Following The Man of Sorrows – part 2

Aug 9, 2026

061 Following The Man of Sorrows – part 2

Mark 10:32-45 (32-34)

August 9, 2026

THIS MORNING we took a quick look at verses 32-24 of this passage.

Because it was our “Back to School” commissioning service

And an opportunity to partake in the Lord’s Supper

Our focus was on Jesus’ determination and our requirement to follow.

We, like the 12, were “amazed”

· That He knew what was coming and yet was leading the way.

We also, like the 12, may be a little “fearful”

· As we begin to understand what the call to follow requires.

And yet, as Jesus said, “We are going…”

WE ALSO THIS MORNING,

Took a quick look at this third announcement of Jesus regarding His coming death.

We skimmed over the top of it this morning.

Tonight I want us to return and look at this event as a whole

And in the context of the book of Mark.

SO AGAIN:

We’ve said it before, but we know the “headwaters” passage here.

· Mark 8:31-38 is the headwaters from which the rest of the book of Mark flows.

Mark 8:31-38 “And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. And He was stating the matter plainly. And Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. But turning around and seeing His disciples, He rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind Me, Satan; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.” And He summoned the crowd with His disciples, and said to them, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? “For what will a man give in exchange for his soul? “For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”

And reading that again, it just becomes more obvious that

Every story Mark shares with us is reinforcing that revealed truth.

Every event, every conversation, every encounter

Has really reinforced that simple truth which Jesus revealed there.

FOR EXAMPLE:

(9:1-8) We saw the Transfiguration

· We were reminded that while Jesus is in fact the glorious Messiah,

· However, the objective was not to presently reign in glory.

· He was going to suffer.

(9:9-13) – Jesus made that clear on His way down the mountain.

· He reminded Peter, James, and John that the Son of Man would suffer at the hands of the religious elite.

(9:14-29) – showed us a story of a father whose son had a demon that even the other 9 disciples could not cast out,

· We saw how the crowd was quickly turning on Jesus.

· It was a reminder that Jesus would be rejected by this fickle crowd.

(9:30-50) – Brought an argument of the disciples about which was the greatest

· We realized that they still aren’t getting it.

· They are just as ambitious as they ever were

· They had yet to learn the necessity of dying to self and losing their life.

(10:1-12) – Saw more rejection

· Jesus went to Perea and was confronted by the Pharisees regarding divorce.

(10:13-16) –Another confrontation of the disciple’s arrogance and ambition

· Jesus revealed that the kingdom belonged to the least; those who entered like children.

(10:17-22) – Brought us the R.Y.R.

· Exactly the opposite of the child Jesus was accepting.

· He was rich, successful, law-abiding, and ultimately lost.

· Love for the world will not lead you to the kingdom.

(10:23-31) – Peter questioned his own leaving everything for Christ.

· Gave us another reminder that losing this life for Christ is totally worth it

· Jesus will repay it all both in this life and the next.

All of those lessons are really just illustrating and reiterating

What Jesus said back in Caesarea Philippi:

That He was suffering and we must follow

Because those who lose their lives are the ones who will gain it.

MARK IS DRIVING THAT POINT HOME.

TONIGHT THE POINT CONTINUES as we again see familiar themes.

1. Jesus is again speaking about His coming suffering, death, and resurrection.

2. The disciples are still filled with ambition.

3. Jesus is still calling for self-denial in order to follow Him.

There is a sense in which it is a broken record.

It is the same truths revealed over and over and over again.

Perhaps that is because we, like the 12, can be slow to listen.

Even in Christianity today, very little is mentioned

Regarding following Christ into suffering.

Everything today is about blessing and prosperity,

Even if you’re not in the prosperity gospel camp,

The focus still often immediately skips to the joys of heaven.

We tend to the think that the natural suffering of living in a fallen world

Is all the suffering we are required to embrace.

And if we’re honest,

We even try to get God to remove that suffering from our lives.

But the natural suffering of living in a fallen world

IS NOT what Jesus was calling the 12 to embrace.

Every man will embrace that whether he wants to or not.

The suffering Christ was calling us to embrace

Is the suffering that accompanies following Him in this fallen world.

We have noticed the qualifiers that Jesus gave:

Mark 8:35 “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.”

· It’s not just losing your life that is required, but losing your life “for My sake and the gospel’s”

Again:

Mark 10:29 “Jesus said, “Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms, for My sake and for the gospel’s sake,”

· Again, it is leaving this world “for My sake and for the gospel’s sake”.

When Daniel asked what text to preach last week while I was gone,

That’s why I gave him 1 Peter 2.

1 Peter 2:21 “For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps,”

It is suffering for sure, but it is entering into Christ’s suffering.

· It is suffering for Christ.

· It is suffering like Christ.

· It is suffering because of Christ.

I love the way Daniel made sure

You understood the personal nature of that.

He pointed out to you all the uses of the word “you” in that text.

· “you have been called”

· “Christ also suffered for you”

· “Leaving you an example”

· “for you to follow”

Peter didn’t understand that in Mark 10,

But he understood it by the time he penned his epistle.

Christ has come to suffer and He has called us to follow Him.

The world has not changed.

Sin has not changed.

Christ has not changed.

But the church has increasingly sought to act like

The cost of following Jesus in this world has changed.

BUT IT HAS NOT.

Mark is helping us see that.

We need to be reminded that we are called to follow the “Man of Sorrows” into the world that caused Him grief.

· We are called to deny ourselves

· We are called to take up His cross

· We are called to follow Him

We are also called to courageously go into the world and not to dodge the suffering of Christ but to embrace it.

AND OUR TEXT AGAIN DRIVES THIS POINT HOME.

1. For Jesus first reiterates the suffering He will face.

2. Then He reveals that His disciples will drink the same cup.

AND WE AGAIN LEARN

Those who follow Christ should expect to be treated as Christ is treated.

SO TONIGHT let’s look at yet another conversation

In which Mark reiterates the same points of what it means to follow Jesus.

As we have commonly done,

We are going to examine it through the lens of the disciple’s failure.

Mark has been no stranger at revealing to us

The failures of the disciples to be true disciples.

There are 4 attitudes exhibited by the disciples here,

And I would just point out at the beginning that all of them are wrong.

#1 FEARFUL AMAZEMENT

Mark 10:32-34

We did cover this passage this morning,

So I don’t want to be overly redundant,

But as we consider the disciples here,

I want you to see why their response was wrong.

Their response is not the response of a genuine disciple.

· So again, Jesus is now leaving Perea

· And, to the shock of the disciples, He is headed toward Jerusalem.

· He is even leading the way as Mark says that He “was walking on ahead of them”.

And of the disciples we read two emotions.

“and they were amazed, and those who followed were fearful.”

As Jesus now set His gaze toward the city

Where He predicted suffering and death

The disciples are both “amazed” and “fearful”.

And as I submitted to you a moment ago,

Both of those of those responses are wrong.

Now, those responses are wrong, but they are not uncommon.

Unfortunately, they are not even uncommon for you or me.

Now I certainly get where there is an argument to be made

That everything Jesus does is amazing.

· After all we have entitled this entire study of Mark as “The Amazing Jesus”.

· He is amazing.

But we have talked about this word.

(thom-BAY-o) in the Greek.

It means “to stupefy or astonish”

The root word is defined as being “dumbfounded”

And look, we certainly understand that

There is much of what Jesus did which was absolutely unexpected, astonishing, and such that would leave us dumbfounded.

· Casting out demons

· Raising the dead

· Calming the sea

Absolutely! We would have had no words.

But Jesus is doing nothing miraculous here.

He is doing nothing supernatural here.

WHAT IS HE DOING HERE?

He is merely obeying the plan of the Father

To go where He was meant to go.

“and they were amazed”

· Are they shocked that Jesus is actually doing what He said He would do?

· Are they dumbfounded that Jesus would obey even in the midst of suffering?

· Are they stupefied that Jesus was so committed to His calling?

It reminds me a little of the conversation Paul had before heading to Jerusalem.

Acts 21:10-14 “As we were staying there for some days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. And coming to us, he took Paul’s belt and bound his own feet and hands, and said, “This is what the Holy Spirit says: ‘In this way the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.’” When we had heard this, we as well as the local residents began begging him not to go up to Jerusalem. Then Paul answered, “What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound, but even to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.” And since he would not be persuaded, we fell silent, remarking, “The will of the Lord be done!”

· Paul was simply obeying the Lord and the church sought to discourage him from it.

· In that story it was Paul who was amazed or dumbfounded.

· “What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart?”

· Was this not the calling?

· Was this not the mission?

It is not a credit to the church

That we are so easily shocked

By those who are willing to obey God at the cost of suffering.

BUT OFTEN WE ARE.

· We don’t understand a young couple going to a hostile country.

· We don’t understand the willingness of someone to confront a hostile situation.

· We don’t understand the willingness of someone to reject cultural expectations.

We even have a word for such people.

We call them “FANATICAL”

I once heard a preacher ask, “Do you know the definition of a Christian fanatic? It’s anyone who is more obedient to Jesus than you are.”

The disciples had signed up to follow Jesus.

They have heard Him now a couple of times indicate that

It was God’s will for Him to go to Jerusalem and suffer and be killed.

But when He actually takes the exit for Jerusalem

They are shocked, stupefied, dumbfounded, and amazed.

BUT WHAT DID THEY EXPECT?

· That Jesus was a man of words only?

· Did they expect that Christianity would be only a surface religion?

· Did they expect a movement that didn’t require your whole life?

· Were they looking for something social and easy?

Many today are, and they are shocked when more is required.

This was the wrong response from the 12, and it is highlighted.

But in this first point, there are actually two wrong responses.

The other is that “those who followed were fearful.”

NOW AGAIN,

· We understand their fear.

· We get why they were afraid.

But just because their fear is common

Does not mean that it is appropriate.

Has Jesus not addressed this?

Matthew 10:24-31 “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a slave above his master. “It is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher, and the slave like his master. If they have called the head of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign the members of his household! “Therefore do not fear them, for there is nothing concealed that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. “What I tell you in the darkness, speak in the light; and what you hear whispered in your ear, proclaim upon the housetops. “Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. “Are not two sparrows sold for a cent? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. “But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. “So do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows.”

Fear is the opposite of faith and Jesus clearly commanded us not to do it.

Do not fear them.

· We are instead called to trust in the sovereign plan of God.

· We are instead called to trust in the providence of God.

· We are instead called to trust in the sufficient grace of God.

The church is not allowed to live in fear.

· We have a Savior who has overcome the world.

· We have a Savior who has overcome the grave.

· We have a God who has promised all things must work for our good.

· We have a Spirit who is a Spirit of power and love and discipline.

We are not allowed to walk in fear or to allow fear to dictate our decisions.

This again is a wrong response from the disciples.

· They reveal themselves here to be men totally in the flesh.

· They are shocked at genuine obedience.

· They are afraid to join Jesus in it.

AND I CAN’T HELP BUT THINK THAT

The church today needs to be likewise confronted for this.

I can’t help but acknowledge that I need to be confronted for this.

Obedience shouldn’t be shocking.

And fear should not be allowed to govern us.

This was the wrong response from the 12

And that is why Jesus again addresses it.

NOW,

· He DOES NOT directly rebuke them for their amazement or fear.

· He DOESN’T dress them down for their faulty emotions.

What He does do is blow right past it.

· He eliminates any chance that their flesh might win the day.

· There is zero chance that their fear is going to win out.

Hence the statement we focused on this morning, “we are going”

When I was a kid I was terrified of riding the Judge Roy Scream roller coaster at Six Flags. My dad wouldn’t address my cowardice or my emotional distress. He would just say, “You’re riding it. You’re riding it if no one else rides it.”

And he would always ride it with me, until I was no longer afraid to ride it.

This is what Jesus is doing here.

He does not give in to their fear for a second

And He refuses to allow them to give in either.

Their fear IS NOT authoritative.

Their fear IS sinful and it must be overcome.

SO…

(32b-34) “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.”

We saw this morning that there is much in that statement that is new,

But what we want to see first tonight is that

This statement is given in response to the disciple’s fear.

And that is quite interesting to us.

That is not at all how we would expect Jesus to calm their fears.

That is probably not how any of us would have done it.

When Jesus saw that the disciples were afraid to go to Jerusalem, we would expect Him to say something like, “Don’t be afraid, you’re not in danger, it’s only Me. I will protect you, you will be fine, God is in control, it will all be ok.”

Or some today would even lean towards being vaguely deceptive. You know they’d say, “I know what it looks like, but who knows, it might not even happen. There’s no sense in fearing what you don’t know will even happen.”

But that’s certainly not what Jesus does.

He sees that they are fearful

And what He says seems to only validate their fears.

WHY WOULD HE DO THAT?

Well for one: FEAR IS A SIN

· It is a lack of faith

· It is expressed doubt in God

· It must be overcome

Jesus doesn’t coddle it.

· He “began to tell them what WAS GOING TO happen to Him”

· He said, “Behold, we are going”

· Get over it. This is happening.

And then He became even more specific than He had previously been,

As we noted this morning.

“The Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and the scribes”

That word “delivered” is (par-ah-DID-o-my)

Matthew 10:4 “Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed Him.”

Matthew 10:21 “Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death.”

Matthew 24:9-10 “Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name. “At that time many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another.”

Matthew 26:23-24 “And He answered, “He who dipped his hand with Me in the bowl is the one who will betray Me. “The Son of Man is to go, just as it is written of Him; but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born.”

For the first time reveals that in Jerusalem He will be betrayed.

That is new.

Also new is that “they will condemn Him to death”

· Now, for the first time we see that this will not be a random murder, but an organized civil trial.

He’s going to stand before authorities, have false charges drummed up,

And ultimately be declared guilty.

We know all about all of those trials.

· The one by Anas in the courtyard

· The one by Caiaphas in the middle of the night

· The public one in the morning to solidify His guilt lawfully

And the purpose of all of those trials

Is so that they could deem Him worthy of death.

That third and final Jewish trial recorded by Luke:

Luke 22:66-71 “When it was day, the Council of elders of the people assembled, both chief priests and scribes, and they led Him away to their council chamber, saying, “If You are the Christ, tell us.” But He said to them, “If I tell you, you will not believe; and if I ask a question, you will not answer. “But from now on the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the power of God.” And they all said, “Are You the Son of God, then?” And He said to them, “Yes, I am.” Then they said, “What further need do we have of testimony? For we have heard it ourselves from His own mouth.”

He was condemned as a blasphemer.

And then Jesus gave another new piece of information.

They “will hand Him over to the Gentiles. They will mock Him and spit on Him, and scourge Him and kill Him,”

And welcome to the Roman circus trial after the chief priests handed Him over.

They gave Him to Pilate because they were forbidden to execute the death penalty.

· And we remember Pilate’s first trial.

· Then Herod’s mocking.

· Then Pilate’s second trial followed by scourging.

· Ultimately Pilate giving Him over to be crucified.

All of these are new details.

And again, we recognize that all of these new details

WERE GIVEN IN RESPONSE TO THE DISCIPLES FEAR.

And again we can’t help but wonder how that’s supposed to help?

If you’re taking your child to the doctor and they say, “I’m afraid of what they’ll do.”

You don’t say, “Well, they’re going to strip you down, put a gown on you, poke your arm with an IV, cut open your flesh, etc…”

You try to keep them from all the details

Because details don’t help when you are afraid.

But Jesus does exactly the opposite.

His disciples are amazed and afraid so He gives them even more details.

· Betrayal, Condemnation, Gentile mocking and execution.

HOW IS THIS SUPPOSED TO HELP?

ONLY IN THIS WAY:

Everything Jesus revealed was new to the book of Mark,

But it was not new to the O.T. Scriptures.

All of the things Jesus revealed

Were coming were straight out of the Old Testament.

Jesus wasn’t giving details to further frighten the disciples,

He was giving details to reveal that God was in total control.

This is going to happen just as God has ordained.

And we think of all those prophecies fulfilled on that day.

And not even all of them are mentioned here by Jesus.

For example, Jesus has yet to mention:

· His triumphal entry - prophesied in Zechariah 9:9

· The desertion of the 12 – prophesied in Zechariah 13:7

· Given vinegar to drink – prophesied in Psalm 69:21

· His side pierced – prophesied in Zechariah 12:10

· Buried in a rich man’s tomb – prophesied in Isaiah 53:9

There’s more that Jesus still hasn’t mentioned,

But let’s consider what He does mention.

BETRAYAL

This was the plan of God.

Psalms 55:12-14 “For it is not an enemy who reproaches me, Then I could bear it; Nor is it one who hates me who has exalted himself against me, Then I could hide myself from him. But it is you, a man my equal, My companion and my familiar friend; We who had sweet fellowship together Walked in the house of God in the throng.”

Psalms 109:1-8 “O God of my praise, Do not be silent! For they have opened the wicked and deceitful mouth against me; They have spoken against me with a lying tongue. They have also surrounded me with words of hatred, And fought against me without cause. In return for my love they act as my accusers; But I am in prayer. Thus they have repaid me evil for good And hatred for my love. Appoint a wicked man over him, And let an accuser stand at his right hand. When he is judged, let him come forth guilty, And let his prayer become sin. Let his days be few; Let another take his office.”

· Peter quotes that last verse in Acts 1:20 in reference to Judas.

We even know the price of the betrayal:

Zechariah 11:12-13 “I said to them, “If it is good in your sight, give me my wages; but if not, never mind!” So they weighed out thirty shekels of silver as my wages. Then the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the potter, that magnificent price at which I was valued by them.” So I took the thirty shekels of silver and threw them to the potter in the house of the Lord.”

Or what about His condemnation?

What about His rejection by the religious elite?

Psalms 2:1-3 “Why are the nations in an uproar And the peoples devising a vain thing? The kings of the earth take their stand And the rulers take counsel together Against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying, “Let us tear their fetters apart And cast away their cords from us!”

Psalms 35:19 “Do not let those who are wrongfully my enemies rejoice over me; Nor let those who hate me without cause wink maliciously.”

· Which Jesus quotes in John 15:25

None of this is new, it is the plan.

Or what about being handed over to the Gentiles for their specific form of mocking and execution?

TURN TO: PSALMS 22:1-21

· David there described a form of execution there that wasn’t even known in Israel in the time.

· He described the Roman crucifixion to a “T”.

Jesus didn’t give all of these extra details to add to their fear.

He gave these extra detail to eliminate it.

· This is the plan of God.

· This is the sovereign will of God.

· This is what God is doing.

And now you either cast fear aside and trust God

Or you cling to your fear and doubt Him.

It brings up to us promises that we are forced to wrestle with.

Promises like:

Romans 8:28 “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

Romans 8:31 “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?”

Jeremiah 29:11 “‘For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.”

Or even

2 Corinthians 12:9a “And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.”

Jesus is forcing the disciples to face their fear

And choose what they believe.

· Can God be trusted?

· Is God’s sovereign will really good?

· Does God really have a plan?

· Is God’s grace really sufficient?

Believing what God says about such things eliminates fear.

Incidentally, Jesus will do the same thing again for the disciples

On the night before He is crucified.

TURN TO: JOHN 16:1-4

Jesus there tells them again of the hardships that are coming.

Why would He do that?

Look at the end of the chapter.

READ: JOHN 16:32-33

He told them the truth about what was coming, not to increase their fear,

But in order to increase their peace.

It is the very sovereignty of God

That allows us to be in peace in horrible situations.

Charles Spurgeon used to say, “The Sovereignty of God is the pillow upon which the Christian rests his head.”

THAT IS SO TRUE.

· The last thing we need to think is that somehow God has lost control.

· The last thing we need to think is that somehow God is not paying attention.

The disciples are afraid, but they need not be.

They are accompanying the Savior of the world

Who is going to perfectly fulfill God’s perfect plan.

And even here Jesus reveals WHERE IT ALL ENDS.

Not in sorrow, but in victory!

“and three days later He will rise again.”

Sorrow may last for the night, but behold joy comes in the morning.

John 16:20-22 “Truly, truly, I say to you, that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will grieve, but your grief will be turned into joy. “Whenever a woman is in labor she has pain, because her hour has come; but when she gives birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy that a child has been born into the world. “Therefore you too have grief now; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you.”

That is the promise.

SO TONIGHT, LET US EXAMINE OURSELVES.

· Do I find obedience to God’s mandate to be a radical thing?

· Am I amazed by people who actually believe the Bible and obey it?

· Am I amazed by people who actually do what God says to do?

· Am I amazed when husbands sacrificially love their wives?

· Am I amazed when wives submit to their husbands?

· Am I amazed when people forgive their enemies?

· Am I amazed when people actually go into all the world to preach the gospel?

I SHOULDN’T BE.

That’s not amazing, that’s just Christianity.

OR WHAT ABOUT FEAR?

· Am I afraid to entrust my life to God’s sovereign plan?

· Am I afraid to obey for what it might cost?

· Am I afraid that His grace won’t be sufficient?

· Am I afraid that His providence won’t win the day?

· Am I afraid that His plan for good won’t actually win?

This is where the disciples were and Jesus is confronting it.

It is FEARFUL AMAZEMENT, only it is the wrong kind.

Tonight we need to be shaken from our apathy

And remember the calling of Christ.

Mark 8:34-35 “And He summoned the crowd with His disciples, and said to them, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.”

THAT’S THE CALLING.

· Don’t be amazed.

· Don’t be afraid.

That is the first errant attitude of the disciples here.

We’ll look at the next 3 next time.