Mark 10:32-45 God Alone Receives the Dead
The Text
Mark 10:32-45 (CSB) 32 They were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them. The disciples were astonished, but those who followed him were afraid. Taking the Twelve aside again, he began to tell them the things that would happen to him.
33 “See, we are going up to Jerusalem. The Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death. Then they will hand him over to the Gentiles,
34 and they will mock him, spit on him, flog him, and kill him, and he will rise after three days.”
35 James and John, the sons of Zebedee, approached him and said, “Teacher, we want you to do whatever we ask you.”
36 “What do you want me to do for you?” he asked them.
37 They answered him, “Allow us to sit at your right and at your left in your glory.”
38 Jesus said to them, “You don’t know what you’re asking. Are you able to drink the cup I drink or to be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?”
39 “We are able,” they told him. Jesus said to them, “You will drink the cup I drink, and you will be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with.
40 But to sit at my right or left is not mine to give; instead, it is for those for whom it has been prepared.”
41 When the ten disciples heard this, they began to be indignant with James and John.
42 Jesus called them over and said to them, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those in high positions act as tyrants over them.
43 But it is not so among you. On the contrary, whoever wants to become great among you will be your servant,
44 and whoever wants to be first among you will be a slave to all.
45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
The Devotion
The kingdom of God is complete opposite of the world.
The world is desperate for riches. Our God owns the cattle on 10,000 hills.
Psalms 16:5-6 (CSB) LORD, you are my portion and my cup of blessing; you hold my future. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.
The world yearns for fame and influence. The world wants to be changed from the outside in. God is the only one can transform and rebirth us into actual, true life and life everlasting.
1 John 5:1 (CSB) Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father also loves the one born of him.
The world craves for power. We have no need for it because we have the Almighty God who dwells in us who sits on the eternal throne as the King of king and Lord of lords who alone will raise up kings and bring them back low.
Daniel 2:21 (CSB) He changes the times and seasons; he removes kings and establishes kings. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding.
If this is the kingdom of God and this is the mark of his people, why would we content with anything of this earth.
God receives you but you have to die. You have to die to yourself, your ways, your idols, and your sin.
You and I have to die for us to be in the kingdom of God. We must be born again. There is no other choice.