Sermon: He Came to Serve

Would you join me in Mark chapter 10 and verse 45, you have it in your bulletin program in front of you, uh, but you may wanna open the Bible as well. Mark chapter 10, verse 45.

Would you join me as I lead us in prayer?

Our Father in heaven, you whose strength is made perfect in weakness? Bless now the words that are read and spoken and make them seeds of eternal life in the minds, souls of all who hear we ask in the name of Jesus and by the help of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Mark chapter 10, verse 45. For even the son of man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. Amen. Well, dear friends and the Lord Jesus Christ, uh, many of you know

that I moved here just a little less than two years ago with my family and since we moved to the Lansing area, there is a question that we have been asked regularly. We've been asked by neighbors, we've been asked by doctors or nurses. We've been asked by visitors to the church, why did you move here?

I hear a few laughs. That is sometimes a response we get when we tell them where we moved from. You moved from North Carolina, why did you move here? Well, this question, it seems not very obscure, pretty basic and it is, it's a common question, but it's a question that can be revealing. It can be revealing, it can reveal intention or purpose. It can reveal one's priorities. For example, if you moved for a job or did you move for your family

or did you move for the weather or better cost of living? It's a question that when answered can reveal a lot about a person In Mark 10 45, Jesus isn't answering that question. Why have you come? But he tells us, doesn't he? He tells us why he came. And on a number of occasions, Jesus does this throughout the gospels, he will tell his disciples or he'll tell the crowds why he came. Earlier in the book of Mark chapter two, Jesus

said, I came not to call the righteous but sinners. In Luke 19, Jesus says, for the son of man came to seek and to save the lost. And John 10, Jesus said, I came that they may have life and have it abundantly just as answering the question, why have you come? Why have you moved here? Can reveal intent or purpose or priorities? So does Jesus's statement here. It's revealing and Jesus's declaration here reveals to us man's need

and God's heart, man's need and God's heart. If you have your Bible open, you can see the context in which his first comes. If you look down just a little bit farther, this verse proceeds the triumphal entry where Jesus enters Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, the final week of his life and the final week of his ministry. But this verse also comes after three statements by Jesus in in Mark chapter eight, in Mark chapter nine,

in Mark chapter 10, three statements that Jesus must suffer and die.

No statements that Jesus gives in Mark eight, nine, and 10. Jesus does not choose to say more than I must come to suffer and to die. I might wonder why? Why? Jesus, why have you come? Why must you suffer? Why must you die? It's not revealed in those three statements that Jesus gives, but it is here. He follows up those three statements and he tells us, why must he die? He must die. He says, to be a ransom for many. That word ransom that Jesus uses conveys need,

conveys need a, a serious need, a significant need. And in this case, when Jesus is using it, it reveals a significant spiritual need. If a ransom is necessary, it it means that someone or something is held bondage, it's held captive. A ransom most simply means uh, a price to secure deliverance or a price to secure release. There's a need, a need for deliverance. We don't probably hear much about ransom or a ransom price all that often in our day and age,

but there is one sort of context that we hear about it from time to time and that would be with computer software, ransomware. It's a malicious software that bad guys will use to hold captive your information, your data that's precious and important to you. It will encrypt your data and your system so that you can no longer use them. And the only way to get access to it again, is to pay a ransom. When you pay the price with those

who are holding it captive, they will release it to you.

And Jesus, he says here in Mark 10 came to pay a ransom to secure deliverance for who? Well, Jesus doesn't tell us specifically. All he tells us is that he has came to pay a ransom for many. And we know from the rest of scripture that many includes men and women, boys and girls. It includes people from every tribe and tongue and people in nation.

Why did Jesus pay the ransom? What did he intend to deliver them from? By paying a ransom, Jesus came to deliver sinners from God's condemnation. Jesus came to set sinners free from the just wrath of God upon sin.

How? How is it that Jesus paid the ransom? What was the ransom that he paid? He tells us by means of a substitute. That's how he would pay the ransom. He paid the ransom for many. That word four seems maybe insignificant, but it's very significant. Four, that word in the Greek is anti, which means in the place of or substitute instead of Jesus came to pay a ransom by giving his life, substituting his life.

What does it cost to save sinners? It costs Jesus's life. And make no mistake, dear friends, when when Jesus says that he came to give his life as a ransom, what he means is his death. His death, he came to be a substitutionary sacrifice,

an extravagantly high cost.

For a long time, MasterCard, the credit card company, MasterCard, produced a series of commercials about the things that money can't buy. You might remember these. So you think of one example where a father is with his son and he's taking his young son to a baseball game for the very first time. And so the father has a son with him and they go to the ticket counter, they purchase tickets with the MasterCard, 28 bucks,

and then they go to the concession stand. You gotta get your son popcorn and a coke to enjoy baseball. Pull out the MasterCard, $20. Well of course you gotta root for the right team. So he takes 'em to go get a hat to have the right hat on 30 bucks. And then you see the father and son sitting in the bleachers together, taking in the game. And on the screen you see the words priceless.

Money can't buy that memory,

money can't buy it, your friends, great amounts of money, extravagant amounts of money have been paid to ransom people throughout human history. Millions upon millions of dollars.

Not this deliverance, not this ransom. It's an extravagantly high cost, but there is no monetary value. That is its equivalent. This sacrifice is priceless. That Jesus came to be. The ransom reveals man's need and reveals God's heart. Jesus's statement here in Mark 10 45 is somewhat surprising and I hope you sensed that and you picked up on that. It's it's completely counter-cultural. Even in our day, you would expect

that the son of man would come to be served not to serve. But Jesus, using his favorite name for himself, son of man, tells us that he came not to be served, but to serve is very surprising. This title that Jesus uses, son of man, his favorite self designation hearkens back to Daniel seven 14 where the son of man figure is coming down on the clouds from heaven bearing authority, full of glory, receiving worship. This is a, a figure that is served,

not serving it seems. And so it's very surprising, very unexpected that Jesus here would say, I came not to be served, but to serve. Our world has very few examples like this where someone great serves like this. Best I could come up with was maybe one that came recently, uh, just a couple months ago. Jimmy Carter, the 39th president of the United States died. Aah was said about President Carter after his death. Lots of them were remarks about his service.

President Carter, of course, held the highest office in this country, the most famous job in all the world. He held it. But when President Carter left the White House, he acted as if he had never been president at all. President Carter moved back to his childhood home from the White House to a mere childhood home in small town backwoods Georgia from dc, a very famous important city to nowhere. And what President Carter spent the remaining years

of his life doing was building houses. He wasn't paying other people to build houses on behalf of other people. President Carter was picking up the hammer, taking a nail and building houses, picking up the saw and cutting the wood and building houses. Even in his late years, he was a humble servant. President Carter, the world has very few examples like him, but there are none like Christ none. Jesus is the greatest humble servant.

He the eternal son of God, humbled himself by taking on the form of a servant and he humbled himself even to the point of death on a cross.

Jesus tells us why he came.

But do you wonder, what was it that motivated Jesus to come? What compelled Jesus to come and to die, to come and to serve?

I'll tell you, it was love. Love motivated his service.

Tonight we gather on a day we call Mondy. Thursday. Mondy is a word for commandment, and it refers to the new commandment that Jesus gives to his disciples to love one another as Christ loved them. And it's not so much a new commandment, but that Jesus gives that commandment new meaning. He heightens the meaning to love like he loved self sacrificially.

Jesus was so motivated by love. The son of God was so motivated by love that he would take the place of a servant.

Love, motivated God the Son, to serve and love motivated God to give the text tells us give. That's gotta be one of the greatest verbs in all of the Bible. Give John three 16, God the Father gives his Son. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son and the Son Jesus, the Christ gives himself voluntarily. Son of man came to give his life as a ransom for many. In John 10, Jesus says, I lay down my life

that I may take it up again. No one takes it up from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.

Dear friends, this is grace. This is grace undeserved favor

to those in need. There's no repaying a gift, so costly as this.

God was under no compulsion to love. He was under no compulsion to serve. God was under no compulsion to give and to love, but he loves to the end.

He spares not his only son, and he humbles himself by becoming a servant.

God was the offended party. We offended him and God is the one who took it upon himself to pay the price that our sins deserved. This is grace. Why would God give grace to me?

It's simply because God loves to give. God loves to give. It magnifies his grace. It magnifies his mercy. It magnifies his kindness. It magnifies his love and it reveals his heart, his heart of love.

Dear friends, Jesus's statement here in Mark 10 45 reveals God's heart for mankind. And let me make it personal. It reveals God's heart for you.

God, the Son came for you. God, the Son came to die for you. God, the Son came to give his life and pay the ransom for you.

God came to demonstrate his great love for you.

What should you do in response to this great gift to God's service?

Well, the same thing that you would do when you receive any, any precious gift, right?

You celebrate it, you receive it, you treasure it. It fills you with joy and delight and thanksgiving. When you receive such a precious gift, you can't help but overflow and tell other people about it. It motivates you to love the giver. It motivates you to love others, and that's what Jesus would have you to do, dear friends, to receive this gift, to love God and to love others even as he himself has loved you. Amen. Let's pray.

Oh, father, we thank you for the gift of your son. We pray that you would bless this word and may it bear fruit in our lives For we ask in the name of Jesus our savior. Amen.