EMBRACING A LIFE OF SACRIFICE
March 16, 2008 Jay Davis Robison MARK 10:32-34
What are you willing to Give Up?
If you are like most giving up is not a very comfortable feeling
May see it as defeat as when bully holds you down says Ya give?
Giving up may be seen as loss or resignation
Submission is not a very comfortable thought either
Today consider Jesus giving himself up for us
Mark 8:31 and 9:31 Jesus predicted his death this is 3rd time
Jesus was not CRUCIFIED BY ACCIDENT HE EMBRACED IT
As he talks in Mark 10 Jesus tells about a death sentence
He appears to be active in bringing to pass his own destiny.
He walks ahead toward Jerusalem where he anticipated death
Since Jesus predicted death it is not meaningless accident of history Jesus saw his fate as part of God’s mysterious plan went to meet it. Jesus was embracing a life of sacrifice
Every great accomplishment & benefit in life comes with sacrifice We take for granted freedom to worship, from great sacrifice Our parents and those who cared for us sacrificed much for us If you have been in higher education great sacrifice Look at embracing a life of sacrifice
1. Be AMAZED and AFRAID
Throughout Mark people respond to Jesus w\amazement & fear. Amazed when Jesus healed a man who could not walk or When talked about easier for a camel to pass through eye of a needle than for a wealthy person to enter the Kingdom of God.
Afraid when he healed a man who had been possessed by a demon Disciples were afraid when Moses and Elijah appeared with Jesus, and we are told that their fear left them speechless. People amazed by what Jesus did & said because he challenged much of what they took for granted & afraid of power he had.
Mark says the same now Jesus on way to Jerusalem
Palm Sunday greeting which will end on a cross
Jesus was going before them; and they were amazed.
And as they followed they were afraid. Vs 32 NKJV
Mark joins two emotional responses to Jesus Amazed=SUDDEN SURPRISE, WONDER, ASTONISHMENT Afraid=IMPRESSED WITH FEAR OR APPREHENSION almost love-hate relationship w\Jesus but we have that don’t we?
When we come to newfound spiritual truths we become amazed Amazed that God actually spoke to us & showed us his will. We are amazed his will & plans include us. Stepping out in faith has a kind of romantic appeal its exciting However, as time goes by we come to grips w\challenges we face we become afraid because we can’t do all Jesus asks of us. Afraid because faith means we don’t have all the answers Many times fear causes us to stop dead in our tracks
It’s no fun following someone who scares you. Lloyd Ogilvie notes there are 366 in the Bible – one for every day of the year & even leap years! Ortberg questions why Bible offers so many “fear not” charges. “Fear is the #1 reason human beings are tempted to avoid doing what God asks them to do. Fear is #1 reason why people refuse to get out of the boat. So we need this command all the time.”
We stand today amazed by the dreams and visions God has for us What could God do in your life? How could you grow be changed? But also afraid because we don’t see any way for them to come true outside of God
To be Amazed and Afraid is a mixture of hope and fear.
Brent Landau
We recall times in our lives when feel God very present.
But we also stands on the threshold of new, uncharted territory, a future which is hazy & uncertain. So we are “amazed and afraid.” Part of worship is to call us in fear to move toward amazing God
2. A life of sacrifice imposes GREAT COSTS
Jesus described in detail what they were up against what coming I wonder if he then proceeded to say that they would be just fine. After all if anything happened to anyone in Jerusalem, couldn’t Jesus quickly heal them or if needed, bring them back to life?
Yet Jesus gives stark blunt description as fear\amazed. Vs 33-34a He will be handed over to the Gentiles who will laugh at him & spit on him. They will beat him w\whips & crucify him. CEV
This is not exactly a vision that will win friends and influence people
We love the party of Palm Sunday but Good Friday? Not that
After all, who wants to leader who says this will happen
If all this happens to him what will happen to them?
Was Jesus afraid? Don’t answer “no” quickly. I can’t say for sure But I know he had no doubts that God called him to this &
he would obey, even if he must do it alone.
Jesus knew that he was putting Himself into the remorseless hands of His enemies. But, having made His choice and pledged His loyalty to God, nothing…could daunt Him.” (Speaker’s Bible)
The disciples were afraid partly from their feeling that they were in the presence of something terrible they could not understand.”
If you and I are to know the passion experience of Christ, we must accept whatever God has designed for us as his ultimate purposes.
Beware we may get DISTRACTED
Give you a lesson on stealing in broad daylight
Get a group of 2-4 go into a store & break into groups Then a couple of you need to create a disturbance & draw the attention of the store clerks & other customers.
While everyone paying attention to commotion, other thieves stuff their pockets w\merchandise and slip out of the store unnoticed.
Sometimes it was days later before clerk realized he was robbed
How often it is that we get distracted in life
We mean to do something for God, to keep a commitment
But before we know it another week is gone or we just get busy
How much our lives are stunted by distractions
Disciples were focused on words like die mock spit beat whip & kill
As long as they were focused on that miss he will rise again
Remember story of Jesus walking on water in a storm.
Disciples afraid for lives when Jesus in mist walking on water
They cried out in fear! Jesus responded “Don’t be afraid! It’s me!” Peter “Well, if it’s you Lord tell me to come to you on the water.” “Come on!” Jesus called back. Got out of the boat looking intently at Jesus and walked. Then a wave came crashing toward Peter. For split second he took eyes off Jesus he lost focus began to sink!
More intently we try to follow Jesus, more devil will try to distract us
In church we can lose our focus of loving like Christ
And come to be more concerned about getting my way
Look at what Jesus did over and over again Mark tells us
He set his face as a flint (KJV) to go to Jerusalem no distractions
So doing showed best courage There are two kinds of courage
SPLIT SECOND, Two kinds of courage, that courage found in a
split second in face of immediate threat act w\out thinking
and ENDURING the courage of the long haul, when you can see
something coming & face it you have plenty of time to avoid it
evade the issue but deliberate facing of the issue
3. Sacrifice brings NEW LIFE
If I embrace a life of sacrifice If I pay the price,
If I balance being Amazed with being afraid what are results
Three days later he will rise. Vs 34 TNIV
One of the few events in Jesus’ life that all gospels agree upon
All of them refer to this
Resurrection is that important, to let us know life after death
And remind us no sacrifice for God is worthless
"The length of our life is less important than its depth." Mary Fisher
Lough Fook, Chinese Christian felt called to reach out to Coolies who were Chinese slaved working in the South African mines.
Fook sold self into slavery for 5 yrs to take gospel to Chinese slaves
He worked hard, suffered as slave he shared Christ w\coworkers.
Lough did not survive his 5 yrs of slavery, died before it was up
but not before he saw 200 slave miners become Christians
He saw the need of the slaves and sold himself into slavery,
Not every Christian is called to make this dramatic of sacrifice
But all called to embrace sacrifice for God
AW. Tozer, “Before the judgment seat of Christ my service will be
judged not by how much I have done but by how much I could have
done!... In God’s sight, my giving is measured not by how much
I have given but how much I have left after I made my gift…
Not by size of my gift but by how much of me there is in it.
No man gives anything acceptable to God until he has first given
himself in love and sacrifice”
Hard is when you compete but never win, invest but lose everything, work but receive nothing for your efforts, and show love but receive hate in return. Paul Meyer Unlocking Your Legacy
Nobody feels sorry for the athlete who wins a gold medal
Even though they paid an incredible price of effort and time
Think of the gold medal, they gold medal winner
The medal once attained minimized every cost & sacrifice
Following God is similar in many respects. Are costs & self-sacrifice to be made, but that does not mean it is hard to follow God.
Hard is when you compete but never win, invest but lose it all, work but receive nothing for your efforts, show love but receive hate in return..
When I compare my costs and self-sacrifices with what I have already received and will receive in return, my costs and self-sacrifices are insignificant!"
Remember Jesus is leading us!
What have you sacrificed lately in light of all the sorrow, desolation and bloodshed that has gripped the world?
When I consider Palm Sunday, I am struck that…A coat might not be worth much after a donkey walks on it. In a crowd like that there was no guarantee that once you laid it down you were ever going to get it back. For some reason, the text leads me to believe those people probably weren’t real interested in coats at that moment when Jesus rode by. No, these people, many of them probably very poor, weren’t as concerned about coats as they were about praise. For the people on Palm Sunday, praising Jesus might have cost them something. That sounds a little bit like a sacrifice. The Bible speaks of a sacrifice of praise. Fitting, isn’t it, for someone who saved our lives by sacrificing his own?
Look at Mark 10 Bible tells us that Jesus is leading
He is not taking the disciples anywhere alone
He goes with them as matter of fact leads them
What are you willing to give up? Love includes sacrifice
