The Ambitious Request of James and John

Introduction: The Context of Jesus' Third Passion Prediction

0:02 This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, July 26, 1987, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now may I encourage you to turn with me in your own Bibles to the 10th chapter of Mark's Gospel, Mark chapter 10, and follow as I read verses 32 through 45, Mark 10, 32. And they were on the way going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was going before them. And they were amazed, and they that followed were afraid. And he took again the twelve and began to tell them the things that were to happen unto him. Saying, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man shall be delivered unto the chief priests and the scribes, and they shall condemn him to death, and shall deliver him unto the Gentiles, and they shall mock him, and shall spit upon him, and shall scourge him, and shall kill him.

1:31 And after three days he shall rise again. And there come near unto him. And there came near unto him James and John, the sons of Zebedee, saying unto him, Teacher, we would that you should do for us whatsoever we shall ask of you. And he said unto them, What would you that I should do for you?

1:56 And they said unto him, Grant unto us that we may sit, one on your right hand and one on your left hand, in your glory. But Jesus said unto them, You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? And they said unto him, We are able.

2:26 And Jesus said unto them, The cup that I drink you shall drink, and with the baptism that I am baptized withal shall you be baptized. Amen. Amen. Amen.

2:38 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

2:38 Amen. Amen. Amen. Sit on my right hand or on my left hand is not mine to give, but it is for them for whom it has been prepared.

2:48 And when the ten heard it, they began to be moved with indignation concerning James and John. And Jesus called them to him and said unto them, You know that they who are accounted to rule over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it is not so among you. But whosoever would become great among you shall be your minister or servant, and whosoever would be first among you shall be the slave of all.

3:28 For the Son of Man also came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life, a ransom for many.

3:40 Now it was just one month ago that we examined together Mark 10 verses 32 through 34 in the course of our consecutive expositions in the Gospel of Mark. And on that occasion, we noted that Mark is careful to underscore that our Lord's commitment to go to Jerusalem, is now resumed. And they were on the way going up to Jerusalem. And as our Lord made his way through the lower parts of Perea, he once again, clearly and with even greater detail, predicts the events that will await him when he arrives at Jerusalem. And what Mark has done by the guidance of the Holy Spirit, is to set before us in terms of the second most clear announcement of our Lord's passion and suffering and the subsequent conduct of the disciples, a parallel between that and this third clear announcement of our Lord's suffering and death and what follows it.

5:05 I would refresh your memory, those of you who have been with us for all of the expositions, at least back to the section to which I make reference. In chapter 9 and verse 31, Jesus, for the second time, clearly teaches the disciples that he must be delivered into the hands of men and be killed. Subsequent to this announcement about his own commitment to death is this lengthy statement, a section in which our Lord deals with them as they argue about who will be the greatest in their ranks. Verse 34 makes it very clear that they were disputing one with another about rank and greatness in the kingdom. So our Lord is talking about his death and his passion by which alone the kingdom of grace can be established and their minds are filled, filled with jockeying for positions of influence and power within his kingdom. And we have essentially the same structure in this part. Here our Lord, for the third time, makes a clear announcement about his impending death in verses 33 and 34.

6:29 He adds details that have hitherto not been mentioned that he should be delivered unto the Gentiles. Gentiles. Spat upon and mocked and scourged as well as killed and raised from the dead. And Mark is careful then in organizing the material and there is some suggestion from a little particle with which Matthew begins his parallel account that there was a close proximity in time between this third announcement of his impending death and this following, this following account again of this matter of desiring a place of influence and greatness in the kingdom. And as we come to the passage, we noted, I trust as we read, that we have basically two major segments in verses 35 to 45. The first deals with the ambitious request of the two disciples and the searching response of our Lord. And the second, then the last section beginning with verse 41 through verse 45 is his general treatment to the twelve who are with him at this time concerning the nature of true greatness in the kingdom.

The Ambitious Request of James and John (Mark 10:35-37)

7:54 Now having tried to give you a feel for the general structure and the placement of our passage, let us seek to unpack what is contained this morning in verses 35 through 40 under the title of the first section. Under these two very natural and simple headings, first of all, the ambitious request of the two disciples. That's found in verses 35 to 37 and then the searching response of our Lord in verses 38 through 40. First of all, then, the ambitious request of the two disciples.

8:32 And as we look at the text, we see that the request comes to its full expression in terms of an introductory statement, a question, and a disclosure. The ambitious request of these two disciples comes in the form of an introductory statement followed by a question leading to a disclosure. The introductory statement, verse 35, And there come near unto him James and John, the sons of Zebedee, saying unto him, Teacher, we would that you should do for us whatsoever we shall ask of you. And in this introductory statement, we should be concerned with who made it and what comprised its essence. Mark tells us that James and John drew near to our Lord with a view to laying out before him a special concern. However, the parallel passage, in Matthew chapter 20, makes it clear that the mother of James and John was also involved in the initial part of this ambitious request. For we read in Matthew 20 and verse 20, Then came to him the mother of the sons of Zebedee

9:59 with her sons, worshipping him and asking a certain thing of him. Now this is the very, kind of supplemental information that those who approach the Bible with a bias of unbelief and cynicism pick up and say, Aha! There is a patent contradiction. Well, obviously there is no contradiction as we have seen again and again.

10:26 My confidence in the integrity of Scripture is strengthened when I see this artless honesty in the accounts, some of which, focus on some aspects of what happened, others focus upon the other aspects, and there is not a contradiction, but there is in most cases a very reasonable synthesis of the various accounts. And in this situation, apparently in the initial part of putting out this introductory statement, the mother of James and John, for they shared a common mother, was, cooperating with them, either leading the way and egging them on to make their request, or more likely, innocently serving as a buffer for a request that in their own consciences caused them some embarrassment. And knowing our Lord's peculiar tenderness to the women who followed him and ministered to his needs, perhaps these who were jockeying for position would not, I mean, would not be beyond them to stoop to even use their mother as a mouthpiece to hope that maybe their request will get floated and seriously considered. But whatever the reasons were for the mother's involvement,

11:54 Mark's Gospel focuses upon the fact, and so does Matthew, that behind her involvement was the desire and the ambition of James and John, for even in Matthew's book, or even in Matthew's Gospel, when he begins to probe and begins to respond, he directs his response exclusively to the two men. And so we shall take the emphasis of Mark's Gospel while fully conscious of this additional light from the Gospel of Matthew. So who made this request? It was James and John.

12:34 These two men, who shared a common mother, these two men who were sons of Zebedee, they come with this introductory statement. And it's clear that they did not want the other disciples to hear them as they made it, for the text says, there come near unto him. There was some kind of a separation within the ranks in which they spoke these introductory words, to the Lord, outside, at least they hoped, of earshot of the remaining twelve. Now what was the substance of this initial statement?

13:17 Well, it's either made by James or John, seconded by the mother, or made directly by the mother who acts as their proxy. And this is what it was, an amazing statement. Teacher, we would, we come to you with an expression of our volition. We would, we are desirous that you should do for us whatsoever we shall ask of you.

13:49 Now that was a most bold but cheeky statement. What they really want is that before they make their specific request known, that they'll get a promise from God that whatever it may be, He'll give it to them. They want a signed check with nothing written into the spaces that indicate the amount. That's what they're asking the Lord for.

14:20 It's like a teenager who's got his eye on a favorite sports car. He's also got his eye on a set of threads that'll really set him out. I mean, he'll be the coolest dude on the block if he can get those. He's got his mind full of a whole bunch of things he wants to get.

14:35 And he comes to his parents, whom he knows have a rather hefty balance in their checking account, and he says, Mom and Dad, I would that you sign a check and give it to me, no questions asked. And after you've done it, then I'll tell you what I want. Now that's what they did. Look at the words of the text, and it's a good translation of the very force of the original.

14:57 James and John, the sons of Zebedee, come unto him, saying, Teacher, we would that you should do for us whatsoever we shall ask of you. Whatsoever we shall ask of you. We want a blank check with your signature upon it. Now then, our Lord responds with a question in verse 36.

15:19 And he said unto them, No blank checks. I want to know what you want to write in first. What would you that I should do for you? The Lord very graciously turns aside their cheeky, bold request with a question.

15:39 What do you want me to do for you? In other words, before our Lord commits himself, he wisely and righteously asks them what it is that they desire of him. Now he was graciously but firmly indicating that no signed blank checks will be given out from his hand. And then that question is followed by the disclosure.

16:08 And here is the heart of what was really lying deep within their own breast as a burning concern. And now the disclosure comes in verse 37. And they said unto him, Grant unto us that we may sit one on your right hand and one on your left hand in your glory. And in the light of the adult class we have a good example here.

16:37 Of the translation problem that the translator faces who's even given to the principle of formal equivalence. In the original, the way you would speak of a king and places at his right hand is literally out of the rights and out of the lefts. And it's the picture of the king's throne extending itself on right hand parts and left hand parts. But in the translation, to bring it into something that would make sensible English, our translators have rendered it, Grant unto us that we may sit one on your right hand and the other on your left hand in your glory. So what they would have written into their blank check had Jesus signed it is this. That they, James and John, occupy the two most prominent places of honor and influence next to the Lord of glory when he is manifested in the glory of his messianic kingdom. Now you'll remember, according to Matthew 25, that in the day of judgment to be on the right hand of the king is the place of blessedness.

17:59 On the left hand, the place of cursing. But when a king sits in royal state and in eastern context would give out places of appointment of honor and influence, there was very little difference between the right and the left hand. Perhaps a few more degrees of honor and influence to the one who sat upon the right and the one who sat upon the left. So James and John show that they are very large hearted to one another.

18:29 They don't care about the ten. There's only one right hand place and one left hand place. And so they're saying in essence, we'll settle left or right just so long as left and right are occupied by us. And they disclose that this is the thing that they want the Lord to do.

The Roots of Their Ambition: Ignorance and Privilege

18:48 They want him to commit himself to giving to them this place of unique honor and preference and influence in the manifestation of his messianic kingdom. Now we cannot have help but ask the question, what in the world would have led them to think that such places would be assigned to them? Well, they didn't get this idea totally out of the blue or out of the pulses and the motions of their own remaining sin. For Jesus had said to the twelve in the previous section dealing with the subject of the rewards of self-denial and discipleship, in Matthew's account, he gave a special word of promise to the apostles that Mark omits. It's recorded in Matthew 19.28 after our Lord's dealings with the rich young ruler and his statement that no man hath left houses or lands, et cetera, but shall receive a hundredfold in this life, et cetera. He gave a special promise to the twelve, Matthew 19.28,

20:03 verily I say unto you that you who have followed me in the regeneration when the Son of Man shall sit on the throne of his glory, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. So he had told them there will be twelve unique places of peculiar influence and authority for the twelve apostles in the consummate manifestation of the messianic kingdom. Now although they interpreted those words in a way that they would in a few short weeks, C was entirely erroneous. The idea that thrones were waiting did not come out of the blue, and so they reasoned, well, if twelve of us will sit upon twelve thrones, why may not we put in our bid for the chief thrones, right hand and left hand, since he's told us he's coming in his glory, and when he's manifested in his glory there are going to be twelve thrones, somebody will sit upon the throne at his right or left, why not us? Furthermore, they were some of the earliest called into active discipleship from up in the Galilean region, and, and furthermore,

21:31 they, they were of the first group named apostles, and furthermore, they had been given unique privileges along with Peter. Peter, James, and John were on the mount of transfiguration and saw the Lord, transfigured before them, and saw Moses and Elijah, and heard the voice of God, and furthermore, it is most likely that they were cousins to our Lord after the flesh, that their mother Salome and Mary were sisters. That cannot be proven conclusively, but there is a good case to make for it. Now, when you put all of those things together, you can see how they might have reasoned, surely, if somebody must occupy those two thrones, and there's a two out of six chance that we'll be the two, why should we not ask? And furthermore, he's already shown that he's according to us a peculiar place of privilege among the twelve, and we do have by natural bloodlines an affinity and a closeness as his cousins that others do not have. But there is a more fundamental reason for their question, and it's obviously this, that they have yet to understand,

22:59 they have yet to see a messianic kingdom built upon the agony and bloodletting and death of the Son of God. For you remember, Luke closes the account of this third detailed description of his coming death with those words, they understood not this saying, they were blinded, they did not perceive the meaning of his words. And as long as Peter and James and John and the rest of the apostles were ignorant of this fundamental fact that the foundation on which the messianic kingdom would be established was the bloodletting, the death and resurrection of their Messiah, they would be making the most foolish statements on the left hand and on the right. Hence all of the previous teaching that the unique suffering of Christ upon his cross would form the basis of the kingdom they did not understand. Therefore, they did not understand that the way to glory through the valley of suffering and rejection was not only the way in which Christ would uniquely establish his kingdom, but it was the way in which all the members

24:28 of that kingdom would walk and one day come to glory with him. The way of humiliation is the path to glory. Well then, this is the record of the ambitious request of James and John. And what a mixed request it is!

24:46 Conceived in ignorance of the place of the cross in the work of Christ and in the way of discipleship, yet it is a request that is mingled with faith. They see in this humble Nazarene one who is a king who will someday be manifested in glory in the exercise of that messianic kingship. He will establish a kingdom and will have rights to apportion thrones. Now that's faith!

25:22 Mingled with all that conceived ignorance or that ignorance which conceived the request and the unmortified, pushy, insensitive ambition, there is faith and there's also loyalty. Notice the emphasis upon attachment to Christ. Grant unto us that we may sit one on your right hand and your left hand in your glory. Though they don't understand the kingdom, they are attached to the king.

Jesus' Searching Response: 'You Do Not Know What You Ask' (Mark 10:38a)

25:56 So their request is a mingled request. Ignorance, ambition, faith and loyalty. Now note our Lord's searching response to them. And his searching response is woven together with five strands.

26:19 First of all, the statement of verse 38a. But Jesus said unto them, You do not know what you ask. And there's a very subtle stroke in the original. When they said, We would that you should do for us whatsoever we shall ask of you.

26:41 The form of the verb ask is properly rendered. What we shall ask of you. But then our Lord uses a middle in his response which points back to the actor acting upon or with respect to himself. And it could be translated, You know not what you are asking for yourself.

27:07 He begins to just probe as he makes this blunt statement. He says, Your request is a request which reflects your utter ignorance of the implications of what you ask. Our Lord does not rebuke them for their unmortified ambition, their insensitivity to the fellow disciples that will precipitate a squabble. Seeing the elements of faith and loyalty mingled with their ignorance and ambition.

27:41 He simply focuses on the ignorance and bluntly and says to them, You don't have a clue of what's involved in that request. Do you want to sit in my glory at my left and right hand or my right and left hand? You don't know what you're asking. You envision that this trip to Jerusalem upon which my face is set will bring about some cataclysmic event that will usher in a literal physical kingdom in which there will be the putting down of all of my and your enemies.

28:22 You have been utterly insensitive to the fact Jerusalem means rejection, spitting, scourging, death, and then resurrection. And because you are ignorant of those things, you are ignorant of the fundamental law of the messianic kingdom. It applies uniquely to Christ in procuring salvation, but it applies to every disciple in the application of salvation. And that fundamental law is this, that glory comes after suffering.

29:01 That's the fundamental principle. Luke 24, 25, and 26, Jesus opens up the scriptures to those two on the road to Emmaus, and he says, ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to have entered into his glory? And what did the disciples tell the young converts or the apostles in Acts 14, 22? That through much tribulation they must enter the kingdom of God.

29:30 And Paul in Romans 8, 17 says, If we suffer with him, we shall be glorified together with him. And Paul says in 2 Timothy 2, 12, If we suffer with him, we shall reign with him. But they are utterly ignorant, and our Lord just tells them so in blunt, straight-out language. The first part of his response was meant to have a shock effect upon them, and he gives the simple statement, You do not know what you ask.

The Crucial Question: Drinking the Cup and Baptism (Mark 10:38b)

30:02 But then it's followed, the second strand, by a question. And in this question he pinpoints the crucial area of their ignorance. The question is made up of two figures of speech. Look at them.

30:18 Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? His question is, who contains the imagery of drinking a cup and of being baptized? And he says, Are you able, do you have the strength and fortitude and commitment and grace to drink of the cup which I, even I, am already drinking? And that rendering underscores again some of the nuances of the original.

31:02 I am drinking a cup. Who to drink that cup? I am already, as it were, sipping its drops. And I've told you what its dregs will be when we get to Jerusalem.

31:19 The Son of Man shall there be rejected and turned over to the hands of the Gentiles and mocked and spat upon and ultimately killed. You see, the cup points to the whole imagery of suffering voluntarily endured in the path of obedience. Psalm 116, 75a, Ezekiel 23, 32, many passages in the Old Testament when the imagery of God's wrath is lightened to the pouring out of a cup or God making men to drink of a cup. And it's that imagery, you'll remember, that was carried into Gethsemane.

31:59 And all of the agony of Gethsemane focuses upon the cup, the cup full of the wrath of God against the sins of God, against all of his people. And Jesus says, I will voluntarily drink that cup, not my will, but thine be done. And if the cup is your will for me, Father, I will to drink it. So he says, are you able to undergo those voluntary sufferings which I, even I, am now undergoing and which are pressing me to Jerusalem with such determination that just a few moments or hours or days ago you were filled with amazement and fear because you saw written in all of my being a commitment to Jerusalem? Are you able to drink the cup that I drink? And then he uses a different figure. Or to be baptized with the baptism that even I am being baptized with.

33:04 Taking the imagery of being overwhelmed by waves of divine wrath, our Lord points here to messianic suffering that is inflicted from without that comes like waves and breaks upon a man until it drowns him. There's the picture. And that imagery is clearly embedded in the Old Testament in such passages as Psalms 69, 1 and 2. And our Lord had earlier, as recorded in Luke 12, 49 said, I have a baptism to be baptized with and how I am compressed until it is accomplished.

33:45 He viewed his sufferings not only as a cup which he would voluntarily drink, but as waves and billows which would break upon him as he was the passive victim. And in those two images of the cup and of baptism our Lord beautifully and comprehensively summarizes the two sides of the sufferings by which he is procuring the salvation of his people. If he were merely overwhelmed without his overwhelming being an act of voluntary obedience, his sufferings would have had no virtue. But if he willingly went to the path of suffering, took the cup, and if the cup was anything less than a baptism, an inundation, an overwhelming offending to the point of exhausting the wrath of God against the sins of his people, we would have no salvation. But in his drinking of the cup and in his being baptized with the outpoured fury of God, our salvation is procured. And what he tells the disciples in cryptic language in this question is this, Are you prepared to come to a place of exaltation and glory, my right hand and my left hand?

35:13 Are you prepared to come to those places in the train of the path by which I will come to my place of exaltation? I am on my way to my throne and my father's throne by drinking a cup, and by being baptized with a baptism. And my cup and my baptism, though utterly unique as the ground of securing your salvation, forms the pattern by which all who are attached to me in faith and love will share in the glory of my throne. And so he calls it drinking of his cup. And being baptized with his baptism. And that's the preview of the Pauline statement, the fellowship of his sufferings.

The Disciples' Confident Answer and Jesus' Prediction (Mark 10:39)

36:19 Not sufferings that are only like his, but the fellowship of his suffering. And then the third strand is their answer, verse 39. Look at it. Are you able to drink the cup and to be baptized in the name of the Lord?

36:42 Verse 39, And they said unto him, Are you able? No indication of any serious reflection. No indication of any delay, of any self-doubt. You see, the person impelled by carnal ambition is often filled with carnal self-confidence.

37:02 These are the same ones who later on is recorded in Mark 14, 31 will echo Peter when he says, If everybody denies you're not me, Lord. And it says, So said all the rest. They weren't being hypocrites when they said it. They meant it.

37:19 They were convinced that their present level of attachment to Christ was such they'd go through anything in the virtue of that attachment. But they were yet to discover their own weakness. So they answer, cocked sure of themselves, We are able. We are able.

37:39 Well, then our Lord follows it with the fourth strand of prediction, verse 39b. Look at it. And Jesus said unto them, The cup that I drink you shall drink. And with the baptism that I am baptized withal shall you be baptized.

37:58 He makes a prediction. And remember, he's speaking primarily to James and to John. But he's able to speak so emphatically because he was only applying the general rule that operates in his kingdom to their specific case. And what is the prediction he makes?

38:18 That the cup in baptism will indeed be theirs. They shall share in the fellowship of his sufferings. And for them in a matter of weeks it began to be fulfilled. When you open up the book of Acts, and you turn to chapters 4 and 5, you find the apostles suffering for the name.

38:39 And in Acts chapter 12, James loses his head. And is Jerusalem's second martyr. And then we go on into the book of the Revelation and find John exiled. The man with such a heart for people exiled, shut out in loneliness on the craggy isle of Patmos for the testimony of Christ and for the word of God.

39:06 Our Lord predicts that they would indeed drink the cup and be baptized with his baptism. And that prediction was fulfilled. But then he concludes his response in verse 40 with a qualification. Note it.

The Qualification: Places Prepared by the Father (Mark 10:40)

39:23 But to sit on my right hand or on my left hand is not mine to give, but it is for them for whom it has been prepared. He closes his response by saying in essence, in this matter of assigning places of spiritual honor and influence in glory, it's not literally a thing of mine to give. That is, to give away in the way in which you desire it. Arbitrarily, first come, first served, or based upon bloodlines, based upon previous privilege, it is not mine to give what you've asked in the way in which you expect me to give it. It is his, as the Messianic King, to administer all the affairs of that kingdom. All authority in heaven and in earth has been given unto me. And in the last day it is our Lord who shall apportion out the rewards of grace.

40:25 But what he is saying to them is this. You say you are able. You don't know your own hearts, but I do. And I know that in spite of your ignorance and the arrogance of your carnal confidence, my grace has begun a work in you.

40:41 You are bound to me in faith. Though that faith is shot through with much ignorance and presumption. And because you have the real thing, Judas, accepted, you will indeed drink of the cup. You will indeed be baptized with a baptism of suffering for my name's sake.

40:57 You will. But, if you think that in predicting that fact I am in any way inferring that the right and the left hand are reserved for you, you are wrong. You are wrong. You are wrong.

41:12 You are wrong. I am there for you Peter and James and John. Based upon your perspectives that is not a thing of mine to give. Rather, such places He says are marked out for those for whom they have been prepared.

41:30 Prepared by whom? Matthew 20. 23 the parallel passage tells us ‑‑ Prepared by my father. Prepared by my father.

41:43 In the messianic kingdom, though all authority has been delivered unto me, I execute that authority according to the will of my Father. Here and now, in the days of my humiliation, I do always the things that please my Father. And even when I'm in the state of exaltation, I will do always the things that please my Father. And He is marked out.

42:11 But He has decreed who shall sit on the left or the right hand. He doesn't tell them that they won't be there.

42:21 He doesn't say who will be. What He's trying to underscore is that their present concern should be to be like their messianic king. He does not capriciously exercise His own will. But in commitment to the will of His Father, He's on His way to Jerusalem, on His way to the throne of glory.

42:43 By way of the cup and the baptism of Gethsemane and Golgotha. And so He says to them, It is not a thing of mine to give in the context in which you are asking, but rather, it is marked out by my Father. And in due course and due time in the administration of His will, it will be assigned to those for whom it has been marked out righteously and sovereignly. By my Father.

Application 1: Behold the Glory of Christ

43:16 Well, dear people, I've attempted to open up what has for many years, in many ways, been a difficult passage in my own understanding, but I trust by God's help in answer to our prayer, we see something at least of the major lines of truth in this ambitious question or request of the two disciples and the searching response of our Lord. Now in the moment, in the moments that remain, I want to just focus on two lines of application. And it has taken a great discipline of spirit to bypass many others. First of all, in this passage, behold the glory of Christ, so wonderfully manifested. Again and again in the course of our expositions, I've taken you back to Mark 1.1, in which Mark announces the focal point of his concern in all things, all that follows, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. He's going to lay out good news about Jesus, who is the Christ, the Son of the living God.

44:32 And again and again, we've seen Mark's graphic descriptions of how Jesus relates to sinners, whether they are sinners who have yet to attach themselves to Him in faith, or those like these sinners, who though attached to Him in faith, have much remaining corruption and ignorance and vacillation and are shot through with so many other defects of character. And it's in that setting that Christ, the Savior, the Companion, the Lord of sinners, is so beautifully displayed in this passage. See the glory of His patience and gentleness in dealing with ignorant but true disciples. See the glory of His patience and His gentleness in dealing with ignorant but true disciples. Here was blatant, outright, carnal ambition rooted in abysmal ignorance. You know not what you ask. And it was willful ignorance.

45:39 He had told them again and again, I'm going to die, I'm going to be rejected, I must suffer. But you see, because their minds were so filled with a contrary concept of Messiah and His kingdom, His words didn't sink in. It was culpable ignorance. And yet, because He knew the root of the matter was in them, He did not deal with them as He dealt with proud Pharisees who said, I'm not His other men.

46:09 He did not deal with them as He dealt with those who said, we have no need of a physician. He looked through the rocks, the rubble of their ignorance, and saw the gold of their devotion in the depths of their heart. And focusing upon that, He says, you will drink of My cup. You will be baptized with My baptism.

46:33 Why? Because you are My true disciples. And when that cup is set before you, and the only choice is the will of your Master or avoidance of suffering, and when waves and billows of affliction come over you in a baptism of suffering, and you're tempted to wonder, is this the path to glory? I've already told you, it is the mark that I own you as My own.

47:02 You shall drink. You shall be baptized. And here we see the patience and the gentleness of Christ in dealing with ignorant but true disciples. And isn't that the reason why many of us are here in this particular place this morning?

47:20 In the early days of our Christian experience, through poor teaching, and through spiritual and mental laziness, we had some weird views about God and His salvation, what it meant to be a Christian. But because the root of the matter was in us, what did our Lord do? By providence, by His Word, by His people, by a host of other means, He hedged us up and shut us up until we began, began to understand the way of God more perfectly. And yet we can say with the psalmist, His gentleness hath made me great.

48:00 Behold the glory then of the patience and gentleness of Christ in dealing with true but ignorant disciples. Behold the glory of His long-suffering and wisdom in dealing with carnally ambitious but true disciples.

48:20 Behold the glory of His long-suffering and wisdom. their desire to be with him in glory. He sees their godly ambition in the words, we are able, and he accepts them for what they really are, a statement that we are committed to go whatever we undergo, whatever we must undergo in attachment to you. And though they do not understand their weakness, they are carnally ambitious and carnally confident. We see our Lord's long-suffering and his wisdom, but then we see in the vertical dimension the glory of our Lord's utter resignation to the will of the Father. He says, what you ask is not a thing of mine to give. Why? Because my Father has not given me the right to assign positions according to the principles that you want me to assign them. I am in utter

49:20 submission to my Father. Don't attempt to flatter me by giving me more rights than I want, for my meat is to do the will of him that sent me. Oh, the glory of incarnate God in the person of Jesus, not feeling cracked by the exclusiveness of the will of God, but finding his glory and his liberty in doing all the will of his Father. And you and I have grown in the liberty that is ours in Christ, when the more carefully we conform our lives to his will as revealed in Scripture, the more joy and liberty we experience in that path. And then behold the glory of our Lord's resolute commitment to the way of the cross. He had made the prediction in the earlier verses. He had so set his faith that on the way to Jerusalem, it says, they were amazed and they were filled with fear.

50:32 He is utterly, resolutely committed. He now speaks to them while the language of carnal ambition is floating around on their lips and being evidently a spirit that possessed their hearts. He says, I'm already drinking. I'm already being baptized. I have felt the first licking. I have tasted something of the waves of that utter baptism that will inundate me upon the cross. I have tasted something of the dregs of that cup. And I am drinking and will go on to drink in the will of my Father until the cup is empty. And I will undergo every last wave of the baptism until I can cry, it is finished. Oh, dear people, how can we read a passage like this and not cry out? I have tasted something of the dregs of that My Jesus, I love Thee, I know Thou art mine. But then finally, the second point of application is this.

Application 2: The Way to Share in Future Glory

51:38 This passage sets before us the way to share in the future glory of Christ. Not only is the glory of Christ's person and work revealed in the passage, but the way to share in future glory with Christ is established by the passage. You see, His unique path of humility, suffering, death, resurrection, and glory sets the framework for the experience of every disciple. Though we do not share in any of the virtue of that which He did when He groaned in Gethsemane, when He said, He expired upon Calvary, there is an utter uniqueness, and in that sense His cup and His baptism are closed off from any approach from man as the ground of our salvation. But the Bible that makes that clear makes it equally clear that His suffering leading to His glorification forever establishes the path by which He'll bring every sinner for whom He died to share in the glory which He earned. He earned glory for all of His people, but He brings it to them in the same path in which He came to it. And it's the path of the cup and of the baptism.

53:07 It is the path of suffering, the path of rejection, the path of misunderstanding. It is the path of adherence to Christ, no matter what the cost may be. Now, my unconverted friend, you better face that and face it square in the eyes. We do not offer you a salvation from sin wrought by the death and resurrection and perfect life of Jesus that will exempt you in this life from suffering, from agony, from the pain of rejection, from the horrible trauma of unanswered questions, from opposition.

53:51 Were we to offer such a salvation, we would either be totaled, totally distorting the Word of God or telling you a lie. What we offer you based upon the Word of God is a salvation in Jesus Christ from all the just desert of your thousands and thousands of sins, any one of which deserves eternal damnation. We offer you because He drank the cup and was baptized with that baptism of forsakenness upon the cross, salvation from the cross, a penalty of all of your sins which is hell itself. Furthermore, we offer in His name liberation from bondage to sin, that the sins that now chain your affection, chain your aspirations, chain your longings, your daydreams, your night dreams, the sins that chain you. Christ has said, Whom the Son sets free is free indeed. We offer you in Christ's name, liberation and deliverance not only from the guilt of sin but the bondage of sin. Furthermore, we offer to you a cessation of the enmity between you and God.

55:07 God has been reconciled to man in the death of His Son. We beseech you in Christ's name. You be reconciled to God. You need not stay at a distance as an enemy.

55:18 God invites you to become His friend as you trust in His Son who bore the wrath of God for sinners. Furthermore, We offer you adoption into His family. We offer you the gift of the Holy Spirit in Him. We offer you the pledge of certain life with Christ now and life with Him forever.

55:43 That's what's offered in the gospel. A resurrection body to boot.

55:50 And my friend, listen, if those things aren't worth drinking a little bitterness for the sake of the one who procured them, experiencing a few waves for a few years before the day of judgment out of love and attachment to the one who took all the waves that would have washed us into hell. My friend, you've seen no glory in Christ. You're not yet ready to be saved.

56:20 If those things offered to you in Christ are not enough to capture your heart, then say if all of those are mine because of what he did in setting his face to go to Jerusalem, knowing he'd be rejected and spat upon and scourged and killed, then surely, surely were I to endure the wrenching pain of my ankles and wrists fixed in stocks for a hundred years. What is that in the light of an eternity of hell that awaits me for my sins? But all he says is...

56:58 Not telling us how much is in our cup, how many waves are in our baptism. The cup I drink, you shall drink. The baptism with which I am baptized, you shall be baptized. Would you come after me?

57:12 Take up a cross and follow me. Follow me. Follow me now in my suffering and rejection, and you'll follow me all the way to my glory at the right hand of the Father. And there's a wonderful promise.

57:26 It's been hard to hold it back to the end. In the book of the Revelation, Jesus says to him that overcometh, I will grant to sit down with me in my throne, as I also overcame and am set down upon my throne. He's got something better than the left hand and the right hand. He said, I'll let you share my throne.

58:02 Not without a cup. Not without a baptism. This cheap, tawdry Christianity that promises all the best in the world. All that will live godly in Christ Jesus, my parenthesis, in an ungodly age, end of parenthesis, shall suffer persecution.

58:28 And among the indispensable marks of every true son and daughter of the kingdom, outlined in the Beatitudes, here is one of them. Blessed are ye when you are persecuted for my name. Sake, opposition, persecution, hardship, these are part and parcel of this mixed age. But my friend, they are the path in union with Christ that leads to sharing his glory.

59:00 And if this passage teaches anything, it teaches that. And so I say to you, the Lord's people, having made an appeal to sinners, don't get cynical and doubt the love of Christ. When his cup becomes your cup, when his baptism is your baptism, he said, ye shall drink of the cup which I, even I, am drinking, and you shall be baptized with the very baptism with which I am now being baptized. And given the qualifications I've made three or four times in the message so none can misunderstand and say, I led you to that misunderstanding.

59:45 With all the uniqueness of his cup and his baptism, he calls it his cup and his baptism. It is the fellowship of his sufferings. And what struck me a few months ago and humbled me and drove me to my knees afresh was Paul yearned for that very thing. He said that I may know him and the fellowship of his suffering.

60:12 And I cried to God, O Lord, so working. He said to me that I will not only endure the sufferings that come in fellowship with your son, but that I may long for them, because it is koinonia, fellowship with him who suffered as we experience the fellowship of his suffering.

60:40 Child of God, don't be disillusioned when God seems to dump you on the deck and let you bounce. Don't be allowing the deck to bounce. Don't be allowing the deck to bounce. Don't be allowing the devil to come with his fiendish whisperings in your ear, when there's some bitter things that the will of God calls upon you to drink, and when some waves of a baptism of opposition and of misunderstanding break upon you.

61:05 Remember, this is part and parcel of fellowship in union with Christ on our way to glory. And every time we taste the cup and feel the waves, it ought to make us. Eager to go home, when we shall share the glory, for if we suffer with him, we shall reign with him. Let us pray.

Prayer

61:41 Our Father, we thank you for the record of our Lord's words to his ignorant, ambitious, but real and sincere followers. Thank you for the glory of his patience, of his gentleness, of his love. Wisdom, thank you that he continues so to deal with us. We bless you that we have such a Savior to nurture us, until one day we are brought into his presence and reflect his very likeness.

62:20 We pray for sinners who are here today, who know nothing of the joy of sins forgiven, know nothing of the liberty of sins bondage broken, who are filled with alienation, who are led astray, who are led astray by the wrath of our Lord. May they see the folly of going on in their present state, and may they have no rest until they flee to him, by whose perfect life and substitutionary death you have wrought out a virtue that answers to all the demands of your own holy law and justice, and allows you to be just and yet the justifier of those who believe on Christ. Amen. O God, help us as your people.

63:05 We feel so often that we ask things out of ignorance and carnal ambition. Sanctify our desires. Sanctify even the things we are bold to ask of you. And when we ask that we may be brought to the place where we hunger and thirst to be found in the way of the fellowship of your suffering, surely, Lord, it cannot be said we ask this amiss to consume it upon our lusts.

63:33 We do pray that you will teach us, write your word upon our hearts, and may the blessings of your grace rest upon us and abide with us throughout this day to your glory and to our good. Amen.