The Gospel Of Mark - The Submission of Christ

Okay, so first off I just for those who are new to TCC I just want to let you know that we're in the middle of a series actually in the tail end of a series on the Gospel of Mark.

It's one of the synoptic Gospels and what's interesting about this one, of course, is it has a very unique and powerful narrative about the identity of Jesus Christ, and that's why we chose it.

I mean, we could choose any of the Gospels.

There'd be a lot of great, wonderful truths that we can pull out of, but that's why we chose this one.

And we've come now to chapters 14 and 15.

You might say, say again, scott, you're going to cover chapters 14 and 15 in one sermon.

No, but yes, obviously there's a lot to go through, but we're going to focus on a certain part of this.

But chapters 14 and 15 are really and they bear your reading, by the way because there's a lot of fast-paced narrative that goes through during these two chapters.

And I'll just kind of hit some of the highlights here, because if I read the whole two chapters, we'd be here for 10, 15 minutes.

It starts with Mary Magdalene anointing Jesus and where he anointed Jesus' feet in Bethany, judas meets with a chief priest where he agrees to betray Jesus.

There's the institution of the Lord supper during the Passover service that Jesus holds with his disciples.

Here's that Jesus goes to the Garden of Gethsemane and he prays.

We're going to be talking more about that The betrayal of Jesus.

When he gets arrested, jesus being brought before the high priest, the elders and the scribes.

Then, of course, peter denying Jesus.

I can't forget that part That's inside there.

And then Jesus delivered to Pilate, condemned to death.

He's flogged, he's crucified And he dies and he's buried.

All of this is in two short chapters of Mark.

Now, as I said, there are thousands of sermons that can be preached on these two chapters, and so when we're given as the elders, when we're given an assignment like this, the first thing we do is read, we read and we read and we reread the text And then we prayerfully read it And we ask the Lord if there's anything specific for TCC that he wants to deliver.

And that's a little intimidating, by the way, because you don't want to miss that.

But as I read this, the theme just kept jumping out at me.

Just kept jumping out at me, and it was the theme of how Jesus perfectly submitted to the will of the Father through all of this narrative, and it was a beautiful thing.

And so when you think about Jesus and you think about his life, one thing you'll notice is he submits perfectly all through his life.

He had to.

He's the perfect Lamb of God, right?

Think about when he stayed back in Jerusalem and his parents went nuts like where's my child?

And they finally get him.

And what does he say?

I had to be about my father's business.

He was submitting to the Lord, his God.

He was submitting to God, the Father, even at a tender age of 11 or 12.

It was pretty amazing.

And then, of course, all through his ministry, he says these things, me and the Father at one, or I don't do anything unless the Father tells me.

And up until this time, Jesus was always depicted of being in control of his environment.

I mean, we love that, right.

We love watching how he put the Pharisees in their place, right, it's like Jesus is the champion.

Nobody can out-argue him, nobody can get him.

He's always putting people in their place, but he's doing it in love And sometimes with the Pharisees, he's doing it in some sarcasm.

He was this great teacher, taught these wonderful things.

People, thousands of people came to listen to him preach.

He healed people.

He even avoided death a couple of times because he said it wasn't his time.

However, in Mark 14 and 15, things are changing, because there's a time that's come now where he is going to be placing himself in the control of those that were going to be killing him.

And these final hours of Jesus' submission to the Father was going to cost him dearly in the form of mental, emotional agony and, of course, physical torture.

And, of course, on top of that, the most difficult part of the whole thing, when God, the Father, had to turn his back on him as he took the sins of the world on his shoulders.

And within these two chapters we see beautiful examples of Jesus submitting his will to the Father.

So there's too much text to fully read both chapters in their entirety, but this morning we're going to be looking at chapters 14 and 15, and I'm going to identify four clear examples of Jesus making a conscious decision to submit to the will of the Father, and then we're going to discuss how we, as Christians, can learn from those moments.

So let's start.

But before we jump into the chapter, we really have to define something that's really important to define and that is the word submit.

Submit, it is a negative term.

In our world today, many people look at the word submit in a negative term, but in the Bible it is not necessarily a negative term.

So what do we learn about this word submission?

Well, the Greek word for submit is houpotosso.

Everybody say houpotosso, there will be a test at the end.

Houpotosso is really it's kind of a combination of words.

The word torso, that part of it means to put, and houpo means to put, means under, so it's literally to place something under.

Now, the application in Scripture is most commonly when one person places themselves under another person.

Okay, And a couple of key characteristics about biblical submission is that it's almost always referred to as a willing action.

A willing action meaning, it's true, submission is never something that's forced on somebody.

You think about our society and you think about the word submission and I won't ask if there's any MMA fans in here, but a submission in mixed martial arts is where the first opponent or one opponent gets the other opponent in a situation, in a lock of some kind, where that person that's locked and can't get out submits, and they usually do it by tapping on another person's body.

They're like let me go, don't break my arm, type thing.

Right, that's submission.

And when we look at how our society looks at submission, especially our American society, we're like we don't want to submit to anybody.

So the word submit has a real negative connotation And you guys have heard many sermons from this stage alone on that concept, especially when it comes to marriages and things.

But the reality is, godly, submission is not a forced submission.

It's not a forced submission.

I want to read Philippians 2, verses 5 through 9.

Philippians 2:5–9

This is a beautiful passage of Scripture and it so perfectly describes how Jesus submitted to God.

It starts by saying have this mind among you, which is yours in Jesus Christ.

We're not going to read that too fast, because Paul is saying have this mind in you that was in Jesus Christ.

So that tells us something.

This is what we should have inside of us.

Who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped?

Who did that, by the way?

Satan, remember, we're going to talk a little bit more about that But emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men Remember, it was Jesus that created us And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

What a beautiful Scripture about the willingness that Jesus placed himself under God the Father, under the will of God the Father.

And the most memorized Scripture of all kind, john 3.16,.

For God so loved the world that he gave his son.

But part of that giving was the son willingly going, willingly placing himself in that position to be the sacrifice for the entire world.

Authentic submission, by the way, requires authentic humility.

That's another thing we don't like to talk about anymore.

One cannot have authentic submission to another without humbly presenting themselves to that other person, willing to place yourself under that person.

And, by the way, some people can fake that.

In a lot of churches you see that a lot of times, people faking that.

But I can tell you there's a point in time that if you're faking it, it's going to come out And it's going to be lovingly, hopefully, revealed to you that wait a second, that humility that you're exhibiting is not true humility.

And, by the way, it was Jesus who introduced the concept of humility as a virtue to the world.

It was never looked upon that way before And we know Jesus was totally submitted to the will of the Father And in fact in John 5, verse 30, this is what he says.

John 5:30

I can do nothing on my own.

As I hear, i judge and my judgment is just because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.

Jesus was fully submitted to God And I want you to understand that he willingly did that, because if you understand that then you're going to understand the rest of what we're going to talk about today.

So you have to understand.

Don't get that worldly, 21st century definition of submission, don't get that stuck in your head.

So let's look at the four submissions of Jesus.

Submission number one is knowing of yet allowing Judas' betrayal, and I say proclaiming yet allowing Judas' betrayal.

Let's read Mark 14 and verses 17 through 21.

This is the first section.

And when it was evening, he came with the twelve And as they were reclining at the table and eating, jesus said Truly I say to you, one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me.

They began to be sorrowful and to say to him, one after another is it I?

Isn't that interesting?

They said, is it I?

They didn't say who is it.

But they looked inward and said is it I?

I think that's a right response.

He said to them verse 20, it is one of the twelve one who is dipping bread into the dish with me, for the Son of Man goes as it is written.

But woe to the man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed.

It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.

Guess who heard those words?

Judas a scarlet.

And guess what he had just finished doing?

Talking to the priests above betraying Jesus.

Wow.

And yet he still went through.

It Isn't that interesting.

You see, looking at this from Jesus' perspective, jesus knew the magnitude of this night.

He knew the magnitude of it.

He understand that this betrayal had to happen in order for the plan of God that was put in place from the foundations of the earth, for this plan of God to be fulfilled.

This had to happen.

You know, in the passages that we will read this morning, jesus often refers to the fact that this event was happening to fulfill Scripture.

In fact, if you read John Mark 14 and 15, just look at how many times Jesus mentions Scripture.

And in Zechariah, 11, 12 through 13, there's a prophecy that Zechariah had about the shepherd being basically betrayed for guess how much money?

30 pieces of silver, see.

I can't understand, by the way, how people think Jesus and the whole story of Jesus was all fabricated.

How can you do that?

The Dead Sea Scrolls the significance of that.

they found a scroll of the entire book of Isaiah.

They found a scroll of the entire book of Isaiah, pre-jesus right, and it has those chapters that talk so clearly about what happened to Jesus.

You can't manufacture this, but he knew that this was supposed to happen.

It had to happen.

If Judas doesn't betray Jesus, he can't be arrested.

Taken before Pilate, sentenced to death, hung on a cross, died, put in a tomb and raised on the third day.

That can't happen.

If this doesn't happen And it's interesting in the account of this, the time in the room during the Passover, in the account in John 13, 27, it states that Jesus said to Judas directly what you are going to do, do quickly, Whoa.

He actually sends Judas to betray him.

I never really thought about that until I started going through this.

He actually sent him And, by the way it said, the other disciples kind of thought well, maybe he was telling him to go get more food or to give money to the poor.

But no, he was literally sending his betrayer.

You know, at this time it was theoretically in Jesus' control to stop Judas.

You ever thought about that?

We got Peter over here with a sword and he likes to use it.

Can you imagine if Jesus said one of you will betray me, and it's the third one on the left And Judas stands up and Peter goes not on my watch And listen 11 guys would have been on him like smack on rice.

He had been done right.

It was in Jesus' hands to save himself.

And I know you might say well, scott, that wasn't going to happen.

I know it wasn't going to happen.

You want to know why it wasn't going to happen?

Because Jesus Christ was perfectly submitted to the Father.

But he had that decision to make and he literally didn't sit there and wait for Judas to leave.

He literally sent him.

That's the first submission of Jesus to the Father.

Second one is yielding to the Father's will in the garden.

We're going to pick it up in verse 32 of Mark 14.

And they went to a place called Gethsemane and he said to his disciples sit here while I pray.

And he took with him Peter and James and John and began to be greatly distressed and troubled.

And he said to them my soul is very sorrowful, even to death.

Remain here and watch.

And going a little further, he fell on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him.

And he said Abba, father, all things are possible for you.

Love this cup for me, not what I will, but what you will.

And he came and found them sleeping.

He said to Peter Simon, are you asleep?

Could you not watch for one hour?

Watch and pray that you will not enter into temptation.

The spirit, indeed, is willing, but the flesh is weak.

And again he went away and he prayed, saying the same words.

You know, matthew's account is similar, but he carries a couple of details not recorded in Mark that I really want to bring out.

And this is important.

In Matthew 26, 39, it says and going a little further, he fell on his face and prayed, saying my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me, nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.

And then he comes back to the disciples, finds them sleeping.

He says to Peter so could you not watch with me for one hour?

Watch and pray that you do not enter into temptation.

The spirit, indeed, is willing, but the flesh is weak.

Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed my Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.

Now let me just say that there's no other section of scripture that gives us a more intimate view into Jesus than this account in the Gospels.

In these few verses, we're given a brief but clear glimpse into Jesus as fully God and fully man.

Just think about it.

Fully God and fully man.

Fully God.

Well, he was about to take the cup of wrath that was due us.

He was about to walk directly into his death.

Fully man, he was acutely aware of what he was going to suffer.

He knew what was ahead of him.

He had seen people crucified, he knew the power of those that hated him and he knew what they could do to him, and it brought upon him great distress and agony.

There are some that believe Jesus was experiencing a moment of weakness and doubt.

These people claim that his appeal to God, the Father, to have this cup passed was a clear example that there was a chance that maybe he wasn't going to do it.

I mean, look at how he was struggling here.

I tell you with all the authority of scripture there's no evidence of that whatsoever, no evidence.

You see, jesus never sinned, did he?

If he had sinned because you could make a case that doubt is sin then he wouldn't have been the perfect lamb.

He didn't sin.

The reality is the planet's salvation was never in jeopardy.

Jesus clearly knew what was ahead of him long before the garden, in fact even in his ministry.

If you go back a few chapters in the Mark 8, he actually tells the disciples what's going to happen to him, clearly in Mark 8, 31.

And he began to teach them that the Son of man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed and after three days raised again.

If he knew that was going to happen, then does it really make sense that he was trying to circumvent God's plan?

That's not what he was doing, brethren.

I believe what these scriptures are showing is the very transparent view into the emotional and mental suffering that Jesus had to go through in order to pay that price for our sins.

He first went through tremendous emotional and mental suffering before he endured the physical suffering of the cross and everything leading up to it.

You know, in Isaiah we read that he's called a man of sorrow.

A man of sorrow, our victorious Savior, is called a man of sorrow.

He experienced that sorrow And when we read in Hebrews that we have a high priest that empathizes with us, that can relate to us.

He went through stuff that we've never gone through And I love what the writer of Hebrews says in Hebrews 5, 7 through 9.

In the days of his flesh, jesus offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to him, who was able to save him from death.

And he was heard because of his reverence.

Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered And being made perfect.

He became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.

He learned obedience by placing himself under, by submitting to the will of God.

That's what he did And, by the way, god heard his prayer.

You want to know why?

Why did he?

How do you even know that?

Well, in Luke 22,.

In that same account, in verse 43, and there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him and being in agony.

He prayed more earnestly and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling to the ground.

See, god heard his son.

If you've ever seen your child in pain, it's the most difficult thing to endure.

Some of you have endured that way more than a lot of us have.

But as parents, we've all seen our children in pain before.

Can you imagine God the Father sending his son, knowing and hearing his cries and his pain?

Imagine what God the Father thought, because their relationship is astronomically closer than anything we can even have in our life today.

He sent a ministering angel to strengthen Jesus.

That's how much you love to son.

But what's amazing about this is in every gospel account of this prayer in the garden, we read these words in a little bit different format, but all saying the same thing.

Yet not what I will, but what you will, what you will.

This amazing prayer in the garden is the second example of Jesus willingly submitting to the Lord and giving us the most intimate view into what that must have been like.

Submission number three was allowing himself to be arrested, and we're going to pick up in Mark 14, 43.

And immediately, while he was still speaking, judas came, one of the 12, and with him a crowd with swords and clubs from the chief priests and the scribes and the elders.

Now the betrayer had given them a sign saying the one I will kiss is the man.

Sees him and lead him away under guard.

I'm just going to stop right here.

What, in the wide world of sports, was Judas telling the chief priests what to do?

You ever thought about that?

I never really thought about that.

He's literally saying and, by the way, when I kiss him, make sure you arrest him and take him away.

What a coward, what a cowardly thing to do.

Think about it.

It's like he was literally saying make sure you arrest him because I don't want to hang around, because I've seen him do some things.

I just thought it was such a cowardly thing.

And when he came, he went up to him at once and said rabbi, and he kissed him.

So he gave them even another thing.

I'm going to kiss the guy now.

I'm going to identify him as rabbi.

And they laid hands on him and seized him, but one of those who stood by drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear.

Thank you, peter.

Jesus said to them have you come out as against a robber with swords and clubs to capture me Day after day.

I was with you in the temple teaching and you did not cease me.

But let the scriptures be fulfilled.

And they all left him and fled.

Even one guy didn't have any clothes on.

I want to read Matthew's account of the rest, because Matthew also had something in there that I think is interesting.

So Jesus is arrested Matthew 26, 51 through 54.

And behold, one of those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest, cut off his ear.

And Jesus said to him put your sword back in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.

And listen what it says on verse 53.

Do you think that I cannot appeal to my father and he will at once send me more than 12 legions of angels?

But how then, should the scriptures be fulfilled?

that it must be so.

You know, one of the accounts says that they all fell down in front of Jesus.

They were knocked down right.

That was a perfect time for Jesus just to book it on out of there.

They could have left.

He says clearly if I wanted to, i could request God, send me down 12 legions of angels.

Now, i don't know about you, but I wouldn't want to mess with one.

I wouldn't want to mess with the smallest of the angels, but he's going to send 12 of these angels.

If he called 12 legions of these angels, he said all I have to do is say the word.

Now, i'm just telling you Jesus wasn't a liar, because he was a perfect Lamb of God.

So that must mean, if he said it, he could have done it right.

He could have done that.

However, as with his entire life, he submitted to the plan of God.

He had a moment, another moment, another decision moment, another moment of submitting to God, because he could have at that point in time, said this is my chance.

But you know what's more, really more interesting than all that is God, the Father, knew that that request was never going to come to him.

You see, if you understand the sovereignty of God and the sovereignty of his plan and the assuredness of your salvation and my salvation and the plan that God put together, then you know that Jesus was never going to ask that request of the Father.

He just said if I wanted to, he would.

That's a powerful brethren.

You know what that is, what that tells me.

That tells me that God so loved the world that he sent his son.

And, by the way, that plan was never in jeopardy, even for one iota of a second.

Never was in jeopardy.

Jesus submitted beautifully in the arrest.

Submission four is refusing to defend himself in front of Pilate.

The fourth example is found in Matthew or, excuse me, mark 15.

We're going to read the first five verses of this account.

And as soon as it was morning, the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council, and they bound Jesus and led him away and delivered him over to Pilate.

And Pilate asked him are you the king of the Jews?

And he answered him you have said so.

And the chief priests accused him of many things.

And Pilate again asked him have you no answer to make?

See how many charges they bring against you.

But Jesus made no further answer, so that Pilate was amazed.

This is some cool stuff here.

I don't want us to miss Guys.

First off, this was Jesus's last chance.

You realize this is his last chance.

Pilate had a job.

Pilate's job was to make rulings like this on all kinds of matter.

His prisons were full of people that he had condemned either to prison or, of course, they were sentenced to death.

Whatever Pilate's job to rule that whole area was to make these decisions.

He was the judge, the judge, jury and executioner, as they like to say.

He was the trio.

Right?

How many Jews must have been brought before him, begging for their lives?

Think about it.

That's what he was used to.

He was used to people being brought in and begging for their lives.

And then there's Jesus And you've got all these priests and everything.

And they're just throwing accusation after accusation after accusation.

And we know from other accounts that they literally paid people to come in and be false witnesses against Jesus.

Right, we see that.

And he stands there and he realizes that Pilate, pilate can stop the whole thing.

He can tell the chief priests and everything nope, not this guy, not this guy, but he doesn't.

Now, in other accounts, there's more discourse there, but Jesus never tries to manipulate Pilate.

He never tries to stop the beautiful plan of God, the beautiful and terrible events that were going to happen, that brought you and I salvation.

He humbly submitted to God in that sovereign plan.

Yet again, and at this point in time, once Pilate condemned him, it was all out of his hands And he willingly began to follow along the whole pattern of the rest of his walk.

Now, let's look at this from a pragmatic standpoint.

What can we learn from this?

What can you and I learn from this?

Because we were just told in Philippians that we were supposed to have the mind of Christ with regards to this right.

So what can we learn?

Well, there are three simple truths that I think we can learn from how Jesus submitted to God, the Father, during these things, and the first one means submitting to Jesus means we deny ourselves.

And you might be sitting there going okay, scott, here we go.

You're going to tell me to watch less TV, less movies, and you're going to tell me to tithe more, and you're going to give me a list.

I'm not going to give you a list.

You see, denying ourselves is something that's really misunderstood in the church today.

I believe We never see Jesus doing anything for his self-clarification.

He truly and perfectly denied himself.

Now, in Matthew 16, verse 24 through 27,.

Matthew 16:24–27

This is the verse we always talk about when it comes to the term deny yourself, because Jesus is telling his disciples to do this.

So let's look at it Matthew 16, verse 24,.

Matthew 16:24

And Jesus told his disciples.

If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me, for whoever would save his life will lose it.

For whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?

or what shall a man give in return for his soul?

The answer is nothing, for the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done.

Now, what does it mean to deny himself?

Well, we often think again to deny worldly pleasures or something like that.

But the Greek word for deny is apartoneo or partoneo mai.

I even spelled it out apartoneo mai, i'm not going to ask you to say it.

Apartoneo mai.

Now it does mean the classic term that we would think to deny right, which encompasses, like denying a statement of truth or intentionally disassociating yourself from a specific relationship with another person.

Think Peter after the arrest, right?

Jesus predicted that he would deny him.

That Peter would deny Jesus three times before the rooster crows.

And he did.

He denied it, meaning Peter said I don't know him.

He denied the relationship even existed, right.

But there's a little bit more, when it comes to denying ourselves, that we have to think about.

In an article in Christianity Today I found it was the article entitled What Does It Mean to Deny Yourself and Take Up Your Cross, by a woman named Christy Gamberle.

She said this and I thought it was really well put.

She said self-denial, then, and she was speaking in context of this passage that we just read.

Self-denial, then, is intentional disowning of the self or stepping away from relationship with the self as primary.

Stepping away from relationship with the self as primary.

Jesus is not making a statement about whether the self is bad, but about who we are most closely associated with.

Who is our primary allegiance to him or ourselves?

And see, when you think about that and I thought it was well put, because what it's basically saying is okay, denying myself is not so much denying certain things that I may want, it's actually denying my whole self, my whole self.

Can anybody guess how much God wants from us when we become Christians?

What percentage Am I going to get?

a percentage, that's right.

That's 100%.

You guys all passed the test.

It's a very simple answer, isn't it?

He wants everything.

He wants everything.

And it's interesting because when you think about denying yourself, these are your priorities, these are God's priorities, jesus' priorities.

He wants this to happen.

He wants you to flip it.

See, most people in the world, they have their priorities on the top, and even a lot of people who are Christians.

They will kind of operate down here Any time there's a clash between their principles of priorities I should say priorities and God's, a lot of times, theirs are going to take over them and become at the top.

And, by the way, what are Jesus' priorities?

you might say Well, scott, if you're going to tell me that I need to have Jesus' priorities, what are they?

I bet, if I, just if you thought about it, it would come to you.

It's pretty simple, because he tells you what the great commandant is right Love God with all your heart, mind and soul and love your neighbor as yourself.

That's big, by the way, that's really big, but that's his priorities.

And it's interesting that when we think about that, if you are more bent towards legalism, your first thought would be well, let's see, how do I need to do that?

How am I supposed to do that?

Well, i can tell you, as someone who's tried to do that, you will fail miserably.

You might succeed for a while, but you will fail Because our actions come from our hearts and it comes from what's in here.

It all starts with a genuine relationship with Jesus Christ.

That's where it starts.

When you have that genuine relationship, it can't help but come out and your priorities start to do this.

God's priorities come to the top, because as you become subjected to Jesus and as you become more like Jesus guess what?

You start to look like him, right.

That's why when people look at the prayer and say, well, it says that anything you pray in my name, you can have.

No, i don't think that's what it says, at least not what you think it says.

The reality is, as we become more like Jesus, when we pray, our prayers are the same prayers that Jesus prayed.

Right, that's the same heart that he has, and that's what it means to flip that upside down.

When we are experiencing the presence and power that comes from a relationship with Jesus Christ, his priorities become ours, and what you will find is forget the whole thing of focusing on the self.

The self starts to disappear.

That's brilliant, that's good.

When you start thinking that way, i had someone tell me one time he said you know I'll get it right eventually, but I just wish my first response was the right response.

I wish my first response when somebody cuts me off and almost runs me in the dish is Jesus, please help that person to learn to drive.

Or when my kid we won't go there, it's Father's Day.

But here's the wonderful thing about it Every once in a while, or as time goes on, if you're submitting to God, suddenly one day you're going to go wait a second.

My first response was what Jesus would have done.

Whoa, where'd that come from?

I tell you where it came from.

It came from a relationship And it came through the sanctification process that God's taken you through.

That's the way it's supposed to be.

So you need to flip that around.

Jesus' priority.

By the way, share the gospel with people.

Okay, if you're moved by the gospel, you'll want to share it.

Right.

If you understand how much Jesus did to serve you, you will serve others, even when it's not convenient.

That's hard, by the way, you got your schedule and somebody calls and I need this hide-a-bit moved, not a hide-a-bit.

Serving sacrificially, extending love to somebody, extending forgiveness to somebody who doesn't deserve it All those things come from a change inside of you, and that's why you have to have their relationship, to have your priorities right.

No shortcuts y'all.

Secondly, submitting to Jesus means we become his bond servants, his slaves.

Now this is somewhat similar to the priorities, but it's got a little bit of different nuance.

The apostle Paul understood the concept of becoming a slave to Jesus Christ And many times in a lot of his salutations in the start of his epistles, he will say Paul, a bond servant of Jesus Christ.

That carried a lot of weight, by the way, because in that society there were bond servants right.

And when he said I'm a bond servant of Jesus Christ, that told those people who read that a lot.

In Romans 6, verse 16, he says Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death that's this side or of obedience, that leads to righteousness that's this side.

Romans 6:16

That's it.

It clears that.

And let me tell you something The lie of Satan is that you don't have to serve God, you get to serve yourself.

It's the greatest lie.

It's been there since the beginning.

You think about what took Lucifer, what took him down.

What's the typical thing?

we say that.

How did Lucifer the great archangels?

how did he?

how was he brought down?

What's the one word we think of?

Pride, absolutely pride.

You know what pride does.

Pride places you on the top.

Show me a proudful person who's submitting to somebody or wants to submit to somebody.

Pride Lucifer said I want to be like God, and that didn't work out well for him.

So now we go to the garden and here's Eve.

What lie did he tell Eve?

The same one, the same one In Genesis 3.5.

He says he's telling Eden this, or, excuse me, eve, in Eden, he's saying this, for God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.

You don't have to submit to God anymore.

Isn't that great?

It's the same lie, guys.

It's the same lie.

It's the same lie that he used on Jesus in the great temptation in the wilderness, wasn't it?

What did he say to him?

Matthew 4, 8 through 10?

.

He tells Jesus you can have all these kingdoms.

You just got about to me, guys.

It's the same lie.

I don't know why Satan's using the same lie on all of us today.

Because it works.

Because it works.

This attitude has pervaded the church, unfortunately.

We don't want to submit to anybody.

And again, the lie is this I'm not going to submit to God, i'm going to submit to myself, y'all.

It doesn't work that way.

You serve one or you serve the other.

You might think you're serving yourself, but you're not.

Each of us has to determine who we're going to follow, because there is no middle ground.

Finally, submitting to Jesus means we submit to each other.

Okay, i'm going to step on some toes.

Hang on, you know, all through the New Testament we see the words submit in many different contexts.

In Ephesians 5, 18 through 21, we learn that we're supposed to submit to each other within the body of Christ.

I'm going to read it all.

I'm going to start in verse 18 because it's interesting.

You got to know the context going into this.

Ephesians 5, verse 18,.

Ephesians 5:18

And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with a spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart Beautiful imagery here Saying thanks always for everything to God, the Father, in the name of the Lord, jesus Christ.

Whoo, this is beautiful.

This is beautiful stuff.

Submitting to one another.

What, out of reverence for Christ.

When we submit to one another, you realize we give reverence to Christ.

Wow, what does it mean to submit to one another?

Well, how did Jesus submit to the Father?

You know, when you have a church and our church is beautiful about this, by the way when you have a church that just tries to out-serve each other, wow, good things can happen.

When you have a church that tries to serve the community, good things can happen.

We are literally reflecting Jesus as we submit to one another.

It's a beautiful thing.

It's beautiful, but we have to submit to one another.

But we don't want to do that.

A lot of times We fight against that.

We don't want anybody telling us who to submit to.

And, by the way, if you step on my toes, i got a big boot, i'm going to step on yours too.

And unfortunately, that comes into the body of Christ.

Sometimes The submission involves showing love to one another, forgiving one another, serving one another, putting others' interests before your own.

That's what submission looks like.

Wives submitting to their husbands.

This word submit is used specifically in this case too, in Ephesians 5, 22-24.

Wives submit to your own husbands.

As to the Lord, for the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.

Now, as the church submits to Christ, so also wife should submit to everybody, or to everything, in everything, to their husbands.

And, by the way, we understand that this submission is willingly, a wife willingly putting herself under her husband.

And it's interesting how, in our if I were to stand up in a lot of places and say that, ooh, that's not going to go over.

Well, because they don't understand the word submit.

They don't understand the word submit.

It's a willingly doing that.

And I can tell you from the great marriages that I know inside of this body, where you have this, you have this, a woman willingly submitting to her husband.

I can tell you, go talk to those wives.

Do they feel oppressed?

No, they are loved dearly.

And I just want to say something.

It's going to be a little bit of a corrective nature, but we read that the Bible is.

The words of the Bible are used for correction and should be used for reproof.

Men, do you want your wives to operate as a godly woman would be Maybe.

You need to submit to God, because if you submit to God, your wife will find it a lot easier to submit to you.

I learned that lesson.

By the way, i thought it was a pretty good husband until I realized that I needed to submit to God, the Father, and you can talk to my wife, it changed.

And so often she will tell me she'll say I'm so glad that you're submitted to God.

By the way, i'm not a perfect husband.

I'm just telling you that the more I submit to God, the easier it is for my wife to submit to me in again, a godly submission.

And men, i hope you hear that, because it's unfortunate that I hear women who want their husbands.

They want to submit to their husbands, that their husbands aren't submitted to the Lord and it makes it so much more difficult, so much more difficult.

And, by the way, husbands are to submit to Jesus Christ and we're to love our wives as Christ loved the church.

The next two verses talk about husbands loving your wives as Christ loved the church and He gave Himself up for it.

To give yourself up for somebody, you have to change your priorities, you have to place yourself under and submit.

And, by the way, christians are also called to submit to ruling authorities.

Romans 13, verse one let every person be subject to the governing authorities, for there's no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.

This is a hard thing to do.

It's a hard thing to do And, by the way, just to clarify, i don't think I should have to do this, but I will.

It doesn't mean that if the ruling authorities tell you to worship a golden calf, that you should do it.

If someone comes up to us and says you need to stop serving Jesus, you need to stop worshiping Jesus, i'm going to say well, what cell is mine?

I have to, and I don't have to.

I want to because this life is like that, eternity is like, so obviously you don't have to submit to that.

But at the same time, we find that it's easy to get on the YouTube and watch these guys railing against and everything and everything, and it's easy to start mocking And I'm guilty that at times and I repent of that mocking people that rule over us.

If they're there, then God put them there.

If you don't like your mayor, pray about it.

If you don't like your senator, pray about it.

Pray for them.

There's a challenge for you.

Pray for them And finally submitting to church government.

Hebrews 13, 17 says obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account.

Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.

You know you might sit there and say, oh great, now Scott's gonna talk about doing everything the elders said to do.

No, it's not what I'm gonna say.

Elders are human.

We make mistakes.

But I will tell you that one of the one of the saddest things that I've ever experienced in my 15 plus years of ministry is someone who loves you and they support you and they're there for you and they and all that stuff.

You guys are great, you're wonderful.

And then suddenly, when there's a correction and a moment of correction it doesn't happen very often, but when there's a moment of correction, suddenly I'm not hearing that You're wrong.

I don't want to be a part of that And I realize it's hard.

Nobody likes to be corrected.

I don't like to be corrected.

But, brethren, if we don't, if we don't do that when we're called to do that, then we're not good shepherds And again we're perfect.

But humility and submission it doesn't mean yet, by the way, a lot of church leaders take that way to an extreme.

That's where cults come from.

Been there, done that, got a couple of t-shirts actually Don't fit anymore, but I got some t-shirts.

That's not what we're talking about And, as it says here, they watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account.

I have to give an account for every interaction I have with all of you.

You don't think that scares me.

You don't think that makes me think once or twice about what my motives are.

I'm constantly asking God to lead and guide me.

So, my friends, jesus, in conclusion, say Jesus said before us an example of total submission to God.

Even in the most difficult part and time of his existence on this earth, four times he could have avoided the path to the cross and four times he chose to submit to the plan of God and thereby submitting to God.

And it was a beautiful thing.

And so I got a challenge for us.

I'm going to start with those people that are not saved.

Those people have not made this choice to submit to God.

I'm going to remind you you can submit to God or you can submit to Satan.

You might think you're submitting to your own self, but you're not.

It's that clear.

The Scripture tells us.

It's that clear, and if you're honest with yourself, you'd probably say, yeah, i think that's probably true, and I can tell you that submission to God is not a burden.

Now I'm not going to tell you that it's all going to be cookies and milk.

It's not.

You will never hear from this pulpit that Jesus just wants to give you everything.

What car you want, just write it down in your prayer book and you can just pray that and you'll get that car.

I can tell you one thing, though I don't get happiness from Jesus.

I get joy from Jesus, and I get a contentment in my soul that every morning I get to wake up and I get to rehearse the plan of salvation And I get to say thank you, lord, for doing something I could have never done myself.

You sent your son that I could be adopted.

You realize your sons and daughters of God, the Father himself, want to create everything He wanted.

You And for those that are not saved.

I'm just asking you to listen to the Holy Spirit And if you want to know what that means just said, are you feeling the tug?

Are you feeling the tug in your heart?

Are you realizing and being convicted that wait a second what that guy's saying might be true?

You go home and pray about that.

He'll show it to you And for all of us that are saved those of the rest of us that are saved can we honestly look at the mirror and say we have truly denied ourselves fully?

I would tell you that the walk of the Christian is a progressive walk of being revealed things, submitting them to God, moving forward.

Being revealed things, submitting them to God and going forward.

You and I should be so thankful that the moment that God opened our eyes to know him that he didn't say, scott, here's all your sins, you'd be reaching for the first gun you could because you're like it would overwhelm us.

He doesn't do that And, by the way, neither should we.

You know, i'll look at Derek and say Derek, there's some things you don't see yet.

I'm going to talk to you about that.

Oh God's, you know God's walking us through all this thing.

He doesn't do that to me either.

Thank God, and thank you for not doing it to me.

It's progressive, but do you have the courage to get on your knees and say, god, show me where I'm not submitting to you.

I love that.

Brooke talked about addiction.

Yeah, it's real.

If I think of, we're honest, we're all struggling with something.

God wants us to give those over to him.

So I'm just going to encourage you all, in the next few days or weeks going forward, that you consistently get on your knees and say God, i surrender all.

Please show me what I haven't surrendered, what I don't see that I need to surrender, And I can guarantee you he will offer that.

He will offer that We're going to have the prayer team up front when we end.

If you want to come and be prayed for for anything, by the way, you can pray for anything.

We would love to pray for you, and I just want to conclude with just telling you all that we love you and we're so blessed This church is so blessed.

Continue to pray for Tyler, as he's gone.

We're going to be praying for Mark here at the end.

If you want to come up and pray for Mark as well as he takes off, i think it's next week, tomorrow It's, it's right at next week.

So, so what, we all stand, let's pray.

Father, what a humbling thing it is to know that you have through your sovereign plan, that you have literally captured these beautiful moments in Mark 14 and 15 that we can learn about how your son submitted to you Jesus.

It humbles us just even be in the presence of these scriptures And I just pray that, in like the words in Philippians said, that we would have that same mind in us, that we have that same heart in us, that, jesus, you have, that we submit to one another, we submit, most importantly, to you.

Only through your spirit can we do this.

Lord, stir your spirit up in each one of us so that we would be sons and daughters that submit fully and completely to you.

And I pray for those who don't know you yet.

I pray, god, that you would.

You would just stir their hearts.

Show them if this is truth, lord.

Show them it is truth.

However, you want to do that and, father, bring many sons and daughters to your glory, and we pray for this and we thank you for it all in Jesus' name, amen.