“The Case for Christ - Part 1: Mk 9:33-50” 
 
What is the high calling of the Lord’s Church today? 

It is simply put: to be a light of His glory in the world!

As I said last week - for this, it is important that the nature of the Lordship of Christ is understood. 

And - it is equally important that it is received with the glory that it is in itself. 

The world is to see Christ and His glory in the way His kingdom operates.

We all well know - by now - that this is a great and weighty mystery. The true nature of it is impossible to grasp except for the spiritual refining that Jesus prescribed for His own followers.

And, even at that, I dare say, we are only seeing it ‘through a glass darkly’, and that - with the most gratefulness of heart and soul to Him for the revelation He graciously gives His own through the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

He shows how the darkness and the corruption of sin and the state of ever-increasing evil is already overcome by the working of His power in each of His own.

This means that the place each Christian is called to is of the utmost importance - it is a serious matter God has put in our charge.

For this - in turn - incorporates a call to the service of Jesus Christ, the occupation of all who are His.     

It is these two points - evidencing the glory of Christ in position and in service - that I would like to concentrate upon as we glean some thoughts from the passage in Mark 9:33-50, tonight and within the next few weeks, Lord willing.

Let me start, first, by saying that Jesus, of course, knew the need for the pure testimony of the glory of God.

Thus, He set out to correct some of the concepts His disciples carried of their place and service in His kingdom.

Starting with verse 33, of Mark 9, we see that the disciples were arguing among themselves. 

‘They came to Capernaum: and when He[Jesus] was in the house, He asked them, ‘What were ye reasoning on the way?’

They were reluctant to respond to the question.

What was it that made them so ashamed to answer when Jesus asked them outrightly, ‘What were you arguing about?’ 

Their subject was: ‘Who among us is the greatest? Which one of us is ‘Number One’? Who is going to be head man in the Kingdom of God?’   

What a question to be quibbling about! What vanity! But, even worse than that, what blindness!

How impregnated they were of their own cultural notions when it came to precedence and rank in the Kingdom of God!

We think nothing of belittling our Lord with such thoughts of self-grandeur and self-magnification - do we? 

Why - we even balk at the slightest impulse to give tribute and honor to those to whom it is due, we are so filled with self-glory!

Oh - what evil lies within to think of taking glory to ourselves only!

So - Jesus started to correct the concept of the place each has in His kingdom.

And - how did He start?

His words were like the force of gunpowder to their hearts!

He changed the argument of greatness and precedence into a service-oriented theme. 

And - He did this by saying: ‘If any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all, and servant of all.’ (v 35)    

Yes - the one who follows Jesus is to be the least of all, and - to eclipse that - he is to be the servant of all!

Least of all? Really? 

Servant of all? 

‘No way!’ some of us would reply! But - we have it backwards! ‘I am the most important person here - you serve me!’, we tend to think.

So - Jesus gave a complete reversal of the human idea of greatness, rank, and status. This was a whole new pattern for human relationships. 

Do you know what that did? That ended the coveting of the head position! It was the end of self-magnification - that is clear! 

It blasted away the blocks that lead to evil surmising and the temptation to carry the Kingdom of Christ forward in our own polluted ways.

When we stop to think about it - self-love and self-exaltation rather than the pure love of God and of one another is probably the most sensitive part of our character.

It is the worst of dispositions in human nature. Under its influence, we become ferocious fiends with a paralyzed and confused judgment.

The driving ambition for personal gain - of thinking that we must be the ‘top dog’, as some say in the vernacular - always agitates and fractures.

Whenever that passion burns and gains undue control, peace is destroyed and there is a negating of the true order of the glory of Christ and His kingdom.

I am sure each one of us has experienced that over and over again - even in just the ordinary relationships of life.
 
So - Jesus took His followers severely to task. He did not tone down His correction. 

He let them know how evil the concept of pulling rank and  precedence in His kingdom is.  

It was a deflection from His way of truth and life in Him. This is a serious matter for it is not a representation of His pure glory!

Then, to burn that truth into the heart, He lovingly took a little child upon His lap and said: ‘Whoever receives one of these ‘little ones’ in My name, receives Me...and he receives Him Who sent Me.’

They were to receive a ‘child’, a ‘little one’ into the Kingdom of God, by the way of giving him consideration, of graciously giving him a warm welcome.  

Now - I know this illustration does not mean much to us today as it stands.

But - what is so astonishing about this is the fact that little children, in those days, were considered as non-persons, just like slaves, unimportant, only a convenient scullion. 

This little child Jesus had on His lap had no apparent importance to them. ‘Of course, they took rank over him!’ - so they thought! 

To say, then, that such a ‘little one’ would have some import or significance in the lives of Christ’s followers was dishonorable, shocking, and degrading, to say the least!

But - this is to be the application of Christ’s correction: ‘Receive this child in My name’, He said, ‘and if you do, you receive Me, and Him Who sent me.’

Do you know what that means to His followers?

It means that the status as adult followers of Jesus is shifted to a lowly place - and, ‘who among us, can stoop so low?’ is the usual unspoken response to that idea!

But do you see the point here?

The dignity and the supremacy of the Name of Jesus is violated by fleshly glory!

In Him, God represented to us all the spiritual perfection.

The highest beauty, the most perfect excellencies of glory, is embodied only in Him!

Now - the mind of the Christian can scarcely take this in, I know. 

But the saving grace of it is that the Christian is clothed in that glory by the indwelling divine Spirit of God in Christ.

Thankfully, it is God Who puts to shame all those who glory in human greatness and wisdom(1 Cor 1:27), just as Jesus was demonstrating it to His disciples. 

God must strip His followers of self-glory - for no other reason than that His own can be clothed with the true glory of His Son.     

‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, I will render useless the wisdom of the learned, and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent, of those who think they are so sound in their own judgment.’ (1 Cor 1:19)

Why? because ‘...no flesh can glory in the presence of His glory.’ 

For - in Christ, ‘...all the treasures of divine wisdom, of comprehensive insight into the ways and purposes of God and all the riches of spiritual knowledge and enlightenment are stored up and lie hidden.’(Col 2:3)

That is why the servant cannot be exalted above the Master nor take any credit for anything that the Master has done through him. 

‘For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the mighty; and the base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: that no flesh should glory in His presence.’

‘But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, Who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, that according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.’

Thus, Jesus made clear: ‘He who would like to be greatest must become the least of all. He who would like to stand at the head must become a servant of all, ready to help and care for others.’

Later, after His death, resurrection, and ascension, God used Paul to demonstrate exactly what Christ meant. 

Listen to Paul’s words: ‘And, I, brethren, when I came to you, I came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.

For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.

And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.

And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.’

Paul had an illustrious background and could well have been the ‘chief executive officer’ of the Kingdom of God in his day.

But look how weak and helpless he was made as he announced his theme of ‘Christ and Him crucified’ as being the reason for his very weakness.

Through it, he demonstrated how the power of God was so effectively working in himself.

And he was able to unfold, with his confidence in the Lord, all the treasures of the knowledge hidden in God’s counsel of the glory of Christ. 

He could make it intelligible even to those ‘babes in Christ’ to whom he ministered.

But, as brilliant and as apt as Paul was, God chose to do this through Paul by first stripping Paul of all self-glory to receive the glory of Christ that it is in itself. 

He WAS as the GLORY OF CHRIST IS!

And it was THAT GLORY that spilled out to Christ’s followers in that day.  

Was he aware that that glory of Christ would flow out to the whole world through his words and works someday? Of course not!

Actually, he died a lonely, forsaken man; yes - the least of all and the servant of all!

But God took that glory of Christ in him and demonstrated through him the GLORY THAT IT IS IN ITSELF!

Yes - that is what Jesus showed His followers plainly when He said: ‘If any man desire to be first, the same shall be last, and servant of all.’

I will stop here for this evening, and - Lord willing - we shall take it from this point the next time.

In the meantime, I pray we will keep walking ‘in the light of Christ’s glory’ throughout all of this week. I pray that nothing will hinder any of us from that course.

Amen. 

Let us pray.