Mark 10:32  And they were in the way going up to Jerusalem; and Jesus went before them: and they were amazed; and as they followed, they were afraid. And he took again the twelve, and began to tell them what things should happen unto him,
33  Saying, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be delivered unto the chief priests, and unto the scribes; and they shall condemn him to death, and shall deliver him to the Gentiles:
34  And they shall mock him, and shall scourge him, and shall spit upon him, and shall kill him: and the third day he shall rise again.

Everything Jesus did was done according to the Father’s will. He did everything with purpose. We read here that those that followed Jesus were amazed. Jesus was not lagging behind. He was leading this entourage to Jerusalem. It was coming up to the time of the Passover and this would be the time when Jesus would lay down His life for the sheep. The religious elites had an order to arrest Jesus. They were done playing around. They were so full of hatred toward Him that it was now time to arrest Him, try Him and have Him killed. He had exposed their lies and hypocrisy and they had no way of refuting anything He had said. He spoke the truth. He loved the people so much that He wanted them to know the truth.
We read that those following Him were not just amazed with His intentional travel to Jerusalem, they were also afraid. They wanted to be with Him but they were afraid they would get arrested with Him. At this point they were not yet prepared to lay down their lives for the name of Jesus.
Jesus took the twelve aside as they were travelling and began to teach them further regarding what was going to happen at Jerusalem. The disciples needed to know what was coming. They would all flee and leave Him alone, but they needed to know that when it happened, it was not unexpected, at least not by Jesus.
Jesus declared that at Jerusalem, the capital city of Israel, the place where the Temple was, the place where the king’s palace had been; there Jesus would be delivered into the hands of the chief priests. The chief priests were the ones who were supposed to be teaching the law. They were supposed to be helping the people to draw nigh to God. Yet they were going after Jesus, contrary to the law. They were the enemy of God. They would be fulfilling prophecy, but their actions were in defiance to the design that God had for the office of the priesthood.
Jesus identified Himself here as Son of man. He went to the cross and laid down His life as the Son of man. He would be delivered up to the chief priests. God the Father would deliver Him into the hands of the chief priests. The Roman soldiers would be enlisted to bring Jesus before the chief priests. Rather than them honouring God in their duties, they were bowing before Pilate. The chief priests did not have the authority to put anyone to death. They were stripped of that authority because they had rejected God and thus were living under Roman law. The Romans allowed them to enforce their corrupted version of God’s law, but that did not include putting people to death. They needed the authority of the Romans for that.
Jesus would be condemned to death, and delivered into the hands of the Gentiles. We already mentioned that it was Pilate and Herod who would sign off on the death sentence against Jesus. Pilate had no reason to put Jesus to death. He did not care one way or another. The Gospels record that Herod and Pilate became closer due to Pilate’s handling of Jesus’ trial. He was a cold-hearted man who loved power more than truth. His short lived place of fame was more important to him than eternal life.
Pilate has had many years already to consider the foolishness of his choices. He has been in torment for a long time and he will be in torment for all of eternity.
In verse 34 we read that the Gentiles and the Jews would mock Jesus. The Roman soldiers would scourge Him. That whipping would be a form of torture. They would strip His outer robe off Him and then whip Him mercilessly with whips with shards of bone tied to the end of the strips of leather. As they would slam that into His skin, it would tear the skin on His body. They did not care where they applied that whip to His body. Many men would likely have fainted and possibly even died from the whipping that Jesus received. However, He would endure that because His death needed to be on the cross.
Jesus declared that they would kill Him. He did not die due to the beatings. They deliberately killed Him on the cross. The Jews cried out: ‘His blood be upon us and our children’. They were willing to bear the guilt of what they had done. They were so filled and blinded with hatred that they were willing to carry this record with them for generations to come. The thousands of Jews that died in the Holocaust and in other tragic ways, likely never put the dots together. The Jews have suffered and still are suffering due to their rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ.
It is not a minor thing to reject the truth. There are thousands of Jews and Gentiles today who are still rejecting the truth. They want nothing to do with the truth. Communism used to be the major threat against Christianity. Over the past number of years Islam has been growing and it is taking over countries now. The U.K. has almost capitulated to Islam now. The city of Rotherham just elected a Muslim mayor. The conservative party of Manitoba just elected a Muslim to be its leader. Calgary, Alberta had a muslim mayor for a number of years. Toronto and Montreal are being heavily impacted by Muslims. Muslims hate God. Some people are willing to be deceived by “moderate” muslims. There is no such a thing as a “moderate” muslim. They all hate God and they all support the violence that ideology brings with it.
We have people who walk past our building every time the doors are open. Many do not even look in the windows as they walk by. They ignore the verses that are scrolling across the T.V. screen in the window. They just keep on walking. Yet these same people would welcome God hating Muslims to set up shop in our town if they wanted to. Society is foolishly rejecting the truth and opening itself up to those who are not ashamed or afraid to use violence against the truth. How sorry they will be one day.
Even though Jesus would be killed, He would rise again the third day. Jesus Christ needed to die and shed His blood. His body lay in the tomb for three days and three nights. That time frame does not fit with the religious practice of Friday to Sunday that is supposed to remind us of Jesus’ trial, death, burial and resurrection. Jesus gave these details several times. The disciples did not believe it because their minds could not comprehend this truth at that time. However, they would witness the reality of this event. They came to know this truth and preach it as well.
Today we have no reason to doubt that truth. The record is clear. Yet, many are still allowing the devil to blind their hearts and minds to the truth. The Bible teaches that Christians are to be a peculiar people. We are not supposed to blend in with paganism. We, those who claim to be Independent Baptists, are supposed to be different than the Protestant Reformation. We claim that we are not part of those who broke away from the Catholics. Yet most follow the Catholic traditions regarding the sacrifice of Christ at Jerusalem. There is something very strange about that.
Jesus’ resurrection caused quite a stir among the people in Israel. In I Corinthians 15, God directed the apostle Paul to argue for the legitimacy of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. This was many years after Jesus’ ascension. Yet it was still being disputed then. It is still being disputed today as well.
As we have noted before, those who are Jesus’ disciples, need to follow Him. We need to get rid of the lies and the mythology and build upon the truth. We need to help people to know the truth. The truth is what sets the captive free.
Pastor Bartel