THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION

Mark: Jesus, The Perfect Servant Of God

Part II: The Perfect Service Of Jesus, The Perfect Servant Of God, Mark 1:1-10:52

PP. Christ's Teaching And Exampling On Offsetting Fear In Serving God

(Mark 10:32-34)

I. Introduction

A. We learned in the first lesson in this series that Mark's Gospel presents the perfect service of God's Perfect Servant, Jesus, with Mark's focus of having rebounded unto upright Christian service from personal failure.

B. Mark had abandoned Barnabas and Paul on their missionary journey (Acts 13:13), and fear of conflict or fear hardship might have been partly its cause, a significant problem since fear of man brings a snare, Prov. 29:25a.

C. Christ taught and exampled victory over fear in serving God in Mark 10:32-34, so we view it for our insight:

II. Christ's Teaching And Exampling On Offsetting Fear In Serving God, Mark 10:32-34.

A. Jesus' disciples faced the problem of great fear while following Jesus up to Jerusalem, Mark 10:32a,b:

1. On His final journey up to the city of Jerusalem, and in line with "Rabbinic custom," Mark 10:32a claims that "Jesus was leading" His disciples, Bible Knowledge Commentary, New Testament, p. 152.

2. However, this customary practice still "surprised" (ethambounto, Ibid.) the disciples, and as they followed Him they were "being afraid for their own benefit" (ephobounto, imperfect tense, middle voice of phobeo, "to be fearful," U. B. S. Grk. N. T., 1966, p. 166; The Analy. Grk. Lex., 1972, p. 428, 179), meaning they feared that harm might come upon themselves as they were following Jesus to Jerusalem, Mark 10:32b.

3. To explain, we note that at this point in Christ's life, the disciples were aware of the hostility of Jerusalem's religious leaders toward Jesus (cf. John 11:7-8), so if they kept following Him as He kept going up to Jerusalem, they knew that they were as much targets for harm as Jesus was (cf. John 11:16).

B. Thus, Christ took His disciples aside (paralambano, Arndt & Gingrich, A Grk.-Eng. Lex. of the N. T., 1967, p. 624-625) to instruct them once again on future events in Jerusalem (Mark 10:32c), instruction that was more detailed than His former predictions of such events, so they might overcome their fear, Mark 10:33-34:

1. Jesus told His disciples that ("Behold!") they could readily observe that they were going up to Jerusalem, territory where Jesus was hated by the religious leaders, a sure recipe for harm to Himself, Mark 10:33a.

2. In that setting, Jesus as the "Son of man," a widely known messianic term borrowed from Daniel 7:13-14 that predicts the ascension and exaltation of Messiah at the Father's right hand, would indeed be "delivered over, betrayed" (paradidomi, Ibid., U. B. S. Grk. N. T., p. 167; Ibid., Arndt & Gingrich, p. 619-621) to the religious rulers, they would condemn Him to death and deliver Him over to the Gentile Romans who in turn would mock, spit on and flog Him, activities that preceded crucifixion (Ibid., Bible Know. Com., N. T.) before He would rise again from the dead after three days, Mark 10:33b-34 NIV.

3. The disciples did not properly understand or apply this instruction, so they persisted in their fear, but had they properly applied it, their fears for following and serving Jesus would have subsided (as follows):

a. By His many miracles to date, Jesus had proved to them that He truly was the Biblically-predicted Messiah (cf. Matthew 11:2-6 with Isaiah 35:5; 61:1). Thus, His claim to be the "Son of man" in such a context of His suffering, death and resurrection should have led the disciples to realize that His imminent suffering and death to occur at Jerusalem were necessary events in God's plan before Jesus could fulfill His Daniel 7:13-14 ascension and enthronement in the heavens as the ruling Messiah.

b. Accordingly, Christ's detailed predictions of His coming betrayal, His condemnation by the Sanhedrin and His crucifixion by the Romans followed by His resurrection on the third day should have caused His disciples to rest more assured of the glorious, eventual outcome to follow His suffering as they began to see all of the details of Jesus' predictions of his suffering and death begin to unfold before them!

Lesson: To enable His disciples to dispel their fear about what harm might occur to them if they kept following Him to Jerusalem, Jesus gave them a detailed prediction of near-term events to explain that He would be the One facing death as an essential part of God's plan toward His exaltation on heaven's throne. Thus, their fear was to be replaced with a knowledge of what was foreknown that they might adjust in these events for settled victory!

Application: May we dispel our fears in serving Christ by discerning from Bible prophecy the events to occur in the near-term of Church History (Rev. 3:14-22; 1 Tim. 4:1-3; 2 Tim. 3:1-5) that we properly align to them by rejoicing as we see God's Sovereign hand at work fulfill His predictions for His glory!