Good evening.
Ahem.
I am neither a prophet nor a weather forecaster, but I declare winter over.
We'll see if I'm right or wrong.
for the rest of the weekend, sorry.
Book of Mark.
Still in chapter 10 this evening, so encourage you to take your Bibles and turn them to Mark chapter 10.
Let's bow our heads in a word of prayer as we get started.
Our gracious Father in heaven, we bow before you, grateful for the day, the opportunity that we have to assemble together, the life, the energy, and the health that we have to be
able to come together with one another.
mindful of those who, because of reason of health, are unable to be with us.
And we pray that your hand will be with them and that they will recover their desired help.
But we also pray that you be with those who are facing catastrophes and natural disasters and things that come upon this world and all of its difficulties.
We pray that you will be with them as they strive to recover.
and pray that you might bless their efforts by those who will lift up their hands and encourage them and support them in those works.
Lord, we also are mindful of those leaders throughout the world who have decisions to make to determine the path of world events and the course of nations.
We pray that you will be with them in their decision-making process.
We pray that they will look to your word for wisdom and for knowledge on how they should make those decisions.
But Lord, we also pray that no matter what comes in life, that we might always have boldness to preach the gospel, to stand firm for the truth, to be always steadfast in our
labors for your kingdom.
Lord, we pray that you be with those who are searching for the truth.
May they encounter someone from your kingdom.
from your body, from your church, may they open up the word of God and be obedient to it and submit to your will.
Where prayer is that we might also have open doors of opportunities to teach the lost and to preach the gospel to every creature.
We ask that you forgive us when we sin and fall short of your glory.
And all this we pray and ask in Jesus' name, amen.
In Matthew 10, Jesus has encountered the individual we've often referred to as the rich young ruler.
And that individual has come before Jesus and publicly, essentially chased down Jesus to ask his very important question.
What was his question?
What must I do to have eternal life?
Seems like a good question to ask, isn't it?
It's one that really all of us should ask ourselves is what must I do?
What does God require of me to have eternal life?
Unfortunately, when he received the answer, what did he do?
went away sorrowful.
Why did he go away sorrowful?
because he had great possessions, because he loved his riches, because his riches, his possessions were more important to him than the reason he came.
And that is that he might have eternal life.
Jesus declares in verse 23 of chapter 10 how hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God.
Now we've discussed a number of different aspects of this and we're going to not rehash all of those, but we're down to about verse 28 in this text where Peter has heard the
things that Jesus has said and Jesus has declared twice now how difficult it is for those who have riches to inherit the kingdom of God, though the second times Jesus adds
clarity to that statement by saying that people who trust in riches, it is hard for them to, it is easier rather for a camel to go through an eye of a needle than for a rich man
to enter the kingdom of God.
And they were greatly astonished, verse 26, saying among themselves, who then can be saved?
But Jesus looked at them and said, with men it is impossible, but not with God.
for with God all things are possible.
Then Peter began to say to him, see we have left all and followed you.
As Peter is listening to what Jesus is saying, as he is observing what Jesus is teaching, he kind of, as you might
at least visualize it, looks at himself and looked at the rich man and yeah, I definitely don't have that position in life.
But even though Peter wasn't a man of great wealth, what had Peter given up?
His home?
His livelihood?
He's out walking around, journeying around wherever Jesus goes, walking literally as a disciple in the footsteps of his teacher.
So Peter says and points out to Jesus, see we have left all and followed you.
So Jesus answered him and said, assuredly I say to you there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands for my sake and
the gospels.
who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands with persecutions and in the age to come eternal life.
But many who are first will be last and the last first." This isn't the first time that Jesus has introduced this idea of the first should be last, the last should be first.
but he brings it up again.
when Peter makes this statement.
What do you think is on Peter's mind?
Mm-hmm.
Well, at least in the sense of she probably was at home with her mother as he was out following Jesus wherever he went.
We know that she is with him later on when he's described as being an elder and going about.
So, uh by terms of location, not left as inabandoned.
All right.
I think that's perhaps part of it.
And matter of fact, when you go over into Matthew's account of this occasion, you see a little bit more of Peter saying, do we get?
What's in it for us?
Look at what we've done.
We've done everything you just commanded him to do.
What's in it for us?
ah How are we going to be rewarded?
Or at least reassurance that
Absolutely, you're gonna have part in eternal life and in the kingdom.
But Jesus does two things when Peter makes a statement.
Number one, he provides assurance.
that God is just, that God is fair with those who do what He's commanded them to do.
but he also provides clarity on the path to that assurance.
As he describes the things that the disciples of Christ will go through, will give up, they will receive, but they're gonna receive more than they necessarily bargained for too.
Because he's going to point out that
those who give up as he goes down the list, the ones who have left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands for my sake in the Gospels.
He has just commanded this rich young ruler to do exactly this, and yet the rich young ruler has gone away sorrowful.
He has denied the command.
and went away and said, sorry if that's what it costs that's not for me.
And in very fair comparison or contrast the disciples, especially the twelve, have done exactly this.
Where was Levi or Matthew sitting when Jesus called him and said, follow me?
at the tax collector's stable because that was his job.
He was at work.
And what did he do?
He got up and followed Christ.
Where were Peter and Andrew and James and John when Jesus called them?
Mending their nets.
Why?
That was their occupation.
They were fishermen.
And when He called them, what did they do?
They got up and for James and John they left their father to the boats and left and followed Jesus.
Is the text indicating to us that they abandoned all communication with their father?
They never again had anything to do with that man who was part of the physical world they used to live in?
No, not at all.
As a matter of fact, we find their mother coming to Jesus in the days before he is betrayed, asking if
Jesus will give them his right and left hand in the kingdom.
When Peter is back in Caesarea, where do we find Jesus?
Staying in the house of Peter with his mother-in-law.
So it's not as though these apostles forsook never to have any interaction with, again, their families, their homes, or their history.
but rather they set every physical priority that they had previously had aside and follow Jesus.
Which is really, when you think about it, what Jesus is calling upon the rich young ruler to do.
Set aside every physical priority.
Set aside the trust in the physical things
in all the things that society has always told you are important and the things that you're supposed to do and go follow Christ.
trust God entirely.
and see whether or not God will provide what you need.
That's really where this discussion comes from.
Peter's over here asking, Lord, what do we get?
Now, is Peter thinking spiritual kingdom, spiritual family, spiritual blessings?
Is that what Peter's thinking?
No, Peter's still looking for an earthly kingdom, for an earthly savior, for an earthly messiah, on an earthly throne in Jerusalem.
But notice what Jesus says.
When Jesus says, you're going to receive these things, He says, who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time.
houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, lands, with persecutions and in the age to come, eternal life.
Jesus points out that there is and there are blessings to be had here and now for the faithful servant of God.
Except they may not always look exactly the way we thought they'd look.
They may not always come exactly the way we thought they'd come.
And yet, they come.
There's going to be a day in Peter's future.
where Peter is going to be.
uh
to asleep
Not in his house.
His house is in Caesarea.
And Peter's in Joppa.
And he's going to be found by a messenger in the home of, by all indications of the text, another Christian.
Not his home, not his house, not his family.
And yet, here's Peter with a roof over his head and a place to stay and being taken care of by somebody who's a member of the body of Christ.
So often as you look into the text of Paul's missionary journeys, you find individuals who house Paul and his companions, who house even the entire congregation, at least in
allowing them to meet in their home, who contribute not only to Paul's continued efforts and evangelistic work, but also sometimes save his very life at risk of their own.
What would you call that?
I'd call that family.
Were they related to Paul?
No.
Except through Christ.
They became part of the family of God.
And Jesus is emphasizing to his disciples, though they will not yet understand all that is entailed, he is emphasizing that you cannot out give God.
You I'm going to give this up.
Why?
Because of God's work.
I challenge you.
If you sit there with a tally sheet and you're to ask yourself after years and years of doing God's work who gave more, you or God, you're going to have a really honest
opportunity to find out that God always gave more.
but it didn't always come to what you thought it would.
God, as I sometimes often point out, takes care of a lot of things that we don't pay attention to or we don't always appreciate in the moment.
God took care of financing Paul's trip to Rome.
Took two years in a Caesarean prison and a Roman garrison and a Roman guard and a Roman ship and a shipwreck or two along the way.
But God finances trip to Rome didn't cost Paula Dime.
God has ways of doing things.
And you go back into the life of David.
It's interesting to watch some of the people that David has associations with while he's on the run and what those associations become and turn into when he's Associations that
never would have happened had he never been on the run.
Had Saul never been chasing him.
Here's David, someone who, like the apostles, had given up everything to do what God had called him to do.
Started when he was willing to give up his life to go stand in front of a giant when the entire nation wouldn't do it.
And here comes Dave and says, I'll do it.
And David's conviction was...
I defeated the bear, I defeated the lion, God delivered me out of their mouths, He can deliver me out of the hand of this blasphemous Philistine.
If God could do it in a small matter, God could do it in a big one.
If God could do it with a bear, God could do it with a Philistine.
If God could do it with an animal, God could do it with a giant.
So as Jesus is teaching his disciples this same principle that David had experienced before, you remember what God told David when David decided
I'm going to build a house for the Lord.
And then God said, no you're not.
You remember that God said, built you a house.
I built you a lineage.
I built you a throne.
When did I ever ask anything in return?
What is that?
That is God saying, I don't need you to give me anything.
But does God require us to give things?
absolutely.
So the question is, for whose benefit?
hours.
Because God doesn't need anything.
when we come to realize.
that we are challenged every single day by what we have, by what we want, by what we expect in the future, and what's demanded of us today.
We come to grips with passages like this and we hopefully start asking ourselves, what am I giving up?
What have I been willing to give up and?
Am I done?
Sometimes members of the church get to a certain point in their life and they say, realize what I've given up?
And they start holding it against God how much they've had to give up.
Sadly, unfortunately, a lot of times preachers do that.
They look at all the things they've gone through.
They look at all the situations they've endured.
They look at all the places they've had to move just to continue to carry on their work.
And they're finally about ready to say, you know what?
What did I ever get out of it?
Jesus?
makes this point at the end.
But many who are first will be last.
And the last first.
Who should be the last one to ever have to give up anything for us?
What does he owe us?
Nothing.
How could we ever repay Him?
Couldn't.
No way.
So.
who is willing to give up and ask for nothing in return because we're entirely incapable of giving it back.
The answer is Christ.
The answer is God.
So as we deal with our own contemplations and our own understandings of what God is requiring of us, we first need to understand we're never gonna out give God.
Secondly, need to understand we're never going to give more than Christ already gave.
Third, we need to understand that no matter how much we give to God or give up for God, likelihood is we're still gonna end up in the red, because He's gonna give more back.
if you challenge yourself to outpace God in your giving.
Now, is all giving financial?
No, as a matter of fact, when you notice the majority of the things listed here aren't financial.
They're family.
They're personal.
They're relational.
But when we challenge ourselves to outpace God in our giving,
I suspect we will find that we can't.
And Jesus is going to say that very thing.
Because notice what He says, surely I say to you, there is no one.
That would be zero.
That would be an absolute, categorical zero.
There is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands for my sake and the Gospels, who shall not receive a hundredfold.
God says, not only do I challenge you to out give me, go ahead, try.
But I'm not going to beat you by 100%.
I'm not going to beat you by 200%.
I'm going beat you by 1000%.
I'm to beat you so bad that you're never even going to be able to compare to what I do.
You someone says, Aaron, I know people who've given their last penny and they've given everything and they never became wealthy and they never became famous and they never got
all the things that you're talking about.
And I would suggest we probably have to go back a little bit more to first principles and ask ourselves some questions.
When you woke up this morning, whose air were you breathing?
When you sat down for breakfast, whose food were you eating?
when you decided to go check the bank account whose money were you looking at?
when you walk from the bedroom to the living room whose house were you in?
When you got in the car to drive here...
whose prosperity paid for it.
When you lay down and sleep tonight, who is going to determine the path and the orbits and the rotation of the planets and the solar systems while you are asleep?
Now ask who gives more.
Ask if you can out-give God.
Turn back to Jobe.
when Job has concluded that his life is so miserable, that his circumstances are so unimaginable, that his situation is absolutely unjust, and that God is doing all of this
to him even though he didn't deserve it.
God decides to answer Job as the text says, chapter 38 verse 1, how the world went.
In Job chapter 38 verse 2, God begins with a series of questions.
And if we think we're really all that smart, I would challenge that the majority of the questions here we still don't have answers to.
Who is this who darkens counsel, God says, by words without knowledge?
Now prepare yourself like a man.
I will question you and you shall answer me." Job has, if you're familiar with the book of Job, the book of Job from chapter three all the way to chapter 37 is a series of speeches.
back and forth.
Job says something, then one of his friends say something, and then Job says something, and then another one of his friends says something.
So it's back and forth, back and forth, and Elihu has made this last statement, and now God decides to, as it were, butt in.
and he doesn't talk to the friends at all.
talks to Job, says, Job, stand up.
You're sitting in the city dump, you're scraping your boils with potsherds, you're miserable, stand up and talk to me like a man.
And then he says, I'm going to question you, you're going to answer me.
Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?
Tell me if you have understanding.
Who determined its measurements?
Surely you know.
or who stretched the line upon it?
To what were its foundations fastened?
Or who laid its cornerstone?
When the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy.
Job, let me ask you, where were you when I created the planet you're standing on?
Where were you and how did you determine, the correct measurement of the planet?
What are you holding up on, Job?
How many years ago was it we finally came to the conclusion the planet wasn't sitting on top of Atlas's shoulders?
Verse 8, Job, who shut in the sea with its doors, when it burst forth and issued from the womb, when I made the clouds its garment, and thick darkened waves must stop.
God says a joke, Joe, how did you decide to keep the seas at bay?
when you recognize and appreciate that there is an elevation to the ocean.
and that without the gravitational pull of the moon, where would the oceans be?
Needless to say, California would not be a problem anymore.
He says, have you commanded the morning since your days began?
Joe, I got a question for you.
What day did you wake up and tell the morning to start?
and cause the dawn to know its place, that it might take hold of the ends of the earth and the wicked be shaken out of it.
It takes on form like clay under a seal and stands out like a garment.
From the wicked their light is withheld and the upraised arm is broken.
Have you entered the springs of the sea?
Job, you been down there to the bottom of the ocean?
You think about it, with all the technology that we have, with all of the advanced science that we have, we still struggle.
to handle the depths of the ocean that living creatures live in.
Think about that.
There's fish down there with real bodies that can withstand depths and pressures that we can't even build a submarine to withstand.
After all the years of knowledge and insight that we have, there's a challenge for AI.
Go ahead, figure it out.
Give me some nice flesh and whatever that fish is made out of.
Figure it out.
He says, have you entered into the springs of the sea?
Have you walked in search of the depths?
Have the gates of death been revealed to you Job?
Or have you seen the doors of the shadows of death?
Have you comprehended the breadth of the earth?
Tell me if you know all this.
Joe, what happens to the person right after they die?
Job, how do you get from here to the next life?
Go ahead, Job, tell me.
Since you're so wise, Job, since you've got it all figured out, Job, I'm ready, I'm waiting, I'm standing here, Job, answer.
when Jesus
in Mark chapter 10.
Cheers.
There's nobody who's left houses, fathers, wives, children, mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters.
for my sake and the Gospel's and will not receive a hundredfold in this time and in the life to come everlasting life?
He's not speaking metaphorically.
He is challenging us to really, honestly consider our lives.
and ask ourselves who is in charge.
because God doesn't need us.
And God doesn't need everything that we can give.
If God wanted to plant a garden in the middle of the desert in the Sahara tomorrow, it'd be the best garden that ever existed and it'd have no lack of water.
You say, where do we get it from?
He'd figure it out.
And yet, he commands us to do these things.
Ultimately, we should come to the conclusion it's not because of what he needs, it's because of what we need.
Verse 32, now they were on the road going up to Jerusalem and Jesus was going before them and they were amazed and as they followed they were afraid.
Then he took the twelve aside and began to tell them the things that would happen to him.
Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes.
And they will condemn him to death and deliver him to the Gentiles, and they will mock him and scourge him and spit on him and kill him, and the third day he will rise again."
as Mark takes us through the account.
You remember that Mark is one who goes from thing to thing to thing to thing to thing.
And Mark has just taken what Jesus said about giving up everything.
and cycled right into his testimony to the disciples that he would give up his life.
while they are what?
amazed and afraid.
Now, it's an interesting challenge for ourselves to both be amazed at the power of God and afraid of men at the same time.
And yet we do it all the time.
We're astounded at what God has done.
You go back to that listing joke and you think God could do anything.
True.
And then we go, but he won't do it for me.
So now I'm afraid.
the disciples.
are going to be reminded again this third time in the book of Mark that Jesus was going to Jerusalem to die.
and that he's not going to.
have.
nice quiet passing.
that he's going to suffer.
Peter.
over in First Peter.
We'll write beginning in verse 18 of chapter two, 1 Peter chapter two, verse 18, servants be submissive to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to
the harsh for this is commendable if because of conscience toward God one endures grief, suffering wrongfully.
For what credit is it if when you are beaten for your faults, you take it patiently, but when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God.
For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that you should follow in His steps.
Who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth.
Who when He reviled did not revile in return, when He suffered did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously.
who himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness by whose stripes you were healed.
For you were like sheep going astray, but now have returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls."
Peter years later.
will look back at the sacrifice that Christ made.
He will look back at that which Christ said He was going to do.
And Peter will say, he showed us how to do it.
He showed us how to suffer for doing good.
He showed us how to be wrongfully abused for only doing right.
And you remember that Jesus said, not only would they receive a hundredfold in this time to come, houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, and children, and lands with persecutions.
You see, they were to learn.
that just because the persecutions came didn't mean that was an indication from God that they were doing what was wrong.
that all their sacrifices were for nothing, that everything that they had given up meant nothing to God.
Rather, the persecutions were confirmation that God was doing exactly what He said He would do.
and Jesus was going to show them how.
Verse 35, then James and John, the sons of Zebedee came to him saying, teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask.
I love it when Micah comes to me and says, dad, just say yes.
No, son, what do you want?
James and John come to Jesus, teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask.
And he said to them, what do you want me to do for you?
Now he might have not said it with as much sarcasm as I just did.
Maybe he just said, what do want?
What would you like me to do for you?
They said, grant us that we may sit one on your right hand and the other on your left in your glory.
But Jesus said to them, you do not know what you ask.
Are you able to drink the cup that I drink and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?
They said to him, we are able.
So Jesus said to them, you will indeed drink the cup that I drink and
with the baptism I am baptized with, you will be baptized.
But to sit on my right hand and on my left is not mine to give, but it is for those for whom it is prepared."
They come asking for positions of authority.
The one on the right hand, historically speaking, is the one who is second in the kingdom.
The one on the left hand, third.
Jesus, will you do whatever we ask?
We're only asking for number two and three.
Only.
Jesus redirects their thoughts as they'll understand it later.
not to what they'll receive,
but to what it will cost them,
what being a disciple of His, an apostle of His will cost them.
Who's going to be the first one to die of the apostles except Judas.
James.
Who's going to be the last one to die by all indications of scripture?
John.
They're going to bookend the deaths of the apostles.
The first and the last, interestingly.
And what are they going to give up?
Everything.
Even their own lives.
but it won't be their death that will epitomize them giving up their life.
It will be the life that they live before they die.
that is the testament to them giving up their lives.
Jesus will ask them, can you drink the cup that I drink?
Can you be baptized with the baptism that I was baptized with?
By the way, James and John, who were they baptized by?
All indications of Scripture.
John, John the Baptist.
You think about it, uh you go back to the beginning of John chapter one and Andrew is one of the disciples that's following John and John the Baptist points out in the crowd,
behold the Son of God, and from that point forward Andrew goes and finds Peter and says, come we found the Messiah, and the indication is that
that it wasn't at that point after Jesus was in the picture that James and John and Andrew and Simon were all fishermen together.
It was before that point.
The likelihood is these four young men had been disciples of John all along, waiting for the Messiah.
So who baptized Jesus?
John.
So could they be baptized with the same baptism Jesus was baptized with?
Well, in the physical sense, probably the way they're thinking of it, yes.
Not the baptism Jesus is talking about, is it?
Because He's talking about the death that He'll die.
He's talking about the sacrifice that He'll make.
And they're going to drink of that same cup.
And they're going to endure those same things.
And they're going to pay that same price.
but what they're asking for, they don't understand.
And what is gonna cost them, they don't understand.
And it is important for us to realize that quite often in life, what we ask for, we don't understand.
And what we want is not necessarily what we need.
And what God is going to grant to us
is not always going to be everything we thought it would be.
Thank you for your attention.