Bless the Lord, we're so cared for and helped. Thankful for the ministry this morning, Pastor Will and Carol leading us, congregation. Your Bibles, we're continuing in Mark's Gospel, chapter 9, verse 30 through 37. It's on page 845 of the Pew Bible. While you're turning there, just a couple of remarks. I want to welcome back our students and many of us new semester. Students learning and we're all learning, we're all growing in grace, but of learning and education, the ancients once said that the object of education is to teach us to love what is beautiful. That's the goal, and let us thank God that He has enrolled all of us into His school, the Holy Spirit school, the study of the Word of God, that we would love what is beautiful, that we would love Him, He who is the greatest, as we're all learning greatness. As Psalm 145.3 says, great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and His greatness is unsearchable. It's beyond measure. Pastor Will's been leading us through Mark's gospel, showing us Jesus's greatness, his beautiful heart, his consecration in his ministry, that Jesus is the one who raises the poor. He lifts the needy from the ash heap. Children, you remember last week with the young boy who he was oppressed by evil. He was trapped in evil bondage, but Jesus took him by his hand and raised him up. so that we can always remember when we're afraid or when we're troubled, we can call on Jesus. Take us by your hand and lift us up. He gives us comfort. He gives us strength. He is the one who's lifted us from condemnation, that he justifies the ungodly. He is our righteousness. He is our justification. We also remember a few weeks back how how Jesus took the blind man and he touched his eyes twice, really pointing to the theme of our sanctification, how we as disciples, we need him to continually open our eyes, as we heard last week, because we keep seeing the dirt. We keep seeing the filth of our hearts and our sin, and we need to continually look to Jesus for our cleansing, for our healing. And as we're learning on the way as disciples, as parents take children, as in Deuteronomy 6, we learn on the way Jesus is teaching us. And it's been compared to maybe some of you young ones, you're learning to write. You think how a parent can come alongside a child who's learning to write and hold their hand and help them form the letters? That's what our Lord is doing for us. He's taking the hands of our heart And He's helping us form the letters of life. He's forming our lives. He's changing us. He's changing our values. It's that great reversal, right? What John's been talking about in Sunday school. He's changing our hearts. He's releasing our desires as we're being conformed to Jesus Christ, that we're learning greatness. This last week, as Martin Luther King once said, that anyone can be great because anyone can serve, right? And so we're refreshed, our family, the Barbies, refreshed in the ministry here. Just recently, my wife, Bargis, and I were talking about, we love how intentional PCC is. with ministering to one another, thoughtfulness, and care, and service. And if you're new like us, kind of new, and you're looking to get involved, well, remember the tried and true. Come early, stay late. Ask questions. See how you can get involved. How can we come alongside those who've been carrying ministries for a long time? The history of PCC, 51 years, right? It's a lot of ministry. So ways that we who are new can come alongside Sunday school teachers, come alongside nursery workers, servants, hospitality, our brothers doing the media. So all kinds of ways we can serve and come alongside one another. Also, maybe this morning, maybe we're being inspired for a new ministry. As we think about the needs of Coventry, think about the needs of our neighbors, ways we want to move towards the lost, want to move towards the lonely, the grieving, the hurting, the addicted. It's exciting that we can dream together as a church and get lost in wonder and praise. Amen? Let's look to Mark chapter 9. learning greatness this morning, verses 30 through 37. This is God's word to us. They went out from there, and they passed through Galilee, and he did not want anyone to know, for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, the Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days he will rise. But they did not understand the saying, and they were afraid to ask him. And they came to Capernaum, and when he was in the house, he asked them, what were you discussing on the way? But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. Verse 35, and he sat down and he called the 12, and he said to them, if anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all. And he took a child, and he put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, whoever receives one such child in my name receives me. Whoever receives me receives not me, but him who sent me. Thanks be to God. God's word to us. So, looking at this text, let's look at two themes this morning. First, learning of the Son. learning of the Son of Man, and then secondly, learning greatness. So learning of the son and then learning greatness. And as we said, the goal of education is to learn to love what is beautiful and how the kingdom of Christ, the ministry of Jesus, how he teaches us in that parable about the man who's out in search for precious gems and pearls, and then he finds the pearl of great price, of great value, and therefore he sells everything and he buys that pearl. So learning of the Son, learning of Jesus, Jesus is redefining for us what is of great value, what is important, what is truly the treasure of the world. The author G.K. Chesterton, in his biography of Francis of Assisi, we sang his hymn, Opening Up All Creatures, but how Francis, he said, was ravished with a love for Jesus Christ, that Christ was the pattern for his life. Therefore, he was also consumed with a love for mankind. And if you're familiar with Francis, how he gave his life in service to the Lord, a lot primarily working with lepers, starting leper hospitals and care and ministry to the poor and the forsaken of society. You know, it's just people watching Francis and his devotion to the needs of mankind, that even other businessmen, other leaders, they saw him, and they were compelled to join him. You know, that kind of ties in with the saying, how do we reach the rich of the world? Well, we reach the rich by reaching the poor. Because they see, what are we captivated with? What are we drawn to? And it's contagious. What are we living for? Are we living for that which is passing away or are we giving ourselves to what can't be shaken? And Francis, in his early life, there's a story that he was in the market one day selling fabrics with his father, and they were there, he was talking with customers, and he was in a conversation with one customer when a poor man walks up behind them. And he sees that the poor man, he wants to talk to Francis, but Francis, he's doing business with this guy, you know, it's a polite society, you don't want to interrupt, but he can see him, and then he starts to see this guy walking away. And he sees the beggar leave. And then Chesterman said, Francis vowed to God that he would never, ever again ignore a poor man. And so he runs after the beggar, runs after him. And Chesterman said that was a picture of Francis's life, that he was on one errand of mercy, an errand of mercy. And let us ask ourselves, how is Jesus, how is the gospel reshaping our values? How are we being changed by the ministry of Jesus in the gospel? What are we turning from and turning to? How are we beginning to see the world differently? What can we say we are running after? Or what is the great errand of our life? was, as Will was teaching us last week, we made a turning point in Mark's Gospel from Galilee, and as we'll see, we're heading to Jerusalem. As Jesus is going from preaching and healing in all the towns, saying, I've got to go out into all the towns and preach and heal, and everyone's coming to Jesus, but now He goes from that to not wanting anyone to know He's passing through Galilee. Why is that? Why the change? Well, we can say he's wanting to avoid the demands of the crowds so he can teach his disciples as he's preparing them for his passion, preparing to head into Jerusalem, that Jesus is drawing near to them. As a man of understanding, as the man in Proverbs 25 says, the purpose in a man's heart is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out. He's drawing out their hearts. He's drawing them to their calling. To their purpose. And as disciples, we're no different from them. We need to continually learn of the Son. Learn of the Messiah. A theology of the Messiah. I've been greatly helped by Martin Luther and his Heidelberg disputation in 1518. We can glean a theology of the Messiah that we would be no longer theologians of glory, but theologians of the cross. that we would leave a theology of glory and take up a theology of the cross. Carl Truman commenting, what is the theologian of glory? Well, he says the theologian of glory assumed that there was basic continuity between the way the world is and the way God is. If strength is demonstrated through raw power on earth, then God's strength must be the same, only extended to infinity. And we see this difference in theology really with the expectations for the Messiah. What kind of Messiah was expected? What were the people looking for? Well, they were looking for a Messiah to win man's way, use man's strength. As their desire will see when Jesus is before Pilate, who did they call out for? Barabbas. Give us the political hero. Give us a zealot. Give us a man who brings power and strength. Crucify Jesus. Even in John 6, as Jesus multiplies the bread, and they see his power, and they were coming to make him king. So we see the differences in these theologies with the expectations of the Messiah. We also see it in the disciples. You remember just recently in Mark 8, when Peter, when Jesus is asking them, who am I? Who do you say that I am? And Peter says, you're the Christ, you're the Messiah. And then Jesus teaches them. He began to teach them, the son of man must suffer many things, be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. And you remember Peter's response? And Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him. But Jesus, turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter. He said, get behind me, Satan, for you're not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man. So here we could say a theology of glory or a theologian of glory is one who sets their mind on the things of man. As if man can look into the invisible things of God and say, yes, I know. I know what's going to happen. I know where things are headed. No, and even Peter, you know, taking Jesus aside. And I think we could say, you know, Peter, likely out of a deep reverence for Jesus. No, you're not going to be rejected. No, you're not going to suffer. But he had no category in his mind for a suffering Messiah. As our pastor said, one who would come not to be served, but to serve, give his life as a ransom. Also, as we see the disciples in our passage, likely they were afraid, how are things going to turn out for me? If he's rejected and he's killed, how is this going to turn out for me? Likely a sense of self-protection. Maybe even who would take Jesus' place? Maybe there's some rivalry because Jesus took Peter, James, and John up the mountain of transfiguration. They left the others. You know, and even in our text says they were arguing about who was the greatest? Who would be the greatest? Likely this thirst, selfishness, selfish ambition. Who would be eminent? Who would be esteemed the most? And we can ask, you know, beloved James asked the same thing in chapter four. What causes quarrels and fights among you? Why are we quarreling? Why are we arguing? James 4 says, is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. The late Tim Keller wrote a book titled, The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness. And in that book, he references Soren Kierkegaard and his work, Sickness Unto Death. And Soren, he says that it's the normal state of the human heart to try to build its identity on anything other than God. What's driving this thirst? What's driving this covetousness? How our hearts are sick. Our hearts are wounded, and in the book, Keller compares it to, you know, when you think about a part of your body that's wounded or hurt. Maybe some of you athletes in here, you're nursing an injury, and what is your body doing? It is reminding you you're in pain. You know, whatever situation you're in or circumstance your body's sending signals to your brain, you're hurting. You're injured, you're wounded. And Keller says the same thing about our hearts. You think about how, you know, when we walk into a room, how we can be tempted to just draw all that attention on ourself. Draw all that attention into ourself. Our hearts are busy, seeking, looking for attention, wondering how are we being perceived by others. We compare ourselves to others, sizing one another up. How we can cringe at looking weak. Looking like people who are inefficient. We're not put together. And how we can be prone to boast. Boasting ourselves. Attempted to gossip. Put others down. We can be plagued by this restless bondage. Bondage of self. And how not only that's going on in our hearts and how we're perceiving others, but it can lead us to pay attention to certain people and neglect other people. How James, in chapter 2, he says, My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention to the one who wears fine clothing and say, you sit here in a good place, while you say to the poor man, you stand over there, or sit down at my feet, have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? how this shapes our mind. And a theologian of glory and to have a theology of glory is really to have a sick mind, a man who is sick-centered, just like the boy who was held down by evil, how our minds can be held down by evil. But how merciful is Jesus? How merciful that we would learn of the Son, that we would learn a new theology of the Messiah, That we'd be theologians of the cross. As we heard this morning, that the way up is not striving to be up, but the way up is coming down. And that we can learn that because Jesus has healed us by his wounds. As we see in our text, he was handed over to lift us up. We would learn this of the son, look back at verse 31. As the second time, Jesus is preparing His disciples, teaching them of His sufferings. The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. He's going to be handed over. And they will kill Him, and when He is killed after three days, He will rise. Here, the Son of Man, and we've seen this designation Christ gives Himself. As we learn in Daniel 7, the son of man who's sovereign over all the nations, he's sovereign over all humanity, but the one who is sovereign will be handed over into the hands of men, teaching us the son of man must suffer. Theology of the cross, Martin Luther says, is a theology of revelation. Luther says, no one has seen God, but Jesus of Nazareth has made him known. A God with holes in his hands and feet and a pierced side. A God who has come near to us in our twisted and ruined existence. A God who comes near to us in his blood to drown our sins. So that we would together learn of the Son, have a theology of the cross, that he's come to be handed over. Paradidomi, the Greek. This really speaks of a divine offering. It's according to the decree of God that all things are working to the counsel of His will for His own glory. Therefore, He has foreordained all things which come to pass. As we've been learning at home, Galatians 2.20, Solomon's been memorizing that verse, so I want you all to ask him after service, say, hey, how's Galatians 2.20 coming? I've been crucified with Christ, no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. Therefore the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me. He was delivered. He was handed over for me. So that we could be filled with his life. That we would be learning greatness, beloved. And that he's, he's coming to us that the purposes in our hearts are like deep water, but he's the man of understanding, drawing it out. As he asked the disciples, what were you discussing on the way? He's asking us this morning, what is what are our hearts busy with? What errand is your pain driving you to? Where's our life moving towards? So Jesus, we could say, is like that wise man of understanding coming alongside us, taking hold of our hands, helping us form the letters. He's teaching us to love what is beautiful. His life getting into us, His life spreading out in us. lifting our dark minds, touching our blind eyes. Beloved, this is greatness. This is greatness. Look at verse 35. He sat down. He called the 12. He said to them, if anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all. If you want to be eminent, you want to be high, you want to be first, you must be last. Last of all and servant of all. Do you remember when Jesus was invited to dinner at the Pharisees? And how he noticed that they wanted the best seats. They wanted the seats of honor. How they all kind of moved and jockeyed for it and pushed themselves to it. And how he responded with the parable. He says, but when you're invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, friend, move up higher. Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. He says, friend, let this fill your mind. Learn this, friend. Move up higher. Move up higher. Learn greatness by becoming a servant. A servant to all. As our Lord Jesus, He deacons sinners. He serves sinners. He blesses sinners. He washes sinners. Look at verse 36. And so He shows us. He took a child. He put him in the midst of them. and taking him in his arms, he said to them, whoever receives one such child in my name receives me. Whoever receives me receives not me, but him who sent me. You think how Jesus is teaching us about that he was handed over to take hold of us? What is he taking hold of in the world? And that you and I would take hold of the same? That by receiving and welcoming and taking hold of Jesus is receiving the Son of God. He is the Son of God. He is divine. To receive Him is to receive the Father. And that we would also take hold of His ministry. Take hold of the least of these. Those that are lowest in status in society. How our Lord in the Gospels, He's giving us a high view of women and a high view of children. Also giving us a high view of the sick. a high view of the lonely, a high view of those who are in prison. As he says in Matthew 25, as you minister to them, as you minister to the least of these, what? You've done it unto me. As we reach out towards those, taking hold of them, to serve them and bless them, as Proverbs says, when we remember the poor, we're lending to the Lord, we're giving to the Lord, we're doing it in Jesus's name unto him. So where we said a theologian of glory expects a Messiah to come in and summon all the powerful, summon all the beautiful, that he would raise an army of society's elite, as theologians of the cross, to see the Messiah truly as Isaiah 42, Matthew says Jesus fulfilled, that he will not cry aloud or lift up his voice or make it heard in the street, but a bruised reed he will not break, a faintly burning wick he will not quench. He will faithfully bring forth justice. Who is our Lord gathering to himself? Who does he have an eye for? The bruised, the forsaken, the forgotten, the Hagar's who are perishing in the wilderness. He's heard your cry. The Lord sees you and that you and I are learning this, we're learning the values of the kingdom. As James 2 goes on to say, Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom? Or as the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 1, he says, For consider your calling, brothers. Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards. Not many were powerful. Not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of Him, we are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness, sanctification, redemption, so that as it is written, let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord. Beloved, learning greatness, as it's been termed, is also learning gospel humility. It's learning this humility that thinks less of ourselves, that you and I are not needing to connect things always to us, that we're able to give an answer to the busyness of our hearts, we're able to meet the needs of our thirsty hearts and be redirected to the needs of others, that you and I can learn when our hearts are anxious, when they're afraid, when we feel that cringy tension of anxiety, we can call on Jesus Christ. And call on Him and He'll say, friend, move up higher. I'll lead you to move up higher. You can rest in me. You can rest in my love. You can stand in the presence of those rooms, of those situations, and you can receive my power. And you can receive my peace. That your security and identity is in me, Jesus says. That we can be released from the need for self-protection. We can be released from selfish ambition. We can be released upon the earth like the angels. Because we died and risen with Jesus Christ. You're in Christ, you're already dead. Who can bring any charge against God's elect? It is Christ who justifies. You and I are free to descend upon the earth like the angels, learning greatness, learning what Paul says in Romans 15, this joyful concern for others. It's the joy in the Holy Spirit, joy in the Holy Ghost, that we can therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed us for the glory of God. You know, as Christians, it's tough. It's tough to care for one another. It's tough to get along. The late Jack Miller, leading the international mission of Surge, and writing a lot of letters to his missionaries who were having trouble. One of his letters, he told the missionaries, he says, you know, if you really want to love your teammates, love your team, seek to help make them successful. What a picture. What an application. How can we help make one another successful? How can we bless not only the body of Christ, but our neighbors, our communities? B.B. Warfield, he once wrote, he says, Jesus was led by his love for others into the world to forget himself and the needs of others. Self-sacrifice means not indifference to our times and our fellows. It means absorption in them. It means entering into every man's hopes fears, longings, and despairs, it means not that we should live one life, but a thousand lives. Binding ourselves in sympathy to a thousand lives, a sympathy that their lives would become our own. We ask ourselves, how is he leading us to serve? What are the needs around us, around you? What are the needs in your family? The needs in our church, our neighborhood. Needs at your work. What are some ways that we can come alongside our deacons? Come alongside leadership? As Jesus is saying, move up higher, friend. Let us be last of all. Let us seek to be a servant of all. Let us have a new errand to run after. And as we close, may I share a prayer from Francis of Assisi, where he says, Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace, that where there is hatred, I may bring love, that where there is wrong, I may bring the spirit of forgiveness, that where there is discord, I may bring harmony, that where there is error, I may bring truth, that where there is doubt, I may bring faith, that where there is despair, I may bring hope, that where there are shadows, I may bring light, that where there is sadness, I may bring joy. Lord, grant that I may seek rather to comfort than to be comforted, to understand than to be understood, to love than to be loved, for it is by self-forgetting that one finds. It is by forgiving that one is forgiven. It is by dying that one awakens to eternal life. Let us respond now in prayer. Oh Father, for the sake of your son and the sake of your mercy, we come to respond to your word. We thank you for moving towards us, to draw out our hearts, Oh Lord, that we would sense and feel your compassion, that you know how our hearts are restless and busy with much pain, much fear. Oh Lord, let our hearts be guarded by your peace. Touch our eyes and help us see you. being handed over for us. Oh, Lord, lift our dark minds to the light of your grace. Help us move up higher, Lord. Higher with you, we pray in Christ's name, amen.