Trinity Baptist Church

The Book of Mark

The Virtue of Being Last

Mark 9:30-41

 

As we return to the 9^th chapter of Mark, we are looking at some of the lessons the Lord taught His disciples. His public ministry in Galilee has basically and now He is spending the majority of His time with the disciples.  Eventually they will make their way to Jerusalem where He will be arrested and killed.  And as that time approaches, He is preparing them for what is going to happen and very often we find Him talking about His death and resurrection.

 

In addition to preparing them for the crucifixion, there are some things they need to know to continue His ministry on earth.   Last week, the lesson was about faith.  In the future He will cover several issues like marriage and divorce, the seriousness of sin, children, riches, wealth, leadership and service. 

 

But today’s lesson is on humility. And at first reading, this text seems to be a bit disconnected, but the whole passage actually revolves around the theme of humility. So let me read it to you and then we’ll look more closely at it.

 

Mark 9:30-41

 

If I were to title this section, I might call it, “The Virtue of Being Last. Obviously that title would be offensive to the culture in which you and I live because everybody wants to be first.  By and large, humility is not viewed as a virtue in our culture, and it wasn’t viewed as a virtue in the time of Christ either.

And in reality, that is at the very root of our fallen nature.  Satan didn’t like being what he was created to be.  He wanted to be first.  And that is really at the heart of every person’s rebellion against God. 

 

In our society, we hear a lot about people lacking self-esteem.  Nobody lacks self-esteem. That’s a lie. Everybody is consumed with himself, or herself, in one way or another.

 

And to diagnose people’s problems as being a lack of self-esteem is to feed the sin nature and tell people they need to be more proud when they’re already a victim of pride. 

 

But nobody wants to hear that they need to be humble and think more highly of others than themselves. Nobody is content to be last.  Do you think it would draw a crowd if we announced a special conference teaching people how to be last?  Nobody would show up!

 

But learning to be humble is essential to our faith.  It is the very foundation of what it means to be a Christian.

 

Listen to Isaiah 66:1-2: Thus says the Lord:  Heaven is My throne, And earth is My footstool.  Where is the house that you will build Me? And where is the place of My rest? For all those things My hand has made,

And all those things exist,” says the Lord.  “But on this one will I look:  On him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, And who trembles at My word.

 

God is looking for humble people. Micah 6:8 says, “What does the Lord require of you but to walk humbly with your God.”

Luke 14:11; 18:14, our Lord says, “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” That is a spiritual principle.

 

Ephesians 4:1 and 2 where we are told to walk worthy of the calling to which we are called is followed by, “Walk with all humility.”

 

Colossians 3:12, “Put on a heart of humility.”

 

James 4:6, “God is opposed to the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Verse 10, “Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord and He will exalt you.”

 

Now humility is hard to learn. It is necessary, but it is hard to learn. Just when you realize you got it, you lost it. As soon as you’ve said to yourself, “I have finally attained humility,” guess what? You can go back to square one, do not pass “Go”, do not collect $200.00.

 

Several years ago, Jerry Lewis was given the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the Oscars.  He was obviously moved by the honor as he told the audience that the award "touches my heart and the very depths of my soul."

 

Then he added this:  "The humility I feel is staggering and I know it will stay with me for the rest of my life."

 

We all need to learn humility and there are a number of ways the Lord uses to teach His followers. 

 

First, as we see in this text, He teaches by principle or precept.  He shares the information.

A second way is by example.  As an example, He washed the feet of the disciples and used the object lesson to show what He expected. 

 

But even more so, in this passage, verse 31, He described His death which is the greatest illustration of humility ever.

 

The third way we learn humility is by experience. And generally speaking, those lessons involve pain and tragedy. 

 

Now if the disciples were going to take the place of Jesus on the earth, they were going to have to learn humility.  And the same is true for us.  Even though we are believers, we still have this resident pride that wasn’t to exalt us and lift us up and demand our rights and to be like Christ, we must fight and resist that all the time. They needed this lesson, and we need it.

 

By the way, was pride really a problem for the disciples?  After all, they are a ragtag group with not much to brag about. 

 

But they still battled normal, human pride.  I remember a woman who came to the office one day asking for help with a motel room.  As she told me her story, she also told me where she was going to stay and not stay.  Then she said she had too much pride to stay in a place like that. 

 

I told her I hoped her pride helped her find a place to stay because she wouldn’t get any help from us. 

 

The disciples needed this lesson because all of us , them included, battle normal human pride.

They also needed it because they were Jews and as such, they had some terrible examples of what spirituality looks like. The dominant feature of Judaism was spiritual pride.  They were God’s people.  That’s why their leaders stood on the street corners and prayed and drew attention to themselves.  They went to the temple and made sure everyone saw the offering they gave. 

 

The Pharisees, the scribes, the rabbis, they had all exalted themselves and they paraded their exaltation. So with that as the background experience, the only religious leaders they knew were men who exalted themselves. 

 

That had spilled over into the lives of the disciples as we see by them arguing about who was the greatest among them and who got the choice thrones in the kingdom. 

 

To make matters worse, they are convinced Jesus is the Messiah and they have been chosen to be a part of the Messiah’s glory and triumph.  They were expecting Jesus to take over at any moment and they were going to share His glory. 

 

So here comes the lesson on humility. And it begins where it has to begin, with a reminder of the greatest of all humiliations, the cross. 

 

That is the platform He uses to teach them what they need to learn about humility. 

 

Let’s start then with

 

 

 

 

verses 30-32

 

It’s easy to see what’s on the mind of the Lord.  This is private time with His disciples to prepare them for the cross.  This is the main thing they need to understand.

 

I’m sure He said much more to them but it was all about His death and resurrection.  And verse 31 is just replete with information. 

 

For instance, He refers to Himself as “the Son of Man”.  That is a messianic title rooting back to Daniel 7.  They’ve already acknowledged Him as the Messiah and He is simply reaffirming that in light of the cross. 

 

It would be easy to doubt He was really the Son of God in a few months when He is arrested and crucified.  They need to know that He is and be absolutely convinced of it. 

 

And notice, the Son of Man is being betrayed.  I like the way the old KJV and the NAS handle this phrase better.  They use the word “delivered” and that is a really important word.  It’s repeated many times in the New Testament with regard to Christ.

 

It is a very technical used to describe a criminal being handed over to the authorities for judgment and punishment, and perhaps execution. It is a legal term and the use of it here even hints at the fact that the execution of Jesus will be in some measure a legal act.

 

And in prophetic fashion, Jesus gathers together all the injustices that were done to Him, beginning with the betrayal of Judas to the false accusations by the Jewish leaders to Pilate who delivered Him up to the executioners.

 

But the real story is not understood until you read Acts 2:23 where Peter on the Day of Pentecost says, “This man,” meaning Christ, “delivered by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God.” God delivered Him up. Judas delivered Him up. The Jews delivered Him up. The Romans delivered Him up.

 

And after all of that, He is crucified. He was delivered into the hands of men by God Himself. Judas put Him in the hands of the Jewish leaders. The Jewish leaders put Him in the hands of Pilate. Pilate put Him in the hands of the Roman executioners.  And when it was all said and done, they killed Him.

 

However, He says when He has been killed, He will rise three days later. They struggled with that. And Mark says they didn’t understand what He was saying.  They struggled with the dying part and I think they struggled with the rising part.

 

And when you think about it, it’s not that easy to understand.  They had seen Him raise dead people, but if He’s dead, who raises Him? That’s the issue. They could understand that as long as He was alive He had power over death, but if He’s dead, who’s going to raise Him?  And why did He have to die to begin with? 

 

The theology of a dead Messiah doesn’t make any sense.  There are so many prophecies yet unfulfilled. And where will the power come from if He’s dead?

And while they certainly didn’t like what they had heard up until that point and they really didn’t want any more information so they don’t ask any questions. 

 

By the way, Matthew adds they were deeply grieved.  They were in pain and sorrow.  Their hearts were hurting. 

 

The reality of what He was telling them was beyond their belief. Messiah? Killed by the religious leaders? The Messiah delivered over in some legal fashion to be executed? This is impossible. The whole idea is so foreign to their messianic expectations, so alien to their personal affections, so disturbing to their faith in Christ, so opposite all the hopes of Israel, so sad, so grievous, so painful, they just could not accept it, but it was true. The sovereign Lord would become a sacrifice.

 

And in so doing, He Himself will be the great illustration of humility. They don’t understand that now, they will understand it in the future.

 

In the next few verse the focus shifts from the Teacher to the students. In Jesus we see the Supreme Example of Humility and in 

 

 

And we’ll look at that next week. 

 

 

Let’s pray.