SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/27/2012 9:49:44 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Servants Shall Be Rulers
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: Mark 10:35-45
Message of the verses: 35
James and John, the two sons of Zebedee, *came up to Jesus, saying,
"Teacher, we want You to do for us whatever we ask of You." 36 And He said to them, "What do you want
Me to do for you?" 37 They said to
Him, "Grant that we may sit, one on Your right and one on Your left, in
Your glory." 38 But Jesus said to
them, "You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup
that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?"
39 They said to Him, "We are
able." And Jesus said to them, "The cup that I drink you shall drink;
and you shall be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized. 40 "But to sit on My right or on My left,
this is not Mine to give; but it is for those for whom it has been
prepared." 41 Hearing this, the ten
began to feel indignant with James and John. 42
Calling them to Himself, Jesus *said to them, "You know that those
who are recognized as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them; and their great
men exercise authority over them. 43
"But it is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become
great among you shall be your servant; 44
and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all. 45 ‘For even the Son of Man did not come to be
served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.’
In the last
SD we spoke a bit about the coming death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord
Jesus Christ, and in the SD before that we were talking about the rich young
ruler. I did omit one thing that I want
to make clear concerning the rich young ruler, and that is that what Jesus told
him to do with his riches is not for all rich people to do in order to gain
eternal life. The riches were an idol to
the rich young ruler and Jesus was telling him that he must forsake his idol
and worship the Lord if he wanted to be saved from his sins, but he did not do
this.
As I listen
to the 10th chapter of Mark this month I was truly amazed at the
timing of James and John in asking Jesus a request right after His statement of
going to Jerusalem to die. Dr. Wiersbe
points out that in the other Gospels that their mother was involved in this,
and the reason that Mark does not write about that is because his gospel was
going to Gentiles, to Romans. Jesus had
told His disciples that in the Kingdom of God that the disciples would sit on
twelve thrones judging Israel, and so James and John desired to get the best
places. I guess when you look at it that
way it is not as bad as I thought it was.
Jesus never
misses a chance to teach His disciples and He takes this opportunity to teach
them about humility and being servants, and as mentioned in a earlier SD Mark
10:45 is the key verse in the Gospel of Mark and when you look at that verse
along with Philippians 2:5-11 you can see the humility of Our Lord: “5
Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, although He existed in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a
bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. 8 Being found in appearance as a man, He
humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a
cross. 9 For this reason also, God
highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name,
10 so that at the name of Jesus EVERY
KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and that every tongue will confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Verse five tells us that we are to have this
same attitude of humility and so does Mark 10:45.
Jesus talks
to His disciples for the third time in Mark’s Gospel about His upcoming “passion,”
and the first time He mentions this in Mark 8:31 and also in Mark 9:31 He did
not mention the place or who would be causing His death as He does in this
section. We see a fourth time in this
section that Jesus promised that He would be raised from the dead, something
that His disciples did not understand until after it happened.
We also see
in this section that Jesus speaks to James and John about the drinking of the
cup and the baptism that He would have to go through and asked them if they
were willing to go through these too.
They answered they were, but did not really understand what He was
talking about, but are informed that they would drink the cup and be baptized
as Jesus would be. James would be the
first Christian martyr as seen in Acts 12, and John, according to tradition
would be boiled in oil, and then taken to the island of Patmos where He would
eventually die of natural causes, but while on that island would write the last
book of the Bible, the book of Revelations.
I wish to
conclude this section with the words of Warren Wiersbe: “God’s pattern in Scripture is that a person
must first be a servant before God promotes him or her to be a ruler. This was true of Joseph, Moses, Joshua,
David, Timothy and even our Lord Himself (Phil. 2:1-11). Unless we know how to obey orders, we do not
have the right to give orders. Before a
person exercises authority, he or she must know what it means to be under
authority. If Jesus Christ followed this
patter in accomplishing the great work of redemption, then surely there is no
other pattern for us to follow.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: Reading a book on Spiritual Leadership that
was about D. L. Moody, (one of my heroes of the faith), I came to the
conclusion that Moody was a great servant which made him a great leader, and
the results of his life are still felt around the world. Learning to be a servant is a great goal to
have.
My Steps of Faith for
Today: Psalm 119:133 “Establish my
footsteps in Your Word, And do not let any iniquity have domino over me.”
Memory verses for the week: 1Cor. 13:1-7
1 If I
speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have
become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
2 If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries, and all
knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have
love, I am nothing. 3 And if I give all
my possessions to feed the poor, and surrender my body to be burned, but do not
have love, it profits me nothing.
4 Love is
patient, love is kind, and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant,
5 does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does
not take into account a wrong suffered, 6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness,
but rejoices with the truth, 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all
things, endures all things.
9/27/2012 10:43:42 AM
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