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.
The Discussion
1. What are your idols?
2. What are wanting that is not like God?
3. What are you hoping God gives you that is not God himself?
4. Do we have a little time here on earth or a long time here on earth?
The Prayer from the Psalms
Psalm 7 (CSB)
A Shiggaion of David, which he sang to the LORD concerning the words of Cush, a Benjaminite.
1 LORD my God, I seek refuge in you; save me from all my pursuers and rescue me,
2 or they will tear me like a lion, ripping me apart with no one to rescue me.
3 LORD my God, if I have done this, if there is injustice on my hands,
4 if I have done harm to one at peace with me or have plundered my adversary without cause,
5 may an enemy pursue and overtake me; may he trample me to the ground and leave my honor in the dust. Selah
6 Rise up, LORD, in your anger; lift yourself up against the fury of my adversaries; awake for me; you have ordained a judgment.
7 Let the assembly of peoples gather around you; take your seat on high over it.
8 The LORD judges the peoples; vindicate me, LORD, according to my righteousness and my integrity.
9 Let the evil of the wicked come to an end, but establish the righteous. The one who examines the thoughts and emotions is a righteous God.
10 My shield is with God, who saves the upright in heart.
11 God is a righteous judge and a God who shows his wrath every day.
12 If anyone does not repent, he will sharpen his sword; he has strung his bow and made it ready.
13 He has prepared his deadly weapons; he tips his arrows with fire.
14 See, the wicked one is pregnant with evil, conceives trouble, and gives birth to deceit.
15 He dug a pit and hollowed it out but fell into the hole he had made.
16 His trouble comes back on his own head; his own violence comes down on top of his head.
17 I will thank the LORD for his righteousness; I will sing about the name of the LORD Most High.
It might feel like the world is against me. I might feel like I am a being persecuted. But the real battle is not the world versus me but rather, my own sin and my own iniquities versus the spirit inside of me.
Dear God, my very best works and all of my good deeds before you are nothing more than used menstrual rags and bags of crap. I got nothing else in my hands—this is the best I can do.
My sin is my own and no one else’s.
My iniquities belong to me and no one else is to blame.
And yet, you called out to me—you called out to me in your sweet love, in your perfect kindness, in your never-ending mercies, and unchanging grace. You called to me!
Where else can I turn to? If I go away from you, then I am far from you. Far from my desires from my new heart—the new heart that you gave me. Clearly, that is not the answer.
Or if I turn to other things of the world, even good and great things from you, they fail time and time again to fill the hole in my heart.
What other direction can I turn other than to you?
Yes, in your direction, your wrath is terrible, your punishment is swift, and your just is perfect.
But in your direction, is my only salvation because you alone have saved me.
God, do you want you must to save me to you and keep me to you. Here is my trust: not in what I have done but in what you have done.
I have nothing but you, God. Keep me.
In your Son’s name, I pray.
Amen.
The Resources
Calvin’s Commentaries.
by John Calvin.
Baker. 2009.
Olive Tree
Mark: An Expositional Commentary
by R.C. Sproul.
Reformation Trust Publisher. 2011.
Goodreads
New Testament Commentary: Exposition of the Gospel According to Mark
by William Hendriksen.
Baker. 1981.
Goodreads
The Gospel according to Mark: The English Text With Introduction, Exposition, and Notes (The New International Commentary on the New Testament)
by William L. Lane.
Eerdman’s. 1974.
Goodreads
Mark (Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, NT Volume 2)
Edited by Thomas C. Odin & Christopher A. Hall
IVP Academic. 2005.
Goodreads
Mark (The Story of God Bible Commentary Series)
by Timothy G. Gombis.
Zondervan Academic. March 9th 2021.
Goodreads