Mark 10:32-45

I want us to kind of start this year, this and-depth year by looking at the kind of church we want to be really.

! And looking at what does it mean to be ministry-minded, to remind me and to remind you about who we are.

I suppose how we do church. And so very often, normally we go through books of the Bible, that's what I prefer to do.

But we're probably going to look at a number of small passages. And I want to start with one verse in Mark 10.

It's Jesus' mission statement in Mark 10 verse 45. Mark 10 verse 45, a very famous verse.

Mark 10:45 Mark 10:45

It says, For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.

I'm always a little bit cynical when it comes to mission statements. Churches have a mission statement particularly.

At Kitty Islands, she wrote an article on the plague of mission statements.

And she said, I wanted to write a funny piece on mission statements.

But what I quickly realised was that nearly all mission statements are laughable. Most of them are not funny. They are really funny.

And I don't know, you might have a mission statement for your life, some people do that today. I'd rather.

But I do think Jesus did.

I think Jesus had a mission statement.

And here it is, it is the verse I just read.

For the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.

If you are going to have a mission statement, it is going to capture your values.

It is going to capture your goals.

It is going to capture how you want to achieve them.

It is going to capture your identity.

Now just look at that verse I read to you.

And first of all I want to see this.

Jesus' mission statement identifies who he is.

It identifies who he is.

Who is he?

Who is he from verse 45?

How does he describe himself?

Can you look down?

The Son of Man.

It captures his values, doesn't it?

Can you see that?

What are his values?

He has come not to be served, but to serve.

And it spells out his goal.

What is he aiming at?

His goal is to lay down his life as a ransom for many.

So let's think about those three things.

First of all, it identifies for us who Jesus is.

And do you notice how he describes himself?

It is his favourite self designation.

If you read the gospels, you will know this is how Jesus is always referring to himself.

He refers to himself as the Son of Man.

And that doesn't just mean, oh, he's another human being.

It could mean that.

And in one sense, it does mean that.

That he's become just another human being like that.

Splashing bones.

Except without sin, the Bible says.

He's entered into the human race.

He's got an authentic human existence.

In every respect.

Psychologically and emotionally and socially.

He's one of us.

But can you notice it doesn't say for even a Son of Man.

It doesn't say that to the left.

It says the Son of Man.

He is the Son of Man.

And there's a number of allusions where he refers to himself in this way.

And it's all pointing back to Daniel Chapel 7.

Let me read to you from Daniel Chapel 7.

Try and imagine the scene.

It's a picture of a court.

The court of heaven.

The court is in session.

And the Ancient of Days, God Almighty, is surrounded by thousands upon thousands.

10,000 times 10,000 of angels.

There's angels as far as you can see.

And the books are opened.

And then you read this.

I saw in the light visions.

And behold, with the clouds of heaven, there came like one, a Son of Man.

And he came to the Ancient of Days.

And he was presented before him.

And to him, the Son of Man was given dominion and glory and kingdoms.

That all peoples and nations and languages should serve him.

And this guy's dominion is an everlasting dominion.

Which shall not pass away.

And his kingdom shall not be destroyed.

You see what it's telling you?

It's saying that the greatest human being who's ever lived.

The greatest human being that you can imagine, he's like the Son of Man.

The greatest person who's ever walked.

There has never been, nor will there ever be, anyone worthy of glory or of, or adulation or praise.

He is truly awesome.

And so even someone with the ultimate authority that Jesus has.

Even the Son of Man, look at him out at 1045.

He came not to be served, but to serve.

It's the US Open and the tennis at the moment, isn't it?

I don't know if you've seen the club, Serena Williams has retired.

And it's an amazing thing, isn't it?

What he says, probably better at home alone.

But you know when they sit down at the end of their games.

And they go sit by the uplier's chair.

And they sit in the sun, and if it's too hot, the ball boy or the ball girl runs to them as quickly as they can with an umbrella.

They stand upright with an umbrella.

And there's a drink that's handed to them.

And there's a towel given to them instantly.

They're the great ones, aren't they?

They are served.

They nod, or they give an eyebrow and a ball right in their hand.

Now I know it's probably a bad little speech because I don't tend to be a soothe, but forget about that for a minute.

But the point of the solution is that the tennis players, they're the great ones, aren't they?

When Serena Williams sits down, Roger Federer, Rafa Nadal, they're the great ones, and they are served.

So can you imagine a leak sprints in Flushing Meadow where the US Open is?

And an announcement comes over the tannoy.

It says, one of the toilets is blocked, can Serena come and unlock it?

Can Nadal, can he come off court and fix the gathering?

You can never do it with you.

It would never happen.

Because they are the great ones, and they're the ones in the limelight.

So in the workplace, there's always someone in charge, isn't there?

In the workplace, there's always a boss.

I remember in the office that I used to work in, there was a woman in charge of the stationary cupboard.

And didn't you know it?

She had the keys to the stationary cupboard.

And without her permission, you couldn't get your stationary, you couldn't have a pen, you couldn't do a piece of paper.

Now I know I'm down here on the stationary cupboard, so I think of the past.

But if you wanted to function in that office, if you wanted your paper clips, and your pieces of paper, and your pens,

she was in charge.

Well, Jesus is not in charge of the stationary cupboard.

In Daniel 7, what he's telling us is that Jesus, the one who we worship in the morning, is in charge of absolutely everything.

That's what this term, the Son of Man, means.

He's God's universal ruler.

He is the one to whom all authority belongs in heaven and on earth.

Sometimes you see on people's desks, on their computers, the boss is coming, look, isn't it?

Well, the boss is coming.

That's what this is saying.

This is who Jesus is, according to Daniel 7.

He's given all authority and glory and sovereign power and all peoples.

It doesn't matter where you're from, whether you're from Iran or Afghanistan or Argentina or England or America.

All nations, men, women, boys and girls, in every language, they're going to worship him.

And his dominion is everlasting and his kingdom will never pass away.

I do say, yeah.

Yeah, I'm sure it was alright.

But it is actually happening.

Until you look at the history of the last 2,000 years, and it is happening.

His kingdom is a universal kingdom.

It is coming and it is growing.

It is estimated that 35,000 people will become Christians today.

I find that stat just mind-blowing.

I thought it was 3,500, but no.

You've got to be Googled.

It's 35,000 people will become Christians all around the world.

It is a growing kingdom.

It is a universal kingdom.

And the epicentre of the kingdom is no longer in Europe or America.

The great growth is in places like Africa, South America and China.

And what Daniel saw all those hundreds of years before is actually happening before our very eyes if we look for it.

And this God, this God is coming to the house.

The house of this world.

If I can put it like this without being blasphemous.

If God is in the house, He is the one in Mark 10 to 45 who's got the candle on.

God is the one to make of the tea.

Because even the son of man who comes, not to be served, but to serve.

And that's astonishing, isn't it?

Do you remember what they said when, what Jesus said to Peter when they came to arrest little Jesus?

They came to arrest Jesus in the garden and Peter pulls out a sword to protect Jesus.

And what did Jesus say to him?

Jesus says to him, doesn't he?

Put away your sword.

Put away your sword, Peter.

Don't you realise, Peter, that I can appeal to my Father in heaven and you will at once send me all the twelve legions of angels.

But how then should the scriptures be fulfilled that it must be so?

What does it mean to be served?

What does it mean to be served?

To be served is to have other people doing things to you.

It's how people work for you.

It's how people assisting you.

It's how people carrying your bags.

It's how people that will get things done.

It is how people that will make life just a little bit easier for you and better for you.

But the son of man, he did not come for that purpose.

The son of man did not come to be served.

Jesus said, I did not come into this world to get you to do things for me.

And that might come as a massive surprise to you.

You might have thought that Christianity was all about us doing things for God.

Doing things for Jesus.

It's about us carrying favour with Jesus.

About getting on his right side by doing things.

And no, Jesus said, if that's what you think this morning, you've completely misunderstood.

The gospel is not about what you do for me.

It's about what life comes to do for you.

Jesus is served by angels.

He is served by myriads of angels.

In the garden, when they came to arrest him, he could have flipped his fingers.

And hundreds of thousands of angels turned up.

He didn't need Peter with his little sword.

But he says to Peter, put away your sword.

Because that isn't the reason I can.

I didn't come to be served.

But I come to be served by giving my wife as a ransom.

And you notice, if you look at verse 32 of chapter 10.

And they are amazed, astonished into what was there.

And those who followed were afraid.

There's something about the look in his eye as he walks to Jerusalem.

There's something about his determination.

There's something about his whole demeanour which astonishes them.

He's striding towards his death.

He's deliberately, in a very focused way, going to Jerusalem for the last time.

And do you remember Thomas, one of the disciples, said, listen, we may as well go with him and die.

Because if he goes to Jerusalem, they will, okay.

And three times in Mark 8, 9 and 10, Jesus has warned them, each time I'm going to die.

I'm going to be delivered.

I'm going to be crucified.

I'm going to be handed over and nailed to a cross.

He's gone three times in three chapters.

And now he's on his way and he's staring into the face of his own death.

Even the Son of Man.

The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve.

And to give his life to the rights of the man.

And so that's the first thing. He's identifying who he is.

He is the one who is born into the human race.

But he's more than that. He is the ultimate human.

He is God's universal ruler.

The one to all authority in heaven and earth is being given.

That's who he is.

But why then is he can?

What's his purpose?

Why does he go to the cross?

Why does he strive towards Jerusalem?

That leaves us for the second of this mission statement.

Not only does it explain to us who Jesus is, but it captures his values.

Three things I want to say about that.

His values.

His values.

That he came to serve instead of being served.

The first thing is this.

That's contrary to human nature.

It's against how we naturally are to that means.

Edith lived in a little world bound by north, south, east and west by Edith.

We are incurably self-centred, aren't we?

We're self-absorbed, self-protected.

If you want evidence of that, go on your own social media.

And you see it here in the disciples of the university file.

James and John, the sons of seven, came back to him and they said to Jesus,

Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we are for you.

That is shocking.

In the previous verses, Jesus said, I'm going to be handed over the Gentiles.

I'll be mocked.

I'll be spat on.

I will be flogged.

It'll kill me.

And then James and John come and say,

And we want you to do whatever we ask.

It's a shockingly selfish prayer.

It's a genial kind of prayer.

It's the sort of thing that kids say to their parents.

But we know better than to fall for it.

Will you give me whatever I ask?

It's incredibly insensitive too, in the light of what Jesus has been saying.

He's just described as suffering.

He's about to endure.

He's already walking in a purposeful way to a kind of death.

John Stott describes this prayer request as the worst, most blatantly self-centered prayer ever prayed.

Can you imagine the prayer meeting on Wednesday?

I say, is there anything anyone else would like prayer for?

I really don't pray that God would do whatever I ask Him.

Can you imagine it?

Listen to me in verse 35.

Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask for.

And He said, what do you want me to do for you?

And He said, you grant us the sixth one on your right hand and the one on your left in your glory.

Jesus said, you know what you're talking about.

You know what you're asking for.

You've got no understanding.

I didn't come.

I didn't come.

I didn't come to be served.

And he said, then what do you want me to do for you?

And he said, your grand test has said,

one on your right hand and one on your left in your glory.

Jesus said, you know what you're talking about.

You know what you're asking for.

You've got no understanding.

I didn't come to be served.

But I came to be served to give my life as a rancid man.

It doesn't mean he came to be servile.

It doesn't mean that Jesus didn't give you what you want.

It doesn't mean that Jesus kind of panned at your selfishness.

What if Jesus had given them what they wanted?

What if he could answer their prayers in the way that they liked?

Do you know what would have happened to them?

Look over to Mark 15.

You'll see it.

Mark 15, verse 25.

Mark 15:25

27.

Jesus said to them, actually, you will all fall away.

For it is written by the Lord,

like the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered.

They're all left.

They all fell away.

Jesus was not enthroned

in some gorgeous cathedral

between two campbells.

But the Lord Jesus was enthroned

on a cross between two thieves.

One on his right and one on his left.

One day, they will take Prince Charles,

and they will not take him to Pentadal Prison,

and hang him.

They will take him to Westminster Avenue,

and they will crown him.

And he will become King Charles of the Lord.

King of England.

Just imagine Charles being cracked for his coronation.

And they say,

Charles, as you process into the Abbey,

into Westminster Abbey,

and as you walk down the aisle,

everyone is going to turn their back on you.

And as you get up to the front,

there will be peers of the round

in all their finery,

with their ermine collars,

and their red robes.

The moderator of the Church of Stockholm

will be there with the Bible.

And when you make your way to the transept

at the front of the church,

they will spit in your face.

And when the Archbishop lifts the crown,

and as he's about to crown you,

a sniper,

somewhere in the eaves,

is going to fire a bullet,

and it will shoot you through the head.

Shocking, isn't it?

That's how it was for Jesus.

That's how his kingdom came.

His crucifixion was his coronation.

It is gory,

and yet there is glory there as well.

And that's what the disciples have understood.

The kind of kingdom that Jesus is bringing

to this world is totally different

from any other kingdom.

It's clearly not what the disciples

had in mind at all.

It's culturally genuine nature.

We are essentially self-centered,

and self-protecting,

and self-absorbed,

and self-advancing.

Even in church,

we are in our lives for ourselves.

What did that do for me?

What is it for me?

I didn't get much out of that.

Rather than what can I do to serve others?

So his value is a contrast with human nature,

but it's also really counter-cultural.

It's so different from our culture.

It runs contrary, doesn't it,

to the Catholic word of politics.

And not just politics,

sports slam.

That people out for themselves,

to make a name for themselves,

whatever the cost.

Look what Jesus says in verses 42 to 44.

Jesus said,

you know that those who are regarded as rulers

of the Gentiles,

lordly no with them,

and their great ones exercise authority over them,

but it shall not be so among you.

Not so with you.

Not so with you.

Those four words characterise Christian leadership.

And so the values that Jesus brings

are contrary to human nature.

So whether it's in the world of sports,

or the world of politics,

or the world of big business,

you know how it is,

people are playing the greasy power.

They'll step on others to get there.

Somebody has said,

in the paradoxical topography of heaven,

the way up is the way down.

That's what he's saying,

is that the way to become great

in the kingdom of God

must become a servant.

And whoever wants to be first

must be a slave of all.

He's redefining greatness.

True greatness is to serve

the needs of others.

You see, Christian leadership

is servanthood.

We pay lip service a lot,

so we call our political leaders,

don't we,

those who are in government,

we call them ministers of state,

servants of state.

That's the effect the gospel

has had in this country.

I don't know if you realise that.

Certainly don't think

our leaders realise that.

That they are there to serve.

Where did that idea come from?

It came from Jesus.

And the trouble is,

without Jesus,

it doesn't happen.

It's a great idea.

But without Jesus,

what do we see if we see

self-serving,

hungry for power,

greedy for praise,

desperate to be wanted,

desperate to be recognised,

desperate to make a name for ourselves,

desperate to be learned.

And so what Jesus says,

it's not only

contrary to our human nature,

it's counter-cultural.

It's not really the way things operate,

the way things operate

in our world.

And the third thing

is counterintuitive.

Some of you desperately need to hear

this this morning.

You beat yourself up,

believing that you've not done enough.

for Jesus.

Isn't that right?

You said to yourself,

I'm not good enough

to be a Christian.

I don't pray.

I don't read my Bible enough.

I don't evangelise enough.

I don't serve enough.

And the more worried

you become about that,

the more tight you become.

And Jesus says,

that's not why I came.

Isn't that amazing?

Jesus did not come

to get you to do things for him.

I didn't get you

to come to try harder.

I didn't get you

to be better,

come to be better.

I came to do things

for you.

Not to get you

to do something for me.

And that's counterintuitive,

isn't it,

for all of us.

But until you get that,

until you understand that,

you have not understood

the gospel.

But once you understand that,

once you understand

it's not about me,

it's not about me

serving him.

It's about him

coming to serve me.

And so it frees you.

It frees you.

It frees you to do what?

It frees you to serve others,

paradoxically.

So let me ask you

this question.

Will you let yourself

be served?

Will you allow yourself

to be served by Jesus?

And pride is the problem,

isn't it?

It's my problem.

And we're reading

about a man

who came home drunk

every night.

And every night

his wife had to help him

to bed.

And every night

she'd take him upstairs,

she'd go to dress him,

she'd put him to bed.

And one night

when she took him

to bed,

she said,

John,

let me pray for you.

And he grumbled

and he grumbled okay.

And so she started

to pray

and she said,

Lord,

I pray for my husband

who lies here drunk.

And a little voice

came out from

under the covers,

don't tell him I'm drunk,

tell him I'm asleep.

And that's our problem,

isn't it?

We're too proud

to admit a story.

We won't climb down,

we won't humble ourselves.

We won't admit

we've got a problem.

We won't admit

that we need Jesus.

Early on in the chapter

there's a really important

little section

where the parents

of believers

bring little children

to Jesus

and the disciples

lash them away.

It's too important

for that.

They're bringing

their children

so that Jesus

might bless them

and the disciples

send them away.

It's far too important.

And Jesus says,

no, no, no,

unless you receive

the kingdom

like one of these,

you cannot

answer the kingdom.

You've got to become

like a start

you owe us

a little child.

It doesn't mean

you've got to become

childish,

but it does mean

that you've got to

become a child of life.

A little child

is tumultingly dependent.

They are brought

to the Lord Jesus.

They rely on others

to supply their needs

and that's how

people become Christians.

And that's how

you get to the kingdom of God.

And so how is this possible?

Here's my third point.

I'm running out of time.

Here's my third point.

We are incurably

self-centered.

And we live in a culture

where self-promotion

is the order of the day.

And so we're like

little birds,

you know,

the little birds

caught in an oil spillage

and they are trapped

and they're trying

to get away

with the covenant stuff.

And we're contaminated

by sin in our culture.

Selfishness

and self-absorption.

We can't shake it.

And yet Jesus

has come

to do something about it.

And so here's the way

that he's coming

to deal with it.

Not by giving his life

as an example.

Jesus is not Gandhi.

Inspirational figure

that he was.

And we can be challenged

and we can be inspired

by the example

but the problem is

he can't live

like Jesus.

Jesus did not

come into this world

to give himself

as an example.

An example of

sacrificial love.

He came to give himself

as a ransom.

And the only time

we use the word ransom

is when there's been

a kidnapping.

In the ancient world

they did a prisoner

of war camps.

People were taken

prisoner in the ancient world.

An army would take prisoners

and they were either killed

or they were made slaves.

And the only way

you could get them

free is by paying

a ransom.

And that's the picture

of the Angus book.

And that's what Jesus

is saying about

his mission statement.

He's explaining to us

why he's coming

to this world.

He didn't just come

to give you an example

of life.

Because quite frankly

it would crush us.

And we'd say,

wouldn't we,

well that is wonderful

but I cannot live like that.

That's not maybe

something you were saying today.

Because an example

of sacrificial love

just condemns you.

It doesn't help you.

Jesus says,

no, I actually came

to pay the ransom price.

To set you free.

There's a famous

illustration,

isn't that?

Of the two people

that, let's say me and you

were walking across a bridge.

And I want to show you

how much I love you.

And so,

I run across

to the side of the bridge

and jump over the bridge

into the water

shouting,

I love you.

What are you going to say?

Oh,

he loves me.

So you're going to say

that he needs his mates.

It's a really poor example.

It's pointless.

And yet,

if you've fallen off the bridge

and are in the water

and I jump up

over the side of the bridge

and rescue you,

that's very different,

isn't it?

That shows my love for you.

That's the meaning of the cross.

Even the Son of Man,

he came to give his life.

No one takes his life

away from him.

He gives his life away.

As a substitute,

let me finish

with an illustration.

There's a bridge

on the Potomac River.

The 14th bridge,

but it's now called

that Arlan D. Williams Bridge.

We have something

that happened in 1982.

On the 13th of January 1982,

during an extraordinary period

of freezing weather,

Air Florida Flight 90

churned off

from the EI

of Washington Airport.

It failed to gain altitude.

It crashed into the 14th street bridge.

It hit six cars

out of a truck

killing four motores.

After the crash

into the bridge,

the plane continued forward

and it plunged

into the freezing river.

Soon after,

only the tail section

remained afloat.

And only six of the airliners,

79 passengers,

survived the initial crash.

And they were even

escaped the sinking plane.

According to the other

five passengers,

one passenger continued

to help all the others

reach the rescue groups

dropped by the helicopter.

Repeatedly,

he passed the line

to others

instead of using it himself.

His name

was Arlathan D. Williams.

While the other five

were being taken ashore

by the helicopter,

the tail section

of the Boeing 737

shifted and sank

into the water

and dragged

Arlathan D. Williams

into the water.

The next day,

the Washington Post

described his heroism.

It said he was about

50 years old

and one of half

a dozen survivors

clinging to twisted wreckage

bobbing about

at the night

in Petonga River.

When the first helicopter

arrived

to the cockpit

of the police crew,

he seemed

the most alert.

Life vests were dropped

and then a flotation board.

The man passed

then to the others

on two occasions.

The crew recalled

that he handed away

a lifeline

from the hovering machine

that could have

dragged him to safety.

The helicopter crew

who rescued five people

lifted a woman

to the riverbank.

They dragged three more persons

across the ice

to safety

and then the lifeline

sent a woman

who was trying to swim

away from the second wreckage.

The helicopter

returned to the scene

but Arlathan D. Williams

was gone.

And every time

they lowered the lifeline

he passed it somehow.

Again and again

they pulled it up

and there was

someone else in the room.

And every time

he gave away

his place of salvation

to someone else.

And the last time

they got back

he'd gone.

He died.

He died to what?

Saving others.

Substituting himself

for others.

Giving them

his place of deliverance.

He took the destruction

that was coming upon them

and four or five people

owed their lives to him.

And that's what Jesus

is saying

his mission is.

That's why he came

to the human race.

And that's why he came

one of us

to go to the cross.

He's not dragged there

against his will.

It's not some terrible

little tragedy.

He deliberately

set his face

towards Jerusalem

and he goes

for this very purpose.

And not just for four

or five people.

Can you see our

course for many?

For many?

And that warns you

doesn't it?

That warns you

as we close

that it's not everyone.

He's warning us

that not everyone

is going to be rescued.

And so the question

as we finish this morning

is this.

Are you one of the men?

There is no reason

why any should perish.

It's really interesting

how the chapter ends

is to do with

plan part in the way.

Jesus is on his way

to choose them.

And he won't stop

for the disciples

but in verse 49

he does stop

on his tracks.

All the grandiose schemes

of Jesus and John

he won't stop

but there is one man

who cries out for mercy

who recognises he is

and Jesus stops.

And he cries out

Son of David

have mercy on me.

And a blind man

has made you see.

They are not physically

blind and seen.

But there are none

so blind as will not see.

And his disciples

they wouldn't see

what Jesus was telling them.

They didn't want

to hear it.

They didn't want

to see it.

But Jesus stops

to show mercy.

The Bible says this.

It says this to you

this morning

so that everyone

who calls

on the name

of the Lord

will be saved.

So will you call

to him this morning?

And if you call him

you will stop.

and he will have mercy

and he will say

God's name.

Thank you.