If you would take your Bibles and turn to Mark chapter 9. We have an interesting couple of verses before us this morning. As I was studying this week, I asked myself this question. Why does Mark include this conversation in this place? As I've said before, The four Gospels are not merely historical records. Now they are 100% historically accurate, but historicity alone is not their purpose. Mark includes this story because it has something important to teach his readers. Had something important to teach us and I believe the truth that mark is leading to leading us to this morning will be Very relevant to us, especially in light of the direction of our culture as our culture becomes more and more hostile to Christianity more and more hostile to Christians into those who follow Christ. I think we need to be reminded that of what Paul wrote to Timothy in his first letter, that God gave us a spirit not of fear, but of power and love and self-control. A lot of reasons to be fearful in this world. And as this hostility increases, I think the temptation upon us to make decisions based upon fear, I think that's going to increase. But the Word of God. can alleviate all such fears if we take him at his word. Let's pray and then we'll read this passage. Heavenly Father, we do come to you this morning. We ask that the word that you have recorded, that you delivered through Mark, would be delivered to us. We pray that we would have ears to hear it this morning, and eyes to see it, and a heart that would receive your truth, because we know it is by your truth that we are sanctified. By your truth we are changed, and by your truth we are set free from all the power of the devil, and then even the power of fear. And so we ask that you would be gracious to us, that your word would be upon us and would bear fruit within us. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Mark 9, beginning in verse 30. They went on from there, Jesus and His disciples, and they passed through Galilee. And He did not want anyone to know, because He was teaching His disciples. And 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." FDR's words back in March 4th of 1933 have become immortalized Franklin Delano Roosevelt was on the stage addressing not just the country, but addressing the world. And his fifth sentence began like this. First of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. Nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance." Those are memorable words, aren't they? We have nothing to fear but fear itself. I think it's memorable because it espouses to give an answer to the very problem that it brings up. I've thought about that saying this week. I've thought about what he was trying to say, and it has left me scratching my head. The only thing we have to fear is fear? What in the world is he really trying to say by making such a memorable statement? So I went on and I read the rest of his speech, and I tried to dig into what he was saying there. And as I read the rest of his address, it became very clear to me That he was arguing that if you don't support him, well, it's because you're afraid. If you don't support him, it's because you're living in fear. I found it fascinating, that line of reasoning. Very manipulative, but fascinating. But also very effective. He was picking up on a human condition. That we all live having to deal with this temptation to be afraid. Fear is a reality in this life. And this is perhaps the thing that jumped out at me most from our passage this morning. As I was reading our text, it kind of is bringing us to this powerful place where the disciples were at, where they were afraid. And at first glance it doesn't make any sense. Why were the disciples afraid? Why were the disciples so afraid that they didn't even want to address to Jesus their fears? You know, the book of Mark is littered with people coming up to Jesus and asking him questions, right? The father of the demon-possessed son came up, Jesus, if you can do anything, help my son, right? The Syrophoenician woman came up to Jesus and asked Jesus, Jesus, can you cast the demon out of my daughter? The Pharisees asked Jesus for a sign to prove himself. They also asked Jesus, well why do your disciples eat with defiled hands? Near the Decapolis, people used to come up to Jesus asking for healings. They asked Jesus to heal a deaf and a mute man. The demon legion, the demons even asked Jesus, can we go over into those pigs over there? Jesus was approachable. People all the time were coming and asking Jesus questions. The disciples themselves were even coming and asking Jesus questions. The disciples asked Jesus, why did the scribes say that Elijah has to come first? They asked Jesus, should we go and buy 200 denarii worth of food to feed all these people? During the storm, when they're in the boat, the disciples say, teacher, don't you even care that we're about to die? There's a pattern in Mark. People are always coming and asking Jesus questions, and yet here, the disciples are so afraid of something that their lips are zipped shut. What was different this time? What were they so afraid of that they couldn't go and ask Jesus about it? I think there's a couple of options. possible options that would answer this. First of all, I think possibly the apostles here might have been afraid to ask Jesus because of a rebuke that they might receive. Once bitten, twice shy. Heard that saying? It wasn't too long ago. In fact, it was the last time that Jesus brought up the fact that he was going to suffer. Peter took Jesus aside, and Peter began to rebuke Jesus. Jesus, that can't happen to you, so quit talking about that. You can't suffer. You're the Messiah. And instead of Jesus listening to Peter's rebuke, Jesus turns right around and rebukes Peter. Get behind me, Satan. It was a stinging rebuke. I mean, can you think of something more dreadful to have Jesus say to you than to call you Satan? It was crushing, right? And so it didn't go very well. Last time they expressed their inability to understand what Jesus was saying. And so fear of another rebuke might have been driving them to be quiet. But there could have been another option. Another object for their fear could have been disappointment. They didn't want to let Jesus down yet again. Again, not too long ago, they're on a boat. Jesus told them, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. And they didn't get it. They started discussing amongst themselves what's Jesus talking about, right? Is he bringing up the fact that we only have one loaf of bread here, and we're going to have to go buy more bread, and are we going to go buy some bread that's been contaminated with the leaven of the Pharisees? And so they're asking themselves, and Jesus answers them. This is Mark 8, 17. He says, why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Having eyes, do you not see? Having ears, do you not hear? Do you not remember? Right? They heard the disappointment in Jesus' voice at that point. Right? Because they didn't understand. And now, here it is again. They're in this place. They don't understand what Jesus is trying to say. Would Jesus be disappointed in them again? Because they don't get it? I mean, it's kind of like how a student won't ask their teacher a question because their teachers expressed disappointment to them once before. I've gone over this with you time and time again and yet you don't get it? So it could be a fear of disappointing Jesus. The third object is just their fear of shame. The lingo we might use today would be something like this, well I don't want to look like the idiot this time. Right? Can you imagine some of the other peoples? Well, Peter has said some dumb things in the past, and Jesus called him out. Well, I don't want to be the dumb guy this time, so I'm just going to keep my mouth shut. So it's possible. There's this fear of shame that is driving them to be quiet. By the way, is there ever a stupid question? Of course not. Teachers say that all the time. There's no such thing as a stupid question. And so while these three objects are options, puke, disappointment, shame, and I think we could all relate to this in some way, shape, or form, right, to these things, I think perhaps it's this fourth thing that was truly the object of their fear here. See, sometimes people are afraid of truth. We've all heard the saying, sticks and stones might break my bones, but words will never hurt me. By experience, we know that's not true, don't we? Words do hurt us. And in fact, it's often the words that are true that are the words that are most hurtful to us. Jesus says something to his disciples that he hasn't said to them before. Look at verse 31 with me. The Son of Man is going to be delivered up into the hands of men and they will kill Him. And when He is killed after three days, He will rise. He's talked about them killing Him before. About suffering at the hands of men before. He's brought that up before. But there is something new that He is adding here. It's this phrase, the Son of Man is going to be delivered. or the Son of Man is going to be handed over. The Greek idea carries the idea of surrendering over. Think of what we might call extradition today. What happens when there is an extradition? A person in one place under one authority is being handed over to somebody in another place with another authority. And sometimes this extradition happens between government agencies. Sometimes it happens between states. Sometimes it even happens between countries, right? We have extradition treaties with a number of other countries around the world. So Jesus is saying about himself, he is going to be handed over There's going to be an extradition of sorts. He's going to be surrendered over. And there are two things about this, about this word that must have really pierced into the heart of the disciples when they hear Jesus say that. And the first thing is the very nature of this being handed over. It implies that someone with greater authority than Jesus, and greater power than Jesus is going to be handing him over. Now, who in the world could that possibly be? Who has the power and authority to hand Jesus over? Well, if Jesus is indeed the Messiah, as the disciples believed he was, then we have to say it can't be the Romans, right? Because the Messiah is going to come and rescue the Jews from the Romans. So the Messiah has to have more power than the Romans. So it can't be the Romans who are going to be handing Jesus over. So what are the other options? Well, maybe it was the demons. Maybe it was the devil. Well, if we say that, we again run into a problem, don't we? Because Jesus has already exercised his power over the kingdom of demons. On numerous occasions, Jesus has cast out demons. The demons come running when they see Jesus. They have no power and authority over him. So what other options are there? Who's left but God Himself? The God of Israel. The faithful God. The true God. The God of benevolence. The God of kindness and goodness. The God who defends the orphans and the widows. The God who welcomes soldiers. And the God who welcomes strangers. The God who is just and pure and holy. The God in whom no evil exists. Jesus, are you saying this God is going to hand you over? Doesn't seem right. And the disciple's mind only gets worse the more they think about this concept of handing over. Because the second thing that pierces their hearts is that Jesus was being handed over. It's a specific courtroom language that Jesus is using here. The jury came back on Friday night with a guilty verdict for Michael Draca. At some point, what's going to happen? The Pinellas Jail is going to hand him over to the Florida prison system. Why? So that his punishment might be carried out. So God Almighty is going to hand Jesus over in accordance with God's own legal statutes and Jesus will be punished according to the law? Jesus, is that what you're really saying here? Again, you can see the disciples must be thinking, this can't be right. At every turn and at every conflict, Jesus has won all the legal battles. He has demonstrated his understanding of the law of God to be far superior to the best minds of the day. The Pharisees can't compare with Christ. And Jesus has shown himself in every aspect of the law to be perfect, to be blameless. So how can God legally hand Jesus over for punishment? And not just any punishment, but the worst punishment there is the sentence of death and execution. Jesus, how can this be? How can you be handed over? Now, we know the answer today, don't we? We know of God's covenant of grace, where Christ himself is going to be the substitute for the covenant breakers. And so the punishment that Christ bears will not be the consequence of his own sin, but it will be the consequences and the punishment of the elect, of those whom he has come to save. But at this point, everything in the disciples is screaming out, this can't be true, Jesus. Jesus, there's no one like you. You are kind, you're compassionate, but you're also powerful. You're the Messiah that's going to rescue God's people. You're more powerful than the demons. They obey your voice. You know the law better than everyone else. You've never broken a single commandment, Jesus. This just can't be true. Can you see why the disciples might have been afraid of the truth at this point? What Jesus was saying to them was life-shattering. There are only two conclusions that they can come to. Either what they believed about Jesus was wrong, or what they believed about the Messiah was wrong. And in either case, then they were going to have to say, well, we just lived the last two years of our life as a waste. And not only have our years of following Jesus been a waste, but we've been following a guy who's a fraud. And we've been doing his work. We've been promoting him. And so now we're complicit. I mean, you can almost imagine the disciples putting their hands over their ears and saying, no, no, no, Jesus. We don't want to think about this. We don't want to hear your words. We don't want to even ask you what you just said. See, truth can be painful, can't it? It can cut deeply. It can turn our world upside down. It can reveal things that we never wanted to see the light. Truth can reveal our weaknesses. It can reveal our failures. It can even reveal our unbelief. Let me give you an example of how I've seen this play out locally. Over the years, I've listened on the radio And several local pastors of large congregations on the radio, they've come right out and said, predestination, election, those things are heresy. I've thought, how can they say that? I've asked myself, how are they able to come out and say that? Have they not read Ephesians chapter 1? Or Galatians chapter 1 as we saw in Sunday school this morning? Have they not listened to what Paul said in Romans chapter 9? I mean, it appears to me that the Bible is incredibly clear about unconditional election. If they'd just bother to let the Bible speak for itself. But I begin to think about what they say. And what happens to their worldview if unconditional election is true? It would mean that our salvation is not because of our decision, right? In other words, I'm not saved because I accept Jesus, but rather because Jesus in eternity past accepted me. See, here's where the fear comes in. Assurance comes because of what I decided to do, then if my actions are stripped away, where's my assurance? How do I know I'm saved if I can't trust in my decisions? How do I know that I am saved and that I'm not just fooling myself if I don't have a piece of paper that says, on such and such a date, I accepted Jesus? If that's stripped away from the foundation of my faith, well, what else is left for me? Christ Jesus? Right? If Jesus decides in eternity past whom he's going to save, what's the flip side of that? Well, what about those whom he hasn't chosen for salvation? What do we do with that? Right? Did Jesus just pass over them? Did Jesus leave them as they are? Did Jesus just allow them to continue in their wayward path? Did He just allow them to continue in their rebellion and in their sin? If He's not going to save them, did He just allow them to be as they are? The answer is yes, He passed over them. I think this is what Romans chapter 9 is talking about, isn't it? What if God made two kinds of people? Out of the same lump of clay, right? Out of the same fallen simple lump of humanity, what if God made two different kinds of people? One kind of person for an honorable use that would bring Him glory, and one kind of person for a less honorable use. And what if God decided to show His wrath and to make known his power? And what if he decided to do that and so he endured with much patience these vessels of wrath who were preparing themselves for their own destruction? What if he was patient towards them? And what if he was patient towards them in order to demonstrate to the vessels of mercy what his mercy looks like? What if God did that? Or do we respond? Wow! Just like Paul, right? Wow! To God be the glory! For great things He has done. And saving anyone from their sins. Truth can expose things, can't it? Truth can expose beliefs that might cause us a lot of pain. What if our wayward loved ones belong to that second group of people? Or to that first group of people that God created for less than honorable purposes? What if my wayward loved one belongs to that group? Boy, you want to talk about truth that causes pain? Isn't that it? But on the flip side, what if my wayward loved one is a vessel of mercy? What if they are to be one of the people that God is going to save from themselves? Then no matter how hard they fight, no matter how angry they get at God, and how rebellious they get at God, guess what? He's going to have His way with them, isn't He? He's going to bring them to a knowledge of He's going to change their heart. He's going to open their eyes. He's going to allow them to behold Jesus the crucified as their Lord and Savior. See, again, the truth is this. If God didn't elect anyone for salvation, no one would be saved, would they? If God didn't choose to make some people the object of His mercy, then we would all be objects of wrath, as Ephesians chapter 2 says. Right? It's God who saves. Not 99%, 100%. Therefore, when we think about our wayward loved ones, we find ourselves in a very good place, don't we? Because we're not looking to our loved ones to make the right decision. Instead, we are looking to the Lord Jesus Christ to reveal Himself and to save them. as he sees fit. The truth of election, I think, is sweetness to the soul. But you have to deal with what is true, even if it causes pain. A doctor's scalpel can cause much pain, but in the end, what's it bring? Health and healing. This is where the disciples were. Jesus had just told them what is true. And it's more truth than He had previously told them. And they didn't like it at first. And their response to what Jesus said was great fear. And what were the consequences of this fear? What was going to happen to them? Because the truth that He presented to them aroused these feelings of fear. What was going to happen to them because of this? Well, there's a series of things that are going to take place because of this fear. There's a chain of events that fear sets in motion. You all know the Star Wars series. 95% of the theology that we find in Star Wars is wrong. It's anti-biblical. But on occasion, like blind squirrel finds a nut, so Yoda gets things right once in a while. In Phantom Menace, Yoda is talking with young Anakin. Anakin becomes Darth Vader. And Yoda is warning him. Yoda says to him, fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger, and anger leads to hate, and hate leads to suffering. Wow, Yoda. Good job. You got one right. Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear begins a process that ends in devastation. Notice what happens first in our text. They were afraid of what? They were afraid, and what did they not do? They were afraid to ask Jesus a question. They were afraid to speak up. The first thing that fear does is it produces silence. Silence either in this case of words, but sometimes fear produces silence in actions, right? People are so afraid they're paralyzed to act. Here, they're paralyzed to speak. What happens next? If somebody is afraid to speak, they're afraid to speak up, they're afraid to ask questions, what does that result in? The result is ignorance. Continued ignorance. Rather than speaking up and getting answers to the question, rather than being guided in what is true, they remain silent. And in this silence, they remain ignorant. They remain in this condition of not knowing what is true. and therefore not knowing how to act in accordance with what is true. You know what happens to people who don't know the truth? You know what happens to people who remain in ignorance? I think Hosea chapter 4 is a great explanation of this. Hosea chapter 4 verse 1 begins, Hear the word of the Lord, right? Gather knowledge. Children of Israel for the Lord has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land. There is no faithfulness or steadfast love Because there is no knowledge of God in the land God's got issue with the people of Israel and That problem that God has begins with their ignorance, but it goes on Down in verse 6. He says my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. If silence leads to continued ignorance, where does ignorance lead? Jesus said the exact opposite in John 8 31. You know this scripture very well, I think. Jesus said, if you abide in my word, if you abide in the place of knowledge, if you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples and you will know what? You will know the truth and the truth will set you free. It'll set you free. When Jesus said this to the Pharisees, remember their immediate reaction? They said, oh no, Jesus, we're free. We're children of Abraham. We've never been enslaved. Was that true? Of course not. Their history is one of being delivered into slavery and having to be rescued. Think of the process of judges, right? Rebellion, retribution. Repentance. Rescue. Repeat. Right? Their history was one of falling into slavery. We've never been slaves, Jesus. They didn't know the truth. And of course, they couldn't see the truth because they themselves were slaves, weren't they? They were slaves to unrighteousness. They were slaves to self-righteousness. Ignorance leads to enslavement. If you want a modern-day example, look down in Venezuela. Look at the ignorance of the people to embrace that communist system, and look what's become of them. Silence leads to ignorance. Ignorance leads to enslavement. But it doesn't have to There is hope that this process, this progression towards destruction, it can be stopped. In fact, there are two people in Mark where we see this chain of events stop right in the middle. The first is John the Baptist. He goes to prison. And you remember what John the Baptist says. He sends a question to Jesus. Jesus, are you the Christ or is there another one yet to come? What is John doing? Right? He's got doubts. I'd be surprised if there weren't some fears lurking in his mind somewhere. But instead of remaining silent, he speaks up. And he gets the truth back from Jesus. And he's delivered from that fear. From that ignorance. And the second happened just last week in Mark chapter 9. Right? In the failure of the disciples to cast out the demon. Right? The doubts, the questions. Maybe Jesus can't even cast out this demon. And so Jesus shows up on the scene and says, what's going on? And the father, rather than remaining silent, the father says, hey Jesus, let me tell you what's happened. I brought my son to the disciples to cast out this demon. And they couldn't do it. Jesus was happening. He spoke up. And in so doing, Jesus spoke the truth to them. And he believed the truth. And the truth set him free. If you have a chance to read the stories of Mark Sanford, you've heard his name perhaps in Christian news lately. He was a songwriter for Hillsong. He has recently come out as saying he's abandoned the faith. He is turning his back on Christianity. If you read all the things that he has put out, one of the things you will see is that he kept silent. He had doubts. He had questions. But he didn't search for answers. And he claims that there aren't answers to what he was dealing with. But guess what? That's not the truth. There are answers. Everything, says Peter, that we need for life and godliness is found where? In the knowledge of Jesus Christ. The answers are there. He just didn't go looking for them. Or he put himself in a context or in a church environment that doesn't look for answers. And so when he had doubts, he had nowhere to go. Eventually, where he ended up is the trajectory that the disciples were on, if they remained silent. Our sin gives way to more sin, and eventually a break happens. Enslavement leads to, and is in fact, a loss of communion. Just think of the marriage relationship. What happens if a spouse is afraid to say something to their spouse? What happens if they are silent instead of addressing something that needs to be addressed? What happens in that marriage relationship? Cracks begin to form. A wall begins to get built. So it is with Jesus. If we have doubts, if we have questions, and if we don't seek answers, those doubts will become a prison, which will eventually lead to separation and estrangement from communion with Jesus Christ. Our relationship with Christ will suffer where there is. So fear to silence, silence to ignorance, ignorance to enslavement, enslavement to estrangement, and estrangement to devastation or destruction. See, these are not little or sequential results of fear, are they? If you're afraid of something, get the truth. Because the truth will set you free. Expose yourself, ask yourself perhaps these questions, what if? Ask yourself that time, what if something happens to me? What if I lose my job? What if I lose my spouse? What if I lose my income? What if I lose my health? What if I lose my child? What if? that will lead you to the place where you can explore, am I afraid of something? Now our text here leaves us at this point. Our text leaves us at the place where the disciples are afraid, so they don't ask Jesus questions. Now next week we're going to see how this fear was actually a fertilizer for more sin. We're going to get into some other sins next week. But I don't want you all to walk away in ignorance this morning. There is an answer to fear. And that answer is found in Jesus's very words to his disciples. The disciples were afraid because of bad things, the hard things that Jesus said to them. They were afraid of being handed over mint. They were afraid of their Lord, their beloved, their friend being crucified. Of him being killed. They only saw the negative in what Jesus said, and they completely missed the positive. What was the positive in what Jesus said? After three days, you will rise. Boy, there's a fountain of hope here. We could dig in for years into this, right? We could swim down into the depths of this statement that Jesus just made and never reach the bottom. The judgment and sentence of death is not final. It's amazing, isn't it? For everyone else, judgment of sin and death is final, but not for Jesus. The idea that someone is more powerful than Him, that doesn't hold water. Who is more powerful than Him? Only Christ. He's the Lord of life. And if Jesus overcomes the power of the law to condemn for us who are in Christ, what's that mean? There is now no condemnation for those who are in Jesus Christ, right? And if Jesus has overcome the power of death, if Jesus has overcome that, then for those of us who are in Christ, guess what? What are we going to do? We're going to overcome death someday, aren't we? What is your only comfort in life and in death, right? Didn't we just read that somewhere? I'm not my own, but belong with body and soul both in life and death to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ, and He has fully paid for all my sins with His precious blood and has set me free from what? From all the power of the devil. Here's the answer to fear. It is the gospel of Jesus Christ, isn't it? Perfect love drives out fear. He who loved us so much, that what? He became sin for us. Bore our penalty for us. That's the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now Peter would eventually learn this, wouldn't he? All the disciples would learn this except for Judas, right? What did Judas do? Ended up in devastation, destruction. Freedom, Peter learns from fear and from doubt and from ignorance is found only in the Lord Jesus Christ. I want to Close by reading to you 2 Peter chapter 1. Turn over there with me. 2 Peter chapter 1. Verses 3 through 8. His divine power has granted to us all things pertaining to life and godliness. Where? Where do we find all things pertaining to life and godliness? Through the knowledge of Him, through the knowledge of Christ, who called us to His own glory and excellence, by which, in the knowledge He has granted to us, His precious and very great promises. So that through the promises, we may become partakers, or we might be able to commune with the divine, having escaped the corruption that is in this world because of simple desire. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith. To supplement our faith with what? Make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, not ignorance, but knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, or good habits, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. 4, verse 8, for if these qualities are yours and are increasing, what do we get to enjoy? If these qualities are yours and increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. If Peter and John and James and the other disciples had continued in their silence, If Christ had left them in their ignorance, if they did not increase in their knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, do you think they would have been fruitful in following Him? The answer is absolutely not. It's precisely because they increased in their faith, it is precisely because they increased in their knowledge, and increased in their Christ-likeness, that they followed after Jesus. and we're able to bear much fruit. We're going to bear fruit for Christ. We have to speak up. We can't remain in our doubts, in our fears. We have to ask questions. We have to say, this is what's concerning me. And we have to look to Christ. for all things, to lead us in wisdom and in knowledge and in godliness. And we'll delight to see Him producing on us the things that satisfy Him. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we do thank You for Your Word. We thank You that You did not leave Your disciples forever in this state of ignorance and in this state of fear. You did deal with it. Lord, we pray that if we have fears and where we have fears, that you would show us those things of which we are afraid. But more than that, Lord, give us eyes to look upon Christ. Give us ears to hear the word of truth, the promises that he has granted to us. That we would not be afraid, but rather that we might increase in our union and communion with you. That we would find you all the more delightful to our souls. Be merciful, be gracious to us, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.