If you would, as you're taking your seat, turn in your copy of the scriptures to Mark chapter 10. Mark chapter 10, we're going to be in verses 32 through 45, an appropriate text for our occasion. I want you to consider, as you're reading it, perspective. Think about this. Maybe when you were a kid, or maybe your kids will do this, they'll hang upside down from something and they'll say, Daddy or Mommy, you're upside down. And you can kind of kiddingly joke back, I'm not upside down, you're upside down. And they go, no, you're upside down. Sin has put the world in an avalanche. One of the dangers of being in an avalanche, if you survive the avalanche and you're a skier or something, is that you often don't know, if you're able to dig, you don't know which way to dig. You've been so jumbled up, you're so stuck in the ice, as it were, that you don't know which way is up or down. So you can't say you're upside down, no, you're upside down. By the way, if you're ever caught in an avalanche, they tell you to create a little bit of space. One, because you need an air pocket to breathe, but then to drop a little bit of snow different directions and see which way it's falling and then dig the opposite direction. Disciples, like many in this world, are caught and the avalanche of sin, and they don't know which way is up or down, and Jesus is going to create a little bit of an air pocket for them, as it were, and drop the snow and tell them to go the other way. But before we read our texts, let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, I pray that you would give us grace or that you would send your Holy Spirit to open our eyes and our ears and our hearts that we would hear the voice of our Teacher, Jesus Christ, as He teaches us through these disciples. Lord, not just a word that was just for these men, but a word that is for all of us. Sanctify us in the truth, for Your Word is truth. Lord, let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in Your sight. O Lord, my rock and my Redeemer. Amen. So this is the Word of the Lord, beginning in Mark chapter 10, verse 32. 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. 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 of you. And he said to them, What do you want me to do for you? And they said to him, Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory. 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, or the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized. But to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared. And when the ten heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John. And Jesus called them to him and 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. Whoever would be great among you must be your servant. Read Deacon Diakonos. 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. Church, the grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of our God stands forever. And the word summarized in one sentence this morning is this, the way up is down. The way up is down. In other words, if you would be great in God's kingdom, you must become servant and slave of all, because the way up is down. Now, if we don't understand that Jesus is on that downward trajectory as he's heading toward Jerusalem, we're not going to, if we don't know what he's going to do in Jerusalem, if we don't understand the cross, we too, like the disciples, will miss the point. We won't understand it, we'll partly understand it and still get it wrong, or we will understand it and we too will adopt the cross as it is. So we're going to see a failure to understand, a partial understanding, and a full understanding that Jesus gives. As the way up is down, and if you fail to understand this, it will breed fear in your heart. They're heading towards Jerusalem. Jesus is walking ahead of them. If you can imagine the scene in the Gospel of John where Jesus hears in this case, that Lazarus has died and Thomas says, well, let us go to Jerusalem and let us go with him and we shall die. You think about Luke and that gospel, when they're heading from Galilee to Jerusalem on the same trip, they stop in a town in Samaria. Samaritans reject them because it said Jesus had his face set toward Jerusalem. Set like a flint, in which he was, Isaiah 57 predicts this, it says, my face is set toward you, like set like a flint toward you, and I know you will not put me to shame. Jesus knows where he is going. He's walking out in front as they're going. It's not like he's walking in the group of his disciples. He's setting the pace. And you know, if you can imagine it like this, you know, think about the men who were climbing aboard the little landing craft heading towards D-Day beaches in Normandy, France. Think about the men the night before who, with all their gear, were climbing onto C-47s to jump into Normandy that night. How many of those men do you think were first in line, jumping and ready to get onto the craft and face machine gun fire or jump into the darkness of Normandy, potentially dying before they even hit the ground, potentially never leaving the airplane? You know, those men, they did their duty. They got on and they said, we're going to, we may die. And that's okay. We're fighting for a good cause. None of those men were jumping up and down, setting the pace. Let's go. But there is Jesus. Going up to Jerusalem and he was walking ahead of them and the people are surprised by this. They're amazed. They know he's facing incredible odds. And they're afraid. And then possibly even more afraid because what he says next. This is his third prediction in about two chapters or so of Jesus predicting his own death. And he gets more detailed with each prediction. This is the most detailed as the final and third prediction. He'll be handed over chief priests and scribes, his archenemies. They'll condemn him to death in a monkey trial and deliver him over to the, even worse, the Gentiles, these Romans. Everyone knew how Romans killed people. brutally on a cross and not just straight to the cross but with torture and shame and humiliation before. They'll mock and spit on him, flog him and kill him. After three days he will rise. So you're already afraid going with Jesus to Jerusalem as a disciple and then Jesus on top of that gives you a pretty bleak forecast of what's coming and they're afraid. They don't understand what Jesus is going to do. They don't understand that the way up, the way to glory, is down. When we fail to understand that the way up is the way down and completely miss it, and we see God doing things, like making suggestions through providence in our life that we should take up our cross and follow him, we can get afraid. God, are you sure? Do you know what you're doing with my life? Whether it's health prognosis, whether it's family drama that seems like it's just going to get worse and worse and worse. Whether it's economic troubles. We don't know the future of what's going to happen in our country and it's very concerning to us. For those who have, Lord willing, 40 to 50 years in front of them, refer to myself in this case, it's a little afraid, but maybe in 20 years or so we'll be okay. But for those of you who have been saving up your entire life, you've built up your life, the money, the family, the connections, the land, and to see it in danger or the foundations cracking can make you afraid. What is God doing? if we don't see that the way up is down. I'm not saying that God has to do those things, but when we see those things approaching, they make us afraid. We must understand that Jesus, even as the other 10 disciples are probably quite afraid, that Jesus is still marching ahead. Do we trust Jesus enough to follow him down, to get up, to follow behind him as he marches to do something we don't understand? We need to be like the disciples, and even if we are afraid, to continue following Him because the way up is down. So Jesus makes this prediction, but here come James and John, the sons of Zebedee. Now, James and John, if you remember, in the beginning of chapter 9 or so, they followed Jesus up the mountain with Peter, and they witnessed Jesus transfigure before them, revealing Himself in full brightness of glory as the Son of God and as Daniel chapter 7's Son of Man. who appears in glory before God and takes control of the kingdom." They saw it. It made Peter, if you recall, blubber. This is good that we're here, Jesus. Let's build tabernacles for you, Moses, and Elijah. And then each gospel that records it says Peter had no idea what he was saying. He was just so scared. They all were. So they saw it, and then Jesus, as they're coming down, tells James, Peter, and John, don't tell anyone about this till after the resurrection, which they didn't understand that either. So Peter, James, and John, they hear Jesus make these predictions. They've heard Jesus say the kingdom is a gift given as to children, and we are to receive it like children. They're seeing that it can't be bought with money, but has to be, it's acquired through self-denial, and they see they can't earn it to their credit. They know they have to ask for it to their credit, They still only partly understand, and they go ask Jesus, Teacher, we want you to do whatever we ask of you. We know it's all by grace, Jesus says, but what do you want me to do for you? And they said to him, they know they don't deserve it, they know they're in the inner circle, but they know what's coming, they have an idea, an inkling of what's coming, maybe not the cross, definitely not the cross, I'll say, but they see that suffering and hardship is ahead of them, but they see the end result because they saw Jesus glorified. And they say, grant to us to sit one at your right hand, one at your left in your glory. Jesus, we know what you're doing. We're going to have a big old showdown in Jerusalem. Maybe it turns into holy war. We know that we may lose our lives, Jesus, just as the many Jews fought under the Maccabean revolt in the second century BC, when the Greek kings were trying to make them become Greek pagans and sacrifice to Zeus. And so many Jews lost their lives fighting. They said, Jesus, we're ready, we get the program, we see what you're about to do, and we want in. Those other people, the other ten, are afraid because they don't get it. Jesus, we get it. So because we get it, we must be special. We want in. Grant us a sit, one at your right, one at your left. in your glory. As J.C. Ryle says, looking at these two men, he says, they knew not what manner of men they were. Partly understanding can be just as dangerous, perhaps more so, because partly understanding, having part of the picture, partly understanding what Jesus is doing, partly understanding that the way down is up, breeds ambition. Ambition. Jesus lovingly corrects this. Ambition? Right off the bat you do not know what you are asking for. They're not really hearing Jesus. They think maybe that suffering and mocking and spitting, crucifying is a metaphor. Or maybe this is Jesus sacrificing his life at the very end of all the ages and then the eschaton will come down and that will be the kingdom of God forever and ever and ever as Daniel predicted. And we will give our lives but we know right after that everything will be peachy. Jesus will go down as it were initially in flames of glory and then we will go down with him perhaps but we will conquer very soon after. But he says, you do not know what you're asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink? Be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized. In other words, they didn't get this, we'll find out. The cup of wrath that Jesus had in front of him in Gethsemane, the cup of God's judgment on the whole world and all that sin, placed before Jesus. Can you drink this cup? In Luke chapter 12, Jesus says, I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and I am in great distress until it's done. Think about the flood covering the whole earth, judgment destroying everybody but Noah and the ark. Think about how Peter says that's going to happen again, but with fire. But Jesus taking on that same fire of the wrath of God that will immerse Him and be baptized in on the cross for our sake. For those of you who don't normally come here, when we confess He descended into hell, that is how we, at least that's how I interpret it. But Jesus bore hell actively on the cross. Can you bear these things, James and John? They say, we are able. Jesus, you know, I mean, we don't want to say Jesus rolled his eyes at that, but he may have gone, oh boy, I don't think you know what you're talking about. He says, the cup that I drink, you will drink. The suffering and the anger and the wrath of the world, the baptism with which I am to be baptized, the suffering that comes with following Jesus, you will be, drink this and you'll be baptized by this. Not in the same way, not for salvation, but as a follower of Christ. 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." He's saying, yes, you're going to be apostles. Yes, you're going to have an important role. Yes, you're going to suffer for my namesake. Paul will talk about in Colossians, filling up what is lacking in the suffering of Christ, which is an interesting term, but definitely talking about the suffering that the body of Christ continues to bear in this world. Yes, these things, but the glory is another issue altogether. Jesus is saying, I am here to die. I am not here to grant to you to sit on the right or the left. That belongs to the Father. These men, partly understanding that great conflict and trial and testing and suffering was coming, they said, we see it. We're going to ask for the glory because we know it's by grace, but all driven by a root of ambition coming up from bottom and now blooming into an ugly flower in their life. Some of the worst mistakes I've ever made in my entire life, either academically speaking, or in just in relationships in general, is when I had a partial understanding. Generally speaking, as a teenager and as a college student, whenever there's drama, you know, high school, kind of young people, college drama between friends, you only ever hear, by the way, young people, about, just guarantee that you're hearing about half the story, half the time. And we're even less, normally. But we always take actions off of that when we're young, because we want to show people what we're really about. We stick up for our friends. We don't take lip from nobody. And it turns out the entire time, ooh, my friend was actually in the wrong, like pretty bad. And then you look like an idiot. I don't have enough fingers and toes to tell you how many times it's happened to me. Academically, the worst I ever did was I was analyzing one guy's philosophical take on the word of God. I had a book of his and I read it and I marked it up and I thought I had him nailed on being heterodox and not good for people in the church to listen to. And very simply, I was lucky to get a C on this paper. This was seminary, beginning of my seminary career. And my professor said, I'll never forget this, this is a hatchet job. This is a hatchet job. I partly understood this guy. And because of it, I excoriated him, put him over the flames of my judgment. And then the professor is like, actually, let's put your paper in the flames of judgment. Here's a C. Now, C, you may think that doesn't sound that bad. It really deserved worse. But RTS is really nice with grading. We have part of the story, our ambition to do right even, our ambition to put ourselves ahead will burn us every single time. And if it doesn't burn us, a burning will come later when God really brings those things forward or maybe He lets you to your own devices. Jesus does not do that to these men because He loves them. He says, yes, these things. Yes, you will suffer. Yes, you will suffer for my name's sake. James will be the first apostle who is martyred of the twelve by Herod the Great. James was prepared before the face of God in Jesus Christ. He received the best seminary education on the planet, only to use it for a decade or less. And he's the first one to go. He drinks that cup. John himself probably was the disciple who lived the longest. Some say he lived past 100 AD. But over the course of his long career, constantly suffering, we find him in Revelation as an old man, exiled to the rock quarries on Patmos to work. but the slow immersion and baptism of suffering for Christ's name's sake. Yes, they suffered, but have glory did not belong to them in this way. Our ambition is bred by our partial understanding of what Christ is doing, and what Christ is doing is instead of going straight up to glory, he first goes down, but the way down is the way up. Now, fully understanding what Jesus is doing. This is the most important part, perhaps. Fully understanding what Jesus is doing doesn't breed fear or breed ambition, but it does bring humility. It brings self-denial. Verse 41, you know some of the other disciples had to be overhearing, and we know that in the other Gospels we find that It's actually James and John's mom that kind of starts this conversation off for Jesus, because it's embarrassing to ask her something like this. We know the disciples get wind. They're not stupid. They're angry. They're indignant. The same word when Jesus was angry about the disciples trying to stop little children from coming to him, righteous, like fury, anger. They're indignant. At them, how dare they ask for such a thing? But they're only mad because the sons of thunder were lightning quick and struck first, as Sean O'Donnell says. They're just mad because they had the guts to ask for something they secretly wanted. It's like this. Have you ever seen a dog bark at its own reflection? Have you ever seen a dog chase its own tail and try to attack it? When we look at a dog being silly like that, or you see a cat swatting at itself in the same kind of way in the mirror, But sometimes the thing that we hate most is our own image, our own sins the most. How many pastors or older Christian folks or any kind of Christian folks, but I'm thinking of pastors, they'll preach, you know, fire and brimstone from the pulpit. These sins are evil. Those sins are evil. And those it's true. Those sins are evil. But then you read a police blotter and they get picked up for doing the exact same thing they just preached against. Fortunately, not so common, but it's happened enough and Satan's glad to report it to the world. The hypocrisy of pastors at times. But the thing that we often will try to fight the hardest in other people are our own flaws. So the disciples are indignant. Jesus sees this could get ugly. Jesus takes this opportunity. So Jesus called them to Him and said to them, you know that those who are considered rulers are the Gentiles lorded over them. The great ones exercise authority over them. The Gentiles themselves, whether they be Greek or Romans, the ancient world did not have humility as a virtue. You know, it's very common for an athlete, when they're being interviewed after winning a championship, you know, some of them will give glory to Jesus, that's great, but if they are thumping their chest and saying how awesome they are and how much the other team stinks, people take them to task. They'll rip them apart on X. They'll write articles about how proud and full of hubris this person was. In the ancient world, there was no humility as a general social virtue. You just lorded it over people. You said, yeah, we won that battle because we were better, and they stunk. We were stronger than them. We were better. That's just the way their minds worked. So these rulers, the Gentiles, lorded over their people. The Greek gods made me king. They made me governor. They made me in charge of you. Get over it. The great ones exercise authority over them, telling them to do this and that. It is very much a society where the more slaves and bondservants, more employees, in other words, but ones who don't voluntarily work for you, the more you had, the better you were, the less you had, the worse you were, and then even worse if you were a servant. That was their way up in this world, and it was the world they disciples lived in. Those who are on top are good, those on the bottom are not. Jesus, this is where He creates the air pocket and the avalanche and says, actually, you're upside down because when you drop snow and it goes up, you think that's up, but that's gravity. Your way out is actually down. You must dig down to go up. It shall not be so among you. Whoever would be great among you must be your servant, So Jesus is actually, He's creating a wider separation with each term. Think about it this way, we have those who are great, the ones who have reputation, maybe need to be as a servant. Those who would be first among you, so even the greatest of the great must be the lowest of the low, a slave of all. And even more so, for even the Son of Man The one in Daniel 7 who receives authority from the Ancient of Days, who will rule the earth with a rod of iron, who will bash his enemies through and through and destroy them to dust. Even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many. Those who are great must be servants. Those who would be first must be slaves, worse than a servant. The Son of Man, the greatest and most glorious of all, will lay his life down as a sacrifice for all. Give his life as a ransom for many. James and John wanted Daniel 7, Son of Man, and Daniel 7, Son of Man, surely is who he says he is. But Jesus says, no, not Daniel 7, not yet. First Isaiah 53, the suffering servant. 53 verse 10, Isaiah tells us it was the will of the Lord to crush him, the servant, to put him to grief. When a soul makes an offering for guilt, the soul that is a ransom for many, but then he shall see his offspring, he shall prolong his days, the Lord shall prosper his hand, this is the plan. And out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied. By his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many. He shall divide the spoil with the strong. He poured out his soul to death and was numbered with transgressors. Yet he bore the sin of many and makes intercession for those transgressors." It's hard to see. It's hard to see without knowing Greek, without knowing the Septuagint, the Greek Old Testament. But Jesus takes, and with Mark, takes the words of that Greek Old Testament, Isaiah 53, and says, this is me. I am the servant. I will serve as a slave. I will lay down my soul, my life, the very life force of the Son of God, so that you will live and be righteous and forgiven, loved and cherished by God Almighty. But you cannot get there unless you go down. I cannot get there unless I go down. I am going to Jerusalem. No one can stop me, because if I don't go, all will perish. If I don't go, all will die, and so Jesus, out of His great love and humility, Jesus, the Son of God, who did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped, emptied Himself, took on the form of a servant, Paul tells us, and He humbled Himself to death, even death on a cross. Because of that, Jesus, Paul can say, count others more significant than yourselves. Do not look after your own interests, but also the interests of others. The way down is the way up because the way down is the way of death, but death leading to life. Church, it's easy to serve when we want to serve, but everyone wants to be called the servant. Leaders want to be called servant leaders until they actually get treated like servants. Everyone wants to be a servant until they get treated like garbage. Self-denial is not just serving so people can see us, telling people how often, how much we serve, and being visible servants. True service is a self-denial from the deepest point. For me, it's my ego. I think my ego is my chief lifelong sin. I'll just tell you, because if you haven't figured that out, you will. It's my ego. For me, the ego must die. The ego must go down so that Christ must be lifted up. Whatever it is at the heart of everything that drives all of your sin, Christ is asking you for that to go down. To lay it down, to let it die on the cross with Him and be raised to new life. whether it's the love of others and admiration of others, whether it's your own ego, whether it's the love of pleasure, you name it, the chief sin of the deepest part of your heart that must be laid down and laid down like a slave to die with Jesus. And from those ashes, Jesus brings forth new life, new fruit, and the new man in himself. For you deacons out there, who are already deacons, as if you have already been ordained as deacons, you've been serving the church and serving it well, this is the path that Jesus has called you already to walk down. Jesus has modeled it for you so that you will follow him and die his death, but not for your sins, but die his death because he has loved you first. That drives the heart of being a deacon, because Jesus himself really is the ultimate Now Bart and Matthew, this is for you guys. You have been called apart by this church, by God himself, to serve in this way. I know you guys aren't perfect. Your parents know you guys aren't perfect. Your whole family knows you're not perfect. That's a foregone conclusion. The only way you will serve well as deacons is if you see what Jesus has said and see that He has laid His life down as a ransom for you to take away your sins, to remove them as far as the east is from the west, to give you a clean conscience in himself. Righteous robes for you when you are cleansed and belong, that empowers your service. That's the secret to preaching. Now, this preaching is not being a deacon, but you can't stand up here and preach well, I'm convinced, without a clean conscience. You can't serve well as an elder without a clean conscience. You can't serve well as a deacon without the righteous robes of Christ on you and knowing them and knowing God's love is poured out on you to do exactly what He's called you to do. He's equipped you to do it, and by His grace is the only way you can do it. Amen to that. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we do pray that You would make us more like Christ, that we would follow Him down and that we would trust Him to raise us up, that we would pour out our lives, deny our very deepest desires to serve ourselves and to serve you, knowing that when our life is hidden with you and hidden in Christ in the heavenly places where He is, He will take us to Himself. So we are thankful for all that you have done for us. We ask all these things in Jesus' name. Amen.