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MBTS Spring Graduation Address: Mark 10:32-45

We declare that Jesus Christ is Lord. We are an institution that believes that confession and that also seeks to live that confession. We are a Christian institution, an evangelical institution, and a Southern Baptist institution.

This means we believe the Bible is the holy, inerrant, authoritative Word of God. We believe that we are called by Christ to go out into the world and unto the nations making disciples of all men. We believe these things with a great extent of gravity and conviction. So, these things will appear hand in hand throughout this service today. This is not by accident because these are the truths that we cherish and hold dear. 

Perhaps you are visiting today and you are not a believer. You are here to support a family member or friend, and we thank you for coming. We do not see that as an accident either. It is by divine providence that you are here today, and we are praying that the message of the gospel and the words that are spoken would be illuminating for you as they point you to Christ. 

This is a day to celebrate our graduates. We are so thankful for these men and women. The stewardship we have had over the years to invest in them means more to myself and these behind me than you will ever know. We want you to join with us in celebrating them, and we want you to join with us here in worship this day as well.

It is my privilege twice a year to give graduates and those in attendance a final word of charge, a commencement address. I take this responsibility as it comes to me twice a year with great seriousness and with a great sense of anticipation, as I get to give that final word of exhortation from Scripture. It is a word that always has to be a touch abbreviated with the length of the service, and our ability to endure only so long in one room and in one place. But it is a word I look forward to bringing none the less. 

This morning I am speaking from the Gospel of Mark chapter 10. I will be speaking to you on the topic of ministers of sacrifice. Before I read scripture, I am reminded of this hour, this moment together. There is a sense in which commencement day is a common occasion for our nation, for people.

This time of year thousands of services are taking place across the country and beyond with people like yourself in robes, hats, sitting before a crowd and faculty. The senior staff dawned in regalia, with all of the senses of pomp and circumstance, processionals and recessionals and all that goes with a service like this. But for us, and institutions like this, a call that we have on behalf of Southern Baptists, this day, though with certain trappings and similarities, is altogether distinct.

For us, we understand that what we are doing is even more consequential. This day, this service, this season is marked by a sense of militancy in that we intend to continue to wage war with the Word and the Spirit against the forces of darkness. It is a sense of celebration because we know that the battle has been won in Christ, and we are departed to serve his cause triumphantly. There is a sense of urgency because we know it is our task to go with the gift of the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

Mark chapter ten then, reads as such: 

They were on the road going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking on ahead of them; and they were amazed, and those who followed were fearful. And again He took the twelve aside and began to tell them what was going to happen to Him, saying, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death and will hand Him over to the Gentiles. They will mock Him and spit on Him, and scourge Him and kill Him, and three days later He will rise again.”

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.” And He said to them, “What do you want Me to do for you?” They said to Him, “Grant that we may sit, one on Your right and one on Your left, in Your glory.”  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?” 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. 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.”

Hearing this, the ten began to feel indignant with James and John. 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. But it is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant; and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all. 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 recent days, our nation has witnessed a closing of a significant chapter. The end of era, the death of a slice of Americana. Richard E. Cole, the last survivor of Doolittle Raiders over Japan, died at the age of 103, and a slice of America died with him. Cole was, after all, copilot to Jimmy Doolittle, the commander on that fateful raid.  

You recall the story. On December 7, 1941, the Japanese Empire launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, our Pacific fleet station in Hawaii. The attack shocked the nation, devastated our Pacific fleet, and left some 2,403 individuals dead. Indeed, in the words of President Roosevelt, it is a day that lives in infamy.

American military planners, knowing we were years away from mounting a serious effort against the Japanese homeland, devised a risky ad-hoc effort that at best would cause symbolic damages. Yet, they wanted to sturdy the American public at home, and give the impression that we were indeed on the move. This attack would also startle the Japanese homeland and prove that they were not impenetrable. 

The morning of April 18, 1942, sixteen B25 bombers took off from the aircraft carrier USS Hornet some 650 miles offshore. These planes were stripped bare in order to carry maximum ordnances and maximum fuel because they would need both. B25 bombers were not designed to take off from the short deck of an aircraft carrier, so they barely cleared its 500-foot runway.

This is where the remarkable part of the story comes into the picture. Doolittle’s Raiders, some 80 men, knew that they were making a one-way trip. Their planes could not carry enough fuel to return safely to the Hornet. The pilot’s only hope was to find a safe place to land or crash their planes, hopefully in Nationalist China.

Of the 16 planes, one made it safely to the Soviet Union.  The other 15 crash-landed in Japanese territory or ditched their planes in the Ocean and died when they did. Some were killed in crash-landings, others were captured, tortured, and killed. Others died of privation, and still others were prisoners of war for years to come. 

On the surface, this story and this mission have all the markings of what we would classically define as a suicide mission. It was daring and ill-fated. Objectively assessed, there were low odds of a safe return, yet this suicide mission was undertaken by men who knew their efforts would be largely symbolic. Thus, the story is now part of American war legend.

That sense of service, of sacrifice, of daring commitment, inspires us, and it should. But for kingdom service, it ought to inspire us all the more. Our efforts are not acts of symbolism, they are not gestures to buck up the people of God. They are, for us, a calling by the Lord Jesus Christ to give our best for his gospel and his Scriptures for the sake of His glory and His church.

We are called to a ministry of sacrifice. We confess that doesn’t sound appealing to the ear does it? Imagine yourself in the local First Baptist Church and you have a minister of youth, a minister of students, and a minister of sacrifice.  It doesn’t have an appealing ring to it. No one with a brain would sign up for such a task. 

My charge this morning, though, is not that this is an office that is to be fulfilled, but an attitude to have because the road before us may well indeed be one marked by suffering and ongoing sacrifice. 

What is going on here in Mark chapter 10? This passage comes in the middle of Mark’s gospel. Verse 32 is the third occasion in three chapters that the disciples come to Jesus about their place in the kingdom, asking about what will happen to them, and asking about what is before them. For the third time, Jesus has spelled out the fact that before him is the cross, before him is an atoning work. In verse 33 we see: 

They were on the road going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking on ahead of them; and they were amazed, and those who followed were fearful. And again He took the twelve aside and began to tell them what was going to happen to Him, saying, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death and will hand Him over to the Gentiles. They will mock Him and spit on Him, and scourge Him and kill Him, and three days later He will rise again.”

This is a consequential announcement, these are words of gravity and weight. And then, in verse 35, James and John, the two sons of Zebedee, respond in a childish way: 

Teacher, we want You to do for us whatever we ask of You.” And He said to them, “What do you want Me to do for you?” They said to Him, “Grant that we may sit, one on Your right and one on Your left, in Your glory.”

Which brings us to the meat of the passage and the crux of these verses for us this morning. What is it like to have a ministry of sacrifice? It means first, you must be prepared to suffer for the kingdom. Jesus says in verse 38, “You do not know what you are asking.” You want a seat that is elevated? You better be prepared to be brought low. You want a position of visibility, authority, or status, you better be prepared for the hardship that will come with it.

Jesus says, “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?” What is this cup and baptism? These are biblical expressions or metaphors of suffering. Jesus prayed in the garden, “Father if it is thy will, let this cup pass from me.” To be baptized is this picture of being immersed into the sufferings of Christ. These two pictures reflect the suffering of Christ and the atoning work of Christ by actively taking the cup and choosing to lay down his life by being nailed to a tree. 

Verse 39 possibly contains the three most ironic words in the Bible, and possibly the three most stupid words in the Bible. That is, James and John respond, “We are able.” But the truth is that none of my brothers or sisters then or now are up for this task. No one is up to the task. We have to be buoyed every day and strengthened by the Word of God. We have to be renewed day by day in the gospel of Christ.

The fact is that we can only stand in him. We are empowered day by day for the ministry because the Spirit is willing and working in our lives. And with all of that together, our best efforts still fall woefully short of resembling the suffering of Christ. 

But James and John say to him, “We are able,” and Jesus says in return, “You better be.”  “The cup that I drink, you are going to drink, and you shall be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized.” Jesus predicts this and it comes true, does it not? In Acts 2, King Herod had James put to death with the sword. John, of course, is exiled to the island of Patmos. The point for us is that Jesus’ words come with ringing relevance. 

I am not a sour puss. I am not a pessimist. I am an optimist by nature. I am a cheerful human being who goes about his Christian life with a cheerful attitude. I believe we get to do this for the cause of Christ. But it is good that we reflect on passages like this on occasion, especially on occasions like today when we are reminded anew of why we signed up for all of this anyway. It was not because we saw it as an attractive profession; it was not because we had sufficient personalities and there seems to be a market need and a people who can meet that need; and it was not that there is an equality in the market and we can step in there and really do well with life.

No, it was because somewhere along the way, men and women, you in your own life, had an encounter with the risen Lord Jesus Christ. You came to the place where you repented of your sin and placed your faith in Christ. Additionally, you could not have escaped something of a call on your life. God was calling you to be equipped for greater service, to preach the Word, to counsel the Word, to teach the Word, to go in distant places and plant churches to reach the nations. 

For us, the cultural tide turns by the day, does it not? It swirls. Issues before our very eyes continue to be renegotiated and renegotiated and renegotiated. This includes issues of marriage and religious freedom. All of these things, of course, are changed so rapidly. Perhaps Isaac Watts would have something to say. 

Am I a soldier of the cross,
A follow’r of the Lamb?
And shall I fear to own His cause,
Or blush to speak His name?

Must I be carried to the skies
On flow’ry beds of ease,
While others fought to win the prize,
And sailed through bloody seas?

Are there no foes for me to face?
Must I not stem the flood?
Is this vile world a friend to grace,
To help me on to God?

Sure I must fight if I would reign;
Increase my courage, Lord;
I’ll bear the toil, endure the pain,
Supported by Thy Word.

Thy saints in all this glorious war
Shall conquer, though they die;
They see the triumph from afar,
By faith’s discerning eye.

When that illustrious day shall rise,
And all Thy armies shine
In robes of vict’ry through the skies,
The glory shall be Thine.

Jesus is saying be ready to suffer for the kingdom. Notice also what we are taught here, and that is that we must be submitted to the plan of the kingdom. Verse 40: “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.” By whom? Who do you think? The Father.

As a part of God’s grand plan for his creation and for his church, he has gifted men and women in the body of Christ as we are taught in multiple places within the New Testament. And then, more specifically, to actually undertake responsibilities of leadership within the church and within the kingdom. And a part of our responsibility as ministers of the gospel is to have a keen sense of what has God gifted us for and what he is calling us to. And then, we must work to pursue that and make ourself available for that; not for something more or for something less. 

Again, this is so against conventional wisdom. We are taught from the world, and often in the church, that really life is about building that resume. Get your degrees and get some experience, three years here, four years there.

You are taught that you are going to step up to the next post and preach there four years, then you should go another place, and on and on. It is all about climbing and moving up so that by the time your kids are ready for college, you have a good enough ministry composed that you can fund it all and everything is going quite right. What if Jesus says, “Actually, all of that is garbage?” 

Brothers and Sisters, I propose to you this morning that that is exactly what he is saying in verse 40. He is saying to us this morning, “Toss your resume to the wind.” He is saying to us this morning, “Be ready and available for whatever God calls you to do. See your life, your calling, your ministry, all of that as being held with an open hand.”

He is saying in verse 40 that God is very concerned with this universe. Indeed, he is micromanaging this cosmos, and he has called you here to be equipped so that you could do the equipping. And all the while, we must be available to go and to serve. He gives us strengths, weaknesses, giftings, talents, skills, experiences, etc. 

Perhaps the least important thing that will happen to you while you went to Midwestern Seminary and Spurgeon College is getting this diploma I am going to hand you when you walk across the stage. I did not say that about what you did to earn the diploma, absolutely not. In fact, quite the contrary.

That diploma represents something you have accomplished, something you have achieved, something you ought to with a right and holy sense be proud of, something I hope you hand on your wall and point people to for decades to come. But if you view it as a credential merely, a credential that now has you positioned for better employment, Lord help you. But if you view it as a reminder of God’s grace that you had the privilege to study and to learn and to grow and become more familiar with the Scriptures and more equipped in the Scriptures, then we have done well, then you have done well. 

Notice with me thirdly in verse 41, there is also this call to be focused on the way of the kingdom. “Hearing this, the ten began to feel indignant with James and John.” Imagine that. James and John are cornering Jesus, wanting rank in the kingdom, wanting promotion, perhaps to be overlords to the other ten. Well, they do not like that one bit.

So, Jesus is starting this melee with these 12 guys who are asking horrible questions and missing all of the big picture of Jesus’ life and ministry. So, in verse 40 Jesus calls them to himself. He says 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. But it is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant; and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all.” 

Jesus is giving us here a pointed contrast between the way of the world and the way of the kingdom. The servant is one who is willing to sacrifice for others. The slave is one who has foregone his or her rights.

The way of the world is a pyramid, where the mighty ascend to the top of the summit. But in the kingdom, the topography of the pyramid is upside down. The way to advance in the kingdom is to walk lowly with our Lord. 

In verse 43, the punctuation at the end and the fourth theme for us to see is that we should imitate the king of the kingdom. Verse 45 is one of the most powerful verses in the Bible and one of the most important verses in the Gospel of Mark.

It is, perhaps, the most important verse in the Gospel of Mark. Jesus says this: “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”

Jesus takes a step back, reminds them of his calling, states clearly his work and says, “Look to me, my life and my ministry, and see that as a prototype after which you should aspire.” What is the “Son of man?” He is so lowly and yet when you read the book of Daniel, you see this title is one of power. He is saying, “The Son of Man, even I, did not come to be served but the serve.” 

If ever there was an era in human history that really got into being served, it was the era of the Roman Empire. They had it mastered. The Habsburgs knew nothing compared to the Romans. The life of the emperors couldn’t help but be trickled throughout the empire. The air they breathed -power, might, nobility, leadership, it was all there.

Jesus not only speaks a word contrary to the spirit of the age, but he teaches the disciples who think that He is now here to overthrow that regime. The Son of Man has come to do something far greater than tinker with the Romans. The Son of Man has come to give his life as a ransom for many. 

What does that mean? It is referring to the atoning work of our Lord on the cross, the penal substitutionary atoning work of our Lord on the cross. It was a sacrifice that he made with his body, with his blood, and with his death, he accomplished redemption. His act accomplished redemption because no other act or work could. Jesus is saying “this is why I have come. I came to give my life as a ransom for many.” 

Men and women, graduates this morning, I say to you, I am as proud of you as I can be. So many of you I look upon and I know personally. You have held campus jobs, you’ve been in classes I’ve taught, we’ve chatted in the hallway, you’ve stopped by the President’s Office, and it brings me such joy to get to congratulate you this day.

But I say to all of you, from those who I know the greatest, to those who I know the least, to all of you, this is a day to propel you forward into great things for the kingdom. Just do not be confused about what those great things are to be. 

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