The gospel of Mark. Mark for Beginners, lesson number six. And the title of this lesson,
Advanced Training. Advanced Training. We're in Mark, chapter nine.
Last time we got together I mentioned that Mark is telling his story at three levels, simultaneously.
And if you understand, that helps you, kind of, unravel what's going on. He doesn't
tell you, now,
I'm going to tell you this, and now I'm going to tell you that. He kind of weaves the three threads
all the way through his
gospel. The three perspectives: first, there's the story of Jesus
preaching and teaching and performing miracles for the masses. Like the bread and the fish
multiplication for the thousands of people. There's that line of writing, of storytelling.
Then there's the ongoing confrontation with the Jewish religious leaders. We see the
conversations going on between Jesus and them. Then there's the teaching and the training of His disciples,
in order to bring them to
faith, and then eventually to a full understanding of what His ministry is going to be. In other words,
He's teaching the crowds, but He's also teaching His
apostles and disciples
privately, on the side. So you have these three storylines that are working their way through Mark's gospel.
As we go from chapter to chapter, we see Jesus working at each of these
objectives. When we left off at the end of chapter eight, Jesus had brought His apostles to the point where they
actually acknowledged their belief that He was the Messiah. He managed to bring them to that point of
faith. In the closing verses He explains to them what being a disciple
requires of them. Then we go to chapter nine, and in chapter nine, He's going to continue in the training mode,
but now He begins to expand their understanding of who He is and the nature of His mission.
So He ups the game now. Now that they believe He's the messiah, now He goes more deeply into
His teaching. So this lesson tonight, and the
passages that we're going to cover are the various teachings that Jesus gives to His apostles.
We're not going to read all of the verses.
A couple of them so that we can kind of stay in the text.
The teaching of the apostles, chapter nine, begins with a teaching
concerning the kingdom of God. Chapter nine, verse one, he says, "And Jesus was saying to them, "Truly,
I say to you, there are some of those who are standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom
of God, after it has come with power."
So here, Jesus makes a prophecy, one that they did not understand at this point,
but they would realize later on. And the prophecy was that some of them, not all, but some of them would
actually see the kingdom, that He's talking about, come with power.
Let's talk about the kingdom of God, shall we. A couple of things that we need to, kind of, understand about that:
the word in the Greek for kingdom is basileia; it means
sovereignty or rule. It doesn't refer to, this word does not refer to a
geographic place.
Doesn't refer to a building or anything. It refers to the sovereignty or rule of an individual.
So the idea is that when it - wherever God's rule is accepted and carried out,
the kingdom exists in that place.
The kingdom, for example, exists in heaven,
Matthew six, verse 10. Why? Because God's will is being done in heaven there for the kingdom exists in Heaven
and the kingdom exists here on Earth,
not everywhere, not like in heaven, but here on Earth it exists wherever
God's people are doing His will.
And God's will, of course, is that we believe and obey in His son, Jesus Christ,
Mark nine, verse seven. The Kingdom of God on Earth is made up of those who believe and obey Jesus
Christ. So we could say the kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth is
the church; because, who are the church, well, they're the people who believe and who obey Jesus Christ, alright?
So the kingdom of God, the church of God, or the church of Christ.
So when, however, was the fulfillment of this prophecy?
Well, there have been some main ideas that have been thrown around: when did the kingdom come with power?
Give you a couple of ideas:
one, some say, well at the return of Jesus, at the end of the world.
That's when the kingdom's going to come. And, of course, remember what He says,
He says, some of you standing here will still be alive when the kingdom comes. So, obviously, it's not going to
happen at the end of the world.
Another idea is,
the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. A lot of people think that's when the kingdom came.
But, of course, that's not when the kingdom came, the destruction of Jerusalem was a visitation,
it was a judgment. A judgment of the Lord. It was the end of the Jewish religion.
It was not the beginning of anything.
Well, if it was the beginning, it was the enabling of the Christian religion to break free from the restraints of
the Jewish Religion, and of course, Jewish attacks on Christianity.
The kingdom come or the kingdom came pentecost Sunday, that's when it came. With power.
Most of the apostles were alive, right? Most of the apostles were alive.
Judas, of course, he died. Jesus, also, had died and resurrected
With power, well, on pentecost Sunday the power of the holy spirit was poured out into the apostles and,
was God's will being done on pentecost Sunday? Of course it was. The gospel is being preached.
Jesus Christ is being preached as the son of God, as the Messiah,
The church begins. How?
Three thousand people are baptized on pentecost Sunday and all the apostles
saw all of this with their own eyes.
So Jesus, in a prophecy,
teaches them that they will witness the beginning of the kingdom of God on Earth. And the
beginning of the kingdom of God on Earth is when the church was established,
beginning pentecost Sunday.
All right, so that's the first teaching in this section. The next teaching is
teaching on His own deity and
authority. So let's look at that. Mark nine,
it says, "Six days later,
Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John, and brought them up on a high Mountain by themselves.
And He was transfigured before them; and His garments became radiant and exceedingly white, as
no launderer on Earth can whiten them.
Elijah appeared to them along with Moses; and they were talking with Jesus. And Peter said to Jesus.
"Rabbi, it is good for us to be here;
let us make three tabernacles, one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah."
For he did not know what to answer, for they became terrified.
Then a cloud formed, overshadowing them and a voice came out of the cloud,
"This is my beloved Son, listen to Him." And all at once they looked around and saw no one with them anymore
except
Jesus alone." A couple of things about this teaching, about His deity, and His authority. In verse two we see
that Jesus brings His, kind of, inside circle of
three, right.
The Jewish law, by the way, required two witnesses in
order to establish a fact. An idea. You had to have two witnesses. So what does Jesus do? He brings
three witnesses. He brings three witnesses who will confirm the things that they saw. It says, He was
transfigured. And the Greek word
"transfigure", metamorpho.
When a rabbit or a hare, it changes colors from season to season,
certain animals change from season to season, a lot of you guys here are hunters, you know that.
That's not a metamorphosis.
That's just the change. When a caterpillar becomes a butterfly,
that's metamorphic. That's the metamorphosis that the Greek word here is describing. Something that
completely changes in nature.
Changed into another form. In Luke
29, it says that His face
actually changed. Now in verse three of chapter nine. It says that His clothing
shone, was bright. And both Peter and John recalled this experience in later writings.
Peter talks about this experience in Second Peter 1:16 and John in Revelation 2:23.
Interesting thing, all encounters with God, if you notice,
always involve light.
Moses, for example.
What was the thing that happened to Moses? The light was so bright when he was with God,
that his face was shining.
And when he came down off the mountain, his face was still shining and he put something over to cover his face.
When Jesus called Paul, what does it say? A light was shining around Him.
John, when he talks about seeing Jesus, in the vision that he had, John, who wrote the book of Revelation,
what did you talk when he says Jesus? It was like lightning, the brightness was like lightning.
So there's always this brightness, this light that is
talked about when an individual encounters God. So what the apostles saw at the
transfiguration was Jesus's divine nature
shining through His flesh.
We always say, Jesus - fully God, fully man. We usually just see the fully man part, right?
Most times
Jesus demonstrates His divinity through the things that He does: the miracles, the teachings, the prophecy;
but on the Mount of Transfiguration,
Jesus
actually lets the apostles see His glorified nature.
It's not that light was shining on Him. It wasn't like a light came from the sky and shone on Him.
It's that the light was in Him and was shining out of Him.
And I think we've seen reproductions of that, the CGI in the movies, for example, but this was no trick.
In the passage, they also said that they wanted to build some booths, or well,
I'll get to in a minute. They also saw Elijah and
Moses, and we wonder why, what's the significance of that?
Well, the main attack against Christianity was that it couldn't be the fulfillment of the Jewish religion,
because it violated the law and the prophets in so many ways.
So the appearance of Moses represents the law, the appearance of Elijah
represents the prophets. He was a great prophet, right?
He was a great and powerful prophet. Moses, the one who gave the law. So the law and the prophets,
everything that the Jews were about. If you wanted to convince the Jews that Jesus was the Messiah,
had to do it through the law and the prophets. So who appears?
Moses and Elijah,
okay, in accordance with the law and the prophets. Now, if you go to Luke 9:31, Luke says that Jesus, Moses, and
Elijah actually spoke
concerning His impending
crucifixion. Which, again, teaches that this was all according to the law and the prophets.
The Jews were saying, no way that our messiah would be crucified on a tree, whoever's nailed to a tree is cursed.
So Luke says, Elijah, Moses, Jesus, what were they talking about? They were talking about His upcoming
crucifixion. That takes away the argument that the crucifixion was not part of the messianic
plan. And then, of course, Peter, he didn't know what to say.
He's in awe of the heavenly vision in front of him.
He says, why was a good thing for us being here. Meaning, this experience is as good as it gets.
He didn't know what else to say.
He offers to build booth - shelters
for the three. Some Bibles have altars, but not altars, he would know better than to build an altar, but shelters.
Temples, some sort of idea like that to shelter them for the night, of course.
This is foolish since they're heavenly beings, but he doesn't know what else to say.
some say that Peter wanted to build altars, again,
but that's been discounted, because he would not have thought in the way of actually -
as a priest, to offer sacrifices. And then, of course, we hear God's voice present in a cloud, and it
signifies that
despite the appearance of Moses and Elijah, the apostles are to obey Jesus, His beloved Son.
Jesus confirms His position over and in line with the law and the prophets,
which He perfectly embodies in Himself.
And the transfiguration largely
demonstrates this idea in a miraculous way. It's a teaching, but it's a teaching in a miraculous fashion.
Another teaching, as I said at the beginning of the class, this section in Mark is all about the different things that
Jesus is teaching His apostles. Advanced training. Okay. It's pretty advanced when one of the lessons is
a miraculous appearance of Jesus's Divine nature.
Okay, another teaching, this is the teaching about the Messiah, Himself.
So we begin in Chapter nine, verse nine.
It says, "As they were coming down from the mountain,
He gave them orders not to relate to anyone what they had seen, until the Son of Man rose from the dead.
They seized upon that statement, discussing with one another what rising from the dead meant.
They asked Him, saying, "Why is it that the scribes say that Elijah must come first." And
He said to them, "Elijah does come and restore all things and yet
How is it written of the Son of Man that He will suffer many things and be treated with contempt?
But I say to you, that Elijah has indeed come." And they did to Him whatever they wished, just as it is written of him."
So in verses nine to 13 the apostles,
they're struggling with their concept of the messiah and what Jesus is teaching them.
The Old Testament said that a prophet like Elijah
would come
before the Messiah, and they wondered if their vision of Elijah was the fulfillment of that prophecy.
You follow?
So they knew that, before the Messiah came, someone would come ahead of the Messiah, preparing the way.
Now they've just had a vision,
seeing Elijah. They're thinking, oh is this the fulfillment of the prophecy.
Right idea, somebody coming before the Messiah, they've already confessed they believe that He's the Messiah.
They're just trying to put the picture together, okay?
So Jesus confirms that the prophecy has been fulfilled,
prophecy in Malachi four -
In chapter 19, Malachi talks about the forerunner, so Jesus confirms that this prophecy has been fulfilled,
but not by the vision, it's been fulfilled by John the Baptist.
He was the prophet sent to prepare the way. He was the prophet killed according to the prophecy.
He was killed, just like the messiah is going to be killed. The Messiah, however, will rise from the dead.
That's the difference between John the baptist and the Messiah. John the Baptist, when he was killed, he stayed
dead. So here was their problem,
they had been inaccurately taught by the scribes concerning the Messiah and
Jesus was trying to correct their misconceptions.
That's what's going on here. The problem was that
their concept of the Messiah was vastly different than what Jesus was actually teaching them, what the Old
Testament actually taught.
Now the term Messiah meant
anointed one. In the Old Testament the priests and the kings, they were the anointed ones.
They were the ones separated by God for special tasks.
That's what anointing means. The word "christ", for example,
that's not like Jesus's family name. Some people actually think that's His family name.
The term "christ" is the Greek word for
Messiah. So it's Jesus the Messiah.
The ones who were anointed or separated for special tasks in the Old Testament, the kings,
people like Samson and Saul and David.
Samson, of course, wasn't the king, he was a judge.
But you know what I'm saying. Certain people were set aside for certain tasks.
After David, the people believed
a royal descendent out of David, King David's line, would come and he would be a great and powerful king or
perhaps a military leader who would save Israel from Roman domination
and provide an abundant life and make Israel a ruling nation and bring peace on Earth and
be some sort of king with superhuman powers. They had all these ideas
of the Messiah, and mainly their idea is, when the messiah comes, it's going to be good times.
Won't it be good times when the messiah come. The apostles,
they're ready to confess Jesus as Messiah. Are you kidding me? He takes a little bit of bread,
He takes a little bit of fish, and it feeds 5,000 people. How would you like to have Him as your
minister of economics, in your country. Why bother growing stuff?
We've got a guy who can create it miraculously.
So this is their idea and He's trying to temper their idea
with reality, with what the Old Testament taught.
Since that time, I'm going to make just a little diversion here, into modern times,
since that time, the Jews, themselves,
have had various ideas about the Messiah, even to this day.
So we'll stop from Mark, put a comma there, and let's open a new kind of, a new image here and talk about the
Jews. Even after Jesus' time and what they've thought about the Messiah
So you have the orthodox Jews.
The Orthodox Jews, their the individuals, the men especially, they have like the ring curls and the hats and
they wear black and they have beards, but anyways
not Tommy hasn't got the hat on, but those are the orthodox Jews.
They're the strictest of all the Jewish groups. They do everything
that the Jews did in the Old Testament, except sacrifice.
They don't practice sacrifice, but all the food laws all the Sabbath, they practice all of that.
They still believe that a personal messiah is supposed to come, to this day.
Then you have conservative Jews
Conservative Jews are exactly what the word says there.
They're conservative, but not as ultra conservative. They're not "orthodox".
They're much more flexible, but they also
believe in a personal Messiah, conservative Jews. Then you have
reformist Jews or the reform movement.
Probably the largest group. They're modern, liberal Jews.
Jews that live in New York. Jews that live in the northeast. No, seriously. They're
Reform Jews. They believe the
fact, they believe the idea that the Jewish people, as a group, are the Messiah.
They believe that the Jewish people, as a group,
God will bless the world through them.
That their good works and the good that they do in the world is, kind of, bringing
the Messiah's promise to the world.
They build hospitals.
Jerry Lewis telethon, what do you think motivates Jerry Lewis? He's a Jew.
All the good that they do. And so, reform Jews, their good works are blessing the world.
And they see
the Jewish Nation, itself, as the Messiah.
Then you have zionist Jews.
They're actually a political organization.
They believe that the land that is described in the Old Testament is theirs by divine right.
All the land, the territory you read about in the Old Testament that was given to the Jews, the
zionists believe all that land is theirs
by divine right.
They regained their land in 1947, after World War Two, with the help of Britain and other world powers.
The problem was, there were a million Palestinians, arabs, living in that land who were displaced.
And that's the problem that you see in the news all the time. The zionists, they say, this land is all ours,
because the Bible gives it to us. It's ours by divine right. And the Palestinians say, no,
it isn't, because we inhabited the land for centuries before you came back and took it. The settlers.
You always talk about the settlers and their building settlements. They see themselves as missionaries.
They are building settlements. Jewish housing on
land that is, in many ways, disputed between
Israel and the Palestinians.
And they don't care. They're just building more land to fulfill the promise of
retaking all the land, as it was in the Old Testament.
So you still have various different ideas going on today.
That's the big debate between the Jews in Israel and the
Palestinians, on the gaza strip. That's the problem, all right.
So let's get back to Mark. Jesus' problem was to reveal Himself as the Messiah
accurately described in the Old Testament. The Messiah who would do the following:
the Messiah who would free them from sin and guilt, the Messiah who would regain the right for them to enter
Heaven, the Messiah who would provide for them a true relationship with God, who would rule men's hearts and minds, a
Messiah who would bring peace of mind, who would accomplish this, how? Through His death and
resurrection. Not through political or military means. That was the problem.
They were waiting for somebody, they were waiting for Trump.
Somebody who would do stuff politically and just take care of business and solve all the problems. And Jesus comes along and said, no.
I'm not that guy.
I'm going to bring peace, not between you and the Romans. I'm going to bring peace between you and God.
I'm going to gain for you a place to live, not land - Heaven.
Jesus is going to teach them about - so He's taught them about the Messiah, now He's going to teach them about power.
All right, versus 14 to 15. I'm not reading that, we just don't have the time tonight.
This passage, however, begins with a miracle and it ends with Jesus
commenting on the source of spiritual power. Now, a teaching about power.
The story of the miracle is as follows, something pretty familiar to you, a
man brings his demon-possessed boy for healing to the apostles, while a crowd gathers to watch.
The apostles fail to heal the boy and they begin disputing, not with themselves,
but they begin disputing with the scribes, who are watching them.
Jesus, now from the mountain, is coming back.
He returns at this point, along with the three apostles that went with him and
He discusses the situation with the boy's father and
grieves over everybody's lack of faith. So this is the passage, where the dad says, I believe Lord,
but help my disbelief. This is what's going on here
He casts out the spirit and He heals the boy and then He confers with the apostles about this incident. And the
key question at the end was, why could the apostles not cast out this demon?
Why couldn't we do it, and you did it?
Jesus explains, and in His explanation, we see why they failed
and lacked the power to heal this particular boy. He tells them why.
Number one, the father lacked faith.
He didn't, the father did not come out of faith. He came out of relief. He came out of desperation to try anything.
After the apostles failed, he asked if
Jesus could do - remember, if you can. And Jesus said, if I can?
All right, that's where he said, Lord, please, I believe, but help my disbelief. I'm weak.
So the obstacle was not the illness,
the obstacle was the weakness of the father's faith.
He needed to acknowledge his own need. And his own need was to grow in faith.
Jesus, He doesn't need you to believe in order to do a miracle.
We've seen Him heal people, they weren't even in front of Him. The Centurion servant, "G o home,
he's already healed." He could do long distance, if you wish, but this case was a little different.
He was not ministering to the son, He realized He had to first minister to the father.
Had the apostles
healed the boy, the father would have left without believing. Nothing would have happened.
So Jesus forces the father to confess his own need first.
Lord, my faith is weak. Help me, please.
He needed that first.
That was one of the reasons the apostles, because they were ignoring the father.
They were just - they went straight to the kid. What do we do? Spiritual first aid. Let's do it. Nothing was happening.
Jesus doesn't go to the kid first. He goes to the father.
He talks to the father. He deals with the father. Number two, lack of prayer.
Jesus says, lack of prayer. These come out with lots of prayer. Now The apostles believed in Jesus,
but unlike him, they were not totally guided by the will of God.
Jesus worked miracles according to God's will, not according to the need or the pressure of the crowd.
Jesus says, this one. The spirit here only comes out by fasting and prayer.
It isn't that certain prayers would affect this certain demon,
but that prayer with fasting would enable them to discern God's will more clearly.
Had they been more in a state of prayer and
communication with the Father,
they might have understood that they had to start with the boy's dad, instead of the boy.
That's the point.
It's not, oh, we need to say three hail marys before we do the miracle, or we need to pray 20 minutes and have a
devo before we heal the kid.
Jesus is saying, you're not in tune with the Father. If you were in tune with the Father, you would have known
to start with the boy's dad,
instead of starting with the boy.
Then the third one was, lack of humility.
The final section in the chapter sees Jesus teaching them about the final result of His mission, which was
going to be His death and resurrection.
They didn't understand it. And the reason they lacked understanding and power was because of their pride.
Jesus reveals that they have been discussing who is the greatest and who had the highest
position among them. And that was really the source problem. Here they are talking about
who's the greatest, who's going to be in power man, when the kingdom comes. I want to be on the right.
I want to take care of business. I want to be the special assistant. Whoops, a sick kid, all right, come on,
let's do our thing.
Jesus, you people here are not even - you're not even close to being in the zone.
You lack prayer, you lack insight, and, of course, you lack humility.
They didn't understand and the reason they lacked understanding and power, because of their pride.
Jesus reveals that they have been discussing who is the greatest - sorry, mentioned that already.
Perhaps the three were feeling special
after their experience up on the mountain.
So Jesus teaches them, by showing that true greatness in the kingdom is
demonstrated by the innocence of a child,
the hard work of a servant, and the pure and holy lifestyle of an obedient disciple.
The thing about obedience and
purity, by the way, because sometimes we only see the difficulty in obeying that.
To be sexually pure in our society is not an easy thing, because we're bombarded with all kinds of images and messages and
temptations. I mean, the fact that that website, Ashley Madison.
the one that facilitated cheating for husbands and wives, right? The fact that it had 38 million
email addresses tells you the
condition of the morality of the world. But obeying, being pure sexually, being obedient to the word,
practicing self-control,
we do these things, not as an end to themselves.
We do them because in gaining on these things, it enables us to exercise greater spiritual power.
The more of the world that's in you, the less of the spirit that's in you. The less of the spirit
that's in you, the less power you have, the less insight you have, the less ability you have,
spiritually speaking.
Then in Chapter 10,
verses one to fifty-two, again, I won't read, He teaches them about
money, sex, and power.
More teaching in chapter 10 for the apostles,
but more practical matters dealing with, as I say, sex, money, and power,
and how the religious people of that time misunderstood these things.
Remember, I said, this section here is all about teaching, so this teaching is a little more practical.
Chapter 10, verses one to four, "And getting up,
Jesus went from there to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan;
crowds gathered around Him again, and, according to His custom,
He once more began to teach them.
Some Pharisees came up to Jesus,
testing Him and began to question Him whether it was lawful for a man to divorce a wife.
And He answered and said to them,
"What did Moses command you?" And they said, "Moses permitted a man to write a certificate and send her away."
But Jesus said to them, "Because of your hardness of heart, he wrote you this commandment. But from the beginning of creation,
God made them male and female. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother
and the two shall become one flesh.
So they're no longer two, but one flesh. What, therefore, God has joined together, let
no man separate. In the house the disciples began questioning Him about this again.
And He said to them, whoever divorces his wife and marries another
woman commits adultery against her. And if she, herself, divorces her husband in marriage and marries another man, she is committing adultery."
Let's understand in context what He's teaching here.
First of all, He's teaching them about sex.
The Jews believed that if you legitimized sex, you made it moral.
In other words, they believed and taught
that repeated divorces, for any and all reasons, were acceptable if one followed the right legal proceedings for divorce.
No matter what you did, if you dumped your wife because you found someone more
attractive, so long as you gave her a proper bill of divorce,
you're good, you're moral. No harm. No foul. You're innocent. That's the idea that they were under.
Of course, they were using this legal excuse to cover their lust and their lack of commitment.
That's really what's going on.
So Jesus teaches that God was the one who made the true laws that govern marriage and sex and that His
laws superseded man's laws.
Sex was created to be expressed by a man and a woman within the union of marriage.
The union of marriage was a lifetime commitment.
This commitment, this union, could only be broken, legally, by death or the sexual
infidelity of one of the partners. He makes a comment like this in
Matthew 19, verse nine. I'm not going to go into all the
details of marriage and divorce,
because Jesus doesn't go into all of it here. He's merely
underscoring the idea that God's teachings and laws concerning marriage and sex and what is right and wrong,
supersede whatever man does.
And we know that, right? The courts, you go to certain countries, prostitution is legal. In this country,
it's now legal for two men to marry, and two women to marry. In 10 years from now it might be legal for three
women and one man.
Men do all kinds of stuff.
Jesus, the point that He's making here, is that God's laws supersede man's laws, okay?
Then in that passage, a little later on,
His blessing of children, right after this teaching, confirms the primary purpose of marriage and
the attitude one should have
concerning His teachings on this and in other subjects. An innocent child will trust and obey without
rebellion or hypocrisy. And that's what the Jewish leaders were doing. They were hypocrites.
They were rebellious. And Jesus says, if you want to be in the kingdom, you need to be like this little child here,
innocent, pliable, ready to believe, ready to love. So, sex, money.
Money. The rich young Ruler. No time to read, we only have a few minutes left, anyways.
But I want to say, the Jews at the time also equated wealth
with blessings. In other words, a rich man was favored by God. A poor and a week and a sick person
was that way because of sin. That's how they saw things.
Now the rich, young ruler, we know that story. The rich, young ruler
who asks Jesus what he needed to do in order to inherit eternal life.
He was just this sort of person. He was blessed with wealth and a good position.
He was a moral and law-abiding citizen and yet something was missing.
Something missing in his life. Something his wealth or his personal conduct just could not obtain.
And that was:
assurance of salvation. He just couldn't be sure about his salvation. So he says to Jesus, what do I do?
Jesus shows him that his attachment to his wealth,
that's the obstacle to his salvation. And as the man turns away, because he's not going to let go of his money,
this truth becomes obvious.
So in doing this, Jesus reveals that both rich and poor are in need of salvation. And the rich are at a
disadvantage in this process, because of their attachment to money. The apostles are amazed,
thinking that, boy, if the rich have a hard time being saved, like this rich young ruler,
how can a poor person be saved?
And Jesus reassures them that God has the power to save both the rich and the poor.
Peter, again, comes back with the notion that they've become poor to follow Jesus.
They've done what Jesus asked of the rich young ruler, and yet they've had no reward. They're still poor.
They're still sleeping out in the ground, while they're wandering around with Jesus all over Israel. Of course,
that's because they saw that as the reward of their salvation. They didn't quite get it yet.
Jesus responds that His disciples are rewarded here on Earth with a new family,
which is the church, and
more precious blessings, which are spiritual wealth, like peace and Joy and hope and assurance of Heaven.
That's the hundred-fold. And in addition,
they'll have eternal life in the world to come. And all of these things are things that money cannot buy. So after
this, He reminds them again of His upcoming suffering and death and resurrection,
a review of the things that He's going to have to give up in order to purchase the -
He's saying to them, you think you're giving up a lot?
You give up your fishing boat and your your convenience. Well, let me tell you what I'm giving up,
and he begins to tell them about the cross.
And then we get to the third thing - sex, money, and then the third thing
that He's going to teach them about, and that is power. Let's read 35,
It says, "James and John, the two sons of Zebedee, came up 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?"
They said to Him, "Grant that we may sit one on your right and one on your left in glory,
but Jesus said to them, "You do not know what you're asking.
Are you able to drink the cup that I drink or to be baptized with the baptism with which
I am baptized? They said to him,
"We are able", and Jesus said to them, "The cup that I drink, you shall drink,
And you shall be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized, but to sit on my right or my left,
this is not mine to give, but it is for those to whom it has been prepared.
Hearing this the ten began to feel indignant with James and John, calling them to Him. Jesus said to them,
"You know that those who
recognizes rulers of the gentiles and lorded over them and they're 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 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.
Then they came to Jericho and as He was leaving Jericho with His disciples, 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 certainly 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." So they called the blind man saying to him, "Take courage, stand up. He's calling for 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." and Jesus said to him, "Go, your faith has made you well."
Immediately, he regained his sight and began following Him on the road."
The mother of James and John in other passages here James, and John they bring up an ongoing debate
among the disciples: who's the greatest? Always the same thing.
So she asks to have Jesus give her sons the highest positions in
the kingdom. The fact that the other apostles are upset, shows that they still see the kingdom as an
earthly political structure, with positions. So the fact that they're mad at these two means
they're exactly like these two.
It's just that these two had the gall to go forward and ask for the thing that they, themselves, wanted. They wanted high positions.
Jesus dispels these ideas in two ways. Let me share that with you and then our lesson is over. First of all,
He describes the kingdom as a community of people who are as innocent as children,
and where the highest position is one of service.
Now this is never - there is never any competition or prestige among slaves.
All are equally under bondage to their master, whom they serve, lest there be any complaining or resentment.
Jesus uses His own life and ministry as an example. He said, look, I'm the Messiah and
who's taking care of you? I'm taking care of you. Who's taking the brunt of the attacks?
I'm taking the brunt of the attacks, not you. Who's making the food? Me. Not you. So He's saying, look,
I practice what I preach.
So if you want to be great in the kingdom, you have to become like I am. You have to become a servant.
The Kingdom is not of or like
this world. The rewards are different, and so are the relationships and the activities.
It's the old story, we're saved to serve. And then, the second thing,
He does a final miracle in this section. The healing of the blind Bartimaeus,
summarizes this teaching on the nature of those in the kingdom. Look at Bartimaeus, shall we?
He had no sex appeal.
Blind, poor, rejected.
No status.
He had no money.
He was a beggar.
He had no power. I mean, do you notice in the passage I read, he was told to shut up.
Today if you said that to someone who was handicapped, you'd be brought to court.
But in those days, they were like trash. They didn't count for anything
He was told, be quiet. Imagine, the apostles here, wanting to be the highest in the kingdom, are telling this poor blind beggar, oh,
shut up, be quiet. You're bothering us. You're bothering the master. We don't want to disturb the Master. And
yet, Jesus healed - Jesus restores him. He was last of all,
but because he believed, because he cried out in humility,
he became one of the first to enter the kingdom, to actually experience
God's mercy and power. And in Bartimaeus, you see the perfect example of the last
become first.
And in Herod, and the unbelieving Jews, and the priests and the pharisees, you see the first
who will become last?
That's the section on sex, money, and power. Next time we get together
we're going to see Jesus entering Jerusalem.
Final confrontation with the Jewish leaders. We'll only get a couple more lessons to go before we
finish up Mark, alright. Thanks for your attention.