Jesus Led The Way

Mark 10:32-34

The Lord Jesus Christ and His disciples were on their way up to Jerusalem, the capital of Israel.

They were on their way to the Temple where sacrifices were offered and atonement was made.

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But the Lord Jesus Christ had His mind on a little hill outside the city gates.

His focus was on a hill called Golgotha, a place called Calvary.

His mind was on the hill where Abraham offered up his son Isaac to the Lord.

His mind was on the place where He would offer Himself up as the final, perfect, eternal sacrifice for sin and sinners.

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The Lord Jesus Christ knew that when He arrived at Calvary, an ages old plan would be accomplished.

He knew that the prophecies of the prophets would be fulfilled.

He knew that the just demands of a holy God would be met.

God Almighty would be satisfied and lost sinners would be saved.

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The Lord Jesus Christ had His mind on all those who would bow before the Father and confess the Lord Jesus as their Savior.

He would die for all those who would believe the Gospel message!

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The disciples were afraid for the Lord Jesus Christ.

They were also afraid for themselves.

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They knew that the Jewish leaders hated the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Lord Jesus had had several bitter encounters with the Jewish religious leaders.

They were upset by His miracles.

They were upset by His claim to be the Son of God.

They were upset by His claim to be the Messiah.

They were so upset that they wanted Him dead.

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The disciples were amazed that the Lord Jesus Christ was determined to march to His death.

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The disciples were afraid for themselves too!

This was not what they wanted.

They would die with Him and they were afraid.

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But they continued to follow Him.

They were resolved to follow the Lord Jesus Christ even if it meant that they would die with Him.

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The Lord Jesus Christ sensed the fear in His men.

He took the time to comfort them.

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The Lord Jesus Christ told His men in very clear terms what was about to happen to Him at Jerusalem.

The leaders of the Jews would make a final rejection of Him as the Messiah.

Their Supreme Court, the Sanhedrin, would condemn Him as a common criminal and sentence Him to die.

The Jews, the very people He came to save, would turn Him over to the Gentiles so they could put Him to death.

The crowds around the cross would mock Him and ridicule Him as He died.

The soldiers would take Him and scourge Him.

They would bend Him over a low pole and beat His back with a Roman flagellum.

Then they would spit in His face and ripped His bread from His face.

Then they would nail Him to a Roman cross, where He hung for six agonizing hours before He died.

They would remove His dead body from that cross and buried Him in a borrowed tomb.

Three days after He died on the cross, He would get up from the dead!

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The Lord Jesus Christ led the way.

Like a Good Shepherd, He walked before His flock, taking care of their every need.

He had cleared the way for His people.

He had come to this world with a single goal.

He had come to accomplish our salvation.

He had done all these when He died on the cross and rose again from the dead.

He had went where we could not go and done what we could not do, so that we might receive what only Him could give us.

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Let us come to the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved today.