The Gospel of Mark 10:28-34
32 And they were on the road going up
to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking on ahead of them; and they were amazed, and
those who followed were fearful. And again He took the twelve aside and began
to tell them what was going to happen to Him: 33 “Behold, we are going up to
Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and the
scribes; and they will condemn Him to death and will deliver Him over to the
Gentiles. 34 And they will mock Him and spit on Him, and flog Him and kill Him,
and three days later He will rise again.”
A rich young
ruler had just left Jesus after being tested. He had obeyed the law admirably,
but his heart was not willing to let go of all his wealth and follow Jesus. He
chose mammon over Jesus which is idolatry. Unless the ruler repents, he will die in his
sin and perish.
But Jesus
warned of the great chasm between wealth and salvation and that mankind couldn't
save themselves from their sins. He offered hope, in that what was impossible
for man, was possible with God. God is the one who saves, and that salvation
requires one to let go of all and follow Jesus.
Peter with
confidence then exclaims, “Behold, we have left everything and followed You.” For
in his reasoning Peter and Andrew, James and John were fishermen. They earned a
modest wage at the markets from the fish they caught and were in the lower
classes of society. It’s all they had, and they even left their father on the
boats. (Matthew 4:22) In their eyes they left everything to follow Jesus.
Jesus responds to Peter and the disciples with Him, “Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms, for My sake and for the gospel’s sake, except one who will receive one hundred times as much now in the present age—houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions—and in the age to come, eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last, first.”
No one has
left, home? Yes, one leaves the security of their home and family for Jesus and
the sake of the Good News. These are loved things in our lives and are not
things people are willing to part from. As I spoke before, those who follow
Jesus give everything of themselves to follow Him and His ways. This is a fact
that Jesus is illustrating to His disciples.
Family and
safety are strong bonds that can tie a person to the fear of losing them. This
can be through rejection, abandonment, shaming, and disownment. We see this in
many cases dealing with false religions, but it is also enacted in irreligious families
and cultures. When one is saved by Christ that fear dissipates, and the
strength of His spirit emboldens one to part from such ties.
When Jesus
says, “Except one who will receive…” He is saying that those who receive Him
will gain security, family, and sustenance a hundred times more. Now, in this
present age, in the future, eternal life. He speaks of this future time when He
will return to gather His people. He includes, in the present age, persecution.
Those who follow
Christ and leave home, family, and farms will be blessed “when people insult
(them) and persecute (them), and falsely say all kinds of evil against (them)
because of Me.” and “have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness”
(Matthew 5:10-11) And they rejoice for, so they did to the prophets.
I make no
allusions, I state the facts that if you follow Jesus, you will be blessed
greater than you could ever imagine, but you will be hated and persecuted because
of Him. We don’t stand up here and proclaim the Good News of the living God
Jesus and His salvation for our sake but for Jesus and the Gospel's sake and
your salvation.
For the one who humbles himself to God and serves Him with all that they are and serves others for the Gospel’s sake will be first and those who promote themselves will be last in the kingdom of heaven. I don’t think you quite understand the level of sacrifice that is required of one who believes and follows Jesus so let’s continue in the text.
“They
were on the road going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking on ahead of them;
and they were amazed, and those who followed were fearful.” They were
heading to the place where the Jewish priesthood, scribes, and elders wanted to
kill Jesus. The disciples knew the Sanhedrin hated Jesus and were tired of The
Messiah’s work and claims. Remember the leaders believed Jesus to be just a man
like them and yet He claims to be God.
This
proclamation was blasphemous to them and because of this, they wanted to
put Jesus to death. And yet, Jesus walked ahead of His disciples leading them
into the mouth of the lion that would devour them.
And He pulls
them aside and says, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of
Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and the scribes; and they will
condemn Him to death and will deliver Him over to the Gentiles. And they
will mock Him and spit on Him, and flog Him and kill Him, and three days later
He will rise again.”
Jesus tells
them in more detail what will happen to Him, not to the disciples, but to Him. For
what is about to happen to Jesus was already given by the prophet Isaiah. Jesus
will be betrayed by Judas the son of Iscariot, the Son of Perdition for a small
sum of silver, He will be taken on the Mount of Olives and delivered to the chief
priests and Pontious Pilot where he will be stripped, chastised, and mocked,
spit upon, and given a purple robe and a crown of thorns that will cause his
head to bleed. He will then be crucified on a cross and they will kill
him.
And yet, he
gives them hope, for He tells them, He will rise on the third day, alive.
He will conquer death and live and appear to them again. Though they will
scatter he will collect them and through them by the power of the spirit
imparted to them in time, will go forth leave their home, family, and fishing
nets, and proclaim the Gospel to the nations,
What Christ
Jesus has done, we are to do, He left home. He condescended to earth as a man
leaving behind Eternity. “Though he was in the form of God, did not count
equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the
form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.” (Philippians 2:6–7)
As a man,
Jesus obeyed Yahweh, His Father, and enacted the Law perfectly because He loved
His Father. He denied the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and
He served mankind before and during His ministry of proclaiming the Good News,
the Gospel of the kingdom.
He was
persecuted and many things were said against Him because he followed His Father
and His righteousness. People claimed His power came from Beelzebul, that He
was a drunkard, and feasted heartily. They plotted to kill Him because He,
being a man, claimed He was God.
This is the
walk of one who follows Christ, and we walk knowing we are the blessed man who
is forgiven of his sin and proclaims this Gospel to you in the hope that
you will hear and receive eternal life, everlasting.
Jesus came
to save sinners. Sinners suppress the truth and hide in their darkness because
they love darkness. They are unbelieving, vile, foolish, rebellious, haters of
God who have adopted the ideologies of this world and the doctrines of men.
They have become slaves to their sexual desires, perverting the flesh and mind,
and rebelling against the created order of God. They are doomed to condemnation
and will be judged by Jesus and sent to Hell where they will burn for eternity
in the lake of fire.
However, God
so loved His creation, mankind, that He sent His Son Jesus, who can forgive you
of your sins and redeem you because He has the authority and power. Jesus
brings eternal life to all who repent and believe. For Jesus bore all our sins;
He bore all the sins of all who believe in Him. Jesus was born and lived a
perfect life of obedience to God as a man. Jesus was condemned to be executed
and die in the sinner's place. He suffered the totality of God's wrath upon
Himself on the Cross, which every sinner deserves, so that those who believe in
Jesus may have peace with God.
Jesus rose from the dead, conquering death, and lives, and ascended to the right hand of God the Father. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, and He is in your midst with us offering you salvation, repent, and believe Jesus.
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