Not so with you

Well, good morning, Hope Lowertown. My name is Steve Trickler. I am one of the pastors at Hope Community Church. I'm actually the og I'm the founder of the original Hope Community Church. And I gotta get my deal here, right? Come here now. There we go. Technology, you know what I'm saying? Speaking of technology, what is going on in i94 that totally messed me up this morning? Turned a 8 minute ride into 20 minute ride. But that's all right. Anyway, glad to be here. I'm excited to be here this morning because my schedule is kind of crazy with just kind of the way things have worked out. I am like preaching all these different places and the next time I'm with you, I think hopefully, hopefully, hopefully Brian gets his act together here, will be in your new building. And so I'm hoping, hoping to be there for your grand opening and however that all works out. And that'll be a lot of fun. And it's coming sometime soon is what Bryan tells me. And not to do that. We're in a study of the Gospel of Mark. I just wanna remind you of something. Just kind of where we're at today. That question was perfect, by the way we did. It's this little awkward moment of something embarrassing you've said and so well, that'll fit really well. But I wanna leave. Look at what we looked at last week, okay? And so I didn't listen to your sermons. I hope I'm not contradicting you said, but pay attention to what I said, not him. But it starts off this guy comes up to Jesus as Jesus was starting on his way and a man ran up to him and fell at his knees before him. And so often this account that you looked at last week is often known as the rich young ruler, right? And one of the interesting things about that little phrase, the rich young ruler is, is this account of this man coming to Jesus is in all of what we'd call the Synoptic Gospels. Matthew, Mark and Luke. But the only way we figure it's a rich young ruler is when we piece them together. Mark tells us he's rich, Matthew tells he's young, Luke tells us he's a ruler. So it's not in any one of them particularly, but it kind of goes over that. So he goes on and he says, good teacher, what, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Right? And it's a great question. And it's one of those questions that it's gonna be a similar question to something that happens today as we're looking at that Jesus Christ is standing right there. And the guy says, what can I do? And inherit eternal life? And Jesus is eternal life, right? I'm the way, the truth and the life. Follow me and you will have life, right? And not only in just this idea of some thing that's coming in the future, a heaven. And that's true, but he's just saying more. It's like, I am the one who gives real life. The best book I've ever not read is the book God Is the Gospel by John Piper. I have this book and I've never read it, but I like the title. The title is so good, you don't need the book. So God is the gospel, right? Let's just not forget that the point of the gospel is to get to God. The point of eternal life is to get to Jesus, right? But this guy's wanting to know, like, how am I going to get this thing in the future that will be positive and great and all that kind of thing. And he misses Jesus, right? So Jesus says, why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. Little hint to like, you're going the wrong direction here, guy. If you want to just get this place, you really want to get after me. But he says, hey, you know the commandments. You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honor your father, mother. And he goes through, I didn't count them, six of the ten commandments there. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, I guess five of half of the ten commandments. And you're going, wait a minute, Jesus, this guy is giving you a slam dunk. Like, believe in me, right? And wait a minute, what is happening here? How do I get to heaven? It's like one of your co workers ask you that you'd figure out very quickly explain the gospel account. And Jesus, he doesn't do that. He gives them the law. He says, well, you know, the commandments too. It's like, wait a minute, is this salvation by works? And it is. Salvation is actually by works. That is a true statement. The deal is though, the works we can't do and so someone else needs to do them for us, right? That's the gospel. The beauty of the gospel is that Jesus Christ does these works and gives us to him as a credit, right? But Jesus is just asking the guy, hey, how do you think, do you think that you cannot do these or do you think that you're doing pretty good? Well, the guy thinks he's doing great. I've kept these since I was a boy. All of them. Jesus, I love this. Jesus looked at him and loved him. Isn't that a great phrase? One thing you lack, he said, go sell everything you have and give it to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come follow me. At this, the man went away sad because he had great wealth. So here you have. This guy comes right up to Jesus. He's so close, right? So close. He asks a question. They're having this conversation, and Jesus says, oh, one thing. You have one thing. You have something in your life that you value way above me. In other words, wealth is not a bad thing. Wealth is a great thing. I think the people that built this building were fairly wealthy back in the, what, 1600s or whatever, they built this building, but 18, whatever it was. But the. I mean, this. It's great. Wealth is not a bad thing. But when it becomes a God thing, then it becomes idolatry. Anything can be. And this guy had an idol, and the idol was wealth. It was something that he really held onto. And so Jesus says, oh, you know what? Just get rid of that. Get rid of that idol and just follow me. And the guy was not at all willing to do that. He was so close. He was right there and he goes away. Now we're gonna continue on this week in the Gospel of Mark's study. And it is very interesting because this will parallel exactly what the disciples do. And we often see this in the Gospel of Mark, I think I. And we have these Monday morning Bible studies where we get together with the other pastors in other locations and some other staff as well. And it's interesting to me to see how often Mark includes an account of something and then he interacts with the disciples and they're almost like you'll see a miracle. But then it's very similar to what's going to happen there. We're going to see that again today. Last time I was here, I told you that I was coming back and I was going to talk about this passage. It's not so with you. I told you that will be the title of the message. No, has to be, because I said it, that it would be mark 1032 through 45. Now I'm going to use the new international version. What did you use? Esp? Yeah. The only reason is because that one phrase, I think it says, but so among you or not so among you or whatever. I just like that the NIV says, not so among. With you it just shortens it down. So let's go back through this passage. And what is happening now is Jesus is starting his trek into Jerusalem. So it's not yet today. This message would not be Palm Sunday. That'll happen in two weeks from now. We'll talk about Jesus triumphantly coming into the city of Jerusalem. And everybody there is having this fever of, oh, my goodness, it is here. Messiah is coming. Right? And so that's the context of where they're going. It says here they were on their way up to Jerusalem with Jesus leading the way. David Garland. I'm going to exclusively use David Garland today. I really like this. He says the disciples and Jesus are marching to Zion. Jesus goes there as the Messiah who invites all Israel to come under God's mysterious domain, not just those living in Galilee. Marcus, that's. You'll see here in a little bit. I put it. Joel, Marcus, he wrote a book about Mark, the Way of the Lord. It says, Marcus gives. Contends that Mark gives the victory procession pictured in Isaiah 35:10. An ironic twist. The fearful trek of the befuddled. Bedraggled. That's an interesting word. Little band of disciples is the return of Israel to Zion and Jesus suffering and death. There are the prophesied apocalyptic victory of the divine warrior. In other words, what he's saying is what's prophesied in Isaiah that the king is going to come and take which is his own. And everybody sees it the wrong way. He says, this is exactly the way that it was supposed to happen. Jesus goes to Jerusalem not to triumph in a military campaign, but to die. Now, understand, if you're one of the disciples and you're with them, you're under the same impression. You've always been taught as a kid and everything else that one day this Messiah will come and he will go right into Jerusalem and he will start things correctly. He will make things right. And so they're thinking it's going to be a military campaign. So Jesus, let's see here now. Let's go on. There we go. The disciples were astonished, while those who followed were afraid. So there's all this tension about, oh my gosh, we're actually going in now to have this happen. And then Jesus says this thing that they have just got to wrap their heads around that it doesn't seem to make any sense. He does not relieve any of their anxiety. He says again, so he's done this now. We'll see in just a little bit. This is the third time now. He's tried to Teach them about what's actually going to happen here. Again, he took the 12 aside and told them what was going to happen to him. We're going up to Jerusalem, he said, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles, who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him. Three days later, he will rise. Okay, now to you and I, you know, we live on the other side of the story. So we see this and we go, well, duh. That's what he was talking about, right? And it was what he was talking about, we understand, to be Christ going into Jerusalem. He'll go in two weeks. He'll go on that Sunday, and by the next Sunday, he's already been crucified and he's risen again. It's quite a week. That is not the week that they thought. That is not what they were preparing for. And so when they hear him say these words, they. They're interpreting in light of some kind of Jesus speak as they're preparing to go and basically have lamez. I mean, it's going to be the great rise and the revolution and it's going to be this great thing. And they're trying to get. Wrap their heads around, what is he talking about here? That it's got to be some weird thing that he's saying that is this going into Jerusalem and you're going to die. Maybe it's like, I'm going to give my life for public service. Maybe that's what he meant or something like that. And he's metaphorically like, the Gentiles will do these things against me, and the Romans will this and that, and they have to figure it out that way. And so then that leads us to understanding a little bit, a little bit about James and John and their question, right? Their question. Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him, teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask. This is just a whole thing where your kid comes up to you and says, mom, I want right now to know, will you do what I ask you to do before you give the question, Right? It's that whole setup thing. Jesus is saying, jesus, first rodeo. He says, what do you want me to do for you? Let me first hear what you are going to ask. And they said, not a big deal. We just want you to let one of us sit at your right hand and the other at your left in your glory. Okay, so this is the part of the story here where we are going to start having parallel conversations. They are thinking that Jesus is going to go in, there's going to be this big revolution, and they're going to rule. We want to be on the right and the left. We want to be part of that team. Jesus is going to have this conversation where he's going to talk about when you come in, your glory means in the heavens and all that. So this is where the parallel conversation goes. Now, I got kind of messed by this part of David Garland's commentary. It's four paragraphs. I apologize in advance and I even cut some out. But it is so good, I want to show it to you. It says, as Jesus draws nearer to his ordeal, the disciples do not draw nearer to understanding. Each time he speaks to them about his suffering, his words go in one ear and out the other. Immediately after his announcement, James and John, he just got done saying, I'm going to die here. I'm going to die. It's going to be this horrible thing. And they say, hey, by the way, hey, can we get the right and left? James and John come sidling up to him with a special request. The earlier dispute about status and rank among the disciples, which we saw a couple weeks back, was silenced, but not buried. These two act like brazen fortune hunters when they ask Jesus to guarantee that one can sit on his right and the other in his left when he comes into his glory. These two are no different from Peter as they as they envision an earthly kingdom established and run according to human norms. They still misinterpret what it means for Jesus to be the Messiah and assume that when he ushers in the new age, they as his friends will receive special privileges. The new age they look forward to has all the earmarks of the old age. Pork barrel politics and nepotism still reigns supreme. They foresee themselves as the elite of the elite, ruling over others in an earthly empire. What they do not realize is that Jesus glory will not become fully manifest to all until after. Until all, excuse me, won't become manifest to all until after great tribulation. They also do not realize that the two bandits who will be crucified with Jesus, one on his right and one on his left in Mark 15:27 is the only other place in Mark where these words appear, where he begins his reign from the cross. But the Zebedee brothers are not asking for the honor of being crucified with Jesus. What they really expect is a kingdom for themselves, where they can impose their own will on others to. They hope to replace the self serving oppressive power structure of the Romans with their own self serving oppressive power structure. Nothing changes except the names of the rulers. Oppressive power gives, gets recycled and new tyrants rise on the scene. The worldly ambition to be at the top and to beat down others still rules. So that just kind of fleshes out like what was going on in their minds. And at this time. Okay, now we've seen this over and over with the disciples. Jesus. Well, I'll show you in just a second. This is the third time he said very plainly, that's not how it's going to go. And you kind of get, this is such an old movie, but I still got to quote it. You just kind of, you feel like the disciples are like the guards in the Monty Python sketch. You know, you stay here and make sure he doesn't leave the room. And if you ever walk through that, it's just, it's really simple. You just stay here and make sure he doesn't leave the room. And then they start walking out with him. He says, where are you going? Where are you going? We'll come with you. No, no, no, no, no. Just stay here and make sure the prince doesn't leave the room. And I'm not going to go through the whole thing, although I did have it memorized in high school. But it's just kind of like, what is going on? You've seen this two other times. And it just seems like again we have the benefit of we're on this side of the cross, we know how it works out. But man, they did not. And they did not get it the first time. Jesus begins to teach them that son of man must suffer. This is in Mark, Chapter 8. Many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teacher of the law. And then he must be killed. And after three days, rise again and Peter comes up and he at least has this decency to pull him aside and he rebukes him. And Jesus turned and looked at his disciples. He rebuked Peter, get behind me, Satan. Right? So he rebukes him in front of others and saying, my gosh. And again, I think this is partly because I think the biggest temptation Jesus had was to not go to the cross. And so when Peter says that, he is harsh because he's saying, Satan is using you to my biggest temptation. Second time we see it is that they are on their way in Galilee and Jesus did not want anyone to know where they are going because he was teaching the disciples. And he said to him, that's the second time the Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise. But they did not understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him about it. They came to Capernaum when he was in the house. He asked them, hey, what were you arguing about on the road? But they kept quiet because on. On the way, they had argued about who was the greatest. And sitting down, Jesus called the twelve and said, anyone who wants to be the first must be the very last and the servant of all. Okay, so he's already working with his disciples, and they seem to slip into this thing of understanding what it really means to be a person of influence. What it really means to be someone of importance is to be higher up than other people. And you can get up the chain, and that's how you're going to make a difference. And Jesus is gonna flip that on its head. Back to our study for this week. They're having this parallel conversation. He says, you don't know what you're asking. Cause they don't. They think they're asking about when they get into taking over this Roman government, that there's some seats, and they're gonna get those seats. And. And he says, you don't know what you're really asking. And then he says, can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I'm baptized with? And they say, sure. We got this, like, right, you're going into Jerusalem. We can go into Jerusalem. All right. It's fine. And again, they're having this parallel conversation. Part two is Jesus said to him, you actually will drink this cup eventually, and you will be baptized with the baptism I'm baptized with. So both James and John are going to go through suffering. James will be martyred, you can see in Acts, chapter 12. Sounds right. Yep. Anyway, I think it's 12. And then John will be exiled for the sake of the Gospel. So they're both going to go through that. But to sit at my right hand or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared. So you're talking about this earthly power thing. I'm talking about an eternal thing in the heavenlies. And I can't. I am not going to be able to. I am not going to be able to promise that to you. Now look at the disciples. When the 10 heard about this, they became indignant with James and John. That's a Great word. Almost all the translations use the word indignant. It means ticked. Like really angry. Why? Because of how rude they were and how insensitive Jesus. No, they're ticked because they didn't think of it first. Right, dog. Got it. You guys had the audacity to go in there, especially Peter's thinking, come on, I'm one of the. You know, I'm kind of this inner circle three. Why'd you leave me out, right? Why couldn't there be three chairs? You just had to make a right and a left, and you had to be there. So they are now losing it. So just. Okay, just picture the scene. Picture the scene in your mind's eye. If you can't. So they're walking on this rope. They're having this conversation. Jesus is ahead. They're going through anxiety, all this. Jesus stops, teaches them what's going to happen in Jerusalem. It's a very vulnerable moment. Very vulnerable. They don't respond with any compassion whatsoever. They respond with self interest. They respond with, hey, make sure, you know, when you get there, we want to rule, right? So Jesus has to stop and try to correct those two. And while that's happening, the other 10. And just think of if you have kids, okay? So when it's indignant, I just see them kind of like, just kind of beating on each other a little bit here almost, you know, and they're just having this crazy, like, I can't believe you did that. We want to be there and all this thing. And Jesus just told him he's going to die. He's going to be humiliated. He's going to spit on. And they're over there having this big dispute, right? So the way I can see this is Jesus just on his way to Jerusalem and this chaos is happening. And I just think the wheels are just coming off, this little movement here. It is just not a good moment. It is. Jesus is just like him, what is happening here? So he does what every master teacher does. He takes this as, we gotta get something straight. We gotta get. I gotta. I gotta get something straight for you. So listen to me, okay? And so this is a moment where he cuts into the chaos and he's gonna speak these words. He's gonna say four things to them. Whoop. Yeah, okay, Four things. Jesus called them together. Come over here. Stop bickering and get over here. And he said to them, you know, that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lorded over them and their high officials exercise authority over them. Number one thing, he's saying is, you're acting exactly like that. There's no difference between you and the very government you're trying to overcome. If we put you in power, watching what you're doing right here, there would be no difference in this society. He says, that's what people who don't know me, that's how they act. And then he says these four words. And that's why I used the new international version this time, these four words, which ever since what year were we in? I don't know, what, five, six years ago or so, Andy Stanley preached this sermon. And I don't remember anything he said. All I do remember is he kept repeating these words, not so with you. And it's not even really like plagiarism, because I didn't have to say his name because he just quoted the Bible. But it's not so with you. He just said it over and over. And I was just wrecked, and I've been wrecked. I put a little sticky by my desk. It just says, not so with you. In other words, the follower of Jesus is different. We wake up every morning and we want to put ourselves where we at in the pecking order. Where are we at on the totem pole? Where we at on this whole thing? Heck, when I was a little kid, this is a little overshare here. But when I would be sitting down in the toilet, whatever that, you know, there was tiles. And I remember thinking of which tile I was and where the other kids were. You know, it's kind of like I just do this. It's natural. And Jesus says, guess what? That's not with you. That's not with you. Third thing here, he says, instead, whoever wants to be great among you must be your servants, and whoever wants to be first must be slaves of all. So he gives this general teaching about what does it actually mean? And in the kingdom, he says, actually, what it means is you lower yourself underneath people and you serve them. You care for them. And then he gives the greatest example ever given for even the Son of Man, for even I, the King of kings and Lord of Lords, the one who made the world. When I came here, I didn't come to be served. Think about that just for a second. I didn't come to be served, but to serve and to give my life as a ransom for many. You know, the old hymn just says, hallelujah, what a savior. It's like one of the wealthiest persons in the world who owns a very fine restaurant, comes to his restaurant and he starts taking your order, starts Vacuuming the floors. He serves you, he doesn't. It's just not the way we think. It's upside down completely. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve. Do you realize Jesus Christ came here to serve you, serve you. So that is so upside down. And those four little words, not so with you, that's so upside down. As we close here, I just want you to ponder this. As we move to a time of communion, I want you to ponder this. This not so with you. In leadership or in assessing yourself or in being a person of influence over others, what does it mean? First off, what does it mean in the church? It means in the church that there's no place for domineering. I'm the boss. Do what I say. Leadership. This is a place where you serve. Now, of course there's decisions that are made and of course that all has to happen, admittedly. But in the church, what does it mean? You should definitely feel this sense of being lifted up, not pushed down on. And that's a radical difference from how other things are run. What does it mean in the home? In the home, it means that obviously parents have authority over their children, right? Of course. But those children should be nurtured and cared for and not lorded over. Right. They should be loved, they should be brought up. It should happen between husband and wife. And it should be in a way that is. It's not so with you. Leadership. Third thing, what does it look like in your work? What does it look like if you are a boss, how do you serve? And of course you're leading. And of course you have authority over them. And of course you are their supervisor and boss. Yes, but what does it look like? We're not so with you, not so with you. You get underneath your employees, you get underneath those around you. You treat them as humans with issues that they have, and you do things in a timely and appropriate fashion. But you do it not so with you. What does it look like in your relationships? What does it look like with people around you? Do you try to be better than others? What does it look like? What does it look like to be getting underneath them to serve and not to be served? What would that actually look like? And then lastly, in your head, what does it look like to say, I am not going to get my okayness by how high up I am or how I perceive myself to be over others? What if I actually got my okayness by saying, who did I serve today? Did I serve anybody today? Did I actually get underneath anybody today and lift them up. Is that something that I did? It flips everything. This way of the kingdom, the way that the gospel saturates us and following Christ's example of what he did. So let me as we're going to move to a time of communion now and invite the worship team to come forward. Just think about this question. Are you allowing the gospel of Jesus where he himself, the King of kings and Lord of Lords, comes down to earth, goes to the cross to pay the penalty for our sins, lives a perfect life, and then for anyone who believes him, he switches with you, he gives you his righteousness, he takes your sin and he does that to serve you. Is that. Will you allow that just to wreck you in how you think about your influencing of others? Let's pray together. Jesus, I want to thank you for this passage. I want to thank you for those four simple words, not so with you. That there is something different about those of us who call you Lord, those of us who call you Savior, those of us who call you guide for living God. That we truly would lean into that God. That you would be the one that leads us so that we can learn what it really means to serve others. Would you set us free from that? Father? Many of us have come from backgrounds where it was very competitive and very much trying to find how high up we could make it. But Lord God, now your kingdom is calling us and saying, flip that upside down. So I pray for us. I pray that we would be people who live like that, people who give like that, people who love like that, people who work like that in our employment, people who are in parenting like that. God would just do this in every area of our lives. Make us like you for your joy or for your glory and for our joy, we pray in your name. Amen.