Easter (Part 2)

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No Compromise Radio Thanks for tuning in to No Compromise Radio with pastor and author,

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Dr. Mike Abendroth. Today on No Compromise Radio, we'll be hearing Pastor Mike open the

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Word of God in a recent message he preached at Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston, Massachusetts.

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Now let's join Pastor Mike in progress as he preaches through the scriptures, verse by verse, with no compromise.

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Mark 9 30, they went on from there and passed through Galilee, and he did not want anyone to know.

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Still in this kind of private, isolated ministry leading up to the cross, for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, the

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Son of Man, an Old Testament term from Daniel to talk about the Messiah, is going to be delivered into the hands of men?

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What do you mean into men's hands? This is the Messiah, and they will kill him? What do you mean the Messiah is going to get killed?

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And when he is killed, after three days he will rise. Matthew says they were deeply grieved.

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Verse 32 of Mark says, they did not understand the scene and were afraid to ask him. Guys, remember what happened last time

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Peter rebuked Jesus after he said this? Let's just kind of keep quiet. We're afraid to say something now.

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Let's not have any more bad news. Get thee behind me, Satan, to Peter. Every one of you, if you're a parent, knows there are certain times in life where there's a child, you're just living your life, and something happens, either good or bad, and you go, this is a teachable moment.

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Come here, daughter, come here, son, we've got a good lesson. This is a good teachable moment, and that's exactly what's going on here.

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Jesus is going to die, and in light of his death, what's the response? The response is, be a humble servant of Christ Jesus.

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Verse 33, when they came to Capernaum, when he was in the house, it was probably Peter's house, in the house, he asked them, what were you discussing on the way?

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That's a bad thing coming up, I know. By the way, I just told you guys I'm going to be killed, suffer, be killed, and you can tell

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Jesus, it's like he just let them go talk on their own. He's walking this way,

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I'm just going to walk up a little ahead and let them talk among themselves. What were they talking about?

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Answer? Who's going to be the greatest? This is pre -Muhammad Ali though, still in the heart of men and women.

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Verse 34, but they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest.

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The text says they just held their tongue for a long time. Yeah, Jesus is going to go get killed, and how great am

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I going to be? I'm better than you. Maybe all this talk of the kingdom made them think of who's going to be in the upper echelon of the kingdom, but it's still sinful nonetheless.

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Here comes the lesson, verse 35, and he sat down and called the twelve. You'd sit down as a rabbi for formal teaching,

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I stand up to teach, this way would be sitting down formally. And he said to them, if anyone would be first, like all you guys sitting there, he must be last of all and servant of all.

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If I'm the resurrected king, and I am God incarnate, I'm going to call you to be servants just like I'm a servant.

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If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all. You say you believe in the resurrection, you should be willing to be a humble servant for Christ Jesus.

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If you're not at all, and you don't even want to be, and you're not even maturing in that area, then you need to go back to step one, and that is, do

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I really believe in the risen Christ? By deliberate choice, I'm going to be last.

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By voluntary decision, I'm going to be last. And Jesus, just like he does so wonderfully, he uses a living illustration.

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What living illustration should we use? Verse 36, perfectly, and he took a child, infant, toddler, right around that age, put him as a little boy in the midst of them,

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I'm great, I'm great, I'm great. One of the things we know about children, they don't contribute anything to their greatness.

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And taking him in his arms, he said to them, this is a very tender picture, here's

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Jesus, the great teacher, whoever receives one such child, in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me, but him who sent me.

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You want to be great? It entails dealing and loving insignificant people like this.

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Me he receives. Children don't have rank, they don't have prominence, they don't have eminence, they have no influence, no accomplishments, no fame, they're just children.

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They're immature, they're undeveloped, they're inarticulate, they're weak, they're needy, they have no power, no status, they're vulnerable, they're subject to authority, they are dependent.

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No influence, no child. Children by definition need things. And so Jesus says, here's my illustration,

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I'm going to go die, I'm going to be raised from the dead. I am in fact the God who created the universe with a word.

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And since that's true, here's what I'm asking you to do. I'm asking you to be a humble servant just like me.

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It's amazing. Mark chapter 10.

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Mark chapter 10. The third prediction from Jesus about his own death and resurrection that should inspire you to live for him.

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We always talk about the death of Christ and the resurrection of Christ, that it's true. I was reading a while ago, they said

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Jesus wasn't really raised from the dead, it was a seance. The disciples got over here and they had a little seance, you know, they got their little

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Ouija board kind of thing. By the way, I can't believe it, I grew up playing Ouija board. What was my mom thinking?

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Oh, you know, let's get a couple of presents for Christmas, a monopoly, life. And you know, a couple of Ouija boards are on sale.

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I remember sitting there, touching the Ouija board, I was going to go have a swim meet later that night, and I was saying to the

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God of the Ouija board, Satan, you know, I didn't know that at the time, am I going to win the swim meet? You know, the yes was over here and the no was over here.

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And so my mom got on the other side and she's trying to push it to no, because I need to be humbled. And I'm trying to push it to yes, because I want to be exalted.

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If you really believe in the resurrection, you will follow

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Christ. If you aren't following Christ, saying things about Jesus that are true of him in the

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Bible, you're not a Christian. And today's the day for your wake up call. Today's the day for you to be reminded.

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Just two short weeks ago, we had our beloved brother laying right here in the casket.

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And I just kept thinking about it. I just kept thinking over and over and over, how could somebody,

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I could think of my mother laying there in the grave as well, in the casket. How could someone who is cold and hard be raised from the dead?

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How could somebody else raise Jairus' daughter from the dead like Jesus did?

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But how could that person themselves raise themselves up from the dead? And I guarantee you, if this particular wonderful gentleman

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Christian who was laying here, stone cold dead, would have sat up and said,

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I'm going to tell you about life and death. I guarantee you I would have, what, paid attention.

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Because who has power like that? Nobody has that power. Nobody has power over life and death except the

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Creator. And here Jesus says, by the way, it's predicted that I'm going to be raised from the dead. It has been ordained by the

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Father and he has sent me to go be raised from the dead. And now I'm going to be killed by these men and then

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I will raise myself from the dead. If any man said that, you should go look at that man and say, by the way,

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I'm going to follow you the rest of my life because I'm going to die one day and I need someone who has the power of my life and death and resurrection.

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I was thinking about it today. I saw the fishermen by the reservoir and I thought, well, they're out worshipping today.

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It's Resurrection Sunday. We're all out worshipping. And then I thought, what's worse?

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Sitting by the reservoir worshipping or actually just coming to church and you've got,

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I can't multiply very fast, 365 days a year times 24 hours.

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And then you go, yeah, I know Jesus was raised from the dead and I'll give him one hour. I'll give him an hour and a half a year.

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Friends, that's not true discipleship. That is insanity. You say, well, you know,

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I don't like to think about those things. Who does? But I'm telling you, every one of you, as I look around today, will die and then stand before God.

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And you can't say, well, there's a bunch of hypocrites in the church, so I don't follow them. Friends, we don't worship other

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Christians here. We worship the Savior who is no hypocrite whatsoever. Well, you know, I'll do that later.

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I'll follow God later. This is not scare tactic either, but there might not be a later.

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So what are preachers to do? Preachers are get up and to say, Jesus is the way, the truth and the life, and no one comes to the

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Father except through him. He's the only Savior. Every other religion is wrong and you'll die and it'll be proven one day.

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Believe now before it's too late. You say, that's not loving. Friends, that's the most loving thing

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I could do. People have it all worked up in their mind where they go, you know what,

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Jesus is going to be, he's going to suffer, he's going to die, he's going to be raised from the dead, and I'll just kind of throw

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God a bone of, well, you know, you dunk me in some water or sprinkle some water on my head, or I've got that letter and I memorized

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Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. I've got some other questions. I don't know what religion that is, but that's not what

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Jesus says. Jesus says it's going to cost you everything. If I'm the God man, follow me.

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After all, if there's two gods, God A and God Jesus, well then, you know, split it up a little bit.

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But if there's only one God who made you, then he is worthy of all your adoration and obedience.

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People invite me once in a while to come and speak and I have to remind them, I tell them this. Thank you very much for the invitation.

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I really appreciate it. But I just would like you to know that I'm a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and if you ask me to speak,

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I'm going to say that Jesus is the only God, he's the only

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Savior, he's the only one been raised from the dead, and unless you trust in him fully, turning from your sins and believing in his death for you and resurrection, you're not going to heaven, but you're going to hell.

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And sometimes people go, that's exactly what we want. And other times I just, five seconds earlier,

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I just hear dial tone. Jesus bought the church with his own blood.

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This is not my church, this is, I'm not trying to build some mega church, I'm trying to be what? Faithful to the text.

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And Jesus says, you say you believe in the resurrection, it's going to cost you everything. It's going to cost you humble service, it's going to cost you life following Jesus, even up to death.

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The wonderful thing when God saves people and makes them new, while none of us really want to die, we say in our heart of hearts,

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God has given me the grace to believe in him, and if I have to die for him, he'll give me the grace for that as well, and Lord, I'm willing to die for you.

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These guys are slow listeners, slow learners. I am too, I assume you are too, so let's just look at the last one,

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Mark chapter 10. Mark chapter 10, verse 32.

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Let me say one other thing while I'm thinking about it. My grandmother was dying, and so I wrote her a little letter.

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The bad news is I'd never written her a 14 -page letter before, and so the second she got it, she knew it was an evangelistic appeal.

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I thought, oh, I should have written her other longer letters, but I was concerned, because I believe what Jesus says, pointed for man once to die and then judgment.

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And I just told her, there's grace to be found, free grace. You can't earn heaven, you can't work to heaven, you can't climb up some kind of ladder to heaven.

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God has come down the ladder in the person of Christ Jesus, and you can come into the master's house through Christ Jesus.

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I was listening this week to S. Lewis Johnson, and S. Lewis Johnson said, in the old days in India, and maybe it's still true,

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I'd have to talk to my Indian brothers and sisters, the servants who come into the master's house had to take their shoes off, can't go.

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But the sons could come into the house and have their shoes on. And so here this

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Indian servant, this Indian slave, said, you know the wonderful thing about being a

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Christian? I get to slip into the sandals of the son, and I have entrance now into the father's house.

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I slip into the sandals of Christ Jesus, and now I'm accepted as a son in the beloved.

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I remember going to my grandfather's, I mean, you can tell I might not be the guy to ask to come when somebody's dying if you want to just keep everything calm.

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But when somebody's dying, I want to tell them the truth. Oh, don't tell this person they're dying. No, I'm going to come and tell them they're dying because it's time to meet

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God. Consider your soul. That's what today's sermon is. You say, are you this crazy every week?

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Well, ask the congregation. I doubt it, but I'm concerned about your soul now if you're here. And I remember going up to my grandfather, and I said,

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I actually had to have Kim take my grandmother away because she would have a heart attack if I told this to him, and I just wasn't able to do it.

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I said, Grandpa, I think you're going to die soon, and then you're going to stand before God and left by yourself with sins and everything else.

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Your baptism, your confirmation, your being good, your church attendance isn't going to save you. You must be born again.

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I said, I'm like the linebacker who runs over and knocks somebody out, but I'm knocking you out before you go over the cliff.

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This is not unloving. This is just telling people the truth. This isn't all there is to life.

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If it is, it's not worth living. So right down the hallway,

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I hear my grandmother coming, and she starts screaming, No, no, no, no!

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Because I was telling my grandfather in front of my grandmother, It's nothing you can do, because all your works are tainted.

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It's Christ Jesus alone. The only one who can be raised from the dead. Christ Jesus and Him alone.

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You say, well, other people say that. No, Jesus says it. So you say, well, I want to be a Christian, but I don't want to believe what

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Jesus says. Then pick a different religion, because this is what the Bible says. Oh, the Bible is written by men.

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Friends, you can have a thousand excuses about what happened and this happened, but at the end of the day, you will die and stand before God, and you need

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Christ. The good news is there's the free offer of salvation for all those to look away from self and look to Him.

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I don't know if my grandfather ever repented and believed, but it's our responsibility to tell people the truth.

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It's not a popularity contest. It certainly wasn't for Jesus, and now we look at Mark chapter 10, the third and final prediction of His death, burial, and resurrection that demands it all from His followers.

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Each time Jesus says, I'm going to suffer, die, be raised from the dead, and now here's the object lesson, follow me.

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Mark 10, 32, And they were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, no longer in isolation, just talking to the disciples.

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Now Jesus steadfastly sets His face towards Jerusalem, on His way to death, and He knows it.

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He's forcing the issue, and Jesus was walking ahead of them. They were amazed. You know you're going to go get killed, and there

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He goes, steadfastly, with a hitch and a step, as it were, going to be killed. And Jesus had taught them well enough that they knew, if the

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Master is going to get killed, they're what? Next. And those who followed were afraid.

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And taking the twelve again, He began to tell them what was happening to Him. It's a date with destiny.

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It's been agreed with the Father and the Son and the Spirit before time began. They're astonished.

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He used to withdraw from authorities, and now He's marching to Zion. Verse 33,

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See, we're going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man, that's the Messianic term for the Son of Man and Daniel, will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn

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Him to death and deliver Him over to the Gentiles. He says what

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He said before with more intensity. Look at how it's expanded. Here's almost an exposition of chapter 9.

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And they will mock Him and spit on Him and flog Him and kill Him. Some Messiah that is.

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And after three days, He will rise. I don't even know if they heard the words, and He will rise, because when you hear about your

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Messiah, your friend, your teacher, your rabbi going to get spit on and flogged and killed and mocked,

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I don't know if you can hear the rest. And now here comes the message of discipleship. Our final one.

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Truth has consequences. Ideas have consequences. And James and John, the son of Zebedee, came up to Him and said to Him, Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.

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Wouldn't you expect them to say, Teacher, whatever you ask of us, we'll do.

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Forgiveness of sins. You're the only Messiah. You're the Holy One of God. You're the hope of Israel. It's all flipped around.

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Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you. What? Now this is,

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I love mothers, don't get me wrong, but this is the mother talking through the weak sons.

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Matthew 20, it says, Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came to Jesus with her sons bowing down, making a request of Him.

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He said to the mother, What do you wish? She said to Him, Command that in your kingdom these two sons of mine may sit, one on your right and one on your left.

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These sons are following their mom's lead. Sinful son, sinful mother, you do what we want.

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And then Jesus said, Okay, verse 36, Is there ever a teacher like Jesus? He said to them,

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What do you want me to do for you? And they said, Grant us to sit, one at your right. It's a place of honor.

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And one on your left, second best place of honor. That's what we want. At least they understood

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Jesus was the Messiah, but they missed it. He's been talking about suffering, persecution, death, crosses, following me, and now you want to be exalted, verse 38.

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Wow! Jesus said to them, You do not know what you're asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, the cup of death, the cup of God's wrath poured out upon you?

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Or be baptized with the baptism which I am baptized? And they said to Him, Lord, have mercy on us sinners.

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We're in over our heads. They said, What? We're able. Jesus said to them,

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The cup that I drink, you will drink. You are going to get killed. And with the baptism with which

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I am baptized, you will be baptized. Ambition, man, has blinded you.

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Before glory, there's the cross. Before heaven, there's the suffering. And He submits to the

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Father by saying, verse 40, But to sit at my right hand and at my left is not mine to grant, but it is to those for whom it has been prepared.

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And when the ten heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John.

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What are they saying? You guys are super sinful. Be righteous. No, here's what they say.

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Hey, you guys beat us to the punch. We wanted to be up there. We wanted to be exalted. Garland said,

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These disciples would rather bear a grudge than a cross. Verse 42, Jesus called them to him and said to them,

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You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lorded over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.

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They lorded over people. It's survival of the fittest out there. Dictators of all sorts. Melagomaniacs.

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Gentiles play the tyrant, but not me. Verse 43, But it shall not be so for you either. It shall not be so among you.

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But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be the slave of all.

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Say you believe in the resurrection, humble service to God's people. And then our last verse for this morning,

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For even the Son of Man, the one who has a right to be exalted, the sinless one, no sin nature, no taint of sin, even the

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Son of Man came not to be served but to serve. You want to follow Jesus? It's a life of serving.

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Or you don't really believe in the resurrection. And to give his life as a ransom for many.

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If Jesus Christ is going to give his life in the great exchange, dying on the behalf of sinners even though he wasn't a sinner, and then serving people, that's what

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God calls us to do as well. So I ask you the question, if you respond to me,

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Jesus Christ is risen, to respond to me as I say Jesus Christ is risen, he is risen indeed.

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That he is risen indeed should have all the weight of the gospels that say he's worthy to follow unto death, he's worthy to serve, and his people are worthy to serve.

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Arthur Pink said, At the cross all our iniquities were laid upon Christ, and therefore did divine judgment fall on him.

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There was no way of transferring sin without transferring its penalty. Both sin and its punishment were transferred to the

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Lord Jesus. On the cross Christ was making propitiation solely towards God.

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It was a question of meeting the claims of God's holiness. It was a matter of satisfying the demands of justice.

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Not only was Christ's blood shed for us, but it was shed for God. End quote. Jesus speaks of his resurrection.

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Jesus speaks of his death. Because he demands followers. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, it is a joy to look at Christ's words, even though they are difficult today, stark today, yet truth.

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And so Lord, I'd ask that your spirit now would drive these truths deep into the heart of folks here.

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I pray that those who are Christians would look back and have great joy knowing that when you save them, they were made new creatures in Christ and given even the ability and the desire and the will to obey and the will to want to follow.

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Father, for those who are here today and they have not bowed the knee, they are not born again, they're trusting in society, government, education, money, power, friends, or even something like going to church.

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I pray that you would grant them neither sleep nor rest until they're made right with you.

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God, I pray that you would declare them righteous. Make them righteous in sanctification.

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Do the work of conversion from start to finish and open their eyes so that they might see that this

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Jesus of the Bible is worth following even if it costs them their entire lives.

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Who could ever come up with such a belief? Lord, no one can, so I pray that you would grant that today for the sake of the glory of Christ Jesus, the risen

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Savior. Amen. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible -teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life -transforming power of God's Word through verse -by -verse exposition of the sacred text.

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Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston.

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You can check us out online at bbcchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

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The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff, or management.