What the Cross Teaches Us
Part 2: Our Most Important Choice
Text
“35Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. "Teacher," they said, "we want you to do for us whatever we ask."
36"What do you want me to do for you?" he asked.
37They replied, "Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory."
38"You don’t know what you are asking," Jesus said. "Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?"
39"We can," they answered. Jesus said to them, "You will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with, 40but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared."
41When the ten heard about this, they became indignant with James and John. 42Jesus called them together and said, "You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them.
43 But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever wants to be first among you must be the slave of everyone else. 45 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.”
Mark 10:35-45
(NIV, NLT)
Icebreaker
A police officer pulled a guy over for speeding and had the following exchange:
Officer: May I see your driver’s license?
Driver: I don’t have one. I had it suspended when I got my 5th DUI. (Driving Under the Influence)
Officer: May I see the owner’s card for this vehicle?
Driver: It’s not my car. I stole it.
Officer: The car is stolen?
Driver: That’s right. But come to think of it, I think I saw the owner’s card in the glove box when I was putting my gun in there.
Officer: There’s a gun in the glove box?
Driver: Yes sir. That’s where I put it after I shot and killed the woman who owns this car and stuffed her in the trunk.
Officer: There’s a BODY in the TRUNK?!?!?
Driver: Yes, sir.
Hearing this, the officer immediately called his captain. The car was quickly surrounded by police, and the captain approached the driver to handle the tense situation:
Captain: Sir, can I see your license?
Driver: Sure. Here it is.
It was valid.
Captain: Who’s car is this?
Driver: It’s mine, officer. Here’s the registration.
Captain: Could you slowly open your glove box so I can see if there’s a gun in it?
Driver: Yes, sir, but there’s no gun in it.
Sure enough, there was nothing in the glove box.
Captain: Would you mind opening your trunk? I was told you said there’s a body in it.
Driver: No problem.
The trunk was opened; no body.
Captain: I don’t understand it. The officer who stopped you said you told him you didn’t have a license, stole the car, had a gun in the glove box, and that there was a dead body in the trunk.
Driver: Yeah, I’ll bet he told you I was speeding, too.
Received from Michael L. Griffin.
Intro
-Last week, we began our series leading us up to Easter called, “What the Cross Teaches Us.” We began last Sunday by talking about how the Cross teaches us about our 3 biggest problems – That God hates sin, that we have all sinned, and that in our own power, we cannot deal with sin effectively. And we ended last week by discussing how the Cross points to the only solution for our biggest problems – Jesus, our advocate before God.
-Last week, we focused on Jesus and what He alone can do for us. Today we’re going to focus on some things that we can do for ourselves. And these things come down to our the choices that we make in the way we live our lives.
-We’re going to talk about the 4 most important choices you can make to change your outlook on life into the outlook that God intends for you.
(PRAYER)
1. Choice #1: Will I live for myself or for God?
Illustration: Many of you who were here last Sunday probably noticed the unique tie I was wearing. It was my proud University of Tennessee tie that I was wearing because last week Tennessee had just beaten Memphis in a big game to become the #1 college basketball team in the country. Well, this week Tennessee lost to Vanderbilt. Why? I watched the game and you know what I noticed? Towards the end of the game and the score was close, our players stopped responding to our coach’s directions.
Questions: Have you ever seen this happen to your team? What happens when they start playing for themselves and not for their coach?
Statement: Sometimes it may work, but most of the time it doesn’t. In our own lives, sometimes living for yourself will work out okay for a little while. But in the long run, when we do nothing be live for ourselves and what makes us feel good, we come up feeling empty, don’t we?
-The first choice we all have to make is: Will I live for myself or for God?
-Even followers of Jesus do this. Even James and John fell into this trap.
Scripture
“35Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. "Teacher," they said, "we want you to do for us whatever we ask."
-There’s an old hymn we used to sing that said, “I’ll live for him who died for me. How happy then my life shall be. I’ll live for him who died for me…my savior and my God.”
-That’s all any of us really wants isn’t it? To be happy? But we’ll never find it in living for numero uno. We’ll only find it in living for God.
The Cross compels me to live for a higher purpose.
2. Choice #2: Will I measure success by my standard or by God’s standard?
Illustration: In a recent article, Drew Carey, the new host of The Price is Right, noted that he has a fog machine in his living room. He then stated, “Why do I have a fog machine in my living room? Because I can.”
Parade (11/18/07)
Questions: Do you see any problem with that?
Statement: A lot of us would say, “No, man that’s awesome!”
-But Drew Carey’s attitude is pretty indicative of our culture. Our culture that brings us up to believe that having more stuff, a bigger house, more money or more toys…makes you successful.
-And this leads us into the 2nd most important choice: How we think of success.
-And the choice that we have to face is, “Will I measure success by my standard of by God’s standard?
-James and John fell into this same way of thinking.
Scripture
36"What do you want me to do for you?" he asked.
37They replied, "Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory."
-You see, James and John only cared about what they could get out of Jesus. They cared about their thrones more than His cross. And there is always a temptation for us to do the same thing.
-And do you know what the root of their problem was? They didn’t truly know or understand Jesus. They were thinking about a great, majestic kingdom here on earth…but Jesus was talking about a spiritual kingdom that He would establish. And kingdom where success isn’t measure by money or power…but by love and service.
-Even Christian fall into the trap of measuring success by our culture’s standards. I have a friend who is in ministry and was considering several different churches to go and serve at. Someone asked him, “How are you going to decide where to go?” And he responded, “Whoever shows me the money.”
-James and John missed it and so do we 2,000 years later. Success is not about moving on up…it’s about transformation. A life that has been transformed to serve.
The Cross confronts my outlook on life.
3. Will I be served or will I serve others?
Illustration: A young married couple had just arriced home with the first-born baby. Pretty soon, the baby’s diaper needed changing and the mother encouraged her husband to bond with their child by changing his first wet diaper. The young husband declined and said, “I’ll do the next one.” A few hours later…guess what? The new mom came to the daddy and told him it was time for another diaper change, but he gave her a confused look. When he realized what she was asking, the young man replied, “Oh, I didn’t mean the next diaper. I mean the next baby.”
Houston Chronicle (05/26/07)
Questions: How many of you fathers have tried to get out of diaper changing?
Statement: Now, I don’t know what words the wife had to say to her husband after that, but I bet they weren’t too nice. And for good reason, right? I mean, what a self serving attitude for this guy to have!
-But you know, I’ve met a lot of people who have the same problem. And the problem is this attitude of self-service that tends to set in on us. This attitude that tells us that we are the center of the universe. This attitude that tells us, “Don’t worry about what others are going through. You’ve got enough to worry about yourself.” Or that tells us, “What’s really important in life is how comfortable you are.” And it will tell us, “Don’t worry about getting involved in that ministry at your church. There are plenty of others who will do it.”
-The problem is that when I become the center…when I want nothing more than to be served…then I’m not really living in God’s will for me.
-So the 3rd choice we have to make in our lives is: “Will I be served…or will I serve others?”
-Why? Remember what Jesus told his disciples:
Scripture
“43 But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever wants to be first among you must be the slave of everyone else”
-This is radical. This turns everything our culture has taught us upside down. Jesus told his disciples that whoever wants to be a leader must be a servant. And these words still apply to followers of Jesus today…if you want to be first, be last. If you want to lead, serve.
-Living this way requires a change in motives. It requires a shift in perspective. Will I be served or will I serve others? Let Jesus be your model. And let Jesus be your motive.
The Cross challenges me to live a life of humility and service to others!
4. Will I trust in my good deeds or in Jesus?
Illustration: Last summer, 2007, Jonathan McCullum went to Egypt to spend the
school year as an exchange student. The 5’ 9" teenager weighed 155 pounds and was in excellent health when he left his home in Maine. When he returned four months later, he weighed a scant 97 pounds and could barely carry his bags or climb a flight of stairs. His malnourished condition resulted from the lifestyle of his hosts in Egypt. He stayed with a family of Coptic Christians who fast over 200 days per year. Doctors said such deprivation left McCullum at risk for a heart attack. Jonathan McCullum learned a hard lesson about legalism and the dangers it presents. In his case, it was physically destructive, but many times its spiritual damage is not so easily detected.
Beaumont Enterprise, 2/29/8, p.2A
The Cross bids me to come and die to self.
Questions: How does that story make you feel? Why is it that something just seems to be a little off with those believers?
Statement: While that may seem extreme, every one of us faces the temptation to fall into the trap of legalism. Legalism is a mindset that makes us believe that our good deeds are what make us right before God…just like James and John when they approached Jesus trying to settle who would sit at His right hand in His Kingdom.
-And this is the final choice we all have to make at some point: Will I trust in my good deeds or in Jesus?
-And what did Jesus say to them?
Scripture
“45For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
-That even He came to be the ransom for us. Not our good deeds. Not our legalism. Only He could pay the price that makes us right with God. So we have to face up to this and it’s difficult.
-Because we want to feel like we have done it. We would love to have a system where if I do more good things than bad things before I die then, touchdown! I win! Now God, you have to reward me!
-But that’s not the way it works. We have to come to the point in our lives where we trust in Jesus work on the cross and not in ourselves.
-Paul knew this when he wrote to the Galatians:
Scripture
“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
Galatians 2:20
Conclusion/Invitation
-In wrapping this up today, there’s a key that we cannot miss: That at the cross, all of our personal pride, ambitions, achievements, all of our self….comes to die.
-Why? Because at the Cross we are forced to acknowledge the price that God paid – the price that we can not pay – the ransom that Jesus paid for our souls.
