Mark 10

What do you want me to do for you?

Mark 10

Mark 10:2

And Pharisees came up and in order to test him asked, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?" (use)

Throughout the Old Testament, we had this metaphor of God and his people as a loving faithful husband and an unfaithful wife. ... Then in the New Testament, Jesus shows up and he says he is the bridegroom. And we start to see him pictured as the bridegroom and his people as his bride. Before any Christian can have any kind of conversation about marriage, gender, or sexuality, we need to see that big gospel picture.

McLaughlin, R. 2019. 2 Heated Cultural Debates the Bible Addresses (use)

Jesus's position on the old testament.

Mark 10:7

Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, (use)

Genesis 2:24

Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. (use)

Matthew 5:17

Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. (use)

Mark 10:9

What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate. (use)

John 8:4

they said to him, "Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. (use)

John 8:11

She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more." (use)

Mark 10:10

And in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. (use)

Mark 10:11

And he said to them, "Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her," (use)

Ministers must stand upon their guard, lest, under pretence of being advised with, they be ensnared.

Henry, M., 1896. Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary on the Whole Bible. UK. [Mark 10] (use)

Mark 10:6

But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ (use)

Genesis 2:15

The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. (use)

Genesis 2:22

And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. (use)

Matthew 5:19

Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. (use)

When you put all these truths in the gospel together, you relate that the most offensive and counterculture claim in Christianity is not what Christians believe about homosexuality or abortion, marriage or religious liberty. Instead, the most offensive claim in Christianity is that God is the Creator, Owner, and Judge of every person on the planet. Every one of us stands before him guilty of sin, and the only way to be reconciled with him is through faith in Jesus, the crucified Saviour and risen King. All who trust in his love will experience everlasting life while all who turn away from his Lordship will suffer everlasting death. [pg. 16]

Platt, D., 2017. Counter Culture: Following Christ in an Anti-christian Age. (use)

Mark 10:15

Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it. (use)

Above all, this doctrine of sin leads us to see the absolute need of a power greater than ourselves to deliver us.

Lloyd-Jones, D.M., 1977. Studies in the sermon on the mount. (use)

Mark 10:16

And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them. (use)

Isaiah 44:3

For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants. (use)

Hosea 4:6

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children. (use)

Rather than come — as did believers in the day of promise and shadow — to an assembly convened at a mountain engulfed with a sense of awful judgment, we have come to the abiding city of God. Indeed we have come to God Himself, not with Moses, but with Jesus. For we have received the new covenant in His shed blood.

Ferguson, S. 2004. Privileges Bring Responsibilities (use)

Mark 10:17

And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, "Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" (use)

Mark 10:18

And Jesus said to him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. (use)

‘None is good save one, even God,’ cuts up by the roots his notion of the possibility of self-achieved goodness, since it traces all human goodness to its source in God. If He is the only good, then we cannot perform good acts by our own power, but must receive power from Him. How, then, can any man ‘inherit eternal life’ by good deeds, which he is only able to do because God has poured some of His own goodness into him? Jesus shatters the young man’s whole theory, as expressed in his question, at one stroke.

Clarke, A., 1831. Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible. [Mark 10] (use)

Unbelievers’ most essential problem is not that they’re ignorant, apathetic, or rudderless, but that they’ve personally, willfully, and happily rebelled against the God who made them. Their most inexorable enemy is not intellectual finitude or the ennui of life in the modern world, but what stares back at them in the mirror as they wordlessly brush their teeth.

Duke, A., 2019. You’re So Depraved, You Probably Think This Church Is About You: How Total Depravity Upends Attractionalism (use)

Mark 10:21

And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, "You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me." (use)

The spiritual dimension comes in deciding what one does with the wealth.

Thatcher, M. 1988. Christianity and Wealth. speech delivered at the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland (use)

Mark 10:23

And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, "How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!" (use)

...we may learn that it is oftentimes a misfortune to be rich: but who is aware of this? - and who believes it?

Clarke, A., 1831. Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible. [Mark 10] (use)

By the early 21st century, American society’s top priority became its bottom line, net worth became synonymous with self-worth, and a billionaire businessman who repeatedly pointed to his own wealth as proof of his fitness for office was elected president.

Cook, E. 2017. How Money Became the Measure of Everything. The Atlantic. (use)

Acts 4:34

There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold (use)

Mark 10:26

And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, "Then who can be saved?" (use)

Mark 10:27

Jesus looked at them and said, "With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God." (use)

Mark 10:33

saying, "See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles. (use)

Mark 10:34

And they will mock him and spit on him, and flog him and kill him. And after three days he will rise. (use)

That in the mingled web of human affairs God's judgment is present, though it cannot be discerned.

Augustine, 426. City of God. (use)

Mark 10:45

For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. (use)

Mark 10:47

And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" (use)

Topics and Themes

About Jesus

Parables

Miracles

Key Verse

Mark 10:36

And he said to them, "What do you want me to do for you?" (use)