We are in Mark chapter 10 this evening.
It's good to see everyone here this evening.
even a few strangers that kind of wandered in from out east.
We are in Mark chapter 10.
Let's begin with a word of prayer.
Gracious Father in heaven, we come before your throne, grateful for the day, grateful for its blessings, grateful for all that you do for us each and every day, mindful of the
manifold blessings that are found in your church and the body of Christ.
that we might have one another, that we might have together the hope of heaven, that we might have those around us who love us, who care about us, who will provoke us to love and
to good works.
Lord, we ask that you be with us as we go through this period of study.
May the words that we find in scripture be those things which enlighten our hearts and our minds that we might be.
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more pleasing to you each and every day that we might walk in the light as you were in the light.
Forgive us when we sin and fall short of your glory.
In all this we pray in Jesus' name, amen.
Verse 35 of chapter 10 says, than James and John the sons of Zebedee came to him, saying, Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask.
And he said to them, What do want me to do for you?
They said to him, Grant us that we may sit on the right hand and on the other on your left hand, 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.
And when the 10 heard it,
they began to be greatly displeased with James and John.
But Jesus called them to Himself and said, You know that those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.
Yet it shall not be so among you.
But whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant.
and whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all.
For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many." As you look here at this text, James and John, of course, as we
discussed uh last week, they come to Jesus and they ask for this position, the right hand and the left hand of this.
of his throne in glory.
And they do this in their minds by all indications of the text thinking this is about prominence, this is about power, this is about authority.
And Jesus attaches those ideas, those concepts of authority to what he will state later concerning the Gentiles.
but he's going to use this as an opportunity to set a contrast between what the disciples think it means to be his disciple, to be one of the apostles, and what it actually would
mean to be one of his apostles.
When uh brothers ask him about this position, what does he ask them in return?
All right, are you able to drink the cup that I drink?
Are you able to be baptized with the baptism that I'm baptized with?
Now, is he talking about, ah can you use a cup like mine?
Is he talking about uh the upcoming feast of uh Passover where they will have the cup that they pass around?
What cup is he talking about?
Alright, when you think later uh in the context uh as Jesus is there in the Garden of Gethsemane, what does he pray to the Father?
Let this cup pass from me.
This is a figure of speech.
And so here Jesus is asking them something that while he's asking it to them and he knows what he means, the likelihood is
they don't understand what he means because their immediate response is yes, absolutely.
And Jesus points out, yes, actually you will.
You will partake of this same cup.
You will partake of the same baptism.
Now, this text also identifies for us, as others have done and will do in the future, that there's more than one sense in which baptism is used.
We know
from John, John the Baptist that is, that John told the people that I come baptizing you with water but there's one who comes after me who will baptize you with with the Holy
Spirit but also with fire.
John says there's someone else who has authority for additional baptisms yet we read over in Ephesians chapter 4
that there's only one baptism.
Now how is it the case that there's only one baptism and yet there are multiple baptisms?
All right, they're different things.
To baptize something is to submerge it.
It is to plunge it into something.
It is to immerse it in something.
The term baptize, the way we use it, let's just ask it this way.
When's the last time you heard the term baptize in a non-religious context in America?
You never have.
You want to know why?
It's not an English word.
So we don't use it.
If we wanted to say, submerge that thing, guess what we would say?
Put that thing in the water.
Submerge that.
Dump that in the, we'd use all sorts of different terms.
You want to know what we could say?
Hey, baptize that.
But we don't because that's not an English word, okay?
It is though a Greek word and guess what language the majority of people in the commercial enterprises they were involved in in the first century spoke, Greek.
So for Jesus to say, can you be baptized with the baptism that I'm baptized with would be to say, can you be buried
can you be immersed in, plunged into that which I am plunged into?
That wouldn't be a very unusual thing to say.
Not in the first century.
So as you consider the text and as you realize as you go through the text that you're taking the term baptism which was an ordinary word in the first century.
That we have now often turned into
an exclusively religious term in the 21st century.
You have to appreciate the fact that your brain does not always understand that word the way the 1st century brain would have understood it.
They just heard dip, plunge, immerse.
But we go, well wait a minute, is this Holy Spirit miraculous?
Is this baptism?
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, there's only one baptism, huh?
No, there's not only one plunging in all of history.
No, there's not only one submersion in any form or substance in all the Bible.
So then what does Ephesians 4 mean when it says there's only one baptism?
The answer is there is only one immersion in all of Christianity, in all the biblical text that you and I and every person who's obedient to God is commanded to participate in.
There are many baptisms, some of which you absolutely should not ever want to be baptized in.
For instance, the baptism of fire.
When John makes the statement concerning Jesus, baptizing with the Holy Ghost and with fire, the Holy Spirit is a promise from the Old Testament prophets, Joel, and fire is a
promise of judgment against the nation.
He's not saying, hey, you should look forward to that fire one.
You should see if you could get a line for that one.
That's not what he's saying.
He's telling them there's one who's coming who's bringing fulfillment of the Old Testament prophets in both the reward and the promise and the judgment that they promised.
Because the Old Testament prophets had promised both to the Jewish nation.
both judgment and reward and these blessings from God.
Do you have a comment?
Well, the first thing is they need to understand what the baptism of Holy Spirit is, ah which is, by the way, an area of a great deal of misunderstanding.
uh But one of the things that people do not realize is baptism of Holy Spirit is only ever spoken of as occurring twice in all of scripture.
It's only ever performed by Jesus directly.
It occurs
on the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2 and it occurs on the house of Cornelius in Acts chapter 10.
And we know that the same baptism occurs at Cornelius' house that occurred on the day of Pentecost because in Acts chapter 11 Peter stands up and tells the rest of the church in
Jerusalem exactly that.
He says that the Holy Spirit came on them as
as it came on us at the beginning.
Now, as he points that out, the emphasis is that the Holy Spirit that Cornelius received was not the promise of the Spirit mentioned in Acts chapter 2 verse 38.
It was also not the giving of
the Holy Spirit by the laying on of the Apostles hands because they hadn't laid their hands on them.
Rather this was a miraculous event that identified that the Jews in Acts chapter 2 would be those who would receive the gospel and entrance into the kingdom.
And in Acts chapter 10 it was that the Gentiles
would receive the gospel and entrance into the Kingdom.
And so it placed the Jew and the Gentile on equal footing in the kingdom because the Spirit was poured out on both of them.
Furthermore, in Acts chapter 10, when you look at that text, immediately upon the Spirit being poured out on them and those in that house begin to speak in tongues, Peter asked
the question,
of the other Jews who are with him, can any forbid water that they should be?
baptized.
If the baptism was the Holy Spirit,
than they'd already been baptized.
The baptism they were commanded to participate in that had to do with salvation was not the Holy Spirit.
It was baptism for the remission of sins.
Furthermore, you have in Acts chapter two that statement that as many of them as were what?
believed and confessed?
As many of them as repented?
No, as many of them as were baptized, the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.
Okay?
They were those who heard, believed, and by the way, when you go through Acts chapter two, you can identify all five of the steps of salvation.
in the text.
Okay, this is worth looking at.
We'll just pause here for just a moment, but this is absolutely worth looking at.
In Acts chapter 2, all five Acts of salvation are in the text.
They're not, the term for each one is not used, but they're all there.
Notice what we read.
Acts chapter 2 verse men and brethren let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David that he is both dead and buried and his tomb is with us to this day.
Therefore being a prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body according to the flesh he would raise up the Christ to sit on his
throne.
He foreseeing this spoke concerning the resurrection of Christ that his soul was not to be left in Hades nor did his flesh see corruption.
This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses.
Therefore, being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear." Notice the
pouring out of the Holy Spirit was done by who?
Jesus Christ.
Watch it.
This Jesus God has raised up of which we are all witnesses, therefore being exalted to the right hand of God and having received from the Father the promise of Holy Spirit, He, He,
Jesus Christ poured out the promise
of the Holy Spirit which you now see and hear.
What did they see on the heads of the apostles?
Clothed in tongues of fire.
What did they hear with their ears which they had questioned about earlier in the text?
They were speaking in tongues.
There's 17 different nations standing there and only 11 or 12 people speaking and everyone was hearing in their own language.
Do the math on that.
Peter says Jesus is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit and what you have witnessed is evidence of it.
You go over to Acts chapter 11 and what does Peter say?
That the Holy Spirit was poured out.
on the house of Cornelius.
Just as on us at the beginning.
They received the Spirit just as we at the beginning.
Okay?
So, here we have Peter identifying the baptism of Holy Spirit.
He identifies that Jesus did it, but who was baptized with the Holy Spirit?
Twelve men standing in their presence.
Okay, not the entire crowd.
And were any of them commanded to be baptized by the Holy Spirit?
No.
Were any of them commanded to be baptized in the Holy Spirit?
No.
Okay, now notice.
For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he says himself, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand,
until I make your enemies your footstool.
Therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made both this Jesus whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.
Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do?
All right, watch what happened.
Number one, they heard
the word, right?
How do we know they heard the word?
Peter was preaching.
Number two, they believed the word.
How do we know they believed the word?
because they asked what they should do.
If someone comes to you and says, there is a flying saucer outside, the aliens have arrived.
Do you immediately ask them, what should I do?
No, you call for help, because they need it.
And it's not the kind of help they're looking for, but they need it.
Why?
Because you don't believe them.
These individuals had just been accused of murdering the very son of God and they believed the message.
Having believed the message, they asked, what are we gonna do?
Now, what does Peter tell them to do?
Verse 37, now when they heard this they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do?
Then Peter said to them, repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Now, as you look at this text,
And as you look at what the text says, what was the first thing Peter commanded them to do?
Repent!
Why did they need to repent?
because they had with wicked hands slain the very Son of God.
so they needed to repent.
Having heard, having believed, they needed to repent of their sins.
Why didn't he tell them to believe?
They already did believe.
One of the best analogies that helps people get this, why did Jesus say, that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but Peter said, repent and be baptized?
The answer is because the people that are being talked about are starting in two different locations.
If somebody asks me, how do I get to your house?
You to know the first question I'm going to ask them is?
Where are you?
Well, 20 minutes ago I was driving down I-40.
Okay, you want me to give you directions from where you were 20 minutes ago or where you are right now?
Peter gave them the directions based upon where they were.
Notice as well that Peter had just stated with clarity that Jesus Christ was the Savior, the resurrected Savior, and the very Son of God.
And they agreed to that when they said, men and brethren, what shall we do?
So in essence, they've already convinced.
to the very existence and nature.
I'm gonna switch to this mic.
I don't know what the other one's doing.
to the very existence and nature of the Son of God.
Now, watch the text.
He says, repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.
Furthermore, you have with that statement the recognition that the baptism was going to be by the authority of who?
Jesus Christ.
Therefore, they are submitting
to the authority of Jesus Christ.
That's what confession is.
It is the submission to the authority of Christ.
When we confess, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, we are confessing His authority.
So you have hear, you have believe, you have the command to repent, you have confession in what Peter told them to do and that which they acknowledged by asking the question, and
you have baptism for the remission of sins.
It's right there.
You don't have to go anywhere else.
but every other passage after Acts chapter two.
is in view of the same set of instructions.
Even when not every instruction is rehearsed verbatim.
if you turn to Romans chapter 10.
Verse eight, but what does it say?
The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart.
That is the word of faith which we preach.
What's that?
Hearing.
Okay, so they had to hear.
That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
For with the heart one believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
For with the heart one believes unto righteousness?
Question.
Does the belief equal the righteousness?
No, it is done unto, toward righteousness.
For with the heart one believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto, toward salvation.
These things are the approach
to salvation.
If you try to approach salvation without your heart involved, what's God going to do?
Is going to save you?
No.
If you try to approach salvation without being willing to confess His name and His authority over you and your life, do you think He's going to be willing to save you?
No.
If you don't first believe who he is and you don't agree to be submissive to his authority, you will not be saved.
By the way, that is the context of Romans 10.
How do I know?
Turn back to Romans chapter 10 verse 1.
The context is there is a group of people under discussion who refuse to believe and refuse to submit to the authority of Christ.
Who are they?
They're the Jews.
Notice, my brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved.
For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.
For they, being ignorant of God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God." That is the context of
Romans 10.
The discussion at hand is not how to be saved.
He's going to discuss how to be saved, but that's not the point of the discussion.
The context is a group of people who knowing the truth, hearing the truth, having the truth proven to them over and over and over again, refused to submit to the righteousness
of God.
Why?
Because they first wouldn't submit their heart.
They second wouldn't submit with their mouth.
But notice the rest of the text.
He says, for with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation, so that Jews could have been saved, right?
But what would they have had to have done?
Change their heart and admit that Christ was the Son of God.
What are Jews still not willing to do today?
Change their heart and admit that Jesus Christ is Son of God.
Which tells you, by the way, that the Jews are not saved.
Paul's words, not mine.
Now notice what he says.
He says, for the scripture says, whoever believes on him will not be put to shame.
For there is no distinction between Jew or Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon him.
For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Now there will be those who will try and skirt by
saying, This calling upon the name of Lord is the same confession made with the mouth earlier in the text.
It is not.
The words confess and the words call are not the same words.
As a matter of fact, this is a quotation from where?
Joel 2.32, interesting context there, because that is the context where Joel prophesies concerning the promise of the giving of the Holy Spirit that occurs in Acts chapter 2.
You mean Joel prophesied that a message would be preached and that a group of people would call upon the name of the Lord?
And Peter said that the fulfillment of Joel's prophecy was what was occurring at that event.
And at that event, what were they commanded to do?
Repent and be baptized.
Not repent and confess.
Not believe and confess.
Repent.
and be baptized.
But furthermore...
Paul has just brought in Joel 2 to say, whosoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed?
And how shall they believe in him in whom they have not heard?
And how shall they hear without a preacher?
And how shall they preach unless they are sent as it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things.
But they...
have not all obeyed the gospel.
Who's the they?
Israel, the Jews.
For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed our report?
So then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
Now, at one point in time was Paul just like those Jews?
didn't believe, wouldn't confess.
So what did Paul do to be saved?
Because he's the one writing it.
Surely he knows.
yeah, actually he does know.
Turn back to the book of Acts.
Acts chapter 22.
Because right next to Romans chapter 10 verse 13, really ought to put a cross reference to Acts chapter 22 verse 16.
Paul is recounting what he did to be saved and how he got to the point where he was telling the Jewish nation that they needed to repent in order to be saved.
And he says, verse three, I am indeed a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, taught according to the strictest of our father's laws,
and was zealous towards God as you all are today.
What did he say in Romans 10?
They have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.
Paul introduces this context by telling the one who he's standing before, I was zealous for God just like you.
But then he says,
I am persecuted this way to death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women.
As also the high priest bears me witness, and all the council of the elders from whom I received letters to the brethren, and went to Damascus to bring in chains, even those who
were there to Jerusalem to be punished.
Now it happened as I journeyed and came near Damascus uh at about noon, suddenly a great light
from heaven shone around me and I fell to the ground and I heard a voice saying to me, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?
So I answered, who are you, Lord?
What's that?
That's a confession of authority.
He knows he's Lord, but he doesn't know who he is.
And he said, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting.
And those who were with me indeed saw the light and were afraid, but did not hear the voice of him who spoke to me.
So I said, what shall I do, Lord?
Now, what's that?
That's hearing and believing.
and confessing.
because there is the recognition and the verbal statement of the authority of Jesus Christ.
So according to Paul, if the question in the statement was true, that when you hear and you confess the name of Christ, you're saved, Paul's saved right there.
Except he's not.
How do we know?
Because he tells us he wasn't.
Notice what we read.
So I answered, Who are you, Lord?
He said to me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting.
And those who were with me indeed saw the light and were afraid, but they did not hear the voice of him who spoke to me.
So I said, What shall I do, Lord?
And the Lord said to me, Arise and go into Damascus, and there you will be told all things which are appointed for you to do.
And since I could not see for the glory of that light being led by the hand of those who were with me, I came into Damascus.
Then a certain Ananias,
a devout man, according to the law, having a good testimony with all the Jews who dwelt there, came to me and he stood and said to me, Brother Saul, now.
Do not let someone get away with saying, see, Ananias thought he was already a Christian.
He called him brother.
Go back to Acts chapter 22 verse 22.
Five.
Paul will tell you how he's using the term brother because he already used it.
Verse five, as also the high priest bears me witness, who's the high priest?
He's a Jew who currently wants Paul killed and all the council of the elders who are Jews and currently want Paul
Killed.
from whom I also receive letters to the brethren.
The letters from the high priest were not to the church in Damascus.
They were to the authorities of the Jews in Damascus.
In the context, Paul is using the term brother and brethren to reference Jews, not Christians.
So when Ananias, who was a Jew, called him Brother Saul,
Paul's using the term the same way Ananias did.
As a fellow Jew, he was called a brother.
But notice, he stood and said to me, Brother Saul, receive your sight.
And at that same hour, I looked up at him.
Then he said, the God of our fathers has chosen you that you should know his will.
By the way, did you notice he just said the God of our...
fathers.
He just initiated the family connection that all Israelites have, that they are the descendants of Abraham.
They are brethren as a result.
He says the God of our fathers.
has chosen you that you should know his will and see the just one and hear the voice of his mouth, for you will be his witness to all men of what you have seen and heard.
And now, why are you waiting?
Arise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on the name.
of the Lord." What did Paul in Romans chapter 10 say?
That all those who do X will receive Y.
all those who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." When Paul testifies of his own conversion, he says that he was commanded to call upon the name of the Lord by doing
what?
Being baptized.
Not confessing.
He had already confessed.
He already believed.
He had just spent three days praying, waiting for Ananias to arrive.
And when Ananias arrived, Ananias said, what are you waiting for?
Why are you still in your sins?
Arise and be baptized and wash away your sins.
Paul saw all the time, knew how he was saved.
He knew he was still in his sins and he had seen the light and God in Christ had appeared to him.
And yet, Ananias says, there is something you lack.
By the way, Paul still knew there was something he lacked because what did he ask?
What shall I do?
Paul knew he lacked something.
Ananias knew he lacked something.
Jesus knew he lacked something.
That's because he sent him to Damascus to find out what he should do.
Everyone who hears and believes and confesses and stops there lacks something and Paul knew it and Ananias knew it and Jesus knew it.
because they're still in their sins.
Their sins have not been washed away.
Which is, by the way, why there is only one baptism in all the New Testament that we are commanded to be baptized with.
And it is baptism in water for the remission of sins.
There's not another command anywhere in all the New Testament for anyone to be baptized.
not a single occasion where anyone anywhere commands anyone to be baptized in anything other than water.
So as we get into Mark chapter 10, you're welcome.
I love it when people ask for a sermon they didn't know they asked for.
So.
Jesus, when he says, you be baptized with the same baptism I'm baptized with, the apostles did not immediately think, he's talking about how we're saved.
No.
They understood him to be using an analogy the same way we would.
Can you go through the things that I'm going to go through?
Have you ever heard the phrase about someone?
Yeah, he's up to his neck in it.
Did you immediately assume that he was physically up to his neck in something?
No.
Why?
Because we know how language works.
They didn't assume that Jesus was asking them about a physical cup.
They didn't think he was asking about a physical baptism either.
They knew he was asking about the thing that he was tasked with doing and the challenges he was tasked with facing.
What they didn't realize is that the real cost was their life.
Because what they're worried about is their authority.
So Jesus says, yes indeed, you will drink of the cup that I drink and you will be baptized with the same baptism that I'm baptized with.
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.
Jesus makes the point.
uh This is, see that seat over there?
It's got a sign on it, says, See that seat over there?
It's got a sign on it, it says, reserved.
Jesus, who's it reserved for?
Not your business.
Now, Jesus called them to Himself after the other apostles are standing around and they're like,
Did these two just seriously ask that?
While all of us were standing here?
The goal.
You go read the rest of the parallel passage, you find out their mother even showed up to ask for it.
No kidding.
But Jesus called them to himself and said to them, you know that those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them.
Picture it if you will.
Jesus says, come here.
Have you ever watched the Gentiles?
You ever see a Gentile king go by?
Have you ever seen the Romans parade through town and there's the king and there's the governor and there's the authorities?
You know what happens, right?
You do the wrong thing and you what?
You die.
You say the wrong thing and you die.
They don't just have authority, they lord it over the people.
He says, yet it shall not be so among you.
rather whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant.
Jesus said you have completely misunderstood what the role is.
They just spent three and a half years training for the role, and they completely misunderstood what the role was.
because they're imagining power and authority and rule.
uh
And Jesus said, no slavery, bondage to all those who you have authority over.
There's a bit of a warning there that I believe corresponds to James's warning in James chapter 3 where James tells the first century Christians, be ye not many masters.
The words there, it's teachers.
He warns the Christians, don't be in a hurry to be a teacher.
Don't be in hurry to be a master.
Don't be in a hurry to have authority over someone.
Number one, because you have a greater judgment.
Number two, because your mouth can cause someone else to err, to sin, and you will judge yourself by doing so.
But Jesus also points out that just makes you their servant, not their ruler.
So Jesus is going to help these apostles as they are beginning that journey here in this text to Jerusalem for the crucifixion.
He is going to help them realize that if they're going to be what they're asking for,
They're not going to be first.
They're going to be last.
All right?
Thank you for your attention.