Mark 9:30  And they departed thence, and passed through Galilee; and he would not that any man should know it.
31  For he taught his disciples, and said unto them, The Son of man is delivered into the hands of men, and they shall kill him; and after that he is killed, he shall rise the third day.
32  But they understood not that saying, and were afraid to ask him.

The Old Testament prophesied the coming of the Messiah. Genesis 3:15 is the first reference to this fact. From there, God continued to build the picture of this Messiah. We are told where He would be born. We are told of the significance of His coming, etc. In Matthew 1 we are told of the direct message to Joseph regarding the coming of the Messiah. In Luke 1 we are told of the direct message to Mary regarding the coming of the Messiah. In Luke 2 we are told of the birth of Jesus Christ and the very important announcement made to the shepherds by the angels. In Matthew 2 we are told of the star that was guiding the wisemen to where the Messiah was.
The point is that the coming of the Messiah was not a secret to the world. At the time of Jesus’ coming, the Jews were not prepared for His coming. There were a few people who were living in anticipation of His coming. Most were looking for a fictitious person based on the Pharisees’ corrupt teachings on the matter. When Jesus began His public ministry, there was much excitement because He healed many people.
Physical health is always important to us as people. Our medical system in Canada is a very costly system. Having needed that system recently, I can appreciate the good they can and often do. However, I am not so foolish as to think that all is well within that system. Due to the fact that it is government run, there is much waste and inefficiency in the system. It was sad to hear the nurses talk of the shortage of nurses and the overtime they needed to work, not just because they were greedy, but because they were needed. We know the shortage of nurses is directly related to the evil plotting around the wuhan virus debacle. Governments now run on the promise of fixing the doctor and nursing shortage, but they cannot keep that promise. The same governments that made the mess, do not have the ability to fix the mess.
At the time of our text, Jesus was well known and also quite popular. He was sought after across the nation of Israel. He came to make Himself known. He came to prove that He was the fulfilment of the Old Testament prophecies regarding the first coming of the Messiah. Thus it may seem strange that in our text, He was trying to travel through Galilee unknown. We are reminded again here, that He did not have a halo over His head to identify Him. He was not taller or in some way of some particular appearance that caused Him to stand out from His disciples or others. His words and His actions set Him apart from all others.
We are told in verse 31 why He wanted to travel secretly at this point. He had some important teaching for His disciples. He did not want to stop somewhere to do this teaching. He had a purpose in travelling. He wanted to get to the next place, which we read was Capernaum. On the way He wanted to teach His disciples once again of His upcoming arrest, etc.
It is interesting to note the language used in verse 31. Jesus declared: “the Son of man IS delivered into the hands of men”. It was not something that might happen, but it might not happen. This was an event that in the natural realm was still future, but in the spiritual realm, was already a reality. This again points to the absolute nature of Biblical prophecy. There is no doubt about it. There is no variableness in it.

Numbers 23:19  God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?

Jesus was not telling the disciples of something that might happen. He was reminding them of something that was imminent and sure. Jesus further reminded them of what would happen when He was delivered into the hands of men. He taught them of the vile nature of wicked men. Jesus would be delivered into the hands of men and they would kill Him.
In the past week, I was delivered into the hands of men. I willingly allowed them to put me on a table and they injected some fluid into me that would sedate me. Then they began the procedure of putting a dye into my blood vessels. They use x-ray to then view what is going on in the vessels. They looked around and then they put some foreign objects called stents into certain places. I subjected myself to the actions of men and women. I trusted them to treat me well. I did not expect them to try to kill me. They certainly could have quite easily. I was not even thinking that they might want to harm me. Many people put themselves into the hands of others on a daily basis. Most are trusting that they will be treated well in so doing.
Jesus knew He would be killed, when He was delivered into the hands of men. He knew the hatred toward Him was building. He also knew that His time was not yet come. He was safe in spite of the developing hatred. He was doing the will of His Father.
Jesus also taught the disciples that after He was killed, He would rise again the third day. These were definite facts. All of these events were determined before the foundation of the world. There was not ambiguity about any of this. Jesus Christ would not die of old age or due to some sickness or some fall, etc. He was going to be killed. His death would be a violent death.
For us, if we knew someone was out to get us, we would take steps to protect ourselves. The security industry is doing quite well because people are installing cameras in businesses and homes to try to catch criminals. Police instal cameras to watch our every move in cities. We try to be on the look out for criminal activity. Yet, the criminals are still quite active. They still commit many crimes and some of them still get away with committing crimes.
We have mentioned before that nothing that happens is a surprise to God. None of it is an unknown to Him. God sent His Son into this world, knowing that He would be killed, buried, rise again the third and ascend back to heaven. He not only knew of these events, but He also knew the precise timing of these events.
He knew all of this, and yet He also gave man the choice of being involved in these events or not. God knows the evil nature of sinful man. We have witnessed this many times. We have seen people get arrested for being involved in a riot that started out as a “peaceful” protest. People get arrested for criminal activity and then they claim they would never have been involved in that but the mood changed and they got caught up in the mood. Man is capable of very evil things.
God knows the evil that man is capable of. He also knows the power the devil has in convincing man to act in an evil way. God is greater than the devil and He is also greater than man. He could stop all evil. In fact, He created man with the ability to avoid all evil. He gave man a commandment and He gave man work to do to occupy his time. In spite of a very clear command, man chose to ignore God and he chose to listen to the devil. He chose to take of the forbidden fruit and eat of it.
God knew all about this before hand. He did not program Adam to sin. He did not force him to sin. He knew the limitations of His creation. Finite beings such as we are, will never fully understand the divine nature of God. We, those who are saved, can appreciate that divine nature, but we cannot fully understand it. We can know that it is foolish to try to put God into a box He has not placed Himself into.
Back in our text, Jesus knew what was ahead for Him and He knew the impact this would have on His disciples. He wanted to prepare them for this certainty. We read in verse 32 that the disciples did not understand what Jesus was telling them. They had witnessed His power many times. They knew He was capable of controlling crowds and of stopping devils. He could do anything. How could He be delivered into men’s hands and be killed? Yet we read that they were afraid to ask Jesus of this matter. They could not understand it, but they were not going to ask for clarification. It seems they dismissed it as an impossibility.
At this point in their lives, they did not believe everything that Jesus said. They did not have that trusting and unquestioning faith that is necessary in the Christian life. Today, those who are saved need to develop that trusting and unquestioning faith in God. We are not born with that. We do not automatically have that when we get saved. We have faith in God and we know He will save us, but there are many things we need to learn about God and life yet. God will test us and give us opportunities to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord, after we are saved.
Today is the Lord’s Day. It is the day when true saints need to be in a true, local church. We need to be taught the truths of God’s Word. We need to be challenged from God’s Word. Lost people need to be exposed to the truth today and every day. We, those who are saved, need to seek to help lost people to see the importance of Truth in their lives. We need to reach out to them with the Truth.
God wants all men to be saved. Let us pray that we, those who are saved, would be faithful to His call upon our lives so that we can be a help to others who need to know the truth.
Pastor Bartel