
Where are we going? Jerusalem.
Jerusalem. Why are we going there? So that I can be murdered. So that I can be killed. And I hope that
you see this, guys. I want you to see this. So is he a healer? Yes, he is. A spiritual healer.
Is he the way to eternal life? He absolutely is, but not for your sake, just so you have a life outside of
eternity apart from God, but for his sake, that his name would be glorified and lifted up as being the
one to save us. Is he the revolutionary? Yeah, he is a revolutionary. He flipped everything upside down.
He made death into life. He defeated death itself by dying. That's revolutionary. He's the giver of mercy,
not the giver of our demands upon him. So our question, who is he? This is why Rob read Isaiah 53
before, at the beginning of the service. He is the despised one. He is the forsaken one. He is the man of
sorrows, acquainted with grief. He is the one from whom men hide their face. He is the one who bore our
grief. He is the one who carried our sorrows. He is the one smitten by God. He is the one cut off from
the land of living. He is the one crushed for our iniquities. He is the one pierced for our transgressions.
He is the one from whom God, or whom God the Father was pleased to crush in order to render him
as a guilt offering for us. Guys, that is who Jesus is.
He is the guilt offering. He is this one who, though he did not deserve any of it, endured all of this
suffering to make himself an offering for us. That is who Jesus is.
Three times in the book of Mark, we've seen him discuss the reason for his coming.
So in chapter 8, verse 32, we see him describe why he's coming.
Basically, yeah, so he talks about the, in verse 34,
if anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and, and take up his cross and follow me,
after he kind of explains the, the reason for his coming.
9.32, the Son of Man is to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him, and he has,
when he's been killed, he will rise three days later.
And then chapter 10, our text tonight, verse 35.
So, he's telling us, who am I?
I'm the one who has come to take your death.
I've come to suffer and to be killed, and to rise, that you too may have life.
Or another way of saying this, I've come to heal your blindness.
So, this is who Jesus is.
And, and this brings us to our, the third and final question for us.
Question number three is, where is he leading us?
Or, perhaps a better way of saying it is, is where do we find this Jesus?
And, the answer to that question is found in the second text that Rob read at the beginning of the sermon, of the message.
Hebrews, chapter 13.
Verses 10 to 14.
Excuse me, verses, verse 12 to 14.
Therefore, Jesus also, that he may sanctify the people through his own blood, suffered outside the camp.
So then, let us go to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach.
For here we do not have, we have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come.
Jesus suffered outside the camp.
So, outside the camp, what does that mean?
That means outside of this zone of comfort, or of ease.
Outside the camp, there's, there's pain there.
There's trials.
There's difficulty there.
And, and this is where Jesus went.
And so, this verse, let us go to him.
That's where he is.
There are two main themes of Mark, I think.
One is the glory of Jesus.
And two is the suffering of Jesus and his followers.
Look at the very first verse of our text tonight, verse 32.
They were on the road going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking on ahead of them.
And they were, were amazed.
And those who followed were fearful.
It is so easy for me to skip over this verse.
And then I think, what's in Jerusalem?
Jerusalem.
Jerusalem is the place of Jesus' suffering.
Jerusalem is the, is the place that he is walking to, knowing that all of these things he listed previously are going to happen to him.
He's, he's walking in front of his disciples.
He's leading the way.
They're following him there.
That's profound to me.
And it says they're afraid.
I think they get it.
They understand.
Jesus' face is set like flint towards Jerusalem, saying, I'm going there, and I know what I'm going to do.
See, every time Jesus predicts his death, it comes with a call for discipleship.
For people to come alongside him every time in the book of Mark.
Again, these three passages.
832.
I'll be rejected by the chief priests and the scribes and be killed.
Therefore, here's the call to us.
Therefore, deny yourselves, take up your cross, and lose your life.
Second time.
930.
Son of man is to be delivered into the hands of men.
You'll be killed.
Therefore, be last among all men.
And the next one in our text tonight, verse 33 of chapter 10.
He'll be delivered into the hands of the chief priests and the scribes.
He'll be killed.
Therefore, become servants of all and glory in this low place that you'll find.
So, to follow Jesus is to suffer.
This is what it means.
It's to go to him outside the camp.
Outside of this safe, comfortable zone.
But this is the hardest question of all of them for me.
Especially for me as I live here in America.
I have a really nice home right now.
We have two cars.
We're both employed.
My wife and I are both employed.
It's hard for me to wrestle with what this means.
And so I ask the question, well, why suffer?
Or for what purpose do we suffer?
Suffering allows for us to join in his fellowship.
Now, I think we—it is important that we don't just view suffering in a very acute way.
Suffering takes many forms.
And I think if we view this outside the camp lifestyle, it means whenever these difficulties and hardship and trials come,
like, there, within those times, Jesus is found.
It allows us, when we're in that place, it allows us fellowship with him.
If I follow Jesus, if I see the true image of who Jesus is and therefore follow him,
I don't want to miss out on my fellowship with him.
If that's where he is, I'm okay with that.
I want that.
Because I don't want to miss my time with Jesus.
It is also to refine us.
We'll remember from previous weeks, as we talked about, like, the book of Mark in general,
that Mark was not a disciple of Jesus.
He was a disciple of Peter, who was walking with Jesus.
So, for me to get a real full picture of Mark, and I would suggest the same for you,
to really dig into this book of Mark, we're wise to read Peter.
And there's many passages, in 1 Peter especially, where it talks about the purpose behind suffering.
And it is, for a short time here on earth, we're suffering to refine us, to test us,
to bring about endurance.
And this is how I can answer that question, why do we suffer?
Because this test is so applicable to us, right?
Like, it's at the pearl of a great price.
So we have everything in this life here.
And then there's this pearl of a great price there.
And the point of suffering, I think one of the points of suffering is,
are we willing to get rid of all of these things for this one thing?
And this pearl is Jesus.
And so when we suffer, it says, do you value Jesus more than anything else?
Is your view of Jesus so high that if it means this is rid of in your life,
or this is taken from you, that this is still valuable.
This is still exceedingly beyond anything else that we have.
And I think that's one of the points of suffering.
Because it'll cause us to recognize and remember that this pearl of great cost,
this Jesus that we have, it's not leaving.
No matter what happens, I will hold this view of Jesus as high.
If all these things are taken away, he is still there.
And so I think that's one of the reasons of why we suffer.
And finally, because it is a way in which the world can see Jesus
as different than any other man or God that has ever existed.
One of the most important sermons I've ever listened to or read is by John Piper.
And it's called, Why the Supremacy of Christ,
or How the Supremacy of Christ Creates Radical Christian Sacrifice.
And so this quote here is just exactly what my heart is saying with this.
So these are not my words, these are his words.
I have no qualms reading them to you because they're that good, I think.
He talks about suffering.
He talks about kind of the why behind it.
And he says the world is not going to glorify Jesus
when they see Christians are healthy and wealthy and prosperous.
And it's a very simple reason why.
Because that's what they live for.
We use Jesus as the ticket, but they use other means as the ticket,
and they're not impressed.
And Piper says, I'm saying what I'm saying because I want them to be impressed.
And I just love that heart of John Piper, and I think that's what Mark is saying.
Jesus will be glorified and put above everything else
when the world sees us as holding fast to him,
even if everything underneath us gets ripped out.
That's impressive.
And our goal as Christians is to have the world impressed with Jesus.
We want to show him as who he truly is.
So I think that is another reason for why suffering happens.
So to come back to our text,
we look at verse 46.
There's this story of Jericho.
Jesus, they come to Jericho and they leave.
I have no idea what happened there from this text because
verse 46, they came to Jericho.
Next sentence, they were leaving Jericho.
So the point here is to talk about the blind man.
You see, Mark again uses this, like we said earlier,
uses this idea of blindness in a very powerful way.
Because here we are again to this blind man.
And, yeah.
This man cannot see Jesus, right?
So he has no physical eyes.
He can't see Jesus.
But he knows who he is.
He's heard about him, perhaps.
He calls him son of David, the son of man.
And what happens?
His eyes are healed.
His blindness is removed by Jesus.
He sees and truly sees.
And then what does he do?
He gets up and he follows Jesus.
Where are they going?
They're going to suffering.
And so from the very beginning to this ending passage,
when we have our sight restored
and when we have our sight made true
to see Jesus as who Jesus truly is,
we will therefore follow him to where he is going.
And so as we,
as this ends and we transition into the Lord's Supper,
the communion service,
my prayer is that you will be thinking this way,
that even this celebration of the Lord's Supper
is further in this vein of,
what do we do?
We celebrate the Lord's body broken
and his blood poured out.
Jesus suffered.
So let us glorify him.
Let us worship him for this.
Let us pray.
Lord Jesus, it is our desire to see you
as who you truly are.
Lord, we recognize that we are so good
at putting a facade over you
that is not you at all.
And so we praise you for scripture
and for the way that you illuminate
who Jesus really is in this text.
We are grateful for the way that our blindness
can be cast off by reading this,
that we can see the true picture of our Messiah.
Lord, we praise you for who you are,
for being this lamb led silently to a slaughter
to serve the role of a guilt offering for us.
Lord, we praise you.
And it is in your name that we pray these things.
Amen.
We come now to the Lord's Supper,
where, as Josh was saying,
where we remember what Jesus Christ did for us
when he suffered on the cross
to pay the price for our guilt.
In this passage, Jesus said that
the Son of Man came not to be served,
but to serve and to give his life
as a ransom for many.
A ransom is a price paid to set someone free from bondage.
And that's why Jesus died on the cross.
And we remember, as we take the bread and the cup,
what he did.
And it's also, taking the bread and the cup
is an expression of a commitment to follow Jesus
along the road where he leads us,
to enter in to the life that he calls us to,
to trust him.
And it's an expression of renewing our trust
and commitment to him
as he has demonstrated that supremely to us.
So if you are here tonight,
if you are a believer in Jesus,
if you're a disciple of him,
a follower of him,
if he died on the cross for your sins
and you have taken him as your Savior and your Lord,
then we invite you to take the bread and the cup
when they're passed out
and take those as a way of renewing
your trust and commitment to Christ
and remembering what he has done once for all,
for you.
If you're here, if you're not a Christian,
if you're exploring,
if you haven't made that step yet,
we're glad that you're here tonight.
We ask that you not take the bread and the cup,
but instead take this time to consider
what might be,
what is holding me back
from trusting and following this Jesus?
Who is this Jesus?
Take this time to pray and reflect
and even to ask God
to pray and talk to God.
With those who are coming,
who are serving,
the bread and the cup,
come to the front now.
Nick, would you pray and give thanks for the bread?
Heavenly Father, Lord God,
we come before you and we thank you.
We thank you for the sacrifice you made
and for coming down
and living among us, Father,
and being the example.
Lord, I pray your blessing on this bread
and just pray that we remember
the sacrifice that you made for us.
Thank you, Father.
In Jesus' name.
Amen.
Thank you.
Jesus took the bread and after blessing it, he broke it and gave it to his disciples and said, take and eat.
This is my body broken for you.