JULY 11, 2021 | PASTOR JOHN BAYLES | THE COST OF DISCIPLESHIP: A CALL TO THE CENTRALITY OF THE CROSS | MARK 10:32-34

 

Click on the link to play, it will take you to our YouTube Page: 

JULY 11, 2021 | PASTOR JOHN BAYLES | THE COST OF DISCIPLESHIP: A CALL TO THE CENTRALITY OF THE CROSS | MARK 10:32-34

The Call to Discipleship: A Call to the Centrality of the Cross
Mark 10:32-34

This is now the third time that Jesus will directly address the reason for, and response to, His trip to Jerusalem. The first time was in chapter 8:31; the second 9:31 and for the last time, here in 10:33 . In the first address, Jesus had shared this news in the context of asking His disciples. “Who do men say that I am?” We remember Peter’s inspired response: “You are the Messiah.” After this comment, they continued to travel along. Jesus shared that He would be killed in Jerusalem and rise from the dead. This declaration was met with a stern rebuke – also from Peter. Remember Jesus' reaction? “Jesus turned and looked at His disciples, He rebuked Peter. ‘Get behind me, Satan!’ Jesus said. ‘You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.’” In the second address, spoken during the Gentile campaign, Jesus told the disciples again that He would be killed and rise from the dead in Jerusalem. The statement was made after Jesus confronted His disciples for their arrogant argument of who among them was the greatest. In this third address, Jesus had just finished teaching His disciples the importance of a one-flesh marital faithfulness. He had illustrated that having a child-like character is the only means to enter the Kingdom of God. And, then when Jesus had been literally worshiped by a devout Jewish, righteous and rich young man. Jesus told him that to enter the Kingdom of God he must sell all of his possessions, give them to the poor and follow Jesus. This shocked and amazed his disciples to the point of trembling with fear. In this emotional context brought on by all of these life changing ideas, Jesus turned to His disciples and stated that in Jerusalem He would be brutalized, humiliated, killed and rise from the dead, in three days. In comparison to all of these teachings, exchanges and first-time heard assertion, a statement about death waiting ahead in Jerusalem drew only bewildered and blank faces. According to Luke’s Gospel we read: “The disciples did not understand any of this. Its meaning was hidden from them, and they did not know what He was talking about” (Luk.18:34).