Mark 10:35-45
Philippians 2:6-11
“Jesus came to not to be served but to serve”
Today, we continue our second part of our mini-series, which is titled, “Why did Jesus say he came to this earth?”, because after all, the whole reason we celebrate Christmas is to remember that God Himself, Jesus- Immanuel- came and dwelt with us.
But why?
Well, last week we heard that Jesus came to call sinners,
That is, he came to call those who knew they needed a saviour.
And this week, we see that Jesus came to this earth, not just to call sinners to salvation, but to carry out that way of salvation.
Jesus said himself that he came to this earth, not to be served but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many.
This is what Jesus told us himself.
Look at Mark 10:45 with me:
For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many
Now if anyone had the right to speak of themselves in the third person, it was Jesus.
Jesus, as it is often recorded in the gospels, called himself the “son of man”- and the reason he called himself the son of man, was to let us know two important truths about himself, which must be true, even though they seem like two truths that can’t co-exist together.
When Jesus called himself the son of man, he was making the two vital truths which are both true, even though it seems impossible to human logic:
1. He was saying that he was human, like the rest of us: fully man- completely human
2. And at the same time, he was saying that he was God: fully God
In Daniel chapter 7, the prophet Daniel prophesied about the son of man, who was given all authority in God’s kingdom, a son of man who would reign as God’s king forever- this Son of Man, was divine, he was God’s own son- this was whom Jesus said he was, when he talked about himself using the title “son of man”.
And yet, the psalms, like psalm 8 also tell us, that son of man, also refers to human beings, - Jesus was a human being.
This truth of Jesus being fully God and fully man, actually helps explain how Jesus and only Jesus could come to this earth and serve us, by giving his life as a perfect sacrifice for the ransom of many.
The fact that Jesus was fully man and fully God at the same time explains why it was only the blood of Jesus which could have been shed for the sins of the world. He was our perfect substitute- human for human and yet he was also God in the flesh.
But we will look at that in more detail a little later.
Now, as we see, like we did last week, Jesus in this conversation he has with his disciples, first of all points to what he didn’t come to this earth, to do, before he points to what he did come to do, so that the light of his coming would shine brighter in the blackness of what he didn’t come to do.
So, let’s look at what Jesus didn’t come to this earth to do.
Verse 45
For even the Son of Man came not to be served
Jesus didn’t come to this earth to be served.
The king of the universe, the one who created this world and everything in it, did not come to be served by those people he created, but instead he came to serve them.
This just turns our world upside down doesn’t it.
We know that kings and queens, governments, people in power, they seem to be served by many people all the time- it is just the way this world appears to work.
Whenever we see president’s visit one country after another, there always seems to be an entourage of servants with them, a thousand cars, a few helicopters, etc,…servant after servant.
And yet Jesus, the king of the universe came to this earth, not to be served.
This would have blown the scribes, and pharisees minds in the days of Jesus, as it still does today. The prophecy from Daniel tells us that all peoples, and all nations and all languages would serve the son of man- Jesus, not the other way round.
So was this prophecy of Daniel’s about the son of man wrong?
Absolutely not- there will be a day when King Jesus will come again to this earth, and every knee will bow before him in surrender, and every tongue will confess him as Lord, and all nations will serve him, but what the scribes and pharisees neglected was the other prophecies about Jesus- the son of man, which predicted that his kingdom would come only through the king of the universe, serving and suffering first.
Or let me put it another way, the Glory of the kingdom of God, only comes through the suffering of the cross.
And this is the point that Jesus was making to his disciples in this conversation he was having with them.
His disciples were arguing about who would sit next to Jesus in his kingdom on the banquet table: His disciples were jockeying for positions of power in God’s kingdom, and Jesus lets them know that when it comes to God’s kingdom, it isn’t about positions of power, but in fact it is about suffering first before the Glory comes.
Just look at what James and John, the brothers, also known as the sons of thunder came and asked Jesus,
Look at verse 35 with me:
35 And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.”
At first glance this seems quite an arrogant question.
Jesus, will you do what we say?
And as we can tell from what they asked for, it was a question that was filled with self grandissation, they ultimately asked for something which would shine glory upon themselves.
But, to be fair to James and John, they asked the right person.
At least they were bold enough to ask Jesus, and not try and fulfil their own dreams.
As you would have noticed, Jesus didn’t dismiss their request, but he he responded by asking the next logical question, Ok, what would you like me to do for you?
And what did James and John want?
Look at verse 37 with me:
37 And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.”
Again, we must give credit to James and John, they believed that God’s kingdom would be brought to this earth, through their king Jesus, they knew they would be with Him, in glory, however, perhaps they didn’t really know what this “brining in” of God’s kingdom entailed.
And so when Jesus probed them further and told them, that there would be suffering and death to come before the glory…..James and John still responded with a positive – Yes, we are able to drink from the same cup as you and be baptized with the baptism you are going to be baptized….but you have to wonder if they really understood what they were agreeing to.
We know when Jesus was in the garden of Gethsemane, the night before his death, he prayed that his father may take the cup from him. And as we know from the scriptures, especially from the book of Jeremiah, the cup was the associated with the wrath of God.
Jesus knew he had to suffer by taking on his father’s wrath as he paid the penalty for the sins of the world.
Jesus knew that the only way to bring many sons and daughters to glory, was by taking on God’s wrath onto his own body by paying the price for all those sins.
Glory came through suffering.
In Romans 6, it tells us that our baptism in Jesus means that we were baptized into his death.
When Jesus talked about his baptism to his disciples in this passage, he is talking about his death on the cross, and so just as Jesus physically died, we too must die to sin, must die to ego, must die to walking our own way and instead follow his ways.
The disciples were arguing about were they ranked in position in God’s kingdom and in response, Jesus tells them, that none of that matters….what matters is that to be part of God’s kingdom, to be part of the kingdom of Jesus, we just follow Jesus example, and what was his example:
Philippians 2:5-11 sums it up:
5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, It is a gift- not earned.
6 who, though he was in the form of God, - Fully God
did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, - He didn’t take advantage of his powerful position by lording it over others
but emptied himself- He stepped off his throne in heaven
by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
8 And being found in human form,- He was and is fully human
he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, - He didn’t have to die, the Romans and the Jews didn’t get their man- no- Jesus willingly gave his life
even death on a cross. One of the most excruciating deaths.
9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Friends, Jesus came from Glory to suffer and die, to return to greater glory.
Friends, this is a picture of the Christian life.
As a believer in Jesus, all your sins have been forgiven, you have been seated with Christ in the heavenly realms, you have been blessed with every spiritual blessing, your salvation has been secured.
However, as a believer on this earth, you have been called to serve others, and often that will mean you will suffer, as you sacrifice for others, and yet one day, when we reach glory, when we die, or Jesus returns, all suffering and death will be no more.
Comments