You have your Bibles with you this morning. I invite you and encourage you to open and turn with me in the Gospel of Mark. We come this morning to Mark chapter 10. We will read verses 32 through 45. Our sermon will focus more particularly just upon the little short dialogue between James and John and Jesus. So there's far more in these verses than we have opportunity to cover this morning, but we will read verses 32 through 45. I remind you that we have the opportunity now to hear the word of the living God, and therefore it demands our faith and our diligence and our attention. Mark chapter 10, verses 32 through 45. Please hear the word of our God this morning. And they were on the road going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them. And they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. And taking the twelve again, he began to tell them what was to happen to him, saying, See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles. And they will mock him and spit on him and flog him and kill him. And after three days, he will rise. 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 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. And 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 10 heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John. And Jesus called them to him and 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." Thus far the reading of the Lord's Word. May He bless it to us. Please join me again in prayer. Our great God, how we thank you for your word, and that it is through your word that you continue to speak to us. And yet we confess that apart from the work of the Spirit in our minds and our hearts to illuminate and to enlighten us into the meaning of the scriptures, that the glory of Christ would remain veiled to us, that the God of this world would seek to darken our minds and our understanding. And so we pray that as we come to this painful mercy this morning, that you would indeed help not only our heads to understand these truths, but that you might grant that our hearts might embrace them as well, that we would see the great glory for which we are destined, and therefore we in this day and age would gladly take up the cup of suffering and the baptism of death in order that we might be conformed not only into the death of Jesus Christ, but also into his life. Grant us your spirit in this time, we plead, and we earnestly implore you. We ask this for the sake of Jesus. Amen. The well-known Bishop J.C. Ryle once very rightly and helpfully noted that there is nothing so mischievous as the habit of indulging in false expectations. And I'm assuming that many of us know this, not just cognitively, but by experience. That there have been times in our lives where we have expected something to happen or to come about, and yet when reality strikes, we see that our expectations were very ill-informed. I have heard that this is the common course of many people, perhaps experienced by myself as well when it comes to marriage. The two young lovebirds as they come together to say, I do, that they think their marriage is going to be filled with strawberries and rainbows and roses. And yet how quickly those expectations are dashed by a dose of reality when we realize that we've married a sinner and that we're a sinner and that these things just don't typically jive the way that they're supposed to. I remember talking to my brother once, and he reminded me of a great expectation that he had, that he and his college youth and his zeal decided to sign up for the Air Force. And as he had talked with recruiters, they had told him, you're going to be part of the greatest Air Force that the world has ever seen. And he went in with all these hopes and all these expectations of grandeur. And he said, I spent most of my time in the service sweeping floors and mopping floors. And he said, it didn't feel like the glorious thing that I had expected. Many of us, in all sorts of different ways, have had these false expectations. We have indulged in them. We have entertained them. And how difficult it can be when these wrong expectations are shown to be wrong. Now, most of the time in the course of our lives, when these expectations are dashed to pieces, often there's very little consequence that comes with it. We might think of ourselves as a little foolish. We might have been a little embarrassed that we had thought that it was going to work out this way, and it didn't. At other times, you might just feel that letdown and almost that sense of heaviness or depression. Sometimes we could feel like we just got punched in the gut. Thinking that this isn't the way that life was supposed to be, this isn't what was supposed to be the result of this. But there are also other times when false expectations become a matter of life and death itself. when the consequences of having false expectations, that when that's revealed, that it costs greatly, that it can cost us our very lives. And when it comes to expectations in the life of faith and what it means to be a Christian, We ought to remember that faith can only properly and rightly flourish where we have right expectations. That is, that wrong expectations cannot foster, they cannot flourish faith, but that the consequences of wrong expectations and the life of faith is detrimental to our well-being. As we come to this particular scene in Jesus' life, we come, as Jesus comes, to correct His misinformed disciples. That James and John here, undoubtedly with at least good intentions or good motives, they come before Jesus and they come with these false expectations. And we see that Jesus does the difficult work of correcting them, of giving them a healthy dose of reality in order that their faith might undoubtedly flourish. As we've been going through this little mini-series that we're doing, we're seeing how Christ's heart of mercy is opened up to His disciples, how His heart of mercy is opened to His people. And at first glance, we might look at a scene like this and we might think, well, what is so merciful about this? This doesn't seem to be mercy. And yet we do well to remember that as Christ comes and He sets the expectations of James and John, indeed our expectations rightly, that this is a mercy. And as we will see this morning, that it is a painful mercy, but that it is a mercy that is intended for the well-being of our faith and of our perseverance. So as we come to just consider these verses this morning, and again, as I noted, there's more here than we can cover. We want to simply turn our attention to the conversation that Jesus has with James and John. And as we do so, we want to look at two very simple points, and that is an expectation of glory and the expectation of suffering. So I want to look at those two points this morning as we deal with this brief conversation between Jesus and two of his preeminent disciples. As we come into this particular scene, we note there in verses 32-34 that Jesus at this point in His ministry, He has turned to head to Jerusalem. And Jesus knows what awaits for Him there in Jerusalem. And if you have your ESV Bibles, you actually note here that the subtitle is that Jesus foretells his death a third time. All right? All of the synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke record this. They all note that at least three times in the course of his earthly ministry, and chiefly as Jesus was on the road to Jerusalem for the last time, that three different times Jesus paused to instruct his disciples about what was awaiting him when he got to Jerusalem. That Jesus understood that this was, in some regards, a fateful journey, that this would end in immense suffering and pain and death for himself. But that he also promised his disciples at this time that after three days that he indeed would rise again. And as Jesus foretells his death for the third time on the road to Jerusalem, we see that James and John are introduced here in verse 35, as they eagerly come before Jesus and they make a very bold request to him. Now, if you compare the account of Mark with Matthew, you note that in Matthew, that Matthew tells us it was actually the mother of James and John that came and made this request. And Mark tells us that it was James and John themselves, right? Just a brief note, this isn't a contradiction in the scriptures, but rather what is clear is that James and John had incited their mother to go and to make this request before Jesus. Mark doesn't include that detail in here, and we note both in Matthew and Mark that Jesus doesn't respond to their mother, but that he deals directly with James and John. And so James and John come here, and in order to understand what they are expecting in the life of faith and in their Christian walk here, It's best to see this against the backdrop of the gross misunderstanding that they reveal in their words of this request, both concerning Jesus and of the life of faith. So these two disciples, they come up to Jesus and they make this request. They come to Jesus and they say, Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you. Even as we just think of verse 35, we ought to note that there isn't anything inherently sinful with what James and John have just done. We see, as a matter of fact, that James and John, that these are two disciples that have understood the teaching of Christ. They remembered that Christ had taught them even in prayer that whatever you ask for in my name, this I will do for you. And James and John come here and they do present this request with a degree of faith that they know that Jesus is approachable, that Jesus is the one that they have the liberty, the freedom, the boldness to go before him and to lay their prayer request before him. And not only that, but James and John also understand They have the liberty, they have the freedom to ask even great things of Jesus. That they can have a boldness, that they can have a confidence. That as we see this request, just in the words that are portrayed here, that undoubtedly there isn't anything blameworthy in the particular structuring of their prayer. That this is an example of faith, that this is an example of disciples who know Jesus' heart for them and His willingness and His power and His ability to grant all manner of bold requests. It's not so much in the request itself that James and John are blameworthy. Rather, what we see here is that it is in the substance of what they're requesting. And we see here that they have misunderstood a number of things. And the first thing that stands out to us that James and John have misunderstood is that they have misunderstood the situation of what exactly is transpiring as Jesus and his little ragtag band of disciples are making their way up to Jerusalem. That they have misunderstood the particular situation that they find themselves in. That's why we read verses 32 through 34. Because here, as we've already noted, Jesus is foretelling his death for the third time. But something that probably isn't as readily apparent to us in what Jesus tells his disciples here is what may have been very, very clear to them. That Jesus tells his disciples as he foretells his death here in verse 33, that he tells them, see, we are going up to Jerusalem and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes. Now that title, Son of Man, is used almost 80 different times in the Gospels, but it is only used of Jesus referring to himself. Nobody throughout the Gospels ever referred to Jesus as the Son of Man, but this was Jesus' favorite way to speak of and to refer to himself. And what might not be as clear to us as it was to the disciples is that this title, the Son of Man, had particular theological undertones to it. Some of you may know that where we first encounter this title, Son of Man, or at least most chiefly encounter it, is in the book of Daniel. In Daniel chapter 7, verses 13 through 14, That Daniel comes and as he receives this glorious revelation, that he sees the Ancient of Days, and the Ancient of Days comes, and what does he do but that Daniel says that he beheld one like the Son of Man standing before the Ancient of Days, that is the Father. and that the Father granted to the Son of Man, that it was given to the Son of Man to have dominion and to have glory and to have a kingdom of all peoples and of all nations and of all languages and that these people would serve the Son of Man. And as James and John and perhaps the other disciples heard these things, it's almost as though that's all that they heard. that the Son of Man is preparing to go to Jerusalem. And this in a way triggers this theological language that they were very familiar with, that we're not as familiar with, that it's almost as though they didn't hear anything that Jesus said after this about His sufferings and about being mocked and about being spit on. They just heard the Son of Man is going up to Jerusalem. Do you know what this means? This means that the king is coming. This means that the kingdom is coming. This means that these Roman oppressors that we have been living under, that they are about to be cast off, that Jesus is at long last coming as the Son of Man, as the glorious Christ, to establish God's kingdom on earth, to lift up the Davidic throne and to cast off all of these oppressors. that James and John as they hear of Jesus foretelling his death, that they yet didn't understand the situation and the nature of Christ's kingdom, that they were still thinking in physical terms. We see this even clearly in the book of Acts, that even after Jesus' resurrection from the dead, disciples still haven't grasped this. Even as they ask in Acts chapter 1, is now the time that you are going to restore the kingdoms and the fortunes of Israel? These disciples, James and John, as they hear the sad account of Jesus telling them that undoubtedly he is going to die, they're a bit wild-eyed. They can't even hear of the suffering that Jesus is about to endure. They can't even apprehend the situation of what is transpiring before them. And so we see that as they come before Jesus, that they approach Him with some eagerness, with some anticipation, that they come here, that they approach Him, and that it is out of this understanding that they make this bold request. But you note more particularly what it is that they do request of Jesus. And here again we see yet another misunderstanding. in their minds. As they come to Jesus and they say, teacher, we want you to do for us whatever it is that we ask of you. And Jesus tenderly responds to in verse 36. He says, well, what do you want me to do for you? And James and John, now having the opportunity to lay the specific request before Jesus, they state here in verse 37, grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory. You see what it is so plainly and simply what James and John are wanting to do. They want to secure for themselves a very prominent standing in Jesus' kingdom. They believe that this is the time when the nation of Israel is going to be gathered together, that this is the time when the physical kingdom is going to be re-established on the earth, that this is the time that Jesus is going to come to receive this dominion and this authority all the peoples of the world and the nations and the tongues are going to bow before Him and serve Him. And James and John, it's almost as though they're kind of nudging each other and going, this is our time to shine. This is the guy that we've followed with. This is the guy that we have journeyed with in the course of the last almost three and a half years. This is the one who has just promised us just a little bit ago. that nobody who has left father or mother for my sake will not receive a hundredfold both in this life and the life that is to come. And James and John find this is an opportunity to try and secure this prominent standing in this glorious physical kingdom that they just believe Jesus is coming to set up. That Jesus himself had even promised his disciples When he did establish his kingdom that they would sit on the twelve thrones and they would judge the nations as we have in the account of Matthew chapter 19 verse 28 right before Matthew records this scene himself. James and John come here and they think now is the time when Jesus can fulfill these promises. Now is the time for us to have this prominent place of standing. Now Jesus can do what he has told us he is going to do. And so they say, allow us one to sit on your left hand, one to sit on your right hand. both places of prominence, both a seat or a standing of preeminence amongst and above everybody else. So they believed, they expected. That as Jesus would come into Jerusalem, that they would be heralded as co-reigners beside Christ in this kingdom that he was coming to establish. And so we see that they misunderstand their standing, that they want prestige, that they want this place of honor. And then you note that as they ask this request, that Jesus actually poses a question to them that is meant to humble them. And he doesn't outright come out and say, nope, not a chance, or you guys are being foolish here. But Jesus, as he so often does, responds with a question in order that James and John might search their own hearts and their intentions. And we read that 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? Now this question was undoubtedly intended by Jesus to humble them. And he uses this imagery both of the cup and of the baptism. And now commentators differ onto some of the particulars of interpreting this and why is it that Jesus refers to a cup and to a baptism. I think one of the clearest ways to understand this is on the backdrop of the Old Testament and how were cup language and how were baptism or water language often used in the Old Testament. And it was often used to imply or to refer to immense and intense and individual suffering. You think of the cup, that we don't actually need to consider this even in light of the Old Testament, but you think of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. What does He plead with His Father? He says, take this cup from me. That the Lord's wrath, that the Lord's anger, Pain and suffering was often symbolized through the drinking of a cup, both in the Old Testament and the New Testament and extra biblical Jewish sources. Similarly, throughout the Old Testament, we see that waters are often symbolizing immense and intense and individual suffering. You think of the psalmist as he often takes up his lament and he cries out that the waters are rushing over me, that I'm consumed in these floods. So what Jesus is asking James and John here is he is saying, are you able to endure an immense amount of suffering? Can you drink from this cup of pain and agony? Can you be baptized with this baptism that I'm about to receive? Are you able to bear your own crosses? And you see the way in which James and John respond. Mark records it here, and it's almost as though they responded very offhandedly. That in verse 39, they said, with the utmost confidence, we are able. Jesus says, are you able? And they very quickly say, we are able. That might sound like pious language to us. And it's probably one that we would want to tell Jesus if he asked us the same thing. But undoubtedly this isn't pious language, but this is the height of presumptuous language. Because if they had even begun to understand what Jesus meant by the cup and by the baptism, undoubtedly they wouldn't have come and implored and prayed to Jesus that they might have this prominent standing in this physical kingdom that they think he's about to establish. Rather, they would have fallen on their faces, and they would have pled with Christ, not for a prominent position in the kingdom, but for divine omnipotence to shield them. We do well to remember that Christ himself, in knowing that he must drink this cup and be baptized in this way, than the Garden of Gethsemane that even Christ had to implore his Father for peace. And that even Jesus needed to be attended by angels. And even the very thought and anticipation of enduring the sufferings and the agonies and the pains of the cross. And so James and John's words here, we are able These are not pious words, but they are presumptuous words. And they have a misunderstanding of their own strength. And you wonder, did they feel foolish that just in several days and several weeks as Jesus would go into Jerusalem and on that night that when he was betrayed, that it took nothing more than a crowd coming with clubs and swords and spears to arrest Jesus. when we read that all of Jesus' disciples forsook Him and they ran away. That even at the appearance of a mob that James and John couldn't bear even the slightest inclination of suffering. And so they forsook and they abandoned Christ in that hour when He most needed them. Indeed, we see that they have these misunderstandings. They've misunderstood the situation. and they've misunderstood their standing in the kingdom, and they've misunderstood their own strength. And what we see in their words is that this gives way, inevitably gives way, to wrong expectations. that here as they were journeying with Jesus to Jerusalem, that they expected that Christ's kingdom was going to come in great pomp and in prestige and in prominence and in power, that they expected His kingdom to come in great glory and in great might, and that they wanted to partake of that, that they wanted all the glory of it, they wanted all the fullness of it, they wanted all the honor and the prestige of it in the here and in the now. And regrettably, this is a similar expectation that so many of Christ's disciples live with, even today, and even in his churches. That we are often, just like James and John, so blind and we so misunderstand the situation and the day and age in which we live and the state and the condition of the church. This is why it is so difficult, particularly for so many of the older generation, that you are witnessing the loss of the influence of the church in America. And you want to pull your hair out and you want to say, what is happening? This was the church, not too many decades ago, to be a Christian elevated me in the status of people's eyes. It gave me a higher social status in society. It often prospered my economic well-being. The church has often been prided, even in America, as a glorious institution that has been for the backbone of the country and the morals and the ideals that we stand for here in America. And this is just wild to people. That the church shouldn't have this prominent standing, that it shouldn't stand out, that people shouldn't laud us, that they shouldn't praise us, that they shouldn't respect us. And yet so many people live with this mentality and this idea that being a Christian, that it furthers our standing in the presence of the world, that this is a respectable thing, that people ought to honor us and honor our convictions, that laws ought to always be in our favor and do what we want to because we're Christians, we're the church, we believe in absolute truth, we believe what the scriptures teach. And we think that we deserve these things. And that this is what Christ has promised. And that Christ through the American church is establishing his kingdom in the political and the civil sphere of our day and age and how often we misunderstand our own strength. And think that it lies within us to transform culture. That it lies within us for economic advancement. That it lies within us to be able to subdue the nations. peoples who are rebellious and raise their head against Christ. We so often live our Christian lives by the same presumptuous expectations that James and John exhibited here. We think that today is the day of glory. that today is the day of success, that today is the day of prosperity, that today I can rise above everyone else and be held in prominence and prestige and honor and power. Their misunderstanding led to this expectation of thinking that glory was to be had in the here and the now. And it's with this expectation of glory It's as James and John and maybe the other disciples are a little starry-eyed at the prospect of what it means to follow the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. It's as they are keeping their heads in the clouds that Jesus mercifully and He compassionately comes and He gives them a very healthy dose of reality. And he teaches them that it is not so much glory in this day and age that Christians or the church ought to expect, but that we ought to be expecting something else. Indeed, Israel reminds us how mischievous of a thing it is to indulge false expectations. And Christ will not permit his people have these wrong assumptions and these wrong expectations. And so he comes to James and John. And as he hears their presumptuous response of, of course we're able to drink the cup and the baptism with which you are about to be baptized, that Jesus now comes to them in verse 39 and he said to them, the cup that I drink you will drink. And the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized." You ought to note here in Jesus' words in verse 39 that there is a very slight difference in the way that he speaks these words than the way in which he had spoken them back in verse 38. Because in verse 38, when Jesus posed James and John with this question, Jesus spoke of the possibility of suffering. And he says, do you think you would be able to drink of this cup? And do you think you could be baptized with this baptism? And you note the slight difference is that now in verse 39, Jesus is no longer speaking of a possibility, but he's speaking of a reality. And he's promising them. And he's telling them, you will. You will drink of my cup. And you will be baptized with my baptism. And Jesus instructs James and John here, and not only them, but indeed all of his disciples, that the call of Christ in this day and age will be accompanied by intense and immense and individual suffering. That this is what it means to follow Christ, that this is what Christ has called us to. And of course, as the history of the early church plays out, we see that both James and John undoubtedly had to drink of this cup and partake of this baptism. We read in the book of Acts that as the church was being persecuted and that it was spreading that James was actually killed by Herod. We read in Acts chapters in chapter 12 verses 1 through 2 that about that time Herod the king laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church and he killed James the brother of John with the sword. You wonder, as John received this news, did he think back to what Jesus had told them on this day, that, yes, you will drink of this cup and you will be baptized. As he heard reports that his brother, who he undoubtedly was close to, a brother that he loved, was struck down by the sword of a vengeful and a hateful king. We see in the course of history that not only did James partake of this cup and of this baptism, but John as well. You likely know that John didn't endure a drinking the cup and a baptism in which he, like his brother, was martyred. But that for John, there was another experience of suffering and of pain and of agony in that he was exiled onto the island of Patmos, as he tells us in the book of Revelation. Extra-biblical literature have all these fanciful stories of how it is that John ended there. But undoubtedly, this was the cup of suffering. This was the baptism of agony and pain that John had to endure to be exiled, to be cut off from his family and friends, to be banished from the homeland that he had grown up in, and to not be able to participate and to fellowship with the church in Ephesus where he had ministered for so many years, but rather banished and exiled and brushed under the rug to be neglected and to be forgotten on the island of Patmos. This undoubtedly was the call that James and John received in following Christ, and not James and John alone. We read the pages of the New Testament. We see what transpires after the ascension of Jesus Christ. We read of Paul's many sufferings over and over again of being beaten, of being flogged, of being shipwrecked, of being handed over to wild beasts, of being stoned, of nearly being left dead. We read of the pains and the agonies that one like Peter had to endure in his church. As he said, don't count it a strange thing when you face these fiery furnaces and all this affliction that is coming at you. Don't wonder at it, right? This is the lot of what it is to be a follower and a disciple of Jesus. This is what Christ has called us to. We even hear of the Hebrew Christians as the preacher was writing to his people that these Christians were enduring the plundering of their property and the confiscation of it by the governing authorities that be. We read in the histories not only of the church in the New Testament, but also the early church. They endured an immense amount of suffering and pain and anguish all for the sake of Jesus Christ. Whether it was that faithful disciple of John Polycarp who went and was torn by wild beasts at the ripe old age in his 80s, or whether it was those men and those women who were thrust into the arenas to be devoured by wild animals or to have their bodies burned or to be pierced with a sword or sawn in two, We read this in Foxe's Book of Martyrs. We see this down throughout the course of history. It's inscribed on almost every book of the New Testament. To follow Christ means we will suffer. That this is the expectation that we ought to have. That this is what Christ has called all of his disciples to in every age, in every time, in every country, in every place, in every economic status, such that Christ can say, if anyone would come after me, then let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. And this is something that we are sealed to by the very rite of our baptism. being conformed into the death of Jesus Christ and in the Lord's Supper as we have union in the death of Jesus himself. This is the call of the Christian. This is what Jesus has called us to, to be united to his suffering and to his death. And if anyone If anyone attempts to sell you the crown apart from the cross, he's a charlatan and he's not worthy to be called a teacher or a minister of the gospel. Christ's path to glory was through the suffering of the cross and all those who would follow after him and partake of his resurrection life. So our path is through the road of suffering. Paul wrote to the church in Philippi, as we've already read this morning from Philippians 3. Paul counts everything as a loss. Why? that he might know Christ, that he might know the power of his resurrection, that he might share in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible, he might attain to the resurrection of the dead. Now why is it that as Christians in America, we hear so little of the call to suffer and to die with Christ. As Christians in America, why do we get so anxious at even the first telltale signs of suffering or persecution? Why is it that we are so rattled like reeds in the wind? When we hear of legislation, when we hear of people scorning the church, when we hear of hatred, when we even begin to conceive that to be a Christian might actually cost me something. Why do we hear so little of this? Recently in the COVID-19 time, I've taken some time to listen to some sermons, sermon from some mega church pastors in the area. And it struck me in one sermon that I heard of a church here in Bradenton that the minister stood up and was talking about COVID-19 and how it was affecting the church. And he preached this relatively widespread sermon now called God's Revival Army. Throughout the course of his sermon, he was proclaiming to people that now is the day when the Lord's raising up this revival army. So this revival army is going to go in and we're going to see prosperity and we're going to see success, not only in the church, but if you just do what God wants, you're going to find financial success. I have all sorts of financial success. This is open to you that in God's revival army, we're going to have dominion over all of our difficulties. We're going to have cultural influence once again as the church and influence governors and mayors and leading authorities. This is how we are going to see revival. And undoubtedly as he was proclaiming this he was receiving amens and hallelujahs from the congregation as people were getting ramped up and they were getting revved up and they were thinking this is the time of the glorious revival and revolution of the gospel and of the kingdom of Christ. And while it did a wonderful job to stir people up, as I heard this I couldn't help but see what was so glaringly missing. Because not once do I recall this man saying that this revival, that this building of the kingdom, that the prosperity of it is going to come through your suffering. It's going to come through your cross bearing. It's going to come through you denying yourself. It's going to come through you being hated and despised and rejected by men. Not once did he warn his congregation that to be a Christian and a disciple of Christ is going to call you to give everything for it. that it is going to demand your life, that it is going to demand your all, that it is going to demand your finances, that it is going to demand your social standing, that you can likely go out and anticipate being ridiculed and mocked and scorned and hated and legislation coming against you to bar up the houses of God and the freeness of the testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ, that not once did I hear him say, to do this, we must carry about ourselves the dying of Jesus each and every day. You think people would have shouted amen? You think they would have been standing up and shouting their hallelujahs? But how much damage that does. How much damage it has done to poor souls. To sell them this bill of goods. be beguiled by such mischievous expectations. To think that we can follow Christ. To think that we can lay hold of the crown of glory apart from the cross. It's faith destroyed. And it is soul crushing. And I think that's in part why we see that the churches of Christ aren't being filled in these days, but they're being empty. Because people have been told to be a Christian means you ought to prosper and have success, that you can have all the glory right now. People are fleeing because we don't know what to do with the suffering. Because too long we've been held by the expectation that idolizes prestige. and prominence and power and comfort in the here and in the now. But Christ calls us and he expects us to suffer. And that if we are to share in his crown of glory, then we must learn to kiss the cross that brings us there. And we must learn to share in all the immense and intense and individual suffering that accompanies the call of Christ. Not only has it been granted to us to believe in his name, but also to suffer for his sake. And that it is through many tribulations that we must enter the kingdom of God. And so Jesus comes and he tells James and John here in verse 39, You will. And you will. But then in verse 40, he more explicitly answers that question that they have. And yet, at least to our ears, it doesn't sound like much of an answer. And he says here, but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those whom it has been prepared. A couple theological disclaimers that ought to be noted here is that Christ isn't saying that he doesn't have the authority to give life. He gives life to whomever he wills. Christ isn't saying here that it doesn't lie within his power to answer this request. But that there is a very subtle reprimand here to James and John. Because what we know about James and John is that they were far too concerned with the afterlife. They were far too concerned with the glory that was coming, that they were too content in trying to pry into the eternal purpose and decrees that God alone knows. and being so greatly concerned by this and their zeal, they turned to Christ. And they turned away from what ought to have concerned them. And they turned away from what their care ought to have been. Because they were too taken by, what's going to happen when I die? Is Christ going to remember this? Am I going to get the glory that he has promised? And what Christ subtly reprimands them with here is what they ought to have been concerned with was not the coming glory, but in preparing themselves for the suffering that they were to endure. Christ will settle his accounts in glory, and he will not be so as unjust to overlook our labor of love. We leave that to him. and the triumph of the war, and the crowns that await those who faithfully endure, that is for Christ to give them. For now we ought to, with this expectation of suffering in hand, it ought to be our earnest concern to be prepared to suffer with Christ. That this is what ought to concern our faith in the here and the now, that we must cultivate this care. Well, briefly, as we close this morning, that we are to make this our concern, to prepare ourselves to suffer with Christ by making sure that we have the right convictions. There is nothing so pathetic as watching a person suffer for things they ought not to suffer for, and for wrong beliefs, and even for things that the scriptures don't teach. But if we are to be concerned, and if we are to care, and if we are to turn our attention to preparing ourselves to suffer with Christ, then we must know what the Scriptures say. and not just know it, not just be able to rattle off the answers, but that there must be a deep-seated conviction that this is the word of God, that this is the truth of God, that come hell or high water, this is the truth that we will build all of our lives and all of our hopes and all of our dreams and all of our anticipations upon. It is when we have no conviction and when we lack deep conviction that when afflictions come, what does Jesus say? That that seed that had received the word with joy in the beginning, that when the persecutions came, that it withered up like that because it had not taken root in and of itself. And if we are to be concerned and care for suffering with Christ, then we must be deeply convicted. know this word far better than we do, we must understand this word and value this word and cherish this word and see this word as the rock upon which we plant our feet and say with Luther, at least as the folklore goes, here I stand and I can do no other. That we need a renewal of conviction of what the Word of God says. Not only a renewal of conviction, but a commitment to this Word as well. That this Word speaks and we're committed to it. That what it calls us to do, that we faithfully do. That where it challenges us, we are challenged. That where it rebukes sin in us, we let it expose all of our sin to draw us in repentance to Jesus Christ. that we are committed to its teachings, that we are committed to its doctrines, in this day of wishy-washy theology, where people are led and their doctrines tumble before them, we must be committed. And we must not back down, and we cannot back down. We must be convicted, we must be committed, and we must have the proper character that is required, a character that rests in Jesus Christ alone. finds that his judgment of us is the only thing that matters. That to have Christ is to possess everything. To not have Christ is to have nothing. And we must have a character about us that rests contentedly in the Christ who cares very deeply for us. Jesus subtly rebukes James and John and he tells him you're concerned about all the wrong things. If you understand what it is to suffer with Christ, then you will make it your care to prepare your mind and your soul and your faith to suffer with him. J.C. Ryle said that there is nothing so mischievous as the habit of indulging false expectations. And here in this scene, Christ, as the merciful high priest, gives his help to us in order that we might expect rightly what it means to follow his call. May the Lord grant us the grace that we need to embrace the cross and the suffering that we must endure. Amen. Please join me in prayer. Our gracious God, how true and steadfast is your word, and what an anchor to our souls it is. And as we live in a day and age where your word is increasingly marginalized, where the truths of it are all too often neglected, where people are cherishing those things that your word condemns, and they are hating those things that your word commends. And as our feet in these day and age will only likely be put more into the furnace of the fires of affliction, how we pray that you would grant us the faith that overcomes the world, that you would grant us to lay hold of Christ at all costs, and that you would grant us the joy that we need to kiss his cross to be conformed unto His death, that by Him we might be conformed unto His life and the resurrection of the dead. Help us to remember that in our baptisms and our partaking of the Lord's Supper, that we have already died to ourselves. And so may we walk faithfully in that death and bear the insults and the injuries of this world as pilgrims and aliens and strangers, who are awaiting a city of joy and comfort and peace and rest and glory in the life that is to come. Grant to us the faith that we need to prepare to suffer. And may we suffer well for the glory of Christ. We pray these things in his name. Amen.