Chapel with Camden Pulliam - September 15, 2021

we are for the church and for the kingdom this vision drives everything we do there are many noble causes and institutions in this world and we care about the future of seminaries academies governments social causes and pair church ministries but they are not fundamentally why we exist we exist for the future of the church and the advancement of god's kingdom with god's help our students today will be the pastors ministers and missionaries of the global church tomorrow we teach the bible in the classroom so that generations of churches will be sturdy outposts of christ's kingdom this is how we serve the church and this is how we bless every other good and noble endeavor until god's glory covers the earth like the waters cover the sea [Music] will you join us [Music] good morning we're going to be in mark chapter 10. mark chapter 10 starting in verse 35. while you turn there i want to say thank you to dr allen in the president's office for the invitation to be here it's an honor to preach before so many who taught me the word as a doctoral student so many whom i get to teach as a professor now and so many close friends and colleagues that i work with every day this is a joy mark 10 starting in verse 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 and he said to them what do you want me to do for you and they said to him grant us to sit one at your right hand and one at your left in your glory 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 and they said to him we are able and jesus said to them the cup that i drink you will drink and with the baptism with which i am baptized you will be baptized but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant but it is for those for whom it has been prepared and when the ten heard it they began to be indignant at james and john and jesus called them to him and he said to them you know that those who are considered rulers of the gentiles lord it over them and their great ones exercise authority over them but it shall not be so among you but whoever would be great among you must be your servant and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all for even the son of man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many let's pray father we thank you for sending your son the son of man to be a ransom for many many of whom are in this room son of god we thank you for giving us these words to live by in spirit we pray that you would help us to live by them we need them we pray all these things in the great and glorious name of jesus amen you probably do not know the name minty ross era menta ross was a slave in the 1800s she was a slave in maryland she was born a slave was raised a slave and lived as a slave into her twenties she was beaten as a slave minty ross came to be known for absolute true greatness and why is that minty ross found her own freedom from slavery minty ross she lived in maryland and she decided that after reading the new testament she should flee her slave masters she should flee them so what she did was she made a 90-mile trek to the state of pennsylvania she made the 90-mile trek through through marshlands through forests escaping slave catchers all the way and she finally found her freedom in the state of state of pennsylvania but once she got to the state of pennsylvania and gained her freedom she couldn't live with herself she could not remain there knowing that her friends and her family members and so many were still in slavery back in maryland and so she made the 90-mile trek back because she knew the way and over the course of her life she helped 70 slaves that she knew get out of slavery through what we now know as the underground railroad and then later on she served with the union army and helped over 700 more slaves gain their freedom minty ross was the name she was given at birth but you know her as harriet tubman why was harry why is harriet tubman come to be known as truly great it's because though she was a slave she had been set free and though she had been freed she used it to become a servant of all true greatness is found in free slaves true greatness is found in free slaves the passage we're in mark is telling his narrative and he is be-lining to the cross this narrative up until this point has been shooting like a missile directly to jerusalem directly to the cross three times in the context before this in chapter 8 chapter 9 and chapter 10 right before this passage we get jesus predicting he's going to die and on the third day he will rise again right before this passage starting in verse 32 we get the third prediction from jesus where he's telling his disciples my ministry is about the cross and right after this passage they will walk into jerusalem and three times right before this passage we get the disciples asking about greatness he's talking about the cross they're talking about greatness this is the third time where they ask about greatness in light of him talking about the cross this is the passage that we get so we're going to see a couple different sections of this passage the first is the request of james and john the second is the ransom of jesus the request of james and john the ransom of jesus let's look at the request starting in verse 35 james and john the sons of thunder the sons of zebedee they came up to him and they said to him teacher we want you to do look at this prepositional phrase for us whatever we ask of you what a backward request he's the master he is the one who is the lord of the universe he's the son of man and here they are i mean you don't talk about this you don't talk this way with anybody you don't go up to anybody and say hey i want you to do for me whatever i ask of you that's just a strange request and here they are making it to the son of man and jesus being the wise teacher that he that he is if anyone asks you hey i want you to i want you to do a really really big favor for me you don't just automatically say sure what do you say well tell me what the favor is first and then i'll do it for you maybe right jesus asks a simple question what do you want me to do for you jesus is a wise teacher he's not going to immediately give in he's going to ask what do you want me to do that's what he does and then in verse 37 they say to him here's the request of james and john grant us to sit one at your right hand and one at your left in your glory man they are sly aren't they mark has already told us what their heart is their heart is for them this was a request for them we want you to do for us but they are sly we want to sit one at your right hand one at your left in your glory jesus this is about your glory this isn't about us it's about your glory jesus but man their request for themselves is only veiled in praise for him it is not true praise for him now let's remember they've actually seen the transfiguration by this point they've seen his glory they know what his glory looks like and they want a part of it they want greatness by proximity to him they want to get close to him they want something here they want what we all want which is true greatness and they're trying to get it by proximity so they want to cozy up to him but they veiled it and prays for him about his glory and seminary community i think we do this way more often than we think we have requests for ourselves that are veiled in praise for him i can just tell you whenever i was a master student i had a lot of requests that were all about me that were veiled in praise for him right things like man lord i i'm tired of working at a bank i want to be in a ministry position where i can influence people for your name jesus i want to influence people for your name i want people to be hanging on my every word the way i hang on john piper's every word right i just i love learning from this man i want to i want to teach and i want to lead the way he does it's not a bad thing to want to teach and to lead but it was about my influence and i was veiling it in terms of for your namesake jesus i remember asking the lord like god i know i need discipleship i know i need to learn what it looks like to obey but when he gave me a mentor who wasn't all that prominent i was like i don't actually know if i want to be discipled anymore what i really wanted is just proximity to someone that i perceived to be great i didn't want discipleship it was it was a prayer that was veiled in praise and obedience language but it was actually all about proximity and greatness so they do exactly what we do don't they they veil a request for themselves and praise for him and if you want to know what jesus's response is in verse 38 i would just encourage you you can go out and go ahead and pull out your phone if you don't pull out your phone go ahead pull up your favorite gif searcher and just type in smh that's jesus's face right now he is shaking his head like what in the world all right all right let's let's start over here this is 38 okay jesus said to them you don't know what you're asking here you do not understand what you're asking are you able to drink the cup that i drink or to be baptized with the baptism that i'm going to be baptized with jesus says i'm the son of man i'm going to the cross do you have any idea what that's going to be like you want to sit in my glory but you don't want any of the guts you don't want any of the pain do you know the cup that i'm going to drink do you know the baptism that i'm i have coming for me he's been telling them about it three times he's predicted it and he's that this language of the cup and the baptism that's just old testament isaiah language of suffering and death the cup of suffering the baptism the drowning in the waters of death you able to die with me he says and if we have john 15 in the back of our minds remember john 15 where jesus says i am the vine you are the branches you can do nothing apart from me then their response is all the more staggering because what do they say we are able ugh i mean their heart is on full display full sufficiency they think they have and here's what he says back jesus said the cup that i drink you will drink you will suffer with the baptism with which i am baptized you will be baptized but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant but it is for those for whom it has been prepared here we have the son of man in his humanity saying hey that's not mine to grant that's the father's and he has prepared someone for it but you want something without the preparation there was a moment in seminary when my first year i was applying for every internship i was applying for every ministry position i could find i was applying for youth pastor positions lead pastor positions internships with faculty internships with the president i even at one point sent a an email to a pastor i was at a really large church and unfortunately there was kind of the scale of pastors there was like the top dog and there was like a second layer and a third layer and i knew like hey no one knows me i'm not gonna go for the top dog i'm not gonna go for the second dog i'm gonna go for like the third level i emailed the third level guy and was like hey can i just shadow you i'm not even asking to be paid i'm not asking for your time i just want to shadow you and he said hey i'm sorry i don't have the time my intern though he'll disciple you and i was like the best i can get is the intern like what in the world that's my whole first year of seminary and then my second year one of my good friends followed follow he didn't follow me but he came to southern seminary where i was he came from college i was a year ahead of him he came and by the first day of class he had an internship with the president president al mohler within a couple months he had not just had the internship he had been promoted he had been promoted and gotten like a paid position with al mohler which was like a huge deal right and not only was it a paid position he was going to be al muller's personal librarian sitting in the basement of his home managing that wonderful library and this verse wrecked me like a ton of bricks because i was jealous there was this jealousy and resentment that he had gotten this position that anyone would have wanted and i desperately would have wanted and this verse taught me he's been prepared for it i didn't want to see next to the son of god at the right hand i just wanted a seat next to al muller's right hand right [Laughter] but even those positions god is preparing some people for them and not others and he had not prepared me for it he had prepared matt for it he hadn't prepared me for it and i was led not to sulk but to be grateful for matt and that he had done something in matt's life he hadn't done in my life i didn't know what it was but apparently he had been prepared and i hadn't my challenge to you today is that there's probably someone of whom you are jealous they might be in this room be grateful for that person and be grateful for the way that the lord has orchestrated their life for whatever they have that you don't it's actually his kindness and his goodness to you and to them and of course lest we think that this is just a james and john problem this is not just james and john this is all 12 of the disciples we see the disciples become indignant that james and john are making this request they become indignant they are furious c.s lewis tells us that the more pride we have in ourselves the more we dislike it and grow disdain for others when we see it the same pride that's in james and john is lying at the heart of all 10 of the other disciples unless you think that you are any different than these disciples you're not some of you might know the name dennis rodman if you're old enough in this room dennis rodman was a basketball player in the 80s and 90s dennis rodman came to be known for his antics for his on the court antics and off the court antics every game he came out with a new color of hair with a new design in it right he was always getting in fights always kind of throwing his arms and going crazy off the court it was just the dennis rodman show i mean he was constantly missing practice constantly even missing games because he was partying in las vegas the whole team kind of had to negotiate around dennis rodman it was just all about dennis rodman so much so that at one point in the 90s he declared that he was going to get get married on michigan avenue in downtown chicago and it was this huge publicity event only he showed up as the bride fully dressed in the bride's gown not in the grooms this is dennis rodman that we know well you probably don't know is that when he started his career he had all of the talent and no none of the ego his coach chuck daley said of dennis rodman when he started his career he was an absolute unicorn because by the time you get to the nba you've got enough talent that you've developed somewhat of an ego you care about your stats you care about how many rebounds you get or points or whatever and chuck daley said not dennis rodman when he started in the league there was none of that you could not find someone who worked as hard as he as he did had as much talent as he did but cared nothing about what the stat sheet showed you couldn't find it in the nba except for dennis rodman now here's the deal i think we have a lot of dennis rodman's in this room you might be dennis rodman in 1986 you might be dennis rodman in 1990 you might be dennis rodman in 1996. we have a lot of dennis rodman's in this room the fact that all 12 of the disciples are fuming mad shows us that this is not an irregular instance this is common the pride and the request from james and john is the pride and the request from all of us we all want greatness we all have this cancer this toxin of pride sitting in the well of our hearts and whether it shows up in our lives or shows up in someone else's life we will that the pride will come out we will notice it and the pride will come out this is not just the two james and john this request of james and john is the request of all 12. we all want greatness and in response to this request of james and john we get the ransom of jesus the first whole section of this passage is the request of james and john the second section of this passage is the ransom of jesus look at how the savior calls them verse 42 jesus called them to him almost like a coach saying hey get in the huddle get huddled come on let's talk he called them to him they gather around him and he says to them you know that those who are considered rulers of the gentiles lord it over them and their great ones exercise authority over them he's teaching about the way of the world we don't have to go far to find instances of this you can insert whatever political leader you want i'm not going to say which political leaders come to my mind but you have political leaders that come to your mind when you think about the way of the world and the lording of the world but we also see it in movies our world knows what this looks like why is he called lord vader darth vader the greatest villain of all it's because he takes the force and he crushes people with it he lords his authority over people i don't want to be in scar's kingdom he's a domineering lord i want to be in mufasas or simbas he who shall not be named is an image of this dark lording i think of the warden in shawshank redemption right who just constantly keeps his thumb on his subjects and constantly keeps his thumb on his prisoners and constantly keeps his thumb on his staff unless do you think this is just the way of the world why is jesus saying this to his disciples one of those disciples was peter and the same verb that we get for lording peter uses in first peter 5 charging pastors be careful that you do not domineer over those in your care but set an example for them though this is the way of the world that creeps awfully close to the church it creeps awfully close you might not be lord vader crushing people with the force but you might be harsh whenever you get into a leadership role you might be cunning you might be manipulative you might joke with people in a way that just reminds them hey i'm the one in charge and you're not you might be passive aggressive with them this way of the world that jesus is describing is actually a way that's far too close to home and there's a reason why he's saying saying this to his disciples because every one of us in this room no matter if you're a freshman at spurgeon college or a doctoral student getting ready to graduate you need to hear it shall not be so among you the church is a different kind of place jesus is being a good leader and he's putting his foot down it shall not be so among you there is no tolerance for it there is no place for that in this place but he's actually gracious too let's look at what he says next it's he doesn't just tell us what not to do he tells us what our life should look like whoever would be great among you must be your servant and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all now notice here this is a little bit surprising to me this request of james and john this prideful request for greatness and for proximity to glory jesus actually appeals to it here he's actually drawing on the desire for greatness and the desire to be first he's in some ways implying that's not all together bad that's actually good you should want your life to be a great life you should want that jesus is appealing to that but notice that the path to get there is to go low if you want to be first you have to be last if you want to get high you got to go low ricky bobby's dad made it famous if you ain't first your last jesus says if you ain't last your last that's the way of the cross that's the way of jesus you cannot be first unless you are last this is a servant-minded leadership and we've heard this before if you're a christian you know that the way of leadership for a christian is servant leadership we've heard this but then we get verse 45 and he gives us the reason for such servant leadership and i don't know if you're like me but i seem to separate out verse 45. it's one of those iconic verses that we've heard a million times for even the son of man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many but i fear that we kind of miss what's going on here what we will often do is separate out 45b where he's talking about the son of man became a ransom for many and we'll talk about atonement theories we'll talk about well was the son of man a ransom to the devil was was he being paid as our debt to the devil how does this play with uh penal substitutionary atonement or christus victor atonement and by the way that's actually not a bad thing mark is mark is kind of portraying jesus here as the suffering servant of isaiah it's appropriate to talk about the atonement here but we can isolate 45b from everything else actually to think we do the same thing with 45a if you're like me i start to hear certain passages the same way i've always heard them right and this is one of them this is one of those passages passages that i just hear it the same way all the time and when i was wrestling with this text it hit me in a brand new fresh way what the way i typically hear it is i isolate off 45b and i say you must be a slave of all why for even the son of man came not to be served but to serve so you should be a slave because even the son of man the greatest of greats became the lowest of lows so you should too he set the example that's true by the way but that's not all the passage says is it the the reason why we should be slaves of all is not just because jesus was our example that's necessary but it's not sufficient it's necessary but it's not sufficient if the reason we must become a slave of all is because jesus became a slave of all then all we have is a really crippling law if he's just the example for us to follow we are in dangerous territory because we're never going to meet that standard but notice what it says not only is he your example but he gave his life as a ransom for many let's remind ourselves what is a ransom we think of the ransom i think of the movie ransom with mel gibson where there's like a hostage and you have to pay a ransom in this day and age a ransom was a payment to a slave master so that someone could be set free so that a slave could be set free so let's just look at the logic again jesus says if you want to be great you got to be a slave if you're going to be a slave verse 45 you got to be set free he's using slave language here in two different ways one kind of slavery is a slavery to others a slavery that gives yourself over to others as their servant the other kind of slavery is a slavery to self you can't serve two masters friends you can only serve one master and if you are serving yourself you cannot serve all you can only serve one master he says that's the that's the logic if you want to be great you got to be a slave but if you're going to be a slave of all you go you can't be a slave to yourself you must be set free true greatness we see in 43 44 and 45 true greatness gospel greatness is found in free slaves that's the message of mark 10. now here's the deal we have the request of james and john which is this negative portrait of being enslaved to yourself and then we get the ransom of jesus which is this climactic iconic passage where he describes for us what it means to be set free from such slavery that we see in james and john and the rest of the ten but that's not where the passage stops there's actually more let's keep reading in verse 46. they came to jericho and as he was leaving jericho with his disciples in a great crowd bartimaeus a blind beggar the son of timaeus was sitting by the roadside and when he heard that it was jesus of nazareth he began to cry out and say jesus son of david have mercy on me and many rebuked him telling him to be silent but he cried out all the more son of david have mercy on me and jesus stopped and said call him and they called the blind man saying to him take heart get up he's calling you and throwing off his cloak he sprang up and came to jesus and jesus said to him what do you want me to do for you and the blind man said to him rabbi let me recover my sight and jesus said to him go your way your faith has made you well and immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way we get the request of james and john which is this negative portrait of being enslaved to yourself we get the climax of the passage which is the ransom of jesus and then we get this positive portrait of someone being set free from themselves there's a stark contrast between james and john and bartimaeus in this passage james and john have been walking with jesus for upwards of three years bartimaeus this is his first encounter james and john have seen the transfiguration they've seen jesus in his glory bartimaeus is a blind baker james and john it says are the son of zebed sons of zebedee bartimaeus is the son of timaeus james and john call him teacher bartimaeus calls him the son of david he calls him by name jesus son of david i know who you are mark is doing something radical here he's contrasting these 12 disciples and specifically the two with bartimaeus this nobody they're the negative portrait he's the positive portrait and the zeal of bartimaeus is just popping off the page he calls out he cries out to him and when they tell him to shut up he gets even louder when they say hey he's calling you he springs up he doesn't just get up he's blind by the way he springs up can you imagine not being able to see and springing up it says that he leaves his cloak if you know what the cloak is the cloak is the security blanket in the ancient world there's a reason why jesus says if someone gives you if someone takes your tunic which is relatively valueless give them your cloak also which is full of value it is your security blanket the old testament even makes provisions so that people won't take each other's cloaks and here bartimaeus leaves it behind the zeal of bartimaeus is popping off the page and then we get verse 4 51 bartimaeus approaches jesus and we hear jesus ask a familiar question don't we what do you want me to do for you we've seen this question before when james and john come up to him with their request jesus asked them what do you want me to do for you and here with bartimaeus he asked the same question what do you want me to do for you shakespeare had it wrong this is the question right here seminary student college student staff faculty this is the question what do you want me to do for you every governmental system every political system in the world will expect something from their citizens they will ask of their citizens they will charge their citizens the great president kennedy said ask not what your country can do for you ask what you can do for your country king jesus says ask not what you can do for your king ask what your king can do for you that's our political system in this kingdom this king comes to us as a servant of all asking what do you want me to do for you and then in verse 52 jesus said to him go your way after bartimaeus has just asked let me be free from myself let me recover my sight i want to be free from these limitations jesus says go your way your faith has made you well and immediately he recovered his sight and what next he followed him on the way staggering he doesn't go his way like jesus says he follows him somewhere else remember where they're headed right after this in chapter 11. the very next scene chapter 11 verse 1 they walk into jerusalem where are they headed they're headed to the cross the image we get is that bartimaeus has been set free from himself and with his freedom what does he do he walks behind jesus to the cross if you want to be great you got to be freed and if you're going to be free you've got to be a slave of all that's true greatness true greatness is found in people who have been free from their selves and use it to become a slave of all friends we are walking towards the cross will you follow him there will you walk to jerusalem like bartimaeus will you follow him on the way as you step into whatever position is after midwestern seminary or spurgeon college the central question for you will be whether or not you choose to use your freedom in service of others or will will you use your freedom to serve yourself this is a fantastic place this is a marvelous place one of the beauties of this place midwestern seminary and spurgeon college is that we have lots of questions that get asked of us we answer questions on tests we have quizzes every week oh my goodness another quiz another test another question they just keep coming after class you have friends asking questions that you've never heard before and you're trying to wrestle with how to answer these questions but i can promise you this the most important question you will answer in these halls comes from the teacher with a galilean accent what do you want me to do for you let's pray father we thank you so much for jesus his way is so marvelous he led us straight to the cross and he died for us he was the servant of all we thank you that you have freed us from ourselves if we are in christ we have been set free from the law of sin and death we have been given the spirit of life and peace thank you that you have been the ransom for us you have set us free from slavery to ourselves and i pray that with that freedom we would use it to be slaves of all may that be said of midwestern seminary and spurgeon college may that be said of our graduates may that be said of our staff may that be said of our faculty may that be said of our administration and lord jesus may that be said of your church we pray these things in the mighty and wonderful name of jesus amen

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Length: 36min 12sec (2172 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 15 2021