THINKING ABOUT THE CROSS
The Gospel of Mark #35
Pastor Dennis Clanton
Woodland Church
Wednesday, October 25, 2023
(Mark 10:32–45, NLT) “They were now on the way up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them. The disciples were filled with awe, and the people following behind were overwhelmed with fear. Taking the twelve disciples aside, Jesus once more began to describe everything that was about to happen to him. “Listen,” he said, “we’re going up to Jerusalem, where the Son of Man will be betrayed to the leading priests and the teachers of religious law. They will sentence him to die and hand him over to the Romans. They will mock him, spit on him, flog him with a whip, and kill him, but after three days he will rise again.” Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came over and spoke to him. “Teacher,” they said, “we want you to do us a favor.” “What is your request?” he asked. They replied, “When you sit on your glorious throne, we want to sit in places of honor next to you, one on your right and the other on your left.” But Jesus said to them,“You don’t know what you are asking! Are you able to drink from the bitter cup of suffering I am about to drink? Are you able to be baptized with the baptism of suffering I must be baptized with?” “Oh yes,” they replied, “we are able!” Then Jesus told them, “You will indeed drink from my bitter cup and be baptized with my baptism of suffering. But I have no right to say who will sit on my right or my left. God has prepared those places for the ones he has chosen.” When the ten other disciples heard what James and John had asked, they were indignant. So Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers in this world lord it over their people, and officials flaunt their authority over those under them. But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be the slave of everyone else. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
HOW I THINK ABOUT THE CROSS CAN CHANGE MY LIFE
1. JESUS CAME TO DIE FOR YOU AND ME.
(Mark 10:45, NLT) “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
a. Why Jesus came…
(Mark 10:45, NLT) “… to give his life as a ransom for many.”
b. God is so incredibly just and loving that He was glad to die.
(Hebrews 12:2, GN) “He did not give up because of the cross! On the contrary, because of the joy that was waiting for him, he thought nothing of the disgrace of dying on the cross, ….”
2. BELIEVING THIS CHANGES, YOU AND ME FROM THE INSIDE OUT.
(Mark 8:31–32, NLT) “Then Jesus began to tell them that the Son of Man must suffer … would be killed, but three days later he would rise from the dead. As he talked about this openly with his disciples…”
(Mark 9:31, NLT) “The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of his enemies. He will be killed, but three days later he will rise from the dead.”
a. The cross humbles me mentally
(Mark 10:35, ESV) “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.”
(Mark 10:36, ESV) “What do you want me to do for you?”
(Mark 10:37, Message) “Arrange it,” they said, “so that we will be awarded the highest places of honor in your glory—one of us at your right, the other at your left.”
b. The cross humbles me politically
(Mark 10:42, Message) “You’ve observed how godless rulers throw their weight around,” he said, “and when people get a little power how quickly it goes to their heads.”
(Jeremiah 29:7, NLT) “Work for the peace and prosperity of the city where I sent you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, for its welfare will determine your welfare.”
c. The cross leads me to joy and humility
(Isaiah 29:19, CSB) “The humble will have joy after joy in the Lord.”
(Matthew 5:3, AMP) “Blessed (happy, to be envied, and spiritually prosperous—with life-joy and satisfaction in God’s favor and salvation, regardless of their outward conditions) are the poor in spirit (the humble, who rate themselves insignificant), for theirs is the kingdom of heaven!”
3. WE LEARN THIS IN COMMUNITY.
(Mark 10:32, NLT) “They were now on the way up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them.”