SPEAKER_00: Being a follower of Jesus, being a disciple, it is a big thing.
SPEAKER_00: The American Christian writer Rosaria Butterfield, when she became a disciple, when the Spirit of God brought her from sin and unbelief and immorality and idolatry to a life of trusting and obeying Jesus, she writes that it turned her life into comprehensive chaos.
SPEAKER_00: Following Jesus was a big thing for her.
SPEAKER_00: It cost most of her relationships, her job and her career, respectability in her community.
SPEAKER_00: It destroyed her identity and then remade her.
SPEAKER_00: It's a big thing to be a disciple.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, doesn't he?
SPEAKER_00: Mark 8.34, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
SPEAKER_00: Following Jesus is the best of all lives.
SPEAKER_00: We want to say that a million times over.
SPEAKER_00: Following Jesus is the best of all lives.
SPEAKER_00: But it is a big thing.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says you need to deny yourself.
SPEAKER_00: We're working through Mark chapters 8, 9, and 10.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord Jesus, he's on the road to Jerusalem where he will die, and as he walked, he taught about what it means to be a disciple.
SPEAKER_00: And here in our passage today, Mark 10, verses 1 to 31, he teaches us about what it means to deny ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we hear as we listen into Jesus talk with four different people: the Pharisees, the disciples, a good man, and lastly, Peter.
SPEAKER_00: And each of these conversations shows us this.
SPEAKER_00: We cannot dial down the cost of following Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We cannot turn down what it means to deny yourself.
SPEAKER_00: But we'll see that in the end it is infinitely worth it.
SPEAKER_00: So let me pray and then I'll read God's word.
SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, we need you to do this word in us.
SPEAKER_00: We want to hear the voice of Jesus clearly and deeply.
SPEAKER_00: We ask that your Holy Spirit would apply your word to us, that for the first time or the umpteenth time we would deny ourselves and follow him.
SPEAKER_00: And we pray in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: So let's listen to the word of God, Mark chapter ten, beginning at verse one.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus left there, and went to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan, and crowds gathered to him again.
SPEAKER_00: And again, as was his custom, he taught them.
SPEAKER_00: And Pharisees came up, and in order to test him asked, Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?
SPEAKER_00: He answered them, What did Moses command you?
SPEAKER_00: They said, Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and to send her away.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said to them, Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment.
SPEAKER_00: But from the beginning God made them male and female, therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.
SPEAKER_00: So they are no longer two but one flesh.
SPEAKER_00: What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: And if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.
SPEAKER_00: And they were bringing children to him that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them.
SPEAKER_00: But when Jesus saw it he was indignant and said to them, Let the children come to me, do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.
SPEAKER_00: And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them.
SPEAKER_00: 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?
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said to him, Why do you call me good?
SPEAKER_00: No one is good except God alone.
SPEAKER_00: You know the commandments do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not defraud, honour your father and mother.
SPEAKER_00: And he said to him, Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, You lack one thing go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, and come follow me.
SPEAKER_00: Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: And the disciples were amazed at his words.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus said to them again, Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: And they were exceedingly astonished and said to him, Then who can be saved?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus looked at them and said, With man it is impossible, but not with God, for all things are possible with God.
SPEAKER_00: Peter began to say to him, See, we have left everything and followed you.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters, 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, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: But many who are first will be last, and the last first.
SPEAKER_00: Well, thanks be to God for his word to us.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus' first conversation in our passage, he's talking with the Pharisees, and the topic is divorce.
SPEAKER_00: Now, how do you feel when people bend the rules?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe at monopoly, or on the football field, or in life?
SPEAKER_00: Well, here come the Pharisees, the Jewish leaders back in Bible times, and we read that they came to test Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That's the same word used of Satan's activity back in Mark chapter 1, verse 13.
SPEAKER_00: These people are on Satan's team, and they come with this question in verse 2.
SPEAKER_00: Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?
SPEAKER_00: Is it okay to get divorced?
SPEAKER_00: Now what a question to ask.
SPEAKER_00: Marriage.
SPEAKER_00: Is there a get out clause that we can use and still have God's smile, God's approval?
SPEAKER_00: To which Jesus says, Well, what did Moses command?
SPEAKER_00: They reply, He allowed us to divorce and send her away.
SPEAKER_00: Interesting choice of words.
SPEAKER_00: And then Jesus preaches to them.
SPEAKER_00: He warns them that that provision in the Old Testament law, it was written with you in mind, you people, because of your hardness of heart.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he says in verse 5.
SPEAKER_00: Because you have hard hearts.
SPEAKER_00: There was a provision for divorce in the Old Testament law.
SPEAKER_00: Really, it was there to protect women, to stop them being the victims of a quick and easy divorce.
SPEAKER_00: That law, says Jesus, it only existed because of people like you, because of your hard hearts, your selfish hearts, your hearts which would not deny self but wanted to serve self, which would not let in the word and the spirit of God.
SPEAKER_00: They want to know about divorce, they want to know get-out clauses, they want to bend the rules.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus wants to teach them about marriage.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus upholds this very, very, very high standard of God's law.
SPEAKER_00: It is a standard that requires us to deny self.
SPEAKER_00: And he takes us back to creation to explain this.
SPEAKER_00: The Genesis chapter 2, he says, Well, man and woman, God made them.
SPEAKER_00: We're created, we don't form ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: He made us male and female.
SPEAKER_00: We are equal but different.
SPEAKER_00: There are glories about men and about women that are distinct and which cannot be exchanged.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says, Therefore, a man shall leave and cleave to his wife and become one flesh.
SPEAKER_00: So because of these differences between men and women, they can come together in this particular relationship, they can become one.
SPEAKER_00: And this union, it is formed by God.
SPEAKER_00: What therefore God has joined together.
SPEAKER_00: So God's vision for marriage, it is very high and very precious, and it is good.
SPEAKER_00: We're not told what the Pharisees said or thought.
SPEAKER_00: But then in private conversation with disciples later on in the house, stopping on the road somewhere for a meal or overnight, verses 11 and 12, Jesus shows to them the horror of divorce.
SPEAKER_00: An illegitimate divorce followed by remarriage equals adultery.
SPEAKER_00: He takes us to the Ten Commandments.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, there are some circumstances in which a Christian can legitimately divorce, in which a Christian can act as though their spouse is dead, and they are therefore free.
SPEAKER_00: So Matthew 19 and 1 Corinthians 7 help us there.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus' words are clear.
SPEAKER_00: The spirit of the Pharisee, the casual and the easy divorce, he hates it.
SPEAKER_00: Now these words of Jesus, they're quite hard to hear, aren't they?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus does not say to us, here is a Christian ideal, but don't worry too much if you fall short.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't say that.
SPEAKER_00: Rather, he shows that the Lord wants us to deny ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: And especially in this most central, precious, important relationship, marriage.
SPEAKER_00: Denying self, following Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: It is a big deal.
SPEAKER_00: And he shows us here that Jesus' followers don't seek to bend God's law in order to please themselves.
SPEAKER_00: That was the heart of the Pharisee, the hard heart of the Pharisee, when they come and say, Is it lawful to divorce?
SPEAKER_00: How little can I obey?
SPEAKER_00: How much can I indulge myself?
SPEAKER_00: How can I bend the law of the Lord to my own advantage?
SPEAKER_00: But you cannot have Christ and live for yourself.
SPEAKER_00: And so we're challenged.
SPEAKER_00: Will we let the Word of God rule in our personal relationships, whatever life situation we're in?
SPEAKER_00: With Christ's forgiveness and the Holy Spirit's help, will we repent, believe, and deny ourselves?
SPEAKER_00: It's a really big deal, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: Things like marriage and sex and faithfulness and singleness and our desires and our bodies.
SPEAKER_00: We're called here to pursue Christ and deny self.
SPEAKER_00: That's the way of the disciple.
SPEAKER_00: The second conversation in our passage, that's chapter 10, verses 13 to 16.
SPEAKER_00: Here Jesus is talking with his disciples, and the topic here is children.
SPEAKER_00: And we learn here that not just the Pharisees, but the disciples have a serious heart problem.
SPEAKER_00: So here's what was going on.
SPEAKER_00: Some parents were bringing children to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord Jesus loves children, and evidently children loved him.
SPEAKER_00: Now these children they were helpless, they could not do things, they had to be brought by their parents.
SPEAKER_00: Not just helpless, but lowly.
SPEAKER_00: Back in Jesus' day, children were not held in the sentimental way that we often view children.
SPEAKER_00: They were statusless and they were helpless.
SPEAKER_00: But end of verse 13, we see that the disciples rebuked them.
SPEAKER_00: It's as if they said, Don't waste Jesus' time with these people who are lowly, who are helpless, who are worthless.
SPEAKER_00: We, the disciples, we will be with Jesus, but not that sort of person.
SPEAKER_00: It's a really horrible thing to say, and a horrible attitude that's revealed in their words.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus' response, indignation, it's righteous anger.
SPEAKER_00: And his anger here, not at a hypocritical Pharisee, he's angry with his disciples because this matters so much.
SPEAKER_00: And the really grievous problem in their words.
SPEAKER_00: Well, it's this idea that some people deserve God more and some people deserve God less.
SPEAKER_00: It's actually a blasphemy.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus wants his followers to know that disciples do not enter the kingdom because they deserve it.
SPEAKER_00: Might we ever think to ourselves that there are some people who are further away from Jesus, embrace and welcome?
SPEAKER_00: Or people like me deserve to be nearer to Jesus' embrace and welcome.
SPEAKER_00: Or Jesus blows that out of the water.
SPEAKER_00: Bottom line, disciples are undeserving.
SPEAKER_00: Disciples are undeserving.
SPEAKER_00: So here are these parents.
SPEAKER_00: To these actual children, the kingdom of God is theirs.
SPEAKER_00: God welcomes them.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if anyone should doubt that a child, even a little child, can be a Christian, verse 14 should correct that misunderstanding.
SPEAKER_00: And just to make it really clear, the Son of God, he takes them in his arms and he blesses them.
SPEAKER_00: Our gracious God, he welcomes the most helpless and the lowly.
SPEAKER_00: So, disciple of Jesus, would be disciple of Jesus, we must be like these little children, in that when we come to Jesus, we bring him no merits, no gifts, no abilities, no status to earn our place in his embrace.
SPEAKER_00: The third conversation, chapter 10, verses 17 to 25, as Jesus was setting out on his journey, he meets a good man.
SPEAKER_00: And the topic here is wealth.
SPEAKER_00: Have a look at verse 17.
SPEAKER_00: This man he runs up, he kneels before Jesus and asks the best question in the whole world that you could ask.
SPEAKER_00: What must I do to inherit eternal life?
SPEAKER_00: True life, life with God, how do I get it?
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes preachers wrongly criticize this man.
SPEAKER_00: The thinking goes like this He comes and says, What must I do to inherit eternal life?
SPEAKER_00: And folk imagine that he's trying to earn salvation by obeying the law.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus does not say in response, stop trying to keep the law.
SPEAKER_00: So the issue is not works or effort, actually, the issue was idolatry.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Jesus wants to expose, false worship.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus exposes his false worship just in one single sentence.
SPEAKER_00: It's in verse 21.
SPEAKER_00: He looks at this man, he loves him, and he says to him, You lack one thing, sell all you have, give to the poor, and then you'll have treasure in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: And come, follow me.
SPEAKER_00: This was a good man.
SPEAKER_00: He tried to keep God's law.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus lists some of the Ten Commandments here.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus loved him, and yet this man walked away from Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He had the Savior right in front of him, showing him the road to life with God, and he walked away.
SPEAKER_00: Given the choice between Jesus and his possessions, he chose possessions.
SPEAKER_00: And that reveals something about him.
SPEAKER_00: His keeping of the law was only partial.
SPEAKER_00: Ten commandments that Jesus doesn't mention directly here.
SPEAKER_00: Just think about them.
SPEAKER_00: Did you spot them?
SPEAKER_00: Have no other gods, have no idols.
SPEAKER_00: We're to worship Jesus alone with heart, soul, mind, and strength.
SPEAKER_00: But this man has another God.
SPEAKER_00: He bows down before an idol.
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't realize it.
SPEAKER_00: Like our friends who aren't Christians, they all worship, we all worship and adore something.
SPEAKER_00: And for this man, his God was wealth.
SPEAKER_00: And the clue was he couldn't walk away from it.
SPEAKER_00: He refused to deny himself, and so he cannot follow Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus' followers need to know that we cannot have eternal life and our idols.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord Jesus, he wants all of our hearts, all of our loves, all of our affections.
SPEAKER_00: He won't be too timed.
SPEAKER_00: I can't say I worship Jesus and I worship my wealth.
SPEAKER_00: And he turns to the disciples.
SPEAKER_00: He says to them, it's difficult, it's difficult, actually, it's impossible for a rich person to enter the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: You could more easily get a camel through the eye of a needle.
SPEAKER_00: I wonder what you think you would need to do to get a camel through the eye of a needle.
SPEAKER_00: We could ask our children that, couldn't we?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe we'd need a giant camel-sized blender and a funnel.
SPEAKER_00: It's a ridiculous thought, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: We're not meant to try this thing.
SPEAKER_00: It's absurd, it's impossible.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the point.
SPEAKER_00: Money is deceitful.
SPEAKER_00: It tells lies.
SPEAKER_00: It is a subtle God.
SPEAKER_00: It's not the only idol that can grip us.
SPEAKER_00: There are plenty of other false gods that take our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: But wealth and possessions, they are very gripping.
SPEAKER_00: They say to us, hold on to control of your bank balance, hold on to your career, even if it means you have to walk away from Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That leads to the disciples' question in verse 26.
SPEAKER_00: Then who can be saved?
SPEAKER_00: Now I want us to stand back for a moment, put ourselves into the disciples' shoes and think about that question.
SPEAKER_00: Then who can be saved?
SPEAKER_00: Why are they so surprised?
SPEAKER_00: Well, Jesus says you have to deny yourself and take up your cross and follow him.
SPEAKER_00: But even this good man who seems blessed by God cannot and will not follow Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: So if he can't and won't do it, who can be saved?
SPEAKER_00: And we might feel the need to ask that question very personally ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: I want to follow Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: But like the Pharisees, sometimes I want to bend God's word.
SPEAKER_00: Like the disciples, I sometimes feel deserving.
SPEAKER_00: Like the rich man, I have things in my heart and my life that I love too much.
SPEAKER_00: I want to love them less.
SPEAKER_00: I want to deny myself, but I find it very hard.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it feels impossible.
SPEAKER_00: So if denying self is a critical response to Jesus, and if a failure to deny yourself, it keeps people out of the kingdom, well, who can be saved?
SPEAKER_00: That is the disciples' very good question in verse 26, to which Jesus gives a wonderful and the only answer.
SPEAKER_00: It's verse 27.
SPEAKER_00: With man it is impossible.
SPEAKER_00: Completely impossible.
SPEAKER_00: With man it is impossible, but not with God, for all things are possible with God.
SPEAKER_00: And then in the last part of our reading, in verses 26 to 31, Jesus talks to his disciples and then to Peter specifically about self-denial and loss.
SPEAKER_00: Just think for a moment about things that are impossible.
SPEAKER_00: You cannot fly unaided to the moon.
SPEAKER_00: You cannot run 100 meters in a second.
SPEAKER_00: Those things are much easier, though, than this.
SPEAKER_00: What is impossible for man, it is impossible for us to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: It is impossible for any person to do that, deny themselves, take up their cross and follow Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: It is much easier to run 100 meters in one second.
SPEAKER_00: But that thing that is impossible for us, it is possible for the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord can do that thing in us.
SPEAKER_00: And here's the wonderful point: God enables self-denial.
SPEAKER_00: God enables self-denial.
SPEAKER_00: We have such a wonderful Savior.
SPEAKER_00: He accomplishes redemption.
SPEAKER_00: That is, he dies and he rises.
SPEAKER_00: He does something for us.
SPEAKER_00: But that is not all.
SPEAKER_00: He also applies redemption to us.
SPEAKER_00: He takes the wonderful riches and fruits of his dying and rising and applies them to us.
SPEAKER_00: As long as those things remain outside of us, as long as we remain separate from Christ, all the blessings of salvation are useless to us.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus does not just do something for us, he also does something in us.
SPEAKER_00: He comes to us and through his Holy Spirit He changes hearts.
SPEAKER_00: The Christian is someone with a new heart, with new desires, with new abilities.
SPEAKER_00: A Christian is someone who, by the power of the Holy Spirit, can deny themselves.
SPEAKER_00: Not yet perfect, still tainted with sin, but the Lord Jesus enables us to deny ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: He enables us to be not like the Pharisee.
SPEAKER_00: He helps us to obey God's law even when it's hard.
SPEAKER_00: He enables us to be not like the disciples here and to know and feel that I am as undeserving as the next person.
SPEAKER_00: And really wonderfully, he helps me to be not like that rich man.
SPEAKER_00: He helps me to give up my idols.
SPEAKER_00: It's a wonderful thought that.
SPEAKER_00: If you have given up for Jesus, then you will receive from Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, there will be persecutions.
SPEAKER_00: No, this is not an automatic promise of a massive bank account, but it is a promise of blessing now.
SPEAKER_00: No Christian will ever be able to say to Jesus, I've denied myself and followed me, and you now owe me because of what I've had to give up.
SPEAKER_00: No Christian will ever be able to say to Jesus, actually, Jesus, I have lost out because I follow you.
SPEAKER_00: I've been talking with a few folks after church recently just about this.
SPEAKER_00: It's so easy to think that following Jesus seriously means that you lose.
SPEAKER_00: You're denying yourself it's the right thing to do, but you lose.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's pursuing relationships in a godly way, saying no to divorce, not following through on the lusts of our hearts, and it feels like you lose.
SPEAKER_00: Or giving up on a sense of entitlement, knowing my undeservingness, identifying with those who the world thinks of as lowly.
SPEAKER_00: It feels like I'm losing.
SPEAKER_00: Or sacrificing those idols of our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it is wealth and possessions.
SPEAKER_00: You decide to live light to the stuff of this world, and it feels like you're losing.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus says actually there is blessing because Jesus gives.
SPEAKER_00: If you have given up for Jesus, you will receive from him.
SPEAKER_00: When we read these last verses, we can see where that blessing is to be found.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, where this blessing is that disciples will receive now, in this time.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he says in verse 30, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: These houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands.
SPEAKER_00: And the answer is in the Christian community.
SPEAKER_00: In the family of God, the disciples should have hundreds of houses, or as many houses as there are in your church, family members, plenty of food, fellowship, love, provision.
SPEAKER_00: It is a rich and wonderful reality.
SPEAKER_00: And the point is this when you sacrifice for Jesus, we will receive from him.
SPEAKER_00: Let me pray.
SPEAKER_00: Dear Lord, we are tempted to be first.
SPEAKER_00: We are tempted to serve ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: We are tempted to be half-hearted at best in our denying of ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: We crave forgiveness and mercy.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you that with you all things are possible.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you for our Saviour who has done something for us in dying and rising, but also is doing something in us, subduing our sinful nature, helping us to repent, believe, and deny ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: We pray that this word about discipleship would be increasingly true for your church here.
SPEAKER_00: Would you do this word deeply in us for Jesus' name's sake?
SPEAKER_00: Amen.