Isaiah 53

¹ Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?  ² He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground.  He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.  ³ He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.  Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

⁴ Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.  ⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.  ⁶ We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

⁷ He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.  ⁸ By oppression and judgment he was taken away.  And who can speak of his descendants?  For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken.  ⁹ He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.

¹⁰ Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.  ¹¹ After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.  ¹² Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors.  For he bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors.

 

This is the first Lenten service for this year.  I hope through this series I am able to help you understand all of the interactions between Jesus and the disciples, that it may create a desire to look deeper in to all the interactions during Holy Week and how the meaning of it relates in your life.   ~D. Moore

 

Mark 10:32-45 (NIV)

³² They were on their way up to Jerusalem, with Jesus leading the way, and the disciples were astonished, while those who followed were afraid.  Again he took the Twelve aside and told them what was going to happen to him.  ³³ “We are going up to Jerusalem,” he said, “and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and teachers of the law.  They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles, ³⁴ who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him.  Three days later he will rise.”

³⁵ Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him.  “Teacher,” they said, “we want you to do for us whatever we ask.”

³⁶ “What do you want me to do for you?” he asked.

³⁷ They replied, “Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.”

³⁸ “You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said.  “Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?”

³⁹ “We can,” they answered.

Jesus said to them, “You will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with, ⁴⁰ but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant.  These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared.”

⁴¹ When the ten heard about this, they became indignant with James and John.  ⁴² Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them.  ⁴³ Not so with you.  Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, ⁴⁴ and whoever wants to be first must be salve of all.  ⁴⁵ For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

 

The book of Mark is thought that the themes and the narrative are the account of Peter’s experience during the time before and after the disciples experience between death and resurrection written by Mark.                                                            ~D. Moore

 

Why Jesus came.  He died to become a sacrifice.  This is the key element that marks Jesus’ life as very different than all other founders of religions.                               ~D. Moore

 

This sacrifice is pivotal for people.  Many people struggle too much with the Cross, because they find it offensive that someone or something would have to die for them.  They either aren’t that bad, or God must not be very nice to require a sacrifice.  The other position that people take on the Cross is that they think about it too little.  They believe it but don’t change or shape their lives.                     ~D. Moore

 

Jesus came to die, to save, to give His life as a sacrificed ransom for many.  Jesus came to be a substantiary sacrifice.  That means He went to the Cross instead of you, or me.  The Greek word is about buying the freedom of a slave or a prisoner.                                                                                           ~D. Moore

 

We are talking about a sort of cosmic enslavement to sins, the payment for our freedom must also be cosmic.                                                                                                                  ~D. Moore

 

Jesus is saying He is going to go through an overwhelming experience of taking on Himself the judgement of God.  That is the payment that the ransom that we can’t pay, which will be our freedom.                        ~D. Moore

 

Love is not possible without sacrifice, and sacrifice is not possible without love.                                                                                                         ~Karen Kingsbury

 

Bonhoeffer rightly said that forgiveness is always a form of suffering.  This is because forgiveness is absorbing the debt.  It is a substitutionary sacrifice.                               ~D. Moore

 

Thus the call to follow Christ always means a call to share the work of forgiving men their sins.  Forgiveness is the Christlike suffering which it is the Christian’s duty to bear.                                                             ~Dietrich Bonhoeffer

 

God knows us better than we know ourselves, know that we (are/were) stuck in our sins, no real way to even out the scales.                           ~D. Moore

 

Evil has to be dealt with justly.  Our God is a God who is just.          ~D. Moore

 

God’s solution to satisfying His justice and His love is the Cross.     ~D. Moore

 

The big picture given to us by Jesus through Peter and Mark is that humanity is under the impression that great humans are great because they are powerful and full of pride.                                                                      ~D. Moore

 

What Jesus shows us through the Cross is that human greatness isn’t that at all, but rather humility and service.                                                                                                                ~D. Moore

 

In this passage, this is the 3^rd time Jesus has talked to the disciples about the coming events and His death, they still don’t get the message.       ~D. Moore

 

We understand the Cross, we know what happened, and yet we look like and act like everyone else?                                                                           ~D. Moore

 

Theme:  In this Lenten series, I want everyone in our church to understand the Cross, take the meaning into our heart and through this series we will look and act different then the rest of the world.  ~DM

 

Humility and service is what the Cross should reflect within our lives.  To follow me means serving others, not forcing others to serve you.   ~D. Moore

 

It is inherently in this section of Mark it seems God’s revelation is hidden and sometimes reversed and surprising.  We see these following Jesus fail repeatedly to understand God’s will.                                                         ~D. Moore

 

How do we bless the place we’ve been sent, or landed?  We are to love it, pray for your city.  Sacrificing, loving the place we live so people who don’t believe the same things that we do can’t imagine the city without us.                                             ~D. Moore

 

Our infinite love will come because people will ask our opinion.  We will be trusted because people will know we are not out for ourselves but for them and the rest of the city.  Sacrificial love lasts forever, it changes lives.                                               ~D. Moore

 

Jeremiah 29:7  And seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray to the Lord for it; for in its peace you will have peace.

 

Jesus substituted Himself for me and you on the Cross, He paid the penalty for my (our) sins, He has proven His love to me in my insecure heart, and that I was worth the pain and the loss on the Cross, I have everything I need in Christ.             ~D. Moore

 

We do good deeds not to earn anything, but to please God.  We bless others in order to please our Lord and Savior.                                                                                                         ~D. Moore

 

Genesis 12:2-3  “I will bless you… and you will be a blessing… And all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

 

Help me Lord, be a person who brings smiles to Your face, when I obediently serve others because I have been so well served by You.  Think about the Cross and what Christ has done for you.  God bless.