Up The Mountain: Revolution Resistance (Week 18)

This Sunday, Lead Pastor Joe Valenti teaches that following Jesus means taking the narrow road of obedience, sacrifice, and trust, even when the path is difficult and costly. We learn that when we stop chasing comfort, status, and shortcuts and instead fix our eyes on Jesus and follow Him faithfully, He leads us through every trial and into eternal life.

PDF Resources: ( Sermon Notes | Study Guide )

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Good morning everyone. I know some of you are still reeling from the fact that your favorite chair is somewhere else. What has happened? Anarchy. So yeah, we are uh and it'll it's actually gonna be different next week. So surprise, surprise. Uh we're doing a couple things. A couple things you'll see we have uh our sound guys now are over in the back. Um you know these these speakers are pointed down to you, and our sound booth has historically been up, you know, in the in the top, and so it can be difficult to hear what we're trying to mix, and so we're trying to move some of that down. We're also uh we're trying to make space. Um the the 9.30 service was almost completely full. So we're we we tried a new arrangement so we can try and fit some more chairs in here. And we're gonna keep kind of playing with it. And so next week you'll have to sit in a different chair. Um and but but we will figure something out and we will lock it in so that you will know where to go uh very, very, very quickly. I also wanted to mention where we're headed in our in our preaching schedule because I think you'll be excited about it. Uh we're finishing this section of Mark this week. So we'll finish up chapter 10 today, and then we're actually not gonna revisit Mark until the beginning of the new year. So we'll come back to Mark and finish it in January of 27 because this last unit will lead us right up to Easter. So we'll actually be preaching through the crucifixion and the resurrection as we as we come up to Easter. That leaves the summer and the fall. So next week we'll begin a short summer series in the book of Titus called The Good Life, and then September 1, we're gonna start preaching through the book of Revelation. So I know, I know, everybody was every like 9.30, the whole room was like. So now is the time, and we're gonna we're gonna do it. I I am thoroughly convinced that no one has heard my sermon this morning because all the conversation in the foyer has been about the fact that we're gonna preach Revelation. So that I don't know if that speaks to my to my uh my ability to keep people's attention or not, but um we'll be in Revelation and uh excited about what the Lord has for us there. More news about how we're gonna approach it and all that stuff will be coming in months ahead. But for now, we're still in Mark. And we're in Mark chapter 10, and I want to begin with a portion from John Bunyan's 1678 story, The Pilgrim's Progress. The Pilgrim's Progress is an allegorical story, and it is intended to kind of tell the story of the Christian life. The main character of the story is actually his name is Christian, and he comes across several obstacles and people and scenarios that we come across in the Christian life, and we're intended to watch Christian and see how he responds. Well, in the third movement, Christian comes up to this giant mountain, and the mountain is called the Hill Difficulty. And here's what he says The hill, though high, I covet to ascend. The difficulty will not me offend. For I perceive the way to life lies here. Come, pluck up heart, let's neither faint nor fear. Better, though difficult, the right way to go, than wrong, though easy, where the end is woe. Christian can tell that the path that leads to the celestial city, which is in this story the um the kind of name for heaven or eternity in God's presence. He can tell that the path to the celestial city leads up this hill difficulty. Now there are two other guys that he meets, and they're at the bottom of the mountain, and they see two other paths that are going around the mountain, and they say, Well, why why wouldn't we just take these paths? They clearly lead around to the same spot, and it'll be far easier. So they scoff a little bit at Christian. However, the names of the roads around the mountain are danger and destruction. Well, the two men decide that they're gonna head off around down either side of the road, and Christian begins the long trek uphill difficulty. Now, Bunyan did not come up with these scenarios out of thin air. These are the realities that we live in in the Christian life. There is a narrow road that leads to life, and often it can lead uphill difficulty. It can also lead down into the valley of the shadow of death. But if if that path, if we're following that path, and the path actually is the way to life, then the dangers or the difficulty of that path we ought not ignore. See, there's an easier way. The Bible says there's a wide road, an easy road, and it leads to danger and destruction, and many people find it. And so today we will look at these paths, and we'll look to the Savior who guides us on the correct path. And the question for each of us is which path will we choose? Will we be willing to follow our Savior up the hill difficulty? Or will we try to find a back way, a backdoor into the celestial city? My sermon this morning will be in three movements. The second movement is the longest of the three, and so when I finished preaching it, don't worry, the third is not nearly as long as the second. We'll get you out of here to lunch on time. At least semi on time. The first movement, if you're taking notes, is called facing the mountain. Facing the mountain, Mark 10, beginning in verse 32. 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 to happen to him, saying, See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles, and they will mock him and spit on him and flog him and kill him, and after three days he will rise. I think sometimes we spend so much time considering the cross of Jesus, which it is important to consider, that we can forget the courage and the strength and the fortitude that it took Jesus to walk to the cross. In the book of Isaiah, there's a prophecy about some of these moments. It says Jesus set his face like flint towards Jerusalem, meaning his gaze towards Jerusalem was set in stone. See, for most of us, the pain, the difficulty, the struggles, the trials, the temptations, the hardships, they they they they come upon us and we don't see them coming. If we did see them coming, we would try to avoid them. I had a situation come upon me suddenly this past week. I was driving in my car with my wife sitting beside me, and we had some music going on in the background, and the sun was shining. I was living my best life. We were headed to Costco, even better. And then all of a sudden, and I looked up in my rear view mirror and I looked down at my speedometer, and I was like, ah man. This day is about to go from good to bad really quickly. And the policeman pulled me over and he walked up and he goes, Don't worry, man, I'm not gonna give you a ticket. I was like, Come on, Hudson Police Department. Can we get an amen for the Hudson Police Department? He was he was really kind. I think it was just one of those moments it was so nice that even the police officers were like, I'm not handing out tickets today. The sun is shining in northeast Ohio. But but if I had known that there was a police officer up ahead, I would have slowed down. If we see that there is trouble or pain or trial, we tried to avoid it. But not Jesus. I I j I love how Mark tells this story. They were on the road going to Jerusalem. Seems like a throwaway statement, but they're on the road, they're going to Jerusalem. They're walking at Jerusalem. And Jesus says, here's what's going to happen in Jerusalem. I'm going to be spit on and mocked and handed over and flogged and murdered. Well, it if that's what's going to happen, stop walking towards Jerusalem. That's what a normal people that's what somebody sane would do. Dangers that way, walk the other way. If you were to read, if you had just come to the book of Mark and you knew nothing about the Bible, you knew nothing about Jesus, you're just reading this story, you would think either this guy is completely off his rocker, or he is the man. And I'll tell you, Jesus is an absolute stud. He is the God man. And he, I just love how courageous. Look, he's out front of everybody else. He's leading the way. He knows that trial and danger and death are coming, and he's not dragging his feet. He's not looking for an example to take a pit stop at a reason or an excuse to take a pit stop. He's not lagging behind going, hey guys, maybe we should stop at the Motel 6 for a for a spell. He is dead set to get to Jerusalem. What kind of person acts like this? What type of person sees the mouth of the lion and walks straight into it? Somebody like Jesus. For a couple reasons. One, God is a promise keeper. All the way back in Genesis 3, there is a promise that there is one who will come and he will crush Satan's head. And Jesus is that snake crusher, that devil defeater. And he knows that the only way to do that is to set his face towards Jerusalem and face the cross. Because God is a promise keeper. And he also does it out of extraordinary love for you. Extraordinary love for me. He sees that the only way to rescue you and me from our sin and invite us back into his family is to go to the cross and take on the penalty of our sin and exchange his righteousness for our sinfulness. That's the only way any of us are getting to heaven. And so, Jamen, that's right. So Jesus sets his face towards the hill difficulty. And we are to follow him. But sometimes, instead of following him up the hill difficulty, we go, mm-mm. The way around the mountain looks a little bit easier. Maybe I can get to the same place and have an easier journey. Well, that's what a couple of Jesus' disciples think. And so let's see what they have to say in our second movement: facing, or sorry, chasing the throne. So we have facing the mountain, secondly, chasing the throne. Verse 35. In 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. What kind of question is that? So I feel like somebody said an absurd question. It is. Can you imagine if you walked into your boss tomorrow? Sir, ma'am, I would like you to. I'm not going to tell you what I'm going to ask. I would just like you right now, before I say anything, to promise me that you will do for me whatever I ask. Can you imagine? Can you imagine if Jake came up to you, Mike, and just said, hey dad, I'm going to ask you something. I want you to agree beforehand to do whatever I ask of you.

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Ha ha!

SPEAKER_00 13:46

You'd laugh right in his face, wouldn't you? This is not a question we ask people. But these two guys have the audacity. They've they've just this is crazy. They've just heard that Jesus is gonna go to Jerusalem, be spit on, and brutalized, and murdered, and they go, we would like you to do us a favor. Teacher, we would want you to do for us whatever we ask of you. And Jesus is patient with them. What do you want me to do for you? What an incredible response. If my kid asked me that, I would be like, no, no, no, no, no. Jesus is not only courageous and strong, powerful, resilient, but he's patient and kind. He's long-suffering, and so he asks, What do you want me to do for you? They said verse 37. Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left in your glory. Wow. Maybe I'm being too hard on these guys, but that just seems pretty incredible to me. See, here's here's what maybe they figured out. So the Jews of this time believed that the Messiah would come, God's anointed one would come, and that his kingdom would come rather quickly. So they're thinking that Jesus, if if he is the Messiah, is going to defeat Rome, bring them out from under oppression, and usher Israel into a new season of prosperity. And, well, we're headed to Jerusalem, which is the historic city where the king sits. And so maybe this is the moment. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know he's gonna be beaten and flogged and die. But he said he's gonna come back to life. So maybe after he comes back to life, that's when he sets up his throne in Jerusalem. That's when he wins, that's when all the angels come or whatever he's gonna do. And if that's the case, I want to make sure that I'm sitting in the seats on his left and on his right. So they ask. When you come into your glory, when you're sitting on the throne, can we have the seats of honor on your left and on your right? Jesus says to them, You don't know what you're asking. You don't know what you're asking, gentlemen. What do you mean we don't know what we're asking? Why? He says, Are you able to drink the cup that I drink? Or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized? Now, what's Jesus talking about? He's not talking about having a cold drink of water and being plunged in the you know in the baptismal in church. When he says, drink the cup that I drink, he means to drink up the destiny that the Father has for him. To drink up the full punishment and wrath for your sin and my sin. When he speaks of being baptized, he's not talking about just a plunge in the little pool in the back of the stage. Jesus is talking about being overcome by the wave of sin and death that he will take on as he gives his life on the cross. He's saying to James and John, there's no easy way around the mountain. If you want to follow me, if you want to be with me in the eternal kingdom, I'm not sure you know what you're asking, guys. Because it's a hard road up the hill to difficulty. I'm about to be plunged in over my head with a tidal wave of suffering and death. Can you face the same suffering? If you want to follow with me, I don't think you know what you're asking. And look at their response. And they said to him, We are able. He doesn't rebuke them. He just, if they say yes, he invites them in. Okay. If you're gonna follow me, you're gonna drink the same cup that I drink, be baptized with the same baptism that I drink, they go, yeah, we're able. Whether they really know what they're signing up for or not, I don't know. But he says, okay, the cup that I drink, you will drink. And the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized. And this will actually become the case for both James and John. James will be, in Acts 12, the first of the apostles to be killed for following Jesus. It doesn't take very long for James to be dead for following Jesus. John lives a little bit longer, but he's exiled to die on an island alone. So Jesus, I I don't know that James and John get the answer that they had hoped for. Maybe they had hoped that Jesus would say, Yeah, guys, I'll take care of everything so that you don't have to go through anything hard. You just sit back, relax, and just wait for old Jesus to bring in the kingdom, and your throne will be ready for you. This is one of the reasons when I read texts like this, it just baffles me that there are so-called preachers and teachers and pastors, and our access to them is unlimited because of Instagram and Facebook. People who, what they preach, what they claim to be Christianity, is that if you just have enough faith, or if you just speak the right words over your life, or if you just give enough money to their ministry, if you just cross your fingers and believe hard enough that you can skate through life with no plane, with with no pain, no trials, no struggle, God wants you to have a cakewalk of a life and float into heaven in an easy chair. There's no way you're reading this book and getting that. Anybody who tries to sell you that on television, on the internet, that to follow Jesus in this life is easy, they're lying to you. This type of message does not produce disciples of Jesus, it produces consumers. And consumers die and go to hell. Consumers will stand before Jesus and he will say, Depart from me, I don't know who you are. And I don't say that to be mean. I s I say it because I I love you all too much to lie to you. Anybody who thinks that you can have your best life now is selling you a bill of goods. A sanitized therapeutic counterfeit gospel. Jesus walks the path of most resistance. And he invites us to follow him. But then he says something else. In verse 40, but to sit at my right hand or my left hand is not mine to grant. But is for those for whom it has been prepared. In other words, the kingdom of God is not built on jockeying for position, but on following me in humility. Well, the other disciples somehow hear that this conversation has taken place, and they're fired up about it. Verse 41. When the ten heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John, and Jesus called them to him, and he said to them, You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave. So sorry, whoever would be first among you must be the slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. So Jesus wants to set the record straight. And he talks about the Gentile rulers. In our world, this is just how the world functions, how world politics functions. Everybody's trying to get ahead. Everybody wants their way. Everybody wants to be in charge. This is how business functions. This is how neighborhoods function. This is how school boards and school systems function. This is often how families function. Apart from Jesus and apart from Christ, this is how the world works. Everybody wants their way. They want to be in charge. They want the easy path to the good life. And what does Jesus say? It's one of the most important things you'll hear all morning. But it shall not be so among you. Verse 43. The world climbs the ladder, not you. The world uses people, not you. The world measures greatness by visibility and platform and power and wealth and control. Not you. The world thinks this is as good as it's gonna get. And there's nothing after death. So get as much as you can and live it up while you can. Let us eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die. That's how the world thinks. Jesus says, not you. You're not to think that way. And you're not to live that way. You follow me. Okay, Jesus, where are we going? For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. That's what our pathway uphill difficulty looks like. Jesus has said it over and over and over again. And I've been wondering, it's like, uh wouldn't you think, okay, we get it. I feel like this sermon we've preached probably three or four times in the book of Mark. Right? We get it, Jesus. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Following you means deny self, take you to the cross daily, follow you, self-denial, servanthood. We get it. There's an old story that a congregant went up to Martin Luther after one of his sermons and said, Pastor, week after week after week you keep teaching us the same thing. We're ready to go on to other things. And he says, it's because week after week you forget it. So there's a reason that this theme comes back up in Mark. Why? Because every ounce of our flesh wants to take the pathway around the mountain. We see the sign. We see the sign on the roads around the mountain that say danger and destruction. And we think, ah, it can't be that bad. It looks way easier. We want influence without sacrifice. We want recognition without service. We want leadership without humility and comfort without obedience. We want, like James and John, to sit on the thrones and get the crown without the cross. And Jesus is saying, this is not the way it's going to be to follow me. The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve. Jesus is facing the mountain. These two disciples are chasing the throne. And our final movement, we find one man who was ready and willing to follow the Savior. Verse 46. And they came to Jericho, and as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a great crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside. And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, Son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stopped and said, Call him. And they called the blind man, saying to him, Take heart, get up. He is calling you. And throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. And look at the question that Jesus asks him. Jesus said to him, What do you want me to do for you? It's the same question that he's just asked James and John. What do you want me to do for you? And the blind man said to him, Rabbi, let me recover my sight. Now, why would John put this story, or why would Mark put this story here? It seems to me at first reading, we've read this before. We've seen, if you've walk if, if you've walked with us through the book of Mark, there's been tons of healings. People who have received their sight, mute people, deaf people who can hear now, lame people who can walk, people who've had demons cast out of them. Why do we have another healing story? Of all the healing stories, why include another one and why put it right here? Doesn't seem like it's a big deal. Yeah, we've seen this. And most people, they get their healing and they go on their way. Very few people are actually wanting to follow Jesus uphill difficulty. They just want what they can get from him and to go on their way. Of the thousands and thousands of thousands of people that have interacted with Jesus, only a few are following him. And the crowds that are following him, as we have seen, they just want something from him. So what's different with Bartimaeus? I think Mark intends us to see a couple things. First, the difference, the contrast between the disciples and Bartimaeus. James and John have been walking with Jesus, and they come to him entitled, Teacher, we want you to give us whatever we ask of you. His heart posture is right. Lord have mercy on me. Do you see the difference between the two? Can you like bring it bring it in into your world? A mom, a dad, a boss, a spouse. One person comes up to you and says, I want you to give me whatever I ask. And another person that walks up, a spouse, a coworker, a child, and says, I'm in I'm in desperate need of help. Would you help me? Who are you more likely to respond to? Bartimaeus has a tender heart. And then his motivation is actually revealed. See, the motivation of James and John is clear. We want to sit with you at your left and your right when you come into your glory. What is Bartimaeus' motivation when he says, Give me my sight? Is he just like all these other people who just want their miracle and to go home? Jesus gives them the freedom. Look at what he says. Verse 52, and Jesus said to him, Go your way, your faith has made you well. Jesus gives him the freedom to go and do whatever he wants. You got your healing. You can see. Go your way. And Bartimaeus's motivation is revealed. And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way. Bartimaeus gets right in step behind Jesus. As if to say, I don't care where you're going, wherever it is you're going, I'm I'm I'm following. He fixes his eyes right between the shoulder blades of the Savior and gets in step. He's not just another person who wants to have his suffering alleviated for a little while. He wants to know where this path and this savior are leading. This is a drastic contrast that we are intended to see, and it brings us back to John Bunyan and the Pilgrim's Progress. See, we're told in the story that a Christian makes it up hill difficulty. He ends up having to crawl for a bit on his hands and knees because it's so hard, but he makes it to the top panting and gasping and bloody and exhausted. And the other two men walk off into a wood. This one gets lost and turned around and he dies from starvation or thirst. And the other one goes over here where there's rocky crags and foothills and mountains and a cliff, and he can't see straight, and he falls off the cliff to his death. See, the devil would use a million schemes to convince you that there's an easy way around the mountain and an easy chair pathway to heaven. And every single person that has ever looked for a loophole into the kingdom of God has found a grave instead. Christian gets up and he begins to continue his journey to the celestial city, and two more people run down the pathway to him and they say, Turn around. Go back the other way. Stop now while you've got the time, because it just gets worse. It just gets harder. So there's a little conversation. What do you mean it just gets harder? And they say there are there are lions farther up the path. Now I think there are applications, broad applications for two groups of people in the room. The first group of people are the people who you're trying to take that easy path around. The phrase that we use in our modern parlance is to have your cake and eat it too. I want to get to heaven. I want to be in God's family. I want to have my sin forgiven. I want every tear to be wiped away from my eye. I want to be with Jesus and the people I love forever. And I want to do whatever I want in this life. I want it to be easy and I want it to be fun and I want it to be enjoyable, and I don't want to take up a cross, and I don't want to deal with the burden of self-sacrifice. I want this life to be as painless as possible, as well as the next. And you will only find the lake of fire at the end of this life. There is no shortcut to heaven. The only pathway is to follow Jesus up the hill difficulty and wherever else he leads you. There are some of you who are you're walking that journey faithfully. Hallelujah. You're following Jesus, and it has led you to places that stink. Places where maybe you're not sure where to go, you're not sure what to do, the heartache, the pain, the hospital visits, the brokenness. Maybe you get to moments where you where you just go, Jesus, I am sick of self-sacrifice. I am tired of carrying my cross. Can I get a little bit of relief? And I just want to encourage you. And he goes, I can't go back. I can't go back to my old life. That's death for sure. So I have to trust that the narrow road leads to life. And he comes upon the moment in the path where the lions are, and a gentleman goes, Let me tell you a secret. The lions are on chains. And they may growl at you, and they may pull at the chain, and they may bare their teeth. But if you stay on the narrow road, they cannot touch you. And I would say to you, brothers and sisters, sometimes we are crawling up hill difficulty on our hands and knees, and we're bloody, and we're parched, and we're exhausted, and we don't know how much more we can take. And we need someone to whisper, it's gonna be okay. The lions can't touch you because the king has gone before you and he has chained them up, and he has closed their mouth, and he has climbed the hill difficulty on your behalf, and he has taken all of the bite out of the lion, he has taken all of your sin on himself, he has taken the sting out of death, and so set your eyes between his shoulder blades and keep following him on the narrow road that leads to life. Because at the end of that path is true life, eternal, and you will hear, well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the glory of your master. Those are the only two pathways. And my hope and my prayer is that we would be a church filled with people that will take the narrow road in the footsteps of our Savior who has faced the mountain ahead of us and trust that his path truly does lead to life. May it be so. Let's pray. Jesus, we know that every difficult thing that you did on this earth, in order to leave an example for us, you did in glad obedience to the Father and in the power of the Holy Spirit. And therefore, we can walk the path behind you in glad obedience to the Father and in the power of the Holy Spirit. But more than that, we can walk the path because we know the end of the story. That on the cross you took all of our sin and you took all of our shame, you took the sting out of death, and when you came back to life three days later, you gave us the hope that we too will be resurrected to new life. And Lord, as we in the months ahead, as we look to the book of Revelation, we will see that there are some incredible themes in this book. We can get stuck in the weeds of trying to figure out some of the some of the difficult illustrations and imagery, but at the center of revelation, the Lamb overcomes. At the center of Revelation, you defeat the devil and all of your enemies once and for all. And you will sit us down at the marriage supper of the Lamb, and you will wipe away every tear, and there will be no more pain, and there will be no more mourning, and there will be no more crying, for the former things will have passed away, and the new things will have come. It will all be worth it. This little short life that we live. Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 4 not only is our affliction light and it is momentary, but it is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond our imaginations. The short life that we live, 60 years, 80 years, maybe 90 years, is nothing compared to eternity. And so might we be those who set our eyes on you, looked square between your shoulder blades, and as you lead the way, stride for stride, uphill difficulty, and into the valley of the shadow of death at times, might we be reminded that we need not fear because you are with us. You are our only hope in life and death. And so we thank you for facing the mountain ahead of us. Might we reject chasing the throne in this life and all that comes with it? And why might we be like blind Bartimaeus who follows in your way wherever you lead? Make it so in our lives, in our marriages, in our families, in our neighborhoods. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.