“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.” 36 And He said to them, “What do you want Me to do for you?” 37 They said to Him, “Grant that we may sit, one on Your right and one on Your left, in Your glory.” 38 But Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” 39 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. 40 “But to sit on My right or on My left, this is not Mine to give; but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.” 41 Hearing this, the ten began to feel indignant with James and John. 42 Calling them to Himself, Jesus said to them, “You know that those who are recognized as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them; and their great men exercise authority over them. 43 “But it is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant; 44 and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all. 45 “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”
A nineteenth century saint wrote:
“Grace assures us that all our interests, for time and eternity, have been most fully provided for in the death and resurrection of Christ, and gives us to see that our only business now is to live to the praise of Him who died for us, and rose again.” C.H. MacKintosh
I’ll be coming back to that later on. I wanted to begin with that quote because this passage before us today magnifies a very fundamental defect in mankind, that being, the inherent inability to recognize how diametrically opposed we are to God and His ways at the very foundation of what sin has made of us.
When Adam disobeyed God’s command in the Garden, when he violated the one and only restriction placed upon him by his Creator, he literally turned the human race around backward. The entrance of sin and death into the world through that one act destroyed any possibility of a relationship with a Holy God, because man now, in accordance with his fallen nature, was doomed to think and act absolutely the opposite of the way he was originally designed to think and act.
Men and women, unbelievers and believers alike, prove this every day of their lives when they talk, when they work, when they make a decision, when they express an opinion, that is not first brought before the Throne, based on the Scriptures and both inspired and blessed by the Holy Spirit.
When Jesus said ‘apart from Me you can do nothing’ He meant what He said. When in His rebuke of Peter at Caesarea-Philippi He said, ‘you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s’, He exposed the innate, knee-jerk reaction of all mankind to every area of life, because it is in our nature to set our minds and affections on man’s interests, man’s thinking, the way of this passing world, barring the intervention of the Spirit of Christ in our lives and in our very hearts.
Now I promise that I have some good news for you today. But you won’t appreciate the fullness and the greatness of that good news unless you first understand the bad news.
It’s like the old story of the man who purchased a pair of shoes a size too small.
As the salesman reluctantly boxed up the shoes and took the customer’s money he asked, ‘Why would you want a pair of shoes that will hurt your feet?’ To which the buyer replied, ‘Because the great feeling I get when I take them off is worth all the pain’.
Well, the man needn’t have deliberately put himself in pain by purchasing wrong-sized shoes, but beloved you have to understand today, however painful the news might come to you, that you are a sinner saved by Grace, and if you are not saved then you are just a sinner. You are backwards. You can never come to God, you can never do anything for God, you can never do or say anything that will get you to God until you can say that you have peace with God through your Lord Jesus Christ, who while you were a helpless, sinful, rebel against God, died for you and rose again to give you life.
It is necessary to preach these things and it becomes more necessary in a time when in so many places this message is subtracted from preaching. It is difficult, it is unpopular, it offends, and folks, it is Scriptural and we have a Scriptural mandate to preach it.
I promise to not turn this into C.H. MacKintosh Sunday, but as I was researching I ran across something else he wrote and I want to share it with you before we move into our text.
“Our divine Master called upon sinners to repent and believe the gospel. Some would have us to believe that it is a mistake to call upon persons dead in trespasses and sins to do anything. "How," it is argued, "can those who are dead repent? They are incapable of any spiritual movement. They must first get the power ere they can either repent or believe."
What is our reply to all this? A very simple one indeed--our Lord knows better than all the theologians in the world what ought to be preached. He knows all about man’s condition--his guilt, his misery, his spiritual death, his utter helplessness, his total inability to think a single right thought, to utter a single right word, to do a single right act; and yet He called upon men to repent. This is quite enough for us. It is no part of our business to seek to reconcile seeming differences. It may seem to us difficult to reconcile man’s utter powerlessness with his responsibility; but "God is His own interpreter, and He will make it plain." It is our happy privilege, and our bounder duty, to believe what He says, and do what He tells us. This is true wisdom, and it yields solid peace. ... Our Lord preached repentance, and He commanded His apostles to preach it; and they did so constantly.” C.H. Mackintosh, Miscellaneous Writings, Volume 4, The Great Commission
So we preach repentance to you today. We call you as the Spirit constantly calls all of us, to turn from sin, to turn from worldly thinking, to turn outward from ourselves, to God, to seek Him, to seek Godly thinking and acting so that we might effectually follow His leading. We can’t go where Jesus goes until we’re going in the same direction.
So let’s go on to witness the error in the thinking of James and John here, being kind to them as we go and recognizing that we were no less clueless than they, taking note that Jesus did not rebuke them for their wrong-thinking, and hopefully learning the lesson that He taught them and by His Spirit teaches us.
ASPIRATION
The disciples aspired to greatness. Not just James and John but all of them. There is plenty of evidence of this given us in the gospels and here in Mark is one of the most pointed and most humorous.
In chapter 9 verse 33 Jesus asks them a question and you and I know that He already knew the answer before He asked.
“What were you discussing on the way?” Sheepish looks all around…
Verse 34 says, “But they kept silent, for on the way they had discussed with one another which of them was the greatest.”
Now let’s not read into this! It doesn’t say they were discussing which would be greatest in the Kingdom, later, in glory, or in the worldly kingdom that they all expected Him to raise up and rule from.
No, it only says they were discussing which of them was greatest. This is late in the earthly ministry of Jesus. They’ve been together for a while. Kinda feelin’ their oats, aren’t they? They’re following the Greatest One of all down the road, and instead of discussing how great He is, they’re measuring themselves by themselves!
So Jesus sits them down and teaches them about humility, but it didn’t take, did it? Of course not. Think back on your own past and all the lessons in humility you have had… lessons you have needed… and tell yourself you’ve learned it all well. If you tell yourself that, you need another lesson.
And we know that after Jesus rises from the dead and reveals Himself to His Apostles, even then they ask Him “Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?”
That’s in Acts 1:6, so they still weren’t getting it, were they? Do you think they were still wondering what their rank and position would be? Don’t doubt it for a moment. They were His chosen ones and He was the King. Right?
Yes, they had aspirations. Don’t we all? In your schooling, in your work, maybe you aren’t the pushy type but even a wall flower aspires to something above and beyond what they are. If we stop wanting to grow and be better and improve our life and circumstances there’s something wrong.
The problem with the disciples and with us is that our aspiring is backwards. Or maybe upside down.
Listen! This question of James and John to Jesus – this request – is immediately on the heels of His revelation to all of them that they were going to Jerusalem, that he was going to be delivered to His enemies, handed over to Gentiles, spit upon, scourged (whipped), killed, and that in three days He would rise again…
…is this triumphal talk? Well, the last line is. That’s good news, that He’s going to rise again. But what navel-gazing! What self-service! The Master is going to suffer mocking, humiliation, beating, scourging, crucifixion, and so the obvious question that comes to mind is, ‘can we have the places of highest honor on Your right and on Your left?’
They weren’t realizing that where He was going next, those on His right and left were not going to be in a place of honor; they were going to be on crosses!
When He asked if they were ready to drink His cup and they quickly said, “Yes”, it’s pretty plain, isn’t it, that they didn’t have a clue?
Well as I said earlier, let’s not be unkind to James and John. We live in a time in the history of the church when the call to absolute surrender and service to God and the brethren in Christ’s name and Spirit,- when it goes out at all, -is virtually drowned out by the party spirit in many a church in our society, screaming out the invitation to claim, no, demand from God blessing and healing and prosperity and just about anything we can imagine that serves and comforts and promotes the flesh.
Christians, how would you answer if Jesus asked, “What do you want Me to do for you?” What would be your knee-jerk response? Wouldn’t you agree with me that unless we stopped and caught ourselves the first thing to mind and to mouth would be something self-serving?
In the wilderness His nation, redeemed from Egypt, wanted food and water and covering, but they didn’t want HIM; they didn’t want to know His ways! (Heb 3:9-11)
At the trials of Jesus the Jews wanted a confession of guilt, Pilate wanted his philosophical questions answered, Herod wanted to see a magic show, but none of them wanted to know Him or to do right by Him.
And the church wants to pray the prayer of Jabez and get something, right now, and the church wants to grow and prosper, and the church wants to make demands on society, that society do better and live more Godly and acknowledge Christ and Christians, and the church wants things to go smoothly and programs to be successful and for the favor of men to shine down on her…
…while Jesus is saying, ‘…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…’ YOU!
REDIRECTION
Well, Jesus is the Master of redirection. Not as a politician redirects to avoid an issue, but as the Master teacher, who redirects thinking to get the student on the right track.
I mentioned earlier that He did not rebuke them, which He could have, for their thinking at this point was much like that of Peter’s, when he chided the Lord for talking about going to a cross.
Instead He asks them a question to make them think, because when we’re actually thinking is the time we are most likely to figure things out. Our modern society largely discourages thinking.
Commenting on the pursuit of faith, author and preacher Philip Yancey said that those in a monastic lifestyle “…live in spiritual communities with scheduled prayer and worship times and have no cell phones and televisions to interrupt their days.”
Then he asks, “What about the rest of us, who face to-do lists that never get done and live in a culture that conspires to drown out silence and fill all pauses?” Philip Yancey, REACHING FOR THE INVISIBLE GOD, Zondervan, 2000, chapter 7
How often for you and me, Christian, if we were really tuned in to God, would we find ourselves being redirected in our thinking, away from the mundane and misdirecting concerns of this life and this world, to consider how prepared we are to follow Jesus where He goes; wherever it is He’s going?
Wouldn’t we face one challenge after another if we stopped periodically to ask, ‘am I now pursuing my own interests, or Christ’s?’ There is a time for both, but only when our interests are Christ’s.
They were desiring an earthly kingdom. He had been showing them and preparing them for a heavenly Kingdom.
They were focused inward and seeking to get a leg up on those outside of their little inner circle. He, existing as God, not regarding equality with God a thing to be clung to, had taken the form of a bond-servant so that He might give His life for them and for us.
They entertained the presumption that they were ready to take seats of honor by His side. He knew that in their days ahead the world would treat them with anything but honor.
They needed redirection. And Christians, it is the popular thing in today’s church to hear about resurrection and glory, as it has always been popular. But we often need to have our thinking redirected to recognize that first there is a cross; that it’s still Friday, and until He comes for each one of us we move through our earthly days under the Divine mandate to deny self, take up His cross and follow.
If you have fallen into the snare of thinking that Christianity is about health and wealth and prosperity and victory in this world, and if you think these messages must be real because you see the smiling faces of these false teachers on their books and they look healthy and prosperous and victorious, then I am here to call you today to wake up and have your thinking redirected by the Word of God and the Holy Spirit in your life.
There is a hymn I remember singing often, growing up in the Methodist church. It is based on the passage we’re studying so it came to mind as I prepared and I thought to share just a little of it with you.
So I went to my study where I have seven hymnals, three of them Baptist, and discovered that only one of them contained this song at all, a hymnal printed in 1974, and not a Baptist hymnal.
So with your indulgence I want to share the whole thing with you – I will not sing, I will read – and then I’d like to share two verses of this hymn that I don’t believe were printed in any hymnal but I found them elsewhere.
The title is:
“’ARE YE ABLE’ SAID THE MASTER”
“Are ye able”, said the Master, “To be crucified with me?”
“Yea,” the sturdy dreamers answered, “To the death we follow Thee”
(chorus)
Lord, we are able, our spirits are Thine.
Remould them, make us like Thee, divine;
Thy guiding radiance above us shall be
A beacon to God, To love and loyalty.
“Are ye able”, to remember, when a thief lifts up his eyes,
That his pardoned soul is worthy of a place in Paradise?
(chorus)
“Are ye able” when the shadows close around you with the sod,
To believe that spirit triumphs, to commend your soul to God?
(chorus)
“Are ye able” still the Master whispers down eternity,
And heroic spirits answer, ‘Now, as then in Galilee”.
(chorus)
Well for the most part that all presents an air of victory and final triumph, doesn’t it? But I’ll bet these excluded verses have seldom been sung, and I can see them going over in a lot of our churches today like a lead balloon.
“Are ye able” to relinquish purple dreams of power and fame,
To go down into the Garden, Or to die a death of shame?
“Are ye able” when the anguish Racks your mind and heart with pain,
To forgive the souls who wrong you, Who would make your striving vain?
Words by Earl B. Marlatt, 1925
The hearts and minds of the disciples needed some serious redirection. But so do ours, brothers and sisters of the church; so do ours.
ILLUMINATION
Jesus gave them some redirection then He gathered them around for some illumination. And here as in other places we are given a glimpse of the amazing patience of our Lord.
In chapter 9 verse 35 He sat down to teach them and He said, “If anyone wants to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all”
In chapter 10 verses 23-25 He teaches that the wealthy and the self efficient in this world will find great difficulty in entering the Kingdom of Heaven, then down in verse 31 He repeats, “But many who are first will be last; and the last first”.
Wouldn’t one of us human teachers by now be ready to pull our hair and scream, “Why don’t you guys pay attention”?
No. He calls them to Himself. Gather ‘round, guys. Take a seat on a rock and listen for a minute. Really listen.
You know how earthly kings act. You know the history of the Gentiles, with their kings and dictators and pharaohs and Caesars and Emperors and Presidents, and job foremen and department managers, how they strut around like roosters, lording it over everyone, taking what they want, granting life or snuffing it at whim, sometimes letting the people starve while they get fat in their posh palaces. And they make the rules and they issue decrees and they affix their stamp and their likeness and their approval and their disapproval and …
…they pursue their aspirations…
and
“You better take care of business, Mr. Businessman
What’s your plan?
Itemize the things you covet
As you squander through your life
Bigger cars, bigger houses
Term insurance on your wife
Tuesday evenings with your harlot
And on Wednesdays it’s your charlatan
analyst, he’s high upon your list!
You’ve got air conditioned sinuses
And dark disturbing doubts about religion
And you keep those cards and letters going out
While your secretary’s tempting you
Your morals are exempting you from guilt and shame
Heaven knows you’re not to blame,
But you better take care of business, Mr. Businessman
Get down to business, Mr. Businessman, if you can
(Ray Stevens, 1968)
Do you know that song was banned in the United States in 1968? Banned! From this great, open-minded nation where freedom rings; because too many who were in a place of power saw themselves mirrored in the words!
Jesus said, “But it is not so among you”. This isn’t the way it is to be, guys! We’ve been together for over three years and we’re on the road now to Jerusalem, or going to be very soon, and you guys are talking like those who are of the world. This isn’t right. It is not to be so among you.
Church, it is not so among you. Church, whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all. Does a slave make himself great? No! It is the Master who ultimately and eventually exalts the one with the servant heart. He cannot do it himself because the effort, the very desire, violates the nature of servanthood.
So take heed to your heart, Christian. When Jesus says that whoever wishes to be first must be a slave of all, realize that if you’re being a servant in order to be first then you’re not being a servant. You’re being a hypocrite with evil motives.
And lest I go too far off base with this, do you notice the word is translated ‘slave’ here? That tends to draw a different picture in our mind in 21st century America than just the word ‘servant’, doesn’t it?
We think servants open doors and wait tables and cook meals and clean the bathrooms. Slaves on the other hand, … well, our own history makes that word a loathsome thing; more to some than others.
Be illumined, Christ-follower. You can’t excuse yourself by saying that you don’t have ambitions to be first therefore you don’t have to be a servant. Just by refusing to let Him develop in you a servant’s heart you place yourself over your brethren and over your Lord, who came not to be served, but to serve and to give His life a ransom for many.
And since we know that God’s purpose in us is to transform us into the image of His Son – and we do know that because it says so in Romans 8 – that is a process that is stunted when we resist God’s efforts to make us into servants.
We also remember, however, that one of His own archangels testified:
“For nothing will be impossible with God.” Luke 1:37
APPLICATION
I told you earlier that I had good news for you today, and this declaration of Gabriel, the Archangel who stands in the presence of God (Lk 1:19) emphasizes my good news with his statement that with God nothing shall be impossible when we come straight with that in our minds to the question of Jesus in our text.
“What do you want Me to do for you?”
Wow! What a loaded question, coming from the One with whom nothing shall be impossible!
In verse 51 of this very same chapter Jesus asks the exact same question to another, and that man receives his sight as the result.
What do you want Jesus to do for you? Now don’t be too quick to answer. This is a question that deserves some solemn and careful thought by virtue of who it is who is asking. When the One who even asks of Himself, “Is anything too difficult for the Lord?” Gen 18:14, asks, “What do you want Me to do for you?” wouldn’t you agree that wisdom would dictate that our request be for something eternal in nature?
Now Christians, please don’t go away today thinking that I have taken a position that we are never to ask God for anything; and please don’t think I
am against promotion in school or the work place or finding happiness in life.
The Bible even tells us that promotion comes from the Lord and when we are serving Him faithfully and acknowledging His Lordship in the things we do and the decisions we make, I do believe that He blesses. I have seen it happen.
What I am emphasizing is our need to have our attentions and our affections redirected, and our willingness in obedience to Scripture to keep Christ as the center of our focus.
When Jesus tells us that we are not to seek like pagans to rule over one another but, like Him, to serve and sacrifice of self for one another, He is not relegating us to a lower level of worth; what He is doing is inviting us to make ourselves available to the riches of His grace.
This is precisely why, when Paul asked three times for his thorn in the flesh to be removed, God answered that His grace was sufficient. A man or woman, self-sufficient and self-motivated and fully provided for physically and materially cannot be recipients of God’s grace, for His strength is made perfect when exercised through our weakness.
How does Paul respond? By pouting? By seeking help from Dr. Luke?
“Well, God refused to heal me, Luke. What do you have in your bag there?” No… he responds with an anthem of rejoicing!
“Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.’ 2 Cor 12:9b-10
Christians, true followers of Jesus Christ, the spirit of this world continues to seep into the church. It has been observed:
"It is right for the church to be in the world; it is wrong for the world to be in the church. A boat in water is good; that is what boats are for. However, water inside the boat makes it sink." - Harold Lindsell
Well, it is a condition that has always existed to some degree or another and always will, because the church is populated by imperfect people.
However it is our duty as Spirit-filled followers of Christ to resist that spirit; to recognize it and route it out where and when we can.
Because friends and family, it is the spirit of the world, it is the thinking of the world, that so often turns us around backwards and has us asking the wrong questions and asking for the wrong things.
Don’t deny yourself access to God’s grace. Let your thinking be redirected and keep your priorities straight. Let me repeat, as promised, what MacKintosh said.
“Grace assures us that all our interests, for time and eternity, have been most fully provided for in the death and resurrection of Christ, and gives us to see that our only business now is to live to the praise of Him who died for us, and rose again.”
Loved ones, I am persuaded by His Word and by His Spirit that as we go down the road of this life following Jesus, if we keep our focus on Him and His greatness, desiring to serve Him wherever and however He appoints, we will know His abundant grace and we will indeed live to the praise of Him who died for us, and rose again.
I’ve read a couple of songs to you today in making my points; let me give you one more. It was on an old Gaither album I had, sung by Danny Gaither with his beautiful tenor voice. It went like this.
“Make me willing to wait patiently
For the answers I’ve prayed for so long.
Make me willing to listen to Thee
And to say, ‘not my will but Thine be done’.
Make me willing to thank Thee for tears
And for heartaches that cause me to pray.
Will You make me a vessel the Master can use?
Keep me willing the rest of my days.”
What do you want Him to do for you?
