The King Who Came to Serve
First B Jackson
2022-06-27

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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Good enough for what we do, Give credit where credit's due. Which Lexi, thank you for dinner tonight, really. It was so good. And if you'd like, please bring some leftovers home because we have some leftover containers and it would be great to not have that in the actually, we can't have it in the fridge all week, and so I'm going to be taking some. Thank you.

This is a great small group, and I hope it helps with our conversation tonight too. We're in Mark chapter 12. Before we get there, I'd like to just worship and sing. I think how about just one song at the beginning and one song at the end? Is love.

But here's the verse that I want to start with to kick us off as we sing, how deep the father is love. It's from Romans eight, and it's, what shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can be against us? Since he did not spare even his own son, but he gave him up for us, won't he also give us everything else? Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own?

No one. No one. For Christ Jesus died, he was raised to life for us, and he's sitting in the place of honor at God's right hand, and he's pleading for us. Isn't that a beautiful, beautiful thing too that he is pleading for us? So rightly so.

How deep the father's love. Shall we stand and sing it?

That he should give his only son to make a wretch his treasure. How great the pain of searing loss the father turned his face away as wounds which mar the chosen one bring medicines to glory. Behold the man upon the cross my sin upon his shoulders ashamed I hear my mocking voice call out among the scoffers. It was my sin that held him there until it was accomplished. His dying breath has brought me life.

I know that it is fitting. I will not boast in anything. No gifts, no power, no wisdom. But I will boast in Jesus Christ, his death and resurrection. Why should I gain from misreward?

I cannot give in answer, but this I know with all my heart. His wounds have paid my ransom. Why should I gain from misreward? I cannot give in answer, but this I know with all my heart. His wounds have paid my grandson.

We pray together. God, thank you for your passionate commitment, Lord, to go to Christ the cross for for us to pay our ransom. You came as a suffering servant. And, Lord, I I pray that we would have a just gain a a better understanding of who you are through this gospel of Mark this evening. Spur us on.

Encourage us in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, let's have a seat and get into the word a bit. So I I would normally just say, hey. Let's huddle around one table, but, there are just a couple people watching online, and so we'll we'll have it available to them as well.

But, gospel according to Mark, here it is that, I'd like to study tonight. It's chapter 12 verses 18 through 44. There's a lot of scripture to cover, but the headings are are these, a discussion about the resurrection, the most important commandment. Well, that's what we'd probably be all familiar with most in this room. A question about David's son comes up and the widow's offering.

And this is still, Tuesday of passion week. The religious leaders are working overtime right now to trap Jesus, and plot his death. And if I were to sum up why, why are they doing this to Jesus? You know, he came to love, heal, and forgive. What it what's the deal here?

If I were to sum it sum it up, it would be it would be because they didn't want Jesus as their king. They didn't want Jesus as their king. They wanted to be kings of their own kingdom. They were living for this place right here. The the right now, not Jesus kingdom or the kingdom of God.

They wanted places of honor and power and authority. But the gospel of Mark presents Jesus as the true king. And I I I love the way that Mark's writing, his the the way that he presents this gospel. I have absolutely loved it. He presents Jesus as king who came as a suffering servant.

And if you're going, well, what's the what's the the the whole thing about? What if I were to sum up Mark in in one verse, it would be this one right here, that Jesus came not to be served, but to serve others and give his life as a ransom for many. That's our king. That's our king. And it is it's good to have a good understanding of who our king really is and what he's about and then what we're to be about.

Because to follow him means to he says in in Mark eight thirty four, he says, it's to give up our own way and then take up our cross and go where he leads. That's what he tells his disciples, and he's telling us today too. And this one too, loving him with our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and loving one another as we love ourselves. But at this point in the in this in the gospel of Mark, very few understand Jesus and the kingdom. It's it's that's kind of the theme over and over again is is disciples don't get it, and then the pharisees don't get it, and sadducees don't get it.

A lot of people don't get it. But with every interaction, and this is what I love, Jesus is teaching, and he's revealing more and more about himself, about the kingdom. And, Lord, would you help us to grow? Lord, we are a work in progress. We don't know everything all at once.

We are learning over a lifetime. God, would would this scripture tonight and your Holy Spirit stir our affections for you and for one another. In Jesus' name. Amen. So I wanna start with verse, 18.

So this is a discussion about the resurrection. It says this, that Jesus was approached by the Sadducees, the religious leaders who say there is no resurrection from the dead. So just before this was a conversation with the Pharisees, they do believe in the resurrection, and they're trying to trap him. Now the Sadducees are trying to do the same. So you have two groups of religious leader.

You have the the Pharisees. You have the Sadducees. They don't normally get along, but they get along now because they have a common purpose, and that's to plot Jesus' death. And the Sadducees, their position was that, well, Moses didn't teach the the resurrection in the first five books of the Bible, the the Pentateuch, so they they didn't believe it. Jesus would say otherwise, but they posed this question, 19.

They said, teacher, Moses gave us a law that if a man dies leaving a wife without children, his brother should marry the widow and have a child. Who will carry on the brother's name? And you go, okay. Well, that's a little bizarre, but it's it's really meant to be a trap. And just for reference, this goes back to Deuteronomy.

Deuteronomy 25, laws for relationships. This is a real thing, a real real issue. 20. Well, suppose there were seven brothers. The oldest one married and then died without children.

And so the second brother married the widow, but he also died without children. Then the third brother married her, her. This continued with all seven of them. Unlikely, but this is the scenario they give. And still there were no children, and last of all, the woman also died.

So tell us, whose wife will she be in the resurrection? Remember, these guys don't even believe the resurrection. But they asked this because the pharisees who do believe the resurrection, they couldn't answer this question, and so they're gonna try this out on Jesus. Maybe Jesus couldn't answer it either. But 24, here's Jesus' reply.

Your mistake is you don't know the scriptures, and you don't know the power of God. And if I could kinda sum up what we're studying tonight, it would probably be that right there where Jesus is saying, guys, you you don't understand the scriptures. You don't understand the power of God. And so Jesus explains. Praise God.

He explains. 25, for the dead raise, they will they will neither marry nor be given in marriage. In this respect, they will be like the angels in heaven. And I just wanna say that part alone just it it it blows my mind. I it's it's hard to comprehend, but I'm I'm thinking I'm thinking like someone who lives here on Earth.

Right? And and you know what else blows my mind is this verse in in in first Corinthians. It says, no eye has seen, and no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him. And so I'm going with that. I'm going with that.

When it comes to the resurrection, from scripture, know this. Jesus says it's absolutely true. The resurrection is absolutely true. What Jesus is saying here is it's gonna be different than our lives as we know it here. That's hard for me right now to comprehend in my little finite mind, but it's going to be different.

Life in the afterlife, resurrection, eternal life with heaven, different than our lives here. And then first Corinthians also says, it's gonna be beyond our comprehension in the best way, in a good way. Alright. More more on that. So verse 26.

But now as to whether the dead will be raised, because the Sadducees are saying, well, they don't believe it at all. Jesus says, haven't you ever read about this in the in the in the writings of Moses, in the story of the burning bush? And long after Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had died, God said to Moses, I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So he is the God of the living, not the dead. You have made a serious error, he tells to them he tells them.

So if I were to say it in my own words, Jesus points out that God is saying, I am the God of your fathers. Not I was the God of your fathers. I am the God of your fathers, the living. Still today, even after they died on earth, I am still their God. And then for just for more, just to to take comfort in this, in in verse, eleven twenty twenty five, Jesus, plainly says this in John, that he is the resurrection and the life, that anyone who believes in him will live even after dying, which I I hope brings comfort in this room that Jesus is life.

He was raised to life, and he gives us life even after death. And and that is especially comforting, given we we face, we face death every day. And and we're a part of a church body where there have been how many funerals just in the last so many and some really, really difficult ones too. And this is going, hey. Friends, be encouraged.

Jesus is the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in him will live even after dying, and God is the God of the living. So now on to, verse 28, the most important commandment. One of the teachers of the religious law, he's standing there listening to the debate, and he realized that Jesus had answered well. And so he asked, well, teacher, of all the commandments, which is the most important?

And I what a great question. You know? I I I'm and I'm gonna assume the best that he was he was sincere about it, that it wasn't that it wasn't he wasn't trying to trap them as well. But, really, teacher, what what is the greatest command? What is this all about?

In 29, Jesus replies this way, the most the most important commandment is this, listen, o Israel. And I just wanna pause there for a second because he says, listen. And that word listen means hear God's voice. Hear it, which prompts him to birth faith within you. I think that Jesus says listen because they weren't listening.

The the teachers, the religious law, they they weren't listening. They they wanted to believe what they wanted to believe. And so I I I think that emphatic right there. Listen first. The Lord our God is the one and only Lord, and you must love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind and all your strength.

And the second is equally important. Love your neighbor as yourself. No other commandment is greater than these. And Matthew would add to this that all the law and the prophets hang on these two commands. Everything.

Everything. It's a sum of everything. So '32, the teachers of the religious law replied, well said, teacher. You've spoken the truth by saying there's only, one God and no other. And I know it is important to love him with my, all my heart and all my understanding and all my strength and to love my neighbor as myself.

This is more important than to offer all the burnt offerings and sacrifices required in the law. And it absolutely is. And we could we could there's a lot of references to to this, but Hosea really speaks to this as well. And and maybe this is where, he heard it. I don't know.

But in Hosea, it says, I want you to show love, not offer sacrifices. I want you to know me more than I want burnt offerings. Or a translation that you might be more familiar with in the NIV is, I desire mercy, not sacrifice and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings. But you get the idea here is that God wants us to know him, like to really, really know him and love him. And then as we know him and love him, then that bleeds out into our relationships with with others.

That's that's how God designed it. That's how it works. And and that's the the loving God and and loving others above all else, above the sacrifice that that that they were making. It's the heart behind the sacrifice. Does that make sense?

Not just a like Like if you were to give your wife flowers, right? And you're like, here, I should give you these. Right? Well Exactly. But that's that's not that's not really in a loving manner.

It's a it's a maybe a sacrifice you made, but but not in a in a loving manner. Like, the heart behind it the heart behind it is, I love you so much. I thought of you. I want you to have these flowers. They're beautiful.

They remind me of you. I I want to I want for those things to bring you joy because you bring me joy. You know, there there's a different heart behind it than just, here's the sacrifice. You know? Here are the flowers.

I hope you find a vase for them, you know, or whatever. I don't know.

Oh, okay.

Verse 34. Realizing how much the man understood, Jesus said to him, you are not far from the kingdom of God. This guy was starting to get it. And after that, no one dared to ask him any more questions, which brings us to 35. Now Jesus had thought, I had a thought provoking question for them.

So they're asking Jesus a question. Now Jesus says, alright, friends. I've got a question for you in the temple. And if they understood this, they wouldn't be far from the kingdom. Truly, if they got this, they wouldn't be far from the kingdom because the answer was standing right in front of them.

It says later, as Jesus was teaching the people in the temple, he asked, why did the teachers of the religious law claim that the Messiah is the son of David? For David himself, speaking under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, said, the Lord said to my Lord, sit in the place of honor at my right hand until I humble your enemies beneath your feet. So that is a, a messianic quote from Psalm 110. Since David called himself let me back up. Since David himself called the Messiah, my Lord, how can the Messiah be his son?

And the large crowd listened to him with great delight. So it doesn't say they understood. It says they listened with delight. But in other words, if I could just reword this a little bit, Jesus is pointing out here that David considered the coming messiah not just a descendant, but his lord. But would Jesus' listeners pick up on that?

It's interesting to me that Jesus didn't plainly reveal his identity. That's as close as he would get to to to, revealing his identity there in Mark, but he leaves room for his listeners to figure it out. Alright. 38. Jesus also taught, beware of these teachers of the religious law for they like to parade around in flowing robes and receive respectful greetings as they walk in marketplaces, and how they love seats of honor in the synagogues and had tables at the banquets.

So on the outside, these people look very, very important. Flow I mean, even their their dress, their their garb is different. Flowing robes to be noticed as they're walking. And think about when you see, if if you've seen, I don't know, in a movie, what whatever it is, you see somebody in a robe, it's noticeable. You're it kinda catches your it kinda catches your attention.

And they're respected, and they purposely they put they sit themselves at places of honor. But look at this in 40. Yet they shamelessly cheat widows out of their property, and they pretend to be pious by making long prayers in public. And because of this, they will be more severely punished. This is a huge rebuke from Jesus.

But in my own words, if I were to to to say, well, what's going on here is it's all for show. It's just all an outward act. It's an it's an act, and it's for them. It's for them so that they could receive that honor and that that praise. It's really the opposite of of Jesus' teaching.

And this is why we study the word. This is why we're here tonight because we need we really need an accurate understanding of who Jesus really is. And Jesus says, whoever wants to be the leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be the slave of everyone else. But what's wonderful about Jesus is he taught this, and he showed this by example. But think about it.

Isn't that so different than than the the religious leaders he's just rebuked? It's it's absolutely the opposite. They were getting praise and recognition, but Jesus says, many who are the greatest now will be the least important then, and those who seem the least important now will be the greatest then. And I believe that the story that follows really points us to to that verse. So here's the last little chunk of scripture that we're we're studying starting in, verse 41.

Jesus sat near the collection box in the temple, and he watched as the crowds dropped in their money. So you get a picture of this. And many of the rich people put in large amounts. Then a poor widow came, and she dropped in 2 small coins. So think about just think about this too, the, you know, the the the large sacrifices, the larger money.

Clink. Clink. It makes a bigger noise. And this woman comes, she puts in just two small coins. But Jesus says this in '43.

He called his disciples, and he said, I tell thee I tell you the truth. This poor widow has given more than all the others who are making contributions. For they gave a tiny part of their surplus, but she, poor as she is, has given everything that she has to live in on. Now isn't that a beautiful expression? Jesus wasn't concerned about the amount.

He was concerned about the heart behind it, the sacrifice, and he immediately knew that too. He immediately knew of her love and her trust and her devotion to God. And from the text, I believe that's the loving God with our heart, our soul, our mind, our strength. She gave sacrificially with the little resources that she had, in contrast to the religious leaders who had given just a tiny part of their surplus, but in doing so, expected big praise and and recognition in doing so. So we'll pick up in in chapter 13 next next week, but just a a few takeaways here that that stood out to me.

So first about the the resurrection. Here's here's the good news about the resurrection. It's true. It's true. Because God is the God of the living, and Jesus is the resurrection and the life.

Anyone who believes in him will live even after dying. So can we allow that, to give us hope even even in death even in death, especially in death? He's the resurrection and the life. Second, the most important commandment is the most important commandment. It still is love God, love others.

That's really what it boils down to. Our mission statement here is with all we are, loving God and loving people through Christ. That's that's that's what we aim to do. We don't do it perfectly, but this is what we aim to do. And it's about heartfelt love and mercy.

The heart behind it. Remember the flower illustration. We're given those flowers because we really care, not just because we have to, but because we want to. The heart behind it is much, much greater than just the sacrifice itself. Third, the question about David's son.

No doubt about it. He's Jesus is not just David's descendant. Jesus is David's lord. This is who David was looking forward to. Jesus' question to his audience and to us is, is he our lord?

Is he our lord? Would we recognize the messiah? People were yelling out, you know, son of David, hosanna at the beginning of the week. And Jesus is going, do you really know what that means? Do you know do you know what that means?

Or blind Bartimaeus just a couple chapters earlier. He's going, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. I believe Jesus is going, do you understand what that means? That David was calling Jesus his lord, not just a descendant, but his Lord. And then the last, the the widow's offering.

I believe that that she really embodies the teaching that Jesus had just given us before about loving God with heart, soul, mind, and strength. And that was just a beautiful, beautiful example of it. That was a big sacrifice to her. It probably didn't look like much to anybody else, but she didn't come there to be noticed. She came there out of devotion and to give her offering.

And it was really just the opposite intent of the religious leaders who came there to be noticed, to put in their big offering, but the heart behind it was not what Jesus was looking for. And so that's, I know we covered a lot of scripture tonight, but there's, I I just I love it. And I I it's hard to know where to stop sometimes because just one goes into the next, goes into the next, goes into the next. But I I hope that this was all very, very understandable because I I believe it's it's meant to be. And my prayer is is Mark presents Jesus as king is that we'll see him for for who he really is, the king who came as a suffering servant, not to be served, but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.

And that means for us, if we are followers of him, by his grace and in his strength, we would give up our own ways. Like he told his disciples, to give up your own way, take up your cross, and go where he leads, that we would that we would feel compelled to do that because of his love for us. Loving him with our heart, soul, mind, strength, which then bleeds into our relationships with others, loving our neighbor as we love ourselves. So can I pray just one more time? And then if there are any other comments from the scripture tonight on these, you know, these these these headings here, any verses that caught your attention, and we can throw it around some more.

I'd like to pray. God, what a privilege. It it really is just to to be able to open up the word. There are places around the world where people are hiding Bibles. They have to to to meet in secret, and yet we can we can do this right here out in the open, without a a a care or worry about, can I have a Bible in public?

Yes. Yeah. We can. So thank you, God, that we get to open your word and and thank you for who you really are, God's beloved son. Way early in Mark, you say, this is my dearly loved son, whom I'm well pleased.

Listen to him. And, Jesus, you came not to be served, but to serve others and give your life as a ransom for for many. Lord, may that, be something that we that sticks, that that we are consciously aware of. And may your life of service spur us on to love you and to love others as you taught us to. In Jesus' name, amen.

Alright. Well, would wouldn't you don't have to share anything, but would anybody have anything? Have you got one? And, Blake, you could you could turn turn off that part.