What do I know with Isaac Carroll
What do I know with Isaac Carroll
The Radical Call: Jesus on Marriage, Wealth, and Humility in Mark 10
Ever felt torn between what God's Word clearly says and what feels right in your heart? In this raw and deeply personal exploration of Mark chapter 10, we confront some of Jesus' most challenging teachings head-on.
The journey begins with Jesus' uncompromising stance on divorce and remarriage—words that once tore at my own heart as a man who has experienced multiple marriages. I share my painful struggle with these passages and how I found resolution without compromising Scripture's authority. This honest testimony reveals a profound truth many modern believers miss: God prioritizes our holiness over our happiness.
We then explore Jesus' surprising emphasis on childlike faith. When the disciples tried to prevent children from approaching Jesus, He became indignant. But what exactly does it mean to "receive the kingdom like a child"? The answer isn't childish innocence but radical dependence—a complete reliance on God that modern self-sufficiency resists.
The rich young ruler's encounter with Jesus further illustrates how our attachments—whether to wealth, status, or comfort—can become obstacles to true discipleship. While this man kept all the commandments, his wealth had become his identity and security. Jesus loved him enough to challenge him directly, revealing how cultural assumptions about prosperity as divine blessing can distort our spiritual perspective.
Finally, we witness James and John's audacious request for positions of honor, exposing how deeply human nature craves significance. Jesus responds by completely inverting worldly values: "Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant." This upside-down kingdom—where the first become last and the last become first—challenges everything our achievement-oriented culture celebrates.
Whether you're wrestling with difficult scriptural teachings, struggling to surrender cherished possessions, or seeking true significance, this study invites you to embrace the radical, counter-cultural heart of Jesus' message. Join us as we discover that authentic discipleship isn't about enhancing our current lifestyle but about complete reorientation toward God's priorities.
May God bless you and lead you always.
Welcome to the podcast. I'm Isaac Carroll, and this is what Do I Know. All right, in today's Bible study we're going to be Mark the 10th chapter, and we're going to begin at verse 1. And he left there and went to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan, and crowds gathered to him. Again and again, as was his custom, he taught them. And Pharisees came up and, in order to test him, him asked is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife? He answered them what did moses command you? They said.
Speaker 1:Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and to send her away. Because of the hardness of your hearts, he wrote this commandment, but from the beginning of creation, god made them male and female. Therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh, so they are no longer two but one flesh. What, therefore? God has joined together? Let no man separate. And in the house, the disciples asked him again about this matter, and he said to them Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her. And if whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her. And if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery. All right, let's stop here at verse 12. I don't think Christians truly understand how much God hates divorce. Being a man who has been married three times, it pays me greatly. Being a man who has been married three times, it pays me greatly. I've had to ask myself some tough questions, especially early on.
Speaker 1:When I first came to the Lord, I had to be reading this same passage that was repeated in Luke, luke 16 and 18. It says anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery, and any who marry a divorced woman commits adultery. Now it didn't matter that I felt justified or not justified in my divorces. The very fact that I married a woman who had been divorced says that I'm an adulterer. My wife that I am married to now was married before. Because I married her, who had been divorced, it makes me an adulterer.
Speaker 1:And when I had come to the Lord actually we had come to the Lord together at the same time, we started going to church and I became radically saved. You know that, radically saved, that you just want to change everything about yourself to please God. You're digging diligently into His Word because you want to know Him more and more. That radically change that comes upon you when you just I don't know. It just changes you when you become saved, and I was radically saved.
Speaker 1:I just wanted everything in my life to be about God and I came upon this passage and I felt my heart tear in my chest because it convicted me. I mean, this is what Jesus said in his own words that any man who marries a woman who's been divorced is committing adultery. And I'm like Lord, I feel like you've brought me and this woman together and we're coming together to you and now you're going to tear us apart by your word. And I didn't understand and it grieved me greatly and, trust me, I tried to justify that fact in my head that God had brought us together and we were a new family, and I tried to justify it any means I could in and of myself of why God allowed the fact that we were together. But it just kept coming back. It just, it kept eating at me the conviction. It kept eating at me and I needed to know.
Speaker 1:I needed to know what God said about it and why God would allow this, because I didn't understand and people would say, oh, god's love, that makes no sense. God doesn't want you to just leave your wife. Well, you haven't spent much time in his word. If that's what you think. There's a precedence for this in the Old Testament. God's not about your happiness, he's about your holiness. And I think that's a problem with Christians today is that we believe that God wants us to be happy, just be happy. That is not true at all. It's not that God doesn't want you to be happy, but he wants you to be holy first, above all things. And God knows that life is tough and if we pursue happiness, we're going to be pursuing the pleasures of the world to make ourselves happy and not holiness, not pleasures of the world to make ourselves happy and not holiness, not separation from the world. And, like I said, this was eating at me and I needed to know why. God would bring us together into the church and bring us closer together as a family, and then this would come up to rip us apart. But I knew that if I was going to continue my relationship with God, then I had to be able to put my wife away and, like I said, this grieved me greatly and I knew it would tear our family apart and I knew there would be animosity against God and maybe in myself and surely in my wife. It didn't make sense. Then, thankfully, thank God, I was brought to this scripture in 1 Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 7 and 20.
Speaker 1:Each one of you should remain in the situation he was in when he was called. All right, so me and my wife were called. We were called into salvation together. We were called in salvation in a blended marriage, a blended family. We had both been divorced before and we both had kids from other relationships, and we were together. And that's when we were called. We were called to salvation in this situation. And this passage is what truly changed my situation, because I knew God did not bring me and my wife together and into salvation just to rip us apart, that he had made provision for us to be together.
Speaker 1:And people will say, well, jesus didn't judge the woman at the well. No, he didn't. He didn't judge the woman at the well. He called out her sin, though, but he didn't judge her. Jesus says I didn't come in the world to judge but to save.
Speaker 1:But if we love God and we truly want to seek after him and what his word says, then what his word says must. It must mean something to us. It must. We must hold to it, and if we hold to it, then it's going to. It's going to make us question decisions in our life. It's going to make us question our motives and why we do what we do. It should, otherwise we're no different than the world. And like I don't want to I've said this before I don't want to put myself in the same shoes as Abraham, but I felt that same. I don't know that same measure, if that makes sense.
Speaker 1:Abraham was called to sacrifice Isaac, his son, the son that God had given him. I felt like God had asked me to sacrifice my marriage, my wife, my family, and I had to be willing to do so. Abraham had to be willing to do so. Abraham had to be willing to do so. We really truly, if we love God, be willing to give up anything and everything for the sake of God. He should come first, he should be above all things, and that might seem radical to some people, but shouldn't Christianity be radical? Shouldn't our pursuit of God be radical? I would think so. All right, let's continue at verse 13.
Speaker 1:And they were bringing children to him that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them, but when Jesus saw it. He became indignant and said to them Let the children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it. And he took them into his arms and he blessed them, laying his hands on them. And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said to him why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not defraud, honor your father and your mother. And he said to him Teacher, all these things I have kept from my youth. And Jesus, looking at him, loved him. And he said to him you lack one thing. Go and sell all that you have and give it to the poor, and you will have treasures in heaven. And come and follow me.
Speaker 1:Disheartened by the saying, he went away, sorrowful, for he had great possessions. And Jesus looked around and said to the disciples how difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God. And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. And they were exceedingly astonished. And they said to him Then, who can be saved? Jesus looked at them and said With man it is impossible, but not with God, for all things are possible with God. Jesus looked at them and said Peter began to say to him. Jesus said sister or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time of houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children's and lands and persecutions in the age to come, eternal life? But many who are first will be last in the last, first. All right, let's stop here at verse 31. Looks like this entire chapter is about putting God first, which every chapter should be.
Speaker 1:We have the disciples trying to stop little children from being brought to Jesus. Why? Why are they trying to stop the little children from being brought to Jesus? Well, there are several opinions out there and theories to why this is. One is that kids are not usually in need of healing and they're not usually weighted down with their sins, not like adults are, and with kids, they're to show respect for their elders by waiting in line. The order of a house is always the oldest father first. Jesus looks at his disciples and he becomes indignant with them because they were trying to stop the children and he says that unless you receive the kingdom of God like this child, you will no wise enter into it.
Speaker 1:There are many things about children that are unique. One is their reliance on their parents. They have faith in their parents when they know that their parents are going to look out for them. They know their parents are going to feed them. They rely on their parents for everything. We rely on God for everything, no matter what we do. We don't look at our value. We don't look at our efforts in the family as a child. We look at what the family does for us and our dependence on it, and we're supposed to look at God the same way.
Speaker 1:In a household, a child is least in authority and importance, and this is what Jesus is telling us is important to God. This is how God wants us to be in his kingdom, because if everyone sees themselves as least, how much better would we treat each other, how much more honor would we give each other. But it takes everyone acting the same way, and this can only happen in the house of God. It can only happen in the family of God. It cannot happen outside of it. Because outside of the family of God everybody is of self-importance and we have to be different from the world Opposite.
Speaker 1:Actually, if you look at it, and then we come to the rich young ruler, this man comes to Jesus and he falls at his knees and he asked Jesus what good thing must I do? Jesus starts out his teaching by saying why do you call me good? There's only one who is good, and that's God above. What is this teaching the young man? The young man already thinks that he's a good man and Jesus is calling that out by saying there's only one who is good, and that's God above. So why do you see yourself as good? And then we go into understanding why the young man thought he was good. Because Jesus says you know the commandments Don't do certain things, don't kill, don't steal, don't judge, don't gossip, don't defraud, don't dishonor your mother and father.
Speaker 1:And the young man says all these things I've done since my youth, showing that he had a desire to honor God. It says Jesus loved him, but, knowing his lack, jesus says to him one thing you lack, go sell everything you own. Why did Jesus say this? So, sell everything you own. Why did Jesus say this? Well, in the Jewish nation, your wealth and your success to them showed you that you were pleasing to God, that you were honored by God, because God honors you with wealth. He honored you with success and it showed that you were closer to God because of what you had. And this is not a good teaching. And Jesus is trying to break that understanding in this young man's mind. The young man thought that his wealth is what showed that God was close to him, that God valued him, that God rewarded him with all these great things. And Jesus is breaking that understanding by saying if you truly want to be good, go sell everything you own and give it to the poor and rely on God and come and follow me. All right, let's continue. Verse 32.
Speaker 1: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 about to happen to him, saying see, we are going up to Jerusalem and the Son of man will be delivered over to the chief priest and to the scribes and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles and they will mock him and they will spit on him and flog him and kill him and after three days he will rise. 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 him Jesus said to them. They said to him we are. And Jesus said to them the cup that I drink, you will drink, and with the baptism which I am baptized, you will be baptized. But to sit at my right hand or sit at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those whom it has been prepared. And when the ten heard it, they became indignant at James and John, and Jesus called them to him and said to them All right, let's stop here at verse 45.
Speaker 1:Now I know James and John. They've had to be pretty important to Jesus and he took them everywhere along with Peter. And they must have been really comfortable with Jesus to ask him of this, because I couldn't even imagine. But they wanted to be great in his kingdom. And he says this would be odd to us. Are you capable of drinking the cup that I am to drink? Are you capable of being baptized with a baptism? I'm going to be baptized. Now, when we think of baptism, we think of water baptism, because when we baptize today, that's the baptism of which we're thinking. Because when we baptize today, that's the baptism of which we're thinking. But the baptism that he's talking about is his baptism of the cross of death, the cup of suffering that he was going to drink, the baptism of the cross. Now he wasn't referring to them being crucified like him, but suffering in the same way that he was going to suffer to experience that death.
Speaker 1:Jesus tells a parable in Luke 14 that explains the misguided thoughts of James and John. In Luke 14, started at verse 7, it says this when Jesus noticed how the guests chose the places of honor, he told them a parable when you are invited to a wedding banquet, do not sit in the place of honor In case someone more distinguished than you has been invited, then the host, who has invited both of you, will come and tell you give this man your seat and in humiliation, you will have to take the last place. James and John wanted to be who exalts themselves will be humbled. The one who humbles himself will be exalted. James and John wanted to be significant in the kingdom. They are very significant. They were close to Jesus, which kind of gave them the idea that they were of more importance than it showed their human nature.
Speaker 1:We go by our own importance or we go by our own idea of what is important, and this goes back to Jesus talking about to be like a child, to accept the kingdom of heaven as a child would accept it, one that is totally reliant on God and coming in as the least of importance, someone who's totally dependent. When we have that mindset and that attitude about ourself, we will rely on God for everything, and the word teaches us that the one who puts their hope in Jesus will never be put to shame. All right, I went a little over on this one. We're going to pick up at verse 46 in our next Bible study. Until then, god bless you guys. I love you. Goodbye.