A Third Shocking Prediction

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The people of first century Israel didn't know who Jesus really was. That's become obvious as we've journeyed through the Gospel of Mark—isn't it? I mean, it's clear they had no clue as to who Jesus really was. But many of them understood one thing that was true, and that was that Jesus was a prophet. Matthew 21 says that when they sought to seize him (that is, the Jewish leaders) they feared the people, because the people considered Him to be a prophet. And He certainly was. In fact, He Himself claimed to be, you remember, He said of Himself, "A prophet has no honor in his own country."

Jesus often predicted the future. He prophesied about the future in small ways. For example, He knew where a fish would be swimming at a particular moment. He knew what coins would be in its mouth. He knew how many times a Samaritan women, that He had never met, had been married and the fact that she wasn't married at that point. He knew where a colt would be tied and that the owners would ask the disciples, when they tried to untie it, exactly what they would ask. He knew both when and who would be carrying a pitcher when the disciples were looking for a place for the Last Supper, and that that person would have a room prepared for Him to celebrate the Last Supper with His disciples. He knew when and to what extent Jerusalem and its temple would be destroyed: that not a single stone would be left upon another in 70 AD. He knew that the gospel would advance through the coming centuries. In Matthew 24, He said the gospel will spread over the entire earth before the end comes. Jesus was a prophet in many different ways.

But tonight, we come to a passage in our study of the Gospel of Mark in which it becomes clear that Jesus also knows everything about His impending death. Turn with me to Mark chapter 10. Mark chapter 10 in your Bible, or the one that's there in the pew in front of you. Mark chapter 10, and we're going to begin reading in verse 32. Mark 10, verse 32:

They (that is, Jesus and His disciples) 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, to 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."

In very clear and precise terms, Jesus prophesies here about the shocking events that will happen to Him in just about a week's time from when He makes this prophecy. Really an amazing prophecy. Tonight I want us to examine four particulars about this prophecy as it unfolds here, four particulars. The first is the setting of the prophecy. Look in verse 32. Now, I'm not going to spend a lot of time here, since we've essentially been in the same setting for several weeks. But it's morning; it's morning, just about a week before Passover. Jesus and His disciples had rested the night before at the home of one of His disciples down near the Dead Sea. They're on their way to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. What we traditionally refer to as the Passion Week is just a couple of days away; His death in about a week.

Jesus and His disciples had awakened that morning with the intention of getting on the road, of going on ahead and continuing their journey to Jerusalem. But their plans have so far been thwarted several times by people who have heard that Jesus was staying there near the northern end of the Dead Sea in Perea, the region called Perea. They've heard that He was there, and they come to find Him. The first people to find Jesus that morning (and we've seen it as we've studied this book) were a number of parents who, interestingly enough, brought their children to Jesus to have Him bless. Jesus, you remember, took those little ones in His arms, and He laid His hands on them. In a formal act of blessing He prayed for them. And then He pronounced a blessing over them, we're told. We don't know the nature of that blessing, but it demonstrates the heart of Christ for little children, even the little ones we dedicated to Him tonight. Immediately after that, a young man who had served as a local ruler in the local synagogue there came running up asking how he could be sure that he had eternal life. Sadly we discovered, as we worked through Mark's gospel, that he was unwilling to repent. He was unwilling to turn from his idolatry, of his great wealth and his extensive properties, and put his complete trust in Christ alone. So he simply walked away sad.

Now finally, Jesus and His disciples are at last on the road. Notice verse 32. "They were on the road going up to Jerusalem." The next stop in Jesus' journey is not recorded for us by Mark, but is by Luke. They're going to stop in Jericho where a tax collector named Zaccheus would come to put his trust in Christ. And Jesus and His disciples will spend this night with him before resuming their journey to Jerusalem. But they're on the road to Jericho. By the way, the New Testament often speaks of going "up" to Jerusalem. Not if you go to Israel, but when you go to Israel someday, you will understand that immediately; because from Jericho to Jerusalem is only about 20 miles, but in that 20 miles the elevation rises 3,500 feet. So it's up to Jerusalem.

Now I want you to notice though, in verse 32, how Jesus' attitude and His disposition is captured by Mark. You remember, Mark is writing this gospel in conjunction with Peter, as we learned early on. Obviously, this memory of Jesus on the road to Jerusalem is burned into the mind of Peter, who is the source of Mark's information here. Look at what he writes. "They were on the road going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking on ahead of them." You see in this Jesus' resolve. It's like Luke 9 where it says, "When the days were approaching for His ascension, He was determined to go to Jerusalem." It's like Isaiah 50, where we're told the Messiah would set His "face like flint" to accomplish His mission. On the day after this text that we're looking at here in Mark, Luke writes, after they leave Jericho—remember, they'll spend this night in Jericho at the house of Zaccheus. After that, tomorrow they will head on from Jericho to Jerusalem, and again, Luke tells us, Jesus is out in front leading the crowd.

Verse 32 says, "And they were amazed, and those who followed were fearful." Here Mark tells us of two different groups and what they were thinking. The first group is the apostles, the twelve. "And they were amazed." The Greek word for "amazed" is "astonished." They're blown away by what they're seeing. Why? They were astonished because of the unwavering, resolute advance of Jesus. He has taken the lead ahead of them, and this was unusual. Remember, He was their Master, their Teacher, their Discipler, their Rabbi. Normally, they would have been clustered around Him, and He would have been teaching them. But here's something unusual. He is pressing on ahead of them on the road to Jerusalem. William Hendriksen, the great commentator, writes, "There must have been something about the bearing of Jesus, the look in His eyes, the manner of His walk that explains their amazement."

The second group Mark describes like this. He says, "Those who followed were fearful." Who were these people? Well, remember, Jesus and His disciples are traveling to Jerusalem for the Feast of Passover. They would have been accompanied by a large number of Galileans, pilgrims headed to Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of Passover. There were hundreds of thousands of people who gathered in Jerusalem for this event. And some of those who followed Jesus on the road from Perea to Jericho and ultimately on to Jerusalem, it says here, "were fearful." This is probably not a reference to the crowd in general, but rather it's probably to other disciples of Jesus beyond the twelve. Why? I mean, what are they afraid of? Well, they have every reason to be afraid.

This is the spring. This is April of the year. The previous November, Jesus went to the Feast of Tabernacles. And in John 9, while He was there for the Feast of Tabernacles, we read this. The Jews had already agreed that if anyone confessed Jesus to be the Messiah, he was to be put out of the synagogue, was going to be alienated, was going to be set aside from all that he was familiar with. About five weeks before this journey they're on right now, just five weeks earlier back in February of that year, we read in John 11:8, "The disciples said to Him, 'Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone You, and are You going (to go back to Jerusalem) again?'" That was when He went for the raising of Lazarus, which is in Bethany just over the hill from Jerusalem. And the disciples are saying they want to stone You; You're going to go back there? That was five weeks before this.

Also about five weeks before this there was a momentous, secret decision by the Jewish Sanhedrin. Look back in John chapter 11. John chapter 11, verse 55. This would have been, again, shortly before. "Now the Passover of the Jews was near," so we're almost now to the same time period as in Mark, "and many went up to Jerusalem out of the country before the Passover to purify themselves. So they were seeking for Jesus, and saying to one another as they stood in the temple, "What do you think;" will He "come to the feast?"

Why? Look at verse 57. Because "the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where He was, he was to report it, so that they might seize Him." So there's this sense of, is He going to come? I don't think He's going to come. Why? Well, go back to verse 53. There was a secret meeting by the Sanhedrin about five weeks before the Passover, after the raising of Lazarus, when they decided there was only one way to deal with Jesus. It says in verse 53, "From that day" the day of that secret meeting that we've studied before, on that day, "they planned together to kill Him." They had already decided He's got to die. In fact, the high priest had said, if one man has to die to preserve the nation, so be it. And so that is the reality. That's why they should be afraid. They should be afraid, because for the last six months the animosity toward Jesus has been building. And now the word is out: if you know where He is, turn Him in; we're going to seize Him. And so there's this discussion in Jerusalem. What do you think? Will He come? I don't think He'll come. Let's see if He comes. And that's where we find ourselves.

So Jesus has struck out in the lead of this massive band of pilgrims filled with the sounds of bleating sheep and children and talking and singing. As they're marching their way toward Jerusalem, Jesus is in the lead. He's in the front. The disciples are amazed, and the rest of His disciples are fearful for Him. The rest of the crowd back there on their way to the Passover is either oblivious or maybe just curious.

It's in that context that Mark goes on to describe what happened. Look at verse 32 again. "And again He took the twelve aside and began to tell them what was going to happen to Him." Probably still in the lead of the crowd, Jesus calls the twelve up to him aside. Now the key word in this sentence is the word "again." This is not the first time Jesus has told them about this. In fact, from the first days of His ministry there have been clear hints that this is what's going to happen—of His death and resurrection. As early as John 2, you remember, when He first cleared the temple, shortly after He began His ministry, just weeks from the beginning of His ministry, He said, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." They were confused and thought He meant the temple that they were standing in. He meant the temple of His body. He was talking about His death and resurrection. That was three and a half years ago. But about two and a half years later than that, Jesus, for the first time, began to make very explicit prophecies about what was going to happen to Him. Mark says "again," because on two other occasions Jesus had explicitly, plainly, openly, unequivocally prophesied about both His death and His resurrection. The first one was back in Mark chapter 8, verses 31 to 33. This was right after Peter's confession of Jesus as the Messiah, about twelve months before the cross. That was the first, explicit prediction. We studied that. I'm not going to take you back there again tonight.

The second is in Mark 9. It comes just after the Transfiguration. That's about six months before the crucifixion. So the first explicit one was a year before, then six months before. And now, about a week before these events will unfold, He makes yet a third, clear prophecy about His death and resurrection. And this one is the most explicit of all. Here the real emphasis is on the details of the prophecy, the details of the prophecy. If you look at the prophecy He made here, there're about seven parts to it, seven identifiable statements that He makes. When you look at the first two back in Mark 8 and Mark 9, each of those only had about three of the seven parts that are here. So this one is far more extensive. Notice what He says. Verse 33: "Behold." Look, pay attention. And then Jesus gives them specific details, first about His death and then about His resurrection.

Let's look first at the details of the prophecy regarding His death. First of all He tells them where. "We are going up to Jerusalem." By the way, the "we" here is quite ominous, He includes them. "We" are going up to Jerusalem. Because if this is going to happen to Him in Jerusalem, they will be there, they will witness it. What question does that automatically bring into their minds? It's going to happen to us. He also mentions when. Notice, implied in "to Jerusalem" when they're going up for the Passover, implies that it's going to happen while they're in Jerusalem celebrating the Passover.

He also tells them who. Jesus identifies several key players that will be involved in what's going to happen to Him. The first player is the initiator. And this one we already discovered back in chapter 9. In fact, look back in chapter 9 and verse 31, because this is a key point you need to understand. In this prophecy of His death and resurrection, He says, "The Son of Man is to be delivered into the hands of men, and men will kill Him." Now, the word translated "delivered" is the word, literally, "betrayed." It can be translated either betrayed or delivered. Here there's a hard decision. Is this talking about Judas, who betrayed Him to the leaders of the Jewish people? I don't think so. And we studied this in detail. You can go back and listen if you want more argumentation, more support for this. Why would he say "delivered into the hands of men, and men will kill Him" unless there's a Divine Actor involved in this? There's a Divine Actor. The clear implication is that someone supernatural is handing Jesus over to the hands of men. Here is the heart of the shocking plan behind the cross. The perpetrator of the suffering of Jesus and of His violent death and of His resurrection is no one less than God the Father. Certainly it was a plan agreed upon together. The Father didn't do this to the Son. We learned from other passages that the Son willingly is going to lay down His life. But nevertheless, ultimately, the initiator of this amazing death is none other than God. That's why we read in Isaiah 53, it pleased the Lord to crush Him. He's the One who initiated this plan.

But then there are human people involved as well, human beings the facilitators of this. He'll be delivered over to 'the chief priests and the scribes.' The chief priests, was simply the description of the current high priests, along with the former ones, and the leaders of each of the 24 courses of priests in Israel at the time. They were the aristocracy. They were Israel's most influential families. They were the political blue bloods and they were mostly Sadducees. The scribes described here were the interpreters, the teachers, the copiers of the Law. And they were mostly Pharisees. Together, they were the Jewish leaders of the first century. They were the Jewish Sanhedrin. And notice what they will do. He says, 'And they will condemn Him to death.' It's impossible to overemphasize what Jesus just said. In fact, what He has just said is that the spiritual and political leaders of the nation of Israel will reject their Messiah. There will be a formal trial at which He will be rejected. That's what He's prophesying. Ironically, they had already decided to kill Him. You remember, back in John 11:53 they'd agreed together to kill Him? That was weeks before. And now they're going to follow up on that decision by finding Him guilty of some crime that deserves death, so that they can do what they have chosen to do. They're the facilitators.

And then there're the executioners. Once they have formally found Jesus guilty of a crime deserving of the death penalty, they will do the unthinkable. Look at verse 33. "They will deliver Him to the Gentiles." Israel will betray her Messiah to the Gentiles. By the way, don't miss the fact here in this prophecy that all of humanity is indicted in the death of Jesus Christ. The Jews were involved, and the Gentiles were involved. There is nobody else. That's all of humanity. In first century Jerusalem, there was only one thing that 'Gentiles' could mean. It was the Romans, because the Roman governor, in this case Pontius Pilate, was the only one with the authority to carry out the death penalty in Israel. And so they would hand Jesus over, having condemned Him, to the Roman authorities. And Pilate would do what with Him? Look at verse 33, and "they" that is, the Gentiles, the Romans, "will mock Him." Luke adds here; by the way, mistreat Him, a general word. Verse 33, "and spit upon Him, and scourge Him and kill Him." Even how is involved here. If it was going to be the Romans killing Him, Jesus is saying its clear the means that they would use. The Romans who were reading Mark's gospel, to whom it was written, would immediately have known that. But Matthew makes it clear that Jesus told the twelve exactly how it was the Gentiles were going to kill Him. In Matthew chapter 20 and verse 19, it says they will "crucify Him." That's what Jesus said on this same occasion as recorded in Matthew's gospel. So that's His prophecy. Amazing, amazing detail. Remember folks, this is still a week before this happens, before it unfolds.

He also prophesies regarding His resurrection. Notice, He tells us when. Verse 33 "And three days later." Now, let me just comment on that expression. Some people trip over the expression that Jesus will be three days and three nights in the earth, or here, "three days later." Those expressions could lead you to conclude that three full days had to pass after His death before His resurrection. If so, we know He was raised on the first day of the week, Sunday, so that would mean Jesus had to have been crucified on Wednesday to have been raised on the first day of the week. But we know that didn't happen. And in many other cases, both Matthew and Luke are very explicit. They say, "on the third day." Now that's different, because that's an ordinal number. First, second, third—those are ordinal numbers. And whenever you use an ordinal number, the sense is always the same. If I say I'm going to sit in the third chair, it never means skip three chairs and sit in the fourth chair. It always means sit in chair number three. So when Jesus says He will rise on the third day, as He does in both Matthew and Luke, it means that He will be in the grave on day one, He'll be put in the grave on day one, He'll be in the grave on day two, and He'll arise sometime during day number three. That makes, as we will argue, a Friday crucifixion work and, of course, a Sunday resurrection. By the way, if you want to study this more, listen to the overview I did on the New Testament in six messages, and particularly the message on the Passion Week. That's when His resurrection will occur. After three days or on the third day He will raise, He will be raised, He will rise.

Notice, what. Verse 33 says, "He will rise again." The Son of Man is Jesus' favorite name for Himself. He says the Son of Man will be killed, in other words, He's going to really truly die. And explicitly, He's going to die by means of crucifixion. He will experience exactly what we mean when we speak of the death of any other human being. You understand that? Jesus died just like the people you have known in your life have died. In every sense of that word death, that's what He experienced. And then out of a state of death, He will rise to life again. That's what He's prophesying here. How is this going to happen? Well, Mark and Luke say, "I will rise." That implies He has the power in Himself, which, by the way, He said He did. Matthew says, "He will be raised up." That implies, specifically, the Father will raise Jesus from the dead, which we're also told He did. All the Trinity involved in this amazing act. What an amazing prophecy.

So, what about the reaction? What's the reaction to this prophecy? How did the twelve respond to this private conversation on the road to Jericho, ultimately to Jerusalem? Well, we're not told here in Mark, but Luke tells us. Luke 18:34. This same story there, says, "But the disciples understood none of these things, and the meaning of this statement was hidden from them, and they did not comprehend the things that were said." Now, when I read that, the obvious question is how? How could the disciples not comprehend the things He said? Were they just stupid? No. Notice what Luke writes. "The meaning of this statement was hidden from them." In fact, back in Mark 9, as well as over in Luke 9, we learn that God hid it from them. The full meaning was hidden from them by God. How? How did God conceal from them what's obvious in the words that were spoken? Through their own personal desires and expectations. Have you ever totally misinterpreted something because you heard what you wanted to hear? That's exactly what happens here.

Look at Luke 19, Luke 19 and specifically verse 11. Here they are in Jericho. We're right in the middle of the story of Zaccheus. And verse 11 says so this would be then either later that same day or early the next morning, "While they were listening to these things, Jesus went on to tell a parable, because He was near Jerusalem," now watch this "and they" that is, the disciples "supposed that the kingdom of God was going to appear immediately." They had their own ideas of what Jesus had come to do, of the kingdom He'd come to establish. It was going to be political. They knew it. He was going to displace the Romans. And so when they heard Jesus describing His death and resurrection, they heard it through their expectations and God used that so that their minds were clouded. Because of their own selfish desires, they heard that the physical kingdom Jesus had promised would come some day is going to come immediately. By the way, that may have been what motivated back in Mark, the very next conversation when James and John and their mother come to ask for prominent places in the kingdom. They thought it was coming right away. We can only guess how the disciples interpreted Jesus' words with that grid, with that set of blinders on. Perhaps they thought He was just describing in figurative language some severe struggle between Himself and the leaders of the nation. We really can't be sure. But regardless, they didn't get it.

That's the prophecy. That's the reaction. So why does Jesus do this? Why does Jesus, a year before, six months before, and again a week before His death make this prophecy, and here more detailed than He ever has before? When I say purpose, really it's more accurate to speak of the purposes plural, behind the prophecy, because Scripture seems to identify several purposes or reasons for Jesus making this prophecy before the events actually unfold. Why did Jesus make these clear prophecies, and why are they recorded by Mark and the other gospels for us? What are we supposed to learn here? Let's consider the various purposes.

Number one. This prophecy is really an apologetic for Jesus' claims. From the beginning of His ministry, Jesus staked everything He did and everything He taught on His eventual death and resurrection. Those two great events, His death and His resurrection, were in a very real sense the foundation of His whole life and ministry. Turn back to John chapter 2, John chapter 2. You remember the cleansing of the temple. This was Jesus' first Passover. Now some three-and-a-half years, or three years actually, exactly three years before, verse 13 says, "The Passover of the Jews was near, Jesus went up to Jerusalem." And you'll remember the story. He found there that the leaders of the nation had turned what was supposed to be a house of prayer into a den of robbers. They were finding every opportunity to extort money from these poor people coming to offer sacrifices to God. And He just cleans it out. Verse 18, "The Jews then said to Him," What are You doing? Who do you think You are? "What sign do You show us as Your authority for doing these things?" What You do meaning coming in here and passing judgment on our worship? What do You mean coming in here and throwing these people out? What do You mean saying this is a den of robbers, a house of thieves? By what authority do you do this? In other words, what is the basis, what is the apologetic for Your authority to accomplish all of this?

And notice what He says in verse 19. "Jesus answered them," here it is, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." Now, the Jews didn't understand. Verse 20, they "said, It took forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?" They thought He was talking about the actual, physical temple that Herod had built there. Verse 21, John says, "But He was speaking of the temple of His body." You see what's going on? Jesus is saying, you want to know My authority for everything I do and everything I teach? Here it is, My death and My resurrection. If I don't die as I've said I will die, and if I am not raised from the dead on the third day as I say I'll be raised from the dead, then don't believe anything I've done; don't believe anything I've taught. Isn't that what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15? If Christ is not raised, what? Go eat and drink and have a party, for tomorrow we die. And it doesn't matter. The Christian faith doesn't matter at all if the body of Jesus Christ is somewhere still in a tomb in the Judean hillside. Jesus Himself said that.

By the way, His enemies eventually got it. In Matthew 27, you remember after His burial? The Jewish leaders, the religious leaders come to Pilate in Matthew 27:63. And they say, "Sir, we remember that when He was still alive that deceiver" speaking of Jesus, "said, "After three days I'm going to rise again." And you remember they asked that a guard be put there and the tomb be sealed, and they made all these elaborate provisions. And they only proved the resurrection. It's an apologetic.

Now we find all of this prophecy of Jesus so familiar that we miss the impact of it. What if I told you this evening that three and a half years from now I would be killed? And then a year before it happens I told you again. And then a week before my death, I told you when and where and how and by whom I would die. And then imagine if it all happened that way, you'd say, there's no way. But then what if I told you that on the third day I would rise from the dead, and I did? That is exactly what happened with Jesus Christ. In the Old Testament when a prophet predicted that something bad was going happen before it happened it was an apologetic for God, so that people didn't think God had lost control or lost power. And here, Jesus is saying, it's going to happen, it's going to happen, it's going to happen. So that when it happens, you know it wasn't that God was not in control anymore, that He'd lost power to do it. It was actually in perfect keeping with His plan.

There's a second reason or purpose behind this prophecy, and that is as a focus on the priority of Jesus' life. Jesus' death and resurrection were, after all, the reason He came. So you would expect them to play a prominent role in the record of His life. This is what Mark and all the other gospels are building toward. You realize that? The life of Jesus isn't really the story of the gospels. It's His death and His resurrection. For example, take Mark. The first 30 years of Jesus' life, guess how many verses Mark wrote? Zero. None. Nada. Then you have His three and a half year ministry. On that he wrote ten chapters, chapters 1 through 10. But on the Passion Week of our Lord, starting in chapter 11 through chapter 16, he wrote six chapters on one week. Why? Because that is the point, that's why He came, the Lord Himself said, I came to die. I came to give My life as a ransom in the place of sinners, He said. It's the point. Listen, for those of us who are Christians, His death and resurrection should be absolutely central in our faith and in our thoughts and in our worship and as we learned this morning in our church. That's the point. His death and resurrection were what it was really all about.

Number three. Another purpose for this prophecy is as a means to strengthen the faith of the twelve and, of course, through them our faith as well. Although the disciples didn't get it before these events occurred, after they happened they remembered. They remembered. And when they remembered, it only served to confirm the truth of all that they had seen and observed in the life of Christ. I skipped a verse back in John 2. I skipped the last verse in that story when He says, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." It ends like this. "So when He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He said this; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken." It confirmed their faith. It strengthened their faith. And that's what it's supposed to do for us as well. Listen, Jesus was not some hapless victim caught up in the political workings of the Roman and Jewish machine. He was completely in charge. He knew what was coming. He told His disciples down to the smallest detail that He would be spit upon, that He would be scourged, that He would be crucified. He was completely in control of everything. Your faith doesn't rest in some hapless, Jewish victim of the Roman political machine. It rests on a sovereign Lord who knew what was coming and said it was coming.

There's another purpose this serves. It serves as evidence that His death was sovereignly determined and absolutely intentional. Listen to Luke 18:31. This is, by the way, in the same passage, the same story we're reading here in Mark. So it's at the same time. This is what Jesus said to His disciples when He pulled them aside. "He took the twelve aside and He said to them, "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and" watch this "all things which are written through the prophets about the Son of Man will be accomplished." I want you to know it's all unfolding just like the Old Testament said it would. Just like it's written of Me. This is not a surprise. It's not a shock. It's all intentional. Nothing was going to happen to Jesus but what the Scripture had promised, and what He Himself is now prophesying.

There's one other purpose of this prophecy for those of us who are in Christ. If you are here tonight and you have repented of your sin, there's come a point in your life when you've acknowledged that you were born and have lived as rebel against God, and you have been willing to turn from that sin and embrace Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, to receive the forgiveness that His death purchased, if that's happened to you, then this prophecy, this story that we've looked at tonight is a reminder of Jesus' love for you and His love for me.

Remember, Jesus knew who would believe. And He knew that He was on the road to Jerusalem to be betrayed by one of His own, to be mocked, to be mistreated, to be spit upon, to be scourged, and then to die the horrible death of crucifixion. And He knew that He was going to do that in the place of everyone who would ever believe, although we were the ones who deserved it. And knowing all of that, Jesus was not only willing, He was eager. It's true that in the garden Jesus didn't want the separation from the Father, and He prayed, 'Let this cup pass from Me.' But it's equally clear that He was not hesitant one bit or halting in the carrying out of the eternal plan that He and the Father and the Spirit had agreed upon in eternity past. He walked out in front of the disciples the whole road to Jerusalem, with the crowd behind Him. He was eager to give His life. As He Himself said in John 10, "I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep, I lay down" willingly, is the idea, "My life for the sheep." Why? Well, we're going to discover that later in Mark 10. In Mark 10, the reason He has to die becomes very clear. Look at it, Mark 10, over in verse 45. "The Son of Man" that's His favorite name for Himself. "did not come to be served, but to serve, and" watch this, I came, He says, "to give My life as a ransom" in the place of." That word "for" is a Greek word that means, in the place of. To give My life a ransom in the place of many as their substitute. That's why I came. And He was eager to do it. He was eager to lay down His life in the place of every sinner who will repent and believe in Him. What a demonstration of His love.

William Hendriksen writes, "It would be inexcusable to close the treatment of this precious passage without showing what it implies with the respect to the majesty of Christ's love. In the human consciousness of our Lord, the feel of the approaching horror was little by little becoming more real. Even now, the horror must have been very real and very terrifying. The Man of Sorrows sees it coming toward Him. He already senses something of the mockery and the pain and the shame which like an avalanche threatens to overwhelm Him. Yet He does not retreat or even stand still. With unflinching determination He walks right into it, for He knows that this is necessary in order that His people may be saved." Hendriksen closes the quote with the verse from John 13:1. "Having loved His own, He loved them to the uttermost."

If you're here tonight and you've never trusted in Christ, you need to understand that from the biblical perspective, from God's perspective, what He clearly says in His Word. He made you. He has every right to tell you what to do. He's put His Law on your heart so that you will understand what you ought to do. And your conscience has accused you of wrong again and again and again. And yet you and I have chosen to go our own way. We've chosen to do our own thing. We are rebels against God our Creator. He's given us His Word; we've ignored that or not obeyed it.

But God is such a God of love that He has reached out to us in Christ. He will not always do that. He's promised us the day is coming, according to Romans, when He will pour out His anger. There's a day coming when every individual who is a rebel against God will die and will stand before God, alone, with no excuses offered and none received. And if you refuse to embrace His Son, you will know God's wrath. That's what the Bible teaches, eternal judgment. But God is a God of love, and He has in His Son expressed that love. And He pleads with you. Paul put it this way. That God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, and causing me, Paul says, to plead with people, be reconciled to God. That's God's plea to you. Be reconciled to Me. Be willing to lay down your rebellion and embrace submission to Me and My Son the Lord Jesus Christ. If you will turn from your sin and put your faith in Jesus Christ as your Lord, as your Master, you'll know the forgiveness He purchased, you'll know the love that you see reflected in this passage.

If you're here tonight and you're a believer already, understand Jesus intentionally explained to these 12 witnesses what was going to happen, what was going to happen to Him in just a week's time, in order to strengthen their faith and our faith in Him. He was in complete control, and He was doing it all motivated solely because He loved you. And He knew that to redeem you there was only one way, and that was through the cross. He had you in mind as He set His face to Jerusalem. Let's pray together.

Father, we are amazed at such love. Lord, we acknowledge our sin. We acknowledge that we deserve only Your judgment and wrath. You are our rightful king. You've given us everything. You've given us life and blessing upon blessing in this life, and yet we've used it all for ourselves. Father, we deserve Your eternal judgment, and yet in love You extended grace to us in Christ. We thank You, O God, for rescuing us from what we had become, from what we had made ourselves to be. Father, help us to love Jesus Christ all the more for the love we see Him displaying. Remind us of how personal His love was, that having loved His own, He loved them to the uttermost, to the nth degree, to the maximum. And not as a group, O God, but help us to realize, individual by individual, as He set His face that day to Jerusalem. Father, I pray for the person here tonight who doesn't know Christ. Lord, may this be the day. Before he or she puts their head on their pillow tonight, may they repent of their sins and believe in Jesus Christ, cry out for Your forgiveness, for You to receive them, for You to have mercy on them who have rebelled against You. We pray that You would accomplish this for the glory of Your Son that His great sacrifice might have its prize. We pray in Jesus name, Amen.