Sunday Sermon
sunday morning service 18th April 2010
Mark 10v17-31 The Mystery of Salvation.
1) Running to Jesus
V17 Jesus is on the road again, on his way to Jerusalem.
When all of a sudden a man comes running up to him asking a most important question
· What can i do to be saved?
That is the question that we all need to ask!
And it opens up a whole mystery for us.
Because we can do nothing to earn our salvation, but if we do nothing we will not be saved!
V18 but to begin with Jesus does not answer the question at all, rather he goes for the address that the man uses! “why do you call me good?”
The man here had a chance to show his theological understanding, he could have owned up to knowing that Jesus really was good, that he really was God!
But the man did not know!
Thus it seems that the man’s words are an attempt to get a good answer from Jesus!
Not that the man was doing all this for show, he really was interested.
We know that because he ran to Jesus – important people in that culture (and even today) did not really run!
App
Spiritually this man was dead in trespasses and sin! (Eph2v1)
Yet he runs to Jesus.
That is the responsibility we all have.
Though we cannot save ourselves we are to run to Jesus.
2) Departing sadly from Jesus
V19 then Jesus quotes the commandments 5-9, extending the 8th commandment with do not defraud! Perhaps this addition is pointing to one of the man’s sins! For later on we learn he has great wealth, some of it may have come by defraud!
V20 but the man is blinded to his own sin! Claims to have kept these since he was a boy!
V21 then comes the great response of Jesus. He looks at the man and loves him!!
Knowing all about him, he loves him!
· From our perspective how comforting to note this response of Jesus. He does not turn away in disgust, at the man’s blindness to his sin, he loves him. No matter what we may have done in terms of sin, if we go to Jesus this is his response, he loves us!
Because he loves him, he reveals his real sin to him – the love of money!
He loved money more than God, thus disobeying the 1st and greatest commandment!
V22 after being told to sell up, so that he would have his treasure in heaven he goes away sad! This is the only time that someone comes to Jesus seeking help goes away sad!!
It’s shocking, Jesus could not save this man!
All those who had come before were saved, but not this man!
App:
The man could not be saved, because he did not really want it! For all his running to Jesus and asking the right things, at the end of the day, he did not want salvation! and so he was not saved.
Salvation lies in your hands. If you want salvation, you go to Jesus and get it.
But you must be willing to put Jesus in 1st place.
God will not share his throne with anyone or anything.
3) astonishment at Jesus
Jesus then goes on to use the situation to teach the disciples
V23 how hard it is for those who are well off to enter into Gods kingdom!
V24 this word astonishes the disciples, because in their understanding, wealth was a sign of God’s blessing and salvation! A kind of prosperity gospel.
V25 illustrates the point well.
V26 the disciples get the point, entering the KofG is impossible! Who then can be saved?
V27 it is impossible for man to earn salvation, but for God nothing is impossible.
V28 Peter then notes how they have left everything to follow him. The very thing He asked the rich man to do!
V29-31 Jesus responds basically saying if you have done all you can for Him and the Gospel, you will be saved, in this life and in the age to come!
App
So entering the Kingdom is impossible, but if you really want it and do all you can to get it, God in the process will save you now and forever.
Entering Gods kingdom and enjoying all the benefits of having God as King is impossible for us to procure in terms of our own earning ability.
But still the responsibility is on us to get salvation.
We can do nothing to earn salvation.
But if we do nothing we will not be saved either.
We cannot earn salvation but we must make every effort to be saved!
That is the mystery of salvation.
The distinction between earning and effort has to be kept in mind because it helps us remember that salvation is a gift. Salvation is free for all who would take it.
No one is excluded from the offer of salvation, rich and poor, male female, moral and immoral etc.
But receiving the gift and entering the kingdom does take great effort. When the effort is made and salvation is received, no one turns around and says “i earned that!”
Like climbing a Munro, it may take great effort and will power to get to the top, but when you get to the top and see the glorious creation all around, you rejoice and worship and thank God for the gift. You don’t think you earned the creation!!
sunday evening service 18th April 2010
Mark 10v32-45
Context: Jesus is continuing on the road to Jerusalem teaching the disciples about his death and resurrection. When James and John come to him asking for places of honour when the Kingdom is restored to Israel.
At this all the disciples are angry because they want the most important places too!
Evidently the disciples were still thinking in terms of a worldly kingdom, just like the one that ruled over the Jews at the time!
So Jesus uses the situation to teach again about Gods kingdom:
Kingdom greatness comes through serving one another : v43-44.
This is the 2nd time this debate and teaching has come up amongst the disciples 9v33-37.
The disciples had a hard time coming to terms with the Kingdoms modus operandi.
They are on the road to Jerusalem, Jesus has been teaching them he is going to be killed and rise again, but they are only interested in who is going to rule with him!
But thankfully out of their slowness to understand comes some of the greatest words that Jesus had to give. Which brings us to our test: v45
1) why did Jesus come to earth? he came to serve!
Jesus left the glory of heaven, not to be served on earth but to serve on earth!
This reason for his coming is seen in every aspect of the incarnation.
From Conception to Cross and all in-between, he came to serve. Phil 2v6-8.
Jesus is the only one every to have been worthy of all the worlds service honour and praise but he came to serve us, not to be served!
App
What is God like?
It almost sounds blasphemous to say but God is God who serves us!
We see most clearly what God is like in Jesus Christ, and here God is revealed as Servant!
This is as hard for us to grasp as it was those early disciples.
It took Jesus washing their feet before they began to grasp the idea!
2) why did he give his life? he gave it as a Ransom
This is the only reason Mark records for the death of Jesus!
Jesus has spoken of his death before, but only in terms of what will happen to him.
Now he reveals why it will all happen!
We are told that the crowning act of his service is his giving of himself.
To give his life as a Ransom for many.
The Servant gives all the time, but the Servants greatest gift is his own life.
His greatest act as our servant is this giving of himself.
A ransom is a price given for an exchange.
In Roman times is was the price paid for the release of a slave, or for a captive.
He gives himself as the price for our release from slavery and captivity to sin!
In the OT Ransom was money given in compensation for an injury or a crime (Ex21.30)
And the price paid for the equivalent of the sacrifice of the firstborn (Num18v15).
The idea is much the same in Roman thinking and OT thinking: money is handed over in exchange for a life.
The life that was to be taken is redeemed, the firstborn son to be redeemed, ransomed .
So why did Jesus come into the world?
He came to serve us, ultimately by Redeeming / Ransoming us!
Our lives were worthy of death, but Jesus died for us to buy us back.
His death pays for our sins.
And what greater service could He offer!
All his teaching, and all his healing and miraculous signs are great but what we really need is redemption, ransom, freedom from the consequences of sin.
What we need is life and forgiveness, only his Ransom for us gives us that!!
App
Why did Jesus die? As the Ransom price for the many!
The many is not as opposed to everyone but as opposed to the few.
For God so loved the world, we are told, that He gave his only son!
The Good News is for everyone.
But not everyone will be saved.
Only those who, from our perspective, really want it!
3) what are we to do? we are to do the same.
Remember the context of this great verse.
The disciples are arguing about the places of honour and who should get them.
So Jesus teaches them about greatness in the kingdom.
Greatness in the kingdom is all about serving and giving.
And His service is our benchmark.
We are to serve Him now. He came to serve us, we are now to do the same for him.
· It is in service that the Gospel finds its natural outcome.
The good news that Jesus came to give his life as a ransom for many, must be seen in our lives. The Good News must make a practical difference to our living.
· What practical difference should it make to our lives?
1st of all it should make us Christians:
What is a Christian?
A Christian is someone who looks at Jesus and says: there is my Redeemer.
He is my Ransom price, He has given himself for me.
He has died in exchange for my life.
He has paid for my sin.
He has removed God’s wrath from me.
He has destroyed the work of the devil in my life.
· Secondly, now I live for Him.
I am not my own, my life is not my own, I’ve been bought at a price.
I’ve been set free to love and serve God.
There is two aspects to salvation then:
There is the looking to Jesus, and there is the daily following of Jesus.
And this is to all come naturally as we gaze on our Redeemer.
There are no rules and regulations about serving, about what form it takes in one’s life.
We are free to live for him. Ransomed!
