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Tell you what…
If you want to see up close and oh-so-personal the heart of Jesus, look no further than this PODCAST’S passage here in Mark 9.
You are about to see a side of Jesus that is both breathtaking to behold, and irresistible to consider. A high definition video of Jesus that says so much even though it emerges from one very short story.
Perhaps the best place to begin our discussion is here: I love the disciples. I absolutely love the disciples. More to the point, I love how the Gospel writers consistently give to us a brutally honest, utterly unvarnished series of snapshots of exactly who these guys were. And how these guys thought and acted and reacted to each and every situation in which they found themselves.
I love them because to read their stories, to get into their minds and hearts, to understand struggles of their souls, all of that floods my own soul with copious amounts of hope.
The hope that if Jesus could love men such as these (and He did!), He can love me too; He can love you too.
Which is precisely the point of this week’s podcast.
If ever the disciples deserved a stinging rebuke, here it is, in bold font and living color. Yet, amazingly, no rebuke was given. Even though I know that the disciples’ words, spoken behind Jesus’ back, must have hurt Him enormously. Even though their discussion unveiled the darkest sides of their souls, exposing a monster that dwells within each of our hearts.
A monster which we must deliberately and regularly hold in check, lest he break free and wreak havoc in our lives, and in the lives of those around us. The monster to which I refer?
We begin to learn about it in Mark 9:33
33 Then He came to Capernaum. And when He was in the house He asked them, “What was it you disputed among yourselves on the road?”
The monster is pride. Personal pride.
You can’t understand it. And, if you think you can, then you’re just being overly proud.
In fact, if you take the “fallenness” of mankind and describe the darkest part of us all, your description would boil down to pride.
It is mentioned no less than 156 times in the Bible.
Even the wisest man who ever lived, Solomon, struggled mightily with pride. He wrote extensively about it in Proverbs, but unfortunately it seems as though he didn’t heed his own proverbs’ warnings.
Pride precedes destruction,
An arrogant spirit gives way to a nasty fall. (Proverbs 16:18)
Boy, how true that is!
This is the same kind of personal pride that overcame Satan, and to this day Satan uses to try to deceive us. It’s a weapon that was unleashed against the disciples in Mark 9 in an attempt to derail God’s plan for God’s Son.
It’s no surprise that the disciples fell victim to pride – it’s common for all of humankind. But, the timing of it is amazing.
Now, keep in mind that the polar opposite of pride is humility, as Paul wrote in Philippians 2:3,
3 Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; 4 do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. 5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus
Before Lucifer came along, there was no pride in the world. After he came, it has never left our world, and the world is forever negatively changed due to it. Lucifer was one of the most beautiful of all of the angels that God created. He was, and is, a breathtakingly beautiful creature. The Apostle Paul even described him as one who “appears as an angel of light, radiant in his beauty”.
There came a point in time – the Bible is not clear when exactly, except to say that it happened before Genesis 1:1 – that God created thousands upon thousands, myriads upon myriads, an unknown to man total of angels. Each one created to sing God’s praise and to minister to and protect mankind.
14 Angels are merely spirits sent to serve people who are going to be saved. (Hebrews 1:14)
So, as glorious and powerful as angels are, they have significant limitations. They were created by God, so therefore they are not gods. For instance, God is the eternal, uncreated Creator, without a beginning nor an end; yet angels were created and thus are finite. God is infinite – always everywhere at all times; but angels can only be at one place at one time. They can move really fast, but they are localized by their nature. (Therefore, so is Satan). God is omniscient – knowing everything; but angels only know what God has revealed to them and what they can observe. That’s it. (Therefore, Satan can’t read minds and is limited just as much as every other angel). Most important of all, God is omnipotent, or all-powerful with no limits to His power; but the angels are quite limited. There is no reference to an “Almighty Satan” in the Bible, but the Almighty God is mentioned all throughout Scripture. Not to suggest that the angels are without power. I wouldn’t want to tangle with any of them on my own. But it is important to know that Satan’s power is severely limited.
humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. (James 4:7)
He can be resisted, and in fact, we can even put him to flight!
So, let’s look closer at the one whose name means “Shining One” or “Morning Star” or “Son of the Dawn”… Lucifer. Going by his name, you can deduce that he was created primarily as a reflector of God’s glory. Which makes what he did to God that much more heinous.
The Bible explains clearly that there are two distinct types of angels. There are holy angels, which is what Satan once was; and there are evil angels, also known as unclean spirits, demonic spirits, or “the devil and his angels”. So there is no doubt that there are angels who follow orders given by God and now there are fallen angels who follow the lead of Lucifer, now known as Satan (among many other names).
Perhaps the best description of Lucifer, before he fell, is found in Ezekiel 28:
“You were the model of perfection,
full of wisdom and exquisite in beauty.
13 You were in Eden,
the garden of God.
Your clothing was adorned with every precious stone[
red carnelian, pale-green peridot, white moonstone,
blue-green beryl, onyx, green jasper,
blue lapis lazuli, turquoise, and emerald—
all beautifully crafted for you
and set in the finest gold.
They were given to you
on the day you were created.
14 I ordained and anointed you
as the mighty angelic guardian.
You had access to the holy mountain of God
and walked among the stones of fire.
15 “You were blameless in all you did
from the day you were created
until the day evil was found in you.
16 Your rich commerce led you to violence,
and you sinned.
So I banished you in disgrace
from the mountain of God.
I expelled you, O mighty guardian,
from your place among the stones of fire.
17 Your heart was filled with pride
because of all your beauty.
Your wisdom was corrupted
by your love of splendor.
So I threw you to the ground
and exposed you to the curious gaze of kings.
So, what did Lucifer do to throw all of God’s giftings and positionings away and become Satan? What caused his heart to become proud? We read about what he did in Isaiah 14:13-14
13 You said in your heart,
“I will ascend to the heavens;
I will raise my throne
above the stars of God;
I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly,
on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon.
14 I will ascend above the tops of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.”
In other words, Lucifer made plans to usurp God, evict Him from heaven and become worshipped by all. And sadly, at some point in time, the devil
Revelation 13:8 tells us,
8 All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast
The beast – that Satan possessed man who will unite the world in worship of himself as god. You think it’s bad now… you ain’t seen nothing yet! Satan will get his wish of taking over as the king of the universe, but only for a little while… a very little while.
And it all began, in the words of Ezekiel, when his heart became proud.
That’s the baseline of his entire strategy, for himself, for the demons who followed him, and for all of mankind who have followed him: pride. To be like God. And when you think about it, that is the essence of the spiritual warfare that each and every one of us are engaged in each and every day. It’s like a tug-of-war between God’s will and our will.
Yet, so much of man’s strife could be solved by simply keeping in mind one thing: There is a God… and you are not Him. It’s not that complicated.
But Jesus is.
When you take Isaiah 14 and put it side-by-side with Philippians 2, it’s amazing to see the comparisons that the authors have penned. In Isaiah, we read how Satan was continually boasting “I will… I will… I will…” Yet, as Paul wrote in his letter to the Philippians, we see a very different picture when it comes to Jesus Christ:
5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, He made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
He humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
What a contrast!
Who do you want to follow? Paul paints the ultimate picture of humility for our benefit, especially in light of what he had just previously wrote (if only the disciples had the opportunity to hear these words, then the discussion back in Mark 9 would have been drastically different):
So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, 2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. (Philippians 2:1-4)
Yet, sadly, this wasn’t the mindset of the disciples in Mark 9:
33 After they arrived at Capernaum and settled in the house, Jesus asked his disciples,“What were you discussing out on the road?” 34 But they didn’t answer, because they had been arguing about which of them was the greatest.
It’s hard for me to even imagine how, just after Jesus broke the news to them that he was about to be betrayed and killed, these guys simply brush that aside and all the way through Galilee to Capernaum (which is about a three-day walk), they argue about which of them is the greatest!
All I can say is that this gives me such hope for you and me! Think about it… when you start to get down on yourself, thinking that your priorities and mindset is nowhere where God wants it to be, you’re no different than Jesus’ chosen twelve.
And yet, as they argued for three days, Jesus didn’t lose His temper. He didn’t wave a judgmental finger in their faces. He didn’t quote Scriptures about humility versus pride.
Instead, Jesus saw their raw ambition, pride, and desire for personal recognition… He saw the pride festering in their souls, and…
35 He sat down and summoned the Twelve. “So you want first place? Then take the last place. Be the servant of all.”
36-37 He put a child in the middle of the room. Then, cradling the little one in his arms, he said, “Whoever embraces one of these children as I do embraces me, and far more than me—God who sent me.” (Mark 9:35-37)
It’s when we choose to be humble before God, that’s when we will be able to truly relax and find peace in His embrace.
When we are prideful – jockeying for position, even within the ranks of Christians – we miss Jesus’ point by a mile. Yet, He still pursues us and is patient with us, just as He was to His disciples.