Synoptic Gospels: 263

It's like 10 minutes till and nobody's here. So the pad looks like just a regular pad like that, but it is a special pad. There is, you can't see it, but there's something in the paper, in the printing of the paper, that provides it the ability to, there's a camera in the pen that's doing it.

And that's what's seeing, that's, I don't know exactly how it works, but yes, you have little marks at the bottom of the page where you stop, pause, you can turn to the back, it's got a calculator in the back and just tap on the various things and it'll do numbers for you on the pen.

And oh, it's, it is. Livescribe? Livescribe pen. It's any, anybody heading off to, I would say anywhere from junior high school on, this would be the absolute perfect gift. I cannot imagine what it would have been like if I was in college to have had one of these things.

To be sitting there and when studying for a test, looking at your notes and then take your pen, tap on your notes and it plays exactly what the professor was saying at that time. I mean, just awesome.

And even yesterday when I was, when I uploaded my notes from the debate on Purgatory, I was listening to a portion and it's redrawing my handwriting on the screen as it's playing. And I see where my opponent said one thing and I quoted it differently as I was writing it down because I'm writing really fast.

It was a synonym, but it was a different word. And I heard it as I saw it doing that. And it's like, you know, especially in preparation for a test or something like that in college, I'm like, man, that would be.

And they're not outrageously expensive. I've got the nicest one, eight gigabytes storage and they're all under $200. So you can get two gig ones for like 121, I think. But for a student, wow. Just, that would be the most useful thing I could think to give to somebody who's a student.

I mean, it's great for me in debates, but for a student especially, that would be awesome. Well, for teachers, I'm not sure how great that would be because the student can always go, did you say? No, I said this.

Oh, actually tap, that's what you said. And I go, oh, no. That was one of the reasons I got it. It was, you know, there was a couple of times someone said, you said this. No, it's not. Well, let me show you.

Tap, there it is. You know, that would be, that's pretty amazing what you can do these days. And Mr. C just missed all that, which is unfortunate because, I don't know, it's technological, so I'm not sure if he'd like it, but I bet you he'd like his students to have it.

Evanacer means stone of help. And so it was a memorial that you would put up. It would be a rock, but it could be like rocks placed in a monument in regards to some help that God has given to you, Evanacer.

That's why you'll always hear me when we sing. Here I raise my, I never say Evanacer. If you'd listen for me, I always sing Evanacer because that's what it is. It's a Hebrew word. Two Hebrew words, Evanacer, yeah.

No, Evanacer is a monument that you would put up to in remembrance of God's help. Exactly, exactly. I was just, I'm feeling sorry for Mr. Broz because I haven't started yet. He's sitting back there waiting for me to get started.

But I was telling everybody else I used my Livescribe pen in the debate Friday night. And for students, honestly, for students, if parents ever ask you, what should I get my kid for class with me? This is a pen where you take the notes and then at any point you can go back and tap anywhere in your notes.

It'll replay what was being said at the time you wrote that. You can connect it to your computer. Your handwritten notes will be uploaded to the computer in your handwriting, and you can click anywhere in those notes.

It'll replay what was being said at that point. Can you imagine any better tool for studying for a test than that? I can't think of anything. And they're less, I've got the high-end model with eight gigabytes of storage and it was less than $200.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, if I had had something like that in college, wouldn't have had a 3 .86, I would have had a 4 .0. Exactly, exactly, exactly. It's great stuff. Anyways, so much for that.

The Kingdom, Greatness, and the Disciples' Ambition

We press on in our study of the Synoptic Gospels to an almost empty room this morning. I don't know where everybody is. Has sickness devastated the congregation? I haven't heard of anything, but this is highly, and it's not vacation time either.

So did everyone know I was teaching this morning? Free day at the fair. Oh, free day at the fair, is that what it is? Oh, yeah, that's, there you go. That must be it, wow. Amazing, well, we press on anyways.

Section 263, you will notice, if you just skip ahead to 264, like we won't be doing that, even though I spent a lot of time studying it, unfortunately. It says compare number 96, which means we did this story a long time ago.

And then we have the kiosks, and then comparable to pounds. Actually, we will do that one, because that's compared to 299. We'll get to 299, and we'll do that one. So we're actually gonna be speeding up here a little bit, which makes me nervous, because some of the toughest synoptic material is right around the corner.

And I know that next Sunday I have the services, and then nine o 'clock Monday morning, I'm taking off for Lima, Peru for a week, and I'll get back late Saturday night, except my flight goes to Panama City, so I'm not sure if I'm getting back at all.

That's a little bit of a concern on the way back. But anyway, so I'm not sure when we'll be doing this study again. But section 263 sort of does start moving us into some of the main themes that are repeated in the latter portion of the Gospels.

And one of those issues that comes up is precedence among the disciples. The, you know, Jesus said a lot about the kingdom of heaven. And the disciples heard those words in a particular context. And it's important for us to know what that context was, but it's also important for us to recognize that that context sometimes caused them problems.

In other words, they had ideas in their minds as to what the kingdom was going to look like. And even when Jesus would contradict those ideas, it's real easy for your mind to sort of diminish the contradiction or reinterpret the contradiction.

So that you can continue believing what you're comfortable believing. And so what you have in this situation is, well, if this kingdom's coming and Jesus is going to be the king and there's 12 of us, well, then who's gonna, you know, get to be in the cabinet, shall we say?

And who's gonna have the best positions and who's gonna do this and who's gonna do that. And, you know, we've given up everything to follow Jesus. And so there obviously must be something we're gonna be getting out of all this, et cetera, et cetera.

Before you look at that, I might mention, it sort of reminds me a little bit of something that happened this weekend. That was in Oregon for a debate with Robert St. Genes on purgatory, which was in and of itself quite interesting.

But Bob St. Genes and I, at least we believe in objective truth. For him, it's defined by the Roman Catholic Church period and discussion. For me, it's defined by scripture. And that means that we end up, you know, on opposite sides of many, many issues and reading the scriptures very, very differently.

But the other debate that took place involved a fellow by the name of Doug Padgett. And I don't know if any of you have ever heard of Doug Padgett. I doubt any of you. Has anybody heard of Doug Padgett?

I didn't think so. The emergent church movement does not have much impact here. We're not into, you know, latte bars in the back and candles around and everyone's sitting around in the Zen position, so on and so forth.

But Doug Padgett is the essence of the postmodern emergent church leader. And he actually attended the debate. And from his perspective, people like myself landed from outer space. We were just so far off.

Actually, but the funny thing was, both me and St. Denis, from his perspective, are so far off that we don't even have any grounds for even discussion with one another. And that's true. From his perspective, language has no meaning.

No one can really know what objective truth is, blah, blah, blah. I don't even know why he was there for a debate because he's a postmodernist. How is it a postmodernist debate anyhow? You know, if language is a construct that all depends on my experience, that's what it means, why are you debating with somebody?

You know, the only way you could have a debate with someone is if you both share the exact same experience and interpret it in the exact same way, which isn't gonna happen. So it was interesting to, he told my host, he said, you know, you can be delivered from your Calvinism.

I can show you the way, you know? And for him, that would basically involve flushing any rational thought down the sewer. That's how you get rid of it. But he would think everything we're doing here, comparing Matthew and Mark, and thinking about what the context of the Jews was, it's like, who cares?

It's how you encounter the text now, and how you feel, and the great dialogue, and oh, it's just, we didn't talk. He came in, I spoke yesterday, so Jenna spoke first, then I spoke, and then he was speaking, and then the guy who was debating, Chris Rosebaugh, were the spokes, it was four hours.

And I was supposed to speak, I ended up preaching. I just felt that was the appropriate thing to do. But he came in afterwards, and he's like, it's gotta be at least 6 '6", it's huge. But he saw me, I was talking to folks.

He stayed on the other side of the room. I think the bow tie I was wearing scared him. I think, that's a good way, bow ties are for immersion people what garlic is for vampires, okay? It's sort of the same thing.

They just, it is the emergent repellent. It really is. Like, yeah, I saw my grandfather had one of those. I'm not ever gonna talk to you, so. Anyhow, I just mentioned that in passing, because I found it just, they actually wanted me to go to George Fox University and have a dialogue with this guy on Friday about the existence of evil.

And I'm like, excuse me, I'm here to debate a Roman Catholic on purgatory. I've never read a word this guy has to say. And I got up that morning, I started listening to some of his stuff online, and I'm like, you've got to be kidding me.

I do not have the capacity of interacting with people who have not a rational bone in their body. The concept of consistency is utterly lacking from their entire worldview. And I mentioned Brother Callahan on an interview that I did while I was up there, don't worry.

I just mentioned that the guy asked me, why are you so concerned about consistency? And I mentioned, and I don't know if Brother Callahan remembers this, but years ago, I took his logic class at PC. I don't know if you recall that.

You're looking at me, yes, you remember that. And probably first class, I would imagine first class. One of the things that you said was you cannot discuss the meaning of the word truth without talking about consistency.

Now, you were talking specifically, you go through the logical proofs and you're looking for consistency and so on and so forth. But the point was truth involves consistency. You can't have a meaningful discussion about truth if you've thrown all categories of consistency out the window.

But postmodernism has. So I might as well be sitting there speaking Swahili to this guy. It's gonna have the same meaning. It doesn't matter. What his language means is one thing to him is a completely different thing to me.

And so there's no foundation for us to even have any kind of a conversation at all. So I said no. Oh, he was debating Chris Rosebaugh on the existence of hell. Because of course, he hasn't believed that there is such a thing as hell and stuff like that.

So I'm just really surprised he agreed to do it. I haven't heard it yet. And unfortunately, it was going on while I was flying back. So they didn't have it on the plane for some odd reason. But that would be nice to live stream the debate on the plane.

But I hope to listen to it very, very soon. I probably shouldn't listen to it while riding because I will probably end up veering off into oncoming traffic just to try to feel better. Mack trucks, yes, scenario.

That would be because my hosts had him for breakfast and for dinner and they told me what it was like. And I'm like, do you really enjoy sticking bamboo shoots under your fingernails that much? I mean, is it really chewing aluminum foil?

That is exciting, that's exciting. Okay, all right. So I avoided it. I just can't handle that kind of stuff. All right, anyway, that was an interesting aside. But we get back to section 263. And you have immediately an interesting synoptic issue.

And most of you probably see it if you just, all you gotta do is look at the first two lines of section 263 and you immediately see the issue. Matthew chapter 20, verse 20 says, then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came to him with her sons and kneeling before him, she asked him for something.

But Mark chapter 10, verse 35 says, and James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came forward to him and said to him, teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you. Now, this is the same incident because Jesus then says to the mother in Matthew, what do you want?

She said to him, command that these two sons of mine may sit, one at your right hand, one at your left, in your kingdom. And notice that verse 36 of Mark 10, and he said to them, what do you want me to do for you?

And they said to him, grant us to sit, one at your right hand, one at your left, in your glory. Now, some have said that these are two different incidents. That mama, maybe Mark is giving us the first incident and since that didn't work, then mama comes along because everybody, you're not gonna say no to mama, especially a Jewish mama, if you know anything about that.

But I don't think so. I think that's a little bit contrived. I think it would be pretty amazing if James and John had come to Jesus at one point and we want to sit at your right hand and your left in your glory, and Jesus' response is, you do not know what you're asking, et cetera, et cetera.

And then they decide, well, let's go get mom and see if mom will do it, or vice versa. I don't see that happening. Instead, it seems rather obvious that what you have going on here is an illustration of example of representation.

That is, the mother of the sons of Zebedee are representing them, and when you have someone who's representing you, it's the same as you yourself coming before someone. And that's all you have here, is that the mother was representing that.

Maybe Mark didn't want to, in some way, embarrass James and John, I don't know. But the reality is, that is a common form of representation in ancient writing, and it really should not cause somebody any type of a problem, especially, it's interesting, that as soon as the mother gives this request, Jesus' response is identical in both instances.

In other words, he's addressing the men. He represents where the, he understands who's making the request. And his question, you do not know what you are asking, are you able to drink the cup that I drink, are you baptized with the baptism that I am baptized?

And they said to him, notice in both texts, verse 39 of Mark 10 says, and they said to him, we are able. And in verse 22 of Matthew 20, they said to him, we are able. So, the only appearance of the mother is just simply bringing forth the request.

The response of Jesus is to James and John in both instances, because Jesus knows, and anyone else would have known, this isn't some instance of supernatural knowledge, would have known that the request is representing them.

And you'll notice that in Matthew 20, 20 it says, with her sons. And so, James and John are present in Matthew's account, and obviously are part of this representation and this request that is being made.

Perhaps Matthew is letting us know that they thought possibly that their mother would be the better one to ask. I'm not sure what is going on in the background here. Certainly, this isn't the first time Jesus talked about greatness in the kingdom of heaven.

But it's amazing how many times we will go to the Lord and ask him for things, despite the fact that we know in our heart of hearts that we're asking just simply to use this on our own desires and we know better, but we do it anyways.

And maybe that's what's going on here as well. To sit at your right hand and at your left, right hand, of course, is the first position of honor. But the king would be flanked by his counselors. And there was sort of a preferential right hand, left hand type thing.

I mean, we think of the judgments and the sheep and the goats, right hand, left hand type of thing there as well. But anyone who was seated that close to the king would be someone who had the king's ear.

And hence, outside of the place of rulership, outside of the king's court, would be someone who would be greatly looked after, would be pursued, someone who would have great authority amongst the people, one of the counselors of the king.

But immediately, Jesus' response demonstrates something about rulership in the kingdom. And I think it's interesting that we have two different words used here, in your kingdom and in your glory. I think that's helpful in the sense that we see that they are communicating something in a fuller way.

Your glory, you think of the glory of a king or something like that. And so there's obviously the close connection between the two. But there's this theme all through scripture and especially it comes out in greater color and definition in the New Testament.

This idea of if you desire to be glorified with him, what is the path to glorification? Romans chapter eight, you may recall a few years ago, we worked through a portion of Romans chapter eight. And we eventually will again, though of course, again, at the rate we're going in Romans, that will be sometime around 2074, but we'll get there.

And in Romans chapter eight, we have that phrase that talks about being glorified with Christ. Everybody likes that phrase. But what is the path to glory? We shall be glorified with him if what? If indeed we suffer with him.

And Paul isn't just coming up with this out of thin air. This is a theme that is found in Jesus' own teaching. It's found right here. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink? And then Mark has the longer version or be baptized the baptism with which I am baptized.

And he is talking here about his coming suffering and the fact that his disciples likewise will experience that kind of suffering. And so what does that mean? The positions of greatness in the kingdom are not the positions that people would associate with greatness.

They're not just given to someone so that they can have the worship of the people and the attention of the people and the praise of the people. The positions in the kingdom are based upon one's union with Christ and one's suffering for the gospel.

It's the exact opposite of what you would expect would be the point here. And their response, they say, we are able. Jesus says, and I'll read Mark's because Mark's is a little bit fuller. And Jesus said to them, the cup that I drink, you will drink and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized.

But to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but is for those for whom it has been prepared. And when the ten heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John, and Jesus called them to him and said to them, you know that those who are supposed to rule over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them, but it shall not be so among you.

But whoever would be great among you must be your servant. Whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. The son of man also came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.

You will notice in both Luke and John there are both large text and small text parallels. Luke has a very brief summary of a dispute. A dispute also arose among them, which of them was to be regarded as the greatest.

Notice Luke doesn't even tell the story. Luke doesn't give the James and John and grant to sit your right hand, your left, and can you be baptized with the baptism, drink the cup. Skips all of it and says there is a dispute.

But he gives the exact same admonishment. And he points to the kings, the Gentiles, and how they lord over their people, but it shall not be amongst you. And so this cup of verse 39 in Mark 10, and this baptism then, I don't get the feeling that Jesus is saying, yes, you know what you're saying, and yes, you are able.

I think what he's saying is you will experience these things, but I don't think you even know what you're saying you're capable of doing. I mean, certainly that was the case of Peter. How many times do we, are you really capable of doing this, Peter?

Oh, yeah, you bet. And then denies him three times. He says, yes, you will experience the cup of suffering, the baptism of suffering. However, to sit at my right hand or my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.

Now, that is an interesting statement, especially as it is interpreted by the disciples. The disciples, when the 10 heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John. Were they indignant because James and John asked before they got around to doing it?

You really have to wonder because remember, these are the same guys that on the way to the Garden of Gethsemane, after the supper, after Jesus has washed their feet, what are they arguing about? Who amongst them is going to be the greatest?

I suppose it's an admonition to us all to continue to teach and admonish with patience when we look at what Jesus had to work with with the disciples. And it's easy for us to be critical of the disciples because we got the whole story.

We know what the end of the story is at the end of the book, okay? And we get to sit back in the safety of 2 ,000 years of history and knowledge of what all happens and criticize them. And I doubt any of us would have done any better in their shoes or their sandals, as the case may be.

But the reality is that this teaching on Jesus' part, at this point in Matthew 20, Mark 10, it does not sink in. If it had sunk in, I mean, it says, but so it shall not be among you. And yet on the night of his betrayal, as Jesus is facing the greatest trial, the whole reason for his coming is necessary to go to Jerusalem.

He's gonna go and pray, Father, let this cup pass from me. I mean, taking on the sins of all of God's people, being made sin so we might become the righteous of God and Him, and all the rest of that is heading Jesus' direction.

And could he not be aware of the fact that as he walks with literally the weight of the world on his shoulders, the people that are closest to him in the world, in whom he has invested so much time, who have heard, we have this much of Jesus' public teaching.

I mean, think about it. In John chapter six, when he feeds the 5 ,000, he's been teaching them all day long, and we've gotten nothing of what he said at that point. We get the synagogue in Capernaum the next day.

We don't know anything about the sermon he's preaching. They had heard all of that over and over again, hundreds, thousands of hours of preaching. And here at the most important time, Jesus has told them what's coming.

He's just washed their feet. He's given them the most incredible example of humility. And what are they arguing about? I'm gonna be greater than you. I'm gonna have more power than you. I was called first, you know.

Yeah, but I cast out that demon in Capernaum, you know. Yeah, well. And they're grousing about who's gonna be the greatest. And from a human perspective, I think the temptation for a lot of us would have been to just stop, take a deep breath, turn around and say, would you idiots get out of here?

I mean, that's what I would have felt like doing, you know? And that's not what happens. That's not what happens. That to me is a real encouragement that you can, sometimes, and let me make application here.

Sometimes, you know, within the church here, and this sort of fits in with the sermon about a month ago when I talked about apostasy. When we see people leave, or we see people apostatize, or we see people become heretics, the temptation is to go, well, there's something wrong with the message that we're preaching, the methodology that we're using.

Maybe we need to start looking for something other than just scripture, you know? I mean, sadly, many denominations have certainly given in to that temptation. And I think we need to sit back and with maturity, recognize that you can, as Jesus had with these men, be the greatest teacher in the world, sinlessly perfect in all ways.

Nothing in your personal life detracting in any way, shape, or form from your message. The perfect teacher. And yet, no ears to hear at times. Lots of processes to go through for people to finally understand.

I mean, think about Peter. Even after the Spirit comes at Pentecost and indwells these believers, God has to lower a sheet from heaven, not once, not twice, three times. One strike, two strike, ah! You got it, finally.

You're about to be called out three times to break through this massive tradition barrier that even with the presence of the Spirit, Peter still had. And so, it would seem to me that while we should be extremely concerned about teaching appropriately, trying to teach with clarity, trying to teach with consistency, the idea of running off and looking for some new way of doing things when somebody runs off and becomes a Jehovah's Witness or something is missing the point.

The Spirit of God applies the Word of God as He sees fit, when He sees fit. And we are not called, I cannot change someone's heart, but I can speak the truth and I can speak it with consistency and I can speak it in as many different ways as I can possibly think to do so.

And Jesus had surely done so with these men. And so, these men are indignant at James and John, I think probably indignant that they had asked first, but feigning indignance that they had asked it all because, well, of course, we're all equal, right?

No, we're gonna find out later on, they're arguing about this later on. So, that would seem to be where their indignance comes from. I don't think they're necessarily indignant in Jesus' statement. Their response doesn't even seem to really take that into consideration.

But to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but is for those for whom it has been prepared. So, it would seem that if servitude in the sense of service to God is the basis of who's going to be quote unquote closest to the throne.

In other words, who is going to have, well, you have the phrase. First shall be last, last shall be first. That is Jesus' own terminology. Let the great, and as Luke put it, let the greatest among you become as the youngest and the leader as one who serves.

Whoever be great among you must be your servant. We think of people of the past and we think of how many names we know and those that stand out are often people who suffered greatly and who gave their lives in service.

Not the people of the world necessarily thought were the great quote unquote religious leaders. The world has looked at popes for a long time as great religious leaders, but the vast great humanity doesn't even know who any of the popes of the past were.

Doesn't help they take these goofy names. Were you 15 or 16? I don't remember, that doesn't help a whole lot. But the reality is that the great people looked at the past were the people who were the greatest servants, who gave themselves.

And it would seem then that that is a part of God's calling, that God is the one who gifts with servanthood. And in this case grants a great gift of servanthood to those who will truly give themselves.

We think of the martyrs who have given themselves in the cause of Christ. And of course we don't, I don't think we're gonna know who the greatest servants of Christ were until that final day when the thoughts and intentions of men's hearts will be laid bare.

So a period of time, I don't know how long, the period of time exists between verses 41 and 42 of Mark 10, because you'll notice in verse 42, Jesus called them to him. So Jesus knows that this dispute has arisen.

There's dissension in the ranks. And so he calls them to him and he says to them, you know those who are supposed to rule over the Gentiles lord it over them. And their great men exercise authority over them, but it shall not be so among you.

In other words, look at how the world does it and don't do that. Well, is that still pretty much the same mechanism amongst the Gentiles? Yeah. It, you may become one of the great men differently. I mean, especially during the medieval period, hereditary monarchs, families of kings became all the rage.

And so you're just born into that privilege. Or you can, you know, receive a knighthood or a lordship or whatever it might be, especially in European parlance. And that's why certain people would rule over other people and you would bow beneath them.

It had nothing to do with character. It had nothing to do with anything else. It just had to do with who you were. Today, it's a little bit different. You know, if you have certain physical capacities, if you're a six foot 10 and you can jump real high and slam a basketball through a hoop and you get paid tens of millions of dollars per year to do so, then all of a sudden you have authority.

And people do hour long programs about whether you're gonna stay in Cleveland or go to Miami. And then you can write books and do stuff like that later on, or if you can throw a football all the way down the field or run real fast or whatever it might be.

Having riches and so on and so forth, there's still this stratification and it's not based upon servanthood. That's still just the opposite. I can guarantee you that a large portion of people in this room, even people who aren't into sports know who LeBron James is, but I can guarantee you nobody in this room, including myself, has any idea who the water boy on the Miami Heat is.

Do we? No, of course not. You know, the guy running out with the drinks and maybe wrapping some ankles or something like that, I don't know who he is. The guy doing the service part, no. You know, but the guy who, you know, throws stuff in the air and all the rest of this stuff, you know, just the very essence of man worship is what people see.

You don't see the people who do the serving. And Jesus' statement is, for Christians, it shall not be so among you. And those are words we will continue with because they echoed in my ears when I visited the Vatican a few years ago.

And as I walked around that grandiose, gaudy place with all the gold and marble and all these sepulchres and these statues, and I just go, didn't really read all the Gospels now, did we? No, we missed a few of those things as you see these processions and people bowing and kissing rings and all the rest of this stuff.

The papacy is the very essence of the opposite of biblical servanthood in any way, shape, or form. So yeah, as it may, we will continue at that point. Are you here next week? Okay, so I've got the services next week.

So sometime in the future, we'll pick up with the next study. Let's close our time with the word of prayer. Indeed, our Heavenly Father, we ask that you would teach us a heart of servanthood, that we would serve you, that we would do so with pure hearts and a desire only to glorify you.

Father, we thank you for the warnings of your word, the revelation of your word. We ask that you would make us to hear it clearly now as we go into worship. We pray in Christ's name, amen. I'm sorry? Yes, yes, yes.